My 1974 BMW 2002

In the beginning.....

In March I went out to see this shell to see if I wanted to take on the project. After seeing it, I decided it had to be better than what I had. In May I was finally able to go get the shell and bring it back to the garage.

Once in the garage I had to prep it to get the subframes off since Steve and Keith had dibs on them. The front end has been replaced. Top left pic shows my new shell next to the donor which I have had since 1995. Didn't get much time to work on it, but it was coming along slowly.

The front subframe finally came out in June. Didn't take long at all to get it out either. Less than 15 minutes, of course an air compressor and impact wrench helps. Not to mention the steering box wasn't hooked to anything and the brake lines were already disconnected. Just had to remove the top strut nuts and remove 6 bolts on the bottom of the subframe which are very easy to get too.

Here it is all jacked up. Rear subframe came off in a couple of hours, nothing hard, except for those e-brake lines! To remove the rear subframe you remove 6 bolts here too. Two on each side of the car, easy to spot. And two you can see in the top center picture, above where the diff would be. Steve needed the subframes that day so I had to get it done. I did have to disconnect the brake line on this one, which wasn't hard for the main lines. The e-brake lines I had to cut. Also during this time my Corsica died and we had to get rid of it. So I have to get this car done fast. I had to do some sand blasting to remove the surface rust and rust bubbles on the body.

The top three pic show the before, during and after sandblasting and priming. The others show repair of the turn signal area on the passenger side, primed engine bay on drivers side, new undercoating in wheel well and some work I had to do around the trunk area. So far for all the work I have done it has been under a $100 including the sandblasting gun and material.

Now it is time to start removing the stuff from the donor. I got the front brake lines disconnected, but broke one of the hard lines in the process. Also had to kill all the spiders. A few areas need to be patched on the floor pan and I still need to get matching paint. I am going to be dropping the front and rear subframes all at once and need disconnect the drive shaft from the tranny. I'll then roll the subframes with engine and tranny and diff over to the shell and lift them into place.

I finished priming the engine bay and got some dry ice to remove the sound deadener material. Also got the engine and subframe dropped on the donor. After disconnecting the brake lines last time I just had to remove the tranny brace, disconnect the hydraulic clutch line and disconnect the steering column. The steering column was the worst part of it because it didn't want to come apart, but finally did.

First in this process was disconnecting the drive shaft and the tranny. I removed the 4 nuts on drive shaft side to try to pull them apart. Also had to pull the speed-o cable out, there is also an electrical wire that run to the reverse lights but it was already off. I then had to lift the body up about 7 inches, took a while because of the lift, it wasn't strong enough to stay up. My older brother had to brace it so that it would get up high enough. Of course then the drive shaft wouldn't come apart, next time.

The first coating of paint is on the engine bay. Still need to smooth it out and apply another coat. I wasn't able to remove the drive shaft because I couldn't turn it. The rear breaks were locked so I had to get the drums off, I was then able to turn the drive shaft and pull the engine free. I don't have a lot of room in the garage so it took a while to get it out from under there and in place in front of the shell. I then went to work on the rear. First I remove the top shock nuts (careful, they pop). Then it was the 17mm brace bolts, then the 22mm bushing nuts and then the brake lines. These are tricky, it's a 14mm on one side and a 11mm on the other, work with it until you have a good position under there, may take a while. Once both sides were done then it was on to the mounts above the diff. 17mm on both sides, I put a wrench on one side and a air impact wrench on the other, one gave some trouble but finally came off. Then there are those darn e-brake lines, one actually came out quite easy, just have to pull it out all the way, the other one doesn't want to budge. Also, remember to have the jack under there ready to lower it.

Well, it's been a few weeks since updating the site, but I have been busy with other things and kept forgetting the digital camera. The rear subframe is now on the shell. I have to install the springs which I spray painted aluminum. Also did some more work on the floor pans and some more painting. I repainted the rear end and the paint is actually smoother than what was already there. I'll probably be ordering some parts here before to long once the engine is in.