The finished project! For Sale to recover all the unplanned $’s spent
Do you remember back when you could by a classic car for one dollar? I do! In 1998, I bought this 1974 BMW 2002 for a dollar. Actually, I traded a 1980’s Mistral Maui windsurfer for it, but I insisted on paying the previous owner a dollar just for the story.In the 1990’s, I lived in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington DC, and one of my neighbors had two old and beaten on BMW 2002’s parked on the street. I didn’t know who owned the cars, but eventually when walking my dog, I met him and his dog and commented about how I’d always loved the 2002, and wished I could buy one someday. He said no need to wait, I’ll help you find the right one, they are simple to work on and their values are pretty low, so you can pick one up cheap. I was dubious but excited. I had some money in the bank but I was saving it for buying my first condo, and didn’t expect I’d find a car for nothing.
In those days before Craigslist, I perused the Antique and Classic section of the Washington Post every weekend, and one Saturday there was a listing with some combination of the following information: 1974 BMW 2002, 250,000 miles, rebuilt engine, 4-speed manual, white over blue interior, rust. And then the best part: $1,200 or will trade for saleboat.
Mistral Maui (Not my actual windsurfer)
I happened to have an older windsurfer I no longer used in the basement of a house my friend was renting with buddies. He’d been pushing me to get it out of there as he’d already had to move it from one house to another last time he moved, and he was about to move again. I had no place to put, nor did I have any chance to windsurf any longer, so I called up the number in the ad and said will you take a windsurfer?! He said I was hoping to teach my kids to sail, but if you want the car, I guess I’ll do it!
My friend and I drove out to see the car and it was in interesting shape I could say. It had pinhole rust-holes around the chrome trim on the hood, rusty rocker panels, and a rust hole in the driver’s side floor pan where the accelerator attached to the floor. On the other hand, it was a complete car with a sweet running engine, good transmission and everything worked. Well everything except for the “factory” Behr air conditioning.
Behr Air Conditioning
I thought about it and said to myself: For a dollar, how much trouble can it be? If worst comes to worst, I’ll donate it and get a tax deduction. So I said I’ll take it! The next day I came back with my windsurfer, got the title, went to the DMV and got a transfer tag, grabbed the keys and drove the car back to DC from Virginia very excited.
On the drive I began to become familiar with some of the greatness of the car, as well as to be aware that the front tires had become lumpy from sitting (they soon required replacement to the tune of $250 or so).
After hot-rodding around and showing off for the rest of the day I started to figure out what was required to keep an old car on the street in DC. I needed both current license plates and a parking permit, which meant I had to pass inspection, and inspection meant no exposed rust!
Novel setup for 2002 accelerator problems
So I found an old-school body shop in an alley and for $1,000 they welded a plate into the floorpan for the accelerator, and bondo’d the rocker panels and rust on the hood. I reinstalled the accelerator back onto the floor only to discover that the angle of the pedal was now both awkward and would pop off of it’s location at inopportune moments. I removed the pedal and just drove using the metal arm that the pedal would actuate.
So now I had an ugly, white and gray 2002 into which I’d dumped $1,250 that I couldn’t afford to lose. I had only one option, to go the whole way and get the car painted and looking pretty.
1974-1976 BMW 2002 4-spoke “bus” steering wheel
In the mean time while I prepared my battle plan, the car was a blast to drive, and without the accelerator pedal, I could bury the accelerator arm into the floor, which would open up the second barrel of the weber carburetor (an upgrade from the original Solex one barrel at the time of the engine rebuild at 150,000 miles) for both additional power and noise. I learned that on sweeping corners, like on and off ramps, I could hold the big, original “bus” steering wheel in one position and steer the car with the throttle. More throttle would step the rear out a bit, and less throttle would narrow the line.
The actual car prepped for paint!
Little by little, the car came together with the help of my friend and parts from www.2002ad.com. I replaced and added trim, I fixed the front bumper, I sanded the whole body and prepped it for paint. I polished the chrome with fine-grade steel wool. Soon enough, after about $250, I had a new paint job from Maaco, and the car was starting to look good.
Then disaster struck. I was out of town, and my wife at the time decided to take the BMW (which I encouraged her to drive whenever she wanted) to take the dog to the vet. Unfortunately I once the car looked so good with new paint, I had reinstalled the accelerator pedal so the car was all put together. On the way back from the vet, the accelerator pedal popped off the two little metal grommets that held it into the floor and got wedged in the full on position. As the car was in first at the time, she couldn’t get the car out of first (although she tried multiple times to get into second with the engine screaming to crashing) and she drove home in first with the revs about 5500-6000 rpms apparently. In order to parallel park, she turned off the engine each time she switched gears, then started back up with the engine on nearly full throttle.
Well that was it for both the clutch and the transmission. (When I asked her why she never pulled over, reached down and grabbed the accelerator with her hand to pull it free, she said it didn’t occur to her. Some things that seem so simple become difficult when under pressure.)
After replacing the clutch and the transmission, I had $4,500 invested in my $1 car, and it was time to sell. Into the window went the for sale sign, and after negotiating down from my asking of $5,500 to $4,750, a corporate lawyer bought it for his wife who wanted a fun car. I hope the accelerator didn’t get stuck on her too!
Great story and tbh you did ok there. Kept a very decent motor on the road, and hopefully it’s still going strong.
I had a frayed throttle cable on my wife’s mini where very occasionally it would jam in the open position. I was happy with the situation myself (clutch in, ignition off, pull over and wiggle the cable until it freed), but in good conscience I couldn’t send her out in it. So we swapped cars until the new cable arrived in the post. I never told her why we were swapping, or she wouldn’t have let me go out in it.
My wife is not very mechanically sympathetic, but I don’t think she would have done what your wife did. Having said that, it took her a week to mention that the clutch had gone bad (failing master cylinder) and she was crunching it through the gears everywhere she went. Luckily the A-series box can cope with a lot of abuse.
Good to see you revived it, I dont have any wide open throttle issues lately but the spongy clutch like Chaz mentions just got cured in my Minx today a quick hone of the master and slave cylinders seems to have cured that problem, one day I’ll have to rekit them not today however gearshifts are now quiet and engagement is predictable again.
Bryce ;
Do you ever try polishing hydraulic cylinder bores with leather instead of the usual hone ? .
Just curious .
-Nate
Having owned a 1974 2002 (white/blue) from new, I’m always amazed to find any examples that survived this long. As much as I enjoyed driving my 2002, it required constant maintenance and repairs in the two years I owned it, including a transmission rebuild within the first month (it was popping out of 4th), and an engine rebuild (blue smoke from the tailpipe).
In spite of this negative experience, I stayed with BMW for a while, trading the 2002 for a 1977 320i (and later upgraded to a 1979 528i). On the plus side, these BMWs were great cars to drive, and the local dealer provided excellent service. After my 2-year old 528i swallowed its timing chain while backing out of my driveway, and after I moved to another city where the BMW dealers were both inept and arrogant, I decided to end my BMW adventure.
My Dad very briefly owned a red 2002 but I remember it leaving us stranded on the side of the road more than once, it was gone in less than a year.
My parents did not get another BMW until almost 30 years later when my Mom got a black 5 series sedan which she still drives today.
I believe that the less I have to pay to buy a the car, the more I can afford to do what I want with the car. Assuming the car isn’t so rare that parts aren’t even available to buy.
Very nice. It seems a shame to turn around and sell it rather than enjoy it, but it’s your call.
Yeah, I agree. It was years and years back now and I feared that the car would start to rust again quickly or something else would go wrong and I would lose my investment. At the time I thought $4,500 was a lot for a 2002, but today people are paying $15,000 – $20,000 for them, so I sure was wrong;-)
Now D.C has no safety inspections so if you did this today you would not have to fix the rust if you did not want to. Interestingly enough VA also has safety inspections so wonder how the 2002 passed inspection there?
Interesting! Yeah I didn’t register it as a historic vehicle, just as a regular one. As far as Virginia, the car was a project the guy had bought to fix up for his wife, but then he had found a very nice shape 318i for her and it had been sitting in his garage ever since. Not sure how long it had been since it had been registered…
They do have safety inspections, but not all are created equal where rust is concerned. Some states permit none visible, some states the hole has to be larger than a certain size, some states ignore it as long as it’s not structural. Can’t remember offhand which is the rule in VA.
Since you made a little bit on the car, it seems to have worked out OK for you in the end. Most of the time with cars you spend more than you get back if you go to sell. I had a similar gas pedal disaster with my old 70 C10 truck. It was floor hinged and would sometimes stick. One day at work the battery went dead, and I was about to go into the shop to get the booster battery when a co worker offered to give me a push backward and to just pop the clutch instead. It worked, but the pedal stuck to the floor and spun the tires in reverse toward the VW bus parked behind me. I only had time to yank the floor gearshift lever out of gear. It worked, I didn’t hit the VW but I did grenade the transmission. To say I was pissed would be an understatement. After that I removed the pedal and just used the lever with my foot. Another time in the same truck as I was getting on the freeway the carb return spring broke and as I lifted my foot it stayed wide open, but I just turned the ignition key off and pulled over. I found by removing my shoe I could put the lever between my toes and didn’t need the spring. That got me to a parts store where I installed 2 springs so if one ever broke again there would be a back up. All was well from then on. Nice write up.
Love the part about shutting off the engine to change directions in the parallel park lol. It’s nice to see you made out OK financially. I’ve always wanted to own a classic BMW and find myself casually checking CL and eBay for Bavarias. Most folks seem to rule out ’74+, but the 5mph bumpers don’t bother me much on the 2002s, E3s and E9 coupes. They look pretty bad on the 5-series.
I know BMW made changes to the 2002 engine almost every year between ’72-76. I think the hemi-head came in ’73 and that the ’73-74 engines were well regarded. Can’t remember if the 4-cylinders got thermal reactors in ’75 like the 6-cylinder E3s or if the ’75-76s were as good as the ’74.
Sounds like you enjoyed yours except for the rust related issues. Very difficult to find a classic BMW without significant rust even in CA.
5 mph bummers are awesome for city parking I have to say!! Small bumper BMWs tend to sustain a lot of damage from SUVs and larger cars!
It’s the exact same car/color my MIL bought new after she got some inheritance money from an aunt. A somewhat questionable choice, given that she was a single working mom with the three teens and a pre-teen. But she knew her priorities…
I drove it several times, including on a longer ski trip to the Sierras; nice to drive. The engine was sweet, although not as sporty as one might imagine. The non-Tii 2002 engine was in a very modest state of tune, but that gave it good torque down low.
When she retired and decided to leave LA and move to Iowa, I told her she really needed to sell it, as there were no mechanics in Fairfield, IA who could work on it, and the salt would ruin her perfect rust-free car. So her son found her a ’70 Plymouth Gran Coupe with the paisley vinyl roof and a 440 under the hood. Quite the contrast from the 2002! The BMW went to a kid who really loved, and in a good way. I wouldn’t be surprised if it survived, unless it was in an accident.
Not allowed any exposed rust? That’s harsh.
It seems like a rite of passage for any car guy to have some kind of broken throttle experience, although ideally not for a wife! She must of been pretty unhappy. Everyone should have a resale Maaco paint experience and $1 car story too.
Wow, Matt – you really had me going at the stuck-accelerator paragraph! I’m so glad nothing worse happened. I read “wife at the time” and thought CC was going to take a turn toward the macabre. Great write-up, and I see the allure of this car.
I didn’t think how much suspense that might have built up! I guess disaster should be in quotes in this case!
Great story! I am all too familiar with the “cheap car” that worms its little way into your heart and convinces you to treat it (and spend money on it) as if it were a “real car”. Been there, going from “how can I possibly lose on this” to “how did I get so much money tied up in this car.” Your story came out better than mine, I decided to keep driving it and then the transmission went boom and I had to give it away. (99 Town & Country, for the curious.)
A previous comment made me wish I hadn’t sold the car, now you’re reminding me why I did!