Rain, rain, go away!

Monday 9/19 – rain

Tuesday9/20 – rain

Wednesday 9/21 -rain….

Are you getting the picture yet?

Mae had a trade show she had to attend in Myrtle Beach for work, so I figured while she was gone, I would be a complete dork, eat frozen burritos, not sleep, and completely immerse myself in working on this car.  It didn’t really work out that way.  Unfortunately, for now at least, the car is outside in the driveway.  Our small, two car garage usually houses my 1970 2002 and Mae’s 2011 135i, although at the moment, the 135 is sitting out because half of the garage is filled with parts from the 2000’s trunk, the shop vac, cleaning supplies, etc.  So thanks to mother nature, I haven’t had much of a chance to work on the car until today.

Tuesday night, it had stopped raining for a little bit, but it was dark out.  I took a couple of halogen work lights on stands so I could accomplish something!  It was too dark to do any detailing, or anything too mechanical in nature, so I though I would spend some time working on those doors that wouldn’t close all the way.  I took all of the door panels off, and using some lithium grease in a spray can, I proceeded to lubricate all moving parts inside the doors, latch assemblies, door brakes, hinges, window carriers, etc.

After finishing off the can of lithium grease, all four doors now open and close beautifully and easily, all door locks work, and all windows roll up and down smoothly.

So fast forward to today.  Thursday.  I wanted to spend some more time really cleaning the seats and door panels.  But I couldn’t get past how gross the carpet was.  It was clear from the beginning that this carpet was not save-able.  It had some worn places in it.  I’m sure it contributed to the musty smell.  It was brittle in places, probably from getting wet and then drying over and over through the doors that didn’t close.  I knew an authentic carpet kit, if I could even find one, would dictate taking a second mortgage out on the house.  I was hoping that a woman by the name of Esty, who makes great reproduction carpet kits for the 2002, would be able to help me out with a 2000 carpet kit.  I emailed her.  She replied, saying that she has been contacted many times concerning Neue Klasse carpet sets, but has never had an original to make the templates from.  I emailed back, saying that I would try to remove mine as neatly as possible, and she was welcome to use it, also knowing that I would pick one up from her.

Interior without the nasty carpet.

I need to remove all of the old factory sound deadening insulation to inspect the sheet metal below it.  I don’t see how this car could sit for so long with cracked open doors, and not have totally rotted out floors.  Surprisingly, they feel very solid.  When I remove the insulation, I will use the dry ice method.  At that point, I will gauge whether or not a floor repair is necessary, and if I go that route, I will use POR 15, new insulation, and then re-carpet.  I’m not too concerned about that yet.  Need to get it driving and stopping first.

After removing and boxing the carpet up to be shipped, I worked on the seats, dash, and door panels for a while.  I started with a cleaner for vinyl and convertible tops  because everything was so dirty.  Second, I used a more mild vinyl interior cleaner, and then some soap and water.  I buffed them with a dry towel, and finally applied some vinyl/leather protectant, and this is what I ended up with:

These seats are so cool.

I love the arm rest.

Crack-free dash. I LOVE the factory “Oh s**t” bar.

I like the design of the glovebox MUCH better than the 2002. It doesn’t drop down and then fall off. Plus a 2000 Tilux owner’s manual, AND a spare set of keys. This will be the first BMW I’ve had that has more than one set!

It’s coming along!

I’m super excited about the amount of work we’ve accomplished in less than a week.  This weekend, Mae and I will be heading to Kentucky with the Rivertown Gear Busters vintage BMW group (although I’m cheating and driving the 135i) to tear up the back roads and stay at a really cool bed and breakfast on 300 acres of farm land.  Once I get back, I will start with more of the mechanicals.  I need to pull the carbs off and make sure nothing made a nest in there since the airbox was in the trunk all that time.  Then change the fluids (I’m shocked the radiator still has coolant in it.) change the plugs, throw a new battery in, say a prayer, and crank this baby.  Stay tuned…..

The morning after…

Enter Sunday, September 18th, 2011, aproximately 24 hours after bringing home a 1967 BMW 2000 Tilux that some might argue was ready to be put out of it’s misery.  No chance.  We will give this car another lease on life.  After getting a good jump on detailing the car the day before, I wanted to spend a little bit of time cleaning up the engine bay.  It was filled with more acorns, walnuts, the remains of some hornets nests, and more of that 15 year old dirt.

I mixed up my own special concoction to clean the engine bay.   I added a little carwash concentrate, some degreaser concentrate, and some goo-be-gone, all in a pump sprayer.  I covered the dual solexes with plastic, and sprayed the whole bay down.  After letting it sit for a few minutes, I took a scrub brush to as much area as I could, and lightly rinsed everything off.  I am pretty happy with the results.  Again, this is an initial cleaning, and I will go back a detail more thoroughly down the road.

I didn’t have a lot of time to work on the car Sunday, but after seeing the condition of the paint in more adequate lighting, I wanted to see how much better I could get it to look.  The paint looks good, but is slightly faded.  It helped that it was parked under a mostly shaded area, protecting it from the damaging rays of the sun.

I would like to pick up a good high speed buffer eventually.  The piece of junk orbital buffer sitting inside a cabinet in my garage is better suited to be put out with the garbage next Thursday night.  Instead of even messing with the one I own, I took some rubbing compound, and applied it to a small corner of the trunk by hand.  With some elbow grease, a noticeable shine returned to the section I did.  I decided to do half of the trunk for comparison purposes, and after one application of rubbing compound by hand, and one application of polish by hand, this is what I ended up with:

It’s a shame I couldn’t polish that rust along the trunk line out….But anyway, my friend who let me borrow his trailer, also has a good buffer that he said I could borrow.  That will happen eventually.  Next I wanted to focus on finishing the interior cleaning, and I wanted to get a game plan together for fixing the brakes and attempting to start this beast.  My wife had to go out of town Tuesday morning for work, so I thought I would just spend the rest of the week working on the car….that is, unless the weather had anything to say about it.

She’s all that

Once we got the 2000 home and it’s condition well documented, it was time to get out the pressure washer.  I couldn’t wait.  I had a feeling that underneath all that algae and tree debris, there was a beautiful car waiting to emerge.  It’s like that terrible movie with Freddy Prinze Jr.  Remove glasses (in this case dirt and algae), and ugly girl now becomes pretty girl.  That was our hope anyway.

Mae got some buckets of hot water, dawn dish detergent, car wash soap, and sponges.  I sprayed concentrated car wash soap on the car with a tank sprayer and we let it sit for a couple of minutes….Again, here is the car when we brought it home….

I wish someone would have been filming Mae and I as we washed years of accumulated crap off the surface of this car.  We were looking at each other, wide-eyed and grinning from ear to ear.  Really?  Is this car going to clean up THIS well?  We washed the car a couple of times, and as evening fell, we took off her nerdy glasses, and before us stood a very, very beautiful girl wearing a granada dress.

Granted, the paint is still wet here, and you can’t wash off rust obviously, but at least I wouldn’t have to worry about the neighbors filing a complaint about some ugly wreck of a car sitting in our driveway.  We were excited to get started on the rest of the car right away.  Mae started scrubbing down the interior, and I started unloading all the junk in the trunk.

There were tons of acorns hidden inside, even under the rear seat, from former residents.

As gross as the inside looked at a glance, I had a feeling it might clean up pretty well.  Armed with an assortment of cleaners, brushes, and rags, Mae dug in and got to work.

I should also mention that three out of four doors did not close all the way.  One would close fully, but not latch.  Two of them did not close at all.  They were simply open a little bit.  The door catches and handles did not operate properly, and the hinges were all pretty well frozen.  I had Mae hit all the hinges with some oil and try to work it in.  They started to move a little easier, but would still not close all the way. She started wiping everything down with a soapy rag.

The wood trim will need refinished. It just looks good here because it’s wet, but we were optimistic about how the interior was starting to clean up as well!

While Mae was tackling the interior, I began to sort through the spare parts, a few new parts, and mouse nests in the trunk.

Let’s see what’s in here….

This little guy didn’t make it out with his friends. Surprisingly, the only hairy critter I found so far.

Ti air box, and not one, but TWO repair manuals! Score!

Additional contents of trunk included the worn out headliner, under dash trim pieces, some misc bumper brackets and bumper pieces, a dismantled center console (missing one side), some cv boot rebuild kits, new rear wheel bearings, new air filters, wiper arms, a starter, jack, messed up grille, headlight bucket, and two new universal joints.

So after emptying all of that, I was able to get to the trunk boards.  They weren’t in too bad of shape.  Just really dirty, like everything else on this car.  I took them out, and with a little soap, degreaser, and water, I ended up with this:

Look how great the paint and rubber looks on the side of the trunk. Awesome!

I’ll get in there and scrub them some more, but not bad for a primary cleaning!

So after a VERY successful first day of Neue Klasse ownership, we put the hose, the buckets, the soap and all of the rags away, and stood back to take in one last look at our fleet for the evening….

Welcome to the family!

The voyage home….

It was the morning of September 17th, 2011.  It began like any ordinary Saturday.  The dogs woke us up too early.  We drank coffee and probably watched a few shows on HGTV.  Maybe we ran a few errands.  We drove Mae’s ’76 2002 over to Dunkler’s farm market and filled the trunk with peppers, tomatoes, red onions, and cantaloupes.  But this would not end like any ordinary Saturday.  This day would be something very special.

I had borrowed my buddy Ron’s 16 foot tandem axle trailer.  He uses it to haul his demolition derby car to the Randolph fair.  Ron’s latest victim was an old Honda Accord donated by Lake’s auto recycling and was named “The Quarter Pounder.”    I washed the remaining mud, a reminder of this year’s carnage, from the car hauler’s well-worn treated decking.  With the newly clean trailer behind my Ranger, we headed for Stow, a 20 minute drive through the twisty back roads of the valley.

I was a little nervous about what Mae might think about the Tilux once she saw it in person.  I was relieved when after arriving,  she started taking picture after picture, documenting it’s current state.  She seemed as excited as I was.

Harvey’s brother already had a jack under it when we got there, and I brought a set of 4×100 bottlecaps that I had as a spare set of wheels.  They would serve as temporary rollers to get the car home, and be used until the stock steelies and hubcaps could be refurbished or a replacement set could be purchased.

Ready to roll!

With the help of a chain, a come-a-long, and Mae and Harvey’s brother pushing, we easily pulled the 2000 up onto the trailer.

I don’t know why, but this picture reminds me of the movie, “Jaws”, when the shark comes up on the boat to eat the people.

All loaded up and ready to go!

Our convoy pulled out of the driveway, headed for, hopefully, an uneventful drive home.  The only tense moment was the steep drive up Portage Path hill coming out of the valley, hoping that the three come-a-longs and the transmission being in gear would hold her on the trailer.

Once home, I backed the trailer into our driveway which unfortunately is an incline.  Getting the 2000 off of the trailer and into the garage pushing it first uphill on the trailer, and then letting it roll down the ramps without crashing into the back of the garage, all with no brakes and the car not running was a real treat!  Thank you to my neighbor, Justin, whom I tricked into helping.

welcome home girl…..welcome home…..

Am I crazy?

Don’t answer that.  I know I am.  I get up most mornings, drink my coffee, and check my email and facebook.  After that, I go to the Akron and then the Cleveland craigslists, and type in BMW in the “for sale” search box, just in case there is a vintage BMW listed that I might be able to place in a good home.  I’m kind of  like a orphanage for German cars.  Then, I post the craigslist ads on the BMW2002FAQ website, or on one of my facebook BMW groups for others to see.

On the morning of September 6th, while performing my usual routine, I came across an ad that looked vaguely familiar.  It was a 1967 BMW 2000 Tilux.  I had seen the car somewhere before.  After a moment, I realized that the car was possibly owned by our local BMWCCA chapter president.  He is a retired BMW master tech who repairs cars at his home, and he had done some work to my 2002 that I was unable to do myself.  I remembered seeing the 2000 out there before, but never got to take a good look at it.  I emailed Harvey, asking if he was the one selling it.  He called me back and replied that he was, along with several other BMWs that he had accumulated over the years from various customers, in various states of disrepair.  I asked him if I could stop over and take some pictures.  I consider myself to be fairly well connected within the vintage BMW scene,  and I knew I could find someone who would want it.

I grabbed my camera and a notebook, and headed out to see the wrench guru.  I didn’t know much, if anything, about the BMW 2000, or any of the Neue Klasse models for that matter, other than they were the predecessors to the 2002.   This particular 2000 tilux had been sitting outside at Harvey’s since he acquired it in 1998 from another local car club member.  I felt saddened by the condition of the tilux, parked there leaning to one side on two flat tires, covered in algae, moss, leaves, acorns, and bees nests.  Like it was waiting to die.

I took several photographs so that I would have good documentation for any prospective buyers.  However, something happened to me on the drive home.

I decided I had to save it.

I got home and excitedly showed Mae the pictures.  I told her how sad the car looked, but how much potential I though it had.  Plus it was such a rare, special car for this region.  We don’t see many, and by many I mean ANY Neue Klasse cars in Northeast Ohio.  Especially not a ’67 2000 Tilux, the most luxurious car that BMW offered at the time. In a 1967 test, Road & Track felt that the 2000 sedan was “the best performing 2-liter sedan in today’s market and the best handling and best riding as well.” And the Tilux  featured the sporty ti engine, a wood dashboard, and optional leather seats, plus dual solex carbs.

I honestly felt with a lot of scrubbing, cleaning, and buffing, along with some general maintenance for a car that has been sitting for an extended period of time, that I could have this car back on the road by spring, ready to make the trip to The Vintage in North Carolina.

Did I mention there would be some scrubbing involved?

The trunk contained the original airbox, along with two different shop manuals, various bumper components, some new parts in boxes, and some former residents and their former homes.

Dual Solexes, along with a lot of acorns, walnuts, and the nests of various woodland creatures.

I couldn’t believe that we were considering another vintage BMW, but I felt like it was my duty to rescue this car.  I didn’t want it to end up as scrap metal.  I can’t describe the feeling I had when I got back from Harvey’s.  I called him right away and told him not to sell it, and that I wanted it.  It was rough, but it was nearly 100% complete, and I knew in my heart that with some hard work, there was a gem under all of that dirt.

Obvious flaws:

Exterior is extremely dirty, covered in years of tree debris and algae.

Body looks fairly solid with the exception of some rust along the bottoms of the doors and rockers, one hole in the driver’s side  rear quarter, and some surface rust on the hood, lower valence,  and rear trunk lip.

Two flat tires.  One of the ones that held air was a huge, knobby snow tire.

Only one of the four doors closed all the way.  The other three were partially open, the door hinges are stiff, and the trunk is so hard to close, you feel like the rear window might shatter

Motor turns by hand but hasn’t been started in maybe 15 years.  Engine bay is extremely dirty and full of debris and nests, but looks complete.

Front brake hoses are collapsed, so that if the brakes are applied the wheels will lock up, meaning for now, that it must be moved around without use of brakes.

Interior is missing the headliner and center console, smells extremely musty, but is other wise surprisingly complete, including some cool wood trim, and a fancy a/c unit.

Knowing what I know about 2002s, I didn’t feel overwhelmed taking on a project like this.  I knew it would be a fun project, a learning experience, a great opportunity to own a really rare vintage BMW, and something that Mae could be a part of too.  With her blessing, I negotiated a deal and made arrangements to pick the car up.  

Before we get started on the restoration…

…it’s my wife’s fault.  No really, it is!  Let me back up.  When we met, I had a Jeep Wrangler.  I liked Jeeps, and I had always liked classic cars.  That’s what I learned to wrench on – a 1979 Jeep CJ-7, and a 1979 Chevy Malibu station wagon which incidentally, was my first car that I paid 700 of my own hard-earned dollars for.

We started dating, and all of a sudden, Mae was making me drive her Alpine White BMW E46 323Ci everywhere we went.  The only time I had driven BMWs prior to that was a four year stint as a valet in Nashville during and  after high school.  She spoiled me.  How could I possibly go back to my noisy, bumpy Jeep after spending so much time behind the wheel of the ultimate driving machine?  So see?  It was her fault.

Fast forward a couple of years.  We got married.  I was still interested in owning an old classic of some kind.  I called an ad in the local paper about some kind of 60’s Chrysler or something.  I don’t even remember what it was now.  But when I went to the guy’s building to see the car, he had a little dark green 1975 BMW in there.  A 2002.  I had no idea what it was, but I knew I wanted one.  I just didn’t want the one he was selling.  It was a total rust bucket and hadn’t been driven in years.

I set my sites on reading and learning everything I could about the BMW 2002. I eventually found a Golf (Yellow) ’74 on ebay located in, conveniently enough, Akron, Ohio.  I contacted the seller to see if I could check it out in person before bidding.  He lived 2 miles from my house and worked for my wife’s cousin.  I ended up buying it outright.  The biggest problem with the ’74 was that I bought it non-running, and after hours upon hours of work, I was never able to get it running.  I had also picked up a ’73 2002 for parts and learned how to totally dismantle the car.  Most of it is in my basement.  The rest went to help other 2002’s in need.

Remember my wife?  The one who was responsible for my roundel addiction?  Well, a year or so later, she had discovered a pretty little red ’70 2002 on the Akron craigslist and had decided to surprise me for Valentine’s day.  She had even contacted the seller to negotiate a price.  Her intention was to have it sitting in the driveway when I got home from work, but she ultimately decided I should check it out first to make sure it was a worthwhile purchase.  This car was also only about two miles from our house, and was owned by a former classmate of my wife.  He was selling the car because of a baby on the way.  After bringing home the ’70, I eventually sold off the ’74 and later found out that I never got it started because of a seat belt safety switch specific to 1974.  I had never put my seat belt on in the driveway just to start the car!  Lesson learned.

the ’70 2002 the day it came to live with us.

the ’70 after many suspension and cosmetic upgrades.

We picked up a few more along bimmers that have come and gone, from a 1989 535im with nearly 300,000 on the odometer to a newer Alpine 325Ci.  You’re probably thinking I’m the only one in the family who gets to enjoy these BMWs.  Not so.  My wife has her own collection – a lovely Anthracite 1976 automatic 2002 and a beastly 2011 black with red 135i 6 speed.  Ironically, she drives the ’76 to work every day.

Basically, we’re a BMW family.  We love the brand.  We are inspired by the technology, but are fascinated with and respect the heritage.  And because of that love for the history, and because of a sudden opportunity, we made a bold decision to add one more to the stable….