-
2003 Status
2002 Status
Miscellaneous
March, 2003
Diffs, trim, and re-assembly. That's what March is about. I'm going to start putting together all the miscellaneous items on this month. My target is mid-spring time to have it ready. The following stuff is just pretty straight-forward. I began to put on the new tail lights, rear bumper and door handles. The rear bumper is not new for now, but everything else is.
I ordered the complete 10 pc upper trim kit along with the roofline gutter trim and other miscellaneous pieces. The original trim was riveted in place, so I riveted the new pieces back on the same way. Both the vertical and rear quarter window trims were riveted.
Here are the side trim pieces in place after riveting them on to the car.
I had also ordered a complete weather stripping kit from the guys over at Bimmer Parts Co. in Pottstown, Pa. All my old rubber was really dry and cracked. it was due for replacement.
I took a break from putting on the car trim pieces and began to play with the differentials. My tii had a 3.64 open diff which was is not original for this car to begin with. A '72 usually brings a 3.45:1. The diff I'm putting in is from a '79 320is and is geared lower as a 3.91 with a limited slip option. You can see in picture one on the left (below) the differences in gears on the lsd versus the open on the right. The 3.91 also used 10mm bolts instead of the 8mm bolts (picture two on right).
I picked up some replacement horns for my car and some fog light mounting kits for the front bumper fog lights at my local Pep Boys. Rally makes pretty cool stuff for old cars. Thanks to this fog light kit I won't have to drill into the bumpers for the fog lights.
Later on that night I bolted up the trannie and began hooking up the linkage for the shifter. I had to play with it a bit as it looks like my trannie tunnel had flexed a bit. I also pounded out about an inch onto the side to make some clearance for the new slave cylinder. This is necessary when doing a 5 spd conversion to avoid having the slave cylinder hit the tunnel wall. I then hooked up the speedo cable and fed it through up to the dash area....
March 21, 2003.
I continued reassembling some of the trim pieces on the car. I put on the exterior aluminum side mouldings and some of the reflectors around the back tail gate. The side pieces go on with plastic clips joined at the ends by metal fasteners with nuts to prevent them from moving.
Moving on to other areas, I got my rear windshield in place with the rubber surround seal and placed it on the car. To insert the windshiled I used some nylon thin rope around the "gutters" on the inside. I placed the windshield on tightly and then began to undo the nylon rope from inside the car forcing the gutters over onto the body of the car.
Once the rubber seal was secured onto the car I began to put on the locking strip on the outside. This is NOT the right way to do this as you can slip and scratch your paint while inserting the locking strip. The rubber seal and strip should be put on the windshield before you put the glass in the car. I slipped once or twice and made a few small scratches. I knew better but since I was working alone I found it hard to hold the glass and rubber in place while applying the locking strip so I didn't have much of a choice.
Having completed that, I turned my attention to the front bumper. The bumper goes on with 13mm nuts and carriage bolts which are kind of a pain to get on. For this you just have to be patient and take your time. Before putting on the bumper and brackets make sure you put in the rubber seals for the nose as shown in pic 2 below (2004 Update – after the restoration I realized that this rubber seal was put on backwards! Put yours facing the other way with the protruding side out)
Here are some pics of the bumper being sized on the car. My brackets were slightly bent so I had to play with it for a while to get them right. I knew they were bent but I chose to use them for now. In the future I will buy a new set. Right now I'm tapped out and will make do with what I have..... you can see in the first pic the new horns I bought from last page.....
Using the fog light mounting kit I bought (see previous page) I put the fog lights on the bumper. They aren't totally bolted in yet, but I wanted to get them on and do the wiring while the grills and such are out of the car.
Took a break, got some food and jumped right back into it. I put on the original door panels and began to put the rear panels and rear bench in.
March 23-27, 2003.
One of my new grills came in. Mobile Tradition's back ordered parts are starting to be shipped finally. I'm still waiting for door seals and the other center and passenger side grills.
Not much else so far. I finished putting on the mirror and some of the other trim pieces. Here's a shot of the car at this time. I had also put on the side quarter glass windows. They go on with several screws that run up along the back of the B pillar. They sit behind the rubber seal for the quarter window. Just simply screw them in and line up the glass.
Good ol' John Weese to the rescue. John Weese miraculously repaired my tii dash for me. I gave it to him several months ago to play with and he was able to repair my dash completely. Can you tell where it was cracked before? I think not. Thanks a million John!
More pics of the carpet install. I used the instructions that came with it and some additional tips from Sako's website. Together I got the carpet in pretty good. Thanks Sako for helping me out via emails...
Back into the engine bay - A tii alternator technically goes on by removing the lower sway bar and battery out of place. I was able to wiggle mine through carefully through (although not easily). Once in I bolted in all the nuts, etc. on the engine's mounting brackets and began to hook up the 3 prong connector and ground. My alternator has a noise suppressor (pictured) which also connects to the B+ terminal.
The following pics below just show some of the engine and it's electrical connections. I hooked up the thermo time switches, brake switch and intake runners onto the car. The pics below also show the tii linkage for anyone who needs a reference.
