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2003 Status
2002 Status
Miscellaneous
March, 2002.
I began tracing the wiring back to the firewall after removing the fuse box wire loom out from the sheet metal. There is a plastic connector for the wiper motor towards the upper right corner. I undid that with a screw driver. I then decided to go inside the car so that I could better see where the wires were all going to.
I started by pulling out the seats so I could lay down and get under the console better. I removed the passenger seat by removing the 4 10mm bolts that bind the seat to the floor of the car. Just loosen them and lift the seat straight out. The rear bench can be removed by popping up the floor bench. After that is removed, you will have access to the screws that hold the backrest in place. Simply loosen all components and slide the bench upwards and out.
I pulled out some miscellaneous wiring from behind the firewall that I found. My car apparently had a cb scanner at one time along with an old key activated alarm system from the 70's. After pulling out all the miscellaneous wiring, I could do no more as the main wiring harness was routed by a big fat grommet on the firewall. I saw no need to pull out all of the wiring from the engine bay into the car, so I left it with the intention of wrapping everything up neatly later on in the engine bay. 
I devoted my attention again back to the engine compartment and began removing some of the final pieces out of the way. The power brake booster was the next item I removed. The brake booster comes out with 4 13mm PITA (pain in the ass) bolts. 3 of the 4 aren't bad, but the lower right hand side one was next to impossible to reach. There is also a bracket that attaches with the 2 right side bolts and is attached from the inside driver side fender. I removed the 4 bolts for the booster plus the attached bracket which had 2 additional nuts/bolts. These are accessible from the wheel well area on the inside fender. These are also 13mm. Make sure to undo the brake switch electrical connections and remove the sliding pin and circlip before removal.
In this shot you can see where the booster was and you can see the mounting bracket for it. Make sure to remove all of the brake lines attached to the master cylinder before pulling the booster out. I should've mentioned that above. There will be a total of 5 lines attaching all around the master cylinder. You can also see where I started to take a good ol' trash bag to began wrapping the wiring around in. I don't want any of the wiring to get wet or catch humidity especially since I will be washing the engine compartment later. 
With the brake booster out, I can now finish taking off the exterior trim around the body. I moved on to the inside door rubber moldings. I removed the lower door sill by simply popping it up and out. Then I began to pull on the rubber all along the edges. They run all along the top, down the windshield area and along the sides and pretty much stop right around where the door sills meet at the bottom.
After removing the rubber seals around the door frames, I began to remove the door panels. There are several phillips screws all along the bottom of the door panels. Unscrew all of them to loosen the panel. The door handles are held on by 3 phillips screws as well. The uppermost screw is hidden behind the metal trim piece. Although already removed in this pic, you can see the metal trim in pic 1 below.
The front quarter window crank is tricky at first. I had to consult my shop manual. Using something like a bent hanger you need to reach behind the wheel and feel along the back until you find a small hole. Once located, push the wheel cap from behind and it will pop out. You can use a flathead screw driver from the front to pop it out, but you are guaranteed to ruin the piece with gouge marks.
The window crank is easy. Pop off the cover to gain access to 1 phillips screw and loosen. After the knob is out, all the screws on the door panels are loose and the handles are off, and the window crank is out, simply wiggle and pop the door panel upwards and out.
With the door panel out of the way, you now have access to removing the door handle. Reach in from inside the door and using a 10mm socket, loosen the single bolt holding the front of the exterior door handle. The backside is removed by loosening a screw located inside the door jam.
The exterior trim along the top of the door can be removed by using a wood chuck or "cheese wedge" type device. Simply place it against the bottom and tap gently upwards until the trim pops up. My car had a set of Vitaloni mirros on both doors. They came off with a hex nut and 2 phillip screws on the base. Refer to pics 2, 3, and 4.
In this shot you can see the lower trim being removed. The trim piece simply pops out off the door. Be gentle when popping it out. Mine had metal clips but some of your cars may have plastic "poppers" as I call them. The edge of the trim towards the back of the door will have a phillip screw you will need to loosen from inside the door jams. 
The last piece of trim on the door is the one directly under the mirror area just above the halfway mark on the door. This one simply pried off for me by pulling outwards towards me. This one also had the metal clasps.
After removing the trims along the side, I began to remove all the exterior trim from the rear of the car. The gas cap was the first thing removed. Here is a shot of my rear clip before disassembly.
The first thing to remove is the rear trunklid. Using 13mm sockets, remove the nuts to loosen the rear trunklid. You will need to remove both the hinge bolts and the support bracket. Refer to pics 1 and 2 below.
Next, I loosened the plastic screws from the inside of the rear tail lights to remove them. I undid the electrical connections and labeled each wire referencing what color went where on the lights. I simply popped out the lights from outside to remove them.
Last, I removed all of the little plastic screws from the inside of the rear panel. While I was at it I started pulling the wiring slowly out from behind the trunk lock brace.
I needed to prepare for removing the gas tank, so I started by removing the evaporator lines that run from the gas line inlet. Simply pop these out as shown in the 1st pic below. Then, undo the clamps (pic 2) to both hoses connected to the gas tank itself and pop those out. Remove the electrical connections to the tank as well. Remember which one's are positive and negative.
If you have some extra bolts handy, it's always a good idea to plug up the hoses when they lay as gas is most likely to pour out of them (pic 3).
Remove the evaporator. The evaporator is a plastic container as shown in pic 3 below. Keep in mind of how the hoses went on and which ones attached where. After doing all of the following, you are now ready to start taking the gas tank out.
To pull out the gas tank, loosen the 4 10mm bolts that hold it down onto the car. There is one just about on each corner of the gas tank. Refer to pics below for locations.
Whala! Gas tank is out. Now is a good time to drain the gas and give it a really good cleaning. I think I will use some of the gas to cleanse it and do some pressure washing. Whatever you do, don't just use soap and water or other detergents. This can cause the gas tank inside to rust if it already doesn't have any. I plan to pressure wash it AND use gas or kerosene.
Now that the gas tank is removed, I can continue to remove the remaining pieces from inside the trunk area. I also cleaned off the area where the tank bolts were as alot of dust and surface rust had accumulated. Later on, I will sand it down.
My car still had the original "vanity" cover on the side, so I wiggled that piece out and removed it.
Next, I loosened the plastic screws from the inside of the rear side markers and undid the electricals to it.
Then, I removed the small bolts and pulled out the gas line inlet system. I carefully labeled each as with all others before and placed them in plastic "ziploc" bags to make it easier later on to find and put it all back together.
I then took off the upper molding on the outside of the car.
Having removed all the screws from the inside before, I popped out the rear lower reflector as shown in pic 1 below. Next, in pic 2 came removal of the rear Roundel. This one just pops out as well.
Pic 3 shows the rear 2002tii badge after being removed. This badge also just pops out from the rear.There are 2 self locking style washers that hold it in place from the inside.
Pic 4 shows the "self-locking" clips that hold the badge from the inside.
To remove the rear bumper, loosen the 4 13mm bolts that hold the back center section from inside the trunk area. Refer to pics below. You will need to loosen the carriage bolts on the bumper ends as well to remove the complete assembly.
I did the same procedures above for the rear left side of the car as well and then pulled out the wiring loom through the rear seat firewall. It's hard to tell in the pic, but right along the top of the rear tower there is a hole that the wiring is fed through. I pushed it through and left in sit inside the back seat area since I will be having the trunk painted.
Below are just some shots of the body after I tore it down and towed it down to the body shop. I regret to say that I didn't take any pics of me transporting the car down on my truck. I simply forgot my camera that day. This is where the car still sits at this time ( early April, 2002 ). As you can see, some of the work on the body has begun. The pics below also show the car after the fenders were removed. I wasn't down there the day they were taken off so I didn't get to snap any pics of the fender removal. Just for the record, it is simply removed by bolts all along the fender and by cutting the welds on the nose.With all of the outer trim removed, the only things remaining on the car were the original fenders and the windshields. Although easy to remove, I decided to let the body shop take out the windshields since I knew there may be times when my car would sit outside and I wanted to avoid getting the inside of the car wet should it happen to rain. The fenders seemed ok, but once I got it to the body shop they showed me what layed underneath, so I went and got 2 fenders from Bimmer Parts Co.
