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2003 Status
2002 Status
Miscellaneous
May 8, 2002.
We are debating whether or not to replace the driver side rear quarter panel. The passenger side looks good, but you can see the driver side has had some work done to it. It's got quite a bit of warp and some rust towards the lower rockers. I am, however, extremely pleased with the front of the car. All around the nose and inner fender wells the car has no rust, period. Inside the engine bay is also good. I'm very happy about that. Well, enough babbling. Check out the pics below:Nothing much happening until today, May 8th. My car is back from the sand blasting place over in Frystown, Pa. It's amazing what you find once you take the car down to the metal. It's hard to see in the pics, but the car has had quite a bit of previous body work done to it. The pics don't show it well, but the car is actually bare metal and not it's Fjord color sanded down. In these pics, no body work has been done yet. All the patchy spots shown are remnants of all the old body work it's had throughout it's 30 year life.
May 15, 2002.
I had ordered a brand new trunk floor from the guys over at Bimmer Parts Co. down the street in Pottstown, Pa. It's really nice having an 02 dedicated shop just 12 minutes from my house. Nothing beats beautiful brand new sheet metal. Here's a pic of the new trunk floor below:
May 18, 2002 - Mid Atlantik 02 Fest 2002 Pictures can be seen here
Mid-Atlantik 02 Fest was held today down in Carlisle, Pa. I went down and met some of the guys from the board. Didn't get to meet and talk to too many of them (which I regret) as I was hoping to find parts over on the swap meet side. Plus I didn't come in any of my Bimmers so I wasn't hovering near the cars the whole time. I hooked up with Paul Wegweiser and Matt Sedlak from Maximillian and gave them a tranny I had promised to one of their buddies (Tim Lavery). Then I was on the hunt for some sheet metal. I was fortunate enough to actually find a brand new rear quarter panel for my 02 which I desperately needed. I would've been happy to find just a used old part, but as luck would have it someone had a brand new one never used. Suffice it to say I bought it on the spot. Here's a pic of it below after I got it down to the body shop later that day. It's the big black piece behind the primered rear tail light panel:
May 20, 2002
Stopped by momentarily at the body shop and took some updated pics. The garage doors were closed and there was alot of stuff in the way so I couldn't really get any good pictures of the whole car so I apologize for that. These pics show: passenger side fender added on, the old lower rocker panel was cut out and the new rocker was welded in and primered, and the door and rear quarter body work and primering has begun. What you can't tell in the last 2 pics is that the rear quarter wheel well lip was cut out and replaced using one of my old front fenders. There was a small hole on the lip edge so we cut out the piece from the front fender and used it in the rear. Worked like a charm. If any of you out there ever need to replace the wheel well just know that you can use front fender sheet metal for the repair. The yellow stuff is rust preventative.
May 24, 2002.
Charlie from Paplosky's (my body shop) called me today to let me know they started cutting into the car a bit, so I figured I'd go down and take some pics. They removed the tail light panel and trunk floor and began cutting the driver side quarter panel. It's amazing what you find when you start getting down to the nitty gritty. My car had minimal rust when I bought it. The floors were good, the towers, etc. but after removing panels you realize otherwise. Rust lives underneath and behind panels you never see. Most of you will never know. The lower part of the towers where it met the trunk floor show signs of rust beginning. The driver side quarter panel will be completely cut out soon, the pics only show what they've started so far. It's funny. When I first decided to restore this car I had no intent of replacing so much sheet metal. I did (for all intents and purposes) have a clean car with just a mild fender bender in the rear. The primary reason I decided to do all this wasn't rust though as there is still minimal rust. I decided to do this because the rear quarter panel had been warped from the accident. And from that started the snowball effect.... the way I see it, if you are going to do it, do it right and do it right the first time. I plan to keep this car for many many years and I don't want to have to redo the body in a couple years from now. Hopefully the car will outlast me!!
May 26, 2002.
Took another visit down to Paplosky's Body Shop for some pics. The rear tail light panel and trunk floor have already been spot welded and clamped in place awaiting the quarter panel replacement.
Check out the pics below.
P.S. I also converted the owner Charlie into a BMW fan this month. He just purchased a late model E36 328i convertible coupe. Very nice car. I will post pics next time. He just became more and more upsessed with them he had to get one.
