#36, from rust box to period hillclimber, on a rather tight budget.
Saturday, 25 April 2009
Coming home
Went to see the car again, 3 months later, but this time it had a fresh MOT. Wrote a cheque and proceeded to test drive the '68 150 miles home. The car is mostly solid and runs great, the gearbox is solid and the engine pulls strong with no smoke. There are some rust issues i will have to deal with as well as some rather nasty repair jobs, seriously if you are going to do it, do it once and do it right. The interior is immaculate with good carpet, vinyl and no cracks in the dash. I know this car was diven by a smoker as the headliner has a wonderful yellow stain above the drivers seat and there is a melted patch on the dashboard above the ash tray. All of these imperfections shall remain, I don't like an over-restored car. I like to keep as much of the history of the car intact. The biggest downside about this car is the frightful bad pikey paint job. I could have done better with a toothbrush. Once the rust gets tackled i think new paint will be in order but not for some time yet.
This car is a very early BMW 2002, in fact it is the 36th right hand drive 2002 ever made. My plan for #36 is to maintain and recondition as much of the original car as humanly possible and to modify, sympathetic to period, for historic hillclimbing, whilst retaining all original components and without making any permanent modifications to any single part. Eventually, time and money permitting, I would like to repair and replace all of the poorly repaired sections of metal and achieve a decent condition of body and paint, preferably a single shade of red.
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