‘72 Inka 02

[zinz]

For those of you not on 2002FAQ, here’s a quick bit about a ‘72 Inka 2002 I finally have back on the road. I got it about 18 months ago from an acquaintance up in Dallas. I was the 4th owner in 27 years and the car had not driven in all that time. It has a Tii engine and my belief is they rebuilt the head then couldn’t figure out to tune the KFisch system after they got it back together and they parked it. Fortunately, it was garaged those 27 years!

The paint is a respray and after about 4 days with the orbital, it polished up nicely.

Life got in the way last year, but I got back on the car with a vengeance a couple months ago. Good guy, Barney Toler let me borrow his private shop while he was galavanting around NorCal at the end of summer. We fired up the engine the day he returned and it drove out of his shop the next day.

I’ve put about 500 miles on it over the last two weeks and will take it on our annual 02BerFest in the Texas Hill Country next week. It drives wonderfully and the Tii engine is smooth as butter.

5 speed is in the future and hopefully lots more miles. Huge thanks to Barney for his absolute generosity and big heart.

Ed Z

 

[Stevehose]

Love this!

 

[dave v. in nc]

Barney is one of the good guys...looking great, Zinz; I still love those wheels! ATS or Cromodora?

 

[zinz]

ATS or Cromodora?

The car came to me with Cromodoras, but they were dull and needed to be refinished. One of the Houston guys had a primo set of Octavo 100+ wheels with polished lips. I've always liked those and they were a lot shinier than the Cromodoras. I actually sold the Cromodoras to Barney and he is refinishing them very nicely, right now.

Ed Z

 

[Stan]

you got a beauty!
Good work bringing her back to life!

 

[zinz]

Good work bringing her back to life!

Thanks, Stan,

Once I had it on the lift, I realized the 4 speed was toast... The driveshaft yoke was loose on the output shaft of the transmission. When I removed it, the splines of the output shaft were smeared off and the splines of the yoke were basically gone. The car would not have gone very far... So, local guru, Terry Sayther stepped up and said, "come on down the shop.. I have a dozen 4 speeds taking up space." I picked two of the best out of the pile, cleaned one up, new gear lube, and installed it with a new clutch, pressure plate, and throw out bearing. In the meantime, I have a 5 speed on the way and will install that in the near future.

Barney also stepped up with a used, driver's side strut assembly. I was installing new strut bearings and Bilstein HDs and the new Bilstein wouldn't go to the bottom of the strut tube... the tube was bent. I called Barney and he pointed me to his bone yard where he had an old front subframe. I pulled that one and cleaned it up. The tube was straight and I installed it.

At this point the car has all new gaskets, seals, hoses and such in the Kfisch system. New brakes, soft lines, wheel cylinders, master cylinder, etc... New exhaust, cleaned fuel tank, fuel pump and new lines. I dunno... there's so many new parts now all over the car. I took the doors apart and fixed all the mechanisms and new vapor barriers. Cleaned the grease and dirt from the underside of the car and engine bay (I HATE working on a greasy car).

Lots of long evenings and dirty fingernails to get this far. I still have a "to do" list, but at least I can drive it and enjoy it now.

Ed Z

 

[Stevehose]

When I have time, space, and funds, it is a joy to do this kind of rehab. It's getting all 3 of those components together at the same time that is the challenge!

 

[zinz]

When I have time, space, and funds, it is a joy to do this kind of rehab.

I would never have gotten this car done had Barney not allowed me the use of his shop... I had been killing myself in my driveway in 107 degrees and direct sun. I was very fortunate with this car that it had been garaged most its late life and not rotting in the sun, outside. I had bought an S14 engine from this guy many years ago and asked about this Inka tucked away in his garage. Every year, I would send him a note about the car until finally he reached out to me in early 2022. I had stashed away a lot of good 2002 parts over the years and that helped me a lot. The price of new parts today makes me hesitate to begin another resurrection project.

 

[zinz]

Drove it several hundred miles this weekend during Terry Sayther’s 02BerFest. Car ran great and everyone had a great time. I think we had 17, 2002s in attendance.

You can see in this last picture how much darker mine is compared to Barney’s more recently painted Inka. Mine almost looks red in that photo!

Ed Z