New Member- 1974 Mintgrun, Part 2

[halboyles]

Introduction
Part 2- The Man and The Car Car*
I wanted to provide a few insights into my involvement with BMWs during the 20th and 21st centuries. I have owned a few, many, okay, it was dozens of Bimmers in the last 40 years—1800ti’s, 2002’s, e21’s, e12’s,… I worked with Jim Simpson of Simpson Motorsports in Iowa City, IA as a parts manager. During that period, I served as the BMWCCA Iowa Chapter’s president and a driving instructor at track events and O’fests. I also worked with Terry Sayther at the then Phoenix Motor Works in Austin, TX setting up one of the first computerized BMW parts systems in the country.

For the last 6 years I have worked with my family to create an enterprise doing what I like to call “Rescue and Rehab” of 2002s. We are currently working on five 2002s ranging in years from 1970 to 1976. Our goal is to do enough repairs to make them safe and drivable for the next owner but not complete restorations.

We have also started designing and manufacturing parts for the cars including 2002ti-style side draft linkage systems, vented caliper kits, repurposed tii brake boosters, third brake lights, tools, …. We will soon be launching a website for this enterprise, www.2002sonly.com. I’m attaching a few pics of our products.

Before I purchased the CS, I had already started work on a 2002ti-style side draft linkage kit for triple Webers on the M30. Terry encouraged me to do this because of the limited choice of quality, easily installed and maintained linkages out there. That project should proceed more quickly with the ’74 at hand for prototyping. I am also working on repurposing ATE T51 (ti/tii/turbo) brake boosters for the CS’s that will be a bolt on solution. And finally, I will be able to finalize a third high center brake light for the CS based on our popular version for the 2002s.

Some of this will be delayed I am sure as I begin playing with the ’74. But I will keep the group informed on the progress of products and the car.
In the meantime, stay well,
Hal

*Woody Guthrie, The Car Song:

 

[TedS]

Very excited about this.

 

[Krzysztof]

Great to hear there will be more high quality parts for old bimmers!

 

[HB Chris]

Hal, perhaps consider a shelf mounted third brake light for the coupes. I sold my 75 2002 in August but did not install your light and left it for the new owner. I was concerned the weight might be too much for the adhesive to hold it to the glass.

 

[Drew Gregg]

I can also verify what HBChris has said. The brake light will not stay attached to the glass unless there is a pedestal mounted underneath it. I can give you the dimensions of the vinyl-covered wood one I had made for my Coupe. The revised contour of your second housing matches the rear glass nicely,but it needs the pedestal to be secure under all conditions.

 

[adawil2002]

I made 250+ "stealth' 3rd brake lights for 2002s & Coupes back in 2010 to 2013.

 

[Stevehose]

Definitely a need for quality triple weber linkage, most of what’s out there is crap. Both crossbar and intercouple styles

 

[halboyles]

Very excited about this.

I am too. I lot of what I learned designing and manufacturing 2002 parts will transfer over to the e9 parts.

 

[halboyles]

Great to hear there will be more high quality parts for old bimmers!

We discovered early on when we started six years ago on the 2002s that there were many parts that had become NLA. And there were some parts that needed to be created. And so our parts production adventure began!

 

[halboyles]

Hal, perhaps consider a shelf mounted third brake light for the coupes. I sold my 75 2002 in August but did not install your light and left it for the new owner. I was concerned the weight might be too much for the adhesive to hold it to the glass.

Thank you Chris for being one of the early adapters! I appreciate your leap of faith.

We had some design and production issues with the early versions for the 2002 but I was able to resolve those problems because I had many 2002s to use for prototyping. We also switched over to a commercial printer using industrial ASA filament to create a stronger, lighter, more auto-environment-friendly product.

I had been working with Drew Gregg, David Huges, and Luis Arisso to try to do the same with the CS version. That has been hit and miss since the profile of the CS rear window is very different at the top and bottom and prototyping involved a lot of back and forth. With the '74 in my shop the process will proceed at a much quicker pace.
Once we've got the glass profile nailed down, there should be no problem having it stay in place using the same 3M double-sided tape we used on the 02s.

We have just recently started using resin printing to create more of the plastic parts for the 02s. This process can make almost factory quality products. I am sure their are many CS plastic parts we could produce.

 

[halboyles]

I can also verify what HBChris has said. The brake light will not stay attached to the glass unless there is a pedestal mounted underneath it. I can give you the dimensions of the vinyl-covered wood one I had made for my Coupe. The revised contour of your second housing matches the rear glass nicely,but it needs the pedestal to be secure under all conditions.

Thank you again Drew for all your help in trying to perfect this third brake light and for all your patience. I owe you one. Once I have the profile perfected, I will be sending you the first one off of the line.

 

[halboyles]

I made 250+ "stealth' 3rd brake lights for 2002s & Coupes back in 2010 to 2013.

I really believe that all vintage cars need a third high-center brake light. All the signal lights in general are too dim. The brake lights in particular need to be dramatic to protect these now diminutive vehicles.

 

[halboyles]

Definitely a need for quality triple weber linkage, most of what’s out there is crap. Both crossbar and intercouple styles

Completely agree. I started making ti-style linkages for Webers using actual ti linkage components back in the 80's. All of those ti bits are, of course, NLA (which cannot be read to mean that they are in a warehouse somewhere in LA!). So I created a linkage based on the rock solid BMW version. In fact, I've created linkage systems for the Webers, and NK and 2002ti Solexs so far. I am also working on versions for the Dellortos and Mikunis. I will keep the forum assessed of my progress on the m30 version.

 

[adawil2002]

I really believe that all vintage cars need a third high-center brake light. All the signal lights in general are too dim. The brake lights in particular need to be dramatic to protect these now diminutive vehicles.

Agree 100%