About ten years ago, BMW Mobile Tradition, which is now BMW Classic, began a project to demonstrate how extensive its parts catalog was for older BMWs. The car they chose for the project was the BMW 2002, because even though the last 2002 came off the assembly line in 1976, in 2006—30 years later—nearly 90% of all 2002 parts were still available.
The team set out to build a "new" 1973 BMW 2002tii, almost entirely from scratch.
Almost from scratch because one of the parts that was not available was the car’s unibody. In fact, the Mobile Tradition craftsmen couldn’t find a suitable 1973 2002tii chassis to start with, so they began the project with a 1974 2002tii body. How is that possible, you ask?
That’s what this video is for. It shows how the Mobile Tradition crew replaced the ’74 front and rear panels with new parts for a ’73, restoring the car to the hallowed round-taillight configuration it should have been born with in the first place, according to the round-taillight purists. The video documents how the panels were welded and the seams leaded and everything ground and sanded and prepped for eventual painting.
This blast from the past was built with the Kugelfischer mechanical fuel-injected two-liter, four-cylinder engine and optional five-speed ZF manual transmission. Output was 140 horsepower and 130 pound-feet of torque. The tii’s zero-to-60 time was 9.3 seconds—painfully slow today but pretty zippy 40 years ago.
BMW sold about 39,000 2002tii’s between 1971 and 1975, with about 7,500 imported into the U.S.
The 10 percent of parts not available at the time for this project were replaced with refurbished parts from donor cars, or were manufactured specifically for this car.
The finished project has been seen in BMW photographs and advertisements ever since it was finished. BMW Mobile Tradition even brought the car to America in 2006 so that BMW Car Club of America members could worship it at the BMW CCA Oktoberfest in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
This video is quite lengthy at 44 minutes, so if you have the time, take a look. The process of hand-building a 2002 is mesmerizing. For those of us who are shadetree mechanics, it’s humbling watching Mobile Tradition’s expert restoration craftsmen at work.
We don’t know how extensive BMW Classic’s 2002 parts catalog is today, but given that ten years ago when this 2002tii was built, the total cost to put it together was fairly close to $100,000. It’s unlikely an individual—or even BMW—would attempt such a project today. Fortunately, we have some really good BMW restoration shops in the U.S that can take your existing but tired 2002 and make it look like it was just built by BMW.—Scott Blazey
[Photos and video courtesy of BMW AG.]
