A Better Front Strut Brace

I bought a TEP Strut Brace from a member of www.bmw2002faq.com and installed it immediately. It's a big improvement over the $15 E36 strut bar that I had hastily modified to fit and was rubbing against the intake manifold. The new (used) TEP brace not only holds everything much stiffer than most bars with it's triangulated design, but it also offers the option to bolt an arm on that limits engine movement. Of course, since it was designed for an M10 and not an M42, I'll have to modify it to keep the M42 in place.

Before:

After:

Wiring Re-Wrap and Some Handles

I spent a lot of free time in the last two weeks going through and sorting out a wiring harness that I bought. I followed a wiring diagram and went through five rolls of friction tape and one reel of label-maker tape. The result is a much cleaner and simpler wiring harness than the one that is currently residing in my car.

Also, I screwed in the grab handles over teh rear side windows. I was nervous to puncture teh headliner, but it actually allowed me to correct a wrinkle or two.

Headliner

I replaced the headliner over the last few weeks. It's not without its flaws, but it sure beat paying someone to do it.

I used a few cable mounting tabs to secure the bows, so that they wouldn't rotate and subsequently sag the headliner. See full installation notes HERE.

I also used this great roller lockstrip tool to reinstall the windshield seals (with Dudley's help).

That's clear silicone caulk oozing out of the seal. We used it to make sure that the seals remain watertight.

Rearview Mirror

The early 1600s came with an elegant, chrome, slide-in rearview mirror. In 1968, BMW switched to a breakaway style mirror that domestic and international safety standards suggested would be less likley to lodge itself in a passenger's forehead during a crash. So, throwing reflective vehicular caution to the wind, I decided to clean up the original mirror for the 1600.

With quite a bit of filing, sanding and buffing, the mirror stalk looks a lot better than it did when I unearthed it from the parts stash.

The original mirror part was degraded beyond repair, so I used a mirror from a[n] 7 Series E21, which got a little touch-up paint. You can see the size difference between the new and old.

The headliner will cover the black plastic receiver.

EDIT: As it turns out, this is an E21 mirror. I found my 7-Series mirror, which is substantially larger, then I immediately and clumsily dropped it, breaking the mirror.

Garage!

Finally, I have a garage of my own. My wife and I just closed on a house that happens to have a 2 1/2 car garage. Not only is this the first garage that I have ever had to myself, it's also the largest one in which I've been able to work on the car, if I don't count the airplane hanger that a friend let me borrow for a few days a few years back.

This is going to be fun.

Took a Drive

My fiancée, Dana, and I took the relatively short drive to see the Civil War battlefield site, Antietam. Most of the trip was on the highway, but we did get to see a few twisty roads. I did the other tourists a favor by keeping it off the floor through the park.

Roof Rack Redo

The roof rack that I built from used wood and some cheap brackets was starting to look a little worn. Aside from sitting a few inches too high for most tastes, the indoor-use polyurethane coating that the wood came with wasn't holding up to the wind and rain. So, I disassembled it.

After replacing two of the slats with spares, I sanded and coated the wood with Helmsman Spar Urethane to keep the UV rays at bay.

I didn't sand all the way down to remove all of the weathering. I suppose I'm trying to keep in the well-worn patina theme in which the 1600 comfortably sits.

I also came up with a hardware solution to drop the roof rack a few inches that required griding down the aluminum brackets.

So, after several coats with sanding in between, it all went back together.

Also, I replaced the set screw (bolt) in the shifter with a small, headless set screw.

Now all I need to do is install air conditioning and build a console so I can tidy up all of those wires!