Rusty But Trusty

Well, it’s been an awfully long time since the last post. Having caught up on all my favorite blogs, I’m now using my spare seconds to fish around for gems again, and here are a couple.

Who knew you could get a 2002 for so cheap, much less a tii?? For only $3100, this car in Santa Cruz, CA definitely has to be a genuine, original, numbers matching tii that would make the blue & white cravatted judges at your local BMW concours giggle with glee. I briefly tried finding a spotter’s guide to tell if this is a real tii, but Google only turned up one good one, and most of the items it listed are not visible in this picture. However, it does have a fuel-injection intake plenum, so it’s a tii in practice. I’ve liked this color combo since I test drove a 1602 in the same colors, and still holds up pretty well.

From the back, it really looks pretty good. It has E30-style mesh alloys, and doesn’t appear to have much visible rust. The seller says it’s got rust under the rear windows, the rear fenders, and on the passenger-side floorpan. You can count on it that there’s more, since this is a 1970s BMW. The seller also states he lightly rear-ended another car, and he’s had the damage pulled out and the radiator fixed, but there’s still work to be done.

The rear looks pretty clean too. However, the bumper is a bit off, which could be as innocuous as loose mounts, or indicative of a poorly-repaired rear impact. Gotta love the old round tail lights with that 60s rocket style, and you can see the car’s great stance, although the seller is not clear what brought that about. It does have a strut brace, upgraded sway bars, brakes, and a trunk-mounted battery among the chassis mods, so it’s likely more has been done.

There are the intake plenum and the strut brace. I believe there’s also something on the front panel you can see that tells whether it’s an original tii, but I don’t recall what that is – 2002 nuts, please comment. That said, if this car is as solid as the seller represents it to be, with fuel injection, high-lift cams, headers, and a 5-speed, at this price it’s a good deal, real tii or not.

The interior looks a bit worn – but since the upholstery looks intact, replacing the seat padding and putting in a new carpet kit could really help tidy things up. If you are interested in this car, I would jump on it quickly, as I don’t believe it will last long.

On the other end of the scale, but still quite sporting, this Fiat 124 Special TC in Fort Collins, CO also looks like a real bargain. In its last year here in the US, it got the aluminum-head twincam engine from the rest of the 124 lineup for some extra juice. If we’re lucky, this car also had the 5-speed manual that paired well with this engine, foreshadowing the introduction of the 131/Brava with the same drivetrain. Twincam four, five speeds, and rear-wheel drive? At $600, sounds like a bargain sports sedan to me!

With apparently 54,000 miles, this car sounds like a great opportunity for a Fiat nut. The body looks straight, with no visible rust and a lovely mint-green shade of paint. Many people pull off the ugly diving-board bumpers, but this leaves the car looking unfinished and only emphasizes the boxy, slab-sided design, so source some chrome bumpers off an older parts car and make some adapters to fit them.

More of the same – unfortunately the seller didn’t go to the same school of automotive advertising as the BMW’s, or he would have posted pics of the interior and engine as well. I really wonder if this car is an autotragic; most of the 124 Special TCs I’ve seen are.

The rear is pretty clean too, but for some reason, the trunk is open. Body damage? Broken latch? Just open? For the price I guess you can’t expect much, it’s pretty remarkable the seller even posted a coherent description or pictures!

Here’s the last photo. You’ll see the seller is apparently a fan of boxy cars, with the nose of a Volvo poking out in the foreground. Nothing to raise alarm here either – if I were a Colorado-based oddball car nut, I’d be over there in a flash to find out the full story. Find a camper for cheap, and you might be able to trade him that instead!

Tags: 124, 2002, BMW, Feature, Fiat, german, italian, under $2000

This entry was posted on October 30, 2010 at 6:02 am and is filed under Feature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.