Car of the Month

March 2010

Finally after years/months of begging

Matthew Bugden's stunning 1602 Lux

Want to see your 02 featured here (any condition as long as there's a story)?

Email me any 02, any condition richstern@hotmail.com

About 8 years ago I started to think about buying a classic car and to be honest I never thought of buying a classic BMW. I remember a neighbour who had an old Cortina 1600E, and I was looking for something similar.

I was casually flicking through Exchange & Mart etc with no luck when a friend told me his father-in-law was trying to sell a classic car and he thought it may be a BMW. He went on to say that it was a black car from the early 1970’s, he didn’t know what model it was, but said it was in good condition and that he wanted about £5k for it. He put me in touch with his father-in-law, who I subsequently found was an avid Jaguar collector and I made arrangements to go and have a look at the car.

I arrived at this large detached house and was taken downstairs to the basement to find a garage - a garage that looked more like a car showroom. It was heated, fully tiled throughout and air-conditioned to store what was an amazing collection of classic Jaguars. Sitting in the corner, taking up valuable space, was a black BMW 1602 Lux (square rear light model from 1975).

I must admit that on first inspection the car looked amazing, but I didn’t know anything about classic cars, classic BM’s or indeed 02’s in particular, so I did some ringing around and Richard Stern told me about Jaymic (a specialist in BMW ‘02s). I spoke to Keith Morley at Jaymic who said that he couldn’t travel to inspect it, but if I was happy to have it transported to Cromer he would happily go over the car with a fine toothcomb on my behalf. Therefore I bought the car in February 2002 for £4,750 on the proviso that it passed the Jaymic inspection with flying colours – if any horrors were unearthed the seller kindly agreed he would take the car back and refund me my money. Thus all I was facing was a £200 punt for the transporter.

I had the car delivered to Jaymic on the back of a low-loader and gave Keith a call a few hours later to see if it had arrived. Keith said it had and then immediately said “if you don’t want to buy it we will!” So I said “is it in good nick, then?” To which Keith said “It’s perfect”. Keith then went on to say that the car was a Lux model which is rare, and black which is even rarer and being a Lux model meant the car was well equipped, including the rare velour interior with wood trim. The other amazing feature of the car was that it had covered just 22,000 documented miles in 25 years across two previous registered owners.

The only real desirable extras not fitted to the car were original BMW mud flaps which I have been searching high and low for ever since and a set of original ‘coconut’ floor mats. These have recently been re-made by BMW, but they simply don’t look like the old one’s, so the search goes on – I have managed to source 3 out of the 4 original mats, that I use mainly for shows. I still need a drivers mat so if anyone out there has one please do get in touch!

The interior was, and still is, missing a period radio and to preserve the car’s originality I have chosen not to fit one, although they are still available. I have, however, since sourced a Blaupunkt hand held picnic radio circa 1975 which compliments the car perfectly.

The number plates were originally a bit scabby and I was determined to find period replacements – the ones on sale in this country are all laminated as it is now not legal to sell metal plates with the 1970’s raised numerals. However, years ago I was holidaying in Grenada in the Caribbean which was once a British colony and I discovered, to my amazement, that they still use and issue the old British tin plate number plates and identical black raised lettering. I befriended a local who, over the years, has sent me the old raised digits to make up UK period style number plates.

The car has its original paint. In the early days of my ownership I needed to replace the chrome rubbing strips and I have had a passenger door mirror fitted to balance up the look of the car. After a year or two, I noticed the chrome bumpers were starting to ‘pit’ so I had them re-chromed. They looked alright for a few months, but then I noticed even worse pitting coming through so I bit the bullet and ordered a new set of chrome bumpers from BMW for £900! Not cheap but they are a quality product and being original, have the rather duller area below the bumper’s rubber midline; an effect you cannot achieve with re-chroming. Mechanically, apart from the odd perished rubber seal and things that seize through minimal use, the only thing I have had to replace is the clutch. Up until recently the car was running on its original tyres and ordinarily sails through the MoT each year.

I say ‘recently’ and ‘ordinarily’ because last Summer (2009) has been the only time in my ownership that the car has failed its annual MoT at first attempt. Many items failed – simply through lack of regular use – that have either seized up (brakes) or rusted (exhaust). The seat belt inertia mechanisms (both passenger and drivers) failed and once these have gone they cannot be repaired. I purchased some replacements from BMW in an attempt to preserve originality, but frankly whilst they are well built they would look more at home in a late 1980's car. Not wishing to be defeated I sent them away to a seat belt restorers (Quickfit SBS Ltd www.quickfitsbs.com) for them to rebuild a more appropriately looking yet functional set using the inertia mechanism and webbing from the new BMW parts and from the original belts, the old catches, lugs, brackets and the stem that comes out of the floor. An expensive approach, but I am much happier with the final result.

The original tyres, which I was once very proud of, perished last year (after some 34 years on the car) to beyond a safe state. After some searching and using Richard's advice again, Vintage Tyres in Beaulieu managed to find me some new Michelin 165 x 13 XAS – the make and pattern of tyre that was originally fitted. I have recently been using Gary at Autobahn Services in Rickmansworth (www.autobahnservices.co.uk, 01923 718 907), BMW specialist, who has carried out some fantastic work on the car last year in a methodical and sympathetic way; I would recommend him to anyone. It will be going back to Gary soon for a quick service and to fit an original, new (unused), old stock replacement round washer bottle!

The car is fun to drive if a tad slow. I love all the period features like the original 70’s snow chains, flask, first aid kit, replacement inflatable emergency windscreen and BMW wheel chocks.

In Spring its off to Matt Wakefield at Off Your Marks for some detailing – more of that next time.

Matthew Bugden Matthew.Bugden@ingeniousmedia.co.uk