Home » Member BMWs » 2002 & Vintage Member BMWs » James & Deisha Carsner
Name: James & Deisha Carsner
CCA Member: 303419
E-mail: deisha.carsner@verizon.net
Address: Everett, WA
Profession: Naval Officer & Homemaker
Car's Name: "Gottfried"
My desire for a bimmer to call my own began in 1988 (6th grade) when I put together a model of a 3-series. 4 years later and after totalling my mother's '83 Camaro Berlinetta, we purchased a 1980 733i. Unfortunately, my step-father did so "sight unseen" and sent my mother, who had no clue of cars let alone bimmers, to complete the final inspection and hand over the cashier's check. Let's just say, I am forever skeptical of California cars that were only owned once/twice by a little old lady that kept it garaged. However, the mileage reflected the story, only 68K on a twelve year old car. The car had a heinous, rippled, bubbling, purple tint job on 3/4 of the windows (passenger rear was missing tint.) Whomever sold us the car did a great job of making the leather seats look new by rubbing some black shoe polish in the cracks, which then stained my stepfather's khakis during his test drive. There were more problems to come, and more money to flow to keep the car running. Overall it was a safe car and was traded in when my sister started driving.
My senior year (1994) I was blessed to drive my step-father's restored 1976 3.0Si while the 733i was in the shop (Rolf's Import - Tacoma). What a fun car to learn how to drive a stick. At the end of my senior year I took a two year hiatus from driving, until it became unbearable to find rides to/from swim practice/meets during the summer months (getting up at 5:00 in Oly on a Saturday/Sunday morning to make the 7AM warm-up at Coleman pool). This began my Toyota period, as I have always been hooked on Toyota pickups and older 4Runners, currently my wife and I have an '88 Toyota 4Runner SR5 V-6/5spd.
Following graduation and promotion in rank in the Navy, and finding a wonderful, understanding, motorhead wife, I was finally in a position to find a bimmer.
On a Wednesday evening in January 2002, my wife and I were driving by a no-name car lot off North Military Highway in Norfolk, and I noticed a Maroon 1976 2002. We stopped and looked at it through the chain linked fence. As I had the next day off, I made plans to go in and inspect/test drive it in the morning. It was in okay condition; the speedometer wasn't working and it idled a little rougher than it should have but the interior was in good condition. I figured I could fix most mechanical problems and attach the speedometer cable. The price was $3200, so I went home and waited for my wife to come home so we could test drive the car together. Our test drive came on Saturday. This time the sales personnel would not let us drive; only ride with a guy that could not drive a stick and the speedometer cable was still disconnected. We were told we couldn't drive the car because we may not know how to drive a stick. We rode, she was not impressed. On her own, my wife had spent a lot of time researching the 2002, the years and the different models offered, and finally searching for any 2002tii in the area on the market. There was one for sale by a private party. We promptly called on it and arranged for a test drive on Sunday, the price was $1600 over the price of the other. The test drive in the tii was outstanding, the car was responsive and solid, but the price difference caused us to waiver. Later that day we returned to the used car lot for one last test drive. We were jerked around by the owner of the lot. He told us we were not serious in the car and a few other expletives. After my wife told the owner off, he came running after us as we drove away and said he'd take $2000 for the car. We went home to make an offer on the tii. Schedule conflicts caused our delay of taking delivery of the tii until the following weekend 02/02/02 (this is completely a coincidence!)
Originally purchased in Nashville, TN with Polaris Silver paint job and blue interior. Nothing is known about the original owner. More recent previous owners once put 15"x10's" or 15"x8" wheels and rode 215s, but neglected to make any suspension mods or body mods. This resulted in the front fenders requiring replacement. Additionally, they made permanent mods to the interior. Namely, the seat rails were taken out in an effort to install a set of black Recaros (still in use,) vinyl paint to make the interior match the seats, and installed a "billion"-piece after-market carpet to cover the old and cut-up original wool-loop. Also, someone did a half-a**ed job of relocating the battery to the trunk (grounded battery to the sheet metal of the trunk!) and spacers were removed from the front springs. They did install Eibach springs. The car once had aftermarket driving lamps (indicated by an oxidation scar on bumper). Pertonics were installed sometime, probably when the engine was rebuilt in 1998. Additionally, Brown-Bread was used as sound insulation, and was covered later by the heavy tar paper insulation (great spots for OXIDATION on the East Coast.) During the rebuild, the car was painted its current color. Missing items at time of adoption (Feb '02) were the air-box (had a K&N free flow airfilter mounted directly to throttle-body intake), windscreen washer bottle and pump (wires left dangling) and Vapor recovery box.
Since rescuing GOTTFRIED from his last owner in Norfolk Virginia (OH THE HORROR!), we have begun to make our mark ($$$) upon him. Items include:
Future items to acquire are a new head-liner (none installed at this time), sun visors, dash, heavier duty radiator (out of a 320i), driving lights, new weather seals all around, etc...