We finally got the '69 '02 cleaned up a bit to see what we were really dealing with.

All in all we're quite pleased, though we do curse the fact that our #220 automatic had to spend so many years sitting outside under a clump of messy trees. No rust in the usual places and rust in unusual places. Call us a bunch of ungrateful whiners and you'd not be far off, but who can blame us for wishing we'd found a true unicorn?

So why the orange-headed stepchild comment in the title for this installment? No disrespect meant whatsoever; rather, we're as befuddled as ever with what to do with this car. Get it running and drive it? Nah, seems a shame to relegate such potential to beater status. Full restoration? It's certainly a good candidate, but do we have the time, resources, and stamina to undertake this sort of project right now? Flip it? Nothing wrong with making a few easy dollars, but this route has the stench of opportunity missed, if not abject failure.

While we stew on this a bit longer, please check out the new pics.

Yes, that tired old barn-find cliche is in order here. This 1969 2002 Automatic literally was discovered in the barn of a local woman. The Colorado Orange '02 was her late husband's car and hasn't moved under its own power for over 15 years.

This is the 220th 2002 Automatic ever built, and it has an astonishingly low and authenticated 27k on the odometer. As awesome as those two tidbits sound, the car was unfortunately not always stored in the barn in which we found it, and in fact was kept outside for many, many years. So yeah, there's rust. The good part is that the rust we see is not the typical debilitating 2002 type of rust, and as the picture indicate the structural components such as the front and rear shock towers are as clean as you'd expect from a car with so little mileage. Still, there's enough rust to cause us a bit of uncertainty as to what we want to do with the car.

If rather than 27k the car had 127k for mileage, we'd likely just get it running and roadworthy and simply enjoy it as a driver. We'd even feel okay about swapping in a 5-speed from an E21 and maybe even adding some fiberglass turbo-look fender flares... But the car does have low miles and is an historically significant example, so it really does deserve a complete restoration. The thing is, though, that a proper resto on a car like this could take a year or more and possibly cost more than any 1969 2002 Automatic is currently worth. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

We will clean up the car and look into what it will take to get it running again, so while we do that and try to make a decision on what the hell to do with it afterward, we've set up this blog so people can follow along. We're not sure how often we'll be updating it, or even if it will continue past this installment, but then again you never know - this blog could end up being the most intensive of all.