E30 Zone

with the engine out i decided to sort the one bit of rust on my touring as i thought it would be the ideal time, little did i know it was worse than i thought so i decided to go the whole hog on it.

first i striped the paint and seem sealer back an removed all of the soft bits.
which reveiled this lovly gaping gash in the arch.




in order to get a good weld it is important to clean the area of as much rust as posible and all oil, paint and water its also a good idea to go looking for bits that are a bit too thin to work with at this point.
the weapon of choice for this is normaly the angle grinder, it is posible to use a wire brush or chisel though.
and this is the result.


The next job is to find some good metal to fabricate plates out of, for this i used some left over 1mm steel from the inner wing of the ka.


this has to be cleaned like the rest of the area has been and cut to size.


then its time to fire up the welder. (i will expand on this after dinner.)


the welds and general area need to be ground down and treated with a good corosion prevention. i know i could have ground the welds down a lot more and left it looking almost factory but i thought as it was out of sight and the strenght was more important than looks id leave it standing a little proud.


when the corosion prevention has dryed finish off with a nice coat of paint.

Nice work

Welding,,,,

'Rust converter' would of seen that right

Sorry to upstage.... but that's a baby sized hole


This is a hole.... This being the new jacking point and chassis rail on my Manta

Not upstaged at all,

That is standard repair work on vaux crap

True, but that hole is still a baby compared to what i've had to fix
And it's OPEL! not Vauxhall

That said, by plating over the arch instead of cutting the metal out and 'letting' the new patch in is gonna create a water trap, That'll rust out in 2-3 years and be a way bigger job

yep, which is why the inner bit of the arch is packed full of a tar like seam/under sealant to make it water tight again, it will hold it out for at least 5 years, use the stuff at work and its like coating the arch in road tar and rubber.

When I worked at Ren**lt we had some cracking spray on seam sealant/underbody protector, it was a 2 pack product, add the hardener and mix before spraying through a schutz gun, f**k me was it solid when dry!!

I got a bit of a collection going every time we had a delivery and gave my Mk 3 escort a much needed dose, did the whole underside of the floorpan and inner arches after stripping to bare metal and zinc primering.

I reckon it gave some extra rigidity in the chassis

good quality industrial body sealers are the tits.

i had similar rust issues on my M3, more to do with the inner wings , here whay i did

front off


battery tray out



dodgy chassis leg !!




new inner wings, bulk head repair, new scuttle, sill repair, new rear pannel, new front pannel, 1 new chassis legs, rebuild " jacking" points

abaout £4000 later i have a mint rust free straight shell !!


good work there mate,

Now thats just showing off

just curious, why did you salvage that m3 shell? it cant be financialy worth it?

Rust, it will be the end of us all. You can run but you can't hide.

Scruffymurphy wrote:Rust, it will be the end of us all. You can run but you can't hide.

dont worry, i have a mig and im not afraid to use it.

how the fuck did that cost you 4k kos? or are you paying someone else to do the work for you..?

HairyScreech wrote:just curious, why did you salvage that m3 shell? it cant be financialy worth it?

because i know what i have now. the shell is the basis of a fairly heavily modified car, and wont be an "original" s14 powered m3
but its is built with original parts, stronger and near perfect .

i knew it had a few probs, and it didnt require for all that to be choped off and replaced. some people sudjedted i buy a new shell or a good one but they are few and far between and will cost £3000 for a decent one, BUT i'd still find rust on it, you will with any e30.

the other idea sudgested to me was to buy a complete car, sell of engine and interior and use that, but again if pulled apart you'd find issues like rust, previous accident damage unless you pay top money for and origial un molested car, so financially this was my best option

i know its rust free, straight, and strong now it been stitch welded. the value of the shell now, well i dont think i've lost a penny if i choose to sell it as is, fully documented and photgraphed re build and recipts for genuine bmw parts to prove.

i have been made one offer of £4000 for the panel shell with cage installed ( no suspension ) but its not for sale unless i go made and knock the project on the head, but 3 years into it i'm not going to stop now.

CraigG wrote:how the **** did that cost you 4k kos? or are you paying someone else to do the work for you..?

you got the price of an inner wing recently for an e30 M3 ?? £200, i had 2 of them, front pannels £250 i think, rear pannel , £150, 2 new wings, new nut clips etc parts came to about £1500 i think, not got all invoices to hand, but EVERYTHING ing new from scuttle forward
then there is labour ( i only wish i was that skilled to do it myself )
painting the enginbay and underside and into tranny tunnel
paints primer, seam sealer tot up as well.
jig braket hire

i got involved with the work but cant take credit fot it all .

not wanting to hijack this thred, but have a look here, this is my project and rebuild

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... c&start=50

Kos thats some top work there hats off to ya

He's put FORD tin in his E30.

yep and i put more ford that you bargained for in my ford.





yep for being a naughty boy.

HairyScreech wrote:

yep and i put more ford that you bargained for in my ford.





yep for being a naughty boy.

i think one of your engine mounts has snapped/gone awol

Is that a shopping trolly your attempting to mechanically propel?

Jhonno wrote:i think one of your engine mounts has snapped/gone awol

no my gearbox has gone on sabatical to the boot.

DanThe wrote: Is that a shopping trolly your attempting to mechanically propel? Eek

indeed it is, 150bhp in 870kg, and sweet innocent looks.