89 e30 m3

[Cypriotgeeza]

You've got to love a nice resto M3 thread!

What camera did you buy? wouldnt mind doing the same if i go shows and stuff and for £3 i wouldnt mind if it dropped off lol

[IainW]

Hi,

Great thread.

Where did you source the floor pan repair kit from?

Best,

adil

Floor repair sections were from here (i paid less than the 92 eur indicated)

http://www.fastnloud.at/products/repara ... denplatte/

You've got to love a nice resto M3 thread!

What camera did you buy? wouldnt mind doing the same if i go shows and stuff and for £3 i wouldnt mind if it dropped off lol

camera was one of these, its a genuine piece of shite, but then it does work for virtually no money

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hot-Mini-DV-C ... 5409687634

[Cypriotgeeza]

Cheers man!

[IainW]

Well, some more parts taken off (i am doing all the disassembly and removing most of the crap to help in keeping the costs reasonable (ish)

So off with the front legs, passenger door, underbody heatsheilds etc)

However, stuff is starting to get repaired, and properly too (hope this goes without saying)

So for those of you with short memory spans, spot the difference.

last update:


This update







Wherever a repair panel is not available from BMW it has to be made, however these are all properly made with the correct gauge steel and then butt welded with allthe correct shaping and swaging so one all the weld are ground down the repair should be completely invisible.

Nice to see things kicking along!

Still some time before its out setting fire to the hedge rows again though

[Jarno]

Drivers side wheel house, yep, could drain some pasta through that.

Although it doesn't look bad, I'm guessing this ^ is the most difficult to repair if done properly.

[IainW]

Drivers side wheel house, yep, could drain some pasta through that.

Although it doesn't look bad, I'm guessing this ^ is the most difficult to repair if done properly.

The complete scuttle panel is coming out so it should make the repair easier as ultimately its all part of the same issue.

Either way, i have come to far to start half arseing things now so it will be done properly.

[Jarno]

The complete scuttle panel is coming out so it should make the repair easier as ultimately its all part of the same issue.

Either way, i have come to far to start half arseing things now so it will be done properly.

I don't neccessarily even mean difficult, just a lot of work. That's a spot where many body parts come together. In my chassis I had that kind of damage. I had to cut underside of the fusebox, some of the firewall etc etc. open to get all rusted parts out.

edit.. I had to google "scuttle panel" .

[Mitchen]

Surely if you're stripping the motor down and welding, it's worth a respray no? A nice black would make this car perfect!

[Speedtouch]

i am not putting it back to red, i have considered it, but it wont be happening at this juncture for the following reasons:

1 i quite like the colour, as many people love it as hate it
2 the blue goes absolutely everywhere so to do it properly the car needs to be completely and utterly stripped then either blasted with soda or soft sand this it not a quick job, as in reality it will mean that every part will then be blasted poweder coated or replaced, as obviously i an not going to put brown running gear back on a fully repainted shell.
3 unlike pretty much all other e30 m3's i actually do drive this, it goes to the shops, work etc and as such creating some show and shine queen is not something that appeals to me. The mechanical components of this car are excellent and it drives very very well i want the body to be tidy and filler and rust free beyond that is showfag territory

To each their own, if he likes it as it is, then fair play to him.

[Mitchen]

Different strokes hey!

[IainW]

I find it curious the amount of interest / opinion on the colour, its never been particularly important to me.

People talk about a colour change being something that is a small step beyond the current state, its simply not, not even close. its blue in the entire engine bay, in the boot, under the boot carpet.

Every inch of the car excepting the cabin is santorini blue, to change the colour properly and to a standard i would be happy with would probably be an additional two months work and somewhere in the ballpark of an additional 5-7k.

I personally like the blue,and i may keep the car long enough to be buried in it, my interest lies in getting the shell to an excellent standard of integrity rather than changing the colour.

For the sake of clarity, its staying blue

[Mitchen]

lol my point being that I would only ever want to strip my car down once. So if I wasnt totally happy with the colour (which I've now found out you are) then I would get it all done at once, even if it meant keeping it off the road for however long while I save up and get it completed.

Nothing worse than putting a car back together again, knowing that one day you're going to have to take it all apart again.

But seeing as you have no need to do that as you like the colour, then good luck to ya.

[e30ftw]

Nice car, and nice colour, somthing a bit different. I bet there are quite a few factory coloured M3's not as structurally sound as this one will be when the work is finished.

[lyricalnut02]

excellent read, Horrible colour! Im sure it would be worth more in its original colour. Each to their own I guess.

[IainW]

excellent read, Horrible colour! Im sure it would be worth more in its original colour. Each to their own I guess.

Don't fret, after reading all the comments i have decided to repaint it, pink and then airbrush a unicorn with a giant wang on the side.

[pacerpete]

Who cares what colour the patched up turd is , I want more rust / gape / bodge pics !

[IainW]

once we take the cutting wheel to the floorpan there will be no shortage of gape, thats for sure.

[IainW]

So it was time to tackle the really grotty bit, the passenger footwell. All the other ropy area's pale into insignificance in comparison to this bodged up rotten pile of patchwork. As such there was only one way to make this right, chop the fcukers out.

So







Obviously lots more to get axed, and a complete new genuine battery tray section to go in also.

In other news, some parts:

Ran a tap through all the mountings to get a feel for the size of my erect flap



Genuine evo chin



Started work on getting the airbox nailed, i have a spare set of s14 throttles to mock up on, so the flange will be marked up in engineers blue to get the port matching right, at the moment some of the ports are slightly occluded.




For now, that is all.

[blclar]

Brilliant thread!

Will be watching! Loving the US Spec front bumper...

[Automaton]

That's in worse shape than my '86 chromie.

Hey that's my line

But a great thread.

[KIRIEIW]

Nice project you have here! I wasn't expecting any major rust repair though from the first couple pics of when you bought it!

[IainW]

Nice project you have here! I wasn't expecting any major rust repair though from the first couple pics of when you bought it!

Neither was i frankly, essentially it has had some really bad repair work in the passenger footwell that has never been properly sealed, this has made matters far far worse than they would have otherwise been.

The drivers side will need some attention but nothing even close to the amount of remediation seen on the passenger side.

Plenty of progress so will pop up some pictures shortly.

[IainW]

So all the passenger side is buttoned up, chasing the rust has just gone on and on which has ended up with most of the passenger footwell being fabricated.

Most of the plates are edge to edge welded so once the welds are ground down it will be a seamless repair.







Complete new battery tray going in.



All rot is gone leading to having to make us some additional repair sections, again these will be ground down for a seamless finish.



bit more to be done on the outside to get the correct shape and finish a few seam welds before grinding them down.



Just to give a bit of an idea on the welding done

[Speedtouch]

Welding looks very neat.

[glenn]

yeh, nice welding there.

[initial_g]

Blimey thats got some rot! Still looks like its being repaired to a very good standard good stuff! And keep that blue its stunning!

[appletree]

That's some of the best welding I've seen on car panels for a ling time!

[Sanchez]

That's some of the best welding I've seen on car panels for a ling time!

Definitely true there. Beautiful welds, almost a shame to grind them down.

[M3SAM]

STOP STOP IM HAVING FLASH BACKS AND COLD SWEATS!!!!
Seriously fella good work going on been there done it got the t-shirt, armbands, the lot!!! It will be never ending now and yes as others have said the welder needs to stop showing off!

Ps. The robbing bastards AKA Bmw parts department are gonna love you.......

[IainW]

Still going on, Both footwells repaired completely, both sills repaired, scuttle cut out and bulkhead section behind repaired.

Ended up having to strip the loom out so that the lom bung area can also be repaired.

Still a few more bits to do but progress is progress eh?

Will get some pictures up when i get a moment.

[IainW]

Right, well, where to start again

Just keep on finding things, and the reality is that having come this far i am not going to leave anything undone in terms of rust.

So i have stripped out the complete loom, brake servo, pedal box, and all the hydraulic lines, both front arches have been scoured down to the metal (that was not even slightly fun, burning bitumen flting all over the place and pretty much smoked out Daves unit) for repair and will then be coated in Raptor Bed Liner with other impact area's getting a few coats of Gravitex.

The sills have been repaired, the floors on both sides ave been repaired, the bulkhead has been fixed all the inner wing sections have been repaired, new front bumper mounts.

Still to do, few more bits of welding, braze and weld the front scuttle grind down all the welds, seam sealer, abrasion protection, repair one of the wings, undercoat, paint, paint all the new bits and then i have to put the fucker back together (if i can still remember where all the bits go )

[OBDII]

Any updates. !!!!!

[Chi]

Ditto!!!!