Skipunda's Tech 1 - update

[Cloud]

I've been silently following this thread. Good to see you're still persevering. It'll be worth is when it's done.

[j555boy]

where are you in cornwall? i am in st.ives!

i have just completed my tech 1 sport have a look at the thread below:

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... highlight=

keep up the hard work!

[skipunda]

Hi all,

Was a bitterly cold week so (again) much preparation work done i.e. thinner cutting discs bought, better welding gas, new saw blades, that sort of thing.

Did however finally get round to putting some nice new oil in the Diff, courtesy of Opie Oils


Panels arrived.


Got out there with a can of primer and marked out areas which need attention ASAP. First being inner arches and small section of the boot seal (which was letting the water in in the first place)

First off, rip that interior out and create wood templates to sit in place of thel newly exposed areas.



Slot in either side using some scissor clamps...


I wasn't happy with cutting the entire rear quarter out because of the many hours work required in perfecting the join at the piller. It would be difficult to get a proper factory finish.

So, knowing that much of the rear needed at least some attention I thought i'd replace the inner arch first, retain the top part of the OEM outer arch and then use it's lip as the original factory guide for all the other work.

Mark the point at which the inner inner and inner outer meet, cut a neat line as close to this as possible and then make some slits in arch lip. With a set of pliers you can pull these back which snaps off most of the inner arch lip. Clean sections require tin snips.



Then out it comes

Repeat for onside arch - a little bit more effort needed

Grind back to the inner inner and test fit using the new section. Need to clean up the area before a plug welding. Apologies for the pic quality



Finally, got the white primer out to mark next areas of attention..

During the week will be tackling both lower rear sections, picking up and fitting a new battery box and preparing both sills.

In the meantime I'm in a thoroughly good mood now it's moving along!

[The_Diddler]

keep it coming, love these threads, great work so far

[scottidog]

Are you doing this outside?

[whipsey]

Are you doing this outside?

unless he lives in centre parcs i'd say yes

[zinderz]

Nice work Skipunda, good to see another tech 1 being saved. Unfortunately I had one that was passed saving, still got the shell and loads of bits if you need anything. Not sure where abouts in Cornwal you are but if you need helping out mate, give us a shout.

Keep it up

[skipunda]

Hi all,
Because it's terrible weather out today and i've been working my socks off in my day job, not to mention being bitter my alpina 16"s are still sitting in Kent somwhere, here's a small update...

Managed to source another location for the car over last couple of weeks


So, inner sill from under the Tech1 skirt. It just wasn't nice.


Close up


Revealing a little tin worm:


Errm, i'll leave that for now...

Treat heat shields and most brackets and fixings underneath.


Back to the inner sill.


Looks a lot better once the bottom section has all been replaced. Outer sill still a bit of rust need cutting away, though at least the inner now has a decent amount of etch primer, seam sealer, hammerite and some white primer paint so I can easily pick out any problems if they ever develop. Waxoil clear sprayed inside also. It would be a fire risk to weld the outer sill so this is on hold for now.



Onto the lower rear


Has been nicely finished since this was taken:


Inner arch prepared. Will need to plug weld somewhere along the line so some 8mm holes should suffice


Welded where it was easily accessible, but the top part of the inner arch will needed a smaller tool. One of those 'bendable' drills - you know what I mean - and some pop rivets did the job really well.


Little bit of welding the two together, though not really needed, hammerite, seam sealer, then paint over the seam sealer.


Rough cut out of the Beavers panel's Outer arch. Not a very good fit so this was cut right down following the lines of the existing arch nicely.


Don't know how the pro's do this but I found that mating the rough (but smoothed) panel over the existing arch and spray some primer from the inside we're left with a nice guide to work from which saves time and money.
Also, drill some more 8mm holes for plugging from the bottom, use a flippy on the edges and finally wire brush to get shot of the surface paint


It might sound trivial but a bit of effort into nice edges as well didn't go a miss.


Done. Not going to lie this took me a long time to get mm perfect.


The panel on the car ready for welding on


And that's where I am with it. Thanks for reading

[Blitz]

Excellent work. Seeing rust banished to another dimension brings me joy.

[ricey46]

Good work chief keep it up

[robbo86]

not to mention being bitter my alpina 16"s are still sitting in Kent somwhere

Thats odd, my Hartge's are still sitting on Cotty's car!

[E30Gheko]

That's looking very good Skip!

[/// KAMI]

im confused surely if you got it free then spend money on it and get it sorted.....im sure it will cost less then buying another shell and changing everything and even tho u might have a clean shell saying sport on the logbook is important when it comes to talking about prices and selling and a good tech 1 is a nice car to keep........

[skipunda]

Arch now halfway there. Needs a bit more work to ensure the light reflects off cleanly. Minimal distortion of the surrounding work area though which is a plus


Also begin matching up the replacement lower rear corner section. And no i'm not using the drill in that condition!


Rather expensive bit of kit for the small section I need out of it, but theres no way i'm making one up.


Outer sill cut to size plus a nice, rust free front wing. nice



And another complete outer sill and lower rear corner still in packaging. Lets hope this one isn't bent like the last was. That's my only critisism of beavers auto panels.


slow but steady progress

[jamie323i]

Love a good resto thread,good work there skip!

Keep it up!

[FEP]

Skipunda,

You did say at the start of this thread that you can't weld didn't you?

Are you just learning as you go?

You seem to be making a good fist of it.

[skipunda]

Ta to those that have given a thumbs up for whats going on here! Really nice.

im confused surely if you got it free then spend money on it and get it sorted.....im sure it will cost less then buying another shell and changing everything and even tho u might have a clean shell saying sport on the logbook is important when it comes to talking about prices and selling and a good tech 1 is a nice car to keep........

Yes, this is the only reason i'm using the same shell

Skipunda,

You did say at the start of this thread that you can't weld didn't you?

Are you just learning as you go?

You seem to be making a good fist of it.

In short, yes, i'm learning as I go. The project is my first step into anything automotive and is basically born out of the fact I dislike paying over the odds for anything to do with my car, which is why I've bought throwaway cars in the past. So for a change in the right direction i'm going to take some pride in my daily drive and if I want to make lots of noise and act like a prat the ability is there also.

anyway..

So, the arch was getting to me today. Not something to be rushed. Nipped to the stores though to pick up some new flappy discs grade 80 and some beer and sat down with it for the afternoon:

Using a bit of wood and clamp to gently pull the arch in towards the inner arch at each lower corner.


Grind off the plug welds


Happy with the initial result, roughing up the surfaces of the inner arch


This is the almost finished article. Filler hasn't been applied as yet though thankfully it hardly needs any. Might wait for some daylight to fall on it before attempting this.

[mongoose]

Nice one feller stuff of hero's this thread

[skipunda]

Had a day off today so decided to tackle something on the car, being the lower rear corner...

No harm showing this photo again


The sort of thing aiming for


My attempt, cutting a pattern panel down of course. Wheel arch has already been done so we don't need that part of it.


Not the best welding but whats been done has penetrated well. You can just make out the notch where the two join. That'l go tomorrow along with a bit of filler


Semi-finished section


thanks

[Simon13]

theres no way you've just picked up the welding and bodywork like that in a few months!

Going very well i see though

[D89]

Great work skip, I'm sure when you're finished it will be worth it. For not knowing how to do weilding etc, you're doing a really good job. Keep it up

[oi_oi_savaloy]

Very, very impressed with this. I wouldn't know the first thing about starting what you're doing at the moment - hats off sir.

[skipunda]

Hi again, many thanks for your comments

anyway,

A few weeks ago I completed the inner sill. It used to look like this:


So cut it out, put some new metal in, coated it a few times and then a quick blast with some white primer. This was to ensure that if the job wasn't good enough any deterioating would stick out easily against the white paint.

Alas, nothing at all so sanded back with some grade 80 and gave it a bit of hammerite.


I used some clear coat waxoil from inside the shell, black for inside the sill.


Did the wheel arch while I was at it...


So then had to make a replacement outer sill. Besides the part covered by the skirt the rest had to look 100%.
*1* This is why an L-shape was made so as to follow the curve of the skin.
*2*cross member bracket just wouldn't come off and didn't have time to order in a new bracket so instead cut a section mm accurate around it.
*3*almost finished piece
*4*tape holding not doing a good job of holding it up, otherwise there wouldn't be any gaps



It used to look like this by the way:




Too windy to weld above section today so got stuck in to the door seal, using a flat scewdriver to prise up the plastic 'retainer' runner.




Doesn't look bad from the outset, might get away with this...




Further prodding with said screwdriver revealed the next job. sigh



Thanks for reading.

[E30Gheko]

Heroic work skip! Have you really just learned to weld n stuff or were u having us all on?

[ricey46]

Looking good Skip, glad someone's getting on with their body work

[FEP]

I'm can quite believe that Skip's learning as he goes - not to difficult if you take things slowly. My grandma had a brain tumour and I got rid of it for her with a quick bit of neurosurgery - it's all on the internet.

[E30Gheko]

I'm can quite believe that Skip's learning as he goes - not to difficult if you take things slowly. My grandma had a brain tumour and I got rid of it for her with a quick bit of neurosurgery - it's all on the internet.

[skipunda]

Heroic work skip! Have you really just learned to weld n stuff or were u having us all on?

Thanks, E30Gheko.
And i've never touched anything automotive prior to joining this forum. Have saved quite a library of threads tackling a range of issues, from ABS to ARB's. So essentially i've learnt it all from here.

skip

edit - just to point out the obvious, I have to put a heck of a lot more effort in than, say someone with more technical insight to achieve the same kind of result. just bare that in mind when you start your own.

[Bump]

Yeah this forum is incredibly useful for all sorts of advice.

I remember when I restored my first car, a beetle about 20 years ago, I did the welding on that, learning as I went along and it looked aboslutely 100% nothing like this - very impressive and a great read!

[bmw-mad]

great work nice to see another tech 1 being saved

keep up the good work

[E30Gheko]

Heroic work skip! Have you really just learned to weld n stuff or were u having us all on?

Thanks, E30Gheko.
And i've never touched anything automotive prior to joining this forum. Have saved quite a library of threads tackling a range of issues, from ABS to ARB's. So essentially i've learnt it all from here.

skip

U've inspired me then! I'm going to buy myself a welder and have a go on the 318! It's got some holes to sort but thankfully the rust isn't nearly as extensive as it is on ur tech1.

[skipunda]

Haven't been able to use any power tools for the last few days so smallest of small updates.

Basically took a lot of things apart, namely opening up the area around the jacking points, removing front bumper, wings, that sort of thing.


Finally took the carpet out and assessed exactly whats what.


----------------------------------------------------------------
Did a bit of digging today to see the reason why water was getting at the jacking points and found it was coming from rust build up in this hole


and larger view


Water runs from the right of the picture and attacks the metal surrounding the rubber gromit under the fuse box.


So after a few years it looks like this


So it can either go out through the floor (which is it's own problem) or out through the inner arch

[mattyb]

exelent thread mate, really enjoy reading these threads. keep up the good work.

[nickso]

ouch thats going to be difficult to repair. i just got away with it on mine but another year or so and it could have looked similar.

you will probably need to remove the loom now as the fuse box wont move far enough away to get good access.

[A1BMW325iSport]

Fantastic work here, its really taking shape