Jozi's m52 touring - Rebuilding has started

[Jozi]

Small up date

No going back with that




Small patch




Got the strut stubs for the coilovers painted up, was going to rebuild them with brakes, discs and new bearing only I need to order a new bearing dust cap/cover.

[daimlerman]

You must have a very understanding mother/wife/girlfiend!

Top work,wish I could weld as neatly as you.

[Jozi]

Hehe, working on the girlfriend bit, parents can't wait to see this gone, my project is there 8+months and my brother had his mini there before that for quite while The welding takes practice, I still blow many holes though! Getting better at doing it in such a way that the visible side of the panel is a bit neater, little filler needed on the engine bay side after that patch and another.

[THEHOOD]

Top effort! Excellent thread

[Dezzy]

Keep plugging away mate.


I am all for saving these's turds but, You have gone above and beyond on this one


I can't wait to see it painted. Not as much as you though i bet

[Jozi]

I am all for saving these's turds but, You have gone above and beyond on this one


I can't wait to see it painted. Not as much as you though i bet

Tell me about it, I never thought it would have been this bad, which was why I decided to fix this over the blue 94 shell! It looked worse compared to this, sills, arches and quarter all had rust, underneat wasn't pretty either, I hate to think what else might have been lurking beneath all the underseal etc.

I can't wait for it to be painted and to drive it! Got a spin in a C2 2.7 during the week and then a M52 more door, C2 drove beautifully but the M52 felt noticeably quicker (4.1diff didnt help).


Got my main lights laminated with lamin-x after dinner, hit a snag when I was about to do the fogs

[Dezzy]

What box is on the 52?

[Jozi]

Not sure what he had, either the box from a 320 or a 325, it was drivable enough, even in first. I imagine if you floor it though that first would be incredibly short! I've a 3.64lsd for mine with a m42 box,, which should be ok.

[Dezzy]

Not sure what he had, either the box from a 320 or a 325, it was drivable enough, even in first. I imagine if you floor it though that first would be incredibly short! I've a 3.64lsd for mine with a m42 box,, which should be ok.

Should be spot on that mate.


Mine is a E36 M50 box with 3.15 LSD.

Your going to love the 40% LSD. One of the best mod's on my turd

[Jozi]

I'm going to love having an LSD! The other touring had a open diff, I've never experienced driving a car with a diff, another thing to look forward to! I was thinking I should have tried to get a 6 speed box, would have been nice but this will do me just fine I think

[magpie]

i'm schomkin some hid smileys in the near future and need the foggy's to match,so that lamin-x shizzel will do just fine for the job i think

have you a link to the site ?

good work btw

[Jozi]

Or get some dark foglights like above! http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... c&t=118300 info and detail for lamin-x discount

[magpie]

where do you get dark fogs from ?

[Jozi]

I'm not sure, one of my fogs was cracked so I got another from a breaker on e30owners, only when I was going to put the film on did I notice they are different. Either mine were after market or the one I got was.

[Jozi]

Got the front panel all fixed up and it fit's, just need to drill holes where ever I'm putting a rivnut (there's nearly 30, lil bit over kill?).

Decided I'd try a and get the whole front of the car ready for paint, started cleaning back the underseal on any brackets and scabby looking bits. I got a bot carried away then and cleared both front wheel arches from the underseal (and waxoil??), not a nice job, some of it was quite thick and still soft. Few area's with surface rust were also uncovered before to much damage was done :dance:

Passenger side:


Driver side, only bit of welding required here, have to finish the shock tower, weld on the bracket for the ABS sensor and punch the hole for the wires


Inside engine bay where I had to weld around the brake line bracket



Got another order in from BMW, mostly covers and brackets, few nuts & bolts I couldn't get locally, pipe for plumbing, aircon vent, under bonnet insulation and some other stuff like clips


With the last few bits in I got round to rebuilding the front legs, until I hit a snag

Front leg with coil over strut:


Disc backing plate on with new bearing dust cover/cap, the old one was in bits, I roughed it up a little and gave it some primer and high temp silver paint before fitting it on with a nice smear of grease on any surfaces that touch each other (same on the backing plate and everything else fitted)


I had already cleaned the bearing stub up with some wirewool and a scotch bright pad, smear of grease and the bearing slipped on with a little pushing and for anyone doing this don't forget to show the locking ring the chissel



Front disc on, cleaned up the little alan bolt before fitting it with a good dose of copper grease on the threads


I couldn't get new bolts for the calliper carriers and no intention of paying 7.50+ for new ones, angle grinder with wirewheel and some paint


This is where I gave up for the night when I hit a snag, anyone see the problem:

[DanThe]

Looks like the back plate needs some molestation?

[Jozi]

Looks like the back plate needs some molestation?

It will either get bent back or cut of. It used to fit though, unless the backing plate from a 316 is different?

[Kedge]

Would they be smaller? Guessing the calipers are smaller on a 316.

[DanThe]

Ive just looked at a few of my pics and I think that bit should be bent back in towards the car anyway

[Jozi]

Thanks Dan, I might just chop it of and paint the edge again. I always thought the callipers were the same up front for all E30's?

Have another problem the other side of the carrier with the dust cover


Same again, chop chop tomorrow...

[Simon13]

the pads are the same size just the caliper would be narrower on a 316 as they use solid discs but being a wagon its probably on the bigger vented setup

[Jozi]

Wasn't sure if it was vented from a 316, never had one. Thought maybe they were different but realoem says their the same accros the E30 range, maybe the bolt heads are bigger then.

[Jozi]

Not really a whole lot done today. I got both front legs pretty much rebuilt, just need bleed nipples and a bracket finishing to hold the ABS sensor to the struts, also cut bits of the backing plates so the don't foul the callipers any longer.



I did a bit of messing with the coilovers and wheel clearances, I need a small 3mm spacer for the wheels to clear the calliper. When I get the car dropped on all 4 I need to figure out do I need shorter springs or if all just about works as it looks close with the wheel and spring/locking collar.

Tomorrow back to the shell and get the rear driver side arch tidies up, or at least get started on it. Few touch ups on the front legs as well, scratched some paint of torquing down various nuts on the callipers

[Jozi]

I got a little lazy over the weekend not enough done really. Got the rear driver side arch cleaned up from seam sealer around any laps or welded area's. Have decided to stitch weld the seams in certain area's after a few people spoke to me about doing it.

Ignore the blue lines....


Dodgy bracket


Now not so dodgy, just need to weld the bracket up (make new bracket or use old one? It's pitted all round)



Not sure what to do here:


The whole area around the filler neck is pitted but only part of it has broken through after going over it with the wirewheel. I have no access what so ever to the back of it, additional bracing on the touring compared to the 2/4dr's (so I believe, never looked at it). I'm not sure if I can make up a repair piece of the same shape, cutting part of it out will also be tricky because I can't access it from within the car.

Another area I'm not sure wht to do with but only because I don't have any metal thats the same thickness as the shock tower (I think it's slightly thicker gauge steel)



What she looks like now

[Duke137]

Amazing stuff

[TouringMatt]

Exactly (one!) of the places i found mine gone today, except mine has gone through badly above and below that pipe.

[Jozi]

It think it's a common place for them to go. I'm not sure what it's like on my other touring, with the pipes in the way and 17yrs of dirt it's hard to tell what it's like, I did spot some paint behind them though I'm not sure about cutting it all out or just where the hole is?

[Jozi]

Small update again...

Wasn't look forward to repairing this


After some poking the pitted area near the tube opening also broke and so more was cut than I initially wanted to


Not quite the same as what was there but as close as I could manage


And the hole patched, pretty badly welded tbh, not sure why...


And thats that rear arch done except for removing some underseal so I can seam weld a bit here and there

The bracket for the fuel over flow and guard took me hrs to make today Weather was nice though

Bracket for the ABS sensors up front, still some underseal to remove before seam welding:


Thats it for now.

[TouringMatt]

Haha!! Virtually the same thing i did today, repair patches tomorrow!

Good repair patch, i may have to copy

[Jozi]

Did yours have a little ridge just before the pipe? I thought of trying to make it but decided I was to lazy to do so

[TouringMatt]

The metal was further gone than yours and just mainly crumbled away, its been a help seeing how you've made your patch

What do you reckon for when it goes back together, the pipe cover seems to be perfect for filling up with mud, did think of seam sealing across the top to stop it getting in?

[Jozi]

Not thought about it really to be honest. Do you mean the cover for the fuel filler pipe or the pipe that goes into the car?

Glad you got some inspiration from how I did mine, it seemed like the easiest way to do it, I don't think I could have done it from 1 piece. Not sure if it was just me, make sure the are around the pipe is good and clean, I found it didnt weld to well for some reason (some of it looked brazed?).

[TouringMatt]

Its the cover that goes over the braided vent, and the two plastic lines, goes behind the shock and into the bit you just welded.

Will look out for that when i weld it, there was quite a lot of rust down the neck of the pipe, used a mini grinding disc on a flexible dremmel thingy to reach down in there, hope i got it!

[Jozi]

Ok, I see what you mean now. Might not be a bad idea to seam seal over it or maybe a bead of silicone to seal it of?

I had a bit of surface rust in the pipe as well, all sorts of things went into it to get as much out as I could :p

[kman82]

Quality thread mate. subscribed