And so it begins, i've discovered some rust..........

[TouringMatt]

Taking advantage of using wifey's car whilst she's on maternity leave to take the Touring off the road for few weeks to do some jobs, new engine and gearbox mounts, E46 rack, and swap the trailing arms over for ones that i've been refurbing.

Got the rear on stands, took the wheels off and had a quick scan of the arches (looked fine!), two hours later i've numerous patches rust under underseal to sort, and three awkward patches on the inner arches to weld, and i've not finished inspecting yet

[Duke137]

[Simon13]

its about being pro active now! regular inspections are a must on the bodywork if your gonna use the e30 all year round

[harry_p]

Get the front corners of the carpet up dude, even if it looks solid underneath. Speaker covers and door strips ( and remove throttle pedal drivers side) should give enough room to have a good look.

[TouringMatt]

Get the front corners of the carpet up dude, even if it looks solid underneath. Speaker covers and door strips ( and remove throttle pedal drivers side) should give enough room to have a good look.

Will do

Stripped the interior out the back today, and the fuel vent lines to the tank - found some more holes, the usual suspects behind the filler assy



Passenger side, behind the shock



Gave the arches a clean with G101 + jetwash, got all the muck off. Cutting time tomorrow!

[daimlerman]

I hope you have time whilst your wife is on maternity leave to sort it all out...

Or you will be teaching your young 'un the magic art of welding old cars!

[TouringMatt]

Update, prep work

Knew this was there



Behind the bracket at the top of the arch, thought it was a tiny hole!



Back of the arch, again large hole was where a bracket was, hole on the right side too, again behind a bracket



And this is where my evening ended, my trusty, 14 year old, Blackspur, £8.99 angle grinder called time and siezed. Booooooooo



Cut the brackets off and will have a go at remaking them, best way i could find to clean up the metal behind them.

Cheers!

[Simon13]

if it makes you feel any better they ALL rust in these places. Where all the brackets are spot welded on are the favourites though

[Andyboy]

Nice work there. Regular waxoyling and keeping clean means the car will last indefinitely.

[Jozi]

Does indeed look like what I patched up today!

[capri_rob]

Mine had gone in exactly the same places - back of the arch and bracket at the top

[TouringMatt]

Patch-tastic, no pic of it installed as my welding was functional, but messy. Could use excuses, but a poor workman etc.....

It is the first time i've welded panels for yeeeeeeeeeeeears tho

[sweep]

If you can weld matt and have mecanical skills your car is always repairable.

[Jozi]

Thats a neat looking repair patch! 1st attempt?

[TouringMatt]

Thats a neat looking repair patch! 1st attempt?

Cheers, it was Lots of tapping and reforming and grinding, but got there in the end

Got the drivers side arch all welded up today, did the rear stress points by the lights, ran out of wire on the pass side arch

Decided to take the sill cover offs, drivers side not bad, passenger side is - this it the rear jacking point, hows it best to deal with this?

[Jozi]

I cut the all of my cills with the idea that I'm not ever going to have a jack lifting it there, chassis legs or rear beam can do that job.

Inside it there's a bracket that is welded to the inside of the arch, it bends down and the bracket sits on it.

[TouringMatt]

I think i'll end up doing similar, turned out to be more rot than i thought so ended up doing a rather large cut!



The fun never ends

[Jozi]

I had to do exactly the same on both sides of my sills. The front jacking points had rot coming into the inside of the sill as well. Must be common spots anyway

[TouringMatt]

Bit of an update, both sills done, drivers one wasnt toooooo bad, but cut out the rot and sorted it anyway, jacking point hadnt actually gone, doesnt help that some muppet at some point has used a trolley jack and crushed the metalwork



Attacked the underside of the boot with a rotary wire bit, (shitty job lying on yer back ) shocking how much of the original underseal has cracked/lifted/rusted.

Rear cubbys which i thought were ok, turned out not to be, esp the passenger side again.

Drivers, small repair.





Passenger, muchos panel making.













Wont win any prizes for asthetics but a tad more solid than what was there.

Stress cracks all welded up and sprayed, not bad for a rattle can.



Hopefully get it seam and undersealed Sunday, its been cracking day today, despite the forecast, but im on daddy daycare duty

[Jozi]

Did you cut the stress cracks and weld them up then grind them down smooth? All looking very good anyway

[capri_rob]

Epic work matt.

Some mechanic/trye fitter/tw@t at some point has crushed all the jacking points on mine too but thankfully they're still solid and have now had 2 thick coats of black smoothrite and about 6 coats of waxoyl as there the only exposed bits once the skirts are back on.

[TouringMatt]

Yep, as mentioned in your thread

Ground it with a dremmel bit until the metal was thin, then knocked the split in with a screwdriver, rather than grind it too thin. Used some 0.6 wire and managed not to blow through.
Grind and re-spot, re-grind and bit of filler and its come out better than i thought!

Be interesting to see if it lasts

[Jozi]

My thread? Haven't been in there in a week I'm waiting on Dremmel grinding stones before I do mine, one of the last things left to do for me

[TouringMatt]

My thread?

Yep, in fact both your and Robs threads have been a good source of help and inspiration

[Jozi]

I can pretty much say the same about the work your doing being a inspiration. I was going to leave mine alone for a few weeks (working in Dublin, only home for the weekend) but decided to go out and do something after my previous post

[DanThe]

I cut the all of my cills with the idea that I'm not ever going to have a jack lifting it there, chassis legs or rear beam can do that job.

Inside it there's a bracket that is welded to the inside of the arch, it bends down and the bracket sits on it.

Just a warning for jacking off the rear beam, its possible to lift the beam off the bushes by doing this if they have been recently fitted. If you need to lift at the side use the long vertical stud/nut that holds the beam, or lift off the diff.

Good job Matt, nice to see them being done properly

[Jozi]

Wasn't aware of being able to lift the beam of the bush I need to get a proper trolley jack, mines a bit short for getting it under the diff.

[TouringMatt]

One step forward, two back

Seams sealed, rust treated and POR'd, underside done with Dinitrol, move inside, remember seeing the seat belt mounts looked a bit suspect, just thought it was surface scabby tho as the underside didnt seem bad.........





How does the rear part of the touring seat come out?

[Jozi]

Mine had gone in the same way as your at the seat belts! Know how you feel about 2 steps back and 1 forward, there is an end though it though thankfully

Unfortunately can't help with the rear seat backremoval, not done it on my touring yet.

[TouringMatt]

Did a bit of zone searching and......

Managed to work it out now
Fold the 2 halves down flat and there is a black rail running the length of the 2 halves at the bottom. At either end there is a spring bar thing that you just lever out slightly and then the whole thing just lifts straight upwards as there are hooks at either end and in the middle.

I'll give it a try tomorrow

[TouringMatt]

Seat came out as described, jam a screwdriver in the rail, get the seat upright but not latched, and yank - easy peasy

Welding; job jobbed, managed to burn my feckin hair with a stray ball of weld tho, man does it stink!



Starting to refit the fuel pipes etc tomorrow, gonna be fun trying to work out where i cut the brackets off

Found some rust on the scuttle, cant see any behind the fusebox, but have round where the bonnet cable exits

[Dezzy]

Some really good work there

[B7]

Thats some strong looking welding right there. You could make a living out of it!



If you were mad that is!

Seriously. good work!

[mercdriver]

Tough project on your hands, you are making good progress with it though...

@ DanThe: I always jack it on the diff too, just seemed a bit more logical when it came to lowering the rear. Heard rumours about beam bushes too

@Capri_Rob: Mechanic/tyre boy/tw@t love it!

[TouringMatt]

Got some bits refitted today, freshly painted diff cover and a new Z3M bush

As for the colour, i had about 3 cans of it spare, and im running out of money for this car!