Jozi's m52 touring - Rebuilding has started

[TouringMatt]

looks like a nice finish

[Dezzy]

Finish does look good. Are you doing the outside paint work as well?

[DanThe]

Looks a bit 'doom blue'
Mauritius for the outside?

[Sanchez]

thats a nice shine or is it still wet?

Is that your compressor in the last pic? Does seam a little small but your doing as great job with it. Keep up the good work.

[Jozi]

We'll see tomorrow what it really looks like when it's hardened out a bit, it's fine for the inside though. Won't be trying the exterior, don't think I'm good enough at this spraying. Not yet decided on what colour to go for, I sprayed 4 blue shades onto the brothers mini, 2 of them weren't that nice, the other 2 I'm not decided on. Have some paint left over which I might try on a door but with some better prep. Mauritius blue if I don't find anything else!

---edit---

Not wet but still tacky and not long after spraying (20mins or so) the sunroof panel was done first and much less tacky when i took the pics.

[Jozi]

Decided I wanted some reinforced ARB brackets



Only instead of paying 100-125 dollars for them I made my own, few hrs with a rule, grinder and welder and I had this:

Still needs holes drilled.

Which go here on the car:



Just a pilot hole drilled, need to measure before drilling the 2nd hole and opening all holes up a little more.

This is where the hole is inside the boot


Close on that one, not so close on the other one:


I guess the 2/4dr's don't have that stud there? I'll have to either leave them of or make up something. All they do it hold down a plastic cover which goes over the box-section and in turn the boot floor covers it so you won't even see it. My old touring hasn't even got anything on the studs holding the plastic down.

[Jozi]

Quick pic of how she looks now


Any bare metal and welded area's cleaned from (surface rust in some places) crappy paint that was painted and covered with deox-gel and cling film so it doesn't harden out to much.

Just the front arches to do, got started on cleaning some old waxoil, what dirty stuff to remove Then some old rust studs to cut of and weld on new ones here and there and then paint + underseal.

[tomislav]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

That is a great picture, and a monumentally dedicated rebuild! Well done that man!

[Jozi]

Hehe, thanks. Thats what I do be looking at every time I open the garage door. Hopefully it's all good for paint this time next month

[Jozi]

Last arch done, wasn't as bad as I thought it would be



Just this left to tidy up!


Going to cut old rusty studs tomorrow and weld on some new ones and put on some rivnuts here and there. Hope to start painting all underneat next week and move to the engine bay then :dance:

[Dezzy]

You don't cut any corners do you?!

Again I am impressed by your persistence!

[Nobby_N]

I cant believe some peoples dedication to restoration! Well done mate and you will have a fine chariot soon that most of us losers can dream of!

[Jozi]

Thanks guys.

You don't cut any corners do you?!

It does be tempting! Figure I'll do it right once, although next time I'd think of getting the shell dipped (if it were something more special)

[Rtaylor2208]

First I have ever seen the work your doing and all I can say is: fook me your keen!!!!!!!

I would love to have the skill and bottle tot do something like this.

Have you had any moments yet where you come across a part you have no idea where it came from?

[Jozi]

Not yet but I've not started pulling the interior out of the donor or started on the engine conversion. There's always real oem and tutorials to figure things out.

[Jozi]

Past week must have been a bit slow I only remember warping a wing quite badly And getting a few bits ready for powdercoating

Reinforced ARB pickup point on trailing arms


Re-located the front ARB pickup point to the strut. Wasn't to happy with the welding so doubled up and it' look really bad so spent some time grinding them back today. I may still grind them back even further and get the re-welded when it goes for coating.


Here's how it more or less would look on the car





And finally reinforced the front ARB mount on the front subframe


I need to strip down the trailing arms and 2 half shafts and all is ready for coating.

[capri_rob]

Like the custom droplinks

Good idea to re-weld the ARB mounts on the subframe too - I've had one let go

[Rav335uk]

You didn't just butcher the BC coilover struts

[Jozi]

You didn't just butcher the BC coilover struts

Don't they look better now If it doesn't work well at least I can still revert to the wishbone pickup point. All will be coated either this week or after the shell gets painted. The drop links were bought like that, came with 2 lengths of threaded bar, thats the shortest one there. Got them from here think their of a vw or opel of some sort

I wasn't going to do the arb mount but after test fitting the lot I can see how they could bend, it's a prick of a job to get the bush on![/url]

[Jhonno]

Nice work! Keep it up..

[Jozi]

Powdercoating




--- edit ---

Few pics, had a few other smaller bits done also and the fuel filler pipe









Pretty happy with it, bit of pitting here and there that seems more obvious after sandblasting/chemical cleaning than previously.

[Jozi]

Slow progress shot of the last 3 afternoons painstakingly clearing dried out deox-gel from the body and coating it with zinc primer



Getting there slowly! Half the top arch is done, bottom one got another coat of gel earlier, few bits to do around the battery tray when I flip the car round, then it's pretty much chassis legs forward that need doing.

[Jos]

Looking good mate, not long till parts start going back on! Mind you there's nothing left for you to take off at this stage

[Jozi]

Hehe, thats the only thing I can do really. Getting that stuff of is slow going and no fun at all! I need to find me a new painter as well

[Rav335uk]

Good on ya Brendan.
Finished by next week then

[Jozi]

Good on ya Brendan.
Finished by next week then

Ah yeah, not a bother

[DanThe]

Soon be time to paint the underside

[Jozi]

Soon be time to paint the underside

Would be wrong not to paint it wouldn't it! I'm just going to do it all black though.

Spoke with a painter at length today, he'll have the arches painted for me when he does the paint job. If I give him the work, he's expensive unfortunately but promises a concourse finish (his words, not mine).

[Tan91]

This is the correct dedication! Without a doubt. Lucky with the space good to see its being utilized well!

Nice Project mate.

[Jozi]

Thanks Tanveer, space utilized well depends on who you ask, me or my mother :p

Very slowly tipping away at the underside, finally all done!


Front Arches, chassis legs and engine bay left to do. All the brown stuff is caked on deox gel which is a pain to get of cause it dried out and went hard.

Have been calling around and chatting to a few painters the last few weeks, have 2 guys that I think will deliver a paint job I'll be happy with. Going to have a look at some of their work tomorrow and probably decide then who to go with.

[Tan91]

Awesomeness!

[Jozi]

Little bit done today, got the front arch cleaned up and re-applied some deox gel, I should have this primered Monday. Also realised I already did the other front arch so next up the engine bay.

Decided to mock up my intake system and see what will/won't work, with all silicone hoses, alloy pipe and my cardboard cone filter this is what I roughly get




Which doesn't really work in either case. The cone will be enclosed in a heatshield that I have yet to make up, just need to figure out how/where to mount the cone so it doesn't hit the lights or body work and isn't to close to the AFM.

[DanThe]

Cone filter?

Get an E36 airbox in there mate, much more effective, ive just got one dropped in my track car at last, there is loads of room to make a bigger intake behind the headlights

[Jozi]

I have a e36 box but it won't fit cause of the rad pipe


You can see there the rad is wider than a normal one because there's no expansion tank.

I'd run with the e36 box but it's just not going to fit, I'll be making up a good heatshield for the cone and maybe duct some air into it from the valance to keep it cool.

[DanThe]

I got mine to fit with the same rad (S50) mate, will get you a couple of pics in the next few days but generally I just made the inlet hose shorter