Jozi's m52 touring - Rebuilding has started

[Rav335uk]

Hurry up!!
You've been at this longer than I have

[Jozi]

I know, it's a disgrace! Hence my comment the other day you were horsing along with your engine.

[Rav335uk]

LOL
How much longer on yours??
Mine won't be ready befor Xmas

[Jozi]

Once I get the engine running and it's 100% I'll clean it a bit better, few brackets and things that need some paint and tidying. Half tempted to paint the engine but not sure yet. I've to strip down the whole car, fit an alarm, dye carpets, headlining and prob more I can't just think of before I put it all into the new shell. Which was meant to be finished in 2 weeks but thats never going to happen. I could probably finish it this side of xmas but I'm not gonna tax her for nov/dec cause I wont be driving her when they salt! If I get a job I applied for it's prob gonna take longer again.

[Rav335uk]

Not sure you getting a job is good for the car

But good luck.

[Jozi]

It will be great for the car, means I can buy more stuff I want and some that I actually need!

[Jozi]

Few hrs at it again today, got nearly all the plug plugged in and the ECU pulled in under the dash. Had to do a bit of a ghetto setup with the fuel tank, should work though. Just some wires to bolt up (not sure where they go yet), some fuel pipes, oil, alternator + belt and prob a few other things and I can try turn her over




Anyone know where these wires go?


Near the ECU side of the loom? Probably to the battery +/- terminals?


These are near the starter, do all 3 of them go on there or is one for the block or chassis?



Is this destined for the bin or am I meant to use it somewhere?



Which of these is the fuel feed and return?

[Green]

First wires you're right there, they're for the + and - terminals on the battery.

Second set I'm pretty sure they're all for the starter motor, I recall thinking along the lines of "this has a lot of wires attached to it" when I fitted mine

That terminal box thing I believe is used to provide a positive terminal under the bonnet of the car when you have the battery in the boot, so in times of providing (or needing!) and jump start you can just pop the bonnet rather then faff around removing the contents of your boot. Not needed but a nice touch maybe if you're going for battery in the boot?

On the fuel rail the top one if the fuel feed and the bottom one is the return, I remember trial and erroring this bit, as well as turning the car over with the fuel lines fed into a coke bottle to establish which one was which!

It's been over a year now since I wired mine in together, but I think I can recall one earth in the loom which is wired to the chassis which I earthed to the engine mount like it was originally in the e36.

[Jozi]

Thanks Green thats probably all sorted

I labelled the fuel lines on the car when I had the old engine out and needed to empty the tank so that one will be easy.

I'm moving my battery to the boot but I'll not be using that little box, to much clutter with it under the bonnet if I use it :p

One of the 3 wires near the starter must be an engine earth? I can't recall seeing any other lose/random wires but I'll have a look, as soon as it stops raining I need to get a pair of earth straps as well just to be on the safe side.

[DanThe]

All three of those wires are for the starter, the heavy cable is to the 8mm stud, cable from the battery point goes to the same stud, Black/Yellow goes to the 6mm stud, and Black/Green goes to the 5mm stud, you cant really get them wrong as they are different sizes.
Only Earth needed for the engine loom is in your hand next to the loom +
The loom + is the only wire that should be connected to the thin wire that follows the heavy battery cable from the boot to the front of the car.

That battery terminal box is from an E36, you can use it if you wish with a E36 compact bracket to fix it to the bulkhead

[Jozi]

The loom + is the only wire that should be connected to the thin wire that follows the heavy battery cable from the boot to the front of the car.

I've yet to fit the battery to boot kit but I think I'll figure it out, I'll have to suss out what goes on the battery/ground on the main car loom also. I don't recall any wires near the battery tray from the main loom but I have a bunch coming from around the fuse box.

[Jozi]

Where on the loom is the engine ground wire? Is it the black wire in this pic?


And where should it mount on chassis?

[DanThe]

Yep, the black is the earth, the red is the live I was referring to earlier.

The official earth point is on the strut top, there is a separate stud welded to it. I usually fit them to the threaded plate bit on the battery tray or run it inside and earth by the pedal box somewhere if you want to be ultra neat

[Jozi]

I like ultra neat but for now the strut top will have to do. I'm trying to figure out the main loom that runs around the bay, I've two red wires (one heavier than the other) and I found a brown one also. Both red go on the battery, can I put the red engine loom wire on here as well? I don't have the battery in the boot kit fitted yet so working with battery tray setup for now.


--- edit ---

Is it the brown on that should go on the strut? It won't fit on the stud

Is there supposed to be a battery clamp on the loom somewhere for + ? I only see one for the ground on the strut. Does the batter in the boot setup still use the strut stud? If not I'll get rig of it before paint.

[DanThe]

Engine bay earth point



Battery in boot earth point




Circled is where you connect the power to engine loom

[Jozi]

Thanks for the pics Dan, my bay earth doesn't have the extra bolt on it. I may as well do the batt to boot re-location while I'm at it!

[Jozi]

Dan, where inside the car do you mount the ground cable, I had a look but I couldn't see any earth points.

Does this look right


I ended up putting the engine ground on with the bonnet rail bracket as it wouldn't fit on my strut ground - my bracket doesn't have the extra stud on it like in some cars.

[Jozi]

Went to see Marty Lane today to see how he's getting on with the paint work and I was greeted with this:




The roof had been painted at some point and it crap hence why that was stripped back, the rear quarters were taken back to prevent reactions.

Front valance & skirts, bumper (and lower apron) ready for primer



Arch flares primered


Both front doors were prepped/being worked on



Some lead-loading they did on the plated up key holes:



The wings were also lead loaded but he didn't have them there. I can't remember what Marty told me he had done with the bonnet and boot lid. No corners being cut anyway, just how I like it

Forgot my camera, phone had to do, will bring the proper cam next time!

[Rav335uk]

I'm sure i've seen these pics "PASTED" all over other forums

[Jozi]

I'm sure i've seen these pics "PASTED" all over other forums

I'm as bad as some :p

[mrrodney]

love seing bodywork take shape ready for paint , shows the work thats gone in,.

[Jozi]

Slow progress, again, the last week or so, have slowly been getting everything ready to get the engine to turn over. Got a new battery for her yesterday, the fuel lines are all hooked up again as is all the wiring neatly tucked inside the wiring cover (which needed a little trimming, not 100% happy on the outcome of this though), just some nut needed on the bushes and a few small things. This is how she stands as of this evening:



Anyone know where this wire needs to go?

It's red and should be power but it won't fit with the other bundle of wires. I forget where it came from but I think it might be from the fuse box.


I also seem to have the whole lot sitting at a slight slant for what ever reason?

[Kedge]

Love the bodywork pics fella. What's the lead loading? A form of filling a hole/dent?

[Jozi]

I had welded up the lock and indicator holes and rather than put filler over them he like to use lead. It's how they used to do it in the olden days, the fillers can sink over time where as the lead wont and it can be painted over (or might get a skim of filler I'm not sure). He showed me his old van where he welded steel into the window openings, the filler had sunk all around and you could see exactly where it was welded, it's to avoid this.

---edit---

As far as I know it's done by heating the panel and melting the lead on it and I assume he works it then with a rasp or something to get it smooth. I think it's only his dad that does it.

It was one small deciding factor to have him paint it and not a local guy, he's a good hour 45mins drive

[daimlerman]

As Jozi says,lead loading is the old fashioned way of making good imperfections in bodywork.

Take the paint off something like a MK2 Jaguar or a coachbuilt car body from the dark ages and you will find lead used as a filler.

Needs a skill that is now being lost to use it correctly,lead is claimed to be bad for one's health or something silly!

[Jozi]

Didn't know about the health effects it has. I thought it was down to fillers being easier to work with and probably quicker?! From memory I think he uses a spray on filler rather than the stuff you apply by hand. Himself and the dad thought it was a good clean shell, hopefully that means little fillers

[Jozi]

Went by the Marty earlier on today. Not a whole lot of progress due to him being sick and busy. Hopefully he'll have it in primer over the next week or two! Also visited a few car dealerships and come to the conclusion that BMW, Mini and audi are sound, Toyota were not friendly at all and Merc looked like a drug dealer.

[capnmchl]

What a thread! It's taken me about 2 hours to get through it. I think if I ever start getting agitated by rust, I'll let my car die an honourable death, because I don't have the same patience as you.

And as above, lead loading is where you get a nice big lump o' lead nice and warm, and sort of, smear it over imperfections. Because Lead is nice and malleable even at room temperature, it works really well. I think filler has problems with cracking and sinking, especially over large areas.

[Jozi]

There has been lots of days where I couldnt stand looking at it or working on it!

Your right about the sinking, I was talking to him yesterday about it. He uses a spray on filler which is a little less prone to sinking, but he said it can still happen, the stuff he uses is mixed 100:3 with hardener or something. He reckon I'll still get some sinking but hopefully the worst of it will have happened before he primes it a 2nd time, he leaves it stand for 1-2 weeks.

[G-Bear]

Looking good, looking forward to seeing it in primer, thats always a big jump in the aesthetics of a restoration..

[Jozi]

Pretty much have the whole shell stripped down to the wiring loom



I need to figure out how to remove the back rest and the carpet area behind it, should have the part from the red shell to look at for this.

Few other pics of little mods I had to do related to the engine:






You can buy a proper intake silicone boot from a few places in the US but by the time you have it delivered it ends up costing something like €130 I have been talking to a Samco distributor in the Uk who I think might also be able to sell me on but for a lot less. I used a 80mm to 74mm reducing elbow and some 20mm (I think) straight pipe for the above. Lots of trimming until I was happy how it fitted and then made a hole for the AFM T-piece on the under side.

Little bit of trimming I had to do to the wiring harness cover so that it still fits:


There's a little trimming on the outer cover also but I can't find pics of it.

Few little niggle things I'll start threads on later that need sussing out.

[Jozi]

Just a small update, got started on the wiring around the bay yesterday, going to tidy it all up and re-route some wires to make it a little neater in the bay.




Suggestions how to go about this welcome! Have some idea's but someone might have better ones!

[Jozi]

Click image for video

Sounds much louder than expected with only the exhaust manifold, she's a little shaky, injectors are clicking away and idle is around 16-1800rpm (4cyl clocks). No idea if this is good/bad!

[Jozi]

Small side-project I'm working on. No idea when I'll get round to refurbing and widening but at least 1 wheel is now split

[G-Bear]

How's the other shell coming along with its new paint?