Meatballs 1988 Tech 2 Sport

[Jim320i]

Excellent Thread - makes me wonder what lurks underneath the carpets on my car!

Thanks - from ''super rare & mint'' to rusty heap in 7 pages

Hopefully the next 7 pages will be alot more positive

The only positive you'll be getting any time soon is HIV...

Loving the resto though babe

[Kedge]

Excellent Thread - makes me wonder what lurks underneath the carpets on my car!

Thanks - from ''super rare & mint'' to rusty heap in 7 pages

Hopefully the next 7 pages will be alot more positive

[/quote]

More likely it'll end up in a duplicate of this thread http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... c&t=229831

[Meatballs82]

I've already turned down Jims several ''generous'' offers to relieve me of the headache!

[Rav335uk]

I've already turned down Jims several ''generous'' offers to relieve me of the headache!

[Meatballs82]

I've already turned down Jims several ''generous'' offers to relieve me of the headache!

Lets just say I won't be ''camping'' at his place anymore

[Jim320i]

I've already turned down Jims several ''generous'' offers to relieve me of the headache!

Lets just say I won't be ''camping'' at his place anymore

Only because your not invited anymore...

[G-Bear]

Hello Mr Balls.. Anymore movement on this project..

[Meatballs82]

Unfortunately nothing juicy to report since last update Mr Bear!

I've had little spare time and the welder also didn't have time to start before xmas, he goes to Australia for 2 months at the end of Jan so he's booked me in for the first half of next month.

Soon as welding commences I'll be updating the thread.

[G-Bear]

Good work.

Also have an order to send over to you. Is it best to wait until the new year now or are you in between Christmas and then?

[Meatballs82]

PM it or email to my work email mate, I'm knocking off in ten mins anf then back Thursday, will reply then! Have a good one

[G-Bear]

Roger to that, good man. Merry Christmas to you too, Matt.

[Meatballs82]

Not much of an update to give but there has been slight council action worth documenting!

Visited Jim's old ranch a few days ago to check out the donor shell he'd saved for me, I'll let the picture do the talking...



Its been sat like this for months, and was Damper than the captains codpiece

we jacked it up in the mud/rain/wind and Jim kindly chopped a chunk out of the o/s/r floorpan for me.


I've managed to get a few hours in the garage since then, prepping the car for welding and having a bit of a sort out, surprisingly the piece we took from the shell is coming up good, no rot somehow!


Phil the welder popped over tonight, he was happy with what he saw and seemed confident in what he was planning to do. He's going to start Saturday morning while I'm at work, then I'll be visiting Graceland again on Sunday to get the rest of the bits needed to make the turd watertight again. Welding should be finished in a week or two if all goes to plan

[G-Bear]

Thats some good counciling... Nice to see..

[Meatballs82]

Got back from work today to check out Phil's work. He's got the o/s/r floorpan in aswell as the seat mount, battery tray and o/s bulkhead, I'm pretty happy with it but could use an experts eye, what do we think?

Need to get some dremel type bits to grind this down









O/s/f floor, where small bung hole was. Not OEM but I'm not overly bothered

[Jim320i]

Yeeaaahhh boooiiii... Part Sport, part Chromie

[blackE30indy]

Looks good dude,make sure you seal them up good

[Meatballs82]

Yeeaaahhh boooiiii... Part Sport, part Chromie

My Bro in law said ''this cars like triggers brush''

[polsta]

looking good mate, its suprising the amount of work in a floor can need doing once you really start looking and doing it, but once all done shel be good for years to come, are you putting new bungs in etc ? not thought about just cutting the circles out and putting plates in and being done with it ? i pondered it, a mate with a tech 2 who welded mine did that to his, but wanted to keep mine original, yet in ways it seems a bit silly putting a bung back in there, when theres no purpose for it

[polsta]

Excellent Thread - makes me wonder what lurks underneath the carpets on my car!

Thanks - from ''super rare & mint'' to rusty heap in 7 pages

Hopefully the next 7 pages will be alot more positive

youve just chose to be brave and discover it, think how many have never had the carpets and dash out etc and driving round oblivious to festering issues, once done youl be a pleased and proud man, and she will be super rare minty mine rust free no frag here get ya hands of jim mean machine

[G-Bear]

looking good mate, its suprising the amount of work in a floor can need doing once you really start looking and doing it, but once all done shel be good for years to come, are you putting new bungs in etc ? not thought about just cutting the circles out and putting plates in and being done with it ? i pondered it, a mate with a tech 2 who welded mine did that to his, but wanted to keep mine original, yet in ways it seems a bit silly putting a bung back in there, when theres no purpose for it

What are the bungs there for? It does make sense them not being there to harbour moisture, but they must have been put in for a purpose..

Nice progress Matt

[polsta]

a bit like the jacking points that are needlessly left on,that were to fdrag the car round the factory , from what i gather the bungs were for drainage of primer/paint or something when the shell was being made, or if it was dipped in a cleaning process or whatever before paint, , and also if the car gets filled up with water they can always be knocked out for drainage, im not 100% sure but something like that

but they only twist in, need sealing up, and of course the original ones over time started to perish and rust, let water seep in as we all know

[Jim320i]

Matt's putting new bungs in so it looks nice and OEM, I said to him to get his welder to weld them in though so its properly sealed, then cake it in seam sealer too... I left him at the old Ranch about 2 hours ago, with him he had lots of chop out parts ready to be welded in

Should be back on the road in no time I'll be over to crack on with you and Kedge can come as well, even if he doesnt want to

[Meatballs82]

Not sure why the bungs are there but I've ordered both rears for less than £10 from the dealer.
Don't think they're welded in from factory but the new ones will be.

Phil asked me about the drivers front floor bung yesterday, I didn't have the cut out from the donor shell yet but he had spare metal from the other plate and had run out of things to do so I told him to crack on.

Jim chopped out the rest of the bits today, mostly good metal but both Jacking pads are shagged, I'll be cleaning them up tomorrow night then Phil's coming for an after work sesh on Weds. If these bits are ok he could be done by Friday!

I've ordered some 3M seam sealer, zinc primer and sound deadening material so soon as weldings finished I can get the floor sealed and ready for the interior to go back in.

[polsta]

i got new bungs too from bmw, welding them in ??? thats a new one, with the way the bottom "lip" on the underside is, are you just going to weld the fook out of it so theres no lip or anything ? mine have not gone in yet i dont think, i could weld them in, do you think that would be better ? i can see in ways it would be, yet i sort of think wel if welding surely a square flat section would be better and stronger to be welded in and wont look as messy, with the way the bungs are made and fit and the way the lip is, to get them welded in it will be quite messy, its a tough one

are you not painting the floor ? hammerite smooth may be good to use if your not going the whole hog and proper re painting it properly and making it all like original, what deadening have you gone for ?

[Jim320i]

I'd have it welded from the inside personally then seam sealer the fewk out of it on the underside. Probably wont have any benefit over just seam sealer but atleast it would just be one peice.

Matt, let me know the condition of those bits we did today once you get them cleaned up. If they are no good, we can get them off that silver chromie. Not checked the condition of them yet but the whole front end looks pretty mint and its a nice low millege E30

[polsta]

my thinking is - if just welded from the top, then there would still be that "edge" and lip, around the bottom, and a slight ingress around it, i dont know anything about welding- can you weld from the top, then sort of fill weld all in around the bottom aswell, and properly fill that ingress and make it a nice smooth no gap watertight finish from below aswwell ? or can you not do it like that ? or ir not both, surely it makes more sense to weld from the bottom to get the water tight smooth finish there ?

[Jim320i]

Would probably make sense to do it from the bottom I was thinking you would be able to see it but they are usually caked with seal sealer then underseal so you wouldnt see it anyway.
I know bob all about welding too though

[Meatballs82]

Matt, let me know the condition of those bits we did today once you get them cleaned up. If they are no good, we can get them off that silver chromie. Not checked the condition of them yet but the whole front end looks pretty mint and its a nice low millege E30

Will do mate

check if Fiona's working Sat 26th or Sun 27th Jan, you can come over either of those dates as discussed earlier

[Jim320i]

Sunday 27th mate will do... You got paypal too? I can send you some funds through the month for the touring

[polsta]

this needs to be investigated jim, but you know how they sit when in, looking at from the bottom, it would need to be done carefuly and skillyfully to properly seal it and make it look decent, maybe then ground/smoothed off to achieve a real good finish and keep it water tight, then a light seal over, and sealed from inside and covered like normal, going to see mine in the week and il look at it and discuss it with him, not sure weather that, or just oem style is the way to go, as i had no actual rot there on mine an the lip is all nice and original

[Kedge]

That all looks fine and once you grind the welds back, seal and paint no one will ever know. The only one I'm a little unsure about is this;


Looks like there is still some rust that's not been chopped out.

As for the bungs, I'd just keep them OEM. No point messing about welding them in. My car is nearly 28 years old and still has the original bungs and they are fine, anyone who's spunking thousands on these turds isn't going to be using them as daily runners through the winter and that is was has caused these issues, lots of salt, water and neglection. So long as everything is prep'd properly, sealed and painted properly they will be fine. If you are set on welding, just do it the same way that the small bung has been done.

For finishing the floor I'm going to be using zinc primer, fresh seam sealer, a base coat and then heavily lacquer it all. I've used Hammerite Smoothrite in the past and wouldn't let it near the E30, really don't like the stuff, POR15 Chassis Paint is a far more superior product if you wanted to use something along those lines.

I'm up for coming over but the 26/27th is a weekend too early for me as I'm working that Sunday and will no doubt be hungover on the Saturday.

[polsta]

where does the deadening fit kedge ? put the deadening on top of the fully finished floor ? or part way then coat the top ? as from factory it was painted

if your not bothering with a proper paint job for a real deal oem finish, why not get some body color rattle cans from paint4u to flick over the top to finish it then laquer

[Kedge]

I'm putting the sound deadening over the top of the lot. My floor looked perfect but I still pulled up the pads and seamsealer and there was surface rust under the lot, that is why I would paint the floor properly before putting the pads down. If the floors had been finished to a better standard in the factory I don't think under carpet dramas would be as bad as they tend to be.

Rattle cans is all I'm going to be doing, i'll just use cheap silver paint since mine is Polaris, Matt may as well just use any cheap black paint. I painted the front valance on his diamond schwarz touring in halfords gloass black and then lacquered and you can't tell without getting close so there's no point what so ever colour matching when it's under the carpet.

[polsta]

cool, thats why i pulled up my deadening , it looked nice before i did...but if your going to do a job then go the whole hog, glad i did as like you found surface, and a few other issues , im not 100% what mines being done like, but he is going to flick a coat of paint over the pads too once down for a factory look, only because hes re painting the whole car and inside the boot etc anyway so no point in not doing the floor aswell, but if it was just a floor job then like you say rattle cans etc, but paints4u.com same color rattle cans are not muich more than any old color (silver) are they ?

[Kedge]

No idea what they charge but I'll not be spending much more than £3 a tin, the last colour matched aerosol I bought was £12+