1989 316i M52 Restoration

[Andeep]

I thought it was finally time to start a proper build thread for my E30. It’s a rusty 316i that I was building it into a M50 turbo weapon, but I had Gunni at GSTuning build me a manifold for the car, which turned into an absolute disaster. After a year of legal paperwork I took Gunni to small claims court where I won and have a county court judgment order against him.

So after a lot of time and my money wasted I decided to just M52 the car and later on decide if I want more power.

Onto the car! It’s a bog standard 1989 E30 316i in Schwarz. I bought it and didn’t realise that there was a lot of hidden rust. So rather than this being a simple engine swap, its turned into a bit of a restoration.

The turd:

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[Andeep]

It had all the usual rust that an E30 always has, but this E30 had really been neglected and the rust had spread.

Bung had fallen out at some point:

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Cut out and welded:
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Primed and seam sealed:
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Jacking point rust:
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Cut out:
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Welded and primed:

[Andeep]

Firewall rust:


New sheet metal positioned:


Rear:


Tacked in:


Fully welded and welds smoothed:


Other end:


Welded:



Panel spot welded back in:

[Andeep]

Warning! The next area of rust is really bad! All the skins were knackered






Panel removed:


Access hole cut:


Repair:

























Scuttle rust repaired:


Everything painted in 2k epoxy primer:














Sandblasted:


Epoxy primer:




Welded in:






All oem skins rebuilt.

[Nobby_N]

Nice thread and great metal work going on!

[Andeep]

Support bracket welded back in, will get ground, sandblasted and epoxy primered eventually:



Rusty wiper hole:



Since the car is RHD, theres no point trying to recreate the raised wiper hole as it is just blanked off anyway.

[Digit]

Awesome rust repairs mate! loving the fabrication work

[Andy325i]

Well done for getting stuck in on the shell, looks like it was a little rusty!

Are these clamps to hold it in place?





Do you have a link to them?



What is it you have used to paint this? When I recently did mine I used:

Rust killer

Etch primer (Aerosol)

Zinc Primer (Aerosol)

Top coat (Aerosol)

Using the Aerosol hopefully it won't be so brittle

Then Waxoyl it all

[Andeep]

Thanks for the kind comments guys.

These are those clamps:

http://www.frost.co.uk/intergrip-welding-clamps.html

I use Lechler 2k Epoxy primer on all my repairs. This is the ultimate rust proofing paint. Its 2k so you mix it and it dries as hard as nails and you cannot scratch it off at all. It is non-porous so it doesn't need a top coat as long as its not subjected to UV. Nothing comes close to a 2k epoxy primer.

I always sandblast the metal as it properly gets rid of any rust and also keys and cleans the surface.

[jimbom30cab]

Yer that epoxy primer is hard as concrete, you can't even scratch it off with a chisel

[spook]

Epic rust repairs,well done mate,most would have taken it to the bridge.

[redcar]

Nice work Andeep. Let me know if you need a hand with anything!

[DanThe]

Heroic repairs!

[Kos]

Wicked !! Made my day seeing this kind of work.

[appletree]

Great work, reminds me of beardy Matt's sport thread.

Loving those clamps, but before I go and buy some wouldnt a couple of magnets do the same job and with magnets it wouldn't matter about getting to the back of the repair. Not knocking the clamps just wondering if I've missed how they work?

[Andeep]

With these clamps you can crank on them and tighten them down pulling the edges down and flush with each other.

[Andeep]

While the car was under Gunnis/DI Racings possession, there was multiple damages caused to the car of which one was where some half-wit attempted to remove (molest) a spot welded bracket with a cutting disc:



This was cut out and new metal was welded in:





Another rusty bit was the panel behind where the battery sits. This was replaced with a flat piece of sheet metal:





All the bits have just been sprayed with some zinc primer to stop the bare metal/welds from rusting. It will get sandblasted and epoxy primered at a later stage.

I bought another front section from cleveland panels:



It is of fairly good quality, but a bit rough. Rather then chop mine out and replace it with this taiwanese metal, potentially risking misfitment of the headlights, I just chopped out bits from it and used them to patch mine:









The next rusty bit was the part at the bottom:



Chopped out:





Replaced:

[AndyZippy]

Blimey! Good work that man. Very impressive!

[oldroydsr4]

With the crap you've had to deal with in gunni and rot, to even get this project started is awesome.

I'm amazed you didn't weigh it in.

Fair play and I hope it gets easier from this point forward,

[ImysE30]

Skillz, respect

[MickoE30]

Great skill. Inspiring stuff.

Its one of my life's ambitions to be able to fabricate & weld like that...

I would assume that with those skills, you see rust like that and just casually go about fixing it, whereas for me it would be game over and shell scrapped.

Look forward to updates.

[Andeep]

Next bit was to sort out the bottom of the wheel arches. I sandblasted the areas, and burnt off all the seam sealer to reveal what needed to be replaced:



I started with the vertical parts. I will fix these, then move onto the base.

Rust cut out:



I welded in some scrap to act as supports as the panels go all floppy when separated from each other:



Welded in some new metal:




Bit of primer to stop any rust:





Next is so sort the base out.

[oomz1975]

I like how you go about your business, keep up the good work.

[Andeep]

Firstly the rusty base was cut out:





Repair section fabricated:



Holes for spot welds drilled and weld-through primer applied:



Tacked in:



Fully welded:



Skins pulled nice and tight:



All ground down:









Nice undetectable repair

There was a bit of rust on the front section. This area is not seen, so rather then rebuilding both the skins, I just formed a ridge in a bit of steel and welded that in to give the impression of 2 overlapping sheets:

[Fal_325i]

Mate, one word, epic. Empty your inbox.

[Andeep]

I had cut an access hole to repair all the skins behind the fusebox. So was time to seal it up. It was epoxy primed and then loaded with seam sealer:



Started the jigsaw puzzle:



All bits tacked in. Lots of bridging to do which is hard with a MIG on sheet metal:



Lots of grinding to do!!!



Next I wanted to get the front of the car all sorted and primed so that was out of the way. So first came the tedious and messy job of media blasting it. All in bare metal:



This of course revealed some rust holes which were patched up.

Masked up, I didn't mask for overspray as the rest of the car will be getting painted anyway:



Shot 2 thick coats of epoxy primer:

[Andeep]

Quick update.

Wanted to seam seal the front as it was before the 24 hour overcoat window the epoxy has. I used a 1k polyurethane seam sealer from a chaulking gun, not the rubbish rubber crap that comes out of the tin. I applied it and used a small brush to spread it about deep in the seams and onto the surrounding areas.

For the top I used tape just do see what it would look like:



All seam sealed:



Very neat using tape line:



Once I finish repairing the rest of the engine bay, I will key the epoxy, probably shoot another coat of epoxy and then go wet on wet with the 2k top coat.

[Andeep]

Started grinding the jigsaw puzzle of weld down. Theres no point in getting it flush as this part is not visible.

All ground down and everything keyed with P180:



Masked up:



Sprayed on like 5 wet coats of epoxy as I mixed up a bit too much:







Will wait for it to dry and seam seal the welds up.

[JF008]

where do you source the sheet metal? Very nice work, cheers for all the tips!

[Andeep]

Sheet metal is from the local motor factors.

[dave525]

very nice metal work.Could be used as a how to repair guide.

[Andeep]

Next rusty bit was cut out:



All new metal cut, welded in and skins pulled nice and tight:



Next the whole area and underneath was sandblasted:



Everybody looking to do any sort of complex rust removal needs a sand blaster! Its very quick and easy to remove rust and paint, especially in complex areas where a wire brush won't fit. It also keys the metal so no need for any more prep! Only downside is that it goes absolutely everywhere!

Next the rest of the paint was keyed with some P180:






Masked:



3-4 coats of epoxy primer:









All the other repairs I previously just sprayed on some zinc primer to stop them from flash rusting. Next stage and to blast and clean the repaired areas and shoot some epoxy. Once the engine has been fitted and everything it needs is fabricated, the engine will be pulled and the engine engine bay scuffed with a green scuff pad, then another coat of epoxy will be shot. I will then go wet-on-wet with the topcoat.

[Andeep]

The left front side of the engine bay was repaired before and I just shot some cheap rattle can primer on it to stop it from flash rusting. So now was time to properly seal the metal up.

All the areas were sandblasted:











So that area is now completely rust free and mint. Good thing about sandblasting is that it exposes the thin weak metal or weak weld areas, where it will blow a hole through it. Therefore you know that area needs attention. Another good thing is that you can use it to clean up and sort of 'key' the underseal/seam sealer so the new paint can stick.

Will epoxy it up tomorrow.

[magpie]

turn your volume up !

[youtube][/youtube]

[Andeep]

Brushed on epoxy primer on bare metal areas:





Arch was sanded, degreased and masked:



Sprayed with epoxy:



Next bit to sort was this area:



Media blasted:



Everything that was blasted was keyed, then all was degreased and masked:





Engine bay all rust free