A hole in the driver's side floor

Post Tue Dec 08, 2015 4:57 pm

I had my yearly inspection of my car today. I have ran the car through the yearly inspection 3 times with this car without any trouble at all. I haven't made any changes to the car during those 3 years either, but today I got a fucking piece of shit inspector who hated me and my car.

As I was sitting in the waiting room while waiting for the inspection man to inspect my car, there was another customer there who had his car inspected as well. I heard the dude was talking about my car in a negative tone. He was rambling on about why people would drive such cars and that people only drive them to drift in roundabouts in the winter. It feels like they did everything they could to punish me just because I am driving an E30.

Anyway, the actual problem is that I have a big dent in the floor on the driver's side: https://gyazo.com/e854a2b4c5685fee34d1b9cccf1e00b9

Can't see anything wrong? Me neither, because the damage is not visual from this side. The "problem" is under the car:

A few years ago I was going to change from summer to winter tyres on my car. I jacked up the car in the square that is just behind the left front wheel. It looked solid and I actually thought it was a jacking point. As I jacked the car up I heard a cracking sound and I immediately jacked the car down again and inspected the damage. It was not a big deal to me so I just jacked the car up on the actual frame instead which worked perfectly.

Anyway how do I fix this and why the fuck has this suddenly became a problem? It's not even a bearing part of the vehicle. This hole is equal to the drainage hole everyone has in the floor of their trunk.

On top of this my car also got denied because my low beam were shining too low. I have been through the yearly inspection 3 times with those exact settings on the beams without any problems. Fucksake.

Post Tue Dec 08, 2015 5:27 pm

Those square pads were used at the factory to move the shell around, and are notorious rust traps.

Looks like you will have to either get the split welded (ideally) or at least fix with fibreglass resin but make sure you hide it well!

They will fail anything with a hole within something like a 30cm radius of a suspension mounting point (i.e., the front wishbone lollipop) or seatbelt mounting (in the UK, at least).

Headlamps should be easy enough to adjust, unless the adjusters are seized; give them a good soaking with penetrating fluid a day or so before trying to adjust them.

Post Tue Dec 08, 2015 5:53 pm

Speedtouch wrote:Those square pads were used at the factory to move the shell around, and are notorious rust traps.

Looks like you will have to either get the split welded (ideally) or at least fix with fibreglass resin but make sure you hide it well!

They will fail anything with a hole within something like a 30cm radius of a suspension mounting point (i.e., the front wishbone lollipop) or seatbelt mounting (in the UK, at least).

Headlamps should be easy enough to adjust, unless the adjusters are seized; give them a good soaking with penetrating fluid a day or so before trying to adjust them.

Okay, I see, thank you. I shouldn't try to donk the dent out as that would probably just make it worse? Easiest thing would probably be to clean up the area and smear some fiberglass over the hole and then paint it all over with underbody compound?

Post Tue Dec 08, 2015 6:25 pm

You could have a go at beating the dent out first, but the main thing is to get that hole fixed up; it's in your interests to do so, otherwise it will encourage rust to develop.

Yes, you could use fibreglass and some suitable underseal to cover it up, depending of course on how strict the test is in your region; some places insist any such holes are welded or brazed.

Post Wed Dec 09, 2015 10:08 am

Had you tyres changed recently?

Classic one is the jack is put onto the floor plan not the chassis leg. I have a bloody great dent in the floor because of that which I need to deal with.

If you have the headlight adjusters and they fail then they wind the head lights all the way down making them dip too low.

Post Wed Dec 09, 2015 10:13 am

HairyScreech wrote:Had you tyres changed recently?

Classic one is the jack is put onto the floor plan not the chassis leg. I have a bloody great dent in the floor because of that which I need to deal with.

If you have the headlight adjusters and they fail then they wind the head lights all the way down making them dip too low.

This incident happened years ago when I was changing my tyres.

I haven't checked the headlights yet because I don't know how much higher I need to adjust them.

Post Wed Dec 09, 2015 1:52 pm

Is that hole due to corrosion or just a crack? If it's a crack, just run a MIG over it, a bit of paint, and the job's done.
Headlamps: Park the car on level ground, 2.4m from a vertical flat surface. Mark the wall with a small cross directly in front of each headlamp, both horizontally and sideways.
The 'break point' of the beam (the shallow V in the beam cut off pattern) should be between 12mm and 48mm to the left and below of your marks.

Post Wed Dec 09, 2015 2:08 pm

Brianmoooore wrote:Is that hole due to corrosion or just a crack? If it's a crack, just run a MIG over it, a bit of paint, and the job's done.
Headlamps: Park the car on level ground, 2.4m from a vertical flat surface. Mark the wall with a small cross directly in front of each headlamp, both horizontally and sideways.
The 'break point' of the beam (the shallow V in the beam cut off pattern) should be between 12mm and 48mm to the left and below of your marks.

It's just a crack so I could probably have someone to weld it for me.

About the headlights, I don't exactly understand what you mean by the breakpoint of the beam. Could you make a sketch?

Post Wed Dec 09, 2015 4:09 pm

After being with the hammer on the dent I noticed that the damage is a lot worse than I initially thought. Rust. And exactly where the floor is curved as well so its even a bigger pain in the ass to fix.

Post Wed Dec 09, 2015 5:05 pm

Slap a patch or 2 in there! It looks like the "corner" is pretty solid. Just try and keep as much solid material as you can.

Im sure you can find someone with the gear to do it for you, all for the price of a few beers. Doesn't need to be perfect, it will be covered with stone chip.

Don't be tempted to glass over, you've already taken slight offence to being stereotyped. Don't prove the guy right!

Post Wed Dec 09, 2015 7:33 pm

Rust in the pic. is pretty normal for any E30 that's had the 'jacking points' abused, and is an easy enough repair with a bit of sheet metal ( I have an old E34 bonnet that's repaired several E30s) and a MIG welder.
If you park your car a few feet away from a wall (in the dark) and turn the dipped headlamps on, you will see that they have a very sharp beam cut off at the top (I'm assuming you have post facelift lights, not the pre facelift candles). The right hand part of the cut off line should be level, but from a point near the centre, the cut off should slope upwards to the left. The point where these two lines intersect is the 'break point'.

Post Tue Dec 22, 2015 4:51 pm

Brianmoooore wrote:Rust in the pic. is pretty normal for any E30 that's had the 'jacking points' abused, and is an easy enough repair with a bit of sheet metal ( I have an old E34 bonnet that's repaired several E30s) and a MIG welder.
If you park your car a few feet away from a wall (in the dark) and turn the dipped headlamps on, you will see that they have a very sharp beam cut off at the top (I'm assuming you have post facelift lights, not the pre facelift candles). The right hand part of the cut off line should be level, but from a point near the centre, the cut off should slope upwards to the left. The point where these two lines intersect is the 'break point'.

I actually have two different low beams. The right one has the smiley, the left one doesn't.

https://gyazo.com/614e6186304351ebe20f85cfa023b6d0

Post Tue Dec 22, 2015 6:42 pm

Those beams are set for driving on the wrong side of the road! If you are actually in a country that drives on the wrong side, then fine, but the adjustment specs. I gave you are for the UK.
You obviously need to adjust them for the regs. wherever you are, but if you change 'left' to 'right' in the spec. I gave you, then that should be OK.
The 'break' points are clearly visible in your. pic., so you need to mark where straight ahead is, and then adjust them. Sometimes helps to place something in front of the light you're not working on, so that you don't get confused between the two beams.
The one smiley and one bull's eye would be technically illegal in the UK, since they are non matching lights, but the only difference between them is that when ellipsoid lights were introduced (the bull's eye), it was found that although they gave an excellent light at distance, it was dark immediately in front of the car. To overcome this, the smiley cut out was added, which allows some light directly from the bulb to fall on the road close to the car.

Post Tue Dec 22, 2015 6:59 pm

Brianmoooore wrote:Those beams are set for driving on the wrong side of the road! If you are actually in a country that drives on the wrong side, then fine, but the adjustment specs. I gave you are for the UK.
You obviously need to adjust them for the regs. wherever you are, but if you change 'left' to 'right' in the spec. I gave you, then that should be OK.
The 'break' points are clearly visible in your. pic., so you need to mark where straight ahead is, and then adjust them. Sometimes helps to place something in front of the light you're not working on, so that you don't get confused between the two beams.
The one smiley and one bull's eye would be technically illegal in the UK, since they are non matching lights, but the only difference between them is that when ellipsoid lights were introduced (the bull's eye), it was found that although they gave an excellent light at distance, it was dark immediately in front of the car. To overcome this, the smiley cut out was added, which allows some light directly from the bulb to fall on the road close to the car.

I'm not from UK so I do drive on the left side of the road. Is this how you mean that I should level the beams?

https://gyazo.com/199b4ff882b5aefceb929d690517b5f3

Post Tue Dec 22, 2015 7:08 pm

If the ground is dead level, drive right up to the door and mark the centre of each headlamp on the door. Back away, keeping the car dead straight, until the headlamps are 2.4m away from the door. Adjust each light, in turn, until the point of the shallow 'V' is between 12mm and 48mm below and to the right, of the marks you made on the door.

Post Tue Dec 22, 2015 7:18 pm

Brianmoooore wrote:If the ground is dead level, drive right up to the door and mark the centre of each headlamp on the door. Back away, keeping the car dead straight, until the headlamps are 2.4m away from the door. Adjust each light, in turn, until the point of the shallow 'V' is between 12mm and 48mm below and to the right, of the marks you made on the door.

Ok, thank you