i will continue the next few updates i had done by copy and pasting from my previous thread on another forum. then i will update as i go along ......
anyway.....here is the rest of the work so far
another little update....
this week the seats for the car arrived ....the current ones are vinyl which is ideal if you pee your pants etc but a little sweaty on track...... so have these now
now with all the panels rough fitting its time to turn to prep work....
offside front wing done .... had to reshape the top corner towards door as it was not quite the correct line
the nearside was much better
now it was time to smooth the door moulding recess
a little filler
a little guide coat
the new rear c pillar was also a little mis shaped so that had to be sorted
guide coat on the quarter
then the rear quarter rubbed down
and a little high build to show minor repairs needed
Little update over the last few days ............ nothing dramatic as its all the fiddly filling going on at the moment....
anyway....
high build primer on the nearside wing and door rubbed down again
c pillar at nearside slightly re shaped and now fitting much better
rear end finishing started
offside c pillar re shaped as it was never going to look 100 percent other wise
rear panel to quarter panel gaps re made
and a little paint to show the shape better in light
and a heap of genuine m3 items now arrived ....
this includes m3 front wheel arch liners , bumper trims front and rear , bumper top seal for the front, boot lid upper seal at rear screen , boot lid adjusters , rear window surrounds and i bit the bullet and bought the genuine rear screen glass also . the perspex window will look awful and i cant bring myself to fit it !!
more updates ..........
the offside door rub strip also now deleted
along with a couple of repairs
the inside was then cleaned out and taped up
then attacked with primer
and then on with some colour..... bmw hennarot ....a factory m3 colour
its not the greatest job inside but im trying to keep it in my mind that its a track car!!!
all i had left to prep was the bonnet and roof . so thinking this would be done in a jiffy i set to it .......only to find the roof has had one of the worst repairs done ive ever seen . there was no way i would be happy painting over this so it a bit of a delay but needs must ....
im certain the roof had been done with hammerite !!
Some excellent work there, but a comment on the welding technique in one of the early pics. May be mistaken, but I'll post the comment anyway, for future reference, and as a general warning to anyone else who may be doing some welding.
I notice in one pic. that the welder earth clamp appears to be connected to the exhaust pipe end. This is a nice piece of shiny metal that is tempting to clamp it onto, but the only time the clamp should be there is if you are welding the exhaust itself.
Welding clamps should always be attached fairly close to where you are welding, and always onto metal that is structurally part of what you are welding, otherwise the high currents flowing through the bodywork, and other currents induced from it, can play havoc with the car's electronics.
The exhaust system is insulated from the bodywork all the way back to the engine, then connects to the bodywork through the head and block, via the engine earth strap, and there will be considerable AC voltages induced into the engine wiring as a result. Mostly, you will get away with it, but I know of a recent case where the engine ECU succumbed to this sort of treatment.
Similarly, I've known bearings, especially wheel bearings, to be damaged, where the earth clamp has been positioned without thought, and the earth current ends up passing through a bearing.
Appreciate your concerns mate however I own a garage. I'm fully aware of this. I clipped the earth lead on there as I had nealt on it half a dozen times after I had finished with it . It was there for about three days before someone else needed the welder
little update ..... anyone linked to me on face book will have seen these but i was having photobucket issues hence the delay
after a bit of rubbing down of the primer it was a quick dash around all the tricky edges and awkward bits with some colour
this was left for 20 mins and then the rest of the car got a flash over
the next evening i gave the car a going over with 800 wet and dry to get rid of the worst imperfections
by this point it was 7.30pm so it was time to leave .... go home and do some stuff with the kids .... once they were in bed then it was back down to the workshop.......rub over with tack rags and more paint in the gun........ by 11pm we have this
and tonight it was back on wheels and moved ready for a good clean up of the workspace ready for rebuild work next week
todays update ........ finished the polishing , its far from perfect especially the roof has this was in very poor condition however i plan to sort the roof in the winter time and do away with the sunroof panel anyway . its looking decent enough for track though
yesterday morning i also painted the bumpers and skirts
these were fitted today ...ive not fitted the front as i dont want to damage it when removing the engine
m3 boot lid adjusters fitted
and some new jewellery
then some brand new rear lamps
along with pop out opening rear windows thanks to jake (shedrool)
all the window chromes have been wrapped with "de chrome" vinyl off ebay....to be fair i dont see it lasting long and will likely end up removing it all in future and painting it all
front screen trim is refitted
and door handles on
the c pillar "hockey sticks" painted now and refitted with black trim added
cant decide if i should put road tyres on these for non track use or not....
Sadly the face book page "bmwe30m3replica" which is run by a guy in Dundee has stolen two of my pictures from the face book page I bought the kit from..... then posted that the car was smashed before the conversion started and seem to be trying to pass it off as there work..... have also blocked me from commenting and anyone else who know me and that's posted the car belongs me..... what a top class bell end