Christ, can't believe it's been over a year!
For lots of personal and other reasons people won't care about, the project hasn't really moved since the last post, however, all is about to change.
I decided to focus what budget I had on motorbikes, and now the track bike is built ready for next year, it's time to try and get this BMW on the road before Xmas 2019.
I've taken 3 days off work as I've got loads of annual leave to use before the year ends. My jobs are going to be: getting all the front end stripped/primered/painted; cut the rot out ready for patching; rebuild the front suspension; refurbish the brakes.
As it's been a while, rather than jump in to cutting out round the gaping holes, I'm starting mechanically. I've allotted a budget of £2k to get this car done before xmas, and I think that's doable. I've spent a fair bit already on new parts, as now I've got money invested in it, it'll force me to get all the horrible welding done. Probably not the way most people go about things but hey ho.
Let's start with the current state of the front end:
Oh my. What about the other side?
Yup.
The eagle eyed will spot the fact that it has an E30 control arm on the O/S and an E46 control arm on the N/S...
I stripped the chassis last year back to bare metal, and painted it in two coats of Por-15. It turns out it really is best on rust, and shite on plain metal.
I'm going to strip the chassis + inner wings back to bare metal, if anyone has a recommendation for what to use that'd be appreciated. I've got 4x cans of zinc based primer, not sure if it's ideal to use that + paint over?
Removal of most of the front end uses the BFH, as with all rusted project cars:
The bolts all put up a fight but eventually came off both sides, although the disc retaining bolt had to be drilled out each side, but that doesn't matter as the wheel bearings/ABS rings were toast anyway.
This left me with some beautiful Girling callipers:
Despite them looking like something a canal magnet fisher rescued from the deep, the pistons both came out with a mate pumping a bicycle track pump, and me holding the beachball adapter on the inlet and covering the piston with a towel, which makes a good bang when it fires out (watch your fingers). I was hoping both the pistons would be useable, but sadly one has pitted past the dust seal quite badly, new one being ordered.
Good:
Bad:
A mate came round to lend a hand, so I left him to sort the callipers out, and after a couple of hours with a dremel and wire wheel, they've come up good:
There was more work done on the above after that pic, they're both very clean now, and the bores have been given a light polish with 1500 wet/dry.
They're going to be painted in the above, he's popping round to finish the job this week, then I'll fit the rebuild kits + new piston and they're good to go, going to try and source some new bleed nipples, and the new lines will likely be braided.
So, so far that will be a punishment of the wallet to the tune of:
- Lemforder wishbones
- Lollipop bushes (eccentric type)
- ARB bushes
- ARB drop-links (Meyle HD)
- Front back plates
- Discs/pads (Brembo + Pagid) + wear sensor
- 2x Wheel hubs/bearings
- Calliper rebuild kits
- New front brake piston
There's other fiddly bits too like dust seals, as I think the current ones might be past it:
I've ordered a ton of tools and parts, but sadly the ball joint splitter didn't arrive in time for my mate helping me on the Saturday, so we improvised with a BFH and a claw hammer, seeing as the ball joint is scrap anyway:
With the suspension legs off, it's time to whip the lollipop bolts out and inspect the bushes:
Now you see why they're on the list above.
Lollipops twisted and bashed off the wishbones, it's time to remove the metal remnant of the old bush. If you're someone that's very delicate, takes pride in their work, and has great care for the things they work on, then go inside for a bit and ask someone else to come and batter the living daylights out of the internal ring with a lump hammer and an old chisel, a-la:
Bonus points were almost given for belting it out at 50mph, ricocheting it off a wall, and almost hitting the helper friend that's wielding an angle grinder.
Buff the inside with 1500 grit sandpaper, tape up for wire wheeling and some generic aerosol heavy duty black gloss car paint:
I've emailed a local-ish (Newbury) sandblast + powdercoat place to get a quote for some work. I'm torn between just getting the struts and ARB done, or getting an engine support to hover the engine whilst I remove the rusty subframe for the same treatment.
When starting I'd wanted to put a Z4 purple tag rack in, but I don't think I'll do that just yet as it involves a bit of custom part malarky with the steering column guibo and pipework - another time, just need it MOT'd for now.
Going to see what the quotes come back like, and if they're not too bad including the subframe I might just bite the bullet and buy a support. It will add engine mounts and bolts to the bill, as most of them look perished/worn anyway.
It's Monday tomorrow, and most my parts are scheduled to arrive over the next 2-3 days. First job is to get the old wishbones removed, but I think I'll have to cut the ball joints with angle grinder as the bolts on top of the subframe are just round blobs of rust. Then I need to get the old ARB off, but again the bolts look unrecognisable so will see how that goes, wire wheel everything first. That'll just leave the subframe attached and that's it. If I bite the bullet on the above I'll remove the steering rack this week and order the support.
Once I'm done with suspension removal and starting to rebuild bits on the bench, I can finally raise the car a bit higher on the jacks and start cutting some straight lines on the biggest MOT fail areas:
Both corners need doing. I can't decide how much to cut out on the drivers side. I can't put a screwdriver though the area around the throttle pedal mount, so I'm tempted to paint that in por-15 and primer the rest (after patching/welding), as otherwise I've got to slowly cut the bracket out or buy some thicker metal and attempt to make it. It feels solid so I might leave it.
That's enough for now. Having new parts arrive is a great motivation, and seeing the callipers start to look fresh etc pushes me on to get the big (welding) jobs done, so that I can finally start the reverse process of bolting bits back on to the car!
Very rough aims for last half of September:
- Patch front floor panels
- Patch inner wing (see previous post)
- Get struts/ARB and maybe subframe powdercoated
- Buy suspension (H+R 30mm lowering + Bilstein B4 shocks)
- Fit new wishbones, ARB drops, bushes, lollipop offsets
- Fit new wheelhubs, discs, brakes, pads (front)
- Strip + paint (suggestions on products please) engine bay, inner wings, etc
- Cut + patch sills (sections, not full)
Overall I'd just like to have the front end of the car complete this month, excluding the engine as that's one of the last jobs. I know it roughly runs, so I can figure the details later.
Trying not to think about the jobs after the above, as my todo list in Excel is over 250 lines long now and grows daily. Ah well, still semi-enjoying it, as long as NatWest holds out!
More updates to come (this year, this time!)
I'm using Cheerios and Shreddies (frosted, obviously) boxes to make the shapes, then cutting them with sheet metal snips. They warp the metal a bit when cutting, I should probably just clamp sheet metal to the desk and use a cutting disc, or buy a hacksaw...
