Resurrection of my green BMW

[CanadianMiniFan]

Small update, did some more work yesterday. My plan has been to roll the rear quarter panels, and weld them to the inner fender rather than make a new lip for the inner. Not OEM, but I'd rather have the extra clearance in case I find some nice wider/lower offset wheels in the future, I dont want to have to cut or bend metal to make em fit. I borrowed a fender roller from a friend, and quickly jacked the old subframe and trailing arms into place. Unfortunatley, my suspicions were confirmed, when I tried using the roller, I quickly realized the outer quarter panel just flexed outwards rather than folding the flange. This is because the outer was not welded to the inner. A fairly foreseeable issue, so I quickly abandoned the fender roller, removed the subframe, and reverted to the trusty hammer and dolly. Started the fold with pliers and then slowly went back and forth with the hammer. Turned out just how I wanted, and there wasnt much, in some places no, overlap between the outer lip and the inner. I also noticed higher up in the wheel well a plug in an access hole, so it should be easier for me to absolutely hose some pain into the fender lip, and later hose wax in there for rust proofing. Anyway heres some pictures!

Folded

IMG_0597 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Slight gap to the inner fender. I'd love to say I had this perfectly planned, calculating the bend radius of the outer flange, but I basically cut out the inner flange up to where it was solid, and it happened to line up well. Nice to get some luck now and again.

IMG_0599 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Welded

IMG_0600 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Close up, and you can see the access plug which I will use for paint/wax

IMG_0601 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Thats all for now, Will try to get this ground down next week, and I have to make a couple little filler pieces to close off the front and rear ends of this seam. Don't want to leave any caps for water/mud, I know with the welding in the area, I'm susceptible to corrosion as it is, don't need to encourage it!

[CanadianMiniFan]

Another update! Got the arch welds ground out, filled the ends in and seam sealed, so that's sorted. Shifted my attention to the rear subframe. Plan is to get the rear suspension pieces powedercoated, then they can be reassembled, whilst they are out being coated, my plan is to paint any baremetal with POR15, undercoat it with something, and then paint it beige. The shop has a bunch of Wurth Underseal, not the SKS variety, so I thought Id spray some as a test, see if it is acceptable or if I need to order some SKS. both are black, so would have to have a top coat laid on so it looks close to stock. 

Back to the subframe. I bought a bracket kit from Satisfied Incorporated, the Ireland Engineering kits just seemed a bit pricey, and arent without some fitment issues. So I thought I'd try these out. Overall, I'm fairly happy with them, but certainly needed some grinding and fitting. The Camber adjustment slots were not long enough to overlap with the factory height. My method of install was to cut off one bracket at a time, and fit the adjustable bracket in a position that mimics the factory location. Theory being I can always set it to the same place it was, and camber can go more positive from there, to cancel out the effects of lowering, and the toe can go either way. The brackets didnt fit very tightly to the subframe in a few places, necessitating either weld fill, or leaving a strip of old bracket to weld to. the slots are a little oversize, I would guess 1/2" rather than 12mm, and this means there isnt much of the bushing spacer in contact with the bracket. I think it will be fine, but I'd rather a tighter adjustment slot. My plan is to have large washers under the bolts and nuts, and once I have the alignment set, I'll tack the washers to the brackets so theres no chance of them slipping in the slots. Ramble over, on to the photos.

Used a spacer from an old trailling arm bushing to set the distance.

IMG_0677 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Tacked

IMG_0678 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_0679 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Getting to this point, all 8 tacked in place, took far longer than I had thought! But even with a lot of adjustment available, I wanted to be fairly accurate with their placement. I'll admit, they arent 100% perfect, a couple were a bit tight on the spacer, and not 100% square, but overall I'm not unhappy with the result,

Also used my spare arm for confirmation of fit throughout the process. This arm is bent, but not between the bushings, but where the hub attaches to the arm, so it's fine for this function.

IMG_0676 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Yesterday I got the reinforcement brackets welded on as well

IMG_0778 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_0779 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

I decided to grind down the welds, they were pretty decent looking, but I had ground out all the other welds holding the brackets on, so kept it consistent. I ended up seam welding the bracing plate between the diff mount and the subframe. I think some peope add extra bracing here for big torque applications, but I just finished the welding where the factory left spaces.

IMG_0780 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_0781 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

This is the lot of parts going for a nice semigloss black powder coat. Thought about painting them with POR15, but I'd use a ton of it, and my friend gives me a good deal on powdercoating Anyway.

IMG_0782 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

 

[AlpinaPat]

Nice job! I added similar adjustability to my E30 rear subframe last winter - it was a ton of work!

[CanadianMiniFan]

Got back at it this weekend, started out the day just cleaning up surface rust under the back, to prepare for POR15, and then I got sidetracked. Figured I should sort out the rear valance now, so then i dont burn off POR behind it and have to re do it later. I had the valance cut off a parts car, and figured I could make the bumper delete look cleaner. Started here

IMG_0803 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

This one was easy because it was just a straight even section

IMG_0804 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Corners were a little trickier as I had to taper the filler piece to the corner, but they turned out fine

IMG_0805 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_0806 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

While I was under there I kept looking at the swaybar mounts, they were pretty rusty and thin, and thought, if I leave these, theyre gonna fail at the worst time, and you dont really wanna weld in there when the fuel tank is back in. Or at least I dont want to. So I made up some replacement centre sections and welded them in. Looks like the brackets had been reinforced previously.

IMG_0807 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Filled in the marker light holes too, so one evening this week I can do some paint under there, and then investigate my undercoat options. We have some WURTH underseal cans I could use, black, and then overcoat with SEM beige Ecoat. If the underseal is too thin, or too far off on texture, I'll investigate ordering some SKS underseal, but Id rather use what we already have, not wait for another product. We will see. We have a sprayer with a hose extension so I will endeavour to get undercoat into all the nooks and crannies I can, and then wax after final paint.

IMG_0808 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

[CanadianMiniFan]

Minor update, last weekend I got the two diffs and assorted parts painted in preparation for reassembly. My other parts are done from powder coating, just need to pick them up. Have some Wurth undercoat coming, we can't get the SKS undercoat here in Canada, so i'm trying their rubberized underseal. It's paintable, so hopefully I can get a respectable match, not really looking to do the entire underside, just where all the welding is. Once thats done, I can install the fuel and brake lines, and assemble all the suspension to the subframe and get this car rolling again.

IMG_0830 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_0831 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

This weekend I went down and picked up a parts car from AlpinaPat here on the forum. It has a really nice hood, and the doors are fairly decent, so between them and what I have from other cars, I should be able to put together a decent set. I'm sure theres more parts I'll keep as spare, before it moves on to another home. It also has some 16" style 5s that I would like to use on my car. Thanks again to Patrick for making it an easy pick up!

IMG_0851 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

[CanadianMiniFan]

Some more progress, I finally got some undercoat from Wurth. The forum consensus seems to be the SKS underseal being the best texture match for the OEM undercoat. Unfortunately our Wurth Canada rep cannot get the product, and I'm not looking for a side quest to get some up here. I want the car to be fixed well, but we aren't doing concours here. So I settle on their paintable rubberized undercoat. I'm spraying it partially over the existing undercoat where it remains, and over the POR15 which I applied over my repairs. My thinking is, worst case that the undercoat doesnt stick perfectly, the POR15 is still completely adequate for rust protection. The car wont be seeing winter again, so I'm fairly confident this will be just fine. I had some difficulty getting our Wurth spray gun to spray properly, but got there in the end. Before I started I thought, maybe I should clean the rest of the underbody before touching in the areas that need it. What a horrible messy job. Ended up soaked from the waist up. I used Castrol Super Clean, a stiff brush and then rinsed with an air powered siphon gun. The results, to me, were more than acceptable. And it means I wont be spraying over dirt where I blend the new undercoat to the old. The Wurth Paintable Rubberized Underseal turned out decent, I could probably have dialed in the pressure and other settings to perhaps get the texture closer to factory, but i didnt want to waste much product doing that, I only got two 1L containers, and though it isnt an exact match, once it's all beige I think I will be happy with the result. And if I'm not, thats too bad, because I'm not redoing it! 
IMG_0889 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_0890 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_0893 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_0894 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_0895 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_0896 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr


I followed up the undercoating process today with the SEM EZ Coat Tan paint that seemed to be the forum choice for matching the OEM beige undercoat. It took a decent amount to cover the black, which wasnt unexpected, so now that i'm happy with the colour match, I have to order a few more cans to get everything done. I focused on the areas where the brake/fuel lines run, so if I need to wait a while for the paint to show up, I can at least proceed with that part of the job.

IMG_0898 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

I also got my subframe, trailing arms, backing plates and springs back from powdercoating, I had some extra time today so I pressed in the new subframe bushings.

IMG_0899 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_0900 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

That does it for today. I'll look for more beige paint tomorrow, theres a place I overlooked locally that I need to check out, worst case I order more off of amazon like I did for this can. 

[AlpinaPat]

The undercoat looks great! I don't envy the job of cleaning the underside!!!

[CanadianMiniFan]

 


Thanks Pat, it would be slightly nicer on your lift, but you just resign yourself to being muddy and wet, and then continue on. One piece of gear I’d recommend to anybody who is doing a large amount of cutting or grinding is a full face respirator. I have a 3M model, but having the full shield is way better than safety glasses. I also notice a big difference having the breathing protection. When I was young and dumb and didn’t want to look soft to the old guys at the shop, I didn’t wear any mask, but I started having coughing issues lying down at night, after a day of heavy metal work. Not worth those effects. And it kept the water off my face in this circumstance which was excellent. 




 

[Tiit]

Very nice work. Inspiring. 
I hate wearing respirator. My least favourite safety gear. I ended up buying a positive pressure grinding/welding mask. Extremely expensive, but it's the only way I could make myself take care of my lungs.  

[tig]

Lovely work!!!

[CanadianMiniFan]

Thanks for the support! Yes the respirator can be uncomfortable, but I've found it better than the half mask respirator and safety glass combo I was using before. Tig, your builds are among the top on this forum, and I've gone back and used many of your photos for reference. You've done a lot for this forum.

Today was a pretty big day for me. I actually got to put parts back on the car, permanently, and they actually looked good, not just more bare metal, or used sections etc. 3 or 4 years ago I ordered BMW original fuel and brake lines, as a fuel line leaking was the impetus to take the car off the road. I had sectioned in a couple pieces of rubber hose temporarily, but I knew the brake lines were just as rusty and the car wasn't safe anymore. At one point I was just going to do the lines, but quickly decided to either not bother, or fix the rest. The fuel lines came pre bent, and though not a perfect match for the old ones (I have a used set from the first donor car I got), they ended up where they needed to go, and were mostly parallel. The brake lines came in straight lengths, the right side being slightly longer. It took some time, but the lines were fairly malleable, so most of the bends were done with my thumbs, only some of the closer together bends near the ends did I use a bending tool. No, I did not get them perfect, but they connected up and I'm overall happy with the result. If somebody else is doing this, I recommend having an enormous open area, so when you're trying to bend and match the new and old lines,  you can swing the straight section of line all around and not hit anything.

IMG_0916 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Zip ties help to keep things tracking together as you go

IMG_0917 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

I had plastic guides from two cars, so ended up with more than enough that werent cracked or broken. I later found a bag of brand new BMW ones I guess I ordered at the same time, but forgot to use. So if somebody is looking for some....

IMG_0918 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Finally something that looks good

IMG_0919 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_0920 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

You can see some of the misalignment here....oh well

IMG_0921 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

I realized as I was running these that this part of the wheel well really will need to be green. The small section I wont be able to paint green where the lines are will be beige. Again, not ideal, but in the overal scheme of things I'll live

IMG_0922 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Sorted my fasteners. Top shelf is mostly from the subframe/Differential disassembly, bottom shelf is other parts of the car and misc. bolts from the donor car

IMG_0923 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Brand new pump and filter

IMG_0924 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Finished off the day cutting vent hoses to length, installing the heat shields, and testing the two intake pumps. The one that works is on the uglier of the two hangers, looks like it was replaced at some time as it has a long sock filter rather than a rigid rectangular one. I have one more in tank pump in the shed, maybe I'll test it too and see if one sounds smoother running than the other. 

IMG_0925 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Today really made the project feel real. Even though I'm generally confident about my abilities and the scope of the project, it's nice to have some milestones where its like yea, I'm gonna get this done.

[CanadianMiniFan]

Had to do the spring yard clean up yesterday, so I went in for a few hours this morning. Got the in tank pump swapped over to the least rusty hanger that I had. Looks like somebody had replaced it at some point, the two factory pumps I had were both dead. This is the one that was in the car, I had to cut the outlet pipe about .400" to raise the pump to the correct height. This pic was on the old, rustier hanger. I upgraded with a second zip tie when I swapped it over.

Untitled by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Once fitted with a new seal, the tank was ready to install

Untitled by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Fed the vent lines through, cut the feed and return hoses to length, and connected the wiring. Went in fine which was nice as I was on my own at the shop. Topped off with a freshly coated cap.

Untitled by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Got some paint touch ups done on the undercoat, painted the rear and side parts of the spare tire well black, and one brake line hold down had a broken screw in it. It was a stainless fastener in it, so tough to drill, so I ground the broken shank down flush before drilling. The new fastener doesnt match the rest, but I'll live. I had the line eased away, but of course the carbide burr caught, and nicked the brake line. Not right through, but through the rubber coating and a bit into the metal. Obviously less than ideal, but I'm not too worried about it holding pressure. With the rubber coating the line is .200”. The area that got nicked measures. .190”. Of the .010”, the rubber coating has to be at least .005”. So only about .005” of metal missing. Compared to the flaky rusty old lines, I'm sure it will be more than adequate. I touched up the scar with some paint so it doesnt corrode, but I was still upset as it was the exact thing I was making an effort to avoid doing, and it still happened.