E30 M3 minor rust repair

[xworks]

Took my M3 off the road a few months back to do some
rust repairs and started a thread in some other forums,
never got around to posting it up here, so here goes.

Bought the car in England a couple of years ago now,
despite the reg plate being 1990 it's actually one of the early M3's (1986).
It's a 195bhp with the cat and this is how it looked when I first got it.



Haven't had much time to do a lot with it in the few years since buying
it apart from some wheels and routine service work. This is how she looked
before taking off the road.



Unfortunately although she looks reasonably clean in the pic's the old saying comes to mind
"good from afar but far from good", reason being the dreaded rust had kicked in and was
starting to munch it's way through the chassis. Also there was quite a few dings around
the body and the front is severly stone chipped for some reason











the most noticeable of the rust was on the rear arches where it would appear
somewhere during it's life the rear arches were rolled to accommodate larger wheels
and tyres and poorly done..





So we set about getting the car ready for some small rust repairs....



















with the amount of stuff coming out of the bm, shelf space was starting to get scarce
so the poor escort has to double up as a fitted wardrobe for the time being ....





right ready to begin......


As mentioned the main reason for taking the car off the road was
the rust on the rear arches, but that was far from the least of the
rust problems. First up was some rust on the drivers side of the boot
under where the rubber seal sits.....



a few years after the car rolled off the production line the rear end
had an unfortunate coming together with a solid object, otherwise
known as a tank slapper. The previous owner had provided all the original
receipts for the main dealer repairs at the time , which showed that it
had a rear drivers side section of the quarter panel changed. Sure enough
real oem confirmed that a replacement section of the rear quarters were
available, and I have to admit that whoever done the repair done it well
at the time, I certainly couldn't have done better. Unfortunately the ravages of
time(17years) and salty water has taken it's toll on the repair
and while the main part of the repair (the face of the quarter panel) is
still perfect, the sections under the boot lid and under the bumper have
rusted badly.

So, first thing is to clean away the paint and see how much metal needs
to come out.....



mark up and cut out the rotten area.....





and then make up a replacement section from some shiny new sheet
steel...



and weld it in........



i'm not gifted enough to form and weld in the repairs seemless with the
original panel so the patches are welded in slightly below the surface level
to allow for a small skim of filler to blend the repairs.

next up was a small hole in the bulkhead under the battery tray about the size
of a cue tip which when wire brushed with the angle grinder opened
up to reveal itself to be a little larger......



same story again, mark, cut out, make cardboard template, transfer to
metal, tack in place, weld up, sand down welds and apply primer to bare
metal.......



after that it was on to the windscreen scuttle which on the whole was
blemish free, apart from a section on the passenger side at the drain
hole....



when wire brushed back it was mostly just surface rust, but as access to
view the far side of the panel was poor it was decided to play safe and
cut out and replace.......







next up the foot wells, having had the carpets out a year ago as a result
of a heater matrix leak I was reasonably confident that she wasn't a
Flintstone mobile and that the floors were still fairly well intact.
And sure enough she still looked presentable from the inside.....





but some routing around underneath revealed some less than pristine
metal, first up was the front of the drivers side inner sill panel, seen here
with the spot welds drilled and section nicked for removal.....





then it was on to the passenger side which was a little more involved.
At some stage the seamsealer had given way around the front jacking
box and allowed the elements in on top of the box section. The box
section was finished......



but thankfully it hadn't taken to much of the floor with it. Again to be
safe anywhere that had signs of even slight surface rust was cut
to make way for new metal......

[xworks]

after that it was back again to that rear quarter panel repair and the
rusted section hidden behind the back bumper. Surprisingly we didn't
have to wait for the wire brush to find out the extent of the rust here....





again cut out all that was coloured that expensive shade of browny
orange...



and make up some new pieces to fill up the holes.....



don't mind admitting this one took a few goes to get the bends right...







and thats about where it's up to now. Still plenty of rust to go and
still have to figure out what way to go at the rear arches. Loads of
stuff planed for the rebuild but we'll save that for down the line,
next installment could be fun though, as we attempt to swap a perfectly
good sun roof for a freshly purchased non sunroof roof.....





will she end up a soft top??

[xworks]

we managed to get some progress done since the last post, the main
item being the attempt to change the roof. When originally setting out to
look for an M3 in the begining I had wanted one without a sunroof
but this proved all but impossible to find at the time so instead I settled for
a car with one. (which I bought off a member on here, howya steve if your
still tuned in!). So when planning this rebuild I decided that if so much work
was going to be done to the shell, changing the roof wouldn't add much more
effort, plus it'd get rid of a nice bit of weight to.
So after buying the roof skin from the local dealer, which is the same skin
as any other e30, we set about seeing what was involved in changing it.
From studying the parts diagrams it appeared that the rear roof addition
could be removed by drilling some spot welds to get access to the roof below
it.....




however when we started to clean around this panel to reveal the spot
welds that would have to be drilled we discovered that not only was the
panel a bit bigger than we had expected but it was also brazed in
places (i've outlined the panel in red to try and show a bit clearer what is
all one panel)........



and it continued all the way over to the other side.......



we hadn't minded the taughts of drilling out the spot welds around the
windscreen lip and the ones across the roof, but, in having to heat the panel
up to remove the braze and then removing the whole section across the
parcel shelf we were fairly sure we'd f**k the panel up,
which takes on a little more significance when your told the panel is no
longer available to buy. So instead we decided to do it like this.

first up cut out the lower section of the sunroof tray.....





which allows a good view of the brace that runs across the roof right
behind the sunroof opening. This had to stay, as cutting this out leaves
the roof very very flexible.
next up cut out the roof behind this brace......



which allows better access to carefully trim the metal off the brace.....



the sidewalls of the sunroof tray were still stuck to the brace and while
they at first glance look as if they are just bonded to it......



they are in fact spot welded to it.......



so drill the spot welds and carefully prise it free....



next up, the roof skin at the rear of the sunroof hole rolls in around
this brace.....



and the lip was buffed with the angle grinder untill the lip could be broken off without doing any damage to the brace. With everything now disconected underneath from the brace all that remained was to remove
the roof skin from above it. Two carefull cuts......



and then peal the skin off.....



revealing the roof brace....



with that done a few more carefull cuts were made to remove the side bits
of the roof skin.....



the reason why we needed to be carefull with the cuts was the roof
skeleton was only a few mm below the roof skin and we didn't want to
touch it.





with the skin cut down to the drain gutters on the side of the roof, these
were then buffed down with the angle grider to the flat mating surface,
ready for the new skin to sit on top (sorry lost the pic).
The last remaining piece of skin was the front section which involved
drilling out the spot welds around the windscreen lip and cutting it off....





the original roof is brazed on at the top of the front windscreen pillars
and this was removed by getting out the gas bottles and melting the braze
again to allow the last little bit of skin to be pulled off.....



after stopping for a brief smoke and whats reffered to in medical terms
as a sh*te attack when the realisation kicked in that I'd just cut a
perfectly good roof off my M3 , we moved on swiftly.

remove the new roof from it's fancy crate.....



and then offer up the roof to see how it fits. As said earlier we had decided not
to remove the rear panel which concealed a couple of inches
of the roof skin and instead decided to cut and weld the roof here instead.
First up mark the roof to trim off the overhang....



and then refit the roof skin to see if we'd measured right.....



thankfully we did, and the roof sat nicely in place as we had left an inch
of the old skin protruding out and had joggled this down allowing the
new roof to sit on top of it......



next up was to trim the "A" pillar joins and get them sitting right.....



a couple of laps around the car buffing down metal to ensure the roof
was sitting snuggly before welding started......



and then we started welding at the rear first working our way forward,
after each weld was done it was quickly quenched with a wet rag to try
stop the heat from soaking into the roof skin and warping it.....



ideally it would have been nice to use a spot welder for this but we don't
have one and after pricing a decent one decided that it wasn't worth
buying one just for this job, so mig it is.....



the nice part about this run of welds is that theres a nice little brace
that sits on the roof which conceals everything.....



we then moved on to the sides, on the original roof the gutters appear to
be continously roll welded, I've no idea whats required to replicate this
and hassard a guess that the equipment required would cost the same if
not more than the spot welder, so, mig welder at the ready we ran a
bead of weld an inch long every few inches........



and buffed them down flush when finished so the black rail trim pieces
will fit back over.......



next up was drill and plug weld around the front windscreen lip.....





and finally braze up the "A" pillar joints.....



and hey presto, no sunroof.....





thank f**k thats done, not that we were ever nervous of making a balls
of it you understand :mad: :D





hope to tackle the rear arches next.

[xworks]

got a bit more done since last post.
First up was to sort out the battery box on the passenger side.
Thankfully it wasn't as bad as the other side, but it was still far from
perfect, that'd be far to easy.....




when cleaned up fully it wasn't to big....



but it had also spread to the battery box floor aswell....



so out with the grinder....





and make up the replacement pieces, weld in and grind down neat.....



next up was a little bubble just above this, which when paint stripped
revealed this.....



no idea how that one started? anywho, it wasn't too bad from the inside....



but with the outside wire brushed you could see it had to go....



so, cut out....



make up piece and weld in and clean up.....



was shifting along at a nice pace at this stage and could see only one
more little piece on this section, lovely, get this finished tonight....



aaah fu*k.....



the rust had actually started from the inside wheel arch skin and spread
to the outer panel as they run quite close together......



so, all together now.... cut



fabricate.... (like that word?, sounds real fancy for beating the shit out
of a piece of steel till it roughly resembles the bit you hacked off)



fab and weld inner skin (it's now "fab" instead of fabricate, with the
amount of bloody rust popin up on this thing i'm going to be typing that
word alot).....



not getting to carried away cleaning the welds flush on this one, it's
behind the bumper and behind the bumper bracket.....





if someone sees it, it should mean i've just run over them, in which case
they're unlikely to tell anybody about it.

right enough of that micky mouse crap, time to start hackin the arch off.
With the paint stripped off you could see how far the rust had spread up....



and although the main face of the arch hadn't holed through with the rust,
the lip inside when bent back down from the ""PROFESSIONAL"" arch
rolling job, looked to be totally shot to bits.....



reckoned that since the outside skin was this bad most probably the inner
skin would be shite too and both would probably need cutting back. I then
realised with both bits going to be cut away I was going to need a template
of some sort to help form the new arch metal in to the same shape. So
before cutting anything I bent up and cut a bit of mdf to act as a guide....





with that done it was time to mark up what had to go.....



and then chop it out to reveal a pleasant suprise....



the inner skin was untouched by the brown pox, even the lip cleaned up
with a slight wire brush, marvelous, see that, if this was an Italian car the
bloody axle probably would have fell out on that last cut. These Germans
know what their at.

anywho, now that you could see what need to be replaced we could get on
with making up the replacement piece.
Draw up a piece from the bit that was cut off....



leaving 10mm above the piece to tuck in behind the original skin, and
20mm below the piece to roll under for the arch lip....



we picked up this tool a few years ago and it's fairly handy for pieces
like this, think it's called a "joggler", probably wrong though, don't blame
me if they start laughing at ya when you ask for one down the tool shop.....



and when you look at it up close you can see the teeth which bends the
metal are shaped to bend it so the new piece runs up behind the
original piece.....



like so.....



next was to cut a few slits in it to allow the 90 degree bend for the lip on
the bottom of the arch....



and after studying the other arch you could see that the bend wasn't a
sharp 90degree but a little curved, so we made a little dolly piece to
bend the metal over....



and then bent it piece by piece......





which left it looking like this....



the last thing to do was drill a few holes in the lip so it could be plug
welded to the inner arch lip....



and then start the long process of weldin it in, bit by bit.....



spot by spot, till it's one continuous line of weld.....



and when it's finished grind the welds down smooth....



and weld the two lips together and all the little slits....



it's not 100% perfect, up close you can see where metals been added in,
nothing a light skim of filler won't hide though, isopon, the life blood of
many a bodger.

[xworks]

with that done there was just a little piece at the back of the arch which
was left....





time to move inside the wheel arch then, on the whole the main metal work
looked ok in there, but anywhere there was a bracket or something
sticking out had caught the pox, such as this little lad which supports
the plastic wheel arch liner....



when viewed from the inside it had actually holed through the panel....



so off with the bracket and cut.....



copy and paste....



bracket it's self wasn't to bad and cleaned up grand to go back on again...







next up was the little cover that runs over the fuel tank breather pipes
in the arch and if the other parts of the shell had caught the pox this bit had
contracted the plague. Heres what it should look like.....



and here's what's left intact of the old one once removed, the differences
are quite subtle at first glance, but those with a keen eye should be able
to tell the two apart....



unfortunately while the cover was an easy swap, the bit's the cover rested
against and had got infected took a little more effort.....

















had hoped this next bit would be available from the dealer as a replacement
panel.....







but after checking with realoem and then the dealer it appears that the
shock tower pictured only comes with the whole inner wheel arch liner.
So she'll get the cut and paste job to.

And thats where we're at at the moment, have to go now as it's taken
that long to post this up the fu*kin cars probably started rusting again.....

.

[xworks]

Been a while since the last update, reason being we've had some
engine woe's, a bit hard to understand when your cars just a bare shell,
but alas it was not the M3 engine that was the cause for grief. Instead it
was the turn of the 325 I bought to get me around while the M was off
the road that decided it was time she had some attention too.
For a while now I've been the proud owner of an environmentally
friendly "biofuel" 325. She run's on both petrol and water, but when
she started to use more water than petrol there was no avoiding it any
longer. Work had to pause on the M to sort the head gasket on the 325.




Thankfully the few gaskets needed for the 325 didn't amount to much and
the job was a quick one, however the other half of Xworks motorsport
didn't quite fair out quite so lucky when his engine decided to let go at the
same time. It took a lot more funds and effort to get this kitten purring
again....





with the engine woe's out of the way we were able to return to the
BM again and something we've been meaning to get around to for a few
years now. All the shells we've worked on in the past we've usually
rolled over on to some old tires to gain access to underneath, and while
this has worked ok, it's not very elegant and an ability to hold a shell at
a different angle while working on it can be very helpful. So, some box,
angle, tube, channel and a pair of housed bearings led to the creation
of this....











the spit is designed for the weight of a bare shell and it can be
rotated with one hand. Both front and back stands are identical, bar
the locking mechanism welded to the rear stand to hold the shell
at the desired angle. We used an automatic driveplate as it had a circle
of holes allready in it and saved us having to make up and dill a plate.





the uprights of the spit were made just tall enough to rotate the
shell 90 degrees as seen below....



it has worked out very handy and both of us agreed we should have
made one years ago, especially when the metal and bearings needed to
make it only costed around €140.



one slight modification we made to it when up and running was the
addition of 2 outriggers front and back. As we found the shell had an
irritating habit of rocking ever so slightly back and forward when you
were sanding or wire brushing along the axis of the spit. The outriggers
cured this.







if anyone tuned in decides they're going to build one for themselves
in the future I've drawn up a few measurements in the link below that
may help.[/color]

http://www.xworksmotorsport.com/m3%2...%20%282%29.JPG

[color=white] with the spit finished it was back to the shell and where we left off
last post. The passenger side rear shock tower. As mentioned earlier
the shock tower isn't available as a separate piece, only as a part of the
whole wheel arch inner skin. So after a cut and paste this was the end
result......



the only thing left to finish in this arch was a small bracket at the top
of it, which was fairly well gone.....



thankfully with the bracket removed it hadn't done much damage to
the arch skin....



the bracket however was kaput....



so make a new bracket.....



and repair the arch skin before rewelding the bracket left it looking
fine again....



After this it was on to the arch the other side, starting again with
the shock tower. This time the actual tower itself was fine, but instead
the arch skin right behind it had let go.....



2 choices, either crawl into the boot and cut and repair the skin from
in there, or, cut a piece of the shock tower out of the way to do the repair
from the outside.....



innar skin repair piece.....



welded.....



shock tower piece remade and rewelded.....



cleaned up and a lick of primer......



After that it was on to the arch itself. Thankfully it wasn't as bad as
the far side when cleaned up.....



two small sections needed replacing......

[///Mflossin]

pretty awesome! Subscribed. I desperately want to do a rotisserie resto at some point.

[redsportt]

unreal.....you need a medal mate

[FredK]

Wow. This kind of work requires a ridiculous amount of motivation, skill, and the patience of a saint. Awesome work!

[PostmasterNY]

:homer: probably the most extensive body restoration / thread ever! thank you for sharing.

[xworks]

Thanks for the kind words lads, I know the posts are
a bit long winded at the moment but hopefully they
show why this thing is taking so bloody long to get done.
Hopefully the effort will show in the finished product.
Got the first couple of coats of filler primer on last week
and am in the middle of blocking it down at the moment,
thankfully she seems to be coming up fairly straight.
Still a fair bit of labour to go before top coat can be
applied, but sure if it was simple there'd be nothing to
write about.
Should be moving on to more interesting stuff when
the shell is finished, going to have a go at rebuilding the
engine, gearbox and diff.
I'll keep sticking up the posts and pic's as we go along,
as people seem to be interested in them, and if any of you
get something useful from it then excellent, but just keep in
mind that half the time we haven't a clue what we're at!

[Sporty1]

[BeastPower]

Amazing!

Cheers, Daniel.

[Ryan M]

Wow. Very impressive

[JOEBMW]

i thought i had rust

great progress and work. You plan on painting the underbody the same color of the car or just black?