BMW 2002 Slow progress

It's been a while since i posted my last instalment, In this time i have had to replace my MIG welder with a new unit and swop to bottled gas instead of the thow away bottles from machine mart. The cost of which has slowed me up a little.

The good news is the both inner wing repairs are now complete, the drivers floor is finished for now. It will need seam welding and the engine chassis rail leg repaiing when i roll the car onto its side later this year. And last of all the rear window opening is about 50% complete as well. The pictures are below.

I have found more rust in the rear subframe mounts and the front panel. Nothing that cant be corrected. Hopefully most of the small repairs plus finishing the windscreen surround will be completed this week and some more next week.

I have started the intake system for the engine by buying a BMW 5 series intake manifold. On the ebay picture the bolt pattern for the cylinder head looked similar. I turned out it my be a little to far out for me to use the whole system. Also the ports on the 02 are a lot larger than the 5 series whick would leave some wall section to thin. More thought needed in this area before i make my next move.

Also the alternator is going cause me problems as it sits close to inlet runner number 4

Bmw 2002 boot repair part 3

Ive got all the panels i think i need to repair the shell, namely the rear wheel arch parts and drivers floor. To start with the near side rear wheel arch.

These are the parts involved, the grey wheel arch outer and the black inner reinforcement. The inner panel is genuine BMW and looks very well made.

Unfortunately the wheel arch isn't the panel is made of two parts spot welded together. It also has many ripples in the panel. The seams will need seam welding and the ripples gently smoothed out. The yellow line is probably what i am going to cut off the repair panel.

The hole is open and the panel was plated over pity whoever did that didn't remove the rust before they hid it. so good job the panel is out as it would have been dangerous.

Bump stop mount to cut off clean and weld back on. I might tweak it to allow for full suspension travel when the car is lowered. Further investigation shows this one buggered and the other side stop is crushed. These parts are not available so i will have to make them from new.

The shock mount need also to be cut off cleaned and refitted.

This underside view shows the two new panels and a repair panel that sits behind the rear seat. It's all held together with self tapping screws.

This shot show the upper side. The welding sequence is remove the three panels still screwed together and weld the two wheel arch panels. Then remove the reinforcement panel and drill a spotweld hole every inch along the edge. the holes are plug welded and ground flat. Last of all all the edges will be seam welded on the inside and the outside of the panel so that i know the panel is strong and lock out moisture that will get into the panel gap and cause more rust.

All that left is to do the whole thing again on the other side. This repair has taken about 20 hours to complete.

BMW 2002 floor repairs

The boot repair is progressing but as yet i can't get the new panel to fit as well as i like. I will eventually get it in, but in the mean time i have been stripping the car, The sunroof is out of the car the picture below shows a surprise. I have also removed all glass, doors and dashboard. This has thrown up some more rust. mainly in the window openings and front bulkhead area. The boot lid and front wings will come off soon.

A sprinkling of rust flakes from the underside of the roof, i have never seen rust on a car here. WOW a new place for rust to lurk!

The water getting into the car is from bad welding repairs and via the fan unit, as i removed one of the fan ducts i got cover in about half a litre of water. both area fixable i think. I have started the floor repair, i cut a bad patch of plating out the passenger rear floor the floor wasn't that bad so why the big patch i don't know. What i do know is that water was helping the whole thing to rust out again. The picture sequence below shown the repair to the floor.

The floor repair in this area is now complete, not completely invisible but better than the previous attempt. Once the Stonechip is on the underside you will have to look hard to find the repair. Job done next repair.