Rust, welding and paint

Another late update, just gave up documenting the amount of rust in this car.

The list is.

New boot floor

Rear panel under bumper

Rear lower side panels

Rear shock towers

OS Rear suspension support, and stiffeners

OS Outer sill + patch repair inner sill

NS Rear suspension support (TBC)

Inner wheel arch OS and NS (TBC)

Rear window surround

Front window surround (TBC)

Driver floor needs seam welding from below

A post repairs (extensive) OS and NS

Rear of front panel both sides

Front chassis support member

Front panel below bumper - minor welding (TBC)

Scuttle panel welding.

Strengthening chassis supports

NS lower wing repair

Bonnet repairs to correct mistakes

Small repairs to door (TBC)

The good news is that the welding is 90% complete and most of the rust has been banished. The exception is the door and bonnet. That will come soon. The BMW has now been put back on the drive to make way for the return of my spitfire that needs the garage space. The collection of the photos below shows some of the repairs.

Rear end, 95% of the rust is gone and bear metal etch prime red or rust neutralizing paint applied.

Chassis strenghtener

The Nose ! Front panel is good but bonnet lip needs work

Front side panel

Looks awful, two more sessions and this was completely clean.

Front chassis reinforcement and what what i has as a pattern for the new part.

Sill end / subframe mount / seat belt point repairs.

And what i started with.

Front end looking more healthy.

Front chassis reinforcement in place and painted. The bottom panel for the radiator mount also welded, battery mount needs to be derusted and welded back in.

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.

Boot repair part 2

The boot repairs are progressing slowly, the pictures below show the new panels have been formed. There is still a long way to go to finish this repair, lots of dressing flanges and welding. The boot area will need to be stripped of all paint and grot before the new panel is welded in place for good. Then just some small repair patches to finish this bit of the boot repair.

Now the rest of the news-

I have removed most of the sound deadening pads inside the car and it seems the rust isn't actually that bad. The only bit that might need work is the drivers front floor pan. It might turn out to be better to replace with a repair section. The car is now in the garage as the spitfire is over wintering in sunny Weymouth. When the footwell finally dry out i will run a wire wheel over the floor to remove some of the crud.

I have also managed to get the engine running, not easy seeing as the car had two types of spark plugs ( two of which were faulty), HT leads that were knackered and a distributor that was incorrectly set in the engine block, The coil was also knackered the rotor arm had also been tweaked. A new set of leads, plugs, coil from the spit and cleaned point had the car running. Albeit badly, there is an air leak in the the inlet system oh and clouds of blue smoke from the exhaust ! Bugger that put the idea of getting the car back on the road next summer. Plan B i think.

The air leak i think comes from the rubber hoses to the brake servos, havn't checked this yet but might be the reason the servos don't work . The blue smoke comes from either or both the valve stem seals and work piston rings. Both of which require major work on the engine.

So the new plan is to go straight into a full on resto and engine build. The major repairs to the body will be completed first the new injection system will probably be next. This is only because i dont want to do the initial tune to the injection system with a rebuilt engine. I at the very least will need the fuel and spark maps to run the engine with no load up to 2000RPM. This is because i need this to break in the new engine after the rebuild.

bmw 2002 boot repair part 1

I have started work on the worst area of the car, that is the boot. I decided to run a wire wheel over the boot area. The results found a huge amount of seam sealer and newspaper filler. In the process finding that the boot is from another car and has large gaps filled with seam sealer. So it was no surprised that boot came out fairly quickly. The pictures below show that the outer panels are largely rust free and can be reused.

The picture below show the start of repair panel for this area, the spare wheel well is in the process of being cleaned so that it can be welded into the new panel.

Once this side is welded in place i will repair the other side. Then i can start on the other areas like the wheel well to boot floor repair panel and both lower quarters to the rear panel. the latter have been welded badly and will need to to redone. The next repairs will be the upper boot floor panel, which should be straight forward. Then onto the pig of a job which is the wheel well itself. In the process if doing these repairs i noticed that the rear parcel shelf is rusted out and the outside panel is in the same state. Another pig of a job to do right. I will however cut and flange 6x9 speaker holes in the parcel shelf when the window is out so i have some where to fit speakers without cutting trim panels about.

The repairs should speed up when the spitfire is safely in it's temporary home in Weymouth, at the moment dragging a dead car in and out of the garage is a pain. This will happen next weekend. Also some of the car bits will be put up in the garage loft, i have started this but need to finish. I have some new waterbased underbody stonechip to try out as well, busy then.

The waterleaks that fill up the footwells is not the fault of the sunroof, the water is dripping down the bulkhead from behind the dashboard. at some point i will remove it to find out if it's the windscreen or another spot.

bmw 2002 - Whats wrong, Whats right ?

I collected the car today, on the face of it the cars not to bad. However that is based on the condition of the spitfire when it landed on my drive.

The car has been partially stripped.There seems to be over two cars worth of bits sorting them out will be a challenge. The good news is that i think everything is in the boxes apart fron one front indicator assembly. So overall not to bad.

The car itself has a few issues as most of these cars do.

• Various bubbles of rust on various panels.
• The Bootlid and bonnet panel gaps are not very good, hopfully when i re-install the catches and adjust them everything will be Ok.
• The door gap however are very bad but i managed to twist the passenger door to fit the opening. i suspect the door has been reskinned and the not welded in a few points to lock the door in the correct shape. This hopefully is an easy fix.
• The engine bay is clean apart fron rust bubbles on the strut tower tops.
• Front wings are very good.
• Sills look good but will need more investigation to confirm.
• Roof panel and rain channels look good.
• Rear quarters are good but i suspect the wheel arch lips have been replaced.
• Rear light panel is good as are the front and rear valances.
• Now the bad part the boot and floor panels. The front floor panels have been patched badly and are rusty and full of water. These might be salvagable with some better welding otherwise i will by replacement panels. The boot Oh my God the welding looks like it been done by a blind man in a rush. So the plan is to buy repair panel from Jaymic with new suspension reinforcement panels and weld into place. Easy to say but a bitch to do properly in the confined space. The boot area is also very rusty. I will have to give it a good clean to find the full story, hopefully small patches rather than a new boot floor is all it will need.
• The good news is that the car is repairable, it could have been a lot worse.
• I will have to go over the car and soort out most rust spots so that i can halt the rust going and further SOON!

• The interior is a mixed bag the back seat cover is in good nick, i will just have to replace the old padding underneath so not a problem, the front seat will need more attention. It might also be trimmed in leather.
• The carpet is shot, waterlogged and yellow - Bin order charcoal or black replacement.
• Front door cards are in bad shape rear card are spot on, just needs a clean.
• The dash and centre console is good clean.
• The pedal work, the accelorator need sorting, might opt for a roller rather than the standard setup- worked well on my VW 20 years ago.
• I couldn't start the engine it's either fuel or spark and maybe compression. The wiring loom is part Tii which is not helping, i'll wire a new circuit and add an electric fuel pump to get her running.
• Also i will have to do the mechanical inspection and asses what needs doing.

Overall an Ok car, not that easy to sort but not to bad, certainly i have until April next year to sort it for the MOT and hopefully next summer i'll get all the mods done in readiness for the teardown and restoration next winter.

The plan for now is

• Stop the rust going any further.
• Get the engine started.
• Reinstall some parts to get the panel gaps correct.
• clean it.
• Start the injection system build.