Getting this 3.0CSi back on the road

eludvigs

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Perhaps the thread should be "BMW E9 - Extreme Makeover Edition"

That joke might only work with people subject to horrible American broadcast television.
 

Gransin

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Interesting, it appears that you are building the entire car from new parts:mrgreen:

Perhaps the thread should be "BMW E9 - Extreme Makeover Edition"

Well, I'll admit it has gone a bit out of hand:mrgreen: But I think it'll be worth it in the long run, it's pretty cheap (relatively) to put in new metal at this stage, compared to later in a couple of years when it is painted and otherwise complete.

Thanks for the compliments!
 

Gransin

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Todays work.

Left door with old bottom cut out.

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Then welded the new bottom on the door (forgot to take better pictures), and continued with getting off the old doorskin.

Screen Shot 2017-09-02 at 20.42.21.png


Finally removed, it wasn't as easy as it might look this whole door operation..
Will mediablast the inside of the door next weekend before the new skin is put on.

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New doorskin testfitted, and fits like a glove!

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We also did the rightside inner front panel.

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Starting to look more and more complete:)

Screen Shot 2017-09-02 at 20.43.21.png
 
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Gransin

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More work done today, the left door was blasted and got some epoxi paint put on earlier this week, so we could continue with the door right away. The left front wheelhouse also got some paint.

Looks like new :)

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So we put on the new doorskin and started testfitting it on the car.

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Also started testfitting the front fender, everything seems to fit fairly well. The lower part of the fender will still be replaced.

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Then it was time to do it all over again, next door.
Bottom cut out and new one put in place with some spots until it's blasted.

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Old doorskin removed

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And after that it was time to blast it

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An example of all the small stuff that you don't really notice on the pictures, but takes a h*ll of a lot of time to do.

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Gransin

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Not much to take pictures of today, but continued with the door. There were more rust on this door than the other.

The new bottom completely welded in, and had to replace a couple of inches of the outer edge.

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Had to replace more than half of the outer edge of the door on this side.

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Cut out a lot of the old strengthening piece at the bottom of the door and replaced it with new sheetmetal. The door is now ready for the first round of epoxi paint.

3.jpg


Small steps forward;-)

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Gransin

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Some hours spent in the garage this week also, got the door painted and the doorskin put on.

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Test fitting it on the car, not a 100% fit, will need some tweaking to get the gaps OK.

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Front corner of the rocker completed.

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And the other side too.

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Cut out the old homemade lower corners of the fenders

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Working on the fenders

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Then we testfitted the hood

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With the fenders put on :mrgreen: Looks like nothing is too much out of shape, huge relief.

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And then we started with the other fender, but didn't complete it today.

Screen Shot 2017-09-02 at 21.08.45.png


The sight when we went home, looks like an e9 again!

Screen Shot 2017-09-02 at 21.08.54.png
 
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Gransin

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Thank you Steve!

Went to the garage for a couple of hours this morning, got the lower corner of the right fender almost complete.

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Got started on the front of the fenders, a bit complicated.

Screen Shot 2017-09-02 at 21.17.57.png


Piece by piece... :wink:

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Gransin

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Another weekend in the garage, continued with the fenders and they are now partially welded in place! Big step forward even if it may not look like much, but all the testfitting, putting them on and taking them off x100, is now over:smile:

But first, some more welding on them. Cut out the old edge and put in a new one.

Screen Shot 2017-09-02 at 21.20.18.png


Cut out the front inner corner and replaced with new metal.

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Did the same on the other side.

Screen Shot 2017-09-02 at 21.20.33.png


Had also to replace a piece of metal where the fender meets the A pillar.

Screen Shot 2017-09-02 at 21.20.40.png


Then it was time for some lead-filling.

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Then went over them (again) with the media blaster, very carefully to prevent warping, and then it was time for epoxipaint.

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The reinforcement got welded in place, and then got some paint put on.

Screen Shot 2017-09-02 at 21.21.23.png


Then went over the welds with Sika 252.

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I rather put too much of it than too little, won't be visible later when every layer of protection is in place.

Screen Shot 2017-09-02 at 21.22.04.png


And yeah, the black 252 ended so I had to take a bit of white 252.

Screen Shot 2017-09-02 at 21.22.15.png


And after that, it was time for the big moment, to put them back on for (now I'm really jinxing it..) the next 30-40 years :)

We're gonna fill up with lead in some places later.

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There is still some work with the fenders in the front, but I forgot to bring the front grilles to the garage, so we stopped with that until next time so we can be sure they fit as they should.

Then we started testfitting the rockerpanels to get the lower part of the fenders in the correct place, note that only the top of the fenders are welded, so the gaps between door and fender are not final, and the rockerpanels are just thrown on there to see what needs to be modified.

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aeronotix

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spare wheel well rusted out

Hi,
Impressive work!
I have a rusted out spare wheel well.
I see that you welded a new one on your shell.
Where have you found a replacement part?
Thanks,
Stephane
 

Gransin

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Thanks Peter!

Stephane, I found it on ebay.co.uk, it is a (dare I even say this?:-o) Ford Mondeo Wagon spare wheel well (MY -96 to -00)

Last time I saw a e9 replacement spare wheel well for sale, it was around 700€, I couldn't justify that price so I went with this Ford one for around 50€.

/Robert
 

Cornishman

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More details on wheel well

Robert
This is great work, thanks for shareing it.

Could you give us more details on your spare wheel well please?
Do you have details on what you needed to do to make it fit? Did you use a new well or a used one.
If new, do you know who the seller was?
Thanks
C
 

Gransin

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Robert
This is great work, thanks for shareing it.

Could you give us more details on your spare wheel well please?
Do you have details on what you needed to do to make it fit? Did you use a new well or a used one.
If new, do you know who the seller was?
Thanks

Thank you!

I measured a lot of different spare wheel wells to try and find one with the same diameter as the original one, and this Mondeo well was almost exactly the same diameter, however, the e9 original well is completely round, and the Mondeo well have some vertical folds (as you can see in the pictures) but they were pretty easy to flatten out with a hammer around the edge where you are going to weld it to the trunk floor.

The well I used was a completely new replacement part, bought from Ebay UK, and the seller was: Allpartsford

But he doesn't seem to have them for sale anymore. Maybe try and contact the seller?

/Robert
 
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aeronotix

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Awesome!
I'm afraid we are going to hijack your thread...
I propose to open a different one just for this subject.


Thanks Peter!

Stephane, I found it on ebay.co.uk, it is a (dare I even say this?:-o) Ford Mondeo Wagon spare wheel well (MY -96 to -00)

Last time I saw a e9 replacement spare wheel well for sale, it was around 700€, I couldn't justify that price so I went with this Ford one for around 50€.

/Robert
 

Gransin

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No, no, I like project threads with discussions, so please ask or discuss anything you want :) But I saw you already opened a different thread about it.
 

Gransin

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Continued this weekend, all sheetmetal work are now done. Finally!

Maybe not so exiting photos, but better than nothing;)

Right front fender completely welded in place.

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Lower front panel welded in place.

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And the left fender in place.

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Lower door seal-rails welded in place on both doors, thanks to johanaxelson and DWMBMW for helping me with the correct placement of them!

Screen Shot 2017-09-02 at 21.31.57.png


Some more lead-filling.

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Started stripping paint from the trunk lid. Multiple layers of paint and bondo, can't understand why they have used so much bondo as the trunk lid is completely straight and have no dents at all.

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Started with the hood, even worser than the trunk lid, there were 5 millimeters of paint and bondo on that hood, allover it.. Can actually feel a noticeable difference in weight now after I got it all off.

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Put the hood and trunk lid on the car before we went back home.

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Thats it for now.
 
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FGS

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This thread is a valuable reference for my incoming project. Great work and thanks a lot for sharing it!

I've a question: how can you be sure that the door gaps are correct without putting the car on its wheels? These are heavy bodies and ar e prone to "open" when they're on jacks.
 
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