Chris' BMW Projects

[Mcstiff]

Oh yeah I forgot... That's option 3! Just gotta figure out how to go about that...

Invite Aaron over with a sawz-all

[loxxrider]

Oh yeah I forgot... That's option 3! Just gotta figure out how to go about that...

Invite Aaron over with a sawz-all

Yeah, I can think of some Canadians who could help too! Only problem is that noone would want to help because its a BMW

[EDIGREG]

Oh yeah I forgot... That's option 3! Just gotta figure out how to go about that...

Take it to a good professional.

[loxxrider]

No budget for that with the 200 as a project still and a cobra on the horizon! I'd like to use it as a learning platform whatever I do.

[scubadave]

A what? Dude, we gotta have a talk about your "little car problem"

First step is to admit you have a problem.

Second, your dad doesn't have enough property to park your problem lol. I should know, I been there.

Third...I'm getting jealous of your problem dude... What ever happened to looking at (car) magazine's and masturbating!

Sounds to me like you need to shitcan the idea of buying a house, and just buy an old warehouse like on wanesworld 2 and make the first floor the garage.

[Hank]

Ooooohhh. What Cobra? I have a 03 R on my top 20 bucket list.

[loxxrider]

A what? Dude, we gotta have a talk about your "little car problem"

First step is to admit you have a problem.

Second, your dad doesn't have enough property to park your problem lol. I should know, I been there.

Third...I'm getting jealous of your problem dude... What ever happened to looking at (car) magazine's and masturbating!

Sounds to me like you need to shitcan the idea of buying a house, and just buy an old warehouse like on wanesworld 2 and make the first floor the garage.

Lol good points all around. I do have a bit of a problem, but I'm trying to control it! I plan to get a house of my own in a year or two which is when the cobra project will start. For now, I'm trying to keep the house down-payment budget in check while still keeping the projects alive and contributing 20+% to retirement. When I get a house is when the fun will really start I think I'll be able to let one go when the time comes for a the next dream project (don't worry, I'll NEVAR! let the 200 go ).

Anyway, I gotta do it now... God knows there wont be time/money for it when kiddies come around.

Ooooohhh. What Cobra? I have a 03 R on my top 20 bucket list.

Not exactly what you were thinking. I'm talking 427FE side-oiler Shelby Cobra... replica of course. Wouldn't want to drive the real thing (cause I can afford that right? ). Factory Five is my choice because you get a tube chassis rather than a ladder frame and you can trick it out to be as badass of a track car as you want. It has to have a real 427 in it though. My Dad wont accept anything else, and I don't blame him. They are very cool and cool sounding with the wonky firing order they use. Not very cost effective for $$ spent vs hp, but that isn't the point.

Are you referring to an '03 Terminator Cobra or an '00 Cobra R? Both are very cool! Nothing like insta-torque

[EDIGREG]

No budget for that with the 200 as a project still and a cobra on the horizon! I'd like to use it as a learning platform whatever I do.

Then just cut out and fix the floor, IMHO.

[highlander69]

Chris,

It looks like a really nice car. If it were me I'd rip the carpets and seats out and really assess the situation. Find out if any replacement panels are available. You'd be surprised how easy fixing rust is if you take your time and clean all the crap out.


Cheers,

Craig

[highlander69]

Ooooohhh. What Cobra? I have a 03 R on my top 20 bucket list.

For me there can only be one..............

[Mcstiff]

The F40 is a sick machine! Aside from money, the cabin is a bit tight for me

[loxxrider]

No budget for that with the 200 as a project still and a cobra on the horizon! I'd like to use it as a learning platform whatever I do.

Then just cut out and fix the floor, IMHO.

I'm sure that is what will really happen. I may try to do some reinforcements while I'm in there though. We'll see. It all depends on time and skill I guess.

Chris,

It looks like a really nice car. If it were me I'd rip the carpets and seats out and really assess the situation. Find out if any replacement panels are available. You'd be surprised how easy fixing rust is if you take your time and clean all the crap out.


Cheers,

Craig

It really isn't as nice as it looks in the pics, but it does have all the right stuff (because its a Euro one). I did rip all of the carpet and seats out the other day. That is how I got to really assess things (I talked a little about it on the previous page). I knew it was pretty bad already, but I wanted to look it in the face every day so I can't ignore it. I also wanted to weld up the seat anchors (the two fronts are missing for the driver's seat!). To make matters worse, the spot on the floor where the accelerator pedal mounts rusted out completely so I don't have a pedal now... hasn't stopped me from driving it all week though That'll be an easy fix luckily.

[my2000apb]

just cut and weld sissy

[loxxrider]

Thanks for the motivation guys. I feel like it is doable and worth the effort now. I definitely don't want to be a sissy!

Just washed/waxed it for the first time since I bought it. Looks pretty good!

[highlander69]

Chris,

I have no doubt that you'll do a great job. It really is just patience and forward thinking when doing pretty
much anything car related. The key is to get all the bad metal out, while keeping in mind that hopefully there
are patch or replacement panels available for what your trying to do. Also it can get pricey if you really want to buy
the tools and start making the parts yourself.

Keep the pics coming.

Cheers,

Craig

[20VAvant]

Chris,
Also it can get pricey if you really want to buy the tools and start making the parts yourself.

Chris, have I mentioned I have access to a CNC Plasma cutter? If you drew out the general size of the replacement panels you needed I would be more than willing to cut them out and you'd just have to assembly fit them. This would save a lot of material and time. Just a thought!

[loxxrider]

Chris,

I have no doubt that you'll do a great job. It really is just patience and forward thinking when doing pretty
much anything car related. The key is to get all the bad metal out, while keeping in mind that hopefully there
are patch or replacement panels available for what your trying to do. Also it can get pricey if you really want to buy
the tools and start making the parts yourself.

Keep the pics coming.

Cheers,

Craig

Thanks for the motivation. I agree, the main thing is getting the bad stuff out. I think there are panels out there somewhere, but they are prohibitively expensive. I'm going to just hand cut and form what I can (the mostly flat stuff) and I'm going to have to assess what to do with the rest. It doesn't need to be pretty, just structurally sound and functional. Luckily the rust is mostly in places where not much forming is needed, some some simple sheet metal bending/forming is all that should be required.

Chris,
Also it can get pricey if you really want to buy the tools and start making the parts yourself.

Chris, have I mentioned I have access to a CNC Plasma cutter? If you drew out the general size of the replacement panels you needed I would be more than willing to cut them out and you'd just have to assembly fit them. This would save a lot of material and time. Just a thought!

Very good to know, thanks! I don't think I'll *need* that, but I will definitely keep it in mind. If it could do bends in the panels too that would be awesome, but obviously that is not the case.

[loxxrider]

Did some quality wrenching yesterday with my friend Justin. We started out in the morning with adjusting the valves in my E24 and his E30. I've never done that before and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I found it very relaxing actually.



After that, I fixed a problem with one of the windshield wipers, then found the source of my constantly ticking blinker relay (weird problem with the turn signal switch, new (used) one on order), and finally rounded off the day by doing some welding.

The two front bolts that hold the driver's seat down have been ripped out of their mounting points since before I bought the car. I'm not quite sure how they got that way, but I have a theory. I think the one on closest to the driver's side of the car was a bit rusted out and eventually the metal around the area of the thing holding it in just failed in fatigue. The other front bolt, the one closest to the middle of the car, didn't show any signs of rust though and the metal was just torn out in the area surrounding the mounting point. I think some fatass must have just plopped into the seat one day after the one mounting point had already failed from fatigue or was just on the verge of failure, and the force of the lard-ass-plop just tore everything else out.

Since I bought the car, there has been one bolt that went all the way through the floor of the car holding the front of the seat down, no bolt for the mounting point closest to the middle, and two good rear mounts. I decided today was the day to tackle that since it's pretty easy access (I just pulled all the carpet out) and I wanted to practice my welding. I'll post some pictures in a bit, but the result was a success! I managed to get everything cut perfectly on the first try and all of the mounting bosses actually lined up perfectly too. Can't beat that for some first time chassis-related fabrication!

This is a warm up for floor pan and sill fixing

I know it's hard to see, but this is after welding new mounting points in. Wish I would have taken more detailed pictures, but it wasn't very complicated anyway.





Oh, and I finally confirmed that the car has a 373 limited slip diff. I then proceeded to test it out

[loxxrider]

Started repairing the floor today. There is a LOT of work to be done, but it'll be satisfying when it is all fresh.

I started with the spot which was most visible and also easiest to get to. I wanted to get it out because in addition to a large hole, much of the area near(ish) the hole looked like this:



That damage runs pretty much all up and down the passenger seat bracket, so I cut all of the floor out from under it. The bracket/tube for the seat itself has some damage too and I had a little trouble deciding how to fix it. Should I repair the existing piece or just make my own tube frame thing for it? I think I've decided to repair what's there because I determined that it wouldn't take much effort to make the repair pieces required.

Here's a pic with the floor cut out. There is still more cutting to do, but this got 95% of the damage out.



More cutting when I have a little free time, then some quality time with a wire wheel on a grinder to strip undercoating, adhesive left over from the sound deadening inside, etc. Then it'll just be a matter of cut and paste. I'm not looking forward to trying to make the bends I need look nice with no real tools for that, but I'm sure I can come up with something.

[Mcstiff]

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/shop-too ... brake.html

[loxxrider]

I shall make one!




Thanks

[loxxrider]

Time for an update!

I've made pretty good progress on the floor so far. I've managed to knock out one big area on the passenger side (behind the passenger front seat).

I did actually make my own brake. It was a pretty fun project, and I learned some things. The brake is pretty sweet, but I need to reinforce it for anything significantly thick. It would have been fine if I had made it half the length, but I made it with a 40" throat. It just needs a few choice structural additions, then I'm confident that it will make easy work with just about anything I want to put through it.

Here is a terrible picture of it.



I posted a picture of the area I cut out in the passenger floor a few posts back. Here is some midway progress.



Its amazing how much structural integrity even just that one piece added to the floor on that side of the car.

Here's a picture of the mostly final product. I am pretty proud of what I was able to get done. Its pretty hard to get pretty looking welds with metal this thin and a MIG, but I'm happy with the penetration and everything.



Here are some pictures of the damage on the driver's side after I removed the sound deadening material.

(trans/exhaust/driveshaft tunnel)



(door sill/floor)



As you can see, I began patching one area, but ran out of gas for the MIG. I tried using some flux core just because I've never tried it before, but by God... that stuff sucks! So now I'm trying to get some more gas and awaiting the arrival of POR-15 and some undercoating material. I'm planning to tackle the trans tunnel area next, then the sill area. Wish me luck! I'm enjoying the challenge so far

For the beer lovers out there, I present a bonus...



It is simply perfect, the epitome of what a beer should be.

That's all for now. More updates soon!

[chaloux]

Damn you on the beer! My best friend's girlfriend waited in line in the morning to get him a case when it was available. Sadly I wasn't around to have one but he said it was simply amazing.

nice work on the car too

[Berserker]

Matt, I'll bring a bottle to Carlisle next year to share.

Chris, progress looks good. Certainly more ambitious and moving along more quickly than the engine I need to build for the UrQ. I told myself I'd have it running again before it's consistently cold outside, and the parts are off at the machine shop now. Not much time left!

[AudiSport4000]

Matt, I'll bring a bottle to Carlisle next year to share.

Chris, progress looks good. Certainly more ambitious and moving along more quickly than the engine I need to build for the UrQ. I told myself I'd have it running again before it's consistently cold outside, and the parts are off at the machine shop now. Not much time left!

Jeez, look who shows up . I should have known if there was beer posted you would chime in