elias

Took the drivers side guard off to have a look and see if I find any more rust. But appears to be in good shape, rust appears to be limited to the one hole and hasn’t spread. 
 

will be getting the rust hole repair quoted by some panelbeaters not something I want to take on myself.

10 hours ago, e30ftw said:

I did a similar repair on mine. That part is borderline impossible to get to without cutting open more of the chassis. The rust starts on this piece underneath and spreads to the cowling area and under the windscreen. Check through the opening the inside of the lower windows in the corner, it usually starts from the inside. Take the fender off and you can slice open the inner fender. 

Also check the inside through those openings, feel up under the bottom of the windscreen and down (shown where I cut below). Generally the lower windshield corners rust from the inside out.

That’s a lot of cutting. Probably not something I want to be doing myself, will try and talk to some panelbeaters and see what they reckon. Will pull the fender off and see how much more rust I discover. 

12 minutes ago, modz said:

Def go the e90 booster over the clio one. #1 easier to find (and remove from donor) and #2 better booster feel. 

Good to hear, have got the 2002 reservoir, grommets and adapters for brake lines already, just need to find the time to go to pickapart to grab a booster.

14 hours ago, Eagle said:

Flap disc take it back to clean metal, probably need a die grinder, dremel  and\or a finger sander for the blower motor area. If its too thin or gone through in areas then get someone to weld some patches in. Brush on 2k epoxy primer, seam sealer where needed. 1k base coat matched to body colour if you dont want to spend on a 2k base coat, probably get away with it since that area is not subject to much wear and UV. Cavity wax back sides of any areas you cant paint if especially if welding. Should be around a few hundred in paint and supplies then whatever welding costs are if needed (maybe a local member etc can do it for cheap).

Sweet yeah that sounds like a good plan will do that for the areas I can do myself. Just a bit stuck on what to do about the rust hole underneath the cowling near the inner guard. That’s probably not a job I’d take on myself. 

Saturdays progress. Engine and gearbox are out, and at the scrapyard. Removed sound deadening, removed rear seat, removed boot trims. Pretty much stripped as far back as it needs to be at this point for rust repair/paint. Still trying to workout the best way to get rust and paint sorted without spending a fortune. 
 

engine and box out. Was not a fun Job as I couldn’t use a ratchet strap to lift the back of the gearbox once the engine was up and out, so I needed to lift the whole thing up and over the front core support by hand, not a fun job extremely heavy thing. But got it done.

brake booster/master are out too pretty much a bare engine bay apart from some wiring and brake lines. Yet to figure out how to get the fuse box out. Most of the stuff on the firewall is glue residue but there are also some rusty spots that will need some attention, no holes however. 

Car is looking great!

Unfortunately I have discovered quite a bad spot of rust in a very unfortunate place. Underneath the windscreen cowl, right in the corner and it’s bad. A significant hole. Definitely something I’ll need to get professionally fixed. Quite surprised to have found rust that bad with how relatively rust free the rest of the car is. 
 

1 hour ago, Southerner said:

In terms of the ECU mounting location, I mounted mine in the passenger side as it seemed counterproductive to wire it all back across the engine. Maybe have a look into that as an option? Otherwise is looking good, you'll have yours on the road before mine!

that is a good point actually, maybe worth reconsidering 

14 minutes ago, Sammo said:

Hahah yup it sure did, has gone well beyond what it was meant to but always seems to go that way. There’s nothing I hate more than having to do something twice so may as well do it now. 

Little bit more progress got more of the front end apart. Sold my getrag 220 to a mate, and will be going with a zf. Makes getting a correct driveshaft easier and is stronger, may as well do it right and use the gearbox bmw used with this engine. 

also pulled out the brake booster and brake master in preparation for paint. Will be getting replaced with e90 items and a 2002 reservoir. 

also drew up an adapter plate to mount an e36 ecu to the mounting bracket designed for the e30 ecu. will laser cutting it one night next week. 

plan is to remove the engine and gearbox this week. Also will remove/get some to remove the windscreen to check for rust and make sure it’s sealed properly as I believe some water has been getting past. 

Lovely e39 m5 on the awful commute back to the shore from highbrook. 

Will be getting pulled this weekend. If anyone wants a free long block/auto gearbox flick me a pm. Would be a shame to send them to the scrap yard. 

SOLD

Hey Paul, I may have found some more locally to me, I will see if they match with what I’m after, failing that I will be in touch.

More progress tonight. Decided I may as well do it once and do it right so got straight back into it after work tonight. Pulled the dash out, as well as the entire AC/heater core unit. Bit of a tedious job with all the wires (not actually that many of them).

was stoked to find almost no rust, apart from a small amount on the lip that I showed in photos from the outside earlier, which was the main motivation for pulling it all out in order to be able to access it properly and fix it properly. 

most rusty part was the wiper motor mount, luckily no rust transferred from the mount bracket to the car itself so I’ve removed it and will be getting acid dipped sand blasted and repainted, before being reinstalled after the whole engine bay has been painted.

4 minutes ago, Eligebbie said:

so is the clutch fluid also dot fluid ?

Clutch fluid is the same thing as brake fluid, does the same job of hydraulically actuating something wether that’s a brake piston or a clutch slave 

6 hours ago, Harper said:

https://www.manheim.co.nz/damaged-vehicles/000000000007109464/1988-bmw-320i-sedan?referringPage=SearchResults

Anyone know the story with this? Looks kinda mint... Even the interior

That is extremely tidy 

9 hours ago, e30ftw said:

On the passenger side remove that globebox bracket, it's usually above that where the harness grommet passes through to the fusebox. The floor pan looks clean so that's good.

Yeah I was glad to find very minimal rust in the floor 

$900

1 hour ago, Eligebbie said:

yeah that's a good point, I heard it's hard to change the brake since the auto cylinder is different to the manual one or something? 

Nah no issues there pretty straightforward swap. Booster/master is the same between auto and manual, just need to cut the end of a nipple on the reservoir off to add the clutch fluid feed. 

All right thanks for the advice! Wasted no time and made a start on looking for rust this evening. Pulled seats, glovebox, under dash trims, carpet, sound reading out. Dash I still in, didn’t have that much time. Firewall looks perfect from the inside. Some minor spots in the floor, mostly around the accelerator pedal mount, there was some water in the sound deading foam so must have a leak somewhere which is mostly likely what caused the rust by the accelerator pedal. Only wet on drivers side and only on the door side, thinking maybe sunroof drain as it’s pretty near by.
 

passenger side:

drivers side:

 
not too bad overall from the inside. Will see what it’s like from the outside. Will most likely need to remove the dash to get the blower motor out to fix the rust near there. 

2 minutes ago, e46v12 said:

Hey @elias ive got a pretty mint used m54 one that you can have for free, just pay for shipping and its all yours.

Flick me a txt on 0276968560 if your keen,

Thanks Richard

 

Have sent you a text 

Looking for a dual mass flywheel to suit an m52 and getrag 220. 

35 minutes ago, Neil McCauley said:

That's from a blocked elephant drain, water and leaves can pool up in the scuttle if it's blocked and create havoc - definitely pull both sides apart to expose the firewall on both sides to see what you're dealing with.

You can get a double whammy where the water seeps in from the blower motor area and pools around the accelerator pedal, and then if the car is jacked incorrectly (ie: all of them) it can crack the underseal away from the shell and water will work its way to the underside of the accelerator pedal mounting point.

Sounds lovely. Joys of old cars. I will take a closer look once I have the engine and gearbox out. Any recommendations on how to go about sorting out the rust?

33 minutes ago, e30ftw said:

Pull the sound deadening off the firewall. Prefacelifts are notoriously rusty on the firewalls and down to the footwell on the inside. I can see a hint of it in your photo in the circle cut out next to where the steering column comes out. I'd lift the carpet at the front too.

Yeah will do, planning on removing all that sound deadening once the engine is out to have a proper look. Good to know about the footwells will lift the front half of the carpet and have a look.