236 replies to this topic

[dirtbag]

That all sounds good cruiza, but not 100% sure tan and silver would work. If the car was oing to be red or dark blue or something then yes definitely tan, but I think the silver and tan wouldn't have enough contrast. Just my opinion : )

I pulled some more of the car apart today. I'll post some pics later if I get a chance.

[Ice]

Go for it macka they will look shit hot in red

[Ice]

Im not a fan of brake my windows (bmw) cars but this thing is just a great looking car cant wait to see it finished
hurry up tim

[Ice]

Geez you dont muck around macka i think one car with red interior is plenty
what about cappachino leather (its avery light cream colour) very classy for that sort of car

[dirtbag]

I'm actually kind of leaning towards the dark blue you originally wanted. Red is a bit pretentious. Having said that, you can do them red, as I've decided I'm keeping this car for myself so I'm prepared to take that sacrifice : )


Anyway, I did a bit more today. It's taking a while as it's stubborn, and I'm trying to be as careful as possible both with the parts themselves and the labelling and bagging of all the parts and fixtures.


It doesn't like starting when it hasn't been driven for a week so I took the intake off and used some more start ya bastard and eventually got it going.





I had to jump start the rear window mech to get the window down low enough to get to some of the mounting screws. Not difficult, but just another way this thing is trying to not be pulled apart. Trust me little car, you'll love it when you're finished : )





So exactly how anal am I being about bagging and tagging this thing? Well even if there is just one screw, like the one at the front of the rear inner window sill cover, it gets bagged separately. My memory wont work well enough not to, plus I'm taking a million pics of each part before and after it comes off. Might take an extra couple of hours to do it this way now, but come reassembly time it'll save me days.




Yep, that's a whole bag for one screw, but so what, at least I'll know where it goes : )





So with the inner window sill removed I can now see how the giant rear window mech comes out. The top of the inner panel is removeable. Yay!!!







Easy access to removing the window mech now.





Look at the size of it!!!!!






The inside of the inner window sill trim has some crusty surface rust, so I'll get these bits blasted too.







If it were mine, I'd be doing the wood panels in a brushed alloy look, just with silver paint, then drag it with a fine scotch brite pad then clear it. But that's just my opinion. I'd do the dash to match as well.





I know all these pics are pretty boring to look at, and nothing interesting has happened yet, but this is so Macka can see how his car is going and hopefully be happy with the care I'm giving it in regards to taking it apart. I've never worked on one of these, or seen one for that matter before so I think it'll be useful to show as much of how it's held together as possible should he need to do anything to it in the future.

Don't worry though, it wont all be boring nuts and bolts stuff like this. There'll be plenty of good old cut, shut and modify later in the thread ; )

[dirtbag]

Once I had the rear mech out I found a nice big chunk of tar sheet on the inside of the rear quarter. I'm assuming/hoping Macka will want to dynamat the car, so I'd like to get all the old crap off. Lucky me : )







20 minutes later, half way. You can tell by the gouges in the panel that it didn't want to come off. Bugger of a thing hahaha!





45 minutes later, job done : )





Next job I tackled was to pull the seals and trims off the underside of the roof gutters. There's multiple layers of trims, so again I took lots of pics as the bits came off so I'll know what order to put them back on.







Even though I expect I wont be refitting the old rubbers, I still labelled where they go and which way was front and back, because for all I know the new rubbers might come from germany so I wont be able to read any of the instructions. This is just me trying it make it as idiot proof as possible.





I always take extra care when removing gutter trim, but I have to say this was really nerve racking, as I can't exactly go to Autobarn and get another one





So now all the upper window trims are removed, labelled and stacked on the shelf. Getting there.

[dirtbag]

Getting access to the C pillar BMW badge wasn't easy, and the fact the bolts holding it on are 500kms long didn't help either hahaha!!!





So seeing as I work such a prestigious and glamorous job, I thought I'd chip some more tar off. This time it's under the passengers front seat and rear foot well area. Damn I'm a lucky bastard hahahaha!!!








To whoever it was at BMW that stuck all this crap to the floor, this is for you -





With all the tar gone it revealed a previous rust repair in the floor. It's not the worst I've seen, but it's not the best either.





At least it's fully welded, not just held in with rivets and gum like some of the repairs I've seen before.





From underneath you can see it's an overlapped repair. It looks OK, but if Macka wants me to redo it I'd be more than happy to. So what I mean is, I'm redoing it : )





There's a few bubbles in the sills too. I've still yet to take the sill trims off. The screws are too tight for my pansy muscles, so will bust out the impact driver tomorrow.





Next up was stripping the passengers door. All the fixtures are well hidden so I took extra care in getting the handles and stuff off. The arm rest already had a cracked mount but the bits were inside so I'll be able to glue it back together.





I've taken a stack of pics of the inside of the door showing how it all goes together, as getting the mech, main glass and quarter glass out was a real pain, so having lots of pics for reference will help alot come reassembly time.





So anyway, here's all the passengers side trim removed apart from the door handle, all the side glass on this side is now removed as are the front and rear screens. Removing windows frightens the crap out of me, especially rare ones, so getting the glass out without damaging the rubbers was a huge relief.





I had a look at the inside of the C pillar hole where the badge was. I'm certain it's not a drain, as there's a second skin in there that would definitely show signs of rust if it was a drain for the sunroof. I'm assuming it's just a cabin vent. I still feel it would look nicer without these, as the badges are so big for such a small area of panel, but in the end it's Mackas decision.





It's getting there, but still doesn't really look like I've done much. I'm happy with the progress though, as I knew from the start I'd be taking this part of the build very carefully.





Looks very luxurious inside now : )

[dirtbag]

There was a bit of rust along the top of the passengers door where the chrome sill trim was, but that's to be expected I guess.





I'll be interested to see what I dig out of the corners of the windscreen opening where the filler is cracked. Even if it's really bad, it can be fixed. But for all I know it might not be bad at all. Can't wait to see this thing in bare metal so I know exactly what we're working with.





The precious windscreens!





That little smudge looking thing above my finger is a decent stone chip in the windscreen. Luckily it didn't crack when getting the glass out. I was sweating!





Normally the door locks are just held in place with a sliding clip, but this is German engineering after all so it's got a ruddy great big nut on the inside hahaha!





I don't think this was ever going to fall out : )





I've left the door handle in for now purely for practicality. Interesting to see how much paint has come off the second paint job.





The door has a bit of a crease in it, I assune from being opened up against things, and some rust, but again I wont know how good/bad it is until it's stripped.





The front of the door has a few bubbles too, and there's some dents in the front guard. I'm not trying to be picky, just showing Macka his car.





Even though there's still all the running gear, dash and drivers side trims still in the car, the 2.4x2.4 metre shelves I made are filling up : )





It was an awesome Qld winters day today, so the drive back up to the house with no windows was lovely and refreshing : )





And here it is back up at the house until tomorrow. The shed is a bit chockers at the moment and I'm not prepared to leave it outside so it's just going to have to keep it's driveline for a bit longer so I can move it back and forth.





So that's it for today. I know it's not very interesting to see this stage of a build, but I'm sure for Macka it's better than seeing nothing at all : )

Well I plan to get some more done to it tomorrow, but will then have to leave it for a week or so and get some more done to the hatch, monza and camaro, but I'd really like to get this blasted and primed as soon as I can. Shed space is another issue. I'll have to wait until a car has left before this can live down there. Damn this tiny shed!!!!! : )

[S pack]

Great work Tim, always love to read about what you're working on.
I reckon you'll find when you get the headlining out there will be sunroof drain tubes running down inside the C pillars that discharge out those openings behind the badges. There will also be drain tubes running down inside the A pillars for sure.
The rust (repaired) to the passenger rear floor pan will have been caused by a blocked or perished drain tube.

[Statler]

Hey Macka, i meant to ask earlier, who is your US parts supplier? Pelican?

[enderwigginau]

Like Tim, I'm a fan of orange, but there are some really nice Chrysler Silvers - Mercury Silver has a very minor red component which gives it more body.

So no badges........how about ghost badges on the pillars?

Grant..

[fenz]

This thing is going to be awsome.......Mr Dirt Bag work your magic!!