Uwbuurman: 1978 323i polaris: almost done

[uwbuurman]

The rearside is ready and done! Last thing was the repacement of the seperation heads. I prepared them and welded them in. Grinded down and all done!

[uwbuurman]

Onwards to the floor. But to get there, I need to start at the front of the car. I bought two new inner wing sheets from Walloth & Nesch as they assured me, that they were exactly the same. But nope, type 1 is different But just send the mto me for a lot of money. Why not…
Type 1: a square hole and near the vinnumber a little bite out.



Type 2: A more roundlike hole and near the vinnumer it’s bent towards the inner wing..



I think I will ajust them, I don’t want them like this on my car. But thats for later. First I changed my supportframe back to it’s original setup, rearsupport in the coiltowers. That’s is a lot more solid and the weight is more balanced o the frame.



This was my temporarely rear carrier.

[uwbuurman]

As the rear section is finished, I went on with the rotten parts of the floor, where it joints with the inner sill. I marked the parts that needed to come out.



After that, I cut the floor on the line and I started to chisel out the edge. As it turned out, it was not a good call, to do this. A brown mess, but repairable.



As the edge of the floor is spotwelded to the sill, I had a hard time getting the shit out, without damaging the floor or sill. There is no room for drilling, so I used a sharp wood chisel to hammer thru the edge in between of the spotwelds. After that i could easily grab them with pliers and twist them, so the weld snapped.



After doing so, this is what i’m left with.

[uwbuurman]

Than the frontside of the floor. This has been tempered with many times before. It’s molested more than a drunk blonde chick on Ibiza. On top of that, the W&N panel is formed with the edges bent exactly the wrong way around. All of that leads to a floor thats far from original, however we dit a good job installing th W&N panel in 2011. So the question was: do I leave it in like this, or do I go the extra mile and make it all orginal again, knowing it’s gonna be a shitload of work. Decision: Tear it apart and make it original.

Innerside, loads of shabby welding, old in old, which leads to hidden rust. Bisides thats the seal between the bulkhead and floor is all wrong.



Outside: seams are wrong, lower side of the Apillar has gotten to short causing the joint to be ugly. No original look.

[uwbuurman]

This is very rusty, but thats how it should be, how the seams need tob e, how the A pillar needs to run over the sill. Besides that, the W&N sill lacks a corner in the metal. Not unimportant, because thats where the clamp goes for the screw in the front wing.





So rip it apart! First the jacksupport off.





Carefully taking the parts apart.



And then the first chunk of metal is taken out..

[uwbuurman]

To see what needs to be gone aswell, the donormaterial is of importance. See what you have, before you take apart to much. So the inner and outersill need to be taken apart aswell.



Now I have the innersill, which needs repairs.





After that, I seperated the lower side of the Apillar and the outer sill.



And that gave me a fairly good Apillar section to use.





Some sandblasting and some repairs and than we can move on. But that’s for the next time.

Oh and; never take something apart, without knowing ho wit needs to be put back together

[uwbuurman]

so...

[uwbuurman]

I really need

[uwbuurman]

a new page..

[uwbuurman]

I could do with some more reactions, thad would help not to get 15 posts with 20 pics on 1 page...

[uwbuurman]

Sunday November 10th 2013.
To make a restauration happen, at least the way I, one needs a lot of donormaterial. For me, now working on the floor and inner sill on the rightside of the car, I need some donormaterial, but it will be used, since there is no proper new material for sale.

The point with donormaterial from our E21’s is, that is old and not seldom rusted, because they all rust at the same places. So the trick is to find a good piece, that has not been tempered with before. Not welded or repaired. Last week I found a piece on a 320/6, with only 39.000km on the clock!! Totally original, 1 owner, first delivery by the dealer where my dad bought a new e30 and traded in his 4th e21 in the 80’s. Just parked in the mud and grass some 20 years ago. Basterds. But on the other hand, good material for me.
Here nice and thick in undercoating and a rotten transport jackpoint.



After cleaning



And the inside aswell



This looks rotten, but it is very much repairable. Seams between floor and bulkhead are very nice, I will re-use those.

[uwbuurman]

After that I focused on the rusted parts on the inner sill. I started with sandblasting. Lots of sand…



Blasted the old welds I want to change aswell.



The sill is pretty good! Only two small holes, you see the holes, but the metal around is also very thin.



Same here.



sandblasted!

[uwbuurman]

After that, I found out that my selfproduced angle irons have a productionerror… I forgot the holes for spotwelding, so now I have to drill them myself.



Tacked it to the car, after that some more welds between the welds.



Rearpart attached, frontsection not yet.





Section welded up.



And all is welded..







Finishing and grinding down will be later. But the next time I will continue first with restoring the A pillar, sill bulkhead.

[uwbuurman]

[uwbuurman]

Lots more on