Uwbuurman: 1978 323i polaris: almost done

[pandemonium001]

wow lots of work there, a lot of the repairs the same as i had on my e21, grinding down the welds is the worst part of it all.

[uwbuurman]

Thanks man! Yeah, they all rust on the same spots, don't they?

[uwbuurman]

In the meanwhile I had my LSD 3.45, 25% over at our sponsor, Hardeman Motorsports, for a complete overhaul. They averhauled it complete, after dismanteling, new bearings, new plates, new dustcovers, ajusted it, the works. Got the house sandblasted and painted.









It even looks great!

[uwbuurman]

October 23, 2014, finally the front was up, since the rest of the welding is done. Earlier, I bought a complete NOS front, back in april 2013.

The old front was, like the rest of the car, screwed up by bad repairs and lots of filler.



The batterybracket is replaced, but the welding is very poor…



I cut off the old front in sections

[uwbuurman]

Takig off the old front leaves me with rotten edges and bars.





Filler in the last corner, I did not replace yet. Again 4mm thick!!





So I had to de rust it all before repairing it. Put some Rustico gel on it. The black is all rust, converted bij Rustico.









After that, all I did was giving it a quick brush with the steel wire brush.

[uwbuurman]

The part ont the inner wing wit hall the filler needed to be replaced as well. So I found the most appropriate donorpiece of this whole restauration. It’s from the 1978 original Dutch 323i of Jarno, same as mine, same year, build, everything!





The donorpart taken to bits



Cut out



And the donor welded in



Finished



And nice and red

[uwbuurman]

Next thing on the list was repairing the edges and drilling the weldholes.





That leaves me with this. The car is ready for it’s new front.

[uwbuurman]

To put the front on, I needed to bring some tension in the car, to straighten the chassisbars. I used a clamping strap.







Welded one side



And clamped the other side in the right pisition.







And welded in to place!

[uwbuurman]

On the lower side I welded it all like BMW prescribes it in the manual. Much better then ho wit was done by Brové!:hammer





Nice joints everywere!.

[uwbuurman]

Got me a donor batteryholder and put it in.





And then the new front is on!

[Peter V.]

[uwbuurman]

Thanks Peter!

[uwbuurman]

[uwbuurman]

After getting the front of the car ready, I had only 1 chore left on my list to weld. The late type 1 e21’s have a square light in the sealing, and so did mine with the old roof. The sunroof roof came of an 1977 car, with the older round rooflight in the car. That bitch came all apart deasembeling the roof on the donor and it wasn’t timeperiod correct, so it had to go. A while back I got the right light bracket and headlining to go wit hit from Geerling. The bracket had to go in.



Working on that tought me the following. The slidingroofcassette has ridges, for strengthening or so. One of those ridges in my cassette was grinded down, but is was covered in factory paint.



Other side is ok.



Duet o this unwanted opening, the collected water doesn’t go to the drains, but runs on to the rooflining. This explaines why there is some leakage visable in the old headlining. So I need to close this hole.



After that the bracket could go on, in accordance to BMW’s weldingscheme.





After that I removed the old bracket. On this pic it still is there, but now it’s gone.

[uwbuurman]

So all the welding has come to an end! Ready for the nest step, the straigthening bench. I did some heavy works on the shell, bringing in a lot of new metal and also a lot of heat at some times. Before I go on towards painting, I want to know if the shell is still straight and not all twisted. So i got it on the trailer. It’s the first time since the summer of 2011 the car gets to go outside. And she’s going back where I collected her in 2011, after replacing the roof.





Frame off



High and dry (and tension is getting high…)



Clamped the car down on the bench and measuring starts.



These tools allow you to measure and compare.







The conclusion is that there ws one fault, the corner left front, where I welded in the whole green section into the inner wing. It was a quarter of an inch. We pressed that one out, so the problem is as good as gone. Over the length of the car there’s a few mm here and there, but all within the norms and BMW schemes. So I’m glad! This car is straight! It’s 40 years old, and seen a lot of troubles.
The shockmounts are all in the right place, also at the back were I replaced the wheelhouses, so thats a big relief! Also the rearaxle mount (long pin) is perfectly placed back!
In short, the shell is ready for the next step! Well done! I started welding in 2011, never welded before, teached myself how to, so I’m pleased with the results!!

Oh, there was one little setback: I need to replace one seatbracked, right side. The bolthole is dented, don’t know ho they managed to do that. Anyway, as I wanted to pull it out it turns out that the complete thread is gone. What happened there??? But this is in style with the car…