MyE28.com

I've been plugging away on the car, discovering more rust every hour I work on it. Nothing about that surprises me, but I try to focus on an area at a time, and not get overwhelmed. Picking up from where I left off, I made a small extension of the floorpan where it meets the toeboard, finishing up the passenger floor repair.

IMG_8317 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_8318 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Forgot to take any photos of it ground down, but I promise you I did, and in general, I'm happy with the repairs.

I moved on to the fussy area around the firewall. The inner fender flanges to the toeboard/firewall, and it had rusted between the layers, leaving a bit of a mess.

235BEA24-8A76-4EA6-8A68-F5CF12B3DD9A by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Chopped out the rot

IMG_8319 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_8320 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Nice flat piece to work with

IMG_8321 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

The step to form that recessed area was somewhat annoying but got there in the end.

IMG_8324 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Leaving me with the inner fender flange to deal with

IMG_8325 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Bent up a 90 degree piece

IMG_8329 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_8331 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Getting the curve profile

IMG_8332 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Start shrinking

IMG_8333 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_8335 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Made it in one piece, but since the toe board has that depression, it would be rather tricky to get the the curved piece to also step in that direction. Somebody with more talent probably could. I chose to cut it into two piece.

IMG_8338 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_8339 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Pleased with the result. Next job was remove the rear subframe

IMG_8340 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

I had to remove the fuel and brake lines so I could cut out the driver's floor. The corroded lines were the main reason I stopped driving the car. The fuel pressure line rusted through, I patched it up, but seeing how rusty the brake lines were I thought, nah, this cant continue.

IMG_8347 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Then I cut off the driver's sill

IMG_8352 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr


I blasted the door seal seam and some other crusty areas inside the sill box section. I didnt do this on the other side, and I'm unsure if its because it was cleaner or cause I was lazier, but either way i'm not cutting the other side back apart. Put some POR15 on the blasted areas.

IMG_8353 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Got the driver's floor pan removed

IMG_8354 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_8355 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Went back in today but didnt have a lot of motivation. organized some parts, swept. Got the jacking points removed from the door step, pulled a dent in the donor sill. So the plan will be to do the sill, driver's floorpan, and then attack the rear floors, some little patches here and there underneath, and then the rear subframe mounts are rather crusty, so i'll have some work there. Once i've removed the rust underneath, I'll probably track down some SEM undercoat, I seem to remember somebody here found a product close to the right colour. Not going for concours but just black undercoat in spots would look a bit off.

CanadianMiniFan wrote: May 28, 2023 3:29 PM Was going to do some work on the car yesterday before a wedding we were going to, but a junkyard notification changed that plan. An 82 733i showed up in a yard in town, so i figured id go grab the chrome power mirrors. Not 100% sure I'll use them but I like the idea of more chrome on green. Definitely not a shadowline fan.

IMG_6823 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

The car wasnt really that bad, some rust spots here and there, but it was sad to see it being scrapped. Interior was in decent shape, and the black over cardinal is a nice combination

IMG_6824 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_6825 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

There was also an e38 750il there, sad to see the fate it met, the m73 was still there, but i wasnt about the rip that out "cause it's neat"

IMG_6826 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_6827 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

When i was looking at the car for anything i might want for my car, i saw it had an lsd in it. I had thought it could be a large case diff, but it's just a medium case 3.25, but still, LSDs are worth decent money for these cars, and I may want to go back to a 3.25, the car has a 3.46 and a few less rpm on the highway would be okay

IMG_6830 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

I was in a rush so the mirrors arent cleaned or anything, but heres the haul. I also took the seatbelt clips from the e23, i had installed some in my car previously, but one had been broken.

IMG_6835 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Hey, way to go on the restoration! You keep saying you get junkyard notifications. How does one acquire the technology to do so? Do you have an app for that?

The emails I get are from the site “Row52”. In my town it only works for one yard, that is in the Pick n Pull chain. I’m pretty sure you put in a zip code and radius, I just have a notification for any bmw, any year any model, they don’t get that many so it isn’t annoying. Hope this helps ya.

Bringing this thread back up to speed, I did get the sill weld ground down, and I'm overall quite pleased with the result. I'm glad I challenged myself to do the sill with a butt weld, rather than a flanged lap weld like the passenger side. The only downside is I couldnt get to the backside of the weld with a dolly to planish the welds, so as the welds shrunk the metal, I had to trim a bit of the edge to keep things flush. Was a good learning experience so I can be more confident when it comes to the quarters, where I dont want to have warpage etc. I'll make sure ot make my weld in a place I can hammer at. The other technique I tried out was making my tack weld and immediately blasting it with compressed air. I dont know if it reduced warpage, but it certainly didnt make things any worse.

IMG_8421 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_8422 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

I also got the drivers front floorpan repaired, had to make a patch, and then added the reinforcement pieces after. so that is ready to be trimmed, fitted and welded into the car. It will feel good to have front floors and sills that are solid. I'll move to the rear floor sections, the subframe mounts etc.

IMG_8423 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_8424 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_8425 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

In other news I saw an ad on Facebook Marketplace that I couldnt pass on. An m30b35 pulled from an e34 with 250k km. The guy is doing an engine swap, it was running and driving when removed, and it was only $350 CDN including the uncut harness and ecu. A damn good deal by any measure. I dont have immediate plans for it, but I'll get it cleaned up somewhat, do a leak down test and maybe hook up a battery and do a compression test. after that I'll spray some fogging oil into the cylinders and let it sit on a stand at home. I figure at some point my b34 will give up, or i'll get bored, and a b35 is a nice place to start. There would be temptation to do a cam and some head work, but I realize the ceiling is pretty low on an NA m30. I dont think I'd want to go the turbo route, simplicity and reliability are a large part of my love for my e28. Even if I never use it, theres lots of parts on this engine worth more than I paid.

IMG_8418 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_8419 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_8420 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

As a follow up, I got the engine onto a stand, did a quick compression test which was initially promising
1 161psi
2 150 psi
3 152 psi
4 150 psi
5 154 psi
6 152 psi

Which is overall completely acceptable for a used engine. But being the stickler I am I wanted to do a cylinder leakage check which I have always considered more accurate. It tells you how much leakage you have as well as where it’s going.

1 64% leakage intake valve/minor exhaust valve
2 60% leakage exhaust valve
3 10% crankcase and minor exhaust valve
4 10% crankcase
5 44% crankcase
6 10% crankcase

I’ve generally considered 20% and under acceptable through the rings on a used engine, 10% and under is excellent. Any amount through the valves is not great, but the real kicker here is #5. 44% leakage through the crankcase indicates some sort of ring issue on that cylinder. Could be as minor as a coked up stuck ring, or as bad as a broken ring/piston land. If it was just valve leakage, pulling the head and doing a valve job, maybe a mild cam would have been an acceptable plan of action. Now I would at minimum pull that one piston and see what’s up, and proceed from there. None of this matters immediately, the car isn’t getting any engine work until it’s painted and back on the road, but now I know what I’ve got for an engine here, so can plan accordingly. Won’t just drop it in as is.

If anybody is actually reading this, i have heard m30 rebuild parts are getting harder to find. Are there any reliable sources of bearings/rings/pistons, or is it a treasure hunt?

Shop was slow this past week so i took some time thursday and friday and worked on my own car. Last weekend I was helping a friend with his e46, and this weekend was helping somebody move, so I didnt have any saturday welding time. Thursday I got the drivers floor welded in.

IMG_8455 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

finished up the front edge where the wheel well overlaps the floorpan on Friday morning

IMG_8456 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Turned my attention to the throttle pedal holding bracket. Not only was the bracket rusty as hell, but the floor underneath was poorly as well.

IMG_8457 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

The pedal was well stuck in the bracket, had to pry and bend the metal quite a bit

IMG_8458 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Having the pedal stuck in place made carpet removal additionally difficult, so it should go in easier with no pedal. If anybody else gets the Valcas garage pedal detail, a word of warning, i tested it on the pedal before welding it in, and it was too wide, the pedal wouldnt be clipped in well enough. Since it was in my hand, it was easy to squish it in the vice. I may have squished it a little much, but it should clip in firmly and i'm hoping its not an item i'm often removing.

IMG_8459 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Square of floor fixed, pedal bracket welded in place. rear floors will be next, just welding in sections around the large plugs in the floor, then I think i will move to the rear of the inner sills, now that the subframe is out they have decent access. from there I will move to the subframe mounts on the floor, the first layer at least is rotten, second layer might be too. Just got to keep looking small and not get down looking at how much there is left to do.

Back at the shop today, got about 4 or 5 hours in on the car. Not much I know, but made a little progress. I attacked the rear of the inner sills, and the rear subframe mounts. cut out the rotten bits, thankfully just the outer layer was the only layer that was perforated, and boy was it ever. The second layer around the mount pin was still intact, some pitting but overall not worth cutting into.

This is what I was left with after cutting

IMG_8517 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Inner sill shrapnel

IMG_8518 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

CAD designed template

IMG_8519 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

In the metal

IMG_8520 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Welded into the car, the inner layer around the subframe mount got a layer of POR15, before I plate over it next session

IMG_8522 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

End of the sill finished off and a strip of the wheelarch

IMG_8521 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Right side ready to be fixed

IMG_8523 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Thats about it for today! Might go in tomorrow, gotta keep chipping away at it.

I'm very much enjoying this journey. Keep chipping away, you're doing a great service to this car and your skill bank.

Thanks for the kind words. Even from one sill to the next I feel I’m improving and that feels good. I can’t say metalwork is my new favourite thing, but as you say, expanding my skill set. Lots of inspiration on this forum, I’m often daydreaming of having my e28 back, with some euro improvements and fresh paint.

Back in the shop this weekend. About 5 hours yesterday, another 3 today. Didnt get as far as I wanted but I got somewhere!

Right side plated up

IMG_8568 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Wheel arch repaired

IMG_8567 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

And this mornings work. got the tricky subframe mount layer made. Cardboard design beforehand for sure.

IMG_8575 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

welded and ground down.

IMG_8576 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

doesnt really look like 8 hours of work, but this stuff isnt so easy. Takes a lot of fitting, trimming, etc. the upside is, i'm just cutting pieces of steel plate, so theres not really a parts cost. The abrasives, welder and welding gas is where theres more expense, I'm lucky to be able to use the shops.

Will try to get the left side done this week, and then move on to something else. Maybe the mounting barrels for the brake and fuel lines, and then work towards painting the bare metal, undercoating, and getting the new lines in. Drop the fuel tank, do any rust that will be covered by it or the subframe, and maybe switch gears and detail/rebuild the rear suspension.

Been a little while since I've posted an update, last two weekends I've been under the weather so didn't go in to do any extra work. Today I tackled the right rear floor pan. The only real rust in it was around the large plug, but I had cut out the whole depressed part of the rear floors, and decided it would be easier to have a nice weld on a seam there, rather than cutting a smaller square around the hole. This ended up working fairly well so I will do the same on the left side. Obviously it took much longer than I'd hoped, at least the result was decent. I also replaced one of the heat shield studs near the floor seam.

IMG_8628 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

It will be nice when theres no longer massive holes being cut into the car

IMG_8634 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

the offending piece. As I say, not as bad as the front floors, but I'm not gonna leave something like this.

IMG_8630 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Used floorpan trimmed and tacked into place. there was some pitting in the same area on these, but its much better. Anywhere thats bare metal will et a coat of POR15 and undercoat on the bottom side. I'll likely seam seal the plug back into the pan like it was from factory.

IMG_8633 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

welded in and ground down

IMG_8632 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

From below.

That was all for today. metalwork is a slow process for me, but I dont want to rush and regret the results.

A glacial progress update, last weekend I got the LR floor replaced, unsurprisingly quite similar to the RR so I forgot to even take photos

I treated myself, these came up at an affordable price, need the adjusters unseized so are currently soaking up penetrating oil, I'll then heat them gently and try to get everything moving. They also came with a euro harness section, so I will decide if I want to just use that, or add relays with heavy gauge wiring for optimal performance. I can kick that decision down the road, I've got a lot more rust to deal with first!

IMG_8693 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Thanks to Gary, cathealer, for being a responsive seller with an accurate description and exceptional packing.

Had to wait around after work for a cousin today, so I decided to pick away at some annoying little jobs today. First up was the glovebox hinge mounting stud that had rusted off the firewall. The underlying metal had been repaired some time ago, but I had yet to get to the stud. There was still a faint outline of the angle the hinge had sat, so i just had to screw it to the other stud, mark the hole, and I drilled it, tapped it to M6, and threaded a stud in. welded it from the wheel well and ground it down.

IMG_8702 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Next up was a little patch that had bubbled and rusted through on the fender brace.

IMG_8703 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_8704 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

I then revisted the euro lights and tried to get the adjusters unseized. The low beam and high beam adjusters are opposite, in that the low beam adjusters have the adjusting threads fixed in a plastic nut in the bucket, and the square toggle and metal threads turn, and on the high beam the adjuster and plastic nut turn, and the metal threads are fixed on the headlight end. Who knows, that information could help somebody some day.

Anyway lots of deep creep, Vise-Grips and patience got all the adjusters moving

IMG_8706 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Another look at the highbeam plastic nut, that turns with the square adjuster

IMG_8707 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Another hot tip, once you get the adjusters moving, but want to run the threads in and out a few times, a 3/8" extension fits snugly in the adjuster head, and using a drill, not an impact, one can make quick work of moving them. Just dont get too torquey with it. I cracked on adjuster so it got some JB weld love

IMG_8705 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_8708 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Glad I got a couple hours in on a weekday, knocked out some jobs that have been put off because they were small

Looking good! Any progress is good progress & it looks like you're chugging right along!

Almost fell off the first page of Eye Candy! As expected, no progress this summer, just rolled it into the back and went along with life. Now the weather is turning, the shop is starting to slow down, so I thought I'd get going on some things before the car has a bay again that I can get back at the rust. I picked up a spare rear subframe to build up on its own, and I had a pair of trailing arms. Now, 10+ years ago I was drifting in a snow covered parking lot and eventually found a parking block that was underneath the snow. The resultant carnage was impressive. The RR trailing arm tore out of the subframe, rear diff cover snapped off, the diff dropped onto the exhaust cracking the rear manifold, the front wheel hit and bent both control arms, and later i found out, tweaked the frame rail.I still need to get that pulled out, which I plan to do once the rust repair is complete, before final fitting of the doors and fenders. At the time I just swapped in a whole subframe from a parts car, but I kept the trailing arms, wasnt sure if the right one was bent or if tearing out the subframe bracket saved it. So this weekend I decided to concoct a mock up to see if it actually is bent. Set the subframe to the cars ride height, set up the toe gauges and camber gauge.

IMG_0167 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Toe checked out okay, so it was on to the camber. Left side

IMG_0168 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

-3* of camber, pretty normal for a lowered e28

Right side

IMG_0169 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Didnt need a camber gauge to tell me this arm was bent! +1* of camber, so 4* bent.

I was happy I checked before doing any work on it, so I stripped both arms to send the hardware off for CAD plating, I still have to remove the trailing arm bushings, theyre pretty stuck so i may have to cut them out. Subframe bushings pressed out alright with some heat.

IMG_0173 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_0183 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

A smattering of hardware to get plated. Ill be taking apart the junkyard 3.25 LSD, do the hardware, clean and paint, and change all the seals. The car has either a 3.46 or a 3.64 right now, and as I age, the lower revs on the highway are more of an asset than the extra jump off the line. If i miss that, the diff swaps easily enough.

I've got an adjustable subframe bracket kit coming form Satisfied Incorporated, so I will document welding that all together. I had a hard time justifying the $164 Ireland engineering wants for their locking adjuster kits, and I know cek had some issues with them fouling the dogbone bolts, as well as the well known issue hitting the trailing arm bracket brace, which any adjustable kit will have. I'll see how these end up working!

Im resisting doing anything with the front suspension, crossmember, engine and transmission as all of that is functional, and if I strip the car completely, I know it'll never get done. I'll do the body and paint, this rear suspension stuff, gas tank etc. and then once its on the road again, I can enjoy it again and plan something for the engine. At that point, I would also refresh all the front suspension. In that vein, I'm just going to bolt the current rear shocks and springs back on for now. Easy to change when I do something to the front.

First post on the newly hosted forum! Thank you to any and all members who made this happen, this site has so much valuable information and it would be a shame if it was lost. Photobucket has done enough damage to forums already.

Got my two differentials pulled apart to send the hardware for plating. This was the load I ended up sending off, theres lots of duplicates from my parts car and others, I took photos of the stuff I know is from this job, so it shouldnt be horrible to sort through.

IMG_0274 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

I didnt take any pattern of backlash measurements on either diff, just marked everything L and R, i'm only resealing not replacing bearings or anything. The diff in the car didnt have any preload on the pinion bearings, but is smooth and was quiet so I think I will reseal and leave well enough alone. Taking it apart, I found it is not a 3.46 like I had thought, but just another 3.25, so i'll have two 3.25s resealed and ready.

IMG_0252 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

I did blast the 540i rear calipers, they were so heavily rusted I wanted to make sure they came out nice from plating.

IMG_0238 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Back to the task at hand, rust removal. I'm putting the suspension/diff refurb on the back burner, as I have the next week off work, and would like to use the time to get more metal work done. Its very time consuming work, and having full days and half days to dedicate to it works a lot better than an hour after work here or there.

Prior to this I had been wearing a half face respriator and safety glasses which worked okay, but wasnt the most comfortable and not completely effective. I found this full face respirator on marketplace, NIB for $100 when theyre around $200 new so I went for it. Been really happy with it so far.

IMG_0316 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

I figured I would start with the rear valance/bumper mount areas. Left side had the usual areas of duress

IMG_0317 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Right side not so bad, I'll see the truth once i get deeper in.

IMG_0318 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

This perforation in the L floor was a little disappointing. I elected to make a patch rather than try to salvage it from the parts car, as I really needed the outer corner from the parts car, and it would be difficult to salvage both pieces intact. Possible, but I decided to just make it.

IMG_0321 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_0322 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_0323 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_0324 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

I talk about time consuming work all the time, as an example, cutting out the corner, making this piece, welding and grinding took about 6 hours. Not ideal, but I dont want to rush the work, nor do I want to leave problem areas. I know there will be rust hidden in seams and corners that I wouldnt get to without stripping the car bare, which I am not prepared to do, but when theres perforation right in an area Im repairing, I cant turn a blind eye,

That left me here yesterday evening

IMG_0325 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

I had dragged in my less rusty rear section to melt off in the shop

IMG_0326 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

This morning I hacked off a corner piece

IMG_0327 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Repaired perforation underneath the bumper trim tab

IMG_0328 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_0329 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Ground off all the cut edges of the mounting flanges, bumper shock structure etc, so I have just the outer skin to weld onto the car. Getting all that stuff off took about 2 hours. No fun, but a lot less time than trying to make a section like this.

IMG_0330 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Pretty much anybody with an e28 with rust would be familiar with the spare tire well rusting under the bumper shock mount

IMG_0331 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Cut a piece out of the donor metal to repair that

IMG_0334 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Called it a day after that. Sunday here, wanted to watch the Oilers (hockey) play this afternoon. I'll be back at it tomorrow. My goal for the week is to have the rear valance sorted, get the right quarter panel repaired, and maybe the left as well would be great. I know the quarter panels will be my biggest challenge yet, and certainly the most visible repairs I need to make.

Great work! 
You won't have any issues with the rockers based off the work you have already done, plus you can hide a lot under the textured gravel guard that goes on the lower part lol.

Happy New Year e28ers! Thanks for the support and kind words.

Alright, some good progress this week. Picking up where we left off, by deleting the bumper shock support to the spare tire well, I had to cap off the crossmember. It doesnt have to be perfecting sealed off as there are drain holes, and the holes in the valance that lead into the crossmember, but I didnt want to leave a gaping hole for mud to fill up. I'll cavity wax everything I can after its painted.

Gaping hole

IMG_0345 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Welded in

IMG_0347 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Tacked the corner piece in

IMG_0348 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Fully welded and ground down

IMG_0353 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Still need to fill the marker wiring holes but that can be an after work later job. Trying to knock out some bigger pieces while I have all this time off

IMG_0354 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

I thought about trying to just weld fill the bumper trim holes, but decided to cut some little squares, and the result was nicer

IMG_0355 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_0356 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Wasnt sure what I wanted to do on the right side. What I decided to do was cut the bumper tunnel off at the fuel tank bracket, which was quite rusty, and I ground all the rust off the tank bracket and left it at that. I have to balance wanting to do things well and correctly, and wanting to drive the car in this decade. So theres probably going to be some seams or areas of surface rust that the time to get to them vs the repercussions of leaving it makes it not worth doing. I dont want it to become a full bare shell rotisserie job that will never get done. So you can question my decisions, and thats fair, but this is the rationale behind it. There is a time/cost budget to this.

IMG_0362 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Painted the bracket with POR15 while I had access

IMG_0364 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Right side welded in

IMG_0389 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Still need to fill the bumper shock bolt holes, but I'll have a hole filling day and do the marker light, bumper shock, and hole saw holes all in one day

IMG_0390 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

And so we are led to my ultimate nemesis. The big daddy repair. The one I have been scared of. Most of what I've been doing will end up undercoated, rocker guarded or generally is in a low visibility location. I've been learning and improving, but issues with my fitment or welding would generally not be seen. This is different. This is highly visible, and I did not want to turn the side of the car into a pretzel. But, I was not gonna pay somebody to do this, so it was time to take a deep breath and do the damn thing.

IMG_0391 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

No going back! unsurprisingly the inner wheel arch lip was just as rusted as the outer, so they got cut off as one rusty lump.

IMG_0392 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

The first rough fit up on Thursday evening seemed pretty promising. This panel I bought from Valcas garage, probably a year ago

IMG_0393 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Little closer fitment

IMG_0394 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

The big gulp. I chose the top line, based on not wanting to be right up to the swage line, no reason to go over the swage line, but wanting to be near it. I could have just cut out the round arch, there wasnt rust above it, but that seemed like it could be a trickier fit. I'm not saying what I decided is best, its just the direction I decided on.

IMG_0395 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

For anybody attempting this, this is an important note. Although it makes the actual welding much nicer and easier, you do not want a perfect fit on the butt joint here. The outer panel is very close to the inner arch, so there is no room behind to get a dolly, so when you tack the panels, the weld shrinks the metal. If there is no room for it to shrink, it usually results in a depression or peak. The ideal situation is to tack the panels, and then hammer/dolly the welds to stretch them back out to where they were. In reality, you often dont have access to the back side of a panel, so you need to account for some shrinkage.

IMG_0399 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

This was marking out roughly where I needed to have more gap. my guestimates are not correct, the areas marked 1/16" were really around 1/32", the 1/8" were closer to 1/16". Overall a gap of .080" or so is probably adequate. You obviously dont want too much gap, as the weld gets very tricky.

IMG_0400 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

These panel clamps are really nice for things like this

IMG_0402 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

IMG_0403 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Started out with a tack every 2 inches or so. And went back around in between. Now I should have thought more about the angled seam downtowards the fuel flap. that does have some limited access behind. Not great, but you can get a dolly held in there. even though I couldnt dolly the top seam, I should have been stretching as I went. Both sides of the seam were fairly large flat sections far away from any support, bend, flange or anything. So they were more susceptible to warping. List of excuses over, I ended up with a bit of shrinkage on that seam. 

IMG_0404 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr

Ground down, I was overall really quite pleased. I had replaced the quarter panel, I hadnt ended up with something horribly unrecognizable, and I did it myself. Far from perfect, but some more work on the seams, it will be a minimal amount of filler involved.

IMG_0407 by Warren Tomlinson, on Flickr


I went back in yesterday (Saturday), and using a prybar and piece of wood from the back side, to lever against the wheel well and flex out the angle seam, i then hammered the seam more. I'm down to under 1/8' of filler being needed to sort out the seam. I think I will come back at this to get the seam even better, but if it got bodywork and paint tomorrow, it isn't going to be a huge lump of filler in there. However, less is always better so I will come back at that.

Another thing you may be wondering, what about the inner wheel arch? I was just going to facbricate a 90* flange to repair it to match the outer, but I got thinking, I kind of want to roll the quarters Anyway, in case I want more tire. So I left the inner arch cut off, and I will roll the fender up to it, weld them together, and seam seal that. So thats the plan there. I'll wait until I have some suspension back in there to mount a fender roller. I could probably hammer and dolly the flange, since its only one layer of metal, or even cut reliefs in it to make it easier since I'll be welding it. But if i can roll the whole flange, thats cleaner.

How was the Valcas Garage panel? The fit was generally pretty decent. Any aftermarket panels I have experienced for other cars always are a general shape, and need a fair amount of working to get lined up. I would say this is better than many, but compared to the panels I was salvaging from my parts car, it did need work to line up. the important parts were mostly right, the distance between the swage line and the bumper depression for example, the most work was down near the door bottom and sill. I needed to reprofile that curve quite a bit, by shrinking and stretching the flanges, to get it to follow the door jamb and meet the sill. The fitment I landed on in this area is not perfect. To meet the inner arch flange on the inside, and the door jamb flange, it looks a little twisted to me, and the gap to the door at the bottom is probably 1/8" wide. The bottom is the best place to have such an issue, but I will probably come back at this and maybe build up the door jamb a bit to close the gap. I will revisit that when I'm fitting the used door that isnt so rusty.

It's been a while since I did a repair that I genuinely was unsure if I could do, and when I was done that I was driving home and really felt proud. So that was a nice feeling. The next day of course I was nitpicking my work more, but still, I did it, it's not horrible, and it can be made better before paint. Progress will slow down a little more now, I'll have to work for a living again on Monday. But i'm hoping to keep some momentum in the evenings, and on Saturdays.

I have a similar repair to perform.  How do you protect the back side of the weld from corrosion? Once sealed up,  it's inaccessible.

Looking good! 

There is a gap between the wheel well and the quarter panel. My intent is to wax the backside of it like crazy, and of course hope. Aside from that, you could drill an access hole through the wheel well/inner arch to ensure you’re waxing thoroughly, but I can’t see a good way of protecting it with paint. I thought about painting the inside, except for the flange, but it would have killed a day waiting for it to dry, and it’s the weld that’s going to rust first Anyway. I am not a fan of weld through primer at all. So it’s far from ideal, and the trunk will smell like rust proofing wax, but that’s my plan.

I love it! Like most e28s in Alberta mine is also unfortunately got rust. Now I don’t think it’s quite as much but this makes me feel that I can fix it. Also I am pretty sure the pedal assembly and flywheel that are now in my newly manual car is from the same car you got your trans from!  Small
world! I picked them up around November of 2023 for a score and the trans was already gone! Great work I would love it once it’s finished!