Thanks Rohan.. I never heard of them.. I'll check it out... The M3 rack makes the car feel like a go kart, in a good way, a very good way... I only drove it home (about 40km) but took the curves in my usual race car driver way and was blown away how flat the car handles. Beautiful really... Here's the latest and greatest...Well with the apron welded in it was high time to get the rest of the d*mn welding done... Welding is a bit tedious and it really is an acquired skill. Therefore, since I lack the latter, my apologies for what comes next to those of you with the knowledge and skills to have done a better job!
The worst section of rust as far as I was concerned was the rear right corner: The section where the subframe bolts to the chasis and the lower portion of the wheel arch. This bit kept me up at night..
The whole bottom part was totally rusted out and would have to be rebuilt. BMW made a nice replacement panel for just this scenario, which, of course, is NLA...
And its basically where three sheets of metal meet...
So, when in doubt, get the grinder out!!
A bit more...
And the arch too..
I thought this approach would be better than welding in a complete rear quarter panel as all the rest of the quarter panel was mint...
So my first move was to replace the first layer, the lower edge.. I cut a piece to size and welded it in..
Next up was to double this part up and create a piece that would mate (
) with the top piece...
Its actually one piece cut and welded together to give the curve required..
I welded in that piece and then started bending metal for my third layer.. Im pretty proud of this part considering Im a bit of a hack at this...
Hand-bent...
Initial test fitting..
Before welding it in I POR-15'd the interior sheets to ensure NO MAS rust... Then I welded it in..
After the shock that I had actually accomplished this wore off I proceed to spend an hour tack welding in pieces of steel to form the missing inside arch bit..
Then I spent another hour shaping a piece of steel to form the outer edge of the arch, which was tricky due to the shaping where the arch and the rubber stripping meet...
Tack welded in place.. and then cut relief strips to be able to bend it over and weld it to my inner portion...
Bent and welded.. (you can also see I completely stripped the lower sill and POR 15'd the whole thing..no biggie but nice!)
POR 15'd and ready for final prep later on..
Poll