2nd e30, 87 Lachssilber Revival

[AWDBOB]

Great work on a tricky area- so many pieces land together there, it's definitely a puzzle!

[2mAn]

Not bad! That similar corner was where I started on my Alfa when I underwent the rust repair. It came out pretty good from here!

[Reichart12]

Ok, another big repair. Some mistake made, some rust cut out, and a bunch of new metal going in. Going to let the photos do most of the talking. It was all so rusty, I didn't really have a reference to work from. I did order the late model battery box so I had to do some cutting and winging it. Definitely could have made this job a ton earlier if I had the proper fitting parts. Anywho, it's in now and I just have some final pinhole filling, leftover weld grinding, and some seam sealing/undercoating to put back on. Done for now. Will do that stuff at a later point. Also still need to find out how to add the battery tray and secure all of that.

https://youtu.be/JlNTn9PLEsc

[Reichart12]

Status update: the car is still rusty. But now at least with one area a bit less rusty. I did start on replacing the battery box area metal but got distracted by my rusty tow hook. Figured it was easier to replace now while I had the whole corner opened up. I'm actually surprised no replacement versions were available. All I could find online were screw in strap type versions. Looking back, welding in a nut for those to attach to would have been way easier.

Anyways, I started cutting and metal (read:rust) started disappearing.

I bought a 3' section steel rod to make my tow hook out of. Turns out I don't really have rod bending tools so that shape didn't turn out perfect but I think a strap or clamp can still be attached to my tow hook if need be. It was interesting to see how many different layers of metal came together to form the rear of the car. I probably didn't remove or attach everything in the correct order. I do feel good about it being a sturdy repair though. Let's just hope it can stay rust free for a few years. Picture time now for all you visual learners.

https://youtu.be/UigL954uuHc

[Reichart12]

Wow this kicked my butt for how few bolts needed to come off. Gas tank is off! Not sure if I posed here about it and too lazy to check but in 2020 when living in California, I thought my gas tank leaked. At the house I parked on a slight slant and I thought the gas leaked out of the seam on the driver side. A local shop changed a few hoses and the filter in that area. But I never felt good about it. Decided to never fill the tank above halfway and just lived with it. Well now that I'm doing the rust repairs and just continually ripping things out, out comes the tank. And yes, it definitely leaked out the side as I dropped the tank unevenly and sloshed the fuel to that side. Would have drained the fuel first but rounded out the drain plug. Planned on buying a new tank so who cares. Dumped the remaining gas into a bucket, let the rust particles settle and move that to my gas jugs for the lawn mower. Check out all those particles that settled out! Some rusty lines that look like they have holes, not sure if they are return lines or not but definitely not looking good. Fresh install will come in the summer, coming soon!

[2mAn]

Make sure you grind those welds down to make sure there are no pinholes, otherwise it looks great

[Northern]

Looking good here too

[econti]

Looks good honestly, I've never been confident in rust repair so that's impressive

[Reichart12]

Just adding to the work in this area. Slapped some seam sealer on it. This area is done for now. Will do body filler all at once at the end. I need to go back and clean up the junk I've did on the rear panel, primer the new metal and add sealer there. Next task I think will be dropping the gas tank. I think it has a leak in the seam from rust, might not. Might be creating more work than I need, but for mental comfort I need to replace it.

Youtube link for this rust repair: https://youtu.be/pFEO-sjE8KM

[Reichart12]

As I should have expected, the rust I could see was not the entirety of the rust in the area. In the end, it didn't end up being much more and I cut out larger areas that I needed to in hopes of having an easier time putting it back together. First time working with spot welds too. The special drill bit I picked up makes a bigger hole that I thought so not sure I really did a nice job welding back in that area. Some of my struggles were from the angle of work I had to deal with. What a change it is from welding flat pieces on a table to then being under the car trying to weld up into a crack.

I probably flip flopped a good 10 times between "wow I think I'm getting better" and "oh crap I'm getting worse". Final jury is still out.

Still some finalizing work to be done with a couple pinholes and a couple spots to grind down. Hitting it with primer actually does a good job of pointing out what still needs work. I bought seam sealer as well to try to minimize some of my lack of welding/bad welding in the corners. Should get a Youtube video out this weekend covering the work. Hope I remembered to hit record.

Not sure if it will be next but soon to tackle the battery box. Looking for thoughts on how to remake the tow hook box. I might be able to salvage the actual hook and just weld it into a new fabricated box. Or just bend some stock pipe. Who knows, I'm open to suggestions.

[Northern]

I think it looks great.

Gotta say, I'm hoping these pre made pieces help me a ton because they were not cheap to buy and ship from Lithuania to Washington state.

Ugh I know. I have some fender bottoms from Valcas and they look fine but the shipping was brutal. I ended up ordering that a few years back just because someone was buying some other stuff and we could split shipping. But then I was looking at E30garageNorway a few weeks ago and was shell shocked at the prices even before shipping. Like the front jack points are 189eu

[Reichart12]

That's a healthy shipment of steel. Enjoying the progress.

Gotta say, I'm hoping these pre made pieces help me a ton because they were not cheap to buy and ship from Lithuania to Washington state.

Finished up the next section of rust repairs, license plate lights. Actually ordered two sets of the housings over the years so it's clearly been a job I've been thinking about for awhile. I'd like to think I'm slowly getting better. At least more aware of what I'm doing. Really need some better technique on cutting out the rusty pieces. I think if I can get that more precise, my new metal will fit better and give me an easier time welding. Forgot to order screws so the final product will have to wait a bit longer. That and I'd like to get a belt/finger sander to really get into the curves to grind down my welds.

Also, if I happened to put the replacement panel in backwards. Don't tell me. I don't want to hear it.

[Northern]

That's a healthy shipment of steel. Enjoying the progress.

[Reichart12]

Valcas Garage order arrived with pretty quick shipping. Technically this happened before my last post but I forgot to edit the photos. I bought pieces to cover the vast majority of the rust I found. Still a few remaining areas I'll have to tackle with scrap panels. Also turned the car sideways to have more accessibility around the rear of the car. Neighbors probably thought I was nuts driving the car and positioning it like this. Anyways, I'm currently working on the license plate light area. Hoping to keep up with a Youtube video every other Sunday (this Sunday). Should be wrapped up in time, fingers crossed.

[Reichart12]

A functional repair. If you want to replicate the textured paint finish I've had good luck with primer, then random paint, then undercoating that you artfully dab with a microfiber or other cloth while wet to simulate the texture.

Smart, I had not put much thought into making the texture yet. Not sure of what my plan will be post-rust repair but some level of paint/wrap will be needed.