My 1988 e30 325ix - Garage'd

[88e30ix]

Keep motivated!!

[jeenyus]

Today is my birthday and so I get the day off from work. Decided to do a little work on the car. I made templates, cut some out of metal. Once I got to the point I could weld one in I realized I hadn't cleaned up the underside, or even removed the transmission tunnel shielding(?). So I got under the car, removed the shielding and realized that the shielding had separated and basically glued itself to the underside of my car, creating little pockets that are what actually caused these rust spots (I thought it was the studs for the shield mounting). I had to remove my entire exhaust, couldn't do it from the flange so I removed it from the manifold. I was eventually able to get under the car and clean up the area I'm planning on welding, then called it a day. Time for some beer.

[gnmzl]

Happy Birthday, man!
Keep going at it, happy to see you didn't throw in the towel but went the more inconvenient route.

[jeenyus]

Happy Birthday, man!
Keep going at it, happy to see you didn't throw in the towel but went the more inconvenient route.

I'll be happy about it when I'm done. haha! It is one of those things where you're like, "I know this has to be done right or I'm going to have to do it again later... I dont want to do it again later..." I think the welding will go much quicker this time around. The angles or easier, the pieces are simpler. I'll make templates through the week and weld them in over the weekend hopefully. That should get me to priming and seam sealing and then the carpet can go back in and I can drive it till MS gets purchased. I have a feeling that the bitch tube on the intake manifold is causing me some grief in idle and A/F ratios.

[jeenyus]

I spent the day today making templates to weld in for the areas of rust I cut out. This is a long process to get right... I am happy to be done and now I can get to welding. Some pieces will need little fill triangles for areas I got a little cut-crazy with the angle grinder. Once these are in, all I will need to do is clean, prime and seam seal and I can put the interior back together! Finally gonna finish something!

[D.Martijn]

Looks good sofar, don't forget to drill some holes for plugwelds at the transmission tunnel where the floor is spotwelded onto the carrier.
Are you using some kind of weld thru primer as well?

[jeenyus]

No, I don't think weld thru primer is necessary. I have epoxy primer and seam sealer, plus rubberized under coating. I'm not sure what you mean about drilling drain holes. There are a myriad of drain holes in the floor as it is.

[jeenyus]

Got a little bit of work done this weekend. Got some of the patch panels tacked into place. I almost had forgot how long it takes... I also got some OBX headers, which came as a late birthday present. I didn't imagine they would fit, but I only had a few issues with one side and was able to resolve it. Below is a picture of them test amounted.

[jeenyus]

More welding this weekend. Flux core really is time consuming. You can only really do like one bead at a time and then you have to clean off the slag and do it again. Takes a lot of time... Next time I'll own a TIG welder. I also got some new studs and nuts for the exhaust manifold along with gaskets. Cleaned up that area as well. I did end up getting some better wire for the FLUX core welder though. I had the HF wire and changed to the Lincoln, which is much better! It is softer than the HF wire which took a lot to melt and would cause me to burn through in a lot of places. The Lincoln wire allows me to use lower heat on the thinner metal and not melt a giant hole in it.

[D.Martijn]

I would rather go with a MIG than a TIG. Do you have a connection on your flux core machine for some gas? If so, just get a bottle and some mog wire.
Tig is even harder to get right on thin sheet metal.

[jeenyus]

I would rather go with a MIG than a TIG. Do you have a connection on your flux core machine for some gas? If so, just get a bottle and some mog wire. Tig is even harder to get right on thin sheet metal.

It doesn't unfortunately. Tig seems way more versatile than any other option. This is probably my inexperience talking though. Just has a lot of options with the electrodes used. Doing a quick search is says it's used mainly on thin metal, so i would hope body panels and sheet metal are included in that.

[s14brent]

It doesn't unfortunately. Tig seems way more versatile than any other option. This is probably my inexperience talking though. Just has a lot of options with the electrodes used. Doing a quick search is says it's used mainly on thin metal, so i would hope body panels and sheet metal are included in that.

i'd go mig also for this job. and thickness of metal is really handled by your consumables for both. (wire size/tip/rollers for mig. filler rod, tungsten, and then your torch setup collets etc. for tig) I have only used the pedal on with my tig, but for inside the car i'm guessing you'd want a finger control setup for tig.
sidenote: i still haven't had time to even attempt to do this on my car yet. kudo's for you getting all this taken care of. i'm still scared at the thought of cutting out part of the floor.

[jeenyus]

i'd go mig also for this job. and thickness of metal is really handled by your consumables for both. (wire size/tip/rollers for mig. filler rod, tungsten, and then your torch setup collets etc. for tig) I have only used the pedal on with my tig, but for inside the car i'm guessing you'd want a finger control setup for tig. sidenote: i still haven't had time to even attempt to do this on my car yet. kudo's for you getting all this taken care of. i'm still scared at the thought of cutting out part of the floor.

Thanks for the input. Welding is fun and I'd guess without a flux core it would be even more fun. Don't be intimidated. There are many drain plugs in the floor already that aren't even welded in. Areas of just seam sealer holding some seams together. If imagine no matter how it turns out, should be better than it was as a rusty hole. Plus more aero (lol) on the wheel arch, help move that air along quicker than the rust box they put there from factory.

[jeenyus]

I had to cut a good amount of rust from the passenger side corner. Because I did that I will have to rebuild the drain area. It made me realize that a good amount of rust is probably from water sitting in this area, so hopefully I can figure out a practical way to resolve of and stitch it back together. I also ended up finally biting the bullet on a work light as well. The initial cost of like 130 to buy the light and this bullshit, "one battery sold separately for all" definitely increases the initial cost, but it has already saved me and helped increase what I can do on these cold short days. I have found a few places that need a couple little areas fixed and welding is much easier with 1000 lumens vs 50 from a cellphone.

[jeenyus]

Finished the passengers side corner. Now I need to figure out how to heat up the garage enough to spray epoxy primer. I will say that the last patch piece I welded is probably my best welds on this project tbh. Especially with the flux welder, it's hard to get consistency. Happy with how it turned out.