1984 318i Resurrection

[mike.bmw]

Wow, what a difference!

[Sunnyledge]

I’m headed into the home stretch. As I started to put the front end back together I became painfully aware that most of the studs that had held the liners in place broke off due to rust during the disassembly. So I located the position of the studs and welded a half dozen #10 sheet metal screws in as replacements. The liners had some cracks which I repaired with construction adhesive, sheet aluminum and pop rivets. A cheap but effective repair. Many of the various brackets, mounts, etc were rusted or corroded and while still functional, I didn’t want to reinstall them looking like that. So I removed the rust chemically or in the blasting cabinet and did a little home shop zinc plating. Not too bad.

[Sunnyledge]

I still have some rust to repair around the license plate lights before I put the back bumper on and do a little spot painting and see if I can get this 36 year old paint to shine. But I was able to make a run up and down our street for the first time in 12 years.

[Sunnyledge]

The last significant rust repair on the “to do list” was the typical rust around the license plate lights. After light sanding and a month of applying non-acid rust remover I was left with some pretty thin sheet metal with a few perforations. I probably could have gotten by with a skim coat of filler and some paint. But I decided to go a different route.

[Sunnyledge]

I templated the license plate light and made a mini “repair panel” out of 22 ga steel. In hind sight 24 ga would have been better.

[Sunnyledge]

Welding this patch was difficult due to the thin residual metal and difficult access/position. But I completed the repair patch with some pretty ugly welds. For the other side I made a bench with a couple of cement blocks and a 2 x 12 which allowed me to lay down with better visibility and control. But after some grinding, filler and paint it turned out ok. As this was a relatively small paint repair I used a Badger airbrush for the paint work. I’ll sand out the orange peal at some point.

[15Michaeljoseph]

Excellent work on all of this. Just did a few of these spots myself, stuff like the license plate light repair is super satisfying because you'll be seeing it often! Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk

[Sunnyledge]

After getting redirected to complete some “high priority” honey-do home project over the last month, I was able to get back to the car and complete reassembly of the last few components. The car’s last state inspection was in 2007. So last Friday, with fingers crossed, I took it in for an inspection and it passed. There were still a few gremlins to address (intermittently functioning speedometer and a drivers window that lowers but won’t raise) and some sorting of the adjustable shocks. I notice that the clutch slips if I gun the engine climbing a hill, which is a problem since I live at the top of a hill.

So after some work I now have a speedometer that works most of the time. Still need to replace the melted odometer gears. I pulled the door card, window and window track and cleaned and lubed it. I bought a $12 switch and it functions like new. The HVAC fan only worked on high, so I bought a new fan resistor. Once it arrived I opened the access panel in the engine compartment and cleaned out a massive rodent nest. Turns out the replacement resistor was cars manufactured from 9/84 and wasn’t going to work with my 8/84 manufactured 318i. So I sprayed the old resistor with electrical contact cleaner and compressed air and reinstalled it. Success.


Today I had a chance to try and clean up the car some. I don’t want to get too aggressive so I did a little work by hand. Not too bad for a 36 year old. I have a new clutch kit and will try to attack it in the next few weeks. Right now I just want to get a few summer drives in.

[2mAn]

Car looks great and you should definitely enjoy it. Post some more pics of it!

[mike.bmw]

Congrats! This really came a long way. Fantastic job on all the rust repair and subsequent work.

[drjamalhollis]

This is awesome, super cool to see how quickly you mastered the patch work!

[Sunnyledge]

The slipping clutch issue was becoming worse, so I couldn’t put it off any longer. I pulled the transmission and replaced the clutch, pressure plate and throw out bearing. It would have been nice to resurface the flywheel, but as there was no scoring I just cleaned it and took some of the glaze off with 3m brown and green Scotch-brite pads on a die grinder. Since I had just had everything apart it was a relatively quick and uncomplicated job. What a difference it has made to drivability.

[Glaede]

Awesome project!

Think you did a really great job - especially with the "battery" pocket in the trunk area.

[eternal24k]

love that tube straightener, will definitely keep that in mind next time i have to do a long stretch