1991 318is Restoration Project...Now with some Air!

[Tuee]

Can't help but wonder if installing one of those rear 'butt strut' cross-members would more than adequately (or better?) compensate for lack of sheet metal, structure-wise.

You plan on putting in some sort of trunk sub setup?
Looks like the rear seat would hang fine from what is there.
Running a cloth seat and that open area would be kind of ideal for trunk/cabin breathing.
The bitch would be designing a setup around the butt brace.

Otherwise, that area is one of the last areas to corrode. Would think it'd be easy enough to cut that piece out of a junker to weld in. Butt brace idea starts sounding pretty good in light of doing less work. Maybe.. I’m thinking out loud mostly.

whore car ;) lol

+1 on cool plaid cloth there..

Thanks for the suggestion man. Would you by any chance have a pic of how this strut looks like, it sounds like a good way to go. I am going to put in a sub but its going to be one of those sealed bandpass boxes...and no 2 15's, lol

[Simon S]

Can't help but wonder if installing one of those rear 'butt strut' cross-members would more than adequately (or better?) compensate for lack of sheet metal, structure-wise.

You plan on putting in some sort of trunk sub setup?
Looks like the rear seat would hang fine from what is there.
Running a cloth seat and that open area would be kind of ideal for trunk/cabin breathing.
The bitch would be designing a setup around the butt brace.

Otherwise, that area is one of the last areas to corrode. Would think it'd be easy enough to cut that piece out of a junker to weld in. Butt brace idea starts sounding pretty good in light of doing less work. Maybe.. I’m thinking out loud mostly.

whore car ;) lol

+1 on cool plaid cloth there..

[Tuee]

Looks like a cool project, I want your seats!

Haha, so do I, i really wanted tan leather but when I saw these seats I was like damn, I want these, I can say 10% of the reason I bought the car was because of the seats, lol

Sounds like cool stuff. Do you have a name brand? I Google'd but just found some spammy sites. :(

Its essentially this in a spray form, my camera ran out of batteries so i'll post a pic of the can when i can.

http://reviews.canadiantire.ca/9045/0477965P/reviews.htm

I also found out today that my car's a whore.....I'm the 12th owner, it exchanged hands 5 times just in 1993

[blalor]

It's essentially a chemical that turns any rust into a paintable surface, although I sanded most of the rust off, just in case I sprayed it down, it also turns bare metal into a rust free paintable surface. You can see in one of the pictures the black spots, thats what this spray did.

Sounds like cool stuff. Do you have a name brand? I Google'd but just found some spammy sites. :(

[noE30]

Looks like a cool project, I want your seats!

[Tuee]

sheet metal? Im sure you can pick some up at a local hardware store.
You should definitely make it so that you can open it up so that you can take snowboards/skis in your e30.

Thanks, ya I'll definitely make something that folds down although I don't do much skiing or snowboarding, lol

What's "rust check"?

It's essentially a chemical that turns any rust into a paintable surface, although I sanded most of the rust off, just in case I sprayed it down, it also turns bare metal into a rust free paintable surface. You can see in one of the pictures the black spots, thats what this spray did.

[blalor]

What's "rust check"?

[Be30mer]

sheet metal? Im sure you can pick some up at a local hardware store.
You should definitely make it so that you can open it up so that you can take snowboards/skis in your e30.

[Tuee]

Got a bit more work done today, I was wondering if anyone had a cheap solution for this hole that was cut out.
After sanding and the coating with rust check,

Primer


So I'd really appreciate any suggestions on patching that hole up.

[Tuee]

its the carpet...looks really nasty!

^ I think the answer he was looking for was TRASH...

lol, yep that's the carpet, there was enough water in that carpet to fill lake ontario,

[kenika65]

^ I think the answer he was looking for was TRASH...

[southgabimmer]

its the carpet...looks really nasty!

[Tuee]

holy rust batman! i am dealing with a lot of the same on my 2002. its a bitch. good luck.

Thanks, and ya rust is a bitch, it seems like most of my rust was confined to the surface and some sanding took car of that. However I do have 3 holes where I'd need to weld in some new material, for now I'm gonna just JB Weld them and then get it done professionally when finances clear up. Update: I got the passenger side primed, started cleaning up the driver side and removed almost all the sound material.



This stuff is pretty heavy

Can someone guess what this is?


The plans for the interior is to get all the rust cleaned up, prime, paint and then dynomat it. Then I'll work on the wiring.

[deutschman]

holy rust batman! i am dealing with a lot of the same on my 2002. its a bitch. good luck.

[Tuee]

Lots of work, but it will look great when you are done! Cloth sports seats are awesome. Bah, silly 325's here and their leather.

Are those plaid seats? Got lots of work but it'll be worth it.

Yep, there plaid cloth seats, I really wanted a white car with tan leather until I saw those seats, so I'm gonna keep the black and cloth interior.