89 325i LS Swap (Rust Repair & Respray Underway)

[Pootis]

The partial rear quarter panel showed up today. Looks like it will eliminate all of the damage that was hidden under the bondo. I went and dropped it off and checked on the car. My buddy is moving right along with it. All of the dents have been pulled on the drivers side and roof. He also fixed the dents in the hood and deleted the windshield washer sprayers. Hoping I will be picking the car up mid August right now. Yes I told him to mask off the key hole lol.

[Pootis]

The carnage continues. So my buddy separated the inner wheel well arch from the outer fender to find we have even more damage hiding in the quarter panel.....Luckily the patch panel I bought contained 90% of what was needed for the inner wheel well arch and the outer covers all of the damage. He informed me that he will need to build from the upper wheel well down to the battery box which will hopefully not take too much. The good thing is that after this section the battery box and passenger side footwell corner are the last big rust spots to fix. Also someone needs to start making these vent covers out of fiberglass for cheap.

He said it looks like they just stuffed metal squares in and stick welded it to the inner fender to get things reattached and then they just squeezed as much glue and seam sealer in as they could.










Also took the time to repaint all of the trim with SEM Trim Paint and spray down the valve covers and brake booster parts with wrinkle black. Can't wait to get the car back and see it all together again






Not getting much here as far as comments but hope you all are enjoying the thread

[2mAn]

So exciting to see the carnage being removed

[JCarp90]

Oh ha. You still have this car?

[Pootis]

Oh ha. You still have this car?

Honestly surprised it hasn't burned down from the rats nest of a wiring job under the hood

[Pootis]

I'm starting to dread everytime my friend calls me. Unfortunately he found even more rust. But I am pleased to say that while I don't have final final photos yet the quarter and battery box are finally done and rust free. I can't emphasize enough that if your vent cover is rusted through replace it and seam seal it to try and save the area. After finding the amount of rust we have we determined that it wasn't worth running the vent lines in the OEM way. When inspecting the battery box he noticed something hiding behind a plastic cover in the battery box and well.....the pics will speak for themselves. You will see from these pics though that my buddy's metal work and attention to detail is next to none. The new plans for the vent lines is to install a rubber grommet in the patch panel for the large hole and run the lines through the trunk and then into the tube under seat which btw was rusted through as well. I will more than likely put a section of heat shrink on between the tube and the lines to keep the elements out. This has been quite the process but I can't wait to see the final product!

[Pootis]

He sent me the final product of the wheel well rust free!




Battery tray is almost done but thought you guys would appreciate a good laugh. Another previous shop repair. They just welded a piece of metal on, completely disregarded the body line and covered it in bondo. I think the car is going to be faster with all of the weight reduction.



As I continue to be bored I painted my headlight rings, intake tube and drilled and tapped the water pump for the steam port provision.









Also since I don't run a windshield washer reservoir or pump I had him delete the squirters which I think was a good call.

[jhaurimn]

Excellent work on fixing all that rust in the rear right well. I woulda puked pulling that plastic cover off, let alone the rust over the spring area

[Pootis]

Excellent work on fixing all that rust in the rear right well. I woulda puked pulling that plastic cover off, let alone the rust over the spring area

Yeah I was really fortunate that the rust was in the sheet metal above and not actually in the unibody “frame rail” structure that the spring perch is welded to.

[AWDBOB]

Man, my "daily iX" project from earlier this year looked identical to your car in the passenger rear wheel well. It was bad. Glad to see you have someone skilled working that area. I gave up and turned mine into a parts car.

And "the practical enthusiast" on Youtube reran his vents in a similar fashion to what you're doing.

Progress is looking great!

[15Michaeljoseph]

Amazing work so far!! I had the same rot to fix around that vent line in the wheel well. I opted to re-create the original design (probably foolish). I think they designed it that way to keep fuel vapor away from the battery in case of a rear end impact shifting things around. The pipe under the rear seat where the lines run is impossible to find/ very hard for the average person to compound bend, so I ended up using a small section of donor pipe on the wheel well side (like original) but cut off the rusted section under the seat, and in its place ran a length of 3/4in braided HVAC hose which I clamped to the two good "nubs". Can't tell the repair was ever done that way unless the back seat is out of the car. Oh, and load everything up with cosmoline body wax when its done!!! Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk

[Pootis]

Man, my "daily iX" project from earlier this year looked identical to your car in the passenger rear wheel well. It was bad. Glad to see you have someone skilled working that area. I gave up and turned mine into a parts car.

And "the practical enthusiast" on Youtube reran his vents in a similar fashion to what you're doing.

Progress is looking great!

I'm way to deep into the car to scrap it and beyond this back quarter the rest of the car is in great shape (Although the thought crossed my mind multiple times). Yeah the practical enthusiast helped me a ton in this area. I am really glad he took the time to document things the way he did.

Amazing work so far!! I had the same rot to fix around that vent line in the wheel well. I opted to re-create the original design (probably foolish). I think they designed it that way to keep fuel vapor away from the battery in case of a rear end impact shifting things around. The pipe under the rear seat where the lines run is impossible to find/ very hard for the average person to compound bend, so I ended up using a small section of donor pipe on the wheel well side (like original) but cut off the rusted section under the seat, and in its place ran a length of 3/4in braided HVAC hose which I clamped to the two good "nubs". Can't tell the repair was ever done that way unless the back seat is out of the car. Oh, and load everything up with cosmoline body wax when its done!!! Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk

So that was going to be my original plan was to just buy a piece of steel pip and have him weld it in to the original entrance and do exactly what you are talking about but after finding the huge hole above the battery we decided on the new routing method. I'm laughing to myself because I have known about the cover being rusted away but have put off buying one because I didn't want to drop the $100 on a flimsy piece of metal. So when I decided to have all of this fixed that was one of the first things I bought because I knew he would need it......and now he isn't even using it lol.

[D.Martijn]

Great progress on the rust repair! This brings back so much memories when I dealt with the rust on my iX Touring.
I also opted to re-create the original design, however I found an guy (in Germany as I'm located in the EU as well) that makes these new in stainless and opted to just glue it instead of welding it.. So far it's been +2 years and it still looks great!

Amazing work so far!! I had the same rot to fix around that vent line in the wheel well. I opted to re-create the original design (probably foolish). I think they designed it that way to keep fuel vapor away from the battery in case of a rear end impact shifting things around. The pipe under the rear seat where the lines run is impossible to find/ very hard for the average person to compound bend, so I ended up using a small section of donor pipe on the wheel well side (like original) but cut off the rusted section under the seat, and in its place ran a length of 3/4in braided HVAC hose which I clamped to the two good "nubs". Can't tell the repair was ever done that way unless the back seat is out of the car. Oh, and load everything up with cosmoline body wax when its done!!! Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk

[15Michaeljoseph]

Great progress on the rust repair! This brings back so much memories when I dealt with the rust on my iX Touring. I also opted to re-create the original design, however I found an guy (in Germany as I'm located in the EU as well) that makes these new in stainless and opted to just glue it instead of welding it.. So far it's been +2 years and it still looks great!

Oh nice, I couldn't find it anywhere! Fun memories indeed... I hope we both get another 30 years out of the repair! Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk

[JCarp90]

Buying a $750 car just for fun was your biggest mistake to date.