So today I woke up and watched a little TV but felt like I needed to do something. I dont know if I was still tired, or in fact it was out of sheer boredom I wanted to tackle this today. I wanted to do my research before I tackled this project. Well actually, ive been really lazy about it.
But the story on the car is that 6 years ago I posted my very first bmw and E30 on a local automobile for sale site. I had a call and a guy came to look at it, he brought down one of his friends (worked at Tree House Racing down in Nashville) and he said he would think about it. Well a few days later he texted me and wanted to know if id trade for his cabrio (this car), so I drove down to TN and figured id take a look. I wanted the car, but needless to say he decided he wanted to keep it and 24v swap it. Out of all this I made a new friend and we have been good friends since. Long story short, he got rear ended twice over the course of the next few years and after the 2nd one he wanted to sell it, but at the time I didnt have the extra cash. So my brother bought it, and after he had it for around half a year he decided to sell it to me. After about 7 months of the car I honestly wanted to sell it, so I stuck it up for sale both locally and on the forums, but after reminding myself on how long I waited for the car I may keep it and let the wife drive it when I take my other E30 to car meets.
Let me start off by saying that I am in no way an auto body person. Ive messed with a few things, but nothing to this extent. So if ive done something wrong then inform me for the next time. I know this probably isnt the best way to do replace a body panel, but Im cheap and didnt feel it was necessary to let a body shop repair something I could learn something from. After all, theres nothing I could do to make it worse.
Back when my friend owned it, if you couldnt notice from the shiney paint. (I had to steal this before picture for reference on what it looked like when I wanted it.)
5/6 years later, it was in my possession. This is the day my brother hauled it 620 miles across 4 different states and finally arrived.
So I pulled it in next to the Euro E30 to give it some company.
Out of boredom I test fitted the Type A's.
Two swapped E30's in one garage :)
Its rare this thing gets washed, so when I finally did it I went out and took a "decent" photo of it.
This was the night that the tornado came through wichita. Right after this picture I had to move it to the garage.
One of the reasons my buddy sold it. Someone rear ended him and after having the car for quite awhile, he just wanted to get into something newer. The damage looks pretty bad, but luckily it didnt mess up anything structural, well, minus the 1/4 panel lol.
I then installed an Mtech1 steering wheel and shifter knob.
Sport seats front and rear. One of these days ill get around to recovering them.
So today I was tired, bored, and thought to myself that it was way to nice outside on this Novemember day to not do anything. So after putting this off for nearly 8 months I pulled it in the garage and made my first cuts.
After I made my first cut I thought to myself. "Did I seriously just do this?" Need I remind you I have almost ZERO auto body skills unless its something simple. But cutting a 1/4 panel out of a car is by no means something simple.
It probably didnt help I was watching nothing but car shows this morning on TV. But I do know to always cut a little at a time. Which is why you see me making another cut.
Long story short, my friend totaled his E30 325ix, so I yanked the 1/4 off of it. It took some time, but we did it. Here you can see my sharpie marks on where to cut. (this 1/4 panel should look familiar for you regulars!!!!)
Old 1/4 panel out!!
Cleaned up the edges with a flap disc.
Mocked up!!
Another view
Body lines are almost spot on..Not a fun one person project. But a little bit of music and mountain dew kept me motivated.
Ignore my crappy welds, thanks to my dog I stepped on my welding mask and broke it. So had to spot weld the first few with my eyes closed.
Loosely fitted my taillight, whenever it was rear ended it messed up the mounting holes on the inboard side, so ill redo those as well.
Now that the front is spot welded I can massage the back of the panel to fit and get the gaps I need.
Also, the rear bottom of the quarter panel is gonna get cut out and replaced. As well as the rear "burger panel" as Ive always heard them referred to.
So what am I going to do after I get all of this done? Well this will probably be the car I learn how to paint on, two stage paint. So hopefully itll get painted. After that Im probably gonna go cheap on wheels unless I find something for a good deal locally. ESM's 002 are my preferred choice, 17x8 fronts and 17x9 rear. Finally after the wheels I plan to get the seats recovered, yes ill be doing this as well, Ill order the reupholstery kit off ebay and take the seats back to black. All said and done it'll be a cheap project to work on and will help me learn a few things.
But the story on the car is that 6 years ago I posted my very first bmw and E30 on a local automobile for sale site. I had a call and a guy came to look at it, he brought down one of his friends (worked at Tree House Racing down in Nashville) and he said he would think about it. Well a few days later he texted me and wanted to know if id trade for his cabrio (this car), so I drove down to TN and figured id take a look. I wanted the car, but needless to say he decided he wanted to keep it and 24v swap it. Out of all this I made a new friend and we have been good friends since. Long story short, he got rear ended twice over the course of the next few years and after the 2nd one he wanted to sell it, but at the time I didnt have the extra cash. So my brother bought it, and after he had it for around half a year he decided to sell it to me. After about 7 months of the car I honestly wanted to sell it, so I stuck it up for sale both locally and on the forums, but after reminding myself on how long I waited for the car I may keep it and let the wife drive it when I take my other E30 to car meets.
Let me start off by saying that I am in no way an auto body person. Ive messed with a few things, but nothing to this extent. So if ive done something wrong then inform me for the next time. I know this probably isnt the best way to do replace a body panel, but Im cheap and didnt feel it was necessary to let a body shop repair something I could learn something from. After all, theres nothing I could do to make it worse.
Back when my friend owned it, if you couldnt notice from the shiney paint. (I had to steal this before picture for reference on what it looked like when I wanted it.)
5/6 years later, it was in my possession. This is the day my brother hauled it 620 miles across 4 different states and finally arrived.
So I pulled it in next to the Euro E30 to give it some company.
Out of boredom I test fitted the Type A's.
Two swapped E30's in one garage :)
Its rare this thing gets washed, so when I finally did it I went out and took a "decent" photo of it.
This was the night that the tornado came through wichita. Right after this picture I had to move it to the garage.
One of the reasons my buddy sold it. Someone rear ended him and after having the car for quite awhile, he just wanted to get into something newer. The damage looks pretty bad, but luckily it didnt mess up anything structural, well, minus the 1/4 panel lol.
I then installed an Mtech1 steering wheel and shifter knob.
Sport seats front and rear. One of these days ill get around to recovering them.
So today I was tired, bored, and thought to myself that it was way to nice outside on this Novemember day to not do anything. So after putting this off for nearly 8 months I pulled it in the garage and made my first cuts.
After I made my first cut I thought to myself. "Did I seriously just do this?" Need I remind you I have almost ZERO auto body skills unless its something simple. But cutting a 1/4 panel out of a car is by no means something simple.
It probably didnt help I was watching nothing but car shows this morning on TV. But I do know to always cut a little at a time. Which is why you see me making another cut.
Long story short, my friend totaled his E30 325ix, so I yanked the 1/4 off of it. It took some time, but we did it. Here you can see my sharpie marks on where to cut. (this 1/4 panel should look familiar for you regulars!!!!)
Old 1/4 panel out!!
Cleaned up the edges with a flap disc.
Mocked up!!
Another view
Body lines are almost spot on..Not a fun one person project. But a little bit of music and mountain dew kept me motivated.
Ignore my crappy welds, thanks to my dog I stepped on my welding mask and broke it. So had to spot weld the first few with my eyes closed.
Loosely fitted my taillight, whenever it was rear ended it messed up the mounting holes on the inboard side, so ill redo those as well.
Now that the front is spot welded I can massage the back of the panel to fit and get the gaps I need.
Also, the rear bottom of the quarter panel is gonna get cut out and replaced. As well as the rear "burger panel" as Ive always heard them referred to.
So what am I going to do after I get all of this done? Well this will probably be the car I learn how to paint on, two stage paint. So hopefully itll get painted. After that Im probably gonna go cheap on wheels unless I find something for a good deal locally. ESM's 002 are my preferred choice, 17x8 fronts and 17x9 rear. Finally after the wheels I plan to get the seats recovered, yes ill be doing this as well, Ill order the reupholstery kit off ebay and take the seats back to black. All said and done it'll be a cheap project to work on and will help me learn a few things.
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