ROUND 4! 88 Lachsilber / Cardinal IX coupe

[AWDBOB]

Holy rust batman. Hey if you're motivated enough to tackle it I can respect that.

I'm going to list my rust free '88 car in the next few months, you should've waited ;)

[bradnic]

Oh god, I'm terrified to dig into my ix even more than I already have.

hahahaha I SOOO know what you mean man. There's what you WANT to be and what really is. Do you REALLY believe that little rust hole you can see doesn't extend to other places you can't see? lol.

Just take a look at that floor pan pic from the parts car. I *knew* it had to be there because there was some fishy stuff under the car. I chose to ignore it for close to 2 years, sinking money into mechanicals.. Guess I knew I'd just swap everything over.

Amazing dedication though!

I guess it's because I played that hide and seek game already. To me it's all about making what you really want real. I really want a clean 88 IX the way it came out of the factory, OEM+ and with whatever bits didn't get ordered when new. No color changes, just fully equipped.

-I tried a super clean red IX coupe - didn't like it.
-A red no rust coupe - just needed a color change - didn't like it.
-A really nice white coupe with some relatively minor rust issues - switched to the car I really wanted all along, rust and all.

I'm done with that. Fix the damn thing right - strip it down and fix it all. Then score the arm rest rear seat I'm missing, retrofit the heated seats and do all the usual OEM+ stuff I do. I'm happy as a clam lol.

[stonea]

Oh god, I'm terrified to dig into my ix even more than I already have. Amazing dedication though!

[bradnic]

^ this. there's Brandon.. haha
thanks man. that means a lot

[ThatOneEuroE30]

Oh I'm not hating. I know you can save it and should save it. Im just saying man that rust haha. Once you get rust cut out it really isnt that bad. Its looking at all the rust that intimidates you. If you have any questions feel free to pm me. Cause there was tricks i used to get this how i wanted them.

[bradnic]

I spent part of last night reading the restorides link. I was showing my wife some of the parts the were making and even she seemed impressed. I've done plenty of heavier metal fabricating in the past, lighter gauge work will take some practice. I may stop on the way home tomorrow and grab some 16, 18, 20 gauge sheet metal and a refill for my wife feed to practice with.

I'm cranking on the vert right now, but I'll let you know when I get this beast down to the shell.. You're welcome to commiserate lol.. Any metal bender is welcome actually :-) I have a Lincoln 180C in the garage, but not much in the way of metal bending tools yet

[Southernboy]

Wow, now that is some rust repair. I have to tip my hat to you.
Now I almost feel guilty that mine was “relatively” rust free. There were a few small spots that needed attending to, but nothing like this.
Brad, you’re my iX hero…:) Job well done!
Plus I love the Lachs and Cardinal combo. Very stylish.

[doorman]

indeed - anywhere salt is used.



haha yeah. obsessive, irrational affection for E30s is definitely something I'm stuck with :-)



grind away the cancer. patch in repair panels, trial fitting with cardboard first. tack them in, then finish welding. Then prime and seal.



Some good starting points from earlier in the thread:

I spent part of last night reading the restorides link. I was showing my wife some of the parts the were making and even she seemed impressed. I've done plenty of heavier metal fabricating in the past, lighter gauge work will take some practice. I may stop on the way home tomorrow and grab some 16, 18, 20 gauge sheet metal and a refill for my wife feed to practice with.

[bradnic]

Rust on cars in the Midwest is inevitable if you drive a car from Oct-April.

indeed - anywhere salt is used.

Your love for the ix is easily seen bud!!!

haha yeah. obsessive, irrational affection for E30s is definitely something I'm stuck with :-)

I'm gonna be tackling the jack and battery tray rust on mine soon as well. Also found a hole in my passenger floor when I was doing my front end rebuild recently.

grind away the cancer. patch in repair panels, trial fitting with cardboard first. tack them in, then finish welding. Then prime and seal.

Subbed for rust repair info!

Some good starting points from earlier in the thread:

E21/E30 specific rust repair examples:

Pedal floor pan repair on JGood's M60 build
1st post on Brian's amazing M3 'minor rust repair' of course
320i floorpan resto on bfc
And a new Euro 320i build thread from Brandon.

Have also seen lots of examples out there of rust fixes. The UK web sites are the best.
The "Making panels thread" that blew me away. Incredibly inspirational work.

and... an E30 Touring de-rusting project in Warsaw. Awesome stuff. So much to learn about E30 rust repair.

EDIT: found another touring resto thread I had seen a couple of years ago. on stanceworks (gag)

EDIT2: and another IX de-rusting project on r3v

[bradnic]

Thinking on this some more.. Brandon I know you did LOTS of rust repair including your wheel wells and floors... my guess is - and yeah I might be deluded - you probably had more work in total to do than I have here.

This is too much rust

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=234477

My parts car's floor pans are too much rust


It's not like I have this much to do (from an incredible E30 resto thread on drive.ru)


My intent is to gut the car to the shell and address all rust issues. The biggest part of the job is quarter panel and rear rocker area repair. I will remove the drivers quarter panel myself, practicing on my parts car first. I may tack in the repair panels myself (probably will). I may punt on part of it and let a pro finish the work. Regardless a pro shop will do the final prep and respray.

[bradnic]

that is a nasty amount of rust. I don't think I would even want to work on that.

Man that rust.....

Good luck! Thats some nasty rust :)

Damn even Brandon hating.. I'm screwed lol. I think everyone's looking at this spot and freaking out.


Seriously though, this isn't my only E30. I wanted to restore a well equipped 2 door IX that came from the factory with its own distinct exterior and interior, and always planned on doing my own mechanical restoration. I've owned 4 of them, finally finding exactly the car I wanted. I looked for 2 years, bought anything that was promising as long as had that distinctiveness I was expecting. I'm the first to admit it makes no sense at all.

I've passed on *perfect* rust free IX coupes because they weren't fully equipped 88s and I didn't like the color lol. But what I want just wasn't available rust free at anything coming close to a reasonable price.

So once you take the leap to accept SOME rust repair you keep looking, and you end up where I am now. If you read back earlier in the thread you'll see I've done a lot of research. When rust is contained to a specific panel then replacing the panel resolves the issue. Even if the rust is severe, if it's contained then the potential is there.

That driver's side quarter panel is absolutely HORRIFIC. It's downright terrifying, but it's contained. That's one of the things that's really strange about this car - most of it is in fantastic shape, and then you end up with the worst rust imaginable in limited areas. I've looked at least a couple of hundred E30s now, but honestly never seen anything like it.

As to the rest of it:
- the floor pans, doors, hood, tail panel, rad support, inner fenders and sunroof are solid - shocking given the damn quarter panel
- the battery tray can be repaired with an OEM repair panel I already have and some minor patch work
- the jack side trunk well can be repaired with an OEM repair panel I already have
- both fenders and the driver quarter panel will be replaced with panels I already have. The rear part of the inner and outer rocker need some work too. I have both of them as well.

With that much rust on the rockers, Id be surprised if there was nothing on the firewall. Might be worth pulling the motor to assess back there if you end up going all out

I completely agree. My plan is to gut the car to the shell, then find and fix all of it. It's a 100k mile car so the drivetrain is solid, and I have the added benefit of all new suspension and brakes on the parts car that I'll be transferring over, plus an entire fully functional 4WD system for spares. I'm even gonna take the parts car M20 to start my stroker build :-)

So yeah, it's a boatload of work. But I'm still gonna do it because it's exactly the IX I want :-)

[jhaurimn]

With that much rust on the rockers, Id be surprised if there was nothing on the firewall. Might be worth pulling the motor to assess back there if you end up going all out.

Good luck! Thats some nasty rust :)

[ThatOneEuroE30]

Man that rust.....

[doorman]

that is a nasty amount of rust. I don't think I would even want to work on that.

Rust on cars in the Midwest is inevitable if you drive a car from Oct-April.

Your love for the ix is easily seen bud!!!

I'm gonna be tackling the jack and battery tray rust on mine soon as well.
Also found a hole in my passenger floor when I was doing my front end rebuild recently.

Subbed for rust repair info!

[jeenyus]

that is a nasty amount of rust. I don't think I would even want to work on that.