ROUND 4! 88 Lachsilber / Cardinal IX coupe

[litu]

I dont know what happen, but they are showing now....

Awesome pics...

[bradnic]

Spring weather in Chicagoland - E30 time...

[bradnic]

The keeper IX - 88 Lachsilber / Cardinal, 101k miles

I actually found it at a classic car dealer less than 10 miles from my house. There's work to do, but I've got just about everything I need OEM part wise, including about $3k in mechanical bits on what's now my parts car.

Highlights:
- Pennsylvania car
- Looks like I'm the 3rd owner
- 101k miles
- Car has probably sat idle for a long time. the goodyear tires it came with look brand new - but they're 15 years old! clearly unsafe to drive with them.
- Pristine cardinal interior and super clean dash. Only repair item is some blown stitching on the driver bolster
- Floor pan is completely rust free as is most of the engine bay, doors, hood
- Original exhaust is mostly intact

Lowlights:
- Rust is severe in a some key spots including both lower fenders, driver quarter and battery tray. There's also rust repair on the driver top corner of the rear window area. Weird thing is it's virtually non-existent on the floor pan and most of the rest of the car.
- Bondo repairs in evidence on pass quarter
- Electrical problems I need to chase down
- Front driveshaft is making noise
- Neanderthal cut the red carpet at the tunnel behind the console
- Some cheap repair work done, and rattle can spraying evident on intake manifold and trunk interior (why!!)

Rest is your typical E30 experience. On to pics.

The original car on the left, car I'm restoring on the right


Out of the garage - hood up E30 pics just rock!


not crazy about the Borbets.. will prob pick up new IX weaves eventually, use parts car wheels short term



Cardinal does *not* photograph well with flash. It's a terrific interior color, darker and less flashy/bright than most cardinal interior pics you see out there. The Mtech wheel is pristine but mounted on the parts car right now.


Dash - pristine! radio needs swapping but I've already secured a replacement and a spare for parts


Engine bay - other than a rattle can on the manifold, you can tell the car hasn't been hacked up or molested. Looking forward to working on it.
I added the IX strut bar today - been sitting in my garage for 2-3 years now lol
Radiator is new - there's damage to the bottom of the rad support so most likely the original radiator was replaced after running over something

[bradnic]

Initial rust checks

It wouldn't be an IX without rust right? After 4 of them I've finally gotten de-sensitized...

First clue you have a problem - you just know there's more under the flare and side molding... I already have the replacement quarter panel and will practice removing it on the parts car before touching this one. Worse - there's no VIN sticker on the driver's door jamb, so the panel's been worked over. Fortunately you can order replacement VIN stickers from BMW.


Of course both front fenders have rusted out lowers. They've also been pulled before despite having original VIN stickers.. they're not repaired so why? I already have replacements.




And of course both trunk wells are gone



There's rust inside the trunk, but it's probably just superficial - in fact the tail panel is surprisingly intact, and other than the usual battery area rust the rear valance is clean too. What sucks though is some knucklehead decided to silver spray the inner quarters in the trunk AND the sound deadening. It's beyond lame.



Unfortunately the trunk lid is not original - it's been resprayed from its original red. I will either use my new OEM trunk lid or transfer the one off the parts car which is the right color and in quite good shape.


On the plus side, underside of doors and door jamb areas are pristine. So is the hood hinge area, which on all my other IXes was a complete mess

[bradnic]

Let's pull that driver side flare and fairing shall we?

So how bad can it be? Did the outer rocker get eaten through? inner rocker? inner wheel well in the rear? How about the floor pans?

The driver quarter is indeed gone - hall of fame nasty to be sure

So the rear part of the outer rocker is gone, and some damage to the inner wheel well but it looks repairable.

wheel well seam is toast

and behind the tire too



Moving to the driver front, looks like the rust is still just the lower fender thank goodness - I didn't see any floor footwell perforation at all which is just terrific!


So what about the floor pans? are they ok then?
Sure looks like it, but we'll know more when I pull the interior and carpeting



What about the battery tray, spare tire well, muffler area? Seems like they kept up with the undercoating (or there's only surface rust underneath it)

battery tray looks horrid as usual but it's contained.



What keeps amazing me are these really awful perforations, and perfectly good metal right next to them. Really don't get that, but maybe it's because the car was clearly prepped and resprayed despite the rust areas. No doubt all those perforations happened after the bodywork was done.

Couple of other issues - rear window, upper driver's side


And the defroster connector has come off the rear window.. I'll just swap in the parts car's rear window and fuggedaboutit

[iXguido]

Oh my... that interior is beautiful! Nice purchase, can't wait to see her cleaned up.

[bradnic]

Oh my... that interior is beautiful! Nice purchase, can't wait to see her cleaned up.

I know right? A great looking cardinal interior really does it for my wife and I. you get downright irrational. Coolest thing is it came that way



Plans for the car:
- full rust repair including quarter panel and fender replacement. may dip the car.. haven't decided. will also go through the sunroof - every E30 I've owned had sunroof rust issues
- new IX basketweaves or 4lug alpinas ala Anthony/audiquattrot, the master of good IX taste :-)
- some sort of euro-bumper conversion if I can make it work in the rear (prob won't work). otherwise the DBs and trim on this car are really clean
- full mechanical review and refit (current parts car has all new suspension including top hats and control arms, new brakes)
- Strömung catback
- Bosch euro smileys with mishimoto xenons (like my vert - lighting is terrific!)
- OEM radio replacement incl premium amp bypass and modded OEM headunit with BT
- retrofit heated seats and rear armrest (either source a cardinal arm rest rear or recover a grey one I already have)
- rear headrests
- headlamp washers, heated washer nozzles, mirrors and drivers door lock (already have the parts)

[jeenyus]

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

[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!

[ThatOneEuroE30]

Man that rust.....

[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 :)

[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 :-)

[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]

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

[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.