1991 BMW E30 318iS Complete Rebuild

[Split_S]

I think the phrase "if I only knew then what I know now" applies to all of us! It certainly does for me. But we only get to that point of wisdom by walking the path..
Some would think this car wasn't worth saving but its the process of a rebuild that is its own joy. Like you said: zen.
Good luck on the miata!

[Split_S]

Feeling good about my welding "skills" Im tackling a biggie. This is what the back-end looked like when I first took things apart:















A bit of grinding didn't inspire confidence in an easy solution...



This is what I face now:



Added a little primer a while back while I thought what to do.

And thought..and thought...and thought...

Finally, figured I knew how to go about it...

Step 1.



Step 2.



F8ck it..Its coming off!! ;)

[Richter]

Awesome job saving this e30! Subscribed!

Can't wait to see how the rear panel turns out, I think I'll have to do the same to mine eventually...

[Gkwan]

Wow that is full commitment there! I'm definitely not as brace as you but I appreciate you saving this car! This is an insiration to those with rusty e30s!

Good luck!

[c0rbin9]

Love this thread! Major props on digging in and tackling the major body work. Quite inspiring as I have some rust as well.

[Split_S]

Thanks guys - Im not sure if I was as fearless as I was ignorant when I started this - probably an unhealthy mix of both!

[Split_S]

So I decided to replace the rear panel completely instead of trying to cut out and weld every rusted area.
So I ordered up the rear panel from BMW (about 200cdn or 12$ usd).
Here I continued to cut out the panel..





With most of it removed, the next part is to grind off the weld spots which you can clearly see in the pic below.



If you haven't done this yourself, the panel is spot welded every 3" or so..So it requires a grinder to grind down the weld (or a special bit if you have one)
and plyers to pry the steel back and keep repeating all across...





Closeup... the seam sealer is tough as hell.. I used plyers and
the grinder with a wire brush to remove it where necessary...





Also split my finger open with the grinder and spent the afternoon at the hospital...

Not the first time either...

[Split_S]

Cutting out the center section of the rear panel is the easy part...Once out of the way I had to concentrate on the attachment points and here is where patience pays off...



I ground and pulled away the steel all along the bottom sill and it went pretty good. The scary part is grinding along the bottom corners, I was cautious, not wanting to cut away too much. I kept checking my clearances against my new panel..





The trickiest part of the whole operation are these two top corners. The metal is thin and surprisingly I discovered as I went along that there was another layer of steel running underneath the outer edge.. You have to be really careful working these pieces...



If you look at the rear part you will know where the steel is you need to remove...





Here is a rear shot with all the steel of the original rear panel removed...



Now that I'd done all that work I realized that there was absolutely no way the new panel would fit with these two pieces in place!

So I had 2 options:
1) Try to remove these corner pieces with the grinder (near impossible!)
2) Cut them out causing as little damage as possible...

That's what I chose to do...







Test fitting of the new piece up next!!

[Split_S]

With all the stripping and grinding away of the old metal it was time to start some test fittings of the rear..







Overall not bad but I had to widen the lower part of the rear wings...

Grind...grind..cut..swear...

Looking better...



Also cut out a rust hole in the battery compartment..
before

after..


Now for more serious test fitting I figured I would put on the "new" boot lid and eyeballed it all..





Getting ready to weld....

[Split_S]

With the old rear end removed and the rest cleaned up as best I could (Note: Grinder meets bare finger = NOT GOOD...) it was time to get the new rear end in... permanently...



Now the super astute among you will notice this isn't quite a 318iS rear end (double cutaway for the exhaust). I did order a 318iS rear end but got this, which happily enough works better as I will be putting in some form of double tipped exhaust.

So I started by putting it in place (with the rear lights and boot closed) to make sure it was all properly lined up then traced a line along the frame of the car onto the rear panel. My idea was to be able to then drill holes through which I would weld the rear panel in. If you look closely at the rear panel again you can see all the holes I drilled out...



I also sanded away all the areas that were gonna be welded on the rear panel to ensure a clean weld. Here you can see the cutout for the tow hook which, if you'll remember from a million years ago when I started I said I would delete...Well here it is ready to be deleted...



The battery tray area was pretty rusted and required me to rebuild some of the corners so that I could weld the panel in...



I also welded in a patch for that nasty hole in the battery compartment..





Next up..the panel...

[Split_S]

With everything ready I had no choice but to start welding!

Rear panel in with lights installed for final adjustments and a couple of bolts thru the bumper bolt holes
to hold the panel in place and I started to tack..



tack tack..


tack tack..


tackety tack..


inner tack tack...


Stopped to assess..


Looks good...


Penetration is looking good too...


Tow hook deleted!!


Now the hard part... came out ok I guess...




And finally, welding those corners back in...




Done! Voila!!


I wasted no time and ground down all my welds and painted on a coat of POR-15.

You know...

[Richter]

looks amazing! I'm totally inspired!

What kind of Welding System are you using?

[Split_S]

A Miller Mig machine.. 220V....very good piece of kit...

[AWDBOB]

Damn man, you're making everyone else's build threads look like crap!

[Split_S]

Gotta up the bar around here!!

Seriously: thanks - that's an awesome compliment!

This thread is only going to get more extreme... trust me...