Uwbuurman: 1978 323i polaris: almost done

[uwbuurman]

New frame parts. Left the new support.





New supports for the chassis





welded



And mounted



Plenty space to work on the wheelhousing



Last thing to fabricate are supports for the tiltingmechanism. Then finally work on the wheelhousing will start…

[uwbuurman]

And the work at the wheelhouses started!

[uwbuurman]

And the pica’s of the removal of just one wheelhouse. I want to finish the one side before ripping apart the other side, to prevent the shell from twisting or deform.

The old piece, much worse than the other side.



Tenths of inches of filler!



And some more pieces. Especially the stripping from the bootfloor has to be done with care. The part where it was welded on to the outside wheelhouse came off easy.



From the rearseat



At the bootfloor there is some rust, but the general state is pretty good. It’s double plate, so you can’t coat it after welding. There fore every BMW e21 must hase som rust in between.



Very decent outer wheelhouse. This was the reason I did not replaced them while doing the sidepanels.



The edge on the flore is not to solid anymore and needs replasing. The reinforcement plate is in a good state, just a little repair is needed.



Here we see some old repairs. I leave the lower part on, because the wheelhouse runs behind the sill and sidepanel. As they have just been put on, I don’t want to take them off again.
I will just wel dit together at this point, a little piece of the lower flange has to be repaired aswell.



From the rear side, the wheelhouse runs behind the sill for some 6 inches. The piece with that hole in it, is part of the wheelhouse. It’s pretty obvious why I leave it on. But is needs some derusting and cleaning.



Bootfloor is in a bad nick. Needs lots of little repairpieces.



Supportbar behind the rearseat, damaged it while cutting the wheelhouse, but it needed repairs anyhow.



And the new wheelhouse. The part I had to cutoff. But 98% is in one piece, so I’m pretty happy with it!

[uwbuurman]

Than there was something else. I got me an E30 roofpanel! This came out of an E30 touring. An E30 has a little spoiler that come up on opening the roof and prevents the wind from “flapping” into the car but pushes it over the car instead. Arnold D. has the same conversion in his Alpina B6 and it works fine!



Most E30 roofpanels are rotten, for it beeing a double plate, which condensates at the welds. The E30 touring I took this roof off, was very rotten, so I did not have good hopes for the roofpanel. But I was in for a bargain, it’s a recently replaced new roof! As good as new and no rust! The BMW factory stickers where still on!





So a new colour is added to my E21. Diamantschwartz!

[uwbuurman]

Saturday December 22th 2012.

After some fiddling and welding the frame can be tilted. So I did!







This is a good way to work at the floor and the wheelhouses. But first it needs cleaning!



Now I can see the dents in the floor. Earlier on I replaced the chassisbar and some floorsheets, but there are still some dents, some over an inch deep!





Tankmountingpoints were dented in all the way, but thats repaired now.



The caps in the floorholes are rotten to. But I have the donormaterial on my hands.



Nice to see, the floor is actually in a good state! The parts where the previous restorer never touched it, is not rotten at all. Just some surface rust, but that’ll dissapear soon with sandblasting.





And some more of the “work of Brové” the professional BMW restorer, who worked on the car and really, everything they touched is bad, bad, bad…

Here they repaired something and I can look straight thru it already again.



The rearside of the wheelhouse and the bootfloor are also f#cked up and rotten again.







I think here I'm in need off some new sheetmetal also. It’s like it never stops, but it works so much better with new metal…

Than I dryfitted the new wheelhousing. It fits like a glove, what a relieve!





Then I prepaired the contactsurface and drilled the holes for welding.





Then I marked the contactsurfaces for grinding of the coating



And then.... It was sleeping time!

[polov8]

So much respect for this project!

[uwbuurman]

Thanks man! There is much more to come!

[arshad76]

Superb attention to detail. I also have an electric sunroof from an E30 fitted, works beautifully. As with most of the stuff on my car I didn't od it myself. Happy to provide any photos if needed though.

[uwbuurman]

Thanks Arshad! I'll keep it manual operated, to keep my originality on the car. Roof wont be installed until 2015 or 16 but if I'm in need of pics, I will contact you!

[uwbuurman]

December 24th, 2012.

On the day of Christmas eve my dad came to help on cleaning the floor. After prepping the new wheelhouse on Friday today I pushed, to get some work done.





Repaired the flange



Prepping the wheelhouse, clearing of the paint and drilling some holes for spotwelding



After that I needed to dryfit and make it to size



Did a good job, saying it myself. Good fit!



An dit is welding time!



This is little edge of the old wheelhouse, that needs to be welded into the new one.



These are my first spotwelds ever. Some nice, some less nice, but they are all welded thru.



Lower side, old and new.



Behind the wheelhouse some floor is missing. Looks to me that this has been worked on before, but not in a good way. So I will order some new floorparts.

[uwbuurman]

I'll try to get it to 2013 updated as soon as possible.

[Jeroen]

Already doing a great job sharing things in this much detail sir!

[uwbuurman]

It's nice to share!

[uwbuurman]

And nearly finished

[uwbuurman]

Before placing the new wheelhouse, I cut out these rotten edges.



After doing so, I was left with a hole in the floor, which needed tob e filled with sheetmetal. Gladly not a straight and flat piece, but round an curved and diagonal…:goodnight.

To get a feel of what it should look like, I cleaned the other side to get a look. All original!!



So I formed it from little pieces of metal.



And then the rest.







In 2013 this will be finished.