Uwbuurman: 1978 323i polaris: almost done

[uwbuurman]

Next project is this whole corner. It’s not worthy of the car, caused by badly produced donorfloor. Edges are missing or pressed the wrong way.



This is the donor… Looks bad, but is hasn’t been tempered with before, so I can repair this.



Cut it out





Cleaned



And the first breaking….

[Thegs]

Good to read this project again Koos! Very impressive, hope to see it in real life soon

[uwbuurman]

Thanks, Thegs!

[uwbuurman]

Well, I didn't quite make it to get this topic up to date before the end of 2014, due to a for the 4th time returning illness. But on the bright side, no work beeing done to the car either! I'll try to post some more pics this week!

[uwbuurman]

June 18th, 2014

And here they are, yet another shitload of pictures of some 4 square inch of metal… In June it was the corner left in the front. Lower side of the A pillar. Here I opened it up already.



And the rest of what has to go. Restored the outer sill, but the inner sill needs replacing…



New, new, well… lets ceep it at different piece. It’s gonna be a proper dissectomy of a donor.



And then we have this nice piece!

[uwbuurman]

To be fair, it needs lots of repairs, so I outlined the parts.



Poprivetted a donotplate behind it to cut it out precize.



Stiched and fitted on the outline





Welding and grinding.

[uwbuurman]

This is my operating table.



On it, is a part of the bulk head, in front of the transportationbracket. Here they rot. All of the e21. All…



Made replacementparts



Some fitting and stiching



Fill the hole, bit the ridge runs thru it, so it came from the donor aswell.



And all welded.



Grinding and sanding will before the next time. First I prepare all my donor material. Takes up some time, but when that’s all done, it’s straight forward to put it all in!

[uwbuurman]

Friday June 27th

Recently I removed some more bad metal. Again I started with outlining the troubled section.



The cut out section and the refurbished donor.



This is the hole below the A pillar. All e21 rot here.



Dry fitting



welded

[uwbuurman]

After that I went on with the lower part of the bulk head, with the ridges.



A quick dry fit and outline, but it has tob e spot on, so I pop rivetted in.



Looks to fit nice!

[uwbuurman]

I cut off the corner of the innersill



Primered it



Lower section of the bulk head made to size



Fitting



Welding

[uwbuurman]

The corner I already grinded down





I had some time left, but had enough of this part of the car for the day, so I took two other chores from the list. One of them is the welding of the separation head in the boot. It wasn’t welded like I wanted it to be, so I redid my work from October 2013.

Second chore regards te tiangled corners at the B pillar. These I mean:



The point is that the edge is somewhat to round, or not sharp enough. I’m afraid the vent windows wil hit it, when mounted. So I cut out the welds and and used a blund wood chisel to hammer it in to place.



And welded and sprayed.

[uwbuurman]

July 5th, 2014

In 6 pics “how to repair a A pillar”. Marked the donor piece.



Drilling holes



Stitching and modeling



welded



Grinded



Zincsprayed



Next time floortime!

[uwbuurman]

August 7, 2014.

I left of with the A pillar. That’s done:



So I can get a move on with the floor. Bulkhead was welded already, but not grinded down.



But I didn’t do anything to the floor yet. I needed another piece of donor. WonderMike gave me this piece, from a polaris e21.

[uwbuurman]

Detailed investigation learns that this has been welded before. I prefer to work on original metal, rotten or not. I can tell that this piece has some W&N metal welded into it. That’s what I just am repairing on mine.

Took it all apart, it has more rust than I suspected. The second set back at this piece.



Sandblasting, sanding and shaping gives a nicer look. Welded the mountingpoint for the brake and fuelline on to it as well.





After that I fixed the missing part that goes over the transportbracked



Zincsprayed

[uwbuurman]

Then it was time for the edge of the metal. With that edge the floor is welded to the inner sill. That’s also where the wire harness runs to the back and that’s why there are cable clamps. Here’s an example, deceased long time ago, but useable as donor.



Cableclamp and edge in process



Welded and finished



Donor partly ready