Savin Big Money Project Thread

[jc43089]

I will be off Thursday - Sunday this week, I hope to get all of the undercoating off this week, the bay is all cleaned up and some of the bottom so far.

[Rowleym]

finally read through this. Ill be doing just about the same thing in a week or two here.. nice to have something to look over though. Good job man.

[jc43089]

Stripped a bunch of stuff to be powder coated.  Still need to get bushings pressed out.

Welded in front sub frame reinforcements.  This side was torn through around the mount bolt that's why it's kinda messy, it's solid for sure now.

And for the rear sway bar.

[DrLeadFoot]

Burn them outta there!

[jc43089]

Passenger side floor is undercoating free.  Arms hurt so bad.

[jc43089]

Half done on driver side.  Someone come do my body work, and I will build you an engine!

[bfinley]

jc43089 said:

Half done on driver side. Someone come do my body work, and I will build you an engine!

I think we could arrange something. You'll have to come out to the shop and see the e21 after take everything out.

[gasp0]

hi,

did you use intake sprocket from m54 or m52? on intake side

[jc43089]

gasp0 said:

hi,

did you use intake sprocket from m54 or m52? on intake side

I will be using the original m50 sprocket. 

Rear sub frame mount reinforcements are installed, Started on RTAB pocket reinforcements.  The undercoating has been a nightmare.  Mike came over to help some and it is too slow with the current method.  I am going to make a Harbor Freight run and get a sandblaster to give that a try, even if it doesn't work it will be handy to have for other projects.  Tried zip strip and it doesn't even soften it, not sure what else to do.

Moral of the story, just buy a car from the south.

[B C]

jc43089 said:

I will be using the original m50 sprocket. 

Rear sub frame mount reinforcements are installed, Started on RTAB pocket reinforcements.  The undercoating has been a nightmare.  Mike came over to help some and it is too slow with the current method.  I am going to make a Harbor Freight run and get a sandblaster to give that a try, even if it doesn't work it will be handy to have for other projects.  Tried zip strip and it doesn't even soften it, not sure what else to do.

Moral of the story, just buy a car from the south.

You nailed it. 

Less time messing around with rust repair and stubborn/broken bolts, more time improving things, more time enjoying the car.

[RamRod E28]

Yeah but getting a car from the south means u have to trust photos and the cost of getting it too

[YoungCR]

Ramze46 said:

Yeah but getting a car from the south means u have to trust photos and the cost of getting it too

I bought my current 528e based off two crappy cell phone pics, so it was a good surprise to see how good a shape it was when I picked it up! While its nice for suspension work, body work has to be done on almost any car this age. Also fixing things yourself means you know your car better and won't have any surprises down the road.

[m42b32]

My car is a Florida car (Not the salt spray part) and it is clean as a whistle underneath, the only problem is that anything made of plastic must be handled with more care than an ancient manuscript...

On a more relevant note, can't wait to see the progress!

[jc43089]

I will know every nut and bolt on this thing after I get done with this.

All reinforcements welded in.  Pics tomorrow.

[jc43089]

Here we go, First was out having some fun driving the cruiser.

Here is the pile of undercoating so far.

Rear subframe reinforcements.

Rear trailing arm pockets.

Then I made an air dryer for sandblasting.  Here is what the inside looks like.

Finished.  When you want dry air, connect the air so it goes through, and fill the PVC tube with ice.  Air temp drops, moisture condenses and stays in the bottom of the loop, then just drain periodically from the copper line.  It will be mounted to the wall and then can be drained of water from the ice melting with the PVC valve at the bottom into a bucket.  After going through this it will go into a filter as well.

Then I cleaned up the garage, it was getting pretty bad.  Messy garage = poor productivity.

My piles of parts are kinda scary so close to spring...

And a few parts that were powder coated.  Kawasaki black.

Got a sandblaster from HF so next week I will try to get the shell into the driveway and start blasting.

And my new awesome garbage can.

[YoungCR]

How are you gonna move the car out of the garage? I've always been curious if 4 1000# mover dollies ($20 each at HF) could serve as car dollies for a bare shell.

[bfinley]

Looking forward to see how the blasting goes!

Let me know when you want help putting all those parts back in, 3 of us could get her back together in a weekend easy

[Jdesign]

CYoung said:

How are you gonna move the car out of the garage? I've always been curious if 4 1000# mover dollies ($20 each at HF) could serve as car dollies for a bare shell.

It works, I have used them in the past, and my civic shell is setting on three of the wooden ones at the moment! 

[Jdesign]

BTW that air dryer is brilliant!

[jc43089]

CYoung said:

How are you gonna move the car out of the garage? I've always been curious if 4 1000# mover dollies ($20 each at HF) could serve as car dollies for a bare shell.

This is the plan, as long as I get it down low before moving it shouldn't be a problem, FYI if you have the drivetrain out of an e36 and have the jackstands on the factory pads you can lift the front end by yourself.

bfinley said:

Looking forward to see how the blasting goes!

Let me know when you want help putting all those parts back in, 3 of us could get her back together in a weekend easy

I will probably be on hold for a little bit, helping Mike with his e28 on Tuesday and then I might get the e30 home and start the trans swap in the driveway.  I am going to be working 5 tens a week at work from April until July at least so that sucks for BMW productivity but OT is nice. 

Jdesign said:

BTW that air dryer is brilliant!

Thanks!  I hope it works.  I think by using the 3/4" pipe the air will slow down enough to cool effectively.  It is also pretty compact which is necessary in my one car garage.