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Post by jonmsm on Aug 1, 2009 3:56:21 GMT
Hey all! I talk so much about my heap of German rust so thought I should explain the story and show you what pictures I have on photobucket to date! OK, so you can all see my signature picture... the M535i (before the MOT finally condemned it for crimes against pig iron and looking like Swiss cheese underneath!) And she looks pretty nice... well that's not so much the case these days... This is a teaser of what she USED to look like Nice huh? Ok, well the story restarts 2-3 years down the line when I finally get round to borrowing a welder and learning how to make the sparks fly... and not just burn big holes in metal! As you can see... not much left! The keener eye'd of you might have spotted the windscreen... broken! Smashed when the car was broken into for the new alloys I bought for it that were locked inside.. bummer! The front end is all stripped out so I could asses and cry over more rust, the cardboard is there protecting the new radiator it needed from the elements, it's also had a new water pump, some new(er) pipe work and belts. You will also notice the bonnet in primer.. the car is going matt black.. because I can! The underside has seen all new lower arms and bolts as it seemed appropriate while fitting the poly bush kit. Again, the keen eye'd might notice some primer on the chassis rail... thats because there is a lot of new metal in the chassis rails (yes - the rust was THAT bad!) WARNING - Messy bugger at work! Well - this is what's left of the interior. And just to confuse you, notice the position of the gear stick.. that's sat in first gear Some progress at least - powerflow pipes are on and sound like thunder :-D ahhh- more primer! That's one of the FIVE patches on the sills.. eep! Just hope Mr MOT doesn't mind my pigeon poo welding skills! That's about all for now - got some more photos to download from more recently which I will post next time! Hope I haven't bored you all to sleep! Jon out :-)
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Post by Jay on Aug 1, 2009 17:07:10 GMT
its about time we had a progress thread for this, looks like everything is finally moving in the right direction now tho!!
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Post by jonmsm on Aug 2, 2009 22:13:00 GMT
indeed - new windscreen strip now on the way and just picked up the buckets from the puma, they are absolutely MINT recliners but not the ford sports puma ones, just standard buckets but lovely all the same. also they have standard fixings so will be flogging off the subframes to fit standard buckets to a puma
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Post by jonmsm on Aug 4, 2009 23:50:02 GMT
Update! OK - so what would you do to your car on an intermittently wet day? work on some bits in the garage? do nothing to it? take the windscreen out? NO? Well that's what a normal person might think but no, not me - for some reason unknown to human kind, I had the great idea to remove the broken windscreen from the M5...35i on a cloudy day. The more astute of you might have noticed that isn't me! Thats my friend Dave who is the muscles behind the project. I tinker and faf, he breaks off the big rusty bolts in second that I took weeks 'loosening for him'.. haha! Oh and he makes the brews... a top notch brew at that too! :-D Anyway, no sooner had we pushed it out and broken it into a cardboard box did it start raining.... tits! We ran round for a couple of minutes looking for a tarp or something to put over the car then realised that the new glass would fill the gap (funny that the windscreen would fill the big rain hole between the a-pillars!) Anyway, once the rain slowed we set to with string and lots and lots of washing up liquid and after two hours of faffing it went in. We added all new inserts to the rubber to hold it rigid and its done. One small snag thought... That would be string... stuck in the window seal... oops! it snapped while we were pulling it out... but its right at the front of the dash and the seal is seated all the way round perfectly so never mind hey! if it leaks... well it will just run onto the floor pan and out one of the many rust holes! haha The finished window! Looks SO much better now you can actually SEE through the windscreen! hehe The new plastic insert also has the chrome finish it would have had originally that the old ones lacked through age so it looks pretty nice now! Even had enough of the plastic trim left to retrim the rubber on the rear window!! You may be able to see the old windscreen in a box there too... a very WET and soggy box... another reason why NOT to do it on a rainy day! We now have to wait for the box to dry so its strong enough to pick up the glass again! D'oh! Anyway - these are hopefully the new seats for the car too that I picked up this weekend out of a Ford Puma... yummmmy :-D
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Post by jonmsm on Aug 15, 2009 17:29:17 GMT
New front brake pipes fitted, awaiting line lock valve now.. and first two panels laid with new paint.... gotta love the matt black! :-D Photos to follow
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Post by Jay on Aug 15, 2009 22:00:52 GMT
looking good now, will need to see pics of the matt black goodness!! whens it likely to be finished??
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Post by jonmsm on Aug 16, 2009 0:22:22 GMT
Right all - piccies time, not too many unfortunately as I always forget to get the camera out but heres the first one.. the 'small' patch thats left to do on the chassis rail.. not too worrying! Ok - the bonnet... after the belt sander efforts we got to with the filler and the filler primer, this is part way through sanding it back Here we see yet ANOTHER person helping me - Mr Podcake who is a bit of a legend with the body work (he has to be - he owns a British Leyland car, you fix rust as often as you fill it up with petrol!) OK - so we just did the bonnet but I think it gives you an idea of what the car's finish will be like - add to that highly polished chrome headlight rings and kidney grills and the chrome trim on the windscreen and roof gutters are going to be polished too... shoudl look good! Thats all for now... IF i can drag my lazy ass out of bed in the morning I am hoping to get the rest of the wings scuttle and a pilars done, then its just the front bumper to do and the front end is done and ready for chromey goodness! peace out
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Post by jonmsm on Aug 16, 2009 0:38:02 GMT
Sorry - forgot to add some older photos too.. Started the center console to fill the big gap in the now very sparse interior... And a mock up of where the ignition switches and dials are going to go. This was before the 'engine start' button was fitted.. And lastly - new seat runners. I took the old BMW ones, hacked the tops off them to make them smooooth and then just welded two lengths of box section to the top with holes in the right place (I make it sound easy - took bloody HOURS to get it all in the right position and welded up as the seat runners were made from 2.5mm steel sheet and the tube was 1.5 so getting the welding power settins right to actually penetrate the seat runner steel was interesting!
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Post by Jay on Aug 16, 2009 16:08:23 GMT
pics are always good!!
cant wait to see this when its all done and finished!!
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Post by jonmsm on Aug 17, 2009 14:53:25 GMT
update: I did get my lazy ass out of bed... when I got a phone call telling me I wasn't needed at work Sunday... so I went back to Halfrauds and bough the last of their redoxide primer and matt black paint tins and set to! I also fitted a much reduced version of the windscreen wash system... two washer bottles, THREE pumps, a mile of pipping and electrically heated washer jets I thought a tad over the top for a track car so I reduced it to a bare minimum!! I also ground away the underseal and flaking rust (of which there was alot) from the offending chassis rail - pics to follow tonight if I can find the camera lead as I am in York atm! lol Jon
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Post by Jay on Aug 19, 2009 20:54:01 GMT
get the pics up!!
and keep up the work... itd be nice if we all got the phone call saying we wernt needed at work!!
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Post by jonmsm on Aug 20, 2009 3:22:55 GMT
get the pics up!! and keep up the work... itd be nice if we all got the phone call saying we wernt needed at work!! As you requested sir... Some updates for you! Spend most of Sunday painting as you can see below! Got the wings done, A pillars done and both drivers sides doors! Next on the agenda was the front bumper - which came off for this as I had to sand it back quite a bit (about 2 hours was a sheet of wet and dry... nightmare with all the recesses for lights etc!) As it stands no - the matt black is starting to look good - just a shame I ran out of paint.. and so did Halfrauds! d'oh! Ok - so with no paint left I took on the washer system and got rid of the MASSIVE 10ltr washer bottle and tripple pump windscreen and headlight washer system with 10 miles of piping and wiring and went with a tiny bottle and one pump. I also got rid of the HEATED washer jets (there really is NO need!) New brake lines are coming on too... temp. linked up to the old rubber flexi hoses - some nice sexy braided stainless ones are in a box ready to go on... somewhere! Then finally - Wednesday saw some attacking of rust.. AGAIN! OK - here is the 'small' hole in the chassis rail.. EEEP! I could get my hand in that hole and it was rotten through the floor pan too so I could actually get my fingers into the foot well through the chassis rail... crapsticks! Solution....BIG bit of metal that I showed you before.... now welded in, all 14 inches of it! and another patch in the floor where the hole through the floor pan was - you can see all the other side of the welds for the chassis rail patches all around it! Wednesday was cut short by a trip to see some lovely motors in Nottingham at a retro rides meet but one last thing that did arrive today... 4 point harnesses... hmmmm! and just for some drewling... here's the highlights of the Nottingham retro rides meet I went too... Thats all for now boys and girls :-D
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Post by Roadie on Aug 20, 2009 17:24:00 GMT
good progress mate! keep it coming, cant wait for that beast to be back!
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Post by Jay on Aug 20, 2009 17:32:53 GMT
ooo looking good, the matt black looks awesome!!
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Post by jonmsm on Aug 20, 2009 23:16:42 GMT
Little update! As some of you might have seen on my camera this evening - the only update today is the new wheels, came out of storage ready to go on when the spray job and brake lines are done... some sexy Penta alloys (shame they are bloody corroded to crap but until I have decided what colour to go with on the refurb they are staying as is :-)
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