1995 BMW 318ti repair thread

$750 318ti. Runs and shifts well - sloppy shifter. 201,000 miles when I got it. I've added another 12,000. I've already reworked the cooling system and power steering hoses. After it's first Chicago winter all the hidden rust decided to make itself known. In August I decided to take it off the road and start patching it up.

First step, take an inventory of the damage...

More,

Passenger floor had a rip in it. PO patched it with foam

Patch panel time.

Time to start fixing,

A little seam sealer,

Oh, and two new fenders. No holes for marker lights.

Ugly welds - ran out of gas...

A little out of order - inner panels had some good sized holes. Also didn't get pics, but the inner structure above the jack points were gone. No wonder it was crunchy jacking the car up. Ended up cutting out the bad and rebuilding the inner rocker panels and jack point structure.

Clear coat was shot on all the horizontal surfaces - hood, roof, hatch, mirrors...

Lots of sanding, Dent and crease in rear fender, no access, it was shallow, so a little filler instead of buying a stud gun for this one.

Lots of sanding, Dent and crease in rear fender, no access, it was shallow, so a little filler instead of buying a stud gun for this one.

Primer, Scored a new rear bumper cover for free - PO hacked a hole in the old one. Also bought an M3 front bumper cover.

Painted it today. Still a couple of touch ups to take care of and the re-assembly starts. Changed to Alpine White. Thinking of a little red checkerboard on the rear of the sills to keep a little original color on the outside.

Nice progress, love the white!

dang, that was a lot rougher than the $500 car that westsidetalon just bought. nice work getting it all sweeted up again.

AngryCorvair wrote: dang, that was a lot rougher than the $500 car that westsidetalon just bought. nice work getting it all sweeted up again.

mine has some spot rust on the rear qtrs but body seems to have way more dents/dings/scrapes. This is a cool coinciding thread as I am in the same predicament as well and will post my rebuild. The white looks great and believe it to be a good GRM Challenge rule of thumb color now! Was wondering how much was the fender? I saw ECS has them for $25 on sale limited time.

westsidetalon wrote:

AngryCorvair wrote: dang, that was a lot rougher than the $500 car that westsidetalon just bought. nice work getting it all sweeted up again.

mine has some spot rust on the rear qtrs but body seems to have way more dents/dings/scrapes. This is a cool coinciding thread as I am in the same predicament as well and will post my rebuild. The white looks great and believe it to be a good GRM Challenge rule of thumb color now! Was wondering how much was the fender? I saw ECS has them for $25 on sale limited time.

Now you tell me about the $25 fenders . When I was shopping they were 85 on fleabay. There were more way more coupe fenders for sale than sedan/compacts.

Interesting that this one looked a lot better last spring. There wasn't any visible rust when I picked it up - lesson in life, don't inspect a car when you're distracted and in a hurry.

oldtin wrote:

westsidetalon wrote:

AngryCorvair wrote: dang, that was a lot rougher than the $500 car that westsidetalon just bought. nice work getting it all sweeted up again.

mine has some spot rust on the rear qtrs but body seems to have way more dents/dings/scrapes. This is a cool coinciding thread as I am in the same predicament as well and will post my rebuild. The white looks great and believe it to be a good GRM Challenge rule of thumb color now! Was wondering how much was the fender? I saw ECS has them for $25 on sale limited time.

Now you tell me about the $25 fenders . When I was shopping they were 85 on fleabay. There were more way more coupe fenders for sale than sedan/compacts. Interesting that this one looked a lot better last spring. There wasn't any visible rust when I picked it up - lesson in life, don't inspect a car when you're distracted and in a hurry

Will be inspecting mine this week for a closer look and update as well.

Did the yellow bright headlight thing. Usually don't fall for the trendy stuff, but happen to like this one. Normally people buy spendy glass lights with a removeable cover to do this. Being the GRM type I did what the BMW forums say can't be done...used the stock plastic units. Cut them apart, used some stained glass paint and sealed them back up with black silicone.

Sanded and polished the sunroof, then installed it. Still have a ton of sanding/polishing to do - wish I was a little more experienced on the painting front - would have saved me a fair bit of sanding. Also while reassembling, realized I forgot to paint the mirrors. Pulled out the airbrush and gave them a few coats.

Also found a cheap set of wheels on craigslist - masitaly presidents (17" x 8" ET20). Now I need some tires. What's on there have to be the crappiest all-season tires made - forget the name, some cheapy off brand - not that grippy in the dry - fairly scary in rain and useless in snow. If I do the e46 brake upgrade, will need another set of 16s.

Tonight I popped out the water pump - had a small leak. Checked it out - everything looked ok (only about 2000-4000 miles on it). Used a little sealant on the flange and buttoned it up. So far no leaks. I'll have to bleed the system properly tomorrow.

Next up - I hate the POs crappy muffler and no resonator. I'm thinking a magnaflow dual tip stainless jobby will sound a little better even still skipping the resonator. Something like this:

Overall, I'm liking the car better, but still have a bunch more detailing and trim bits to go (headliner, sanding/polishing, door trim install, wipers - need a few clips and bits - also needs to be about 2" lower ...)

looking good! I was thinking of doing some kind of headlight mod like yours. Not sure if I'm getting the M bumper conversion. Those wheels should look good as well.

Started the day with the intent to replace the hvac blower motor. They are known to wear out after 15-20 years. Turns out the chinese direct replacement was 1/4" too long. To add injury to insult, I dropped the new motor - destroying the plastic squirrel cage. So with nothing to lose, I started playing around with the old, dead motor. Squeezing in on the brushes got it to run, so I took a harder look - almost no brushes left. So I clipped the wires to the nubs of remaining brushes, then pulled the brushes out of the new motor. They were a couple millimeters bigger than the old ones, so I filed them down to fit. Then soldered the wires in and stuffed the springs back in. The old motor got a new lease on life. Too bad about buying the new motor. That would have been a $10 fix instead of nearly $100.

Also turns out my cheap wheel score were 16s instead of 17s. Came up with a smoking deal on some nice Breyton 17". Got tires mounted (ended up going with sumitomo HTRs. Now I just need to sell off some wheels and get some cash back.

Ok, here's the before and after... just a few more details like the rear wiper and a new muffler without the goofy extension.

Looks great, nice work!

Car is looking great! So happy to see it get saved, I absolutely can't stand to see rust like that on anything that new especially cars I like. Ya'll have it rough in the midwest!