Those taillights look great. I'll have to remember that.
Those taillights look great. I'll have to remember that.
I took tonight off from shop work in favor of nachos and beers with some pals, but here is yesterday's update.
I got the passenger side rear sidemarker all ground off and knocked into a reasonable shape.
It's not perfect, but I'm not too torn up about it. I rushed the welding and knew the moment I warped the panel. Such is life.
It's all a bit "low" so a little filler and it'll be good to go.
I moved back to the drivers side and prepped the rear wheel arch for fender rolling. While down there, I investigated the scabby bits between the door and arch before deciding they were solid and needed nothing more than some sanding and rust converter.
This car probably isn't going to end up with an extreme set of meats and wide wheels, but I'm going to roll the fenders flat to future proof it. You know, just in case.
Satisfied with the solid arch I turned my attention to the rear quarter. I knew that I was going to be tearing into this area, but I was hoping to avoid any extreme surgery.
To do it properly, I see at least a two piece patch. As an added bonus I get to drop the gas tank, filler tube and associated lines. The passenger side is a little worse off and will need the exhaust dropped to be done.
Looks like I'll be eating my "two week" statement from before.
If you go back to the point where you knew you warped the patch, and beat on the weld bead with a dolly behind, you can stretch the seam and get rid of the warp.
I'm truly jealous of those that have the tools and know how on welding. I bought a "cheapo" welder and can make 2 pieces of metal stick together, but doing body work and things like that, man, I wish. Awesome updates. This is going to be so awesome when it's done.
Why did I drag home another rusty Fiat??? I just happened to notice that some of the undercoating looked a bit funny on the seatbelt fishplate.
Would it have killed them to try to rust proof it or even toss a little primer it's way?
There's only one small section that needs repair. The rest will just get scrubbed down and treated before getting welded back on.
So, what happens when I turn my head slightly to the left?
Oooooh, goody.
So, start cutting, I guess...
And keep cutting until there's no more rotten E36 M3.
That hole looks really familiar...
Huh. Well, at least they're consistent.
At any rate, I got the area all squared up, cleaned off, and ready for a patch.
And started laying out my patch.
It's been a long while since I've made up a complex patch like this. It's funny how fast you lose skills when you aren't constantly using them. At first I was "How the heck am I going to make this in less that 3 pieces" and then I was all "oh, dumbass". I'll probably just continue with the 3 piece patch unless I berkeley it up; then it'll be a single piece solution.
In the meantime, the PO came through with the front calipers and brought them into Vancouver for me. Thanks, Jon! I'll get these torn down, powdercoated, and rebuilt as time allows.
So, here's where we are at right now.
Probably not much progress for the next few days. I'm working all weekend and I've got a family wedding on Saturday afternoon.
You have no idea how little rust you have.
That car is rust free. Im absolutely envious of your location. I can't even find cars that clean here in the south.
In reply to Dusterbd13:
Yeah, that's probably only the factory rust, too.
Rusty....hahahahahahahaha. We in the northeast laugh at you and your idea of what a rusty car is.
That one would be advertised as rust free up here and the buyer wouldn't feel like he got ripped off when he found the spots you did.
This is like a 100x sped up and 100x less rusty version of my truck thread.
Also you're better at welding, and you apparently can work during the day.
Lol, sorry guys. I will refrain from using the "R" word in the future. I'll say "the steel has failed to stay in it's preferred state" or something like that.
Tuna, yep. I go straight to the shop after work whenever I can. I can usually get 1-3 hours in a night, 3-7 days a week. We are DINKers, so that helps a lot, as you can imagine.
Turns out I had Sunday off, which is good because I had my fair share of adult beverages last night. That said, the day got off to a slow start and we didn't get around to playing in the shop until 1:30.
I fiddled around with the new patches and joined the two halves.
After a bit of grinding I was able to get it to fit pretty well. This isn't going to visible, so I'm not going over board in the fit and finish.
After some welding, a second patch, and awkward-position grinding, we are well into the "Good Enough" category.
Hopefully I can get the patch for the wheel well all made up and burned in after our A/C and thai food break.
In other news, all of our parts have showed up.
After our mid-afternoon break I got a quick patch knocked out to complete this repair.
It's all welded in now, but still needs to be ground flush. Seam sealer and undercoating should hide it nicely.
That's all worked out surprisingly well. Good thing, too. It looks like the passenger side needs the same repair.
I gutted the rear brakes so I can clean up the backing plates. Hopefully this picture will help me reassemble them later on.
I treated myself to a new toy, which also just arrived.
And, thanks to a coworker, a cast off lab oven has made it into the shop.
After a few, umm, modifications a 15" wheel juuuuust fits.
I see lots of sandblasting in my immediate future.
I'm getting excited to drive this thing. I have half a mind to skip ahead to running gear and cooling system so we can take a few trips around the block.
When I was racing my X1/9 I learned that FIAT didn't invent rust, they just perfected it.
I suspect there was a brine dip somewhere in the paint prep line, they rust in the strangest places.
I have a few years of powder coating experience. That oven won't work well for that rim, temp will be uneven and lead to weird finish issues. I went medium size on my oven and built a 4'x4'x8'.
I very nearly took tonight off, but I got a second wind around 9pm and decided to break in the new powder coating stuff. Luckily I had the good sense to sandblast the backing plates and parking brake levers before leaving work. I have to say, cancelling the Netflix has worked out swimmingly thus far!
This is the Harbor Freight Matte Black powder and it is well worth the price of admission at $6.
It went on smooth and has a beautiful sheen. I have an assortment of other powders coming from Columbia Coatings, so expect to see more of this in the future.
I'll be back at the usually scheduled rust repair for the rest of the week, so stay tuned.
So how does the process of sand blasting and powder coating work? I understand the broad strokes, spray a high velocity abrasive and something and remove stuff then heat it up and spray some powder at it that melts or whatever to the heated metal but what about the finer points.
Do you sandblast in a booth or cabinet? What kind of abrasives could an amatuer use outside and just sweep up? Need any special type of respirator or protective equipment?
Hpw long do you have to heat something, what temperature are you shooting for, do you have a limited window to spray the powder as the item cools, do you string it up and spray powder or can you set it down, spray one side, flip over and do the other? Any special equipment or protection required?
usually you spray the powder on the part when it is cold and then you bake it.
The powder is attracted to the part by an electrical charge.
Burrito wrote: This is the Harbor Freight Matte Black powder and it is well worth the price of admission at $6.
It is good looking stuff but remember it has no UV inhibitors so it will fade in direct sunlight after a while.
wvumtnbkr wrote: usually you spray the powder on the part when it is cold and then you bake it. The powder is attracted to the part by an electrical charge.
Burrito and I are both fans of pre-baking the part and spraying the powder on to the hot item. It is a great way to get around the Faraday cage effect so powder will be able to get into nooks and crannies. You can turn off the electrical charge and spray into corners that would repulse the powder otherwise.
Jumper K. Balls wrote:wvumtnbkr wrote: usually you spray the powder on the part when it is cold and then you bake it. The powder is attracted to the part by an electrical charge.Burrito and I are both fans of pre-baking the part and spraying the powder on to the hot item. It is a great way to get around the Faraday cage effect so powder will be able to get into nooks and crannies. You can turn off the electrical charge and spray into corners that would repulse the powder otherwise.
Wow, no E36 M3?
I never heard of this before!
Learn sumthin new everyday!
FYI my task management program just alerted me to the fact that the allotted timeline to body-shop was up for review on the Burrito-mobile project.
In reply to Burrito:
In reply to NOHOME:
You hush, you!
Two weeks may have been a little short as far as estimates go, but I feel like I'm making good progress here.
"What do we want? Time travel. When do we want it? That's irrelevant!"
Burrito wrote: In reply to NOHOME: You hush, you! Two weeks may have been a little short as far as estimates go, but I feel like I'm making good progress here. "What do we want? Time travel. When do we want it? That's irrelevant!"
If it is any consolation, I give you full points for not having any project creep. So whats the new deadline for the bodyshop?! (running away)
NOHOME wrote:Burrito wrote: In reply to NOHOME: You hush, you! Two weeks may have been a little short as far as estimates go, but I feel like I'm making good progress here. "What do we want? Time travel. When do we want it? That's irrelevant!"If it is any consolation, I give you full points for not having any project creep. So whats the new deadline for the bodyshop?! (running away)
2 weeks. 
Burrito wrote:NOHOME wrote:2 weeks.Burrito wrote: In reply to NOHOME: You hush, you! Two weeks may have been a little short as far as estimates go, but I feel like I'm making good progress here. "What do we want? Time travel. When do we want it? That's irrelevant!"If it is any consolation, I give you full points for not having any project creep. So whats the new deadline for the bodyshop?! (running away)
Well ain't this garage a geographical oddity?
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