From Wrecks to Wrecks e36

[MrSkarZ]

Hello S|W,

I have been lurking on this forum for a while, especially bmw build thread.
I am the kind of guy that work all day at a desk so i feel that i have to do real stuff when I come home. My dd is an vauxhaul vectra from 1996 and i have been doing all maintenance by myself.

I finally went for an 1995 e36 coupe two weeks ago.
here is how it was when I get it




doesn't look to bad, but there is some restoration to do
the car has rust bubbling the paint, rust under the frame and jacking points




coilover are leaking


gybo is cracked


and exhaust manifold is leaking


finaly there are some coolant and oil leaks, little ticking engine but nothing to serious.
I guess It's an odb1 car because it's from 1995 and I didn't found odb connector inside the car, so I tried the gas pedal trick to read odb error on dash a couple of time but it didn't work.
I am going to buy a secondhand mig welding machine this week to take care of that nasty rust

[MrSkarZ]

Today I started working on the rotten steel


A little world was living inside the rocker panel, get the hell out of my car !


Now that the car is high on the jack stands, I wanted to check all the exhaust for leak.
look like some bolt are not tight right.


I also tryed to remove the exhaust manifold, damn this thing is hard to remove, i couldn't access the bolts with my basic tools with A/C on top of that, took me 2 hours to remove half of the bolts with my 11 wrench

[Spirit]

ummm your a brave man thats all im saying thats a wreck

[MrSkarZ]

I may just be crazy
My weekly progress,
I finally succeed to remove the dam exhaust manifold


the crack

A friend of mine helped me fixing it with his mig welder, then he lent me the welder for the week


Cut of the rotten battery tray in the trunk


starting to remove the carpet in the car, i found out that the floor under the driver seat is also rotten. Seats an center console were easy to remove


I still have that glove box to remove, i may have forgot some screws


will order some supply today
-hose replacement for power steering
-new motor cover gasket,
-por15 to treat the rust

[MrSkarZ]

Winter is coming ! Garage needed





Well that didn't stop me to remove some rust









I went to Bmw yesterday, I will have to wait one week to get the parts

[P78]

that is a wreck

loads of work ahead

[FunfGang]

Good start! Looks like it'll be a long but rewarding project.

[slimadi]

Glad to see you are doing a good job, been there myself with my e30 it is very rewarding when done right keep up the good work...

[MrSkarZ]

Thanks guys,
Today is update time. I finished to work on the car last week, results were not perfect but I did the best I could with the resources and tools I had I learned a lot

there are the pics of each steps:
First having some electrolysis fun removing rust from bolts and nuts


Shelter found, because working outside with snow was not possible anymore
and because rust treatment products don't work well below 15°



Cutting cleaning and treating rust under jacking points










Then I started to repeat the process on the body








After corrosion treatment I applied bondo and sand it down with 80 - 120 - 220 - 360% dry sand paper



Then prime with spray can




600% wet send paper and paint with spray can again.
Applied several coat of clear then sand again with 1500-2000-3000% wet send paper




finally some polish and voila





Next steps will be coolant system, cover gasket, and i have to control hydraulic lifter as I guess one of them is making a ticking noise.
I have also a M50 manifold laying around waiting for an adaptation kit, and I should look for a 3.15 LSD as mine 2.93 open diff is leaking