Yet another rescued E36 328i M Sport project...
Discussion
helix402 said:
Shame you don't know a good fabricator! I did a jacking point on my E46 with home made repair panels:
Sure it'll be great when it's done, do you a have a welder lined up?
The guy doing mine is a welder by trade. We already looked at the possibility of fabricating something. But he shot that one down pretty quickly, as it would have been far too much work - the rot to the underside of the sills was pretty much the length of each sill. Because of the way that the sills are shaped, it may have been impossible to refit the side skirts and get them to 'sit' correctly on the car. He is going to fabricate and fit some 3mm reinforcing plates around the jacking points, then treat the sills, fit them, thoroughly wax oil the insides of the sills, stone chip and then repaint. Looking around his workshop and what he can do, gives me bags of confidence. With all his kit and experience, shouldn't cost me a fortune either, as he'll be quick at it too! Sure it'll be great when it's done, do you a have a welder lined up?
Edited by RickBristol on Tuesday 22 August 12:34
Vincefox said:
My e36 Evo as been ruinously expensive.
People really, REALLY underestimate how expensive these are to keep on top of when they get to this age.
Ditto........... At least, once they're done, its relatively easy to keep them going. Its all the years of neglect/under spending/cheap parts/poor 'mates' garage type repairs/lack of care, that you need to sort out in order to rescue one of these. I'm sure most of you must have heard of 'Colin' the M3 lemon. If not, watch the vids on YouTube. Very entertaining and a big WARNING of a trap that you could easily fall a long way into. LOOKK OUT! The drop might be a VERY long way down.............. People really, REALLY underestimate how expensive these are to keep on top of when they get to this age.
RickBristol said:
Ditto........... At least, once they're done, its relatively easy to keep them going. Its all the years of neglect/under spending/cheap parts/poor 'mates' garage type repairs/lack of care, that you need to sort out in order to rescue one of these. I'm sure most of you must have heard of 'Colin' the M3 lemon. If not, watch the vids on YouTube. Very entertaining and a big WARNING of a trap that you could easily fall a long way into. LOOKK OUT! The drop might be a VERY long way down..............
That fool got gouged buying Colin.I reckon mine is taking a mean average of 200 pcm off me in repairs/upgrades/maintenance now. I've dialled the usage right back and even advertised it for sale recently, but when I took the kid out in it that was looking at it I enjoyed the car too much. Also, prices are starting to properly climb now.
I've come to peace with the fact that driving it is an occasion now as it is the very definition of an expensive running cost vehicle: an old, high performance, rare car.
Good luck with yours, I'm very jealous of the colour.
RickBristol said:
Ditto........... At least, once they're done, its relatively easy to keep them going. Its all the years of neglect/under spending/cheap parts/poor 'mates' garage type repairs/lack of care, that you need to sort out in order to rescue one of these. I'm sure most of you must have heard of 'Colin' the M3 lemon. If not, watch the vids on YouTube. Very entertaining and a big WARNING of a trap that you could easily fall a long way into. LOOK OUT! The drop might be a VERY long way down..............
I'm fortunate that I have been able afford the £8k or £9k that it has/will have cost me by the end. Many of you out there reading this would probably have had to abandon it way before this point. It doesn't matter how much desire you may have to own and keep one of these, you will pockets deep enough to match up to your ambitions....RickBristol said:
RickBristol said:
Ditto........... At least, once they're done, its relatively easy to keep them going. Its all the years of neglect/under spending/cheap parts/poor 'mates' garage type repairs/lack of care, that you need to sort out in order to rescue one of these. I'm sure most of you must have heard of 'Colin' the M3 lemon. If not, watch the vids on YouTube. Very entertaining and a big WARNING of a trap that you could easily fall a long way into. LOOK OUT! The drop might be a VERY long way down..............
I'm fortunate that I have been able afford the £8k or £9k that it has/will have cost me by the end. Many of you out there reading this would probably have had to abandon it way before this point. It doesn't matter how much desire you may have to own and keep one of these, you will pockets deep enough to match up to your ambitions....I appreciate that you are in for the long haul with this one, and it's your money of course to do with as you please....
I admire your dedication, but I think most of us realised that you had significantly underestimated the rust repair cost.
I hope I'm wrong, but I fear rust is likely to have taken hold, and once the sills are removed it's not going to be pretty.
Still, I wish you all the best.
I admire your dedication, but I think most of us realised that you had significantly underestimated the rust repair cost.
I hope I'm wrong, but I fear rust is likely to have taken hold, and once the sills are removed it's not going to be pretty.
Still, I wish you all the best.
f1nn said:
I appreciate that you are in for the long haul with this one, and it's your money of course to do with as you please....
I admire your dedication, but I think most of us realised that you had significantly underestimated the rust repair cost.
I hope I'm wrong, but I fear rust is likely to have taken hold, and once the sills are removed it's not going to be pretty.
Still, I wish you all the best.
Well, the holes we poked out where big enough to get a phone torch in and have a good look. The inner sills and surrounding metal work is actually in mint condition. Not only that, but we discovered that the inner sills are actually painted in the same colour as the bodywork. I admire your dedication, but I think most of us realised that you had significantly underestimated the rust repair cost.
I hope I'm wrong, but I fear rust is likely to have taken hold, and once the sills are removed it's not going to be pretty.
Still, I wish you all the best.
It's only the lower underside of the outer sills that has gone... This has spread from the rotten front and rear jacking points. Don't you think that we considered that before comiting to buying new outer sills? 
Edited by RickBristol on Tuesday 22 August 19:49
nosuchuser said:
This.. This is what scares me about my 328..
As I said earlier "Put some serious thought into it, before you remove those side skirts.... If your jacking points are looking ropey, then the decision is yours....."Be brave, or get some VERY dark sunglasses to wear when you do take those side skirts off...
RickBristol said:
As I said earlier "Put some serious thought into it, before you remove those side skirts.... If your jacking points are looking ropey, then the decision is yours....."
Be brave, or get some VERY dark sunglasses to wear when you do take those side skirts off...
Ha! You seen the state of my rtab consoles?Be brave, or get some VERY dark sunglasses to wear when you do take those side skirts off...
RickBristol said:
Well, the holes we poked out where big enough to get a phone torch in and have a good look. The inner sills and surrounding metal work is actually in mint condition. Not only that, but we discovered that the inner sills are actually painted in the same colour as the bodywork. It's only the lower underside of the outer sills that has gone... This has spread from the rotten front and rear jacking points. Don't you think that we considered that before comiting to buying new outer sills?
I'd hope so, but reading through the thread I'm not so sure. It's only the lower underside of the outer sills that has gone... This has spread from the rotten front and rear jacking points. Don't you think that we considered that before comiting to buying new outer sills? Edited by RickBristol on Tuesday 22 August 19:49
Don't get me wrong, I hope it works out as you expect, but in my experience at least, whatever rust you think is there, there is likely to be twice as much lurking.
RickBristol said:
MitchT said:
How do you get the skirts off? I really must check mine!
Get the car in the air, undo the small black screws along the length of the underside of the skirts, undo the retaining nuts at the end of the skirt in the lower rear wheel arch, and then gently, but firmly, pull the skirt towards you, from the side of the car. The sides are held on by white plastic clips on the bodywork, at the bottom of the door line.helix402 said:
I wouldn't worry about breaking the clips. They are very cheap.
Take a look at the receipt I posted on the last page. I think around 36p each. They only come in packs of 25. You'll need around sixteen of them for both sides. They also need the rubber grommets that go into the bodywork, before you clip them in....Admire the dedication you're putting into this, I'm sure most people would have given up on it a long time ago. Interior is really going to make the car that's for sure!
It does have a very strange MOT history though, was showing 205k miles back in September 2012 and then 2 weeks later it was back at 144k miles which seems a bit dodgy. Also the last one it had shows the mileage as unreadable so presumably the pixels are all scrambled now?
I know you say it's a keeper and you won't ever sell it, but I genuinely don't know if I could stomach sinking the best part of 10k into this particular example. Hopefully the project doesn't throw up any more curve balls and you're able to at least start enjoying it on the road soon!
It does have a very strange MOT history though, was showing 205k miles back in September 2012 and then 2 weeks later it was back at 144k miles which seems a bit dodgy. Also the last one it had shows the mileage as unreadable so presumably the pixels are all scrambled now?
I know you say it's a keeper and you won't ever sell it, but I genuinely don't know if I could stomach sinking the best part of 10k into this particular example. Hopefully the project doesn't throw up any more curve balls and you're able to at least start enjoying it on the road soon!
RickBristol said:
Take a look at the receipt I posted on the last page. I think around 36p each. They only come in packs of 25. You'll need around sixteen of them for both sides. They also need the rubber grommets that go into the bodywork, before you clip them in....
seconded. They're dirt cheap and the grommets will definitely need replacing, they go brittle and split allowing ingress. I keep a load of spare clips and bits in my garage as a rule, they're not worth trying to keep. Also worth keeping spare jacking mushrooms, they can go missing/get left in trolley jack crowns.
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