BMW E46 330dA Touring

BMW E46 330dA Touring

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Discussion

helix402

Original Poster:

7,832 posts

181 months

Thursday 23rd March 2017
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Stripping begins for the new rear arch:


SuperVM

1,098 posts

160 months

Thursday 23rd March 2017
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Rangeroverover said:
Slightly off topic,interested to know what made you change your mind about buying a house, have you been affected by the leave vote?
Sorry, I have only just seen this. We have now sold our old house and are buying a new one. We just had a nightmare with chains collapsing multiple times, I don't think it was anything to do with Brexit. Ended up moving into a rental to get the kids into the school for the start of the year, so took a beating on our old house to get rid of it. The sale was then incredibly stressful too for reasons I doubt the buyer would want me mentioning here.

SuperVM

1,098 posts

160 months

Thursday 23rd March 2017
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vsonix said:
SuperVM said:
I've recently sold my E39 M5 and bought an automatic E46 330i Touring, they're just so cheap at the moment and we were meant to be buying a house, which the leave vote has well and truly killed. I told myself I wasn't going to do anything to the 330, but so far I've replaced the wood trim with carbon and done a double DIN conversion with an Erisin Android unit. I've also bought a set of Eibach springs as the front of the car is comically high.

Yours looks great! :-)
Do you still have the wood trim? I wouldn't mind replacing my scruffy metal cube trim with something else
I did until about a month ago when I just threw it away. I'd listed it on ebay a couple of times but had no interest.

helix402

Original Poster:

7,832 posts

181 months

Saturday 25th March 2017
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Arch repair continues:







The small round hole is where a grommet was. Rust has crept under the underwear/grommet join and enlarged the hole. The hole will be welded up. A free bonus was this:



This is a first for me, a stress crack in the n/s/r suspension turret. There are actually three. There are several panels joined together at this point. It'll be repaired. My rear suspension set up is: Sport springs, standard dampers, M3 top mounts, Eibach 21mm anti roll bar. Car has covered 237000 miles. I've never seen or heard of an E46 cracking here. Has anyone else?

helix402

Original Poster:

7,832 posts

181 months

Monday 27th March 2017
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Work continues:




Darren1101

99 posts

148 months

Monday 27th March 2017
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I hope you don't mind me asking but, how much is this work costing you? My E46 coupe has the very slightest of bubbling on the OSR arch and would rather get it cut out before it spreads. Look like your guys are doing a proper job too. Darren.

helix402

Original Poster:

7,832 posts

181 months

Monday 27th March 2017
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"My guys" are me and a friend! I'm a trained BMW Technician, though now work in a different field. My friend is retired and once restored classic cars for a living. Doing the work ourselves keeps the costs down, it's very labour intensive to do it properly.
My costs are £30 for a wheel arch repair panel, £25 ish for new clips and fittings and a little for paints etc. Afraid I'm not sure how much a body shop would charge.

helix402

Original Poster:

7,832 posts

181 months

Tuesday 28th March 2017
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I cleaned the floor up today and found two free bonus holes! One is around a grommet, the other is around the jacking point. The grommet hole will be plated. We've made a plate to repair the jacking point. All this floor rust is around holes or seams. The under seal or seal sealant has cracked then water has sat in the seams.



Edited by helix402 on Tuesday 28th March 18:49

helix402

Original Poster:

7,832 posts

181 months

Wednesday 29th March 2017
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Repair panels made:










JakeT

5,406 posts

119 months

Thursday 30th March 2017
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Sould be good for another ~240k at this stage. Good work!

SuperVM

1,098 posts

160 months

Thursday 30th March 2017
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Excellent work! smile

helix402

Original Poster:

7,832 posts

181 months

Thursday 30th March 2017
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Thanks, I think the repair will last a while. I've put my new top mounts on too:




The saloon is 5 mins to remove the rear dampers, the estate is not!

helix402

Original Poster:

7,832 posts

181 months

Saturday 1st April 2017
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Rear damper turret plated:


helix402

Original Poster:

7,832 posts

181 months

Monday 3rd April 2017
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Damper turret repair finished:



I was a tad heavy with the seam sealer.




Plate welded where rust had expanded a grommet hole. Not the neatest weld as we had a ropey gasless welder.

helix402

Original Poster:

7,832 posts

181 months

Tuesday 4th April 2017
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New arch on, I went for bonding as welding can cause distortion to panels. You also have to spend a lot of time cleaning up welds.

Let the filling commence, I hate filling. Don't mind fillings, only got one.


helix402

Original Poster:

7,832 posts

181 months

Thursday 6th April 2017
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Underside done:





Primer on the arch:





Will it be done for the BMW show in Sherborne on Sunday? The interior is all in now. The exterior is very easy to refit. I see the new "skin" still puts photos upside down.

helix402

Original Poster:

7,832 posts

181 months

Friday 7th April 2017
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Painting finished!








Bumper and trim will be refitted tomorrow.

helix402

Original Poster:

7,832 posts

181 months

Friday 7th April 2017
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JakeT

5,406 posts

119 months

Saturday 8th April 2017
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Looking great. Now get out there and put some miles on it!

helix402

Original Poster:

7,832 posts

181 months

Saturday 8th April 2017
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I will! I'll be at the Sherborne BMW show tomorrow with a post respray dusty un polished car, at least it's back together. It will get a good cut and polish when the new paint has fully hardened.