Square Is The New Round

[SquareIsTheNewRound]

Hi! I've been lurking the site for a while now, and it's time to introduce myself.

I have a small collection of 3 BMWs, not counting my wife's X5, which is mine when dirty, low on fuel, or in need of maintenance, but hers at all other times.

My collection is based on a strategy of spending as little as possible on fun cars. This leads to the $400 E30 318is track car, the $2200 E36 M3 daily driver, and now the 1976 "Malaga" 2002, added about two weeks ago.

The 2002 is the most expensive of the three, but not by very much at all. It needs some work to bring it up to snuff, but it isn't in horrible shape. The car had extensive rust repairs done in 1990, and they were professionally executed. Of course in the intervening years there has been additional rust, but not nearly as bad as I would have thought. The car has been well-used throughout its life, but has also been well-cared for. Any car that can survive over 30 years on the salt-crusted roads of Ontario Canada has been shown some love, so thank you previous owners!

The motor was rebuilt in March of 1997. It appears that was about 25,000 miles ago, but some hints from the documentation make me think that the odometer did not function for several years.

The best thing about the car is that it was oil-sprayed frequently, so many of the usual rust locations are still steel.

The worst thing about the car is that it was oil-sprayed frequently, so the bottom is absolutely covered in black ooze. It's awful stuff and it's all got to go. Seriously, if this stuff can be re-refined then the bottom of my car is a new source of domestic oil production.

As bought, the initial trouble areas are:

driver side frame rail rust

transmission leak

differential leak

valve cover gasket

distributor gasket

some minor rust holes in the floor

The interior is in really nice condition - the headliner is perfect, and the dash is uncracked. Carpet is practically new, and is very clean. The seats will need recovering at some point in time.

The body is passable, but needs some better body work. The red paint was sprayed over top of almost everything, so there are lots of parts that have to be cleaned up. And it was sprayed on **almost** everything, which means that there's still plenty of the original Malaga showing in the trunk, engine compartment, and even the seat rails inside the car. The red paint isn't a very good job and I have no reason to believe that it is an actual BMW red (like Verona). Another color change is in her future but the red will be OK for now.

The most critical repair is the frame rail. I think the rust is a result of brake fluid leaking into the frame rail. It's so far gone that I'm pretty sure I will be buying a new piece to weld in. But before that can happen, the inside has to be gutted and any tar removed. The oil spray on the bottom will also have to be removed before any welding can occur!

The end goal is to have a car that serves as the family's summer ice-cream fetcher. It will never be a concours beauty queen - the fate of this car was sealed when it was shipped to Ontario. But, she's a 2002 that has survived this long so she deserves some more care - my goal is to get it through the next 15-20 years.

[Koblenz]

Congrats and Welcome I like the rims!

[rover1]

$2200 e36 m3 thats pretty funny!!!

[SquareIsTheNewRound]

Yup. The seller needed money that day to pay a debt for gambling or women, perhaps both. Car needed tires and a clutch, and I've been driving it since - even did a couple of track days. Very fun car.

[SquareIsTheNewRound]

So, as is the custom with these projects, I got into the car a little bit to see what the previous owners had done. Or in my case, what the previous owner's body shop had done.

I had some help...

The car had had some body work done to it - the fenders are new and there is a lot of new metal in the rear quarters.

Here is the inside of the front left fender. Hey, not bad at all!

And here is what that fender was installed over - wha?

Which in turn was installed over top of - seriously?

With a bit of fiberglass resting on top just for fun:

I pulled that off to see just what was left of the nose, and it ain't much lol!

The wheel housing doesn't look horrible, but there will be some welding there too.

Inside the car, things look better. There is surface rust, but only a few small areas where I can jam a sharp screwdriver through.

The spare tire well is 100% fiberglass repair material, and whoever did that repair has a sense of humor - they fiberglassed the tow hook back onto the bottom of the well!

Nothing too scary yet, although I have to admit I wasn't really prepared for what was behind the fender.

So far, a pretty boring write up. That's sure to change as we add welding and 3/4" thick oily undercoating together to test the effectiveness of both my smoke detector and my firefighting skills. My abilities with both extinguisher and welder are as yet untested, but I found the welder for $150 and won the extinguisher as a door prize. As with any tool, being able to purchase one instantly makes you competent in its use. Right?

As i mentioned in my first post, my collection is, shall we say, cheap? So stay tuned for some budget repairs, and for what could become a long-term project.

[achilles]

Get ready for more fun with tar removal. Where are you in ontario? I'm near ottawa and just about have mine on the road.

Cheers Chris

[austinmf]

These guys have a lot of panels... just in case... You have a lot of work ahead but a lot of fun too!

http://www.wallothnesch.com/e/frameparts.htm