D.martijn

It's been a little death over here. Things slowed down quite a bit since the purchase of a house with my girlfriend (no worries there is a old workshop on the property so in the future, the touring will be very close at hand!) Hopefully things progress a bit faster then. In the meantime I received the test panel from the lasercutting/bending service. Very pleased with the quality of the panel, it's cut and bended very nice and crisp. Only thing left is to punch the reinforcement ribs into the mounting tabs. I was a little worried about these small mounting tabs for the touring as they are quite short in height.

It's been a little death over here. Things slowed down quite a bit since the purchase of a house with my girlfriend (no worries there is a old workshop on the property so in the future, the touring will be very close at hand!) Hopefully things progress a bit faster then. In the meantime I received the test panel from the lasercutting/bending service. Very pleased with the quality of the panel, it's cut and bended very nice and crisp. Only thing left is to punch the reinforcement ribs into the mounting tabs. I was a little worried about these small mounting tabs for the touring as they are quite short in height.

Thanks for the shout out haha

I had my reflectors redone in Germany. I haven't installed them onto my car yet but the finish looks very nice. Paid ~150€

I've pretty much finalized the CAD work for the new rear crossmember for the Touring. If everything works out (regarding price) I should be able to reproduce this panel for other people as well Although not a very common repair, I'm sure it will at least help a few people. After doing some more research regarding the rear cross member distances (according to the BMW chassis diagram) and getting some measurements from other 2002's I'm pretty close on know where to weld those mounting brackets. In the end I also decided to measure the subframe assembly with the diff and rear hanger on the welding table. There is of course tons of room front to back to adjust the placement of the diff. Side to side needs to be pretty spot on though. I've also made a rather crude die to press the ribs, although I do plan to polish it a little bit more. should be able to use this to press both mounting brackets for the Touring (long and short version)

I've pretty much finalized the CAD work for the new rear crossmember for the Touring. If everything works out (regarding price) I should be able to reproduce this panel for other people as well Although not a very common repair, I'm sure it will at least help a few people. After doing some more research regarding the rear cross member distances (according to the BMW chassis diagram) and getting some measurements from other 2002's I'm pretty close on know where to weld those mounting brackets. In the end I also decided to measure the subframe assembly with the diff and rear hanger on the welding table. There is of course tons of room front to back to adjust the placement of the diff. Side to side needs to be pretty spot on though. I've also made a rather crude die to press the ribs, although I do plan to polish it a little bit more. should be able to use this to press both mounting brackets for the Touring (long and short version)

Do you have a couple of pictures that you can share, to show the result you got? thanks!

Hello Uai, Would you be able to measure these distances when you have the time and the rear end is removed from the car like you mentioned. I made a little diagram with some letters to make it more clear. Car should be levelled side to side and front to back on the rocker panels. I placed a blump bob in the holes of the differential to measure to. Measuring these distances level to the car (planar) A = distance from center of hole in the brackets to floor (I measured 105mm) B = distance from subframe bolt flange to floor or center hole diff (less needed this measurement) C = distance between subframe bolts and plumb bobs (again less needed, I can calculate this with the other measurements) D = distance between center of both subframe bolts E = Distance between center of holes diff brackets F G H I = distance center subframe bolts to plumb bob in diff brackets.

Thank you! I appreciate it very much!

Thanks, I've contacted him if he could help me with some measurements. That would be awesome! I would like to know what other people measure for the distance between the rear subframe points and differential. Again, PLANAR or DIAGONALLY. (I find planar easier to measure since in my opinion it's also more accurate. than trying to bend your measuring tape) As well as the height from the center of the differential mount bolt to to flange of the panel where it's spotwelded onto the floor. like so: Thanks!!

Anyone that could also measure their 2002??

If you are interested, I make new steering box shims (original thicknesses) Selling them in a set.

Checking the panel from Restorations Design, Both differential mounts are spaced right in the center of the panel (no offset taken into account) As well as, the height seems to be off. Before removing our panel, we measured from the boot floor to the center of the holes 105mm The panel from Restoration Design has the hole at 100mm from the flange that sits onto the floor. This flange section (boot section with the two rectangular indentations) is the same for the sedan and touring, as it's the same floor section that's connected to the front floor section

Hey guys, So on my Touring project, I decided to replace the rear differential crossmember as there was quite a bit of rust hiding inside of this section. (diff carrier and boot floor) I had bought the Restoration Design panel after asking them if it fitted both Touring and Sedan - they confirmed that it fitted both models. Well turns out this is not true. (should have known better since both have a different part number but I didn't think any further... ohwell) My plan is now to reproduce the rear differential panel for the Touring model (I already have interest from a German shop as well ) However IF I do reproduce this panel, the shop prefers to have the mounts for the differential all ready welded, so a complete panel! So I need to figure out where to place these mounts to have them correctly positioned. Before removing our original diff carrier panel we checked it's locations from the rear subframe bolts like the BMW diagram. However, as I now found out the measurements that BMW gives are measured diagonally NOT planar. (this thread) We used plumb bobs to measure from the subframe bolts to the rear diff mounts. The strange thing is that we are able to match the measurement for the right side 674,5mm (measuring planar) with the measurement from BMW (non planar) both diff mounts are the correct distance apart (243mm) The left side is different. I now put this all into Solidworks For the measurements from BMW to work out, we need to space the differential 476mm towards the rear instead of 475mm (there is a tolerance of +/-2mm so I worked with the 476mm) Putting this into Solidworks, I'm able to calculate the PLANAR measurement that we need to measure. Right = 671,5mm Left = 664,3mm The PLANAR measurements we measured on the car Right = 674,5mm Left = 653mm Since the differential is OFFSET from the center of the car to the left side For the measurements from BMW we measure OFFSET TO THE LEFT = 5,08mm OFFSET TO THE LEFT = 15,23mm MORE FORWARD = 5,94mm -> So our differential was positioned at 470mm from the rear subframe points. I do plan on using a laser and measure more stuff on the car to see where we are wrong.. Measuring from the front subframe points to the rear subframe points we get the same measurements left to right so those are square from each other. Car is also levelled left to right and front to back on the sills. Anyone have some input/feedback for this? Thanks! Kind regards, Martijn

I also butt welded the new floor section to the original floor and transmission tunnel. In 2017 I decided to just replace a small section of floor (which I made a replacement panel for myself) But later on I cut it out again and replaced the full front floor section that I got from W&N. (Yes, I'm still replacing panels since then.. ) You can find pictures here:

The tap on your last picture is indeed original - it was used to transport the car in the factory if I'm not mistaken. Most people remove it as it's prone to trap moisture and causes it to rust again.

Getting one of those cheap shrinker and stretchers are pretty good to shrink small plates. Always comes in handy for other repairs as well

I think I'll just stick to the measurements I took before removing the diff chassis mounts.

When I put the dimensions into Solidworks, the measurement from BMW just don't make sense at all. I tried using the measurements planar and also in 3D. but it does not add up. Maybe it isn't all that critical 😛

Well just going from your last pictures I find the fitment pretty good, going of from the hole in the inner sill. 🤔 I would try the pull the frame rail down like you did in the previous post. And go from there. How far up did you cut at the transmission tunnel? I know on my 02 the bend was causing it to sit to high.

You just need to be sure that you don't drill to deep which is very easy to do. I do prefer using a little belt sander or pneumatic die grinder with a thicker cut off disc to grind down where the spotweld is. You well see the panel getting discoloration meaning you are almost through the first panel. Of course you want be able to reuse this panel so depends what you are repairing

I know when I first made a patch panel (now several years ago) I pushed the patch panel too far down along the sill making the floor sit a little too low compared to the other side. In the end I later on cut it all out and replaced if with the W&N floor 😊 I did need to push the floor down to the rail as well, I had my brother inside of the car, using his weight to spot weld the floor to the rail. Is it just the end of the frame rail section that is sticking up?

Yes, levelled the car by the rocker panels, both sides are level front to back, side to side. Using plumb bobs to measure from point to point. Everything checks out, front subframe points to rear subframe points, distance between both.. Only the left diff mount is different. Seems weird as the right is ok and distance between both as well..?

Reviving an old thread. I measured my rear diff mounts on my 02 Touring. Using a plumb bob, I'm able to get the correct measurement from the right subframe mount to the right diff carrier. (674mm) But when I check the same measurement on the left side, I get 653mm instead of the diagram 667mm The differential mounts are 243 mm apart like the diagram. edit: When I try to calculate like the post above X = √ (674.5² - 475²) = 478.9mm Y = √ (653² - 475²) = 448.1mm 478.9+448.1+243 = 1170 vs 1180 between subframe 🤔

After finishing the rear quarter panels. We decided to remove the rear differential cross member after finding out there was quite a bit of rust still hiding inside. old picture showing rust on the cross member is self and boot floor section. Although definitely no severe, why not take it out since we have gone this far with replacing panels µ I already ordered the replacement panel from Restoration Design from their warehouse in the Netherlands. When I bought the panel, I noticed the Touring and Sedan have different part numbers, I send them an email asking if the panel would still fit the Touring, and they assured me it would. I didn't bother to check further and ordered it. However when I now look closer and compare the pictures on their website with our Touring. It is in fact different.. In the end we decided to go further with the removal of the panel and see where we end up. I did measure the profile of the panel if we do need to remake it. There is a company wo lasercuts and bends not far away from my home, I might go by and ask if they can bent this panel for me, since it's quite thick and I don't think our sheet metal brake will handle it. Again levelling the car since we moved it over a little because of the welding/fixture table I purchased. Couple reference pictures Rear exhaust hanger Panel completely removed, using the small die grinder with a cut off wheel to grind down the spot welds. Some of the rust cleaned up, not too bad. I treated it with Rustyco to remove it completely Both corners got treated as well as a couple of spots on the middle After two treatments, I'll try to mechanically remove some of the rust in the corner and then apply Rustyco again. I also remove the tow hook and treated the rust pitting with Rustyco Was this hook just for shipping? cant imagine pulling a car with this though..