HERO LeJoG BMW 1600-2 build

We're using some of the old chrome, trims and panels from the original white car, so I thought I'd get them cleaned up;

Autolsol is brilliant stuff!

The nice looking sills, with just a couple of visible rust bubbles turned out to be full of the stuff!

So we bought two new OEM rear quarter repair panels and a pattern sill (to use for odd sections that were required). We also had a pair of pattern wings (that were bought for the white car, but are not required on the orange one) so we used these lower sections, as the wings needed to give access to the front corner of the sills and we didn't fancy removing them completely....

Once again, a fantastic job done by Deano - this is not just new panels snotted over the top, he's cut out all the significant rust and has let in replacement metal, before adding the new sills.

Rear n/s quarter;

Front n/s corner;

o/s rear corner;

Front o/s corner is much worse;

It reminds me of when we did the E30.....  This has been repaired now, but no pics yet.

I have also ordered two replacement front floor sections, to allow for a quality repair to these areas that were previously bodged - which sheet steel just welded over the holes;

So that is the job for this week, plus fabricating and welding the cage mounting points and chopping out the old seat mounts.

Once we get all the welding done we can start to move on a slightly faster pace, hopefully!

We had to get rid of the rotten white car, but as we said before - it had some good bits, some very good bits, and has given up parts required on the orange car, and lots more.

Whilst Deano's son Craig was up at the workshop for a couple of weeks, we got him to chop the white car into bits....

Front and rear floor cut out, incl chassis rails;

Craig got to work on the rest;

Bits for the bin;

Bits to keep;

Bye, bye white car - you live on in the orange one....

The front floor pans had been poorly repaired in the past, so we bought replacements, which were reasonably priced and easier to install. The edge to the bulkhead was too short really and the bulkhead was quite thin, so these were cut out and replaced too;

Repairs required to bulkhead/tunnel section too;

Welding is good, as always;

Chassis rails from the white car were mint, so were removed to replace rotten and bodged repairs on orange car;

Cleaning the paint, glue, underseal and tar off the floors seems never ending..... But, good prep means a good end result!

The car came with a basic 6 point cage, not from the car originally, but from the same seller - it is adequate for what we need, but needed a bit of modification. The rear stays were bolt on, but this is crap, so we added welded stays, a cross, instead fo single diagonal, and harness bars.

Cage feet in;

Cage being fitted and addition bars tacked in;

Extra bars are mocked up with tape and cage removed for welding and subsequent powder coating;

We had to jack out the feet to match the mounts in the car as the cage moved slightly when removed, so we carefully measured and jacked the feet out to ensure the hole centres would be correct for refit;

We have been busy on this project, honest!

Work in Leeds (213 miles away from home) has slightly got in the way for me and my cohort Richard has also been on a round the world trip with work, quite literally!

Anyway, progress. Following the completion of the welding we got the body prep done and had some paint applied. 

 

Easy I thought, paint upto the lower trim line, simples. However, it proved that the car has been painted a different shade of Colorado Orange. We had the colour matched too and it's still slightly different - worse in artificial light. We've ended up painting to the swage line. Above the swage will be wrapped satin black a la the Alpina rally cars.

You can see the original difference here;

So the body was re-prep'd and the colour matched paint applied;

Looks the same colour outside....

Had the CIBIE lamps painted too, they look mint.

Anyway, it's orange and shiny;

We've bought lots of new parts - there's a rather large and expensive box from BMW parts specialists Jaymic, with another stock of suspension parts to order this week (expensive, gulp!), and my pal Matt from Think Auto has supplied a new electric fan, triple gauges (oil temp, oil pressure and water temp) along with an Oil Cooler, sandwich plate and braided hoses.

We're mounting a gauge pod on the dash to house our trio of driver aids - had to cut a hole first so the gauges could be mounted and wired - that was a bit nerve-racking, measure 4 times, and again to be sure...

Don't worry about the mock-carbon finish, it was cheap and the whole dash is being flocked, so it'll look fine!

Remembered, before it was too late, to cut a hole in the dash bar - that could have been embarrassing.... Just think.... dash in, cage in, mount the gauges... oh sh1t! Anyway, pleased I remembered to do it;

The dash should be back from the flockers tomorrow. New parts from BMW later this week. Front struts and some other bits from the powder coaters on Friday.... Freshly powder coated cage is all ready to go in;

We've had a bit of ramp trouble in the workshop, but that's fixed now so we can get the car up in the air and remove the old suspension, brake lines, etc. Then its onto the next dirty, uncomfortable job of wire wheeling the underside of the car so we can apply rust inhibiting underseal and inject the box sections with wax.

Loads to do, loads to do.....