Project "M" 2007

I had hoped to restart on the car this year, but with work and home commitments it has not been possible. I have been busy collecting parts though, from Ebay and various scrap cars, and hope to get the "M" back by the New Year

This is an E12 528 that I got some parts from, it was a real rot box, but gave up some useful parts including some trim bits and pieces. Why does it always to rain when you have to work outside.

The car had been sitting in this blokes back yard for a number of years

And you thought my E12 was bad, this car was literally decaying into the ground

November 2007

This is an E28 528i that I have just broken, the main focus of my attention was the windscreens and floor pans, by the time I took this photo I had already removed the doors, interior and screens. I also took the exhaust as it was nearly new, interestingly enough when I laid it side by side with my E12 M exhaust it followed the same route and all the brackets were in the same place. It was also interesting to note that the E28 528 exhaust was a bigger bore than the E12 M535 one.

I cut the roof off first, and then sliced through the rear end

I would like to point out that I had also removed the fuel tank and stored it well away before starting this cutting

Work then started on the front end, this was a bit more tricky, due to the chassis legs and the bulk head, but once I had removed the dash access was a lot better

This is the first floor pan out

I have tried to keep as much metal as possible, so that I can try to keep as much of the full floor panels as possible, the idea is to get these home and then start trimming them down

Not much left now

The scrap man will have the rest.

All in all this took 4 hours work and I went through about 12 x 9" cutting discs.
The intention is to use these floor pans or parts of them to patch my E12 floor, I am working on the assumption that it will create a better job this way, than trying to beat flat sheets of steel into shape, to make them blend in.

November 25th 2007

The panels are back home and the trimming has finished. These should certainly simplify things when it comes to patching the floors on Project "M"

I removed the sound deadening with paint stripper heat gun and a scraper.

The underbody coating is a lot more work, I used a 3M Clean and strip disc on a drill, these discs are great for removing paint and the like without grinding away at the metal, and they don't block up.

A part completed floor pan, not sure how much of this I will need, but will strip it up to the chassis leg at least for the time being in preparation. Its obviously much easier to strip it like this than once it is welded into the car.

I also picked up this engine along the way, it is from another E12 M535i that was scrapped about 10 years ago, the engine has been sitting on storage ever since, it seems to be completely seized and I believe that the bottom end was also shot when it was taken out of the car, but it seems to be complete and should be a good source for spare parts.

The stand is home made from an old pallet with some wheels bolted on, certainly makes it a lot easier to move it around

December 2007

Bought a shot blast cabinet and wanted to give it a go, decided to try to restore the headlamp assembly

Check it out here