Thanks for making these videos. You're the only one making them informative, actually showing the welding process and not having 60% of selfie cam footage of "HEY GUYS" energy. Did an awesome job on saving this car too
Haha! My energy levels can't deliver the whole "HEY GUYS" experience. 😆 Really glad you're enjoying the vids Adam. My hope is they help people out with their own projects!
DUDE! Thank you so much. Simple genius with drilling the hole then creating a tack weld for support. That helped me with an issue I'm having where I didn't have access from inside. I'm a total novice/beginner. I'm adding that to my toolbox.
I always use old washing machine panels to plate on the inside. It works amazing as floor pans with the slight corrugation...I currently own a Ford Bendix ;)))
Haha no way, that's a genius idea if the corrugations match up 😂 I actually have an old washing machine waiting to be got rid of so I'll be sure to save the panels for future repairs. Great tip
@@SPANNERRASHfor personnal rat rod; not for customers maybe . Youl never look at a washer or dryer in the same way, ready poweder coated ) wish I could show my results. I'm currently trying to weld a new strut mount...a lot more precision required Laud hlp me :)) 😂 Enjoy your week young man.
Hi Jamie, it should be up next week if all goes to plan mate! Should be quite a simple repair, I hope. I'm lucky the inners aren't much worse on this E30. I've seen them totally rotted out on others before.
Thanks for the tip on that, I will have more of a play around with it. I got it more dialled in on my later videos. Welding has been a steep learning curve. 😃
Doing the same inner & outer sill repair / replacement on my E30 touring at the moment. I ordered new out sill jacking area reinforcement plates from BMW as they were still available for around £6ea. Unfortunately BMW have changed the part and are a completely different size / design, so I won't be using them! Also the inner jacking reinforcement part for the rear of my touring is now NLA, but the front inner supports are available and can be adapted to fit the rears. Recently just finished making the inner arch repair section and fitting it. Keep up the great work bzzzzz 👨🏭
Thanks Mark, hope your E30 touring job goes smoothly, sounds like it's well underway. More and more parts are becoming NLA unfortunately, but hopefully, nothing which is absolutely essential for you. I've got the inner to repair next, shouldn't be too big of a job compared to the outer and the jacking point I've already done so I'm quietly confident. Hopefully my welding will improve with all this practice, cheers. :D
@@Shadowmosesarea51 Yeah way too common for them to rust, which is surprising as they are usually one of the sturdiest areas from factory. Ahh working on the driveway, I've spent many an hour doing the same. I'll cross my fingers for some clement weather for you mate!
Cheers mate, I'm still trying to figure my way with this welding but dialling up the power does seem to improve it. Just harder to avoid blowing holes in things, and I really wanted to avoid that with bodywork as I'm not skilled enough to fill them back in nicely yet! :D
Nice work but the supports you’re fitting before butt welding in the repair sections are not a good idea. Moisture will eventually get behind them and cause rust to reform. Technically what you’re doing there is lap welding and that could have been done easier by joggling one side and overlaying the new section. Butt welding without backing them up with supports is the best method to avoid future rusting,
Thanks for the input on that, the supports definitely make it a lot easier to weld, especially for a beginner like I am. But I totally agree, a butt weld would have been way superior if I had the confidence and skill to do it. Joggling looks like a good idea, I hadn't thought of that, something I'll explore going forward. The welds on this car, front and back of them where possible, will be carefully seam sealed and protected from moisture so I'm pretty confident they'll last for many years. Especially as the car will only be used for fun through the summer. I appreciate your tips on that though, cheers 👍
@@SPANNERRASH Your welding looks pretty decent to me and if you get the welder setting and wire speed right you should be able to butt weld without any issues. A small gap of around half to 1mm is what you need between the panels and use the same welding process as you’ve done and you’ll get a good result. It just takes a bit of practice. I’ve been doing this stuff for over 30 years and still occasionally get blow- through if the metal quality is poor or it’s not clean.
@@SPANNERRASHyour welding is great instead of putting the support behind I suggest u use tape (masking tape or wtv) to hold the new metal in place and then tack it at a couple places and then remove the tape and finish the butt job
@@MremiAntoine08 Thank you! I am learning as I go, its a tough skill to learn. The tape is a great idea, I will certainly give that a go. The supports help me avoid getting blow throughs though which is a perk. But it's not as clean a repair because of it. One day I will be able to zip a butt weld with no cheating required. 😆
@@SPANNERRASH Using the supports behind the joint introduces somewhere for rust to develop. I have used tape as suggested by @MremiAntoine08 and it is very quick and clean. However, you have to be very careful that both sides of the weld remain flush as you can get a lot of flex, even with the pressure of the wire. Magnetic clamps help a bit. I would have put seam sealer on the middle sill before welding the outer sill patch in place. I am really enjoying your videos - very clear, patient work and some good tips - many thanks.
That's quite subjective but I don't think you can go far wrong with a MIG welder. I am using a Clarke 150. Check out the other videos where I weld up this rusty E30 and you will be able to pick up some beginner tips. Although I am still a beginner myself. 😆
Yeah they are super weird when you remove the outer skin. Not the prettiest job I did on this one but ended up really solid so happy to trust the car on the points again. 😀
I considered that, but it is definitely sealed so wouldn't drain anything. The plastic bungs could probably be knocked inwards, but the way they are designed means there's no way they are coming outwards unless you can access them from the inside, which you can't without cutting a hole. Another theory I've heard is that the holes are for the jig the chassis is moved around the factory on during E30 production, and they put bungs in just to prevent water and dirt ingress after the car was on its wheels. I can see it being true.
Neither did I until I started having a go! Pick up an entry level welder of FB marketplace and get some sheet metal, after some practise I bet you will get the hang of it.
Good job that! Doing a similar project on an E36, what's the plan after finishing the welding? Have a go at painting yourself or will you take it to a body shop?
Cheers mate, an E36 is a fine project :) I'm planning to do as much of this E30 myself as possible, including the painting. We've painted quite a few smaller things now so really fancy having a go at a full car. Painting in a garage will never give me a concourse finish, but I'm not building a show car here, more of a fun drivers car. So what's the worse that could happen? We'll find out I guess :D
Or just wing it and learn as you go like I am! 🤣 To be fair I feel like I am starting to get the hang of it, which might be more apparent in my more recent E30 vids.
@@weliftnation2418 The one I use is an old Clarke MIG150 which seems to be serving me well. I think I linked an equivalent in the video description if you want to check it out.
Very nice job. But what's up with all those supports? Now U have sandwitched unprotected metal. Those pieces where well fitted. Butt weld ftw. I say U are too afraid of blow through :).
Haha thanks, the supports make it much easier to do for a beginner welder like me. I am definitely fearful of blowing holes because they're extremely hard to fix on this thin bodywork. Hopefully in time I will be more skilled and can use fewer of them. :)
are U sayng, without actually saying it at all as if it’s common knowledge, when in fact it’s the most well kept secret everywhere, that these ‘jacking points of which no one seems to know anything at all about, actually have some vertical tube gizmo leading to them? - not just a hidden frame rail(of which no one knows what that word means, OR what side of pinchweld it’s on). so then, the pinchweld, with it’s totally unknown jacking points(cause all thE experts disagree on the invisible location of), I’ve heard attached at right angle to framerail, again which no one in the world knows what(frame rail) means, or on what side it is of pinchweld, usually has pinchweld going down 1 hidden vertical side of it before it becomes visible, than the jacks, stands, etc. have 1/10th of an “ to push up on end of, no one knowing which side of frame rail they’re on? when a MUCH more structurally sound jacking point would be on actual frame rail it’s self, & then the smallest, most geometrically retarted, flimzy, clumsy, rust prone, tracktionless, geometrically inefficient, & JUST PLAIN s2pid-S’d location to attempt to push up on unknown side of framerail(guesscing thats some kind of steel tube?), when the slightest bit of 5th grader smarts would see it’s 10-100s better in several ways, just to have jacking point right beneath rail it’s self - is thought to be a jacking point.. but again, R U saying that there’s actually some tube behind this ‘jack point’ ?🤔.. hmnnn, too bad know one knows where this secret jacking point is.. I’ve got impala & asked dealers & they admittedly have no clue👋
Haha! Absolutely, theres more to the jacking points than meets the eye, they have additional skins inside with a structural upright "tube" to spread the load of jacking, preventing the jacking point from caving in when you put the whole weight of the car on it. The external plates (and there are bulges on the rocker panel/sil) show where they are. You should never jack up on any other part of the panel, it won't support it. It's a truly awful design the way it's on a pinch seam, which is forever getting damaged each time you jack the car up, regardless, and that damage leads to rust. I use rubber "pucks" which have a slot cut in them. Got them on Ebay. The pinch weld seam sits in the slot and its a lot less taxing on the car. I'd recommend them.
Seems pretty straight to me still. Almost all of the waiting for it to cool down again was removed in the edit. Nobody wants to watch a video of someone waiting for panels to cool down 😂 But I am learning as I go, so please bear with me. Some mistakes are inevitable. 👍
Thanks for making these videos. You're the only one making them informative, actually showing the welding process and not having 60% of selfie cam footage of "HEY GUYS" energy. Did an awesome job on saving this car too
Haha! My energy levels can't deliver the whole "HEY GUYS" experience. 😆 Really glad you're enjoying the vids Adam. My hope is they help people out with their own projects!
DUDE! Thank you so much. Simple genius with drilling the hole then creating a tack weld for support. That helped me with an issue I'm having where I didn't have access from inside. I'm a total novice/beginner. I'm adding that to my toolbox.
Awesome, really glad this technique helped you. It's a sweet trick. 😃
Great job mate! Done all the same work you've been doing to my E46 a year back! Interesting to see the differences and similarities
Thank you Christopher, I like to compare the two as well, I expected them to be more different than they are. 😆
I always use old washing machine panels to plate on the inside. It works amazing as floor pans with the slight corrugation...I currently own a Ford Bendix ;)))
Haha no way, that's a genius idea if the corrugations match up 😂 I actually have an old washing machine waiting to be got rid of so I'll be sure to save the panels for future repairs. Great tip
@@SPANNERRASHfor personnal rat rod; not for customers maybe . Youl never look at a washer or dryer in the same way, ready poweder coated ) wish I could show my results. I'm currently trying to weld a new strut mount...a lot more precision required Laud hlp me :))
😂 Enjoy your week young man.
Awesome video, very useful on this common rust point on many older BMW's Thanks for making it!
Cheers! I hope it's helpful 😄
Great job and very interesting to watch. Best of luck with your future endeavours
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! Stick around, we have other videos that might appeal to you. 😁
You welded the upper support piece from inside the car, can you access that with taking off the rear seat "door panel" ?
Hi Marco, you if you remove the rear "door card" you can access from the interior. It's quite difficult to see down there though.
Hi mate. Any idea when you’ll post the video up on the inner arch panel repair? Waiting patiently to see how you are going to go about doing it!
Hi Jamie, it should be up next week if all goes to plan mate! Should be quite a simple repair, I hope. I'm lucky the inners aren't much worse on this E30. I've seen them totally rotted out on others before.
Okay mate spot on. Thanks
if it helps i think your wire feed setting on the welder is to slow
Thanks for the tip on that, I will have more of a play around with it. I got it more dialled in on my later videos. Welding has been a steep learning curve. 😃
Doing the same inner & outer sill repair / replacement on my E30 touring at the moment. I ordered new out sill jacking area reinforcement plates from BMW as they were still available for around £6ea. Unfortunately BMW have changed the part and are a completely different size / design, so I won't be using them!
Also the inner jacking reinforcement part for the rear of my touring is now NLA, but the front inner supports are available and can be adapted to fit the rears.
Recently just finished making the inner arch repair section and fitting it. Keep up the great work bzzzzz 👨🏭
Thanks Mark, hope your E30 touring job goes smoothly, sounds like it's well underway.
More and more parts are becoming NLA unfortunately, but hopefully, nothing which is absolutely essential for you. I've got the inner to repair next, shouldn't be too big of a job compared to the outer and the jacking point I've already done so I'm quietly confident.
Hopefully my welding will improve with all this practice, cheers. :D
Part numbers for the parts you mentioned? I cannot find anything from the catalogs.
Great work mate
Thanks Jason, appreciate that :) I was pretty pleased with how this job ended up.
@@SPANNERRASH I’m currently doing the same on a Mercedes W202 always the jack points , but I don’t have a garage and do in on my front drive
@@Shadowmosesarea51 Yeah way too common for them to rust, which is surprising as they are usually one of the sturdiest areas from factory. Ahh working on the driveway, I've spent many an hour doing the same. I'll cross my fingers for some clement weather for you mate!
Good job. You can also buy the jacking point for E30. There some for sale on eBay
Cheers mate, I'm still trying to figure my way with this welding but dialling up the power does seem to improve it. Just harder to avoid blowing holes in things, and I really wanted to avoid that with bodywork as I'm not skilled enough to fill them back in nicely yet! :D
Nice work but the supports you’re fitting before butt welding in the repair sections are not a good idea. Moisture will eventually get behind them and cause rust to reform. Technically what you’re doing there is lap welding and that could have been done easier by joggling one side and overlaying the new section. Butt welding without backing them up with supports is the best method to avoid future rusting,
Thanks for the input on that, the supports definitely make it a lot easier to weld, especially for a beginner like I am. But I totally agree, a butt weld would have been way superior if I had the confidence and skill to do it. Joggling looks like a good idea, I hadn't thought of that, something I'll explore going forward.
The welds on this car, front and back of them where possible, will be carefully seam sealed and protected from moisture so I'm pretty confident they'll last for many years. Especially as the car will only be used for fun through the summer. I appreciate your tips on that though, cheers 👍
@@SPANNERRASH Your welding looks pretty decent to me and if you get the welder setting and wire speed right you should be able to butt weld without any issues. A small gap of around half to 1mm is what you need between the panels and use the same welding process as you’ve done and you’ll get a good result. It just takes a bit of practice. I’ve been doing this stuff for over 30 years and still occasionally get blow- through if the metal quality is poor or it’s not clean.
@@SPANNERRASHyour welding is great instead of putting the support behind I suggest u use tape (masking tape or wtv) to hold the new metal in place and then tack it at a couple places and then remove the tape and finish the butt job
@@MremiAntoine08 Thank you! I am learning as I go, its a tough skill to learn.
The tape is a great idea, I will certainly give that a go. The supports help me avoid getting blow throughs though which is a perk. But it's not as clean a repair because of it.
One day I will be able to zip a butt weld with no cheating required. 😆
@@SPANNERRASH Using the supports behind the joint introduces somewhere for rust to develop. I have used tape as suggested by @MremiAntoine08 and it is very quick and clean. However, you have to be very careful that both sides of the weld remain flush as you can get a lot of flex, even with the pressure of the wire. Magnetic clamps help a bit. I would have put seam sealer on the middle sill before welding the outer sill patch in place. I am really enjoying your videos - very clear, patient work and some good tips - many thanks.
What kind of welding mashine is good to buy for a beginner?
That's quite subjective but I don't think you can go far wrong with a MIG welder. I am using a Clarke 150. Check out the other videos where I weld up this rusty E30 and you will be able to pick up some beginner tips.
Although I am still a beginner myself. 😆
Nice one ! i'm still thinking what i'm going to do with those jacking points.
It's a bit of a weird design from bmw i think haha
Yeah they are super weird when you remove the outer skin. Not the prettiest job I did on this one but ended up really solid so happy to trust the car on the points again. 😀
@@SPANNERRASH its fine like this !!! i dont like my welding jobs either but we do our best, and keep this cool cars alive 🤜🤛
Very satisfying to watch such meticulous work! Earned yourself a Subscriber :)
Thanks, great to have you on board! 😁
Wasn’t the bung not for a drain port for the sill?
I considered that, but it is definitely sealed so wouldn't drain anything. The plastic bungs could probably be knocked inwards, but the way they are designed means there's no way they are coming outwards unless you can access them from the inside, which you can't without cutting a hole.
Another theory I've heard is that the holes are for the jig the chassis is moved around the factory on during E30 production, and they put bungs in just to prevent water and dirt ingress after the car was on its wheels. I can see it being true.
@@SPANNERRASH aw okay fair enough
Awesome work sir
Thank you Neil!
What sheet metal thickness did you use? Very good video :)
Cheers Laska, I think it was a combination of 1.2mm and 1.5mm for the bits that were structural, if I recall correctly.
I really want to do this to my 2006 dodge charger sxt but I have no experience with this type of job whatsoever😭
Neither did I until I started having a go! Pick up an entry level welder of FB marketplace and get some sheet metal, after some practise I bet you will get the hang of it.
@@SPANNERRASH Thanks a lot, I’ll probably try it out in the near future
Good job that! Doing a similar project on an E36, what's the plan after finishing the welding? Have a go at painting yourself or will you take it to a body shop?
Cheers mate, an E36 is a fine project :) I'm planning to do as much of this E30 myself as possible, including the painting.
We've painted quite a few smaller things now so really fancy having a go at a full car. Painting in a garage will never give me a concourse finish, but I'm not building a show car here, more of a fun drivers car. So what's the worse that could happen? We'll find out I guess :D
💪💪💪
I'm so mad at myself for not taken welding classes.
Or just wing it and learn as you go like I am! 🤣 To be fair I feel like I am starting to get the hang of it, which might be more apparent in my more recent E30 vids.
@SPANNER RASH well what welder do you have was it the best alternative?
@@weliftnation2418 The one I use is an old Clarke MIG150 which seems to be serving me well. I think I linked an equivalent in the video description if you want to check it out.
Very nice job. But what's up with all those supports? Now U have sandwitched unprotected metal. Those pieces where well fitted. Butt weld ftw. I say U are too afraid of blow through :).
Haha thanks, the supports make it much easier to do for a beginner welder like me. I am definitely fearful of blowing holes because they're extremely hard to fix on this thin bodywork. Hopefully in time I will be more skilled and can use fewer of them. :)
do mine? e36
Not sure I'd be rushing to do it again. 😆 But the fact you'd trust me with your E36 is high praise, thanks!
are U sayng, without actually saying it at all as if it’s common knowledge, when in fact it’s the most well kept secret everywhere, that these ‘jacking points of which no one seems to know anything at all about, actually have some vertical tube gizmo leading to them? - not just a hidden frame rail(of which no one knows what that word means, OR what side of pinchweld it’s on). so then, the pinchweld, with it’s totally unknown jacking points(cause all thE experts disagree on the invisible location of), I’ve heard attached at right angle to framerail, again which no one in the world knows what(frame rail) means, or on what side it is of pinchweld, usually has pinchweld going down 1 hidden vertical side of it before it becomes visible, than the jacks, stands, etc. have 1/10th of an “ to push up on end of, no one knowing which side of frame rail they’re on? when a MUCH more structurally sound jacking point would be on actual frame rail it’s self, & then the smallest, most geometrically retarted, flimzy, clumsy, rust prone, tracktionless, geometrically inefficient, & JUST PLAIN s2pid-S’d location to attempt to push up on unknown side of framerail(guesscing thats some kind of steel tube?), when the slightest bit of 5th grader smarts would see it’s 10-100s better in several ways, just to have jacking point right beneath rail it’s self - is thought to be a jacking point.. but again, R U saying that there’s actually some tube behind this ‘jack point’ ?🤔.. hmnnn, too bad know one knows where this secret jacking point is.. I’ve got impala & asked dealers & they admittedly have no clue👋
Haha! Absolutely, theres more to the jacking points than meets the eye, they have additional skins inside with a structural upright "tube" to spread the load of jacking, preventing the jacking point from caving in when you put the whole weight of the car on it.
The external plates (and there are bulges on the rocker panel/sil) show where they are.
You should never jack up on any other part of the panel, it won't support it.
It's a truly awful design the way it's on a pinch seam, which is forever getting damaged each time you jack the car up, regardless, and that damage leads to rust.
I use rubber "pucks" which have a slot cut in them. Got them on Ebay. The pinch weld seam sits in the slot and its a lot less taxing on the car. I'd recommend them.
Paper towels and sparks. what could go wrong. XD
Yeah probably not the best combo! :D
Warp city
Seems pretty straight to me still. Almost all of the waiting for it to cool down again was removed in the edit. Nobody wants to watch a video of someone waiting for panels to cool down 😂
But I am learning as I go, so please bear with me. Some mistakes are inevitable. 👍
@GGGrease - looking forward to your welding tutorial being posted ……..
This wouldn't happen if you bought a cyber truck
Haha! Given enough time, even stainless will rust.