engine and drivetrain A junking debate

[peterman]

So since I've had the car back in my hands, after being in storage for a while, I've come to a fork in the plans for the car.  

The idea was to pull the engine and rebuild it.  Put it back in and drive off happily, but....

 

I found a little rust while pulling the engine and decided to pursue it further.  I found it in the floor pans but in my investigation I found that the cancer had seemingly spread pretty far past there.  I haven't noticed any (more than surface rust) in the rear of the car but the floor pans are toast and tonight I put a hammer through the passenger side frame rail, just to see if it was solid.  The part of the frame rails that goes under the floor pans are swiss cheese as well and filled with rust debris.  The rockers do not look too bad, but again i have not wire wheeled them yet so I don't know totally.  But they sound solid when hit with a hammer.  

 

This is a euro car so it has all the nice euro goodies, and its all in fair to good condition.  Also the engine has a pair of DCOE 40s and mated to an e21 5 speed.  It has the original windshield with driving condition warning in German.   I'd hate to junk another one of these cars but I don't see this being repaired with the lack of tools/skills I have to do the repair correctly.  

 

Is there anyone who purchases/sells shells? I may pull all the good parts and sell/junk the chassis.  The parts will be saved for the new car (when I find one) or sold on the forum.  

 

Talk me out of it, please!  

 

Also,  I am up for the challenge of restoring this car!  I certainly am aware that it will not be, in any way, financially responsible but these are emotions and attachments we have.  Also, the fiancee thinks I should keep it; its kinda the reason we started dating.

Edited February 2, 2015 by peterman

[Hans]

There's nothing that time and money won't solve. If you had some sentimental attachment to the car, or it was a Turbo (or Diana apparently)it might make sense. But some of that repair requires advanced welding skills.

At some point, the rust vs repair cost curves cross, and its time to look for a donor shell for all the euro goodies. If its that bad in there, the trunk area is prob suspect. How much time do you want to spend trying to save it when you could be driving something else.

[LarsAlpina]

In Germany you wouldn´t find a big number of cars that isn´t already repaired in the areas shown in your photos. And as we don´t have any "Sunshine States" in our country like there are in US you will only very rarely find any rust-free donor body shells over here (and if so only at unbelievable prices).

 

So your rust spots can be repaired for sure to my opinion and it has been done hundreds if not thousands of times from the early 80s on in Germany and other parts of northern Europe. But first closely check the rest of the body of your car for more rust. If it´s OK and you can´t do the work yourself go to an experienced body shop in your area and have them give you a quote for a solid repair.

Then look out for the prices of good donor shells in US, consider the costs and time for swapping all the bits and pieces from one to the other and then compare both ways moneywise to find out what is more reasonable.

 

 

Regards, Lars.

Edited February 2, 2015 by LarsAlpina

[Tommy]

That's not bad yet. Check rockers, lower parts of a-pillars, rear shock towers and rear subframe mounts. If most of them is in decent shape it's still pretty good for a project.

Tommy

[roadhog0]

Looks like a solid project to me! I wouldnt pass that on. The patch panels are readily avaliable to repair that.

[peterman]

Thanks for the input. I'm gonna have at it with a wire wheel tonight and see where we are. I'm really hoping I don't uncover anything in the rear of the car. I'll post a few more pics tonight. Fingers crossed!

[peterman]

So I did some investigative wire wheeling last night.  The rockers look pretty solid... A little bubble near the Driver A-pillar.  The rear suspension pickup points seem pretty solid too.  

The frame rails will certainly need to be cut out and replaced, I'm debating dropping the front sub frame and just replacing them totally.  I'll be putting her up on stands tonight and cleaning up the inside of the wheel wells towards the a-pillars.  I'll get some pictures tonight for some feedback.

 

Pete

[peterman]

So I ground down a little more for the rockers near the A pillar and save for a little bubbling they look pretty good.  I still have to look behind them/from the underside. But currently this seems to be the only area in need of repair.

  

 

I did notice before, and now way more apparent what seems to be some damage to the firewall area in the passenger footwell.

 

I was able to get most if it back into place with a rubber mallet but it does beg the question: what happened?  Is this a structural area?  It doesn't seem to be.  The front end seems to be fine and the Unibody doesn't appear to have any damage.

 

There was not too much rust around the rear subframe pickup points, although I'm not leaving anything to chance.  I'll be taking an in depth look everywhere.

 

 

Any thoughts on that damage on the passenger side?

Thanks!

Pete

Edited February 4, 2015 by peterman

[Mike Self]

All that rust on the drivers side frame rail may be the result of a leaky master cylinder.  Same thing happened on my '69.  I got a replacement rail section from a parts car and had it welded in (after replacing the master cylinder).  That was in 1984, and all has been OK ever since.

 

If that's the main extent of your rust, that car's a keeper.

 

mike

[roadhog0]

Looks like the car way of been hit at some point. And that I know of that's not a structural area so personally I wouldnt worry too much about it. Or someone beat the firewall in to install a header or something....

[Pstegner]

Mine was much worse and almost rust free now. It's worth saving.

[peterman]

These are encouraging words.  Thanks, guys!

Looking more into the damaged area it seems as though it could have been a telephone pole kinda incident.  I think its a replaced front fender and it seems like the tire at the time was forced (slightly) into the firewall area.  I don't see, however, any damage around the top strut mount so I could be wrong about this scenario.  I do feel like most of the damage was done by the wheel itself though.

 

The fenders are coming off to look at the area more closely.

[JimMcL]

Here is a link to Wolf Steel Restorations in Quebec, Canada.  They have a small collection of reproduced panels that you may need.

 

http://www.alfaparts.net/bmw2002.html

 

[TobyB]

Yeah, that's a project, but not hard to fix.  And most of it looks better than what

was on my 'daily driver' for 20 years.

 

My encouragement would be this- don't cut off any clean metal.  Buy the patch panels,

and use only the parts of them that you need.  It's a lot easier, structurally identical (or better, if

your attachment isn't up to the factory welds) and a HELL of a lot less intimidating.

 

So replacing a section of the front 'frame' rail's just fine, if you do it well.  If most of it's

compromised, then replace the whole thing.  But especially with flat, non- structural panels 

like floors, don't take out anything that's not swiss- cheezy!

 

hth,

and yes, fix this one!

 

t

[peterman]

Thanks for the idea about the floors, Toby.  I'm still pulling paint and looking for rust.

I started a blog you guys can follow my progress there.  And please comment if you have any suggestions, thoughts on my updates!  I need all the help I can get!

 

Thanks!

Pete