dc2100k

Exactly. Well done!

I did see that car and I was tempted for 5 mins as it’s cheap and local but what I need is quite particular, and that’s a 94-95 318ti, or perhaps an E36 318is, for the M42 engine and gearbox/diff combo. I’ve seen a few but they’ve all been autos and I need a manual.

Aye 4 pot nonsense ?

Well that’s what I’m thinking with this sheet of 1.5mm steel I’ve got. It’s the right size and it cost a tenner. It’s not going to win any awards but RALLYCARYO! I’m probably just going to paint it black and leave it at that. Maybe down the line I could do a fibreglass roof but I suspect (with the way E30 prices are going) after I’ve had my fun with it someone will probably want to restore it, especially as 318IS are so uncommon (only a few hundred still on the road in the UK).

Some good choices there... I haven’t really broached upon the financial realities of this project yet but unfortunately a £600 carbon roof doesn’t really enter into the equation ? However, that fibreglass roof does seem like rather good value. I may contact them to have a look at an installed item. I’d be slightly worried it might not pass scrutineering with a different material roof covering but if the existing metal sunroof panel is in place I’m sure that wouldn’t be an issue.

Ok so all the rust has been cut out of the roof and I’ve treated the bare steel with phosphoric acid. I’ve also gone round and hit most of the other rust spots with the wire brush and I’m pleased to report that most of them are pretty solid, a couple of pinholes but nothing major. These will get metal epoxied then filled and painted and shouldn’t bother me for a few years. There are a couple of areas that definitely need the sparkly stick though... principally the offside rear outer sill is toast along with a little bit of the floor and the inner sill. The nearside is fine however. The other area is the ‘battery box’ behind the offside rear wheel needs a couple of patches, I don’t think this is an mot failure as it’s not a prescribed area but it will need attention. I also tried a bit of paint correction on the offside rear wing and it came up alright. I think I may get away with only painting the bonnet, bootlid and sunroof plate.

5 mins with a wire wheel and I’ve found clean metal. Next step is to work out what to do with the big hole. I’ve drawn a line where my 1.5mm steel sunroof plate is going to fit and there is a decent margin of clean steel to rivet into. The flange and seam on the inside are solid enough, it’s just the flat surface that’s holed. Fortunately the original sliding sunroof panel is in position and looks like it will just crank forward if I can find the right size socket. That makes the whole interior/headlining business a bit easier.

For those of you who have watched this sort of thing before this is the part where the true horrors reveal themselves and the motor gets stuck on ebay for 99p no reserve. oMFgggg ROOF RUST

Mario Bellini is a famous architect who designed a load of funky stuff for Olivetti, Cassina and others in the 1970s/80s, including the Lancia Beta Trevi interior. Most of his work is now very collectible and worth a lot of £££.

100/10.

That Trevi is fabulous. Interior pics pls. ?

I've been acquiring toolshite and trying to do a little proper work this week so no real progress except I have identified that I need to treat my galvanised steel roof plate with a mordant solution before priming it so fitting that will have to wait until I have got some of that. Otherwise I have worked out that the purple brackets are for putting an S38 V8 engine from an M5 into an E30 so no use to me.

So as it seems I'm now taking on the full blown resto of a decrepit old BMW I figured I had better get a more comprehensive toolkit. In time honoured fashion I scoured ebay and gumtree until I found someone selling a massive job lot of old tools and took a punt. I'm certain that I don't need at least half of the tools included but will probably try to sell anything on ebay that I am not going to need to try and recoup some/all of my outlay. There is a bunch of HGV/Tractor/Plant tools that I definitely wont require, including loads of massive Gedore spanners, 'King Dick' and Britool 3/4" and 1" gear and some canny looking Sykes Pickavant valve cutting gear that I won't be touching. I'll unpack most of it and decide what to do in the next few days...

Oh sills. They are pretty shot. There’s only one hole per se but plenty of other areas with the brown stuff making an appearance. My first impression was that they both need cut out and replaced but the more I prod the more I think localised repairs might get me through at least one MOT. Below is what I take it you mean by factory jack point? It is a bit crumpled and the paint is peeling away around it but I don’t think my MOT testers stick would bother it to be honest. I’m intending to take the flap disc to it gently and see if I can take it back to clean metal first. Obviously if I’m left with a big hole then I’ll have to patch it but I think I might be able to build it up with epoxy steel putty and then stonechip it to a reasonable* finish. Watch this space.

Thanks for the great advice. I will check out appltree's thread tomorrow.

The A721 from Carnwath through Elsrickle to Peebles and beyond is a great bit of road. Congratulations on the kit!

I also managed to get the bonnet open by pulling the bonnet catch ? As predicted there isn’t much under there but also not too much tin worm so that’s a relief.

Haha yes - it’s my friends driveway and that’s to stop the little fluffy dog escaping into the oncoming traffic.

So i’ve acquired a sheet of 1.5mm galvanised steel slightly oversized for the hole, and a couple of smaller offcuts of 1mm for bodywork repairs, for the princely sum of £10 from a local steel merchant. I hope everything in this project turns out to be so affordable.

So after a couple more days pondering I have decided a rough course of action. First things first I’m going to look at the roof and the sills, then try to get the bonnet open and see what is present under the hood. If it looks like I can sort out most of the rot in non-prescribed areas fairly easily myself then I think it may be a viable project. If that is the case I will get the shell up to roadworthy standard and in the meantime find a decent early E36 318TI donor car (M42 engine) to run about in, molested or unmolested. This will give me a chance to do routine maintenance on the donor and make sure it’s running well before I do the swap. At the moment I feel like perhaps it would be easier to simply swap the entire drivetrain including front and rear suspension and brake set ups, thereby negating the need to rebuild the brakes and everything that is currently in bits inside the car. As this is a competition car I will probably delete the power steering and get rid of all the non-essentials which should make reconstruction a little easier. OK so deep breath. Firstly, time to remove the headlining and sunroof cassette and grind out the rusty metal in the roof. I’m then going to plate over the sunroof aperture with a wide margin encompassing all of the removed metal. Where there is an overlap of less than 25mm I’m going to put additional plates underneath, in fact I may do this at each of the corners in order to stiffen them up, and possible bond some small angle to the underside for stiffness. I’m going to plate in a single sheet of flat steel with the minimum of shaping required, and pop rivet around the perimeter at 50mm intervals. Usually people use silicon sealant to seal this up but I’m considering using Gripbond Pro adhesive on the overlap and some seam sealer on the inside. The exterior of the sunroof will be rattle canned in diamond black and for the inside I was going to cover with a bit of foam camping mat and glue on a dark grey carpet tile where it is visible through the headlining hole. That's the plan, reality however may prove rather different. Off to charge the grinder battery and find a sheet steel merchant who's serving the public. Anybody know what thickness of steel to use for the roof? EDIT - it seems some Golf GTI racing series requires 1.2mm (18swg) steel riveted to the roof so that's probably not a bad place to start.

Crippling inheritance tax bill leading to sustained periods of vehicle dwelling perhaps?

Wow, what a honey ?? I’m looking forward to seeing what you do with her. There’s an identical colour cab that lives on the poshest street in Edinburgh, a mint 320 naturally. Every time I see it I miss my W124.

So I managed to spend an hour this afternoon having a look at the old bird. She’s pretty ravaged but strangely I’m more positive that I was when she was delivered. She’s neither worse than I imagined nor better than I expected. I am anticipating having my pants removed over and over and over again buying smol parts for here and there and again and again. So the aim in my little time today was to have a look at what’s in the car and a bit more of a gander at the shell. The paint is truly shit with plenty of micro blisters as I think it’s been kept outside with a cover on it. There is loads of rust but surprisingly not that* much in prescribed areas. The underside appears to have been restored* already as it appears complete and unholy, and completely undersealed so who knows. All I know is that my MOT testers stick likely won’t bother the majority of it. The rear beam is in good shape as are the trailing arms, the boot floor is fine, a couple of holes in the battery box but nothing mega. The front chassis legs are very nice and there’s an extra perfect front subframe in the boot. I haven’t managed to get the bonnet open yet as the flip-forwards mechanism seems inoperative but I’m sure there are some more delights in there. I suppose reality will bite when I take the headining off to see how bad the roof is but the sills are actually not as bad as I was expecting and could probably be mostly patched up and then slap the bonus unexpected side skirts back over. I didn’t have time today to carefully remove the headlining but thats my next task. I will probably try to remove the sunroof cassette at the same time so I can work out how I’m going to deal with the rust and then plate it, most likely reinforcing the underside of the perimeter of the sunroof and plating over the top with a 5-10cm margin all round. Anyway I removed everything from the car and popped the rear bumper, numberplate and surround back on to make it look less like a pile of scrap. It also gave me a chance to have a look at the bits... purple anodised seems to be the PO’s choice of shit colours. I’ve identified most of the bits but some I’m not sure about: Purple ARBs front and rear, purple strut brace, purple front brake callipers, other purple things A box containing £200 of polybushes for the whole car random plastics from a few cars a steering rack blue label side skirts and a few splitters but no rear bumper trim propshaft, half shafts and guibo bunch of smol bits. Some photos to follow, if you can help identify some unmentioned bits then that would be gr8!

Perfect thanks. They are not far from me so worth a visit I think whilst I'm calculating my plan of action.