I have similar rust spots on my e30 and your video is really helping me have perspective on what im working with and how i should to it. Thank you so much for these videos.
The jack pads are so called in that the car was propped on these while it made its way around the factory. A lot of owners thought these were also jacking points with damaging results.
Seeing your videos just gives me a headache and motivtion at the same time as I have to tackle the same on my E24... thanks for all your insights. cheers
The thing on the Fire Wall is the reason of water in the car. On all my e30 's i've had, this thing was full of dirt and the water came under the ventilation which is mounted to the fire wall . Nice video 👍 Greetings from Germany ✌
The sunroof drains don't end at the firewall like you stated in the video, they end in the rockers, which you patched. You should be able to remove the interior speaker at both driver and passenger side and find a black tube in there. The tube you cleaned out is a drain for the scuttle panel/area where the blower motor sits. Water enters in the black plastic trays under the windscreen and drains via that little tube (in theory).
Thank you! I wonder where the water came from then. I just poured water in each of the sunroof drains and everything looks to be draining out from the rockers as desired. Hmm...
Practical Enthusiast No problem :) I've seen people drill a hole on the front of the A pillar and guide the tube through it so water empties inside of the wheel well.
I'm not sure how to explain it but under the scuttle where the blower motor mounts, it's all boxed in, It could be that the seam between the firewall and mounting panel is rusted through. You might have to do some googling to try and find some pictures. Another area where water can leak into the interior (I had this problem on my 325iX Touring) is under the isolation pad at the fuse box. VERY know issue. The firewall, wheel well and scuttle all come together there.
I just started to restore my father pickup , a Mitsubishi l200 fro 1994. I had to dissasembrl the dashboar panel, and its more rust than a suken shipwreck! Loved your tips keep it going.
You are quite an interesting guy and I had a lot of criticism earlier and I can find criticism now but I digress. Instead I will say that I admire your constraint and sense ability about what you have and how far you need to go in order to accomplish your goals. This is something that I have a very hard time doing once I get going on a car. Good job 👍🏿 I’ll start talking notes 📝 now lol 😂
Well, thanks for watching and for the honest comment! There are things that I see when I re-watch my videos, and I think, "Man, I wish I had done that differently!" But, oh well. It's a learning experience for all and I'm just happy to be able to share it.
I don't understand why are you working with those difficult shapes. Why don't you just cut away them in a square shape? Anyway, good luck for the project!
I'm just starting on a most likely very similar job on my E30 2 door. I applaud your efforts. I would give you one word of advice though. If you cut square holes It makes your creation of patch panels a lot easier. I'm sure you probably figured that out by now.
My driver side floor had a rust spot similar to yours though not as big. The rest of the car is rust free, having spent most of its life in Arizona, and Texas. I repaired the floor, replaced the rubber "elephant hose", verified that drain holes in the air vent area are not plugged, but still had a very small puddle after a good wash. Finally found a tiny pinhole in the factory seam sealer between the firewall and the wheel well area. After water had been poured down the air vent drains, and a few minutes would pass, you would see a drop of water forming in the seam sealer area, and rolling down into the driver's side floor.
I would put Money on the fact that the heater core drain area is rusted out as well. Behind the insulation on the firewall, above the passenger footwell. Props to you. When I find this much rust I just scrap the shell and get another.
Sunroof drains run down A pillar and C pillars on both sides. Front ones end up behind speakers in footwells, rear ones come out behind rear wheel arch in trunk. Be sure there are working drain holes in that area.
No; you should butt weld, grind the welds until they are flat and you cant see them and then apply epoxy primer like to a new panel. And in this case you should just cut out the whole driver footwell at the tunnel and at the sill and replace it. What this guy has done is marginally better than the rust holes that were there before and will be much worse in 3 years time when all the rust starts crawling from under his patches.
that square panel you call a Jack pad isn't, it's not meant for a Jack...... if you have the genuine BMW Jack you will notice it's got a groove in it so that it sits either side of the sill seam further back from where you are. that square pad was how BMW held the body onto the moving production line during assembly and has no other use. I had this confirmed by a German BMW dealer in Stuttgart when I was looking for genuine repair panels for the same area myself. Hope this helps...
I just got an 85 Celica for a project. Im lucky where I live in Australia that rust isnt that big of a problem. But the car still has rust in problem areas usually due to drainage issues. My spare wheel well has a big hole in it, one of the wheel arch has surface rust and the hatch has a bit too.
When I watched your first video you sounded like a lazy guy complaining about all the things that where wrong with the car but you actually really held up well...great job
I’m basically in the same boat as you. Wanting to learn how to do sheet metal patchwork on my ‘88 e30. A lot of the rust you have come across are in the same locations as on my car. I was wondering what gauge metal you used, I have some 16ga that is pretty sure I matched up with the thickness of a GTI I have. I would rather patch the e30 and learn and hone my skills before I start on my beloved GTI lol. I have a Lincoln 140c mig welder. I’m going to research and find the best settings for the work I need to do.
I have the basically the exact rust areas as you, you should take out the dash and sound damping material in engine bay, its a massive job to do. im still viewing your videos so you may have already done, so i wont tell u what could be hiding up there.
@@PracticalEnthusiast Thanks man, just remembering how i was pissed on your intro, the first episode, is it e30 a mistake??? :-) boy, you proved me wrong
I have started on my own e30 rust exhibition ( actually much worse than yours)...which type of welder are you using and which type of metal(gauge)? Where can metal be purchased? Thats a lot of work...great job..Respect!
Potentially dumb question here as I know nothing about welding: Why did you get so specific about cutting out the perfect patch shape for all these odd-shaped holes? Could you not just slap a simple square or round patch (bigger than hole of course) over the top and weld that in the same fashion?
Not a dumb question at all. My theory behind cutting the patches to the shape of the holes was to minimize the amount of overlap between the two sheets of metal. The more overlap, the larger the pockets would be between the two panels, which would allow for even more moisture collect inside. Granted, I went back and sealed everything will seam sealer, so moisture shouldn't get in anyway. But, if it does, there's less space for it to collect now.
I had the same thought too. Or why didn't you just remove the whole old thin metal floor at the driver side and stick a thicker one then just drill the drain holes?
What gauge sheet metal did you use for the floor pan? I’m doing a similar repair to my 318is. Also do you think it would’ve been easier to cut the rusted metal out with a reciprocating saw?
I believe it was 20 gauge for the floor pan. I wouldn't recommend a reciprocating saw - you might accidentally cut through a brake line! I think a Dremel or an angle grinder gives better cutting accuracy.
How did you get the elephant drain tube back on?? Did you twist it clockwise or counter? After I took mine off to clean it I couldn't put it back on haha
Appreciate the video, but to any UK viewers, the floor pan welding in this video would fail an MOT inspection and put the car off the road. All welds within 300mm of suspension mounting components (the lollipops are nearby) must have a continuous bead of welds. Seeing as you'd gone to all the effort of stripping the car down, shaping patches and welding them in, I'm not sure why you didn't spend the extra hour finishing the edges with spot welds to create continuous lines...
Hey did you figure out where the rust under the pedal area came from? it seems all e30's have rust there to some extent. I've heard its usually from a leaking heater core or worst case, rust under the fuse box. I'm about to patch mine up and don't want it to rust again!
Nope, I haven't been able to dig into it yet. Do you know if it's difficult to pull the fuse box up? I saw a thick wiring harness running to it from the firewall with no slack in it. I can only imagine it's a bear to move it anywhere!
It's supposed to be a PITA to remove, which is why I haven't looked at it yet. Once it's patched up I'll probably drive it with the carpets out for a while to see if and where water gets in. I feel your pain tho, my vert has had all the same rust issues as yours, maybe even more. At least I haven't had to spend as much time on the mechanics
You have to remove the entire loom (well 90% of it) from the car and pull It back through the hole in the bulk head, I am undergoing the same issues with my 1988 e30 at the moment. It really is worth looking behind the fuse box as this is a very common rust spot that allows water into the car. This is my second E30 with this issue - I decided not to save the first one but as they are now getting rare and hard to come by a nice one I have decided to save my current one, it has all the same rust as yours and a worse under the fuse box. I have never touched a welder hence why I came across your video, if you want to get in touch I can send you some pics of the rust.
Really enjoying the videos. I purchased an e28 in (more or less) similar condition about 2 months back. What did you use for the pedal mount? I read some use a door hinge. Also I’m in Topeka so as you can well imagine great seeing another localish enthusiast!!! 🤘
I’m a welder, why didn’t you just cut the rotten area’s out nice and square marked around it and cut a nice piece to suit and do it properly not overlapping a rusty patch will just rot through again
That is not a jackpad you are not supposed to jack from there . I have the Manual and it says to use the pick up points. Supposedly those are locating pads for when the car was assembled. if you jack from there it bends the panels.
Hi, are you using a mig welder with flux core? I am wondering whether to go with flux core or CO2 for DIY repairs like you have done here. Thanks and great video!
Hello, I am using C25 (75% argon, 25% CO2) gas for the welding in these videos. I would recommend going that route for sheet metal. Thanks for watching!
Use zinc paint before weld, that primer is messing the weld. Also only paint the hidden side of panel. Looks very bad, me and my brother restored an old rusted mk2 jetta coupe, bought all the stuff for welding, and i must say we did a pretty good job. This is the car ruclips.net/video/_yRx3kHFivM/видео.html passatb5.ro/forum/vag-toate-celelalte-modele-ale-grupului-vw-audi-seat-skoda/vw/golf-i-jetta-i-golf-ii-jetta-ii/7638-am-cumparat-jetta-2-coupe-o-gaura-unde-sa-arunci-bani/page2
I have similar rust spots on my e30 and your video is really helping me have perspective on what im working with and how i should to it. Thank you so much for these videos.
Hope it went well brother, Started my 87 e30 restoration journey last year 2023. First car I learned to drive on
The jack pads are so called in that the car was propped on these while it made its way around the factory. A lot of owners thought these were also jacking points with damaging results.
Seeing your videos just gives me a headache and motivtion at the same time as I have to tackle the same on my E24... thanks for all your insights. cheers
The thing on the Fire Wall is the reason of water in the car. On all my e30 's i've had, this thing was full of dirt and the water came under the ventilation which is mounted to the fire wall .
Nice video 👍
Greetings from Germany ✌
The sunroof drains don't end at the firewall like you stated in the video, they end in the rockers, which you patched.
You should be able to remove the interior speaker at both driver and passenger side and find a black tube in there.
The tube you cleaned out is a drain for the scuttle panel/area where the blower motor sits. Water enters in the black plastic trays under the windscreen and drains via that little tube (in theory).
Thank you! I wonder where the water came from then. I just poured water in each of the sunroof drains and everything looks to be draining out from the rockers as desired. Hmm...
I suppose the water ingress must have been from the scuttle. I'm open to any other theories though!
Practical Enthusiast No problem :) I've seen people drill a hole on the front of the A pillar and guide the tube through it so water empties inside of the wheel well.
I'm not sure how to explain it but under the scuttle where the blower motor mounts, it's all boxed in, It could be that the seam between the firewall and mounting panel is rusted through. You might have to do some googling to try and find some pictures.
Another area where water can leak into the interior (I had this problem on my 325iX Touring) is under the isolation pad at the fuse box. VERY know issue. The firewall, wheel well and scuttle all come together there.
Here is a picture of the fusebox rust spot:
bmwbuilds.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/dsc0409p.jpg
I just started to restore my father pickup , a Mitsubishi l200 fro 1994. I had to dissasembrl the dashboar panel, and its more rust than a suken shipwreck! Loved your tips keep it going.
You are quite an interesting guy and I had a lot of criticism earlier and I can find criticism now but I digress. Instead I will say that I admire your constraint and sense ability about what you have and how far you need to go in order to accomplish your goals. This is something that I have a very hard time doing once I get going on a car. Good job 👍🏿 I’ll start talking notes 📝 now lol 😂
Well, thanks for watching and for the honest comment! There are things that I see when I re-watch my videos, and I think, "Man, I wish I had done that differently!" But, oh well. It's a learning experience for all and I'm just happy to be able to share it.
I don't understand why are you working with those difficult shapes. Why don't you just cut away them in a square shape? Anyway, good luck for the project!
I was thinking the same thing
I'm just starting on a most likely very similar job on my E30 2 door. I applaud your efforts. I would give you one word of advice though. If you cut square holes It makes your creation of patch panels a lot easier. I'm sure you probably figured that out by now.
Looks better than rust for sure.
Really nice attention to detail. Keep up the good work and I look forward to up coming videos!
My driver side floor had a rust spot similar to yours though not as big. The rest of the car is rust free, having spent most of its life in Arizona, and Texas. I repaired the floor, replaced the rubber "elephant hose", verified that drain holes in the air vent area are not plugged, but still had a very small puddle after a good wash. Finally found a tiny pinhole in the factory seam sealer between the firewall and the wheel well area. After water had been poured down the air vent drains, and a few minutes would pass, you would see a drop of water forming in the seam sealer area, and rolling down into the driver's side floor.
I would put Money on the fact that the heater core drain area is rusted out as well. Behind the insulation on the firewall, above the passenger footwell.
Props to you. When I find this much rust I just scrap the shell and get another.
Sunroof drains run down A pillar and C pillars on both sides. Front ones end up behind speakers in footwells, rear ones come out behind rear wheel arch in trunk.
Be sure there are working drain holes in that area.
good work, looking forward to the next video
You're an awesome mechanic, I'm enjoying the videos...
Excellent work, Sir!
Thank you, good sir!
Nicely done.
Looks like a quality repair to me!
You really should finish those welds on both sides or they are just going to collect moisture under the overlaps and rust all over again
no, just seam sealer both sides after primer is applied
No; you should butt weld, grind the welds until they are flat and you cant see them and then apply epoxy primer like to a new panel. And in this case you should just cut out the whole driver footwell at the tunnel and at the sill and replace it.
What this guy has done is marginally better than the rust holes that were there before and will be much worse in 3 years time when all the rust starts crawling from under his patches.
that square panel you call a Jack pad isn't, it's not meant for a Jack...... if you have the genuine BMW Jack you will notice it's got a groove in it so that it sits either side of the sill seam further back from where you are.
that square pad was how BMW held the body onto the moving production line during assembly and has no other use.
I had this confirmed by a German BMW dealer in Stuttgart when I was looking for genuine repair panels for the same area myself. Hope this helps...
wow, the video is right on time, I got the exact same spot rusted.
great job my dude! bouta get me one and do the same thing. Makes me feel better knowing im not the only one dealing with it.
Great videos, keep them coming
I just got an 85 Celica for a project. Im lucky where I live in Australia that rust isnt that big of a problem. But the car still has rust in problem areas usually due to drainage issues. My spare wheel well has a big hole in it, one of the wheel arch has surface rust and the hatch has a bit too.
thx for the video, itll help me fixing my own bmw, thumbs up!
Very nice car
Thanks for sharing, good skills.
The gas pedal attached to undercoating, haha! :D
When I watched your first video you sounded like a lazy guy complaining about all the things that where wrong with the car but you actually really held up well...great job
I'm glad to hear you stuck with me to find out!
I need a welder so I can do this on my car!!
Whaaaat another video? DAMN! Dad must have lit a match under somebody! LOL
I’m basically in the same boat as you. Wanting to learn how to do sheet metal patchwork on my ‘88 e30. A lot of the rust you have come across are in the same locations as on my car. I was wondering what gauge metal you used, I have some 16ga that is pretty sure I matched up with the thickness of a GTI I have. I would rather patch the e30 and learn and hone my skills before I start on my beloved GTI lol. I have a Lincoln 140c mig welder. I’m going to research and find the best settings for the work I need to do.
I have the basically the exact rust areas as you, you should take out the dash and sound damping material in engine bay, its a massive job to do. im still viewing your videos so you may have already done, so i wont tell u what could be hiding up there.
another good way to clear those drains is some clothes hanger wire straightened out and go at it
What gauge metal did you use?
What's the black stuff and the grey stuff? Learning lots from your videos!
What gauge sheet metal are you using? i have the same issues i need to fix on my e30.
Not all heroes wear capes
That rust spot is not a jack pad. It was used to transport the body in the BMW factory when being built
Doing something the same on my e30, do I really needs that drain-holes to stay open like orginal, or i can just weld over them and closed them? Thanks
You'll be fine closing the drain holes off. They don't really do much! I just wanted to try and replicate the factory appearance.
@@PracticalEnthusiast Thanks man, just remembering how i was pissed on your intro, the first episode, is it e30 a mistake??? :-) boy, you proved me wrong
I have started on my own e30 rust exhibition ( actually much worse than yours)...which type of welder are you using and which type of metal(gauge)?
Where can metal be purchased?
Thats a lot of work...great job..Respect!
Awesome
great job. I have the same car with the same problem. what gauge metal dod you use on floor/ thanx
Would I be able to use bed liner paint instead of the por15 to still be on the safe side with rust?
Hey sorry to bother. Do you by chance have any recommended fiber glass filler and por 15 products?
How long it took for you to finish welding all the holes
I like this video series
Nice welds hahaha.. Just wait until it rots again
Thanks for the video.. what weld through primer did you use? Did it work well?
Could you please clarify, is that welding spray? And what thickness did you use metal for repair? Thank you in advance
Hello, which fiberglass and sealer products you used?
Thx!
Potentially dumb question here as I know nothing about welding: Why did you get so specific about cutting out the perfect patch shape for all these odd-shaped holes? Could you not just slap a simple square or round patch (bigger than hole of course) over the top and weld that in the same fashion?
Not a dumb question at all. My theory behind cutting the patches to the shape of the holes was to minimize the amount of overlap between the two sheets of metal. The more overlap, the larger the pockets would be between the two panels, which would allow for even more moisture collect inside. Granted, I went back and sealed everything will seam sealer, so moisture shouldn't get in anyway. But, if it does, there's less space for it to collect now.
I had the same thought too. Or why didn't you just remove the whole old thin metal floor at the driver side and stick a thicker one then just drill the drain holes?
Now that’s a proper job well done . To many people use that shitty putty stuff
what are the circles in the floor for? I've been trying to figure out if they're needed for my floor restore
They are drain plugs but you don't need them. They obviously don't prevent rust haha.
Flintstone sized holes :)))))))))))))) 6:38
What gauge sheet metal did you use for the floor pan? I’m doing a similar repair to my 318is. Also do you think it would’ve been easier to cut the rusted metal out with a reciprocating saw?
I believe it was 20 gauge for the floor pan. I wouldn't recommend a reciprocating saw - you might accidentally cut through a brake line! I think a Dremel or an angle grinder gives better cutting accuracy.
what do you use to cut the holes? whats that machine called? thanks?
I'm using a Dremel rotary tool with a tungsten carbide cutter bit.
How did you get the elephant drain tube back on?? Did you twist it clockwise or counter? After I took mine off to clean it I couldn't put it back on haha
It's not on there very tight because I broke about half of it when taking it off...haha. There was just enough of a lip remaining to pop it back on.
Appreciate the video, but to any UK viewers, the floor pan welding in this video would fail an MOT inspection and put the car off the road. All welds within 300mm of suspension mounting components (the lollipops are nearby) must have a continuous bead of welds. Seeing as you'd gone to all the effort of stripping the car down, shaping patches and welding them in, I'm not sure why you didn't spend the extra hour finishing the edges with spot welds to create continuous lines...
Hey did you figure out where the rust under the pedal area came from? it seems all e30's have rust there to some extent. I've heard its usually from a leaking heater core or worst case, rust under the fuse box. I'm about to patch mine up and don't want it to rust again!
Nope, I haven't been able to dig into it yet. Do you know if it's difficult to pull the fuse box up? I saw a thick wiring harness running to it from the firewall with no slack in it. I can only imagine it's a bear to move it anywhere!
It's supposed to be a PITA to remove, which is why I haven't looked at it yet. Once it's patched up I'll probably drive it with the carpets out for a while to see if and where water gets in. I feel your pain tho, my vert has had all the same rust issues as yours, maybe even more. At least I haven't had to spend as much time on the mechanics
Like the video can you please tell me what dremel bit are you using to cut the metal
You have to remove the entire loom (well 90% of it) from the car and pull It back through the hole in the bulk head, I am undergoing the same issues with my 1988 e30 at the moment. It really is worth looking behind the fuse box as this is a very common rust spot that allows water into the car. This is my second E30 with this issue - I decided not to save the first one but as they are now getting rare and hard to come by a nice one I have decided to save my current one, it has all the same rust as yours and a worse under the fuse box. I have never touched a welder hence why I came across your video, if you want to get in touch I can send you some pics of the rust.
Ive heard that it forms there from people getting in the car with wet feet, all the water drips down to that exact spot where there may be bare metal.
Really enjoying the videos. I purchased an e28 in (more or less) similar condition about 2 months back. What did you use for the pedal mount? I read some use a door hinge.
Also I’m in Topeka so as you can well imagine great seeing another localish enthusiast!!! 🤘
Jayhawks! where are you located? Good work btw!
Kansas City - thanks!
What's that silver white stuff you sprayed before/after welding?
It's called weld through primer.
I’m a welder, why didn’t you just cut the rotten area’s out nice and square marked around it and cut a nice piece to suit and do it properly not overlapping a rusty patch will just rot through again
Hello,
I was wondering what part number is the dremel bit you are using to cut through the sheet metal.
It's Dremel 9901, Tungsten Carbide Cutter (Square)
@@PracticalEnthusiast Thank for you the quick reply! Trying to cut out the rust right now in a project of mine and thought it looked pretty effective.
@@MOMMACHAOOUTSIDE no problem! That bit is nearly invincible. Good luck!
That is not a jackpad you are not supposed to jack from there . I have the Manual and it says to use the pick up points. Supposedly those are locating pads for when the car was assembled. if you jack from there it bends the panels.
Yep, I believe you. I wouldn't attempt or suggest jacking up a unibody vehicle from anything less than a subframe.
after finishing the project with this videos you can sell this car with very high price
What kind of welder did you use? is on gas?
It's a Hobart Handler 140 mig welder that runs C25 gas and .030 wire. It works great for sheet metal.
What state are you located?
What type of welder do you use?
It's a Hobart Handler 140 with .030 wire and C25 gas.
Hi, are you using a mig welder with flux core? I am wondering whether to go with flux core or CO2 for DIY repairs like you have done here. Thanks and great video!
Hello, I am using C25 (75% argon, 25% CO2) gas for the welding in these videos. I would recommend going that route for sheet metal. Thanks for watching!
@@PracticalEnthusiast Awesome, thanks a lot :)
Damn son
Use zinc paint before weld, that primer is messing the weld. Also only paint the hidden side of panel. Looks very bad, me and my brother restored an old rusted mk2 jetta coupe, bought all the stuff for welding, and i must say we did a pretty good job. This is the car ruclips.net/video/_yRx3kHFivM/видео.html
passatb5.ro/forum/vag-toate-celelalte-modele-ale-grupului-vw-audi-seat-skoda/vw/golf-i-jetta-i-golf-ii-jetta-ii/7638-am-cumparat-jetta-2-coupe-o-gaura-unde-sa-arunci-bani/page2
This isn't the best way to fix firewall you should learn and work on your self! Good luck!
Could you list what you used in the description please