A (not so) short story about an M3 Engine, a Cylinder Head, + Rust Repair 101

Happy Friday!  We’re looking forward to another Cruise-In tonight, starting at 6pm!  We’ll fire up the grill, chat about cars, life, the cool fall weather, and just relax.  Sounds good to me after a busy week!
Reggie has been busy with rust repairs on a 1986 BMW 325.  To see all the photos from the repairs, simply watch this slideshow!   Or check out the entire gallery here.

Here are some highlights from the repairs.   In this first image, Reggie had already cut out the damaged area, cut a patch panel, sized it to fit, welded it in place, and grinded the area smooth:

Pieces of art? Perhaps… These pieces were cut out from the rust damaged areas on the rocker panels of the 325:

Moving on to the front end of the rocker panel, Reggie makes the repair area ready for welding:

Reggie welds the patch panel in place:

After welding, he grinds the area to a smooth finish:

Back down to the passenger side rear wheel arch, which was swollen, same process there:  Remove the damaged metal, cut a patch panel, smooth the edges of the area and the panel, weld the patch panel in place, you know the drill!

Moving around to the driver’s side where there were 2 holes in the rocker panel:

Toward the rear of the rocker panel on the driver side, this area is ready for its patch:

Grinding, grinding:

In a nutshell, rust repair is like the grown-up’s version of cutting and pasting, only a little bit more complex and dangerous, with the sharp rotating objects and hot sparks flying around!    After carefully cutting the affected area from the bimmer, Reggie then creates a custom patch panel from good metal (top left) by cutting out a template (top right/bottom left), and grinding the edges as needed for a perfect fit.

Sparks fly as Reggie cuts out the patch panel:

Welding a patch in the driver’s side rear wheel arch which was swollen:

Next, each area gets an application of body filler:

Once the body filler has thoroughly dried, Reggie sands each area to a smooth surface to get ready for paint:

After all the sanding is complete, Reggie masks off the areas and is ready to paint. In this bimmer’s case, he’ll be spraying the textured rocker panel paint:

Finally, he’ll be painting the wheel well areas with paint to match the body color.  Stay tuned for the final results!  While she’s here, she’s also getting a steering rack and pinion and front end alignment.

Last week this 2001 BMW M3 arrived on a trailer after some problems at road course in a neighboring state.  Let’s take a look.

Just the other day, this beauty arrived and will soon make its new home in the M3!

To be continued…

This 1998 BMW 323i came in for an oil change and to scan codes for a check engine light:

And this 2001 BMW 325i had a heat issue to diagnose.  The secondary air pump mounts and hose to valve were replaced.  She got a new washer pump grommet, a new oil separator, and valve cover gasket.  The engine compartment was checked for any possible leaks and for any possible power steering leaks.  This bimmer is ready for her road-trip this weekend – happy anniversary to the owners!

This bimmer, a 1989 BMW 735i, is in need of a new cylinder head gasket.  The cylinder head has been sent out to the machine shop to be rebuilt:

This 7-series also has an oil change and a few other odds and ends to be completed during her stay here at the shop.   Come back next week for more info on this project!

Whew!  If you’ve been patient enough to read allllll the way to the end of this post, I applaud you!  In all seriousness, thank you for checking out our blog!  And don’t forget to join us tonight for the cruise-in, rain or shine!  Have a wonderful weekend!