It's empty...

It's been a while since I updated the blog so I guess it's about time...
Not a whole lot of what Andrea would consider progress. Many more parts in the living room and the basement though!
The big project was getting the gas tank out. It sounds simple enough doesn't it. Then you realize that to get the gas tank out you have to first remove the entire exhaust from the headers back, then remove the various guards and heat shields, then remove the drive shaft, drain the old gas from the tank, then finally you can remove the gas tank.
The bolts holding the exhaust downpipes onto the headers were extremely rusty and required a whole lot of heating with the torch before they'd come off - like half an hour of heating per bolt. It took me two weeks of evenings to get the damned thing off!
Thankfully the drive shaft came off relatively easily. Other than one black thumbnail (crushed it with a wrench) it was pretty painless.
I also removed the shift mechanism while I was under there. It's extremely worn and most of the parts will need to be replaced.
Now that the tank is finally out I can get a better look at it to see what sort of shape it's in. After an admittedly cursory inspection it actually looks to be in reasonable shape and I'm pretty sure I'll be able to repair/seal it pretty easily.

Weight Reduction...

This weekend I spent some time removing the interior. I knew that there is some rust under the carpet so it needed to come out. That required removing about 75% of the interior. I also need to recover the headliner; getting that out required removing pretty much everything else. Here's a pic of the car after I got the carpet out. Most of the yellow/brown stuff is sound deadening not rust!


Here's the area that had rust that I knew about; the drivers footwell directly behind the wheelwell is a common area for rust on these cars. Around the gas pedal is another one. There's also some small bits of rust in the passenger side footwell, but they are much smaller.


Some of this is surface rust but, realistically, most of it will get cut out and new metal will b
be welded in.
Here's the base of the gas pedal. This area isn't nearly as bad as it appears in this picture; a lot of what you see is rust/dirt mixed with water.

Here you can see what's left of the interior of the car after I got the headliner out as well.

It's Exhausting

Well, lots of work on cars today. Both the GTI and the Civic need their oil changed. I also did a bit of work on the emergency brake on the GTI; it was set too tight and was causing the left rear brake to overheat and destroy ABS sensors. It's fixed now.
On to the point of this blog...I also removed the exhaust from the BMW this afternoon. It was very loud so I was anticipating the odd hole that would need to be patched. Here I am getting started at removing the bolts from the joint between the catalytic converter and the exhaust pipe:


Here's part of the reason that it wasn't hanging straight. You can see one of the hangers in the middle that is not in the rubber hanger:


Here you can see the other reason it wasn't hanging straight; it was held up with some wire wrapped around it:


Now, after a bit of persuasion, I've got it off. It's a bit rusty:


It's odd, after I got the exhaust off I started the car again and it wasn't any louder than before. I wonder why??

I don't think that I'll bother with trying to patch it up, I think I'll just get a new one and put it on.

On a side note, I picked up a new MIG welder and an angle grinder at Canadian tire today. The welder was 50% off and the angle grinder was 60% off. If anyone wants a MIG welder at a great price let me know; I've got a raincheck since they couldn't initially find the one I wanted.

The New Family Member

As you may have guessed I have recently acquired an 1988 BMW 325i Touring (wagon). Ever since these came out on the market I have always wanted one and for whatever reason I have always had a thing for wagons. Last winter there was one regularly parked at the velodrome that I said I wanted if it ever went up for sale. Luck was on my side because at a club race earlier this year the former owner Dave told my wife he had one for sale...the one I wanted! Five hundred bucks later I am the proud owner of a CLUNKER!

Given the title of the blog you may have figured out it needs a little work; I use the term "little" loosely.

In the month since I got it I have so far managed to:

• reassemble the dash
• remove bubbled paint on hood and sand down to bare metal
• rip the dash apart (I know this seems redundant but there is a method to my madness)
• removed and replaced the drivers door connector and wiring in order to get the power windows, locks and mirrors working...no extra parts left over...phew!
• located a 13 button on board computer and harness...not quite working yet...don't know why, it works on the bench
• figured out why the turn signals and four-way-flashers weren't working, and repaired it
• repaired the headlight switch
• located but not purchased a hood yet
• removed some extraneous wiring and the siren from an alarm system that Dave removed
• got in trouble from my wife from spending too much time with the car
• apologized...back to the car

My goals for the coming weeks are:

• get the instrument cluster and on board computer fully functional
• figure out why the rear windows don't work
• figure out what is draining the battery
• repair/replace the headliner
• replace the drivers door vapour barrier so water does not pour in when it rains