A few new tools...general purpose body hammer and dolly, plug weld pliers, and mig pliers.  Also got a spare spot weld cutter.

Spent most of the time I had this weekend working on the rear seat area.  Cut out a big chunk and started cleaning it up.

This piece reinforces the end of the transmission tunnel and is spot welded to the floor pan along that flange.  I bumped the flange back into shape and used my plug weld pliers as backing to shave the holes I created when drilling out the welds.  The copper works really well to remove heat from the steel and prevent blow throughs.  I think I would have really struggled to fill them without something like this.  I also stitch welded the seam of the trans tunnel / reinforcement layer to help add some additional reinforcement to the joint.

Also stitch welded the seams of the "b" pillar cross member.  I was fighting weld contamination on the right hand side, I got under it the best I could with the wire wheel but the seam sealer was catching on fire and outgassing before the weld could solidify, causing porous welds at first.

 
The left side I did much better....I suppose better cleaning but I was also experimenting with holding the torch differently and seemed to be able to get better consistency.  I've found that being comfortable and also being able to see well help with that.  Still not the best but I did have a couple good welds.

For the most part I got them to lay pretty flat, which suggests to me that I at least had it on the proper heat setting.

I'll be ordering sheet metal this week and will start laying out the patch panels.

A bit more progress tonight on the driver's side floor

Some more wire wheeling on the rear section of the floor to reveal the good and bad.

Damage along the seam where the seat bench meets the floor.  Looks like moisture crept in here over time through the rocker and ate it up.  All of this will need to be cut out and replaced.

Rear section cut out.  I left the mounting boss for the seat attached to give me a chance to figure out how I'm going to preserve those dimensions.

Thinking my seat bench patch is going to look like this.

Almost to the point where I can start replacing metal.  I'll start to feel better when I get to the point that I'm adding solidarity to the structure rather than cutting out rot.  One day at a time I suppose.

Some more progress this weekend. 

Took the dash out

Which revealed this mess

Harness disconnected and (kind of) organized

Heater core and rest of the dash / wiring harness removed.

Also stripped all of the sound deadening from the front floor pans / trans tunnel / and area below the windshield behind the dash.

After removing the ABS pump and unbolting other various things like the brake booster, pedal assembly, clutch master slave cylinder, etc. etc. I had enough room to move the fusebox around and was able to pull the entire harness out through the firewall without cutting anything thusly:

Hoping I remember where everything goes when it comes time to put it back in.  I took some time to label everything and wrap it up....it really isn't that bad.  It's really logical, makes sense because it was designed by Germans.  I plan on reworking it a bit, especially the engine side, to make it a little more organized and a look a little less like shit.  Though I will say that this 20 year old harness was better than the one that came on the LS1, so at least it has that going for it.  Officially nothing left to bolt from the car....ok well except for the trunk lid and wiper assembly.

Washed the engine bay

 Then decided to get to work on some rust repair on the drivers side floor area.  Yep, it's rusty

Wire wheeled to bare metal to determine where the solid stuff starts.  Noting where nearby seams and spot welds already were, I decided to cut much more than I needed to in order to make aligning my patch panel easier (as well as look more professional).

Coated the bare metal in etching primer for now to keep corrosion at bay.

The area of the raised "plateau" there is a heavy structural member of the car which looks to be rock solid peaking through the access ports there.  I drilled out the spot welds along this flange and cut through a single layer of sheet metal (2 are present here).  I then separated it at the seam in the kick pan (running towards the rocker in this image).

 The whole idea of starting on the inside and working out was to give me something solid to weld to by the time I get to the inner most layer of the rocker panels.  Additionally, I figured I'd have a harder time maintaining a reference if I were to cut out the rocker, then cut out the floor, and work backwards trying to figure out what size my patch panels needed to be. 

Planning my next move, I started looking at this structural member that the drivers seat mounts to.  It is basically a rectangular tube that is flanged on all edges and spot welded to the trans tunnel, floor, and inner rocker layer.  Looking in at the cross section from the outside, the tube is rusted near its contact points with the floor up to about where I had removed the floor at the seam.  Once you get about an inch off the floor it is clean as hell though, so my plan is to make a patch for the section on either side that I drew with sharpie.  Again, much more than I need to cut but it will make patch panel alignment much easier.  Easier alignment = better fit-up = better welds. 

More to come.

Little bit of progress last night.  Spent some time removing about 20 lbs worth of tar paper and seam sealer from the floor panel, transmission tunnel, rear seat pan, rear fender tub, and trunk.  Something to help me see the seams in the sheet metal better, determine where my good metal is, as well as some mild lightweighting of the chassis.  I want a sub 3000 lb car.  Still have to do the front floor pans but have to get the dash and wiring harness out of my way first.

Here's about 1/4 of it.  Came off easily with a chisel and heat gun.

Time for an update

Been a little while since I've updated, this will be a pretty big one. 

The engine build is ongoing - had to take the block back to a second shop to inspect / machine the main bearing bores and ended up needing some additional work to the cylinder bores as well.  Tis the season and it's been almost a month.  Hopefully I get it back soon.  Still waiting on a lot of parts - heads, intake.  And still need to order a lot more.

But for the time being, I got to work on preparing the chassis.  After giving my dad one last glorious drive on a Saturday morning a few weeks ago, I parked the car and set out to strip it down for rust repair.  There's a lot of damage in the rocker panel areas - in this condition 99% of people would scrap the car and do a shell swap but I'd like to try and save it if I can.  The car has some sentimental value being in our family for basically it's entire life (almost 20 years at this point).  A combination of bravery, stubbornness, and stupidity I suppose.

Disassembling the front clip for engine removal. 

This engine is an absolute monstrosity for being all of 2.5 liters.  I really loved this thing...you had to wind it up to get her going but it never once failed me and was always great fun to drive.  Really couldn't ask for anything more out of it.  It ran strong as a bull and has 230k miles on it so far ;) .  There were a couple "gotchas" but I managed to get the engine out without referencing the owners manual once - really straight forward job if you take your time and think about what's going on.

With the lump of iron out of the engine bay, I moved on to the interior and rest of the suspension.  My goal was / is to remove as much mass from the chassis as possible to minimize the amount it will deflect once I start moving metal.  I don't want to be in a situation during reassembly (if I ever get there) where my doors won't close or something won't line up.

My buddy Brian came by one day to help me with disassembly.  He also let me borrow a tent to keep the weather off the car.

Suspension stuffs.

I removed the rear end assembly much more efficiently this time....only a couple hours instead of a couple months.  Much better than when I did this two years ago....guess I'm getting better :).

Which basically brings me to where I am currently as of this weekend.  Aside from spending a lot of time trying to keep the garage somewhat orderly, I also removed the gas tank and sunroof assembly.  All of my rust problems stemmed from it - it has four drainage tubes that run to each corner of the car and for some reason terminate in the rocker panels.  Over time, the drain ports in the panels get clogged with dirt and so water just sits inside and eats the metal from the inside out.  Pretty dumb fucking design.

So here's the gas tank.  Hopefully I can remember how to connect everything back up when it comes to that time.  

And the sunroof.  This fucker is about 50 lbs.  I'll be skinning it, welding tabs to the skin and securing / sealing it in place.  I removed the drainage tubes and cut them into a million pieces - I won't have a sunroof anymore but my rocker panels will never rust again.  Besides, it's never sunny in Pittsburgh anyway.  Bonus weight reduction also to aid me in my quest of a sub-3000 lb car. 

I also cut out the tail panel this weekend - it had rust that started around the latch mechanism for the trunk lid.  The seal's seam is located in this area, and over time it ripped and allowed water to get behind it and rust it from the inside out.  Here's some of the damage.  There was a decent bit of rust elsewhere too.

Not really possible to patch this and make it look good, so I just cut out the entire panel and will weld in a new one (which are still available as a BMW factory part).  The white outline shows where the seams are....tried to lay it out for myself before starting.  Basically grind off the paint / sealer, find the spot welds, drill them out, and separate the layers with some light persuasion.  Aside from a couple brazed joints that I had to cut through with a dremel, it was a really clean and straightforward job once I figured out how the layers were put together.

The joints were brazed at the top near the trunk lid seal lip and at the corner of the quarterpanel before it wraps its way around the back of the car.  The rest were spot welds, most of which were located along the flange that has the arrows pointing to it.

Spent today cleaning things up and getting the wiring harness out of my way the best I could.  I think I'm going to start at the rear of the car and work my way forward.  I'll also need to brace the doors / check their spacing dimensions as I go to keep things true.

Here's what I have to look forward to fixing:

It's just metal.  It's just metal.  It's just metal.  It's just metal.  It's just metal.  It's just metal.

Wish me luck :/