cage tie-ins ...

More work today......

I'm currently attaching the roll cage to various points on the unibody.

VARA allows this in my class C-Sedan, although in BMW CCA doing this to my cage moved me up from "prepared" class to "modified" class. I would never be competitive in mod. class. But I only plan on racing with VARA so.....

the seam welding and these "ties" will considerable help with the overall torsional rigidity of the chassis.........I hope!

I needed some practice with the TIG anyways.....

I do have to say welding "out of position" is extremely challenging.... this time I was hanging over the door bars essentially looking upside down at the project and welding on a vertical surface!!

a torch operated control would be preferable in these extreme out of position TIG welds. It becomes a challenge to operate the foot control in some positions....

even so........my welds were acceptable. I know they might not look great, but I am confident I got good penetration.

I learned some things doing the right side, now on the other side I hope to see better welds!

after adding a couple more tubes on the cage, I'll be ready for BONDO! then primer.....




my acceptable TIG welds...
did some of the overhead tabs today along the roofline....

not sure how much difference this all going to make but hey I felt like welding something!

Seam Welding....

Got the rest of the car down to bare metal ( rockers, window areas, door jambs detail stuff)

and did some seam welding of areas I saw could use it. They do this on rally cars to help make the "uni-body" more unified. I figured I have the tools/skill plus it's a old car.....it can't hurt right?

now it's BONDO time!!!!!!!!!!

how fun..... not.

Then repeat this x2000 times around the car....

NEW TOOLS! Think Blue ...

Got some new tools for the shop/garage...

both for $2500 bucks!! I got a sweeeeeet deal! they were practically brand new too....less than 8 mos. old!

It's a Miller Syncrowave 180SD TIG and Miller Spectrum 625 Plasma Cutter!

now I got to wire the garage for it....soon some pics from new projects with the new tools...



now it's time to practice.... practice.... practice!!!

Let see what lies underneath...

8" Makita sander and 80grit norton hook and loop disks.....worked like a charm to remove all 5 or 7 layer of old paint and bondo...





now I just have to do the other half....!!!!!!!

simplification....

Progress this weekend

Saturday
-skinned the doors
-welded more holes
-masked a lot of stuff
-removed more stuff

Sunday
-masked more stuff
-removed more items
-Sanded/grinded to bare metal 1/2 of the car!!

next weekend I'll do the other half!

maybe even do some bondo work next time.....

Pulled out the car once again and finished the trunk....

Got a whole lot better at plug welding the trim holes....

Plugged most of the trim holes today and welded a tow point for the rear and reinforced and finished welding the fuel cell cradle...

then I primered everything white..... it Looks like progress!

here's the link to all the pictures.... HERE


Fuel cell cradle
Love my Miller 130xp!

Here we go!

A little back history...

I’ve been a fan of the BMW 2002 ever since a club racer passed me in one turn 2 of willow springs during a driving event. I've always like the boxy style of 2002, Datsun 510’s and of course 88 m3’s. So in January of 2001 I decided to visit Ireland engineering to look at a fiberglass hood for my 88 ///M3. I got there early and while waiting for the employee to arrive and open up I noticed a dusty ’02 parked outside the shop. As I tried to peek inside the dusty windows and started to look more closely at it my mind started racing and getting bad ideas….

1 week later I was back and after arranging a price with the owner, Jeremy (Ireland employee) I was back with a check. Purchased the car rust, dust, blown head gasket and all…….

The rest is history as they say.....

In the first 5 of so years I owned this car I slowly started modifying it more and more, fixing lots of rust, doing lost of what I call racetoration.....much later I added the cage and a few more items.....

here is the car as I found it...
here it is a few years later, rust fixed and now with a cage....


I moved to a house with a garage!! Imagine that!

So naturally I started on the rocky road to having new paint this Saturday. I started to remove trim and grind and use paint stripper to remove the 4 coats of paint I have on my car.

Thank god did not find any new rust and took the time to do some more seam welding and reinforcing.

I'm so happy about this garage.......

then on Sunday I went the VARA British extravaganza race for some inspiration/motivation/information session. Pics of the race to come. It was the most fun I've had at a event in years!

Here some pics from this weekend.
Here's a link to the album on my site too; CLICK HERE


All the pics HERE