Rust rears its ugly head again…but not for long!

Thankfully the heat and humidity have subsided a bit this past week.  It’s a beautiful sunny day here at Reggie’s Motorworks…which should turn into a perfect evening for tonight’s Cruise-In!  We’ll have the tent set up, as well as the corn hole boards.  We’ll be welcoming the crew from Enthusiast Apparel , and they love cars just as much as we do.  Check out their website for some cool enthusiast gear!  We hope you can join us!  And remember to vote for us for the IndyChannel.com’s A-List for Best Repair shop in the Indianapolis area!
Remember this 1986 325es from a few posts ago? The one with some rust that would need to be removed while replacing the differential and rusted brake lines and installing the rear shock tower brace?

Well…the rust damage was a bit more than we anticipated, unfortunately.  So, the owner is opting to find a better shell to house all of the goodies from his car.

Looking in through where the headlights used to be:

These parts are now on the sidelines patiently waiting to be reinstalled:

*Note: This photo is added just newlfor kicks…I really love flare, and it just happened to be streaming across the newly homeless parts, and I just couldn’t help myself! 🙂 *

Back to business…we were discussing rust.  Here is some rust in and around the passenger side rear wheel well.  Not good.

Even with cool sun flare shining on this section of rust along the rocker panel, it’s still unacceptable.  The rust, that is.  Unacceptable!

The holes along the rest of the rocker panel have also rusted out.  Body skirts had been installed and the installation holes were not properly sealed.  And. therefore, rust had a perfect way to make its ugly appearance yet again!

And, finally, the original rust issue can be seen here.  See the daylight steaming through the metal?  And the traces of rust around the edge of the wheel well?  I told you it wasn’t good!

After weighing his options, the owner has decided to find a better shell, rather than removing all of the rust.  In fact, Reggie is meeting him right now to look at a potential winner…also an ’86 325…in – you guessed it! – alpinweiss!  What are the odds?!  We love a story with a happy ending!  But actually, we’ve only just begun with this project, and we couldn’t be more excited about it! For now, let’s see the removal of the engine and transmission!

The engine was strapped to the cart to keep it from tipping one way or another as the shell was slowly hoisted upward.

The Beast is free!

Stay tuned for much more on this exciting project!

Have a great weekend!