If you want to close holes you can put a piece of brass behind it. It's giving you a nice surface in the back and helps with heat

Beautiful job! You've come a very long way with your welding talents. I'm not a welder at all, but I always love the phrase "A grinder and paint make you the welder you ain't"

First, you need to up your welding game by warming up. You do not do this every day all day long, so warm yourself up every day. Before you start the day, grab some similar material and practice for 5 minutes. Then do it on your car. Huge time and frustration saver: 1. Cut all the pieces out at the same time, then cut filler pieces. Cut the filler pieces long -- less chance of burning out the bottom corners. 2. Tack everything - you will notice your tacking is better at the end -- this is because of muscle memory kicking in. This can be a reason why some welds are good and some not so good. But, mostly, metal density, etc. plays a huge role. Also, that primer can create a millisecond difference in arc formation. Getting CONSISTENCY is what you're after and that would mean cutting your wire after every spot, clean surface, etc. That is too much to ask for so keep doing what you're doing. 3. Once tacked, finish all welds. If you notice your welds are better at the end, it's muscle memory. This is normal. You don't do this welding every day all day. 4. Rough grind everything at the same time 5. Fill pinholes all at the same time 6. Cut off bottom of filler pieces and grind everything to finish state, then prime Try to keep all the processes separated -- this will make you much more efficient and keep your stress level down because the clock won't be eating at you so much. As someone else mentioned, clamp copper or brass plate tightly behind welds - but not necessary. If you do this, practice first.

You have an immense amount of patience!!! Credit to you!

Keep up the great content producing! When you try to weld up the small rust pinholes, and the sheetmetal is thin, then try to hold a piece of brass behind. the brass piece will take the heat away from the panel, and you weld wont stick to it :) - Just a idea maybe. - Marc - Denmark

Great stuff, Steve. I gotta say you have come a long way with the welding. You have improved a lot! Keep at it, we're all behind you and want to see this E30 resurrected as soon as possible!

What's truly amazing is, how young and dedicated to this project!!😲😲🤯 That's an incredible amount of work on a common car like this one!! You are basically rebuilding the whole car from the bare frame!!

Mate, that's an insane amount of effort! I don't know anything about E30's so I trust that it's worth it. Good on you for having a go, and sharing this with all of us. Looking forward to the next vid.

Really enjoying this series, you are doing an amazing job. One observation; I noticed on the rear corner repair that you didn't cut all of the rusty metal out. The repair piece should have been twice the size to replace all of the pitted thin rust damaged metal. Generally I find If you are blowing holes welding the butt joint, then you haven't removed enough of the old metal.

Wow mammoth marathon task! Beautifully executed! A fresh new E30 will be born!!

Nice to see the work restarted on the E30. I would cover your hands and arms when welding though. Loads of UV light is produced during welding and the damage builds up over time. Your future skin will thank you.

Slow and steady buddy, it's all too easy to rush and not do the best you can, Slow and Steady mate do it right first time every time, I know you will.

Both your developing skills and humility are evident.

Keep telling yourself that the E30's sacrifice is for the greater good, mate. I find its dissection curiously fascinating.

Good work Steve. We are all learning as we go. I am 70 now and am still learning. Some points: sometimes MIG welds do not go perfectly, there will be a reason, but who cares really. Just re-weld the ones you are not happy with. I have seen the rust pits under what looks to be a perfect finish on all of my projects. My theory is that they are from the factory, or perhaps the finish coating may look perfect but is actually porous. Finally, chemical paint strippers are so annoying now. Most of them have had all the active ingredients removed I'm afraid. Have you seen Cooper stripper (from New Zealand I think)? It is very expensive, but if your project was big enough might still be worth buying.

Really awesome work man, so cool to see your E30 projects underway again - it makes me want to get my E30 Touring fully sorted! Looking forward to the next video and also the final video on the Mercedes!

As always Steve great work. I could watch these all day. 👍

Get yourself a chunk of Copper barstock to use as a Backer to fill in and weld holes - will save you a lot of time

I love that you use your Bose headphones as hearing protection just like me :P

Love these videos you make. Its a lot of work, I'm almost done with my E30 and its been over 2 years now. looking forward to next video. BTW, your welding is getting good.

I really enjoyed this video. Keep up the work I can’t wait till it’s finish.

Great work Brother, Glad to watch you again, your welds is a lot better now.

very cool. from a rusty car, through your hands it was revived. i love the way you work

You do an amazing painstaking detail work. You have incredible patience.

really happy for you and your welding skills have improved immensely, hope to be able to do that too

You must have the patience of an angel cause that's a lot of work.

Brilliant work as always 👏

Your welding looks great! And of course, I appreciate your OCD on this as I would be the same way. Nice length on this one and really looking forward to more.

Great job! A pleasure to view as always!

Great video Thanks for taking time to make them and share them with us

Very educational videos from your production. Thank you for sharing ideas and experience with us.

For small spots that you are welding you can press a brass plate behind it. That's how I learned it. It's very quick. That's how I rebuilt an Opel Astra F. Big holes with new sheet metal. Then all welding seams with tin. (sorry my englisch ist not the best :P)

I rarely comment but you truly are an artist, I enjoy your videos so much

Liking the more frequent videos. Just remember. One day. You will be polishing those quarter panels not grinding them.

such amazing work!!

Yay back to the basics!!! Missed e30 stuff

I am amazed by the amount of dedication and skill. Keep it up! It’s enjoyable following the process! Moral support is on your way lol 💯🕊🔥

Great job as always!

I've just stumbled upon your channel, this is gonna be one late Friday night, awesome! Subscribed 👍🏻😎

LOVE Restore It Good job

Thanks for another banger video!

Excelente seguí así va a quedar de película, yo hice casi el mismo trabajo en un e 21

AWESOME content as always! Thanks

That’s great work. Keep going

Great video - I might get one of those finger sanders as well !!

These videos are much more like what you used to do. Well done lad.

Amazing. I might have to get myself one of those finger grinders 👌🏼

Love your work 👍

Interesting to see your job done. Cheers 👍

I HIGHLY recommend a proper spot welder, after years of doing plug welds, I bit the bullet and bought one. I have a Miller and I can put an outer rocker on a classic Mini in about 5 minutes now. I plan on getting longer/different shaped tongs as funds allow so I can get into different spaces. Great video, keep up the good work!

Looking really good to date never nice cutting up another e30 but @ least parts of it lives on in this build 👍🏻

Amazing work, I admire your OCD and passion, haha!

Brilliant exciting build

awesome video !

Great job !

Great Job!!!

Wish you maintain sanity thru this whole restoring the chassie process! :))) following you since day one mate! keep it up!

Only in that way an e30 gets perfect. Great job so far, go on, cant wait for new videos...👍🏼

I like to use Corroless S rust inhibiting primer from Arc-rite on bare steel , it's available in cans for brushing and spraying and also aerosols . I use it on my restoration and my other vehicles. It's worth trying some. Loving how this restoration is coming along.

Good to see some progress again! I see you're using a Mannesmann toolbox too! I have the same and the quality of it is amazing, sadly my case has a broken divider and clamps so I'm left with two open halves haha. Keep up the good work! Kind regards, Martin

You can use an old single edge blade to score the paint prior to applying paint stripper. That way it allows the stripper to attack the paint from underneath as well as on top.

A MIG (or, even better, MAG) welder makes dealing with small fires easy: Your shielding gas is mostly CO2 and your machine probably has some "post-flow" (keeping the gas flowing after the trigger is released to shield the end of the weld until it cools down a bit), so just tap the trigger to release the gas and you can use the torch as a tiny fire extinguisher.

Fantastic 👍🏻

I also have a problem with one weld being clean, and another nearby weld not being as nice. I would also be curious as to why. I've wondered if it's a voltage issue (I have to run my welder on an extension cord, as I don't have enough outlets in my garage). The best thing about being able to do things like this for yourself is as BMW E30/36/46 chassis skyrocket in value (with the quality of work you do) is that you could flip them for huge profits. Loving the progress!

Water resistance of paint, even epoxy, depends on the period in which the painted object is exposed to water. And in practice, the car is exposed to thousands of rain showers or washes in a car wash only, without a problem. However, if you put it under water for a longer period of time the thin layers of OEM paint will not turn out to be waterproof. When a brand new car is flooded for several months, the rust, as it had developed on the inside of your fender under the OEM paint, will also develop here. But that never happens in reality. What I would do is at the moment the car is completely welded, so tight from front to back, is acid dip it, e coat it, and only then make it tight, paint it and put it together. Keep up your fantastic work!

I don’t know if you have tried it,but I use aviation paint stripper ,it has not disappointed.just a idea.you’ve come a long way,and still a lot to do,but hey that’s why you do this to yourself,the challenge and final finish.just keep telling yourself that,over and over and over.yea sure sure Lol good video.just keep doing what your doing and carry on 👍👍👍😎😎😎

Your getting that crispy bacon sound on the welder nice to here 😊

You should look into a dustless/wet media blaster for cleaning sheet metal panels. No dust, it keeps the panels cool, and the stronger ones will take off under seal, filler, pretty much everything.

with the paintstriper it works the best if you wrap in in plastic foil or put it in a plastic bag

It's always a thrill to watch something being renovated.. =) Can't wait to do it myself on my "boxy", although I have some more things first, which will take some time. You're doing great, neat work. I also prefer butt welds whenever possible, as you can dress, shape, flatten,clean and those will never rust once painted. Lap joints are also inevitable, so I can give you 2 advices to take care of those. Once welded and ground nice, wet the seam between the parts by capillary action with some rust inhibitor or remover, leave it to do it's job for some time and then blow it through the seam with compressor gun. Leave it to dry completely, then apply some half thinned paint again by capillary between the joint and give it some help with compressor gun. Leave to dry and the seam should be protected as much as you can do it. Cheers, hope it helps.

You make me want to try my hand at spot welding.

Excellent

Buen travajo 👏🏻👏🏻👍🏻

You're a legend, such eye for detail and craftsmanship. Small question, is your Bose headset blocking any sounds. Like I know it has noise cancellation but is it the same as a propper hearing protection.

Do yourself a favor and get a right angle die grinder with 2 inch roll lock flap discs. Got a battery powered one myself and I use it more then my angle grinders since I got it.

I've never seen this kind of primer for paintguns. I've only used spraycan versions. I'd really appriciate if you could tell us what product are you using. Also it's mad to watch that that donorcar had sportseat seats? in. where I live those are already so rare and go with mad prices. Overal. It's relaxing to watch you work on it. I've welded my e28 and can agree that it takes a lot of time. Keep up the good work!

And a next perfect Job is done Love it very ❤️👍❤️

I use paint stipping discs for the angle grinder, the black sponge looking ones. They are quite effective, you just need to watch out not to put too much heat in a single spot and move on if you see any sparks. They are much easier on the metal than those metal brushes. Another idea just in case: panel bond your wheel arches to the inner wheel well when the time comes.. by far the best solution for this rust sensitive area. Dont spot weld if you can get your hands on panel bond. Adding to this comment as I watch: dont complain about weld quality if you wont bother to clean paint off first. Also, get yourself a bit of copper.. makes bridge welding easier when you clamp it behind the hole. When welding a gap, start from the outside going in, that way you dont have any heat in the panel when welding the most blow-out sensitive bit.

You should try one of this paint stripping tools “Eastwood CONTOUR SCT® - Surface Conditioning Tool”

Cool video, nice to see like this rust repair...But must say in 32:20, it looks like top off that space what you are making new, is also rust or surface rust, also I would at least brush the background of the welding with a steel brush at the point where you has welded

i love your meticularity it will payoff.

This may be an unpopular opinion among body workers, but I would advice using rutile flux core wire as it has supreme penetration properties and the welds are almost flat when doing spot welds. Still be cautious with amps because it's really potent.

Друг ты лучший 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Great job, can you give me the dimensions (tubing section dimension and thickness ) of the tubing using in the rotisserie.

While you have it apart, you should hook it up to awd it they did have a awd version of that car after all.

Awesome......

Great video as ever. Which finger grinder do you use? I need to get one. 😮

For paint striping n removing, media blasting may do the job better I think.

Drum sender would work well for paint strip[ping. Low dust and low odor.

put rust converter on before you first primer it. done it on every metal part on my car and its worth it.

If you can manage to find a Tecna spot welder, you should be fine, they are somewhat old and should be able, to found at a decent discount. But they may still be pricy, but again new ones cost like 12000£. You could also ask a bodyshop, to loan theirs (i.e. you bring the car there) I can see one is available for 12000 dkk here in Denmark, with a pin puller as well

Sometimes adding heat to paint stripper (a portable heater, etc) can make them more effective. Not sure it’s necessarily good for the lungs, but might be worth a try.

Regarding the welds, have you checked your gas flow? And regarding the welds, didn't see it 9n camera, but did you prime the back of the welds?

best as always 2 like

Watched the m40b16 restoration to the intake, is that whole resto canned?

27:04 Hold some copper behind the gap and weld it up 10/10

I see you work with low current. Are you getting adequate (full) penetration of the welds?

Spot welder for hire Ted Bar Tinker looks reasonably priced or buy new direct from Clarke Tooling. If you intend lots of spot welding, probably cheaper to buy new.

Why dont you find a acid dopping shop. Saves you valuable time and all parts become bare steel. Great videos as always.

any chance you could link the specific repair manual you used for e30