TwoThumbs
Member
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- 121
- Location
- Finland
Hi gents and ladies of this nice forum. Been lurking for a while but now i found some depressing situation from my car (BMW E36 328i -97). Apparently rear strut tower sheet metal has been failed and there is about 1,5 cm hole in rear shock mounting where nut will attach.
Mounting point was clearly failed when car was on previous owner(s) because he had fabricated reinforcement plate from sheet metal and mounted that on top of rear tower (i took picture of plate but accidentally deleted it).
I was planning that i would patch that small hole by butt welding new piece of sheet and then welding BMW Z3 stock reinforcement plate on top of strut tower to make it stronger than original was (Z3 reinforcement on pictures).
I suspect that stiff lowering springs and/or loose nut on shock mount caused failure for this car (car is practically rust free).
I would like to hear some opinions about this job. I have welded other small things but i haven't welded cars before. Any tips for the job and how worried should i be about gas tank filler hose (damage is on filler side)?
Here's few pictures of the situation (it's not clear on pictures but it's a hole around that stud on first picture):
Mounting point was clearly failed when car was on previous owner(s) because he had fabricated reinforcement plate from sheet metal and mounted that on top of rear tower (i took picture of plate but accidentally deleted it).
I was planning that i would patch that small hole by butt welding new piece of sheet and then welding BMW Z3 stock reinforcement plate on top of strut tower to make it stronger than original was (Z3 reinforcement on pictures).
I suspect that stiff lowering springs and/or loose nut on shock mount caused failure for this car (car is practically rust free).
I would like to hear some opinions about this job. I have welded other small things but i haven't welded cars before. Any tips for the job and how worried should i be about gas tank filler hose (damage is on filler side)?
Here's few pictures of the situation (it's not clear on pictures but it's a hole around that stud on first picture):