Post: #1

After selling my restored 740 I was able to pick up this 1983 245 Turbo. At first I didnt want to buy it, but after visiting the car at 2am because of sleeping problems it caught me like a disease. The car had a original Turbo+ kit in it, which means that it has 180hp instead of 155hp because of a Intercooler. Within 1 day I had sold the 740 and bought the Turbo. Me and my dad transported it to our garage, inspected the car a little bit and then we went for a drive.

In the pictures below you can clearly see the Turbos main problem - Rust.... lots of it














All gauges work, but the speedometer wobbles when driving under 50km/h, so I will replace the drive gear later on


It is a original sunroof car, but with a electric BMW Glassroof fitted, its so nice and works like it should.







When inspecting the car we have found loads of rust. Not all was visible right away because of a patch up job with fiberglass by a previous owner. I didnt photograph all of the rust.
Brace yourself!
















































Rust bubbling near the sunroof



A previous owner tried to treat some of the rust

Post: #2

As a part of my apprenticeship I had to learn to weld all thickness of metal, that comes in handy now. I already repaired some rust holes on my 740, but I guess this is my biggest rust job yet. This is all for now, on Saturday we will clean up all rust spots and decide where to cut for new metal welding.


Btw on the test drive there was a tuned VW Golf GTI mk3 tailgating us and wanting a race and so he got one. Volvo:1, GTI:0
My plans for now are to make it ready for inspection, paint it and then tune it. 0.8 Bar-1 Bar, Group-A Intercooler, B23E intake, 1990+ turbo exhaust manifold and a Group-A Turbo etc.

Post: #3

Me and my dad inspected the 245 very thoroughly, then decided what parts we need to order and where we need to cut for replacement panels. I replaced the 12 year old tires with some newer ones that were from my GT.
The spare wheel well on the driverside is already out (photographed the whole process but didnt notice that there was no SD-Card in the Camera) and we repaired the rust on the rear left. About 3 weeks ago we took a 500km trip and bought 4 rustfree doors from a 1992 240 Classic. We noticed, that the trunk hinges are bad, which is why the trunkdoor is hanging and rubbed against the metal, causing the rust holes.



















I invited my parents to the Retro Classic in Stuttgart, to learn more about patching rustholes and replacing whole panels. We were able to talk to a professional restorer from the BMW Museum.

Post: #4

We used 3 of the 4 free days during easter to repair alot of rust. It doesnt look like much from the outside, because we repaired many reinforcement that cant be seen on the picutres. We did some external repairs aswell, have a look for youself


Rear left quarter panel and wheel well in place and welded



While I welded the left part my dad removed the right wheel well



We ran into some problems with the rear right wheel arch, as you can see both replacement panels arent the same as the original on the car



This almost would have been perfect, but the arch is too round and it dosnt fit well on the rear section where it meets with the wheel well



The arch should smooth out at the bottom, but on this panel it is still clearly visible at the bottom

















The problem with the rear arch held us up for some time, but we made a decision and hopefully will be able to turn it into reality tomorrow.

Keep in mind, that this is a restoration, modification and improvement. We will try to improve the car as much as possible. I will explain this more tomorrow and show pictures of our ideas.

Post: #5

again, that is some nice work. it is difficult to find anyone competent around here to repair anything because of how cars are simply considered to be disposable appliances these days

Post: #6

I didn't notice the rust at first.