#ZedShed Minty’s Moon Mile 2.2

[Lee]

The time has come where all the planets and stars have aligned. @Mint wants to give his 2.2 a refresh! Like in true Northen fashion Dave has got his moneys worth from the components on his 2.2.

We had a delay starting Daves Zed due to parts not arriving for the previous project safe to say we’ll no longer use that supplier again.

Kicking the project off with a selection of inspection photos.

Hope your ready for this..

those rear shocks look as old as me.

these side plate bolts might put up a fight

Original factory BMW sticker on the shock.

Spare wheel carrier holding the spare with hopes & dreams

Under side of the arms might be hiding some corrosion, considering the milage these look really good.

Arm close up.

fuel tank strap

The famous beam bushes completely dead resting on the plates.

heat shield fix in the past, if it works who can argue.

Lastly we’ve never seen a diff looking like this. Some crazy bloated corrosion. Really curious to see how this turns out.

This Saturday we strip her down completely

 

[Z Victor 1]

Blimey, just shows what can lurk beneath a very smart looking car. This is why I always take an old rug and big torch and crawl about underneath any old used cars that I look at.My wife is always embarrased, but knows it makes sense.

 

[Mint]

Really looking forward to seeing how this build turns out. I've always kept the stuff you can see pretty respectable and dealt with any MOT advisories. But it just goes to show what's underneath a 200,000+ mile Zed which is used more than polished.
I know she is now in very safe hands but I'm not sure I'll recognise her on the drive home. I have undoubtedly got used to the handling on original shocks and worn bushes.

 

[Richard29]

Will look at progress on this with interest.

 

[andyglym]

About time to Dave Be ready for another 200k after this

 

[Mint]

...Be ready for another 200k after this ...

She'll see me out for sure, not sure about me doing another 200K mind

 

[Brian H]

She'll see me out for sure, not sure about me doing another 200K mind

I wouldn’t be so sure, love the way you use your zeds

 

[MarkPlant]

Flying through these rebuilds , great work

 

[PHILIP BAXTER]

Following with interest. More great work from the Zed shed boys and girls.

 

[Lee]

Right sit tight as this is going to be a big update. Gaz was at the helm today with his apprentices, @Mnbrennan @Mazza @mwpe @BillH and within a couple of hours the subframe was out without too much fuss. What we found however was interesting, baring in mind this car has over 200k miles.

First up, the process of removing the rear subframe first shot showing the full car.

some close ups

Gaz and Mazza getting stuck in!

One toast diff bush

then in a couple of hours it was down, Mazza and Oldguysrule both in shock.

This is where we found some interesting things. First up I noticed the exhaust flange repair had been done internally massively reducing the gas flow 5-10mm in thickness all round in places.

Rear face showing no welds

internally showing all the weld. I’m no expert but I’m pretty sure that’s not great for gas flows.

Shocks as expected are completely toast, as you would expect at 200k miles.

lovely and crispy

most parts not really showing much life left.

the top of the diff showing plenty of age, looking forward to seeing what this looks like after grit blasting.

things took a strange turn once we tried to strip down the swing arms. Normally we remove the main nut, this time round there was no nut left.

Erm…

So we went into damage limitation mode to see if these arms were worth saving. Not looking good at this stage, the rubber coating had been holding in the water allowing it to corrode from the inside out.

getting thinner and thinner.

the more we scraped the chunks of rust off the thinner it got, only a gentle press made the holes. At this stage it was pointless trying to save them both. Luckily we do have a spare set in stock thanks to Spurs visit a few weeks back.
The other arm was just as bad so on the waste pile it went.

in parallel to the rear Mazza and Martin got stuck in stripping the front down. We found a shed first today, hope your all sat down.

 

[Lee]

So stripping the front end was all fine till we reached the subframe.

Hardware left after the first few hours.

Once that was removed we supported the engine with the beam

last item to be removed for powder coating Is the front subframe. Once we removed it we were shocked at what we found.

these holes are where the engine mounts bolt through, on both sides it looks like metal fatigue. After a brain storm in the shed we can only put it down to everything being very far gone with a side of corrosion. Dave did say on the phone his engine has had excessive movement for quite a few years.

mad never seen this before.

All this being found we made some real good progress on the first day. All these extra hands made light work of this build today.

Lots of parts to order tonight.

 

[pgunter]

It was an eye opener for sure today

 

[Mint]

Brilliant work guys, thanks to all who helped today, at least we now know where the noise at the front was coming from. And I thought it was just the engine mounts
When she's all fixed up again I won't recognise the drive

Edit.
Just looking closely at the front sub frame you can see there is rust along the edge of the metal. Certainly not a new fracture.

 

[Brian H]

I have seen this on the front subframe before, had it on my 3.0l, I swapped it out for a replacement but pretty sure there is a subframe strengthening kit on the market for this exact problem. Great work as always

edit: here you go

Subframe reinforcement BMW E36

Subframe reinforcement BMW E36 Laser cut reinforcement plates for subframe BMW E36 The subframe of the engine is an exposed point on BMW in hard use. These plates are welded in the subframe on the upper and lower attachments to the motor and the cassis. The product fits BMW E36The material is...

www.speedingparts.co.uk

 

[Shelly]

Wow what a brilliant read , it’s so interesting to see what your all been doing to the Z
I can’t wait to read some more about it
Well done too you all

 

[Lee]

Teeny weeny update. Everything dropped off for powdercoat this morning on my way to work. Said everything will be done for Thursday

 

[andyglym]

Teeny weeny update. Everything dropped off for powdercoat this morning on my way to work. Said everything will be done for Thursday

View attachment 228059

That's a big pile of stuff, top job chaps

 

[t-tony]

It'll be a lot lighter when all that corrosion is gone.

Tony.

 

[Z Victor 1]

I'm just amazed that Dave has been driving it all over the country with his usual enthusiasm sitting on top of that rusty pile! Surprised nothing has just fallen apart.

 

[Lee]

So far this is the project that just keeps giving, so many new levels of wear and corrosion. Today I collected the powder coated items and got eyes on the diff after the grit blasting process. We knew it might not look very well but didn't expect what we found.

Little reminder of what the diff looked like before blasting.

When I collected the diff it was covered in oil, I put this down to it being upside down on the pallet. If you're not aware the diff's have a small breather hole on the back casing so always keep it upright or drain it before.

So this is what the diff looked like after being blasted.

Corrosion on the rear ally plate, little weep here.

Dust shields protecting the seals disintegrated

Same with the input cover.

The structural webs on the diff case loosing all its thickness and strength with holes. The diff as a whole is really thin in places, Ithen spotted what I had feared..... a hole.

The diff as a whole is just so far gone, its so thin in places. You really get to see it when you stand back.

Gets you thinking about the 203,000 miles on our roads, that's the front subframe collapsed, both rear swing arms holed and the diff case compromised, makes me think seriously about buying a high mile zed above 150k without an inspection first. Luckily at the moment all these bits are easily available on the market to replace but in the coming years will this be the same.