Full Custom

Well, after finding out that the rear deck lid was too damaged to be reused(a good used one is on the way from Germany) I started looking for ways to use the extra steel. After staring at it long enough and drinking a few beers I came up with the idea to use the intake vents to cover that annoying hole in the back of the car body. Every 700 I see, that hole seems to kill the overall look of the rear end for me. Most people put the license plate over it, but I had something different in mind. So, I cut the vents out of the old lid, trimmed them down, made a template of the panel, squared it up and centered on the rear of the car, welded it in place, ground down the welds, and the result is a custom grill that will not only match the deck lid but is also made of recycled parts from the original car!

More welding

I patched a rust hole in the rear left wheel well today. Because it was in a spot where there were two overlapping panels I decided to just fill it with weld and grind it down smooth. I used a rust dissolver to etch it before welding. I ground it down and will probably need to do a little leading there before the primer coat goes on.

Refitting the doors

Re-installed the doors today, set gaps to main body, and filled the trim holes with weld and ground down to smooth. Note: Front fenders are just sitting on the body. They are next, but I needed to get the doors dialed first because the fenders are getting welded on at three points and I needed the doors installed for reference first.

Vintage style custom race seats are here!

The seats showed up from Stefan at GTS classic seats yesterday. A big ups to him for the custom mounts that he hand laid into the fiberglass shells. I sent him some mechanical drawings of the bolt patterns from the stock seats to work from. The original rails bolted right up and they slid into place first try. A very nice touch since the mounts are part of the monocoque floor pan. If I had cut them out and used new generic mounts the seats would never have sat so low, plus its just a lot more "factory" looking this way too. The only modification I had to make was to drill out the holes in the rails to accept M8 hardware instead of M6. I put them in the car along with the steering wheel and column to mock things up and make sure nothing got too tight. I'm happy to say it fit like a glove, or rather a highly supportive race seat. Something a car capable of such high corner speeds deserves.....

Some finish welding

Today I welded the seams on the back of the body right below the tail lights. Then I ground the welds down to finish the surface. Here are some before and after pics.

Cleaning up the front fenders

I welded up the seam on the front and filled in the holes for the trim and mirror mounts on both the front fenders today. Here is a pic of the left one before grinding the welds down.

Total Seal

Thanks to Bobby over at Total Seal in Phoenix we got "gapless" piston rings custom made for the BMW accessory racing pistons I have coming from Germany. Its a product I became very familiar with while building big bore Harley and Buell engines at Nallin Racing's shop. Should be just the first in a number of engine mods to we'll be doing to give the little 700 a respectable level of acceleration.