Brigita has left the garage!

The first rule of project cars is to be overly optimistic in how much time it will take. We had originally aimed for a June 1st finish, but Brigita took to the road the middle of August. The good news is that we met our goal of spending less than $1000 on the purchase and restoration.

The past few months were spent finishing the body work, reinstalling the interior and painting the exterior. It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. I am very proud of my daughters and all the work they put in. It was fun to see their enthusiasm and skill development. A couple of months ago the 5 year old, Ingrid, was telling me about the rusty BMW she had seen earlier in the day. I asked her how we fix rust and she shouted "Welding Daddy! and righty is tighty and lefty is loosy." They did a great job!

My wife and I had told our kids for the past few years that they could turn our minivan into an art car. Instead, we decided to paint Brigita with chalkboard paint and it is now their rolling canvas.


GRETA: When we were chalking we drew flowers and suns, Dad even drew a giant evil spam pig! We had a LOT of fun. In a couple of days it rained. The car looks great. I've had tons of fun working on her. I can't wait too chalk her again!


ELSA: A note on the spam pig: underneath the "evil" pig it said, "I am pink, therefore I am Spam." It was great to be able to ride in her when she was complete. Painting her took a whole night, and the next day we did touch- up. I'm really looking forward to Chalktoberfest, when everyone can chalk her. For now, though, it's just us. THANK YOU SO MUCH, DAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


INGRID: We have a had a great time working on Brigita. It is lots of fun. Dad and I and my sisters, too, have been working very hard. I love my Daddy very much. He is a very good car worker. The chalking was really fun. I wrote my name, Ingrid, on it a lot of times. Daddy is a great dad!

Week 21! We missed April!

Hi,

I was a little embarrassed when I got the calendar out and realized we had taken an eleven week break from blogging. Fortunately, we did not take an eleven week break from Brigita. During that time we continued working on the body, fixed a myriad of interior leaks, installed a new lower control arm, replaced all the coolant hoses and worked on all the little things that seem to take so long. The big excitement is that we decided on a paint scheme. Brigita is going to be an ART CAR! We are painting her with spray on, satin-black, chalkboard paint. That way, after every rain and wash we can redecorate her.

Last night my dad and I changed all the coolant hoses. I really enjoyed spending a couple of hours with him working on the car. It reminded me of when I was a child and I watched my dad work on his project cars in the same garage. Thanks Dad!


Elsa: We changed the radiator hoses last night. It was fun watching the green antifreeze coming out. We got to loosen the clamps and put them back on. I'm looking forward to painting Brigita, although I'm not sure when we're going to.

Greta: We tested out a bit of the chalkboard paint. After we primed the hood of the car we wiped it with a sticky net cloth. After that we spray painted the hood with chalkboard paint. It worked good. I think that it will be fun painting the car. I think it will look cool when it is all painted black.

Ingrid: I love Daddy working with me on Brigita. We have had so much fun together. We do lots of things. I especially like Brigita. I love my Daddy because he helps me work on the car. He loves me very much and he's proud of how I help out with the work.

Week 10, Burning Man!

Hi,

We took a couple of weeks off because my parents needed their garage back. This past weekend the girls and I went up to my parents' cabin with three of my friends and their six daughters for our version of Burning Man. The real Burning Man is a counterculture festival that is held each year in the Nevada desert. The highlight of which is the construction and burning of a 60 foot high wooden man. Our version was a lot tamer, no hippies, no pharmaceuticals, just four dads, nine daughters and a 12 foot man made of lumber, fireworks and kerosene soaked rags. We had a great time and no one ended up in the burn ward.

Elsa: We built the torso out of an old trunk and filled it with an old boat cover. We named the Burning Man Marvin and he had a happy face on one side of his head and an angry face on the other side. We put tiki torches around Marvin so as to warn any snowmobilers of the giant, flaming monster. However, they could probably see it. We left the tiki torch oil out, and it caught on fire! Surprisingly, the ice did not melt underneath Marvin, nor did the snow. It was a great show, with lots of lights and flames.


Greta: When we did burning man I liked it when the head fell off. The ice did not melt. An idea for next year is to set a burning man on fire with a flaming rocket. That is why we did not work on Bergita .


Ingrid: Burning Man was fun. And there were fireworks. There was huge flames. And the tiki torches I didn't even want to go near or in. And Burning Man we named Marvin. At the end we ate Peeps. Then we did do smoke bombs at the end. And we slept there, too. And one more thing: love, Ingrid.

Weeks 7 and 8 More progress

Hi,

Week 7: We had great fun removing the front bumper and the fenders. The girls were a great help and actually did most of the work. The fenders are now in our basement for a little rust removal and dent repair. Once the fenders were off we noticed a little more rust in corners, which brings us to...

Week 8: Fortunately, we were able to grind out the rust and did not need to weld anything. I found a 1 inch by 3 inch hole in the firewall just above the dead pedal. I am sure this was the source of the water that rusted out the floor. We patched it with a little steel and sheet metal screws as it was an awkward place to weld. We spent the rest of the weekend cleaning the garage because my parents need their garage back for a couple of weeks. We will spend the break daddy-daughter camping and collecting parts.

ELSA: For the fenders, we found a few little extra screws, but took those out. It was fun to unscrew the fenders. Watching Dad cut the steel was very interesting, and so was taking off the fenders, since it was very involved. I don't think that there's much else to report on Brigita, so here's Greta.

GRETA: I liked unbolting the fenders. There were mystery screws. The screws were rusty. I wonder what we are doing next time.

INGRID: Brigita would especially like a rainbow pony. We really enjoyed taking off the fenders. It was super duper fun. Another thing that was fun was to work on cars. You should always enjoy working on things with your dad. We did one noisy thing, which hurt my ears (grinding). We love working on the car. Stuff can be really fun with your daughters.

Week 6: In the deep freeze!

Hi,

We took the weekend off due to the cold weather. How cold was it? Let's just say I saw a lawyer with his hands in his own pockets. The girls still want to write so...

Elsa, Greta, Ingrid:
During the time when we don't work on Brigita, who knows what she gets up to?

She... plays games. Some of her favorites are Jack-in-the-Box and Strawberry Shortcake. She especially loves to play with people's hair. The way she moves the pieces are with invisible hands. Also, she watches TV.

She... turns cartwheels. At least, she did, until we put her in the garage. She would really like to do wheelies, but there isn't room in the garage. She always dreams about riding on a train. To turn cartwheels, she goes through a long and difficult process. One time she broke something, which we will have to fix.

She... communicates telepathically to the other cars she sees. This is a strenuous process, and it wears her out. One of the more notable conversations she has had was with the car directly next to her. They chatted about repairs, and argued about whether it was better to go to a mechanic or to be fixed up at home. We have yet to find out whether she won that argument.

Weeks 4 and 5, welding and painting.

Sorry for skipping a week, but the kids are banned from welding and most of you seem to follow their comments more than mine.

I finished the welding last week. I'd like to say that I got better at it and will now be welding titanium bike frames from leftover SR-71 parts. I'd like to say that, but I can't. My welding skills did improve to the point that my welds look o.k. now that they are covered with seam sealer and undercoating.

I hope you like the picture. I am known as "the handsomest man in the family." That is right, with a wife and three daughters I am the only man in the family.

It was great to have the girls back helping me this weekend. On Friday night Elsa and I painted the new sheet metal with RustBullet protective paint. We also filled the seams on the rear valence repair. I love the smell of Bondo in the evening, smells like... project car. On Saturday we painted, seam sealed and undercoated. All three kids had RustBullet stuck to their fingers and I had it on my fingers and nose. I learned an important lesson, no matter how much your nose itches, do not scratch it with paint covered hands. Today we painted the trunk.

I am excited to be done with the welding. The next step will be to pull the front fenders so we can pound out and fill some dents.

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Thanks,


Steve


Elsa: Today (Feb.3), we spray painted the trunk. Yesterday we put on seam sealer. On Friday we put Bondo on. I liked spray painting because it was easy and not very messy. I liked working with the Bondo because it was just an interesting texture, especially when it had dried. Seam sealer was interesting, because it was like a can of semi-liquid putty.

Greta: We spray painted the trunk. We used black paint. We used a device that you squeeze to help you spray. We used paint thinner to get paint off our hands. Spray painting was fun but I did not like the smell.

Ingrid: I liked painting. I also held the light, which was very fun. We were working on it because there was rust. Brigita says: "Hello, I love you!"

Week 3 Welding!

Good news, bad news. First the good news: I can weld! It isn't pretty, but I can get two pieces of steel to stick together. Now the bad news, for safety reasons the girls did not help with the welding so no comments from them this week.

Last Friday I stopped at Le Painter Auto, which is owned by my friend Craig. His daughter, Sara, pictured above, is now managing the business and she asked one of her employees to teach me welding basics. Kia spent 30 minutes showing me how to set up a Mig welder and a couple of simple welds. On Saturday, Conrad, a guy I met through flying model airplanes, came over to help. He taught me more welding skills, how to make a template and helped patch the driver's side foot well. I was able to get both foot wells repaired before I ran out of gas. I have both trunk wells and a spot on the frame to finish next weekend.

Welding was fun. It is something I have wanted to learn how to do for a long time. Thanks Kia and Conrad.

Week Two!

Thanks so much for all your kind comments and emails. We are thrilled that people are reading our blog!

We worked on the car on Friday the 11th. Only it felt like Friday the 13th. Our goal was to remove the carpeting and assess the rust damage to the floor. Removing remaining trim was tedious and I broke both door sill plates and the accelerator pedal. Elsa and Greta did a great job holding the flashlight, handing me tools and helping remove trim. Ingrid was a good coach and companion. Carpet removal revealed extensive rust in the driver's foot well, while the rest of the floor was clean. On Saturday the girls were busy with 4-H. I spent my "alone time" cutting the rust out of the floor and preparing for welding.

Today was great. I had posted a link to the blog on the E30tech.com project forum earlier in the week. One of the forum members, ejohnson, contacted me to see if I wanted to buy parts off a 325i he is parting out. I picked up a driver's side mirror, floor mats, 3 spoke sport steering wheel, cd player, and most important of all-door sills! Also, ejohnson generously donated a rusty trunk lid for welding practice.

Finally, the name. We decided on Brigita Martha Whopper, Brigita for short.

Elsa: The work was tedious, indeed. We needed to take out the console on Brigita, and navigate around pedals to remove the carpet. Holding the flashlight was fun, but sometimes it was difficult to get a proper angle in the foot well. To sum it up, last Friday went not so well and with any luck there will be much improvement next week.

Greta: On Friday I helped Dad with holding the flashlight. Dad broke the black door sill. I watched Dad cut the carpet, instead of doing it the official way. I hope we have better luck not breaking any pieces.

Ingrid: I liked taking stuff out. You know what, Brigita says "Hello!"


Hi, this is Steve again. I just had to say something after reading Elsa's post. It was not that BAD!!! A couple of broken door sills is nothing compared some of my more extravagant failures. Perhaps she would have a better sense of perspective if she had lit a minivan on fire (it went out) or driven a Volvo off the end of the ramps. I am well aware that by the end of the project she will look back on last Friday as a good day.

Start of the daddy-daughter project car!

Hi,

My name is Steve and I live in Minnesota with my lovely wife Deb and my three adorable daughters: Elsa, Greta, and Ingrid. Last summer I purchased a 1989 BMW 325i coupe off of Craigslist for $200 including the tow. The previous owner sold it because it had a shot clutch and she was sick of dealing with the repairs needed by every 18 year old car. I replaced the clutch master cylinder and drove it for a month. I then parked until yesterday, when my daughters and I started fixing it up. My goals are to have a fun daddy/daughter project, introduce my girls to automotive repair and to restore the 325i to daily driver status.

Our first step will be to fix the body. The front fenders each have dents that will need to be repaired. The hood needs repainting. There is a rust hole under the clutch pedal, another in the valence under the tow hook and small rust spots in the trunk and battery/jack wells. A friend has loaned me his Lincoln MIG welder for the winter and a couple of other friends have volunteered to teach me to weld. Yesterday we removed the seats and trunk lining and next we will remove the carpeting and start cutting.

We currently have a Dodge Caravan named Van Go and an old Volvo wagon called The Duck. My girls want the BMW to have a girl's name. I am hoping for Leisl. I will let my daughters introduce themselves and argue for their favorite names.

Elsa: I am eleven years old and I am the oldest. I aided in removing seats, sound ending material, and holding the flashlight. I especially enjoyed sitting in the BMW once the seats were removed. I agree with my dad that the car's name should be Liesel (?), but if it is not that, I think it should start with either a "B", "M", or a "W". Perhaps "Maria"? Liesel is still my favorite, though.

Greta: My name is Greta. I am nine years old and in the middle. I like working on the project car because I get to spend time with Dad. We took out the seats yesterday. I never knew you could take out the back seats out. I think the cars name should be called Bergeta Martha Woper.

Ingrid: My name is Ingrid, and I am five years old. My birthday is November tenth. I helped take the seat out and carry stuff and take out stuff. My favorite part was taking pictures and sitting in the car. I love doing this, we should have fun. I think the car should be named Annabelle Sweetheart Eelana. Have a great time. Happy New Year!