My Garage Imaginarium

Awesome.....just awe inspiring work man!!

I'm loving the home-brew beast you're making. Keep up the good work!

Thanks a lot guys! Learning as I go

In reply to BigD: Aren't we all? Seeing the things others take on certainly emboldens me to try things myself. I recently dove into some body work and discovered that (after years of watching others) it really isn't all that hard!

You're making me think flares are in my near future...

Definitely, go for it! I got to be pretty good working with wood in my RC airplane days and it made me worry extra hard about doing sheet metal work, especially in a way that can be seen by other humans. Wood sheeting is unforgiving and anything short of a flawless job will look pretty crappy, and you have to start over (in my mind, if I screwed up a fender, I'd have to cut the whole quarter panel off).

A coworker of mine (now also a chumpcar teammate) is an accomplished homebrew mechanic and he helped me lay my first beads with his welder. I realized that this mystical magical thing is actually not that hard (well, not hard to do badly, or acceptably) and a ton of fun to learn. So I got my own welder and never looked back. The more I work with metal the more I like it. Shaping it is fun and it's forgiving. You can straighten it, cut and reweld, patch...

And the end result is all YOURS!!!

Nothing too exciting this weekend so far. Still don't have the bondo thing down, end up putting on way too much but better than not enough. Gonna be painful sanding it all down.

Trimmed the exhaust pipe too, and removed the trunk hinges etc. Will skin the lid and put it on pins. I decided to drop the wing down (started messing with the right upright already) so the trunk won't open anymore.

Opened up the license plate area to act as an interior air pressure vent. Not sure what to do with it next if anything. Maybe some mesh, body color or black...

Hmm

Id vote for black expanded metal mesh

A few more patches, once dry time for final sanding and primer!

Great looking work!

Thanks! Getting a bit better at it each time. Makes me want to learn more and more techniques. I have to try an English Wheel one day...

Only way to get to the finish line is to keep moving forward... ran out of paint but a few more coats, then E85 fuel system bits and a tune, and it's off to the track, period.

Excellent

VWguyBruce wrote: Excellent

Thanks Bruce!

I couldn't wait last night so once I got home I started spraying. But I was rushing it and made a series of nasty runs where the side molding used to be. It was pretty hard to see unless up close and I tried to convince myself to forget it but I just couldn't. I know the finishing touches on this project aren't up to part to what some guys do but for some reason, there are some things that don't bother me at all, while this one I couldn't let go of. Wetsanded and resprayed... If only it could stay this shiny forever

Mother of God man... what a beautiful bmw! Can't wait to see videos of this thing! There's an '86 325 on craigslist right now in my area that I wish I could get... would make an awesome track machine lol.

e46potenza wrote: Mother of God man... what a beautiful bmw! Can't wait to see videos of this thing! There's an '86 325 on craigslist right now in my area that I wish I could get... would make an awesome track machine lol.

Thanks! I'm gonna tell Big Red you said that, he'll be all misty-eyed.

Now this is my kind of stanced. Absolutely thrilled with how the rear has turned out!

BigD wrote: Now this is my kind of stanced. Absolutely thrilled with how the rear has turned out!

As you should be! BTW your E30 is starting to remind me of the 3.0 CSL.

Cuda wrote: As you should be! BTW your E30 is starting to remind me of the 3.0 CSL.

Thank you!!!

Excellent work so far! Those tires are ridiculously awesome in width.

Cleverfrog wrote: Excellent work so far! Those tires are ridiculously awesome in width.

Thanks :) It's a pretty neat feeling to break 335 slicks loose! Which reminds me I still need to finish wiring the traction control...

It's offensive how easy this looks. From wiring the sensors, running the leads, soldering shields, connectors... took all day

Psh, I put that same setup in my e46 in like 10 minutes. Just kidding, I can't afford that. Nor do I need it. Great work!

e46potenza wrote: Psh, I put that same setup in my e46 in like 10 minutes. Just kidding, I can't afford that. Nor do I need it. Great work!

lol thanks! To be fair, this would have been much easier if my car came with ABS. The MCoupe running gear supports it obviously but everything else was on me.

Some cool progress this week. Got a cop buddy to come escort me while I calibrated and tested the traction control. The look on people's faces was priceless - from "LOL that guy is gonna take a giant fist up his..." to "...what the hell, why is he blocking me to let him go by???" And then I'd put the hammer down.

The TC performed like magic. After I verified it does the job, I set the switch to 15% for some fun and I was tingling for the rest of the day. I've never experienced anything like this. The car is pure violence. I had the gopro mounted up but I was so anxious to get going I never started it. Won't forgive myself that one until I can get him to come by again. Feeling the back end dance through 4th gear is indescribable...

Anyway, over the weekend I drained the fuel and started converting to E85. Turned out one of my pickup pumps was dead and there is a problem with my fuel level idea - the sender ground pin grounds to the sender body so one sender is always like an open circuit. So it never reads lower than half tank. Will need a different solution. Probably averaging the signals separately instead of one resistance in series.

Also found out that the Aeromotive fuel regulator doesn't go to zero... I turned it all the way down, jammed a hose down the pump outlet line and fed it compressed air to flush the entire circuit out of the rail return. Just as I felt the hose inflate the thought flashed through my mind that maybe the regulator has a minimum press... and then it let loose all over, incl my face. Had to drop everything and run for some vigorous eye rinsing. I had goggles on for the rest of the night.

Almost done now though, new injectors in, new pump in. New lines as far as the firewall, quit for the day, will finish that tomorrow. Still need to get a new pickup pump and figure out a circuit for the fuel level. THEN IT'S DYNO TIME AND THEN TRACK TIME.

If you know someone interested in an as-new A1000 pump or 6 ID1000 injectors, let me know.