Got the interior stripped the past few days.
Pretty standard stuff except the seat pedestal:
A bunch of drilled out spot welds later:
Next up was removing sound deadening, most of which was easy because it's been water logged for so long. Just banging on it with the pointy end of a hammer got it right out. The stuff that was sticking came up pretty easily with a heat gun and scraper. There's still some left on the trans tunnel/firewall area that's a bit hard to get to, I may just leave it. Also found a couple rust holes that I don't have a plan for fixing yet.
Then celebrated Christmas covid style by removing the dash:
Next up is some stitch welding where I can reach and possibly some rust repair...
Picked up a nice used seat
Made some progress today.
Welded up the handbrake mount and the center support bearing weld nuts (both originally in the seat pedestal).
Welding sheet metal is hard
I see you also bought your moto-rally bike as well?
In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :
That one was actually a Christmas present
Did some stuff
Stitch welded the trans tunnel. Probably not doing jack but every bit counts right?
Also repaired the rust holes in the floor.
Number 1, up near the rear wheel well right above the box member:
The strip running down the center of the opening seen below is the lip of the box section.
Number 2, up just infront of the driver's seat, right next to the sill:
The bend on the patch ties it into the box member running below the floor.
Also filled in all the holes from going too far with the spot weld drill, then followed all the welds and patches with undercoating on the bottom and primer on top.
This thing takes up a hilarious amount of space.
Dude, I never realized how big this thing is until it was on the trailer. Man, it must be a good 2-3 feet longer than the e30!
Also, Chris and I were wondering why your back wheels have almost no droop travel - is that by design? I dont' know Volvo rear suspensions enough to know.
Pics I took (also in my build thread)
In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :
Yep that's kinda inherent in the design when running off the shelf shocks. I think I detailed it a few pages back but basically the rear is either in the bump stops alot, has basically no droop travel, or is super stiff and doesn't grip.
Right now it has repro wagon springs (stiffer than stock) with a couple coils cut off, and with no weight in rear it sits high. Even with stock springs it sat pretty high, and was still on the bump stops more than I like. Basically I think I just need much more aggressive shocks to be able to run proper length and rate springs. Probably.
And yea this thing's a big mf, and it's all in the overhangs which makes jacking it up on grass and gravel a real pain
Rewinding a bit, here are some pics from removing the windshield.
Started off with a windshield that's wrapped with a seal/trim piece type thing, then the gap between that and the metal lip on the body is urethane sealant:
Then we got it somewhere like this with a utility knife.
And then got on the inside and tried to cut through like an inch worth of the sealant to break through. We eventually got it after a few hours but I definitely recommend buying some proper windshield cutting wire.
Then added a high performance tinted windshield so the back window doesn't get blown out on the highway.
Right now the car is up in PA with Chris, waiting to get caged by Adam Brock. Big shoutout to Josh and Chris for helping me out!
That windshield cover took me and Chris like 15 minutes to get off so he could drive the car around the block to his garage door. You guys severely overbuilt it haha...
I like the pet bed just chilling right in the middle of everything :)
I never knew that I desperately wanted to own a mobile roll cage business with the fab shop in the back of a van, until just now. Neat.
So how about the sled/street luges on the wall?
In reply to Shavarsh :
"Pavement sleds" which were arguably the first time my friends and I ever built racing vehicles together. I thought I'd seen the last of them when we all grew up and moved out of our parents' houses, but then as a surprise bachelor party my friend and his dad fixed all of them, and as a result I had some solid road rash at my wedding. Now they hang on the wall of the shop, hopefully providing good luck to the more complicated projects below. 
In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :
Fantastic, love the backstory
This has been a fun read! In for cage building.
Seeing these makes me annoyed once again that we did the roof bars straight and didn't put a bend-down in them that would have given a couple inches more helmet clearance. I assume he's building plinth boxes later?
also lol at the wood strips still there.
In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :
Boxes are done, just off to the side so he can drop the cage down for welding.
Some more pics courtesy of Adam.
Fitment looking amazing!!
Nice, what's the trunk crossbar configuration?
In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :
Not doing a crossbar back there
