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PostPosted: October 7, 2016, 7:57 pm 
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Location: Colorado
300D50, thanks for the info! They are expensive, but I know that you can get used cores out of a few factory cars that had them. Whether the size and efficiency are right for me, I don't know yet, but I have seen them go on ebay for fairly reasonable prices.

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PostPosted: February 6, 2017, 9:16 pm 
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Location: Colorado
Continuing my pattern of little activity, interspersed with brief moments of progress, I have updates. But I have good reason for the lack of progress: lot's of overtime work, turns out the Aerospace industry is pretty booming right now (for us at least), I'm taking my final class to finish college this semester, and most exciting of all... I BOUGHT MY FIRST HOUSE! It hasn't needed much renovation, as it is only two years old, but moving and setting everything up has been taking ALL of my spare time. On that note, I have a blank canvas to play with:

Attachment:
20161229_174956.jpg


It is a tandem three car with an extra couple feet in the middle (there is about four feet to the garage door behind the E30). I'm open to any and all suggestions of how to furnish the garage! I'm tempted to epoxy or tile the floors, but I know that can be a lot of money and/or work. Also bigger tools that are really useful to have outside of my welder, and an air compressor.

As for the car, it has been kind of slow there, picked up the rest of the factory suspension parts for the five lug swap, so I still need SS brake lines, some more poly bushings, and the coilovers. Plus I should probably repack the clutches in my LSD before it goes back in the car. I'm also going to go to my friends shop and pick up the junk cylinder head I have to start reverse engineering the intake side of the engine. The intake manifold I'm going to make is going to be a semi-modular design in case I want to change or upgrade it down the road. I've been talking with another machinist at work, who has 50+ years experience and is also a car guy, and we both think that making the intake manifold with the machines we have at work should be totally doable!

More soon...hopefully...


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PostPosted: February 27, 2017, 11:49 pm 
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That's a sweet looking garage, Eric. You've got the room, but do you have the power? I think you need a knee mill, a lathe, an english wheel, a metal brake.....

I haven't forgot, we still need to get together so you can check out the 53.


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PostPosted: February 28, 2017, 11:58 pm 
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esp-

Absolutely! I got a new phone recently, so if you could give me a call, or PM me with your number that would be great. I'm a few miles out of town now, but I still work right near you, so let me know! I am actually looking at a lathe to get, but I haven't decided what else.

I WILL add more power to that garage though.

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PostPosted: May 24, 2017, 11:06 pm 
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Done with school, I gradumatated and everything! I finally got around to building a work bench in my garage, and did some organizing. I took the E30 out for one last ride with a friend, should have taken a video of the exhaust sound, but I guess you guys will have to wait until the suspension is done to hear it. ;) Anyway, work is finally starting, albeit slowly. I started pulling apart the donor front suspension, first, to see what I was dealing with:

Attachment:
20170520_150718.jpg


Aside from a couple of very stuck ball joints, which ended in a broken separator tool, it came apart pretty easily. There was some rust on the original struts, so I am currently working on going through the spindles, cleaning them thoroughly, and shooting them with VHT suspension paint, to hopefully prevent rust. I also pressed out the first bushing in the control arm lollipops, to get ready to install the hard poly bushing, and there is quite a difference!

Attachment:
20170520_150744.jpg


Work is VERY busy this week, but I am hoping to take advantage of the holiday weekend, and make some real progress. My goal for this weekend is to have the fancy new Ground Control struts bolted to the spindles, and then I can start thinking about working on the car. I was planning on using the steering rack that came from the donor M3, but I am becoming more and more disenchanted with the idea of the variable-rate rack it came with. The plan is to find a rack out of a four-cylinder Z3, which had an extremely fast ratio. They are hard to find, but I think it will be worth it even if it delays me a little while.


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PostPosted: May 25, 2017, 9:52 am 
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There's a boneyard in Savannah, GA that has a bunch of Z3's. They should have the rack you're looking for.

(770) 595-3496

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PostPosted: May 25, 2017, 11:03 pm 
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A boneyard that would ship something to me in Colorado, you think?

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PostPosted: May 26, 2017, 8:22 am 
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They advertise all over the Southeast and they shipped parts to me a few years ago. Worth a shot.

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PostPosted: June 7, 2017, 11:09 pm 
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Made my goal, and got the spindles cleaned, painted, and bolted to the Ground Control struts, and I gotta say they look pretty sharp!

Attachment:
20170529_092538.jpg


That was about all I could get done, since I was out racing Saturday, and helping a friend out in the junkyard in Sunday. I was struck with inspiration last night, and got the car up on stands, and started pulling apart the front of the car. The whole suspension came apart very easily for having not been serviced in nine years, partly because the sway bar was basically not bolted to the linkages, I could rattle it around by hand with weight on the suspension :shock: . That being said, everything else was tight, and in very good working order. Since I destroyed the ball-joint separator tool I borrowed, I'm waiting to actually remove the front suspension until I get the time to rent or buy a new one. I've set aside from time at the end of the week to make more progress.

Attachment:
20170606_200320.jpg


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PostPosted: July 3, 2017, 10:55 pm 
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Time for a photo dump. Gotten some work done over the last couple weeks, dad came out and helped me wrench on the car for Father's Day, managed to get the whole front suspension and subframe removed from the car. The engine is currently held up by a jack stand under the A/C compressor bracket, and a jack with a chunk of wood under the oil pan as an emergency backup.

Attachment:
20170618_162819.jpg


I did find the first piece of rust on the car that actually concerns me though. Pictured below, it is locate on what looks like the bumper/front clip rails on the actual frame. I might hit it with a wire wheel to see how bad it is, but I'm concerned about rust on such a potentially structural part of the car. Hopefully you all can give me some insight on it!

Attachment:
20170618_162711.jpg


On a note of the subframe/suspension, I found a steering rack out of a Z3 that has the fast steering ratio that I need, for a very reasonable price, located in Tulsa, OK at a salvage yard. They are shipping it out to me Wednesday, so I am hoping to see it early next week. I started breaking down the subframe assembly, removing the sway bar, the old steering rack, and all the little bolts and clips for dust shields. Before and after:

Attachment:
20170701_173510.jpg


Attachment:
20170703_155620.jpg


The subframe mounting brackets are completely rotted away, but I should be able to source some replacements pretty readily (I hope :oops: ). One side of the subframe, where the subframe mounts too, had a pretty good amount of rust buildup. I chipped it all off, and got down to the metal, to reveal a lot of pitting. It's not TOO deep, but enough to make me worried. I'm thinking I might just go over it with some welding beads, and die-grind it flat again. Or I'll have to look and see if I have a subframe reinforcement plate that needs to weld on there anyway. Thoughts on welding over it and grinding it down?

Attachment:
20170703_171114.jpg


More tomorrow, going to finish cleaning up the subframe and start welding on the reinforcement plates.


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PostPosted: July 4, 2017, 11:12 am 
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Congrats on getting inspired last night. It looks like you made a fair amount of progress. BTW, that ain't rust. It looks great to me. Coming from a state that salts roads in winter like a bad steak, I've seen a lot worse here and frankly, I'd just blast away the surface rust and give it a shot of Rustoleum and move forward.

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PostPosted: July 4, 2017, 11:27 am 
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Looks good, Eric.

If that little rust spot is concerning for you, grind it clean and weld on a diamond shaped plate over it.


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PostPosted: July 4, 2017, 2:34 pm 
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I've played with E30's and that subframe is as good as new. Wire brush it, good paint and you're good to go.
Front clip rail on the other hand, I would take much closer look at. It could be an earlier collision damage that was not properly taken care of earlier, or factory seam giving in. Anyway, it looks to be rusted through and needs a patch or replacement.


Last edited by petteriu on March 28, 2019, 3:55 am, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: July 4, 2017, 3:46 pm 
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yeah, I was talking about the rail. I think your subframe is good to go. Perhaps a fresh coat of paint.


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PostPosted: July 4, 2017, 5:00 pm 
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The plan for the subframe is to coat it with POR 15 once all of the welding is done, so I'm not too worried about that little rust anymore. I think it is more likely that a factory seam is going which is causing the rust, as the car has no accidents on it's record, and the body is straight as an arrow, minus the fender and bumper that got backed into.

Got as much welding as I could done today, until I ran out of wire. So far the subframe mounts, and the engine mounts have steel plates welded in to strengthen them. I started on the control arm mounts when I ran out. I'll post pictures once the whole things is welded, and then when everything is bolted to it.

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