A taste of whats to come...

[bobkatkat]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

Hawt!! So Hawt!

[P Arkus]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

Another good day. Retrofit the dust covers from my OEM rear struts onto my Koni struts so they dont get full of crap while driving. Finished up all the suspension work in the back, then installed the parking brake and rear rotors and calipers. So all the brakes are attached, however since I will need to redo the brake lines since i'm going boosterless and deleting ABS, none of the lines are yet connected. Only working brake right now is the parking brake but I still need to adjust it properly.

So I spun the coilovers down as far as they can go, put the wheels on and gave it a test. I'm liking the results




Once the car is done i'm gonna get the fenders professionally pulled so that I can ride low, with some nice sized wheels/tires and no have to worry about rubbing. So far tho, i'm liking the potential of these coilovers. Also stood and bounced on the front subframe and the car barely moved. Really looking forward to driving on this setup!

[Circuits]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

Looking good Pat!

[P Arkus]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

Thanks! Did some more work yesterday. Fitted back the front calipers and then got busy on the rear. Put the rear subframe back in with the help of a few friends, and of course with my luck forgot to put the big washers that go on top of the rear subframe bushings. So back down it came lol. After installing it all properly, I mounted up the rear swaybar and started piecing together the parking brake. I set the rear trailing arms on some blocks of wood until I can get my rear struts in. Need to retrofit some dust covers for the new GC Koni's as I dont want them wearing prematurely.



So only have a few housekeeping items left to go before I can put the car back on wheels. Pretty happy about the progress I made this weekend. Hoping the nice weather sticks around so I can spend many more weekends wrenching like this

[Adcodo]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

It's coming along nicely, can't wait to see it done!

[P Arkus]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

So finally a progress update. After dropping my fuel tank to get a leak fixed (needed a new o-ring in the fuel pump), I replaced one of the lines at the top of the tank too as it was in bad shape. I decided to POR15 the fuel tank to prevent it from rusting in the future and me having to drop it again. First time using POR15 but already I love this stuff. Its rock hard once its cured and it leaves a nice finish with very little prep work needed. Here's the fuel tank right before I mounted it back up.




Over the winter I had all my bushing and end links replaced with new OEM ones, figured its a good WYIT task. This weekend I got busy and started putting the front subframe and suspension part back in, so I got it all bolted up. Also POR15'd the front sway bar brackets that attaches to the control arms as they were in rough shape. Put E36 tie rod ends on my Rackdoktor Z3 2.7LTL steering rack and bolted that up. Then I tackled the front H&R Sway bar. This was a huge PITA as there is a tab there that prevents the bushing from sitting flat. Not knowing how to get around this, I trimmed the bottom part of the bushing (still quite a bit left and the bushing is compressed pretty tight), but I might end up doing the IE sway bar mount kit and replacing the bushings if I find the car doesnt drive the way I want it to. Either that or I will grind that tab down to ensure it mounts flat like it should. Then I installed the front Ground Control coilvers and buttoned it all up.



Today I spent getting my rear subframe put back together. Put the diff cover back on after replacing the mount, topped her up and bolted her on. Got the axles on the car too, so just need to mount it back up to the body.



Hoping to get it all put in tomorrow so I can throw some wheels on it and roll it into the center of the garage for more space. At that point i'll work on putting the brakes on the car. Even though I will be running all new brake lines, I want to at least make the car available for the dollies so I can move it around.

Got alot left to do though. Engine pieces are currently out for paint, then come early mark the car will be going to a shop to get some custom fab work done (Removable Rad Support). I figure trying to lift a V8 + 6speed tranny is gonna be a nightmare without this, and i'm sure i'll be pulling the engine more than once. In the meantime i'm hoping to rip the carpet out of the car and explore a few ways to turn it black, whether that means dying it or getting an upholstery shop to make me one based on my mold.

Either way, things are progressing and since the weather is slowly getting nicer here and the days are longer, the motivation is coming back.

[Canadian Turbo]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

Progressing nicely!!

[T-Dubbs]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

niiice pat

[bobkatkat]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

Nice find! Pieces are falling into place.

[P Arkus]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

Small unexpected update. Found a good deal on Kijiji for these bad boys so I picked them up today.



They are Recaro SR3's from a Mitsubishi Evo IV. Will need to make custom brackets for them to fit the E30 and then have them and my E30 M3 rear seats and doorcards custom reupholstered. Hoping to get that done over winter time.

[Danaldson]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

[kujiwara]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

Damn nice!

[witchcraftz]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

Congrats pick'n pull is great for good deals if you know what you're looking for.

[P Arkus]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

So its been a while since my last update. Lost a bunch of time and money when the Audi broke down and I needed to fix it, and after fixing that, I honestly lost a lot of motivation to be working in the garage on the E30. Just needed a break from the cars for a bit. But thanks to a friend providing me with a tip about a E39 540i 6speed at pick n pull, I decided to go check it out. Went to the junkyard and the transmission was still there so I got to workin again. Dropped the exhaust and driveshaft so I could have better access to all the bolts on the transmission and allow it to drop a bit. Unbolted all the bolts until I got to the top ones which were almost unaccessible. I needed 5 extensions to get to them. Got the first one but the second just wouldn't grab no matter what I did. Took a picture and found this...



So that was a good few hours waster to leave the wreckers without a transmission (not to mention almost breaking my thumb in the process). I left pissed off but being stubborn and cheap, I was determined to get that transmission. Went back sunday with Danny, Eric and Roberto so we could pull the whole engine out and I would deal with the transmission then. This was a fun day. We pulled the engine in an hour, and I was able to hammer on an Etorx bit and get that damn screw out. Huge thanks to those guys for helping me out with this!



So now I have the last huge piece of the puzzle in my garage. Spent some time today cleaning it all up.



Also managed to find an ECU from a 94 540. I have the ECU from the car I pulled the engine from, but that car was a 95 which means the ECU had EWS which is the security system. Would not be able to make it work without changing the locks and ignition and didn't wanna deal with it.



Also sent out my exhaust manifolds to top gun coatings to get titanium ceramic coated. Love the way they turned out



So I can say I got my motivation back and will be going strong again on this. Also what really helped my motivation is the fact that these transmission go anywhere from 800-1500 bucks, and I managed to snag this one for a whopping $180. Now at least I have some money saved for other parts I will surely need!

Stay tuned for the next update hopefully coming soon!

[P Arkus]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

So as most of you know, I had Laser Eye Surgery a few weeks ago which has kept me out of the garage. Unfortunately progress has been very slow due to this, but as I was away others were doing work for me. Had a buddy in Edmonton reinforce the subframes and rear trailing arms, and then powdercoat the subframes, RTA's, brake shields and my custom engine mounts. It looks incredible and now I feel like the torque of the V8 wont destroy the car! Also got the Toe/Camber Adjustment kit welded in!



Dumb thing I did was I should have given him the front brake shields as well to powdercoat but i'll just have to get that done separately I think. Either way i'm stoked.

This weekend will be an Audi fixing weekend as I need to get that car back up and running, but after that I plan to go hard again on the E30. Leavenworth was a HUGE inspiration to get my sh!t in gear and get her finished. Hoping to keep the updates going steadily from this point!