After watching your videos I can't believe I'm not doing this yet.
Why wont life get out of the way and let me live my life?
After watching your videos I can't believe I'm not doing this yet.
Why wont life get out of the way and let me live my life?
^This . . .
I'm trying to decide if I want to do a challenge car or skip until next year . . .
Nice vids!!!
nicksta43 wrote: After watching your videos I can't believe I'm not doing this yet. Why wont life get out of the way and let me live my life?
Yep... and I pass by 2 older Scoobies for sale on my drive to work...
...and it makes me kick myself for buying such a nice E30... I wouldn't want to subject the car to that sort of abuse.
Ill just leave this here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVF7Q_IwoWY&feature=g-all-u
a bit of color fun
Yeah this looks fun.. don't imagine I could both track day and rallyx a miata at the same time tho
Jaynen wrote: Ill just leave this here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVF7Q_IwoWY&feature=g-all-u
He actually uses the phrase "Grassroots Motorsports" at the 9:30 mark
Love the outside videos. Wish the guy would keep quiet
Makes me want to do a RHD conversion :)
Did you catch the bit where he was talking about some rally series they are doing where you get extra points per corner or stage for the person who can hang it the most sideways?
Chris Harris is awesome but the whole youtube drive channel has me pretty hooked
with the mid-season break it's time to get back to little projects.
Though I haven't had any overheating issues in this car, I could go for the electric fan kicking in less (it always seems to turn on just 5 seconds before my next run is about to start!). With a solid hood and the skidplate on there, there's not much place for hot air to escape.
So time for hood vent. I just did one for now, roughly above the exhaust manifold, but may add one up in the middle front of the hood just behind the cooling fan, we'll see.
After a quick test-cut on my spare (smashed-up) original hood, it was time to get to work. I templated the cut (to not interfere with the stiffening sections of the hood) and then drilled the corners to get a rounded edge. Then I marked some straight lines and taped the hood to avoid scratching the paint. Made the cut with a jigsaw using a pretty fine-toothed metal-cutting blade (to avoid the metal getting push-pulled/bent).
here's the completed cut. Came out straight and clean. Thankfully I have a very steady hand on things like this.
for the time being I'm just using a leftover gutter guard for mesh. It's galvanized and won't rust, but might put some aluminum mesh there if I can find some for cheap. Right now it's just stuck in the little grooves of the stiffening arms of the hood, but I'll probably use some JB weld or something to secure it well
I parked the car in the grass to be in the shade (since my driveway has sun in the morning) and a little friend came and said hi
The result:
Then, off to a couple pick-and-pull yards to find some small things, and to meet up with Stuart to swap a used CD player (for his rally e30) for a working ignition switch and some M42 stuff he already gave me. It will be good not to have to hotwire the car anymore.
First yard had a pair of early e30 325i's, so I got some minor trim stuff, wire harness holders, etc. Also picked up a pair of Mercedes fog lights (the ones in the grille). These are the same size as e30 headlights, so might have some fun with them. Also they're not sealed-beam, so that's a plus.
While at the junkyard (outside Baltimore) the Blue Angels flew over. That was cool.
Spotted a few other interesting cars at the yard too...
old Volvo wagon
something I couldn't identify, and next to it a Volvo P1800
And an Alfa Spider. Not all that rare/interesting, but was just a funny shot with all the steel wheels piled in front of it.
Mk 1 Jag? A la Top Gear?
winner winner!
Because I'm married and have a 8-month pregnant wife, I'm once again at home on a Friday night. That, and most of my friends are also married with kids/preggo wives and never go out either.
So, a bit of late-night testing out in the driveway (thank God, my large number of lights in the garage can illuminate the driveway pretty well!)
Wanted to test my theory on the Mercedes fog lights. These came off a 1979 Mercedes 240D. And yes, they are a perfect fit to the housings of the sealed beams on the e30.
My plan is to eliminate the inside high beam (since the outer lights still flash to highs also), and wire the yellows to the standard low-beam circuit (so will have 4 lights on when on low, and 2 light on high). I don't do much night driving in this car and don't have much need for high beams anyhow. Plus if I really need light I can uncover the big Hellas.
Alternately, the Benz lights are not sealed-beam, so I could just put a dual-filament bulb in them and have dual lows AND dual highs. So I might do that as well.
Did some temporary wire-jumping and it all works fine, not surprisingly.
Thought you guys might like a comparo pic of the Benz lights vs. my stock lights (which have yellow Lamin-X on them), so here you go. As you can see, the Benz lights have a much deeper yellow tone to them and look better both when off and when on.
Benz lights
OEM with Yellow Lamin-x
Happy Father's Day to everyone out there!
For mine, it was much like any other weekend: hanging with the fam and working on the cars. Except today the weather was perfect. Had a few things to work on:
it's ghetto, but it works perfectly
So made the cut again after some measuring and deciding. I had my assistant help out with filing the edges down smoother (ok, I used a dremel, but didn't want to let her use that).
Here's a direct-overhead view (more on this later)
Mesh installed again
Since I don't want rain dropping directly down on to the alternator and some other wiring at the front of the engine, I fabbed up a little piece to still allow air out, but not allow water to directly hit anything of importance in the engine bay. The car won't see much rain driving, so it's really to cover that stuff when the car is parked. I did a similar one with the passenger side hood vent as well, to keep rain off the coil.
even used the OEM hood liner fasteners :)
from the outside
ah, while I'm at it, a few other pics of the lighting setup:
off
low beams on (now dual)
high beams on (now single)
oh, and a current interior shot, since I don't know if I ever posted one since I did a few small changes
one other thing, lol.
About 25 years ago I saw a black Porsche with a big red Luftwaffe Iron Cross in the middle of its hood. This being in the 1980s, I thought that was cool as hell, and that all German cars should have a Luftwaffe cross on them (and PLEASE do not confuse this with a swastika, as they are TOTALLY different things that are unrelated to each other!)
So I had to find a place that sold said decal, and get it. Now that I have a German car.
irish44j wrote: Alternately, the Benz lights are not sealed-beam, so I could just put a dual-filament bulb in them and have dual lows AND dual highs. So I might do that as well.
Um, no. They use an H3 bulb. No dual-filament headlight bulb will fit in there, nor should it. It's a fog lens.
I used them as actual fog lights in my '84 Volvo Diesel, with the pre-'81 headlight setup:
a couple quick pics of the light output, in case anyone cares. Granted this is 4 feet from the garage door, but whatever. Everything needs to be aimed when I get a chance. The yellows are too high and will be dropped down to a fog orientation.
OEM lows+mercedes yellows
OEM lows+mercedes yellows+hella 550s
EvanR wrote:irish44j wrote: Alternately, the Benz lights are not sealed-beam, so I could just put a dual-filament bulb in them and have dual lows AND dual highs. So I might do that as well.Um, no. They use an H3 bulb. No dual-filament headlight bulb will fit in there, nor should it. It's a fog lens. I used them as actual fog lights in my '84 Volvo Diesel, with the pre-'81 headlight setup:
Clarification: Yes, I know they use an H3. if I were to do so, it would be with modification of the reflector itself, bulb housing, and addition of a glare shield, and not a plug-and-play dual-filament either. It would be a whole "tear it apart and see if something works" kind of thing. I like messing about with lighting seeing how I can get them to work better. Who knows if its feasible. But if it doesn't work, I'm out 8 bucks 
That said, it was only "thinking out loud" since I really have no need for high-beams, much less four of them. I also really have little need for fog lights either considering this is a mostly-daytime car, hence why they're wired as secondary lowbeams. And I doubt I'll ever touch them again other than getting them aimed better, really.
I've found that yellow lights are as valuable for OTHER people seeing you as for in-car visibility. They catch the eye much better than regular ~4300k halogen colors. And since this car only had single lowbeams, the yellows are more for visibility of me by other cars, and (admittedly) because I like the way they look. Also the fact that yellow has better light transmittance in rainy weather is a plus, since yellow low-beams are not legal in the US. This gets around that somewhat.
The Subaru, on the other hand, is set up to have dedicated FOG lights (also yellow, using Mercedes yellow glass inserts) since that car frequently goes into the mountain in the winter and in foggy weather. Not the e30 though :)
irish44j wrote: Clarification: Yes, I know they use an H3. if I were to do so, it would be with modification of the reflector itself, bulb housing, and addition of a glare shield, and not a plug-and-play dual-filament either. It would be a whole "tear it apart and see if something works" kind of thing. I like messing about with lighting seeing how I can get them to work better.
Oh. Nevermind :)
EvanR wrote:irish44j wrote: Clarification: Yes, I know they use an H3. if I were to do so, it would be with modification of the reflector itself, bulb housing, and addition of a glare shield, and not a plug-and-play dual-filament either. It would be a whole "tear it apart and see if something works" kind of thing. I like messing about with lighting seeing how I can get them to work better.Oh. Nevermind :)
me = typing fingers work faster than my mind, lol. I think half the time I have a grand idea in my head and then I just type something making it sound lame/simple. And then I end up not doing it anyhow, haha....
but thanks for your post. forced me to write it out and not be lazy!
btw, I do love me some old Volvos. My parents had a couple 242 back when I was a kid and I always wanted the 260 Turbo "Intercooler" Wagon 
. Before I got the e30 I was looking HARD for a nice 242 with M/T to rallycross - because a Volvo rallykar is even cooler than a BMW rallykar!....., but in this area they're tough to come by with manual tranny and without alot of rust.
btw, Evan - do you happen to have a picture of the beam pattern from your Volvo (if you still have the car)? Since your headlight arrangement is the same as mine, I'd like to see what the correct orientation of the fogs is relative to the standard lows.
irish44j wrote: btw, Evan - do you happen to have a picture of the beam pattern from your Volvo (if you still have the car)? Since your headlight arrangement is the same as mine, I'd like to see what the correct orientation of the fogs is relative to the standard lows.
sorry, sadly that car is 3 years gone. Since you really don't care about actual fog performance, just line up the cutoff with the one from your low beam.
the general rule for "actual" fog light is what....6" down at 40 feet?
DoctorBlade wrote:
No no no. The Mk I as it was retroactively known (Originally known as either the 2.4 or 3.4, only referred to as the Mk I after the Mk II came out) and you have in the second picture, had much thicker A,B and C pillars, totally enclosed rear wheel spats narrower rear track and the indicators on the front edge of the wing.
The red car in the junk yard is a Mk II, much thinner A, B and C pillars, wheel spats that expose the center of the rear wheels (missing on that car) and the indicators on the top of the front wings. That car also had grills covering where the front post lights normally are (the lower inner ones). At least in the UK, all Mk II"s had lights there, the grills were for the later cost reduced 240 and 340, although they also had thinner single bumpers, not the double bumper of the Mk II"s on this car. But I don't know much about the US spec cars other than I don't think the 2.4L was sold here.
The red car in the junk yard is a Mk II, much thinner A, B and C pillars, wheel spats that expose the center of the rear wheels (missing on that car) and the indicators on the top of the front wings. That car also had grills covering where the front post lights normally are (the lower inner ones). At least in the UK, all Mk II"s had lights there, the grills were for the later cost reduced 240 and 340, although they also had thinner single bumpers, not the double bumper of the Mk II"s on this car. But I don't know much about the US spec cars other than I don't think the 2.5L was sold here.
To be fair, I was going off a mental image and little actual knowledge. If it'd have been a corvette, I would done better. 
Some little off-season stuff.
For a couple years I've always been annoyed at the excessive wind noise on the GoPro. I know they say to use the closed-back case for speeds over 50mph or something, but that has never made a difference. Even with that back piece I get nothing but wind noise above 30mph or so. This is regardless of what car it's on (subaru, bmw, etc) or where it is mounted (bumper, roof, side window, or inside the car with windows down). Usually I would just overdub some music, but it seems YouTube likes to flag videos with any copyrighted songs overdubbed, and I don't want my account to be deleted, lol.
Obviously there will be "some" wind noise no matter what, from the car itself, but I've heard other cameras (including the Contour) that have much, much less.
So time for some experimentation based on standard principles.
First, cut up a high-density foam sponge.
Second, put a small piece over the internal mic
Third, used a second piece with the open backing cover. If you cut the right thickness it will compress and fit inside the case securely.
I've seen this setup get good results from motorcycle buddies, so I'll test it out this weekend and see how it works. Next option will be to make a bit of a "fairing" to get rid of some of the wind turbulence around the back of it. I've seen some people use cut-up soda bottles for this and seemed to work ok as well.
Also, just because I took a picture of it....the 2nd place prize for class at the "Conquer the Summit." Yeah, everyone there got one, but first and second in class got an extra, lol. Well, can never have too many pint glasses, right?
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