I also have an upcoming "vintage" mod that will not make the car faster, nor will it make it look better, but it will be awesome because it's so un-racekar. :)
I also have an upcoming "vintage" mod that will not make the car faster, nor will it make it look better, but it will be awesome because it's so un-racekar. :)
Are you set on a camlock harness? I have a bnib g-force 5 or 6 point (i can't remember) latch lock one that I bought for a car that's long gone now. You can have it, I'm literally never going to use it.
Defintely not set on it, but prefer a camlock for the driver's seat at least. That said, beggars can't be choosers, and if you're offering one up it will definitely get some use :) Shoot me an email with how much you want for it + shipping!
today "the welding guy" (knuckehead92 on r3v) came over to re-attach my roof crossmember. Tacked along the roofline and then welded the ends to the old brackets. It's nice and strong now, so I can proceed with the other projects.
In one of life's little ironies, about halfway through his welder wouldn't feed the wire (turned out later to be a loose wire connection inside), so he used my "new to me" snap-on machine to finish the job. I was pretty happy to see that it works well. now I just have to learn to use it, lol.
That all done, I continued getting the cover panel ready. Got the roof vent back in, did a bit of touch-ups on the edges, and primed it. Will paint it next nice day.
leftover green metallic paint from some project long ago for the inside. Actually kind of matches the faded seats, hah
primed, somewhat. Foggy/rainy day isn't good for painting
Then another buddy came by and I helped him install some vintage Bosch lights. He bought them 25 years ago, stuck them in a cabinet, and is just now installing them! Awesome..
we kicked it 80s style in my driveway today, for sure!
Some things accomplished today and the last few days:
First, got my hands on an old e30 hitch. Pretty funky design, but it has a 200lb tongue weight and my intention is to use it for a little cargo tray on the back for wheels or my big gearbox or something. We'll see. It'll be nice to have either way and isn't all that heavy so I can live with the weight way back there.
Only issue will be fore install that it bolts to the bumper, and since my bumper is tucked it doesn't fit quite right. I'll have to mash in the spare tirewell a bit :)
On to the sunroof delete completion. Got some paint and finished the panel. Then I test-fit it and drilled rivet holes. After, took it off to clean off the shavings
then added some window sealant/adhesive to keep it watertight
and it's on. turned out pretty good I think. Not perfect, but good enough for rallykar :)
Here's an underneath view. I put a couple aluminum L-brackets to stiffen it so it doesn't bend/kink when I open and close the roof vent.
Also cleaning off the hood, because it's going to get painted matte black. Carlos is working on some new vinyl for Condor Speed Shop, one of which will go up here.
The OEM clearcoat gave up the ghost, even with heat and being very careful removing the vinyl stripes. Who cares.....will sand it all down and paint it with some rattle-can matte black :)
touched up a few spots with filler primer, what was left in two old cans...
off-topic, stopped by Harbor Freight on the way home and for $8 picked up a set of 1/4 drill bits, some wire brushes, and 550-box of cotter pins, lol. Love me some HF.
After helping Gary with the Land Cruiser, his payment was something out of his trunk. An old-school spotlight that plugs into the cig lighter. So very 1980s....
What else......oh, Carlos hooked me up with a fellow racer in Florida who, for almost nothing, sold me a 6-point Schroth camlock harness that has its FIA/SFI cert expired. I looked it up and it's about a $500 harness, so I paid about 10% for it :) Should be here in a few days.
Also STILL waiting on the oil pres/temp sender. I ordered one with an M12 thread, which are hard to find....and apparently the vendor is having a tough time finding it too, lol....
Spent some time today chatting with a couple of my sponsors (and/or future sponsors) today about graphics for the car. Time to make this thing look good :) That got me in the mood to proceed on some of the painting associated with the new black&white theme. Last year all-black was a bit boring, and the gray hood was pretty crappy looking. So this year's plan will be to change to white wheels (still the bottlecaps), and the gray trunk will turn matte white. The hood goes to matte black. First coats came out pretty good for rattle-can. It will get some wet-sand and a couple more, but it's just too damn cold to do much painting right now...
and added my new stripes. At least for the moment, we'll see where I go with this :)
they're painted on, not vinyl, by the way. Rustoleum "Professional" which sprays a very good thick and even coat. Better than I expected, actually.
we'll see how wierd/odd I go. I get bored easily and always want to tinker either with the mechanicals or the look - whichever I feel like at the time.
some good progress today with 60-degree January day and for once I'm not at work.
First, got some mail last night:
VDO dual oil pres/warning sender. Most people order the standard one from Summit with an adaptor from elsewhere. I took a bit longer, but managed to find one with M12 thread that fits right in to the stock filter housing. One less complication.
Unlike other e30s, the M42 has the OEM oil warning light sender at the rear side, but has a dummy plug on the frontside as well - so it can take two senders at once, without a "T" fitting like all the other e30s have to use. Very convenient.
Here's the dummy plug:
Compared to the sender:
Sender fitted. It's inside the PS belt "circle" so had to run the wiring forward toward the radiator to clear.
Hooked it up to the VDO gauge I previously wired in, and works great. About 60psi at idle - right where an M42 should be.
Second package was a surprise. Norbert Schneider, who runs the Rally Gruppe 318IS in Germany (which is basically a "spec e30" series but on gravel and dirt), sent me a full-car series decal set (windshield banner, side banners, and other stuff). And I had only asked for a couple stickers from the series (in trade for some of ours). I'm going to send him some of ours, as well as an SCCA rallycross banner and some other things as payback.
Here's a photo of his car that he sent along with it:
I'm not going to put the full set on, but wanted to do one of the side, which fits well with my black and white theme. So with the warm weather, did some painting and some sticking :)
Also finished up the hood painting (matte black), and repainted the trunk white (it had been gray/silver). So I'm more or less done with painting for a while I think :)
In addition to all that stuff, last night we had the "awards dinner" for last season RallyCross. About half the field showed up and top-3 in each class got their award pictures, which are pretty nice :)
Here's mine:
Then we all went karting at a local track to see who was fastest not on dirt. Yup, still not me, haha....
Dan from MachV (one of our new series sponsors) handed out a going-away gift to Jared, our outgoing series "chairman" for the last two years.
rockin' it, yo.
Looks like y'all had fun, wish I could've been there.
Yeah, you were discussed :) The kart place was kind of a clusterberkeley....we had to wait more than an hour to actually get going because of a scheduling conflict. It was fun, but I had a headache all day and getting banged around didn't help, haha....
so it's been mighty cold here for the last week or so. And we got a huge blizzard. Ok, well we really got about 1" of snow total. By the level of nostop coverage by local news and complete panic among the DC-area populace, however, one would think that the snowmageddon arrived and dropped 20 feet.
It sucks owning a WRX on wintersports around here. It rarely gets used in its natural element :P
so back to the e30. Since it's been so cold, even in my (mostly) insulated garage, I haven't done a ton of work recently. Plus I'm now on the homestretch for this season to start and am down mostly to little things, thankfully.
I drove out to Front Royal a few days back and met Jake (e30jake on r3v) to pick up a b-pipe for the exhaust. I don't think it's stock since it doesn't have a resonator, but it's pretty basic. The flanges were all seized (he cut it off a parts car) so I just cut them off and used some union pipes. Need to get them all tack-welded at least, or will maybe install a flange somewhere in the middle.
muffler needs some adjusting
also noticed that (not surprisingly) the muffler still has a hairline crack near the entry pipe. Not sure if it was like this when I got it or if it happened last season, but I'll have to lay down a bead of weld on it at some point.
so what else....
oh, I was browsing ebay and found a dirt-cheap used tire groover. It's the "ideal" brand, which isn't known for being all that great (van alstine is what most real rally teams use, but those run like $400...well out of my budget. So I got the Ideal one used for $30 with a couple sets of tips and blades. I'm not looking to do anything crazy, just want to clean up the shoulder blocks and sharpen them on the rally tires. We'll see how it works out when it gets here. If it sucks.....no big loss. If it works, big score :)
Also got in the harness from Natalie down in Florida (friends with Carlos from Condor Speed Shop). It's expired so she couldn't use it on her racecar, so I got it for next to nothing....like, less than 10% of what it was new :) And it's still in mint condition. It's made for HANS so it has 2" upper shoulder straps, but should be fine for rallycross.
I'll also need to slit the seat bottom for the anti-submarine straps.
Also on a whim had ordered some numbers from some random "fun gifts" place online. It had really cheap vinyl so was interested in seeing if the quality is good. Plus they carried a font that I wanted and nobody else seems to carry of be willing to make without a "setup charge."
In the end, the vinyl is thick and good quality. I got some matte white numbers. Tired of my magnetics that don't stick to the e30's doors for some reason (too many paint-overs? who knows...) Figured might as well just put "permanent" ones on there, even if it's a bit goofy to do so on a car I'll also drive on the street occasionally.
Because balance is boring, they're in slightly different spots on either side of the car.
I'll make sure to get my season subscription as soon as it opens, so nobody can take my number, lol.....that would suck.
screw figuring things out. Let's just cut. Because if you can't cut a Sparco that you got cheap, then this isn't a cheap rallykar......
Cut a slit for the 6-point after measuring the required angles, etc. For the time being just used some duct tape to stop the fabric from tearing. I'll do something more permanent later.
Good fit, and it seems to be on the correct plane with the shoulder straps, as required.
Took the car for a quick spin today on the parkway where I could open it up some.
Impressions:
This engine has far more power than the M10. And I couldn't really open it up in 1st and 2nd due to the wet/cold roads (and Star Specs). Every time I did I just spun. The M10 never had that problem. It also pulls really hard mid to top end.
Got scared for a bit as under light load the engine made a "wop-wop-wop" kind of sound (like a Subaru). But after talking to Spencer (who has had a few M42 cars), that's apparently "just what they sound like." I'm hearing it extra since my transmission tunnel and firewall have all the soundproofing removed, as does the interior. NOw that I know it's ok, I'm going to enjoy it (I love the sound of my WRX!)
Put the Conforti ECU in after a few runs and drove some more. Feels like more midrange and high-end power, but hard to tell. Some people I've heard say it's like night and day. I didn't really see that (and yes, I'm sure it's a real JC chip).
So, all in all pretty happy about how quick the car is now. On to rigging up some skidplate modifications (to strengthen it and to make it clear the lower M42 oil pan), and a few last finishing touches on the exhaust. Then I think I'm ready to roll.
but of course, will find other little projects to do in the meatime :)
Just a small aside. I went to visit my grandfather in the retirement home yesterday. He has alzheimer's, and this may be the last time he remembers anything about me. He didn't remember much today, just asked if I had gotten married yet (been married for almost 10 years), and if I still raced cars. He didn't know I was his grandson, just that I was someone who he recognized a bit. I'll always remember how when I was a kid we cruised in his bronze-colored Olds Cutlass Supreme, and he drove fast always, and never wore a seatbelt, except when one of the grandkids asked him to. Survived North Africa flying B-17s in WW2, and is still physically in good shape. But some things you can't beat.
So, just want to say to all of you to enjoy every moment of the time you have with the people you love, especially your parents and grandparents, before they are gone either physically or mentally.
so to revert to some lighter fare....a few little things tonight.
I had noticed a small drip when I washed the car last week, so I figured I'd do a bit more sealing on the sunroof delete panel and the roof vent. To do it cleanly, I masked the panel and about 1/2 cm. out on the roof area with tape. Then I used some black silicone sealant and smoothed it with my finger. Then take the tape off and you get a pretty smooth taper and line. Came out pretty clean I think and should take care of the leak.
also took off the "318" badge from the trunk, which was the last gray colored piece on the car other than the street wheels (which will stay that color). Painted them in the same matte white as the trunk...figures it looks ok and I want to keep the 318 badge just so nobody thinks I have a sixer :)
all in all, it's coming along....
today's mail brought the used ebay 'Ideal' brand tire groover/siper that i got for cheap. the idea with this is that it's an iron (like a soldering iron) that gets really hot and it has a "tip" that, depending on what size you get (I'm using #4 aka 1/2") holds U-shaped blades. The blades can be gotten in either a rounded or squared profile in various widths.
To sipe a tire (for better mud/snow grip) you use the two pointy ends and just cut "slits" in the tread blocks.
To groove it, you flip the blade and use the "U" section downward and can cut grooves in the tread blocks.
My heavily-used Yoko rally tires outside edge was totally chewed up, and the first thing I wanted to do was to square it off a bit to hopefully improve turn-in grip in wet/loose conditions.
here's how it came out:
Since I was doing the front tires, I also decided to add another longitudinal groove a couple inches into the tread, again for turning grip. I'll only do this on the fronts as the rear end lateral traction wasn't much of an issue last year. On the upside this actually makes the tire a tad bit narrower (never bad for soft-surface rallycross). The downside is that it will slightly reduce braking grip - though the less braking the better in rallycross, and stopping was never an issue with my slow car.
Anyhow, we'll see how that holds up. I may also pick up some very-worn rally tires to use only on our "barn course" which is usually tarmac-like hardpack that tears up soft tires..
here's the longitudinal grooves:
I may do the rears with a pattern better for acceleration/braking traction. E.g. a lateral or diagonal groove, or just widen the current grooves so it sheds muddy clay better. I may also consider siping the rears for traction as well. we'll see. I'll probably experiment.
All in all, I'm pretty pleased with this cheapo groover. I had read that the cheap ones didn't work well, and were a hassle, and that the $400 van alstine and rillfit brand groovers were "the only ones worth buying." Maybe if I had to do this fast between stages or something that might be true. But I had no trouble doing the above work on one tire in about 10 minutes. It cuts through the tread blocks like butter, really. And, at least in theory, it should improve grip.
The remnants:
And here's how I did the rears. Outside edges sharpened up, and I made some wider lateral grooves on the inside tread blocks, where I think it will be most effective for traction and shedding the thick clay that we get at summit...
Guess we'll see....
Have you thought about grooving in the blocks themselves?
New Yoko's have grooves in the blocks. (Mine look like your's!!! 
)
NGTD wrote: Have you thought about grooving in the blocks themselves? New Yoko's have grooves in the blocks. (Mine look like your's!!!
that's the plan (someone elsewhere suggested it as well0 but i need to pick up some narrower blades before i can do that.
also, that's going to take a long time to actually do. we'll see if i have the patience, lol.....
little stuff today.
got in my oil temp sender. again, took a while because i wanted an m12 thread one that would thread in directly to the stock housing, rather than using adaptors. Here's the part number if anyone cares.
now the one thing with this sender is that it uses a "Packard" style connector. I don't have any of those around, so just modified a standard female connector :)
getting the OEM pressure warning switch out was a pain in the arse. It requires like a 26mm wrench, and basically nothing fits in there anyhow without removing the alternator and bracket. After trying about 20 different tools, finally got it loose with some needle-nose vise grips...
the new one fits in easier and uses a regular 17mm box-end.
For wiring, i ran a direct line from the wire tail that i left under the dash to the oil pressure sender.
I had to extend the oil pres warning wire to get to the dual-pole pressure sender that I installed previously on the other side of the oil filter housing. There's no real clean way to do this since the sender sits in the middle of the alternator belt 'circle', so once again just routed them where they look ugly, but will not contact the belts.
used some old fuel injector hose to minimize any rubbing issues as it goes over the coolant hose, and to route it 'out' a bit...
the other wire here is the oil temp, also routed very unattractively.
so, i know this is my most epic day of modding in this entire thread. so please, try to control your excitement, ok? ;)
last night the garage was cold as heck....wasn't in the mood to do anything.
so I sat in the living room, watched a movie, and sorted my "random BMW stuff" drawer - particularly all the nuts and bolts so I can find what I need without digging through a drawer full of junk. I think I have something like 60 or 70 separated jars hanging in the garage now, lol.
Today at lunch I swung by OG Racing (the best racing shop in the mid-atlantic, in my opinion) and picked up a couple eyebolts and backing plates, since I was two short when installing the harness. Got them installed under the seat....
Then called my co-driver over to test out the full harness
In other cool things, one of the RG318IS CUP drivers dropped me a message asking if I'd be interested in coming out and running in one of their rallies in Germany this summer. As awesome as that sounds, it's probably not in the budget for me. I'm a government worker and already looking at the possibility of a 20% pay cut this year if sequestration goes through, and with two little kids there's not a lot of spare money to go around for motorsports other than the relatively small amount I spend on this car and maybe 1 or 2 Chumps/LeMons races this year with some of the other Dirty e-thirties guys.
Maybe 2014 I'll go out to Germany and open it up a bit :)
nothing much today, but did take the car out and do some good speed runs on the parkway...in the snow...on the star specs. They actually gripped pretty well (roads were just wet, but it was snowing). Car ran well and pulls hard, but damn is it loud now that all the soundproofing is off. I was consciously nervous when I passed a couple police cars, lol.
When I got back I did notice what looked like oil dripping from the bottom of the oil pan, but I'm not entirely sure if it is fresh. It seemed pretty thin and watered-down, which is odd since I'm using a heavy-ish oil weight and it is 25 degrees out. I didn't see any leaks in the gaskets or sealing washers on the oil filter assembly, so I'm thinking that I spilled more oil than I thought when doing the oil pressure and temp senders, and the wet roads and spray coming up caused the residue to flow down and drip.
Will give it another look on a dry day. I could see some oily/watery stuff in a little engine block cavity just near the oil pressure sender. Got me nervous since that's also just under where the coolant enters the block via a hard-fitting....but didn't seem to be coolant, and again was oily but too thin to be pure oil, I think.
I like do longitudinal cuts down the tires, just flip the blade so it doesnt cut any chunks out and just make lines as thick as the blade. Then I tend to cut every block in half in opposite patterns. We tend to have a lot of mud in these events, works great in sandy dusty too because of the paddle action. In the sloppy conditions we had for December, I led going into the 2nd heat with 30 second lead of the nearest guy in our class, we had I believe 5 people that day in MR.
thanks, will check it out! Though we also have events with tarmac-like hardpack so I can't take off TOO much tread :)
Got some new vinyl in from my man Carlos at Condor Speed Shop Good time to drop some information for him for those who don't know that CSS is a great place to pick up performance/race components for your e30 made of UHMW - which is "solid" material but transmits less vibration than aluminum or other metal mounts.
Condor makes a good number of replacement bushings and mounts for e30s (almost all engine types, including many swaps) - control arm bushings, diff, transmission mounts, engine mounts, trailing arm bushings, subframe bushings (both standard and risers), and powersteering delete blocks. Check them out if you race your e30 or if you have a hardcore street ride.
vinyl....not my strong point. I used the "wet method" which is quite a hassle with this positioning over the back door handle and several other overlaps. Took me about an hour to do one side, maxed out my patience, lol.
But came out pretty good overall. If you look close in person you can find a few issue areas (both due to my lack of vinyl skill and due to my chipped paint in several areas), but from a foot or two away it looks pretty good I think. Plus it will have plenty of dirt on it to disguise imperfections.
Also a quick plug for Carlos's graphics guy at KD VINYL in Coral Springs Florida. Good quality stuff and they do a lot of race vinyl.
So, some pics.
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