1985 BMW 318 Stage Rally Build - 1988 Porsche 924S Street Build - Sequoia Build

paperpaper wrote: Using the Idea given to me last year. Sizzor Jack with two 17mm nuts welded to the end. JAck is strapped between the spare tire and the car(wont get out of there) and you use the Impact Gun to jack up the car. proven to jack up a whole half of a MK3 gti.

This is hell on the screw threads. BTDT.

For the jack hold-downs, universal seat belts (like $25 at NAPA) have a quick release latch that works just fine. They're even easily adjusted so you don't have to fumble a tight latch together, just flip backwards and yank to loosen, click together, yank the belt tongue to tighten, done.

In reply to Knurled:

YEs it is :) good thing scissor jacks are basically free. I do like the seatbelt Idea as long as it passes tech.

I think he means that it's attached to the car and the spare tire. so that when you use the impact gun on it it pushes the spare tire down and lifts the car??

No no the jack is stored with the impact under the spare. (Or between if you are carrying 2) So when you get a flat on stage you just whip out the spare, jack, impact. use of the impact is to lift the car because you have welded nuts to where the usual slow manual crank would be.

oh ok.

I still like the idea of welding a scissor jack to each corner collapsed so you can hit it with the impact to raise that corner... :P

IMO scissor jacks suck for everything except level, paved surfaces really....if I needed to save space that would be one thing, but it's not like I'm carrying luggage in the trunk and don't have room for a smallish floor jack. YMMV though!

The off road racing guys make skids that replace the wheels on the HF jacks. Might be something you want, don't dig in like the wheels do in dirt

java230 wrote: The off road racing guys make skids that replace the wheels on the HF jacks. Might be something you want, don't dig in like the wheels do in dirt

yeah, have actually thought about that. I'll be carrying a "jacking board" though so hopefully won't be a concern :) That said, now I'm going to think about the skids thing again. Got a link or a pic?

Little stuff.....still documenting the arcane little things lol.

As previously mentioned I ordered up an NRG short hub to get a better length on the steering wheel. Ordered it the 26th, and it arrived today. Pretty good for regular shipping. Gotta love Amazon.com.

Anyhow, all set up and now the wheel position is much better. I transferred the horn contact ring from my Momo hub (since the next owner doesn't need it), so I also have a working horn again, which is good.

Also got some photos from Ozgur of the assembled cage in his e30 (which is templating mine) and made the firewall cuts to the trunk for the rear bars..

So time to wrap up 2015 with a few little things. Since my daughter's birthday is New Year's Eve, I've gotten used to not doing anything tonight. So instead I went out last night to downtown DC for Josh Sennett (bluej if you're following this thread on GRM)'s birthday, and today Carin and I are chilling at the homestead with a few drinks...and she will kill me if she sees I posted this picture, but whatever ;)

In between dealing with Lexy's birthday and her friends over and whatnot, spent a bit of time this afternoon on my least favorite thing on the car...wiring. Yep, a lot of cleaning up still to do.

Meanwhile, I decided to do away with most of the stock cluster since the only thing that still works on it is warning lights and turn signals, and it will probabl not fit well with the cage's dash bar anyhow. But I don't just want an open hole there, and I'm too lazy to make a good panel. So I got creative and just modified the stock cluster (just the front part of it).....essentially it's just there to hold various warning lights, lol. So anyhow, that's what I did, and it saves me the trouble of making anything new. I know, it's strange. I kind of like it, lol

Also made a new dash console switch panel to include some new switches and stuff. Also got a couple dual-output power outlets from China (yeah China!) with cig lighter and USB power ports. One will go here, and another one will go in the parcel tray area on top of the dash (to power rally computer, etc).

Bittersweet day as I towed Nick's e28 to Pat's house for its last time on the road. Pat is taking the whole drivetrain for his own projects and the rest of the car is being parted and then scrapped. Sad to see it go, as that car gave some great competition for the last 3 seasons of rallycross. Even sadder since Nick replaced it with an e36 M3 that promises to be substantially faster (at least on paper).

Also did some vinyl cutting. Since my number 44 is taken already in almost every rally organization, I picked one that is still on the Rally America "available" list to use (and which is also in sequence with a few other e30 rally cars, just for fun). So, will use this number going forward if I can. Also added some names with my co-driver :)

this is coming a long verrrry nicely! I'm hoping to see you guys in frostburg this year!

You calling yourself "lazy" makes me chuckle...

Ian F wrote: You calling yourself "lazy" makes me chuckle...

Yeah, and makes me feel like a bum

fidelity101 wrote: this is coming a long verrrry nicely! I'm hoping to see you guys in frostburg this year!

Hell yeah...though I don't know if I'll give you the same level of competition that I did at GLDivs a couple years ago, haha....I'm starting to mentally add up all the weight I'm adding to this car for stage and thinking about how little/much it's going to hurt me in rallycross

SHould be a great event though - our region runs a tight ship and we get in a LOT of runs in a big area, generally, with few delays during the day. Hopefully if the national office is running the Eastern States Championship they can run it as efficiently (though somehow I doubt it).

So registration for the Wellsboro Winter Rally (RallySprint) opened today, and wouldn't you know who the first registrants are.....

Getting the gang back together :)

Nothing much new to report right now...just doing little stuff, ordering various other little things (like electrical connectors), and a few add-ons.

One of the things I just got that I really like is this Sabelt co-driver bag. It has velcro straps on the back to strap to the passenger side door bars. Has holders for pencil/pen on the end closest to the codriver, plus a bunch of pockets and stuff....was nice and cheap and will be a good place to stash logbook and other paperwork, route books, etc since we no longer have a glove box.

Also (mostly) finished setting up the dash electrical stuff. Nothing is attached but here's basically what it looks like

And a bit more vinyl....Designed the "team name" with help from my 8-year old daughter and some inspiration from Lemmy (RIP)....so here it is

And, got an argon tank for the welder, and started practicing with gas. So much nicer than flux-core :)

So far about a dozen cars are registered for the rally.....9 of which are 2WD in my class. Guess the AWD guys don't like snow? lol..

While waiting for football to start, I did a bit today building a front fire extinguisher mount. Because of the size of the extinguisher and the orientation, it would have been difficult to bolt it directly to the floorpan or the angled section forward of the seats. So I bridged it up a bit with some steel stock, welded the mount bracket onto that, and attached it to the floor. Probably a it of overkill, but the last thing I want is a fire extinguisher flying around the car, lol.

Added a secondary quick-release strap just in case, though the single steel strap is probably sufficient.

A few little (and big) things came in the mail today:

First, a couple packs of LED strips (red and white), which I'll use for interior and trunk lighting. Will have separate switches so we can have the red on night stages if needed, and white if we need real light. Cheap and easy....we'll see how they turn out. I tested them and they're good brightness for interior stuff.

Also got in a 12-wire plug I ordered off ebay to consolidate all my cluster wires to make install/removal easier. Assembled and everything work. Nice.

Oh, and got five fresh new Altimax Arctics in, after selling my 15" Winterforces. These are said to be better for winter rally (among street snow tires) and 14" is better for wheel selection at the moment.

In reply to irish44j:

I tested my Altimax Arctics yesterday- they perform well in "snow over ice" conditions at least! The weather report shows snow in Wellsboro this week, we'll see what conditions look like as the event gets closer.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: In reply to irish44j: I tested my Altimax Arctics yesterday- they perform well in "snow over ice" conditions at least! The weather report shows snow in Wellsboro this week, we'll see what conditions look like as the event gets closer.

Good to know. Pretty much a moot point here. Unless it's bare gravel/dirt and 40+ degrees, I'm gonna be running the snows. Medium compound DMacks won't be much good in lower temps and will get destroyed...

Aand....as we wait for the big projects in a few days, here's a few more little ones. Detail stuff, stuff that I want to do, stuff that I don't really need to do right now but what the hell. And because I like the little personal/creative touches :)

First, got a box in today from Primitive Racing with my first aid kit and spill kit. Yeah, I know I could have assembled those myself for maybe a few less bucks, but I don't feel like spending an hour in WalMart and the Pharmacy rounding up stuff. Easy button here, and they shipped fast.

So first order of business is to mount the first aid kit. Already had this planned out. Some of you may ask "why in the car instead of the trunk where a lot of people put it?" Well, I figure that any significant injury in the car would likely take place in a rollover or contact with a wall, tree, etc. And if either of those happens, it may not be possible to get the trunk open (Nick couldn't get his open after the truck hit him in the e28). So by putting it here, I'll have better access.

It's not bolted down, but instead held with two high-strength straps running through some individual chain links welded to the bulkhead. Now hindsight is 20-20 but I welded on the links and then remember that's a pop-out panel there held in place with weak tack welds. So had to go around it and tack weld it in place better so the whole panel doesn't pop out. D'oh....but whatever, it's done now.

Project two....in the works. Some ghetto-fabrication using the passenger-side vent assembly and some lexan. This will be used to mount power outlets for Jim's navigation gear (iPad) and phone. Can never have too many power outlets (though an alternator upgrade may be in order in the near future...)

Anyhow, more on that when it's done.

And third....I hate the little twist-knob for the spare tire boltdown. And I want leverage to get it tight. And a support bar for the center of the upper load board (see post last week). Anyhow.....a weld nut, couple washers, some steel stock, and a cut-in-half bushing axle and there it is....

At first I was like why the hell would he put the first aid kit there!? but then..... Sedan.

paperpaper wrote: At first I was like why the hell would he put the first aid kit there!? but then..... Sedan.

yep, and I'll still be able to carry four rally tires in the back seat even once the cage is in

irish44j wrote:

paperpaper wrote: At first I was like why the hell would he put the first aid kit there!? but then..... Sedan.

yep, and I'll still be able to carry four rally tires in the back seat even once the cage is in

trying to come up with a way to have the popout windows be quick release. IFFFFFF i ever get the car back home.

So good mail day today....skidplate arrived from Ben at red46.net.

This is a nice piece.....perfect to the spec I designed. 1/8" stainless, very strong, and really nice looking with good workmanship. In case anyone is wondering, total weight is a shade under 20lbs (compared to 11lbs for my rallycross skid that I've used for 3 years). Will be more once we add the central U-support brace from the frame rails, but that's a bit later.

In any case, red46 builds a number of smaller skids for e30s and other BMWs for rallycross or lowered street cars, so check out the site! Much better than some of the other ones I've seen available for e30s.

So, while I still have to finalize attachment points, I did a test-fit and all is perfect. Some pics, of course..

new vs. old