So, next steps:
-I think I am going to go ahead and order my passenger seat. I sold a transmission over the weekend, so I have some funds for it.
-Borrow some body hammers from dad and work on flattening and closing up the sunroof.
-Make mounts on the seat brackets for the stock seatbelts. (Seems like a harness is basically pointless until I have a cage in it.)
-Figure out the pin-out for the stock dash enough to have Tach, Speed, Temp, Fuel gauges working.
-Add in additional gauges.
-Clean up wiring.
Unfortunately, there will not be much progress this week. I need to sit down and get my tax documents in order to take to my tax guy, then I ned to do brake on the miata and fix the hook latch system and some broken exhaust hangers on my other e28.
I haven't looked at an m30 harness before, but my m42 has a 50 amp fusible link between the ECU and the battery. It's also on a separate power source so it doesn't have any signal issues as I understand it.
In reply to captainawesome :
50 amp seems crazy! At least with the M30 wiring harness there are only 2 power wires going into the ECU, and one of them is not technically necessary. I think I will separate it out to it's on fuse though. Need to get some relays going too.
Not too much progress on Red Betty, but I got some much needed maintenance done on the miata, and fixed the hood latch system on Black Betty.
Gosh that paint is just getting worse and worse. She needs a whole new paint job, done well. She's also getting water into the cabin somehow as the carpets are damp all the time. And there's a hole in the driver's floorboard that I don't know how big it is until I take the carpet out. She needs a full resto-mod. It's going to be a while till I can give her that much love... :/
I did have a bit of fun with Red Betty... (Wasn't actually doing burnouts, just kinda launching it. Pretty sure she's got an LSD. :) )
Great news for Red Betty that I am excited for, is some new (used) parts that will be on the way soon.
There's a guy up in New York I believe that I found on the Facebook e28 group that has been drifting his e28 for a year or two. This winter he is doing a M30B35 turbo swap, and he finally pulled the old engine, which means his parts for an N/A build are up for grabs.
I messaged him to confirm that I got dibs on these parts, and he gave me his price, which I am very happy with! So... As soon as he has them ready to ship I'll have a set of Schmiedmann headers, and a Dinan chip for the ECU coming to me for $350! I am really excited. The Dinan chip they claim is good for +40hp, I have my doubts on 40hp, but apparently it definitely makes a big difference. And the headers, while it means I'll have to re-work the exhaust a bit, they are going to sound soooo good. Plus they'll flow better, which means more power!
Why did you remove all the "drift spec" stickers? How are people supposed to know it's a drift car now? 
In reply to Crackers :
They're still there, just a bad camera angle. They will be coming off at some point though, just not my style.
There's two ways to tell if it's LSD. With both wheels in the air spin one of the wheels. If the other wheel spins in the same direction it's LSD. If it spins in the opposite direction, it's not. The E30 LSDs had an S stamped on the bottom...not sure if that applies to the E38 diffs.
Looks good so far!
The S may be on the top of the diff as well, there also would've been a small metal tag on one of the diff cover bolts that would give you the ratio and if it was limited slip, if it's the stock diff it should be S3.25 on that tag (or just 3.25 if no LSD). You can also run the VIN and see if the limited slip is listed in the options for the car. Jacking the back end up is the easiest way though to find out.
Adam
I got a bunch of parts this week, so given some free time, progress should be coming. Here's what we got:
-Power wire, and battery shutoff switches, so I can hook all that up and get the battery mounted properly in the trunk.
-Wire loom that seems really nice that should clean up the engine harness nicely. Link.
-Trim for the edges of the gutted doors. Link.
-And due in today are my Dinan chip and stainless headers.
I did get a little bit of time on Tuesday and put on some of the door trim. It turned out really well! Both passenger side doors are done.
I haven't figured out the mounting for the front windows yet, which will mostly be for while it's parked or in transit. I plan to remove the front windows for events. Currently the rear windows are held up with some zip ties. Sounds a bit sketchy, but I might just roll with it. There's not going to be a ton of load on them. Will get some pictures later.
Also, progress with no pictures, I have started on my plan for sealing the hole in the roof where the sunroof was.
My original plan was to take the original sunroof panel and some strips of metal to fill the gap and weld it in. In the end, I figured that welding sheet metal was going to suck, welding would warp the roof further, and trying to clamp all that would be a real pain. Also, this is a drift car, so function before looks. I can always clean it up more later.
Now that plan is to take some coil stock that I got for free and cover the hole with that, some silicone and pop rivets. I have the sheet cut to size, so not I'm just prepping the car for it, cleaning the metal edges, and removing the gunk that sealed the sunroof tray to the roof ot the car.
AWSX1686 said:
I haven't figured out the mounting for the front windows yet, which will mostly be for while it's parked or in transit. I plan to remove the front windows for events. Currently the rear windows are held up with some zip ties. Sounds a bit sketchy, but I might just roll with it. There's not going to a ton of load on them. Will get some pictures later
Will the glass or Lexan be removed out the door holes for events? Could you use something like a broomstick with slot for the glass against a dimple in the bottom of the door panel?
As far as securing the lexan windows, I originally used a 1/4" pin with a ball detent through the door:
However, that had a tendency to fall out with vibration and slamming the door. Now I have a 1/4" cotter pin, with the cotter itself between the lexan and the inner door skin. This has been working well, and still allows you to pull the pin when you need to remove the window:
In reply to artur1808 :
I do like that design, so far I am keeping the factory glass, so I am trying to utilize the stock window clamp that the regulator bolts to.
Greg Smith said:
AWSX1686 said:
I haven't figured out the mounting for the front windows yet, which will mostly be for while it's parked or in transit. I plan to remove the front windows for events. Currently the rear windows are held up with some zip ties. Sounds a bit sketchy, but I might just roll with it. There's not going to a ton of load on them. Will get some pictures later
Will the glass or Lexan be removed out the door holes for events? Could you use something like a broomstick with slot for the glass against a dimple in the bottom of the door panel?
Rear glass is staying in. It's slightly too large to be easily removable. Currently my zipties seem to be doing a good enough job for them.
Front glass is planned to be removed for events, so I may very well use some sort of disposeable zip tie mechanism. TBD.
Dude! Thanks for the link to that edge trim! Uncle Ben has a pinch seam all the way around all 4 door sills that's visible from inside with the doors closed and gets capped with something similar.
How well does it hold on it's own? I seem to invariably end up glueing stuff like that on long term.
Crackers said:
Dude! Thanks for the link to that edge trim! Uncle Ben has a pinch seam all the way around all 4 door sills that's visible from inside with the doors closed and gets capped with something similar.
How well does it hold on it's own? I seem to invariably end up glueing stuff like that on long term.
So far it's holding really well on its own. I'm surprised. We'll see how it is after I take it off and back on for paint in the coming months...
AWSX1686 said:
In reply to artur1808 :
I do like that design, so far I am keeping the factory glass, so I am trying to utilize the stock window clamp that the regulator bolts to.
ah okay, yeah it'd be tough to execute that with glass!
So here's the current solution for the rear windows. It's honestly pretty solid, the only part that's a bit weak is the top edge of the door frame flexes, so I might brace that top edge with some angle iron.
Got the coil stock riveted to the roof last night. It's got some ripples that I'm not super happy with, but a couple more rivets and some silicone and it should stay dry at least. Honestly with how the roof panel is, I'm not sure I could've avoided ripples. Also, since it's just a piece of sheet metal that is the roof right now, it can flex a lot, so we'll see how the silicone holds up to that. I think if/when this gets parked outside I'll toss a tarp over it just to be safe. Probably once it's caged I'll revisit the roof.
All 4 doors are now fully gutted and trimmed. No cutting of hands here. Probably.
Vacuumed out the car of all the metal dust from the doors and roof.
Mounted power cutoff switch on the back of true car and started planning out the battery mount/location.
I’m going to use the 4 gauge wire I got for now as the I can use the lugs I already have for true ends and they are cheap. The 0 gauge wire will require beefier lugs, which cost considerably more. The swap to 0 gauge will probably happen eventually, but for now we’ll see how the 4 gauge works, and I’m planning to wire it in such a way that I can easily remove or swap components.
You need the help of a shrinker for the edges of the panel. They will help pull some shape into the panel to let is seal against the roof (which has curvature in two directions). Adding shape to the filler will also give it a little bit of strength to keep it from moving much, but it may oil-can in at speed and stay that way until you push it back up.
I think your sheetmetal is probably too thin of gauge for this application. If it comes in a roll, it's not thick enough. Aluminum sheets around .04 is what's used for circle track panels, and could be found pretty cheap. I'm still debating putting brackets to hold the stock lid of mine for now until I can get a sheet of aluminum that's cheap enough.
I know for the E30 guys that have did the sunroof delete, they'd take an aluminum panel from whatever metal supply store, cute to size and rivet the hell out of it and add silicone.
Then there's some companies that have pre-cut and drilled 0.060" panels for $96 or fiberglass panels for $250. The majority of them, from at least what I've seen, just go the aluminum route because jfc $250 for a panel is ludicrous.
AU
Fiberglass
I've only seen a small few that gutted the original sunroof panel, very slowly welded it back on, body filler to blend, and silicone to protect against leaks.. Honestly looks the cleanest to me, but the most time consuming.
stafford1500 said:
You need the help of a shrinker for the edges of the panel. They will help pull some shape into the panel to let is seal against the roof (which has curvature in two directions). Adding shape to the filler will also give it a little bit of strength to keep it from moving much, but it may oil-can in at speed and stay that way until you push it back up.
That would make sense, unfortunately the roof has so much warping from my hasty work in removing the sunroof, a sheet on top is likely never going to lay perfectly.
