Touring 'clubsport' project - Back on the road after 4 years

[winx]

Got a bit more done, not nearly as much as I would have liked though! First off had to get the daily cleaned, it's being replaced in a month so need it in a decent state for when I chop it in. Will be very pleased to see the back of it as the Guildford and Ace crews will attest to it is truly appalling!


Si gave me the correct spire nuts for the rear heat shield - thanks buddy!


Cleaned and painted the rear beam plates:


installed the fuel tank, hopefully got the connections correct?!


Need to get a new plug for the speed sensor in the diff, any one know the part number?



Built up the new rear diff cover, twin eared from an E36 M3:


I have used a spacer to clear the speedo sender, thanks for the drawing Geoff!


Forgot to buy the gaskets so luckily had some paper in stock:


Not sure if the sender needs a gasket or not?


and built up:


To have a change from mechanical work decided to have a look at what the dash will look like in place:

I have got an alcantara steering wheel ready to go on but driftworks are taking their time delivering the boss and snap off adaptor

Built up the beam and rear arms:


Installed a rear coilover, which is a right royal pain in a touring. I am going to investigate rogue engineering rear top mounts so I don't have to disassemble the boot every time I want to remove them. I forgot to buy helper springs as well so need to get those on before MOT time.


So that's where I am at right now. Slow progress, but progress all the same!

[Taz]

excellent thread

[oguz327]

Wicked progress Henry, all good there

[Jhonno]

Awesomeness much..

[Theo]

Looking good mate!

The speedo sensor doesn't need a gasket but should have an O-ring which fits snugly into the recess on the backplate.

Don't buy helper spring adaptors from Gaz - they are plastic and utter shite. Mine broke in no time.

[Simon13]

all good, will be in for MOT in no time and back down sarf soon!

[winx]

cheers for the encouragement peeps, it is much appreciated!

Got up full of the joys of spring this morning thinking I would get it on the floor today and have it's first wash in 2 years.

So diff onto the rear beam:


Onto the jack and lift it into place:


Got it all bolted up hunky doorey! The difficult part was the brake flexis over the beam. I should have connected them on the chassis end and left the trailing arm end floating, as it is it looks a nightmare to bolt them up but I don't have the clips so can't do it just yet.

Went to bolt up the trailing arms to the dampers and hit a problem

I can't get the damper far enough in towards the car to bolt them up to the trailing arms. On the near side it is miles our, the spring hits the strut tower. On the far side it will bolt up but it is digging into the fuel line cover and I can't put the rose joint spacers on the correct way:



I am absolutely gutted as I won't be seeing the car again for a few months and had really hoped to get it rolling I am hoping that some offset top mounts will sort it.

So pissed off with the rear end I made a start on wiring the dash, I really enjoy making looms and stuff but this was frying my brain a little! I am hoping to make it as plug and play as possible so the old dash can plug straight back in and work with no adjustments.

[bss325i]

Chin up mate, these things happen.

Any joy with a donk? PM me.

[gareth]

looking schweeet! shame about your recent issues though.

I've got Leda coilovers on the rear of my touring and had similar problems with clearance. this is why i made up my custom ones which as a bonus can also be removed from up the wheel arch This is what mine look like:
http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... 42#2151742

you may well want to look at RPM's one as they make an offset mount (i think they copied mine now i think of it ) which will move the spring out away from the inner wheel arch.

Also at the bottom, i modified my spacers to move the bearing outwards.

All told, the shock now sits 5mm further out at top and bottom, just about providing enough clearance. I did have to modify the fuel breather cover plate thingy though.

I wonder if the shape of the arch on a touring differs to a saloon here, maybe due to the rollover hoop?

Oh and yes, an 'O' ring is needed around the speedo sender

[winx]

Cheers for the feedback Gareth. I'll give Jimmy a shout and see if he has any. With the fuel breather cover plate was it just a 'bash it inwards' or was there more involved?

Got more electrickery done today. First up finished the wiring for the dash, I havent connected any sensors yet as the stock ones will need resistors and I forgot to buy any! - Hence the ridiculous readings! But it works and sits properly, I spent ages working on the viewing angle as it needs to be something like 12 degrees downwards from straight at you... I also can't decide to leave the carbon bare or lacquer it, would probably look better shiny but not sure if it would reflect too much in the sun...

These Dash2 units need a 0.5amp fuse. I decided to use a circuit breaker instead so found a small one on RS and that is what you can see on the left of the unit.

Further back view. The thingy in front of the ash tray displayed a few other temperatures so is now pretty much redundant... I am going to remove it and put the headunit there when I get time. I want to use the headunit slot for some aux switches but would like to retain a headunit for occasional road use.


Finished up the steering wheel loom so I can fit it all up when the hub adaptors arrive. I was thinking of using a lifeline snap off hub with all the connections built into it ala current F1 cars. After discussing with a mate though he said it would look far cooler if I had a telephone cable to the steering wheel like the rally cars so obviously that is what I decided to do! I need to sort a hook up by the rear view mirror to hang the steering wheel when it is removed. There is a deutsche (sp?) connector on it so that I can take the steering wheel with me for added security:


Whilst I had the soldering iron out I wired in the e36 window switches I bought from DanThe


And fitted:


The previous pic reminded me that I need to fit my matching passenger seat at some stage, these are so comfy and brilliant at holding my fat ass in place on track!


I am off back to London tomorrow so that will be it on the updates front for a while. It has been great to actually move the car on a bit this week though! It is the first time in ages I have been up to Derbyshire to spend some time working on the car and actually managed it

[winx]

Looking good mate!
Don't buy helper spring adaptors from Gaz - they are plastic and utter shite. Mine broke in no time.

Cheers - Any pointers to a good supplier?

[gareth]

Cheers for the feedback Gareth. I'll give Jimmy a shout and see if he has any. With the fuel breather cover plate was it just a 'bash it inwards' or was there more involved?

I actually had to replace the large rubber breather hose inside as it had turned to compost so i replaced it with a smaller diameter copper pipe and bashed / trimmed the (rusty / manky) cover to suit. The downside is slow filling for petrol as it keep bubbling up the neck but as i'm on LPG 95% of the time this doesn't bother me.
If you're not running an interior, it's supposedly possible to relocate the lines inside the car? By moving / replacing the exit to the steel pipe that's welded into the floor.

[B7]

'Kin 'ell. All a bit hight tech innit?

[Theo]

Looking good mate!
Don't buy helper spring adaptors from Gaz - they are plastic and utter shite. Mine broke in no time.

Cheers - Any pointers to a good supplier?

No! I still have my damaged ones fitted

[winx]

If you're not running an interior, it's supposedly possible to relocate the lines inside the car? By moving / replacing the exit to the steel pipe that's welded into the floor.

Thanks for that, I will have a look into it when I next see the car. Such a shame I didn't think about the before installing everything, not sure i have the energy to remove everything if that is what is needed to rerun the breathers!!!

Just want to get it on the road/track

[winx]

'Kin 'ell. All a bit hight tech innit?

Absolute and utter overkill bud but then i like toys...

[winx]

was oop north last weekened for a wedding and managed to spend a couple of hours on the touring.

Relocated the stereo to the bottom of the centre console. When I have a helmet on this area is not in my field of vision, since I won't be using a stereo on track this was the best place for it freeing up the normal place for switches etc


My snap off hub for the steering wheel finally arrived so installed that as well. I went for this one as it is ball bearings and supposedly self adjusting so there wont be any play in it.

And as I was leaving my offset rear topmounts arrived so I will be fitting those next time I am up there.

Fitted


removed

[Simon13]

holy moly! thats a hell of alot of gadgets for a wagon sporting an M30! good contrast though innit.

[Dezzy]

Fooking Hell!

Great work mate.

Didn't you buy that E36 backing plate off my M3 Diff that Gareth rebuilt for me?

I was watching this thread for the first 2 pages and lost it somehow. Cracking graft i say.

[winx]

Yup that's your old backplate mate. Hopefully will be doing sterling work for me

[bss325i]

Cracking work Henry. Any joy on the search?

[Dezzy]

Yup that's your old backplate mate. Hopefully will be doing sterling work for me

What solution did you come up with for a manual box on the lexus Donk?

[winx]

What solution did you come up with for a manual box on the lexus Donk?

Never did to be honest!

Barry - I visited Pete at the weekend and we chatted about breaking a full car to get one... ears to the ground please!

[Dezzy]

What solution did you come up with for a manual box on the lexus Donk?

Never did to be honest!

Barry - I visited Pete at the weekend and we chatted about breaking a full car to get one... ears to the ground please!

Its a mare. I wish it was easy

[winx]

It is sort of why I have steered away from it, other options seem to offer more bang for the buck.

I am set on a v8 of some description though, I have spent the last 4 days careering round in this:



The sound alone is worth the purchase price! It is my absolute favourite car at the moment

[Dezzy]

as fook.


Its a case of paying a joker over here massive $$$ for a bell housing adaptor, hydrolic release bearing and flywheel. Bad times. Or take your chances with some far eastern, open cast, bell housing. Even worse times.

Been on the Aus forums and its no cheaper once you get the kit here.

For that sort of money and effort you could easly do S54 imo

[Jhonno]

Loves it...

You so need something cooler/better than an M30 under the bonnet though..

[Dezzy]

Loves it...

You so need something cooler/better than an M30 under the bonnet though..

Doesnt it deserve soooooo much more??

[bss325i]

Barry - I visited Pete at the weekend and we chatted about breaking a full car to get one... ears to the ground please!

You had the grand tour then?

I will keep an eye out.

[winx]

So haven't done much on this for aaagggeeeess

Finally got it on the ground and on it's wheels. The inside of the garage was repainted last month so the painters needed to push it from one end to the other! Took it outside for it's first wash in over 2 years


Took a snap of the toy and the daily:


Moving on to the front end now the arches looked like this:


After a lot of scrubbing, new wishbones and treehouse racing bushes:

Ignore the struts and springs, once I have finished spending on the new bathroom I will be buying some front coilovers.

And after chatting with the boys at Ace I bought these from BMW, they are the reinforcement plates that go from the inner wing to the turrets on cabs. When the engine comes out and the bay is repainted I will weld these in:


So some progress but as usual it is slooooooww

[Rav335uk]

Those are for Cabs

[winx]

yup, sorry missed that bit of info out of the post! Not 100% sure they will make a big difference but we shall see. Just wish I had done it before I stripped the n/s corner for cleaning

[Jhonno]

So some progress but as usual it is slooooooww

Got the part numbers dude?

[Jozi]

Slow but progress all the same!

Are the reinforcement plates worth getting? I priced them up but decided I have higher priority things to get for my touring project. Mine will just be a daily/weekend car to enjoy with some spirited driving and a nice power upgrade and coils.

[winx]

Number 9:

http://bmwfans.info/parts/catalog/E30/C ... y_bracket/
41 14 1 943 223
41 14 1 943 224

They were £11 ish each but you probably get a better discount than me!