E30 Zone

Sorry for the length of this first post

This is my build diary from another site I use thought I would share with you.

Some pictures of my new project

Needs a bloody good clean but here you go






Have brought a M-Tec 2 rear spoiler to go on and have a list of mods I want to add to it more details as I add these
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Well the plans (so far) are as follows:

Fit a set of coilovers
Better tyres and maybe a bigger set of wheels
ARB
Polybushes
New seat
Harness
A smaller steering wheel (The original is Huge!!!)

Get on track again!!!!

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More bits arrived this morning

M-Tec 2 rear spoiler





And my Spax shocks that I brought from the Autosport show



I have ordered a full Polybush set for the car and Front and Rear adjustable Antiroll bars.

This little lot should make the old Bm handle a lot better

Bring on the trackdays!!
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First delivery of Polybushes arrived today courtesy of Fast Eddy



The collection of parts just seems to keep growing!!
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Spent the last few days fitting some of the parts that I have aquired.

First thing we did was to strip down the front suspension this accually went quite smoothly and within a hour we had the front strut out of the passenager side and on the bench ready to strip down, the shock and spring on this side was knakered to say the least, as we compressed the spring the shock compressed at he same time not releasing the pressure on the spring we had to almost completely compress the spring before we we able to relase the shock.

Then removing the shock from the strut there is a screw in fitting at the top of the strut and this was rusted to hell we were thinking this is never going to move so out came the trusty WD40 and soaking this fitting we left it for a while and attacked it with a pair of stilsons and it moved straight away and unscrewed completly fine couldn't believe it this has probably been there for 20 years and undone like it had just been done up.

Once undone the shock pulls out of the strut then all the shock oil came out as well! Think it had been leaking but was traped in the strut. Fitting the new shock was easy push in screw up fitting the new spring was even eaiser as they were so much shorter than the original it could be done up without compressing the spring. (This is where I made a mistake as putting it back together I refitted the original bump stop this came back to bite me later.)

To the front wishbone and I pretty much followed exactly how Sidewaysfletch did his, cut out the front rear bush with a hacksaw cut off the inner sleave with a grinder then cut a slot in the outer sleave with a hacksaw then colapse with a hammer and chisel and push in the new one with a vice (forgotten how many times I lined it up before pushing it on )

I brought new anti roll bar links for the front but I pushed the bushes out of these and fitted the poly bushes supplied by Fasteddy

This was the time we removed the drivers side strut and again had all the same issues but having done it once we knew how to get over them. Out with the old anti roll bar in with the new Whiteline 24mm antiroll bar the worst part of fitting this was trying to get the new poly bushes to fit in the mounts a little persuation and they were home.

Fitting the struts back was next and fitting everything else back.

Wheels on and drop down I was keen to see how low it would sit with a 40mm drop

It was lower but not as low as I had expected.

On to the rear and this was where I hit on a problem as I don't have a pillar lift I didn't feel safe dropping the rear beam with the car on axle stans so at the moment all I have done is fit the rear shocks and springs

This was pretty easy as with the car fully jacked up the spring only needed a little compression to get out and to remove the shock is just 3 bolts. I had new top mounts for the rear so a few pieces had to be removed from the old shock then fitted on the new and straight back on the car.

Wheels on and the car back on the floor the rear looked to sit lower than the front anyway time for a test. What a hard ride got back and the rear seemed to have settled even more then as you have probably guessed we realised that the front was accually running on the bump stops

Jacked up the car and with a little help from Mr Stanley and his knife the bump stops were removed.

With the car back on the floor it sat a lot flatter and now with a few tweeks of the suspension a hard but much improved ride.

All I have to do now is fit the rear anti roll bar and the rear poly bushes.

I'll put some pics up later
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Before



After


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Rear strut


Front strut (just noticed the Abs wire is rubbing on the tyre!)


Polybushes, New droplinks and Whiteline Arb

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Just got some 16" wheels for the bm just need to get some tyres now.



Cost £120
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Rear seat is now out along with the parcel shelf, rear seat belts, rear blind, rear speakers, rear quarter panels and all sound deadening from under the seat.

It's not actually as loud as you would think.

Would think everything i have removed would add up to about 100kg maybe a bit more.

Get some lighter seats in there and loose a few of the other heavy parts and should have saved quite a bit of weight.
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Got the next week off work so going to fit the Rear bushes, ARB, Diff mount and the Stainless brakelines work starts tomorrow and hope to have it all done but Wed as it is the Bigpower Autotest night at Snetterton

Also got a few little bit today (Steering wheel boss and harness mounts)

And so it begins!!!
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Some updates for you that I forgot to copy over to here from BP

RobCallow wrote:A little Update

Car has lost a little more weight (got a big pile of E30 in my garage now )

Still need better brakes, tyres a seat and harness but things keep croping up so can't buy them just yet

After buying a set of 16" wheels for the car I have changed my mind and now looking to put 15" wheels on the car.

Got a few issues with the electrics on the car think there is a bad earth somewhere as I get some weird things happen every now and again.

Apart from that not a lot to report.

RobCallow wrote:Right been on a bit of a spending spree

New discs ordered from GSF (Zimmermann X drilled)


Some 20mm wheel spacers to fit my 16" wheels and some wider tyres


Got 4 New Toyo T1-R tyres (205/45/16) being fitted Mon morning

Eddy is getting me a set of EBC yellwstuff pads and better brake fluid

So with all them fitted I may be able to keep the old girl on the Track and not halfway across the grass!!

RobCallow wrote:New tyres are now on What a differance the old girl accually wants to go round corners now

Just got to get the new brakes fitted then I think I'm starting to get somewhere with it

Looking at how far the car has come I'm quite pleased with myself as most of the work has been carried out by me.

Jobs done:

Fitted suspension
Fitted polybushes
Fitted stainless brakelines
Fitted new Antiroll bars front and rear
Fitted new tyres
Removed carpet, rear seats and other non required items

Jobs to do:

Fit Brake discs and pads
Get the geometry set up
Remove sound deadening tar
Remove more weight
Buy and Fit Bucket seat
Buy and Fit a Rollcage

Then maybe:

Lightweight bonnet and bootlid
Respray the car!!

I'm sure loads more little jobs will crop up on the way.

Picked up Brake pads and fluid today so hope to get the brakes fitted over the weekend
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New Zimmermann X drilled Discs and Yellowstuff Pads Fitted.

Just got to Flush out the old brake fluid and fill with Race brake fluid.




How the Car is Looking now


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Got a bit of an Ebay bargain the other day 2 brand new 3" Sabelt 4 point harnesses for £135

Fitted 1 today and will finish the other tomorrow also had a crack at removing some of the sound deadening tar but my blow torch run out of gas so will have another go at this tomorrow as well.
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Sound deadening is out Not as bad a job as I was expecting it to be.

Centre console has completly gone now along with a shed load of wire!!

Got about 3 very small areas of rust that will need sorting other than that all good
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First track session today since the the lastest mods and the car performed superb.

Really happy with how it went just a few more little tweeks and it will be a serious track car. Car felt well balenced and when it did start to go it was easily corrected.

Rich seemed to be impressed with the old girl.

The second session I had went even better I had alot more confidence in the car and was pushing alot harder into the corners than previously and it stuck to the track well only a couple of moments but thats all about learning a new car just need more track time now to get use to it.

Also brought 2 OMP Record 2 seats this afternoon off Ebay so get them fitted and it's almost there.

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Omp Record 2 seats





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Test fitted the seat

Currently you sit about 4 1/2 inches lower in the car, may have to raise it slightly but really happy with how it fits





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Some video from Snetterton on Dec 7th







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Pics by Sam











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Trackday booked for Feb 8Th

Got a few things to do before hand

Welding (got a few holes to fill)
Fit both seats to car
Weld in a bar to attach/ wrap the harnesses to
Hope to be able to make and fit some aluminiun doorcards
Give the old girl a service

Think that will be it for this one but have a few other plans

Fit a checker plate floor in both front footwells
Re-route the brake lines and fit a bias valve ane refill with race fluid
Paint the inside of the car with Hammerite
Fit a dead pedal next to the clutch
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Both front seats and harnesses are now fitted ready for Sun.

Just need to give the car a service and all good to go.
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New Track Spec

wiked write up buddy. she needs a cage though ;)

just out of interest what tyres you running?

Car is an ongoing project a cage is on the list of things to do.

Currently running Toyo T1R's but looking to get some R888's

A few pics from Sunday at Snetterton

those tires above killed my formula ford, i wasn't driving it though my dad was!
came back with only 2 corners still attached and not much bodywork left, funny thing was i warned him that they were in a bad place and if he was to spin don't do it on that corner hahaha, luckily i was in the pub when he sheepishly rang to tell me what he had done,

How is are the poly bushes? I have them on the rear of mine, really wana get the fronts done too.

What spax are they? I've got PSX adjustable stiffness on mine.

Sweet looking car

rix313 wrote:How is are the poly bushes? I have them on the rear of mine, really wana get the fronts done too.

What spax are they? I've got PSX adjustable stiffness on mine.

Sweet looking car

I have found the polybushes really good but I never really drove the car without so can't real compare to standard. I know alot of people don't like them but I have no complaints

The Spax are Psx

Fantastic write up, Plenty off good info there!

How long has it taken so far? I've got plan's like that for mine. Let me guess... The rust is in the front footwells???

What's a dead peddle?

SteSE wrote:Fantastic write up, Plenty off good info there!

How long has it taken so far? I've got plan's like that for mine. Let me guess... The rust is in the front footwells???

What's a dead peddle?

Been a bit of an on /off project for about a year now but the car is now off the road so will be getting the full track spec asap.

The rust is alittle in the drivers footwell (about the size of a 50p) A bit in the boot and 2 small patches in the rear footwells thats it.

A dead pedal is a plate next to the clutch to put my foot on when not changing gear.

I see.

Have you got a LSD fitted, that will shave some time off of your lap times. I can't watch any of the video's on this PC so will have till wait till the weekend

Mine's been in the Garage since June and has got as far as being stripped and thats it

Videos are not great to be honest as they were taken on my warm up session and then the battery died on the camera.

No LSD yet another item on the list to buy!!

More weight removed!!

Headlights, Foglights, Front and rear Bumper inners removed, front and rear bumper shocks removed.

I was going to fit a fibre glass bonnet to cut down on weight but I'm now going to cut out as much weight as I can from the one I have and refit using bonnet pins. Front and rear bumpers will be refitted using bonnet pins aswell.

How did you remove the sound deadening & how did you remove the bumper inners?

The sound deadening was removed with a blowtorch and a scraper and came off really easily it was a job that I was dreading doing as I had read that it was a real pain in the ass but it only took me about 2 hours to remove all of the sound deadening from the car!!

The bumper inners I removed by taking off the black inserts on the bumper and removing the clips that hold the inner on I have left the corner brakets on and I'm going to fit 2 bonnet pins through the bumper to hold them on.

A blowtorch-seriously?

Are you sure you don't mean a heat gun?

moggy wrote:A blowtorch-seriously?

Are you sure you don't mean a heat gun?

Yes I used a blowtorch a heat gun would do the same job melt the tar and then scrape it off you don't need a lot of heat and it peels straight off.

Worst bit is the bit over the tunnel it is twice as thick as all the rest.

Were your roll bars on full stiff in those pics? Looks to be rolling quite a bit still! Nice write up though mate. You have any issues with cooking the brakes? I'm running completely standard brakes with ap racing 660fluid and some ducting. First track day I did I cooked the brakes when I had no brake cooling, even with race fluid. Also, an LSD completely transforms the car, you can properly get on it and actually get out of corners!

geoffrey wrote:Were your roll bars on full stiff in those pics? Looks to be rolling quite a bit still! Nice write up though mate. You have any issues with cooking the brakes? I'm running completely standard brakes with ap racing 660fluid and some ducting. First track day I did I cooked the brakes when I had no brake cooling, even with race fluid. Also, an LSD completely transforms the car, you can properly get on it and actually get out of corners!

Arb's The rear is on the middle setting so I have got an option to go to the hardest setting. Front is non adjustable.
Shocks are still not full set up yet I did set them harder later in the day and the car seemed to handle alot better.
As for the brakes when I first got the car it had total standard brakes and the first trackday I did I cooked the brakes in 4 laps So i changed the front discs to Zimmermann X drilled ang Ebc Yellow pads as well as fitting Braided hosed all round and using Millers race fluid and the last day I had no fade at all for the whole day

LSD and Cage both on wish list just got to wait for the funds and to find a Lsd at the right price.

Lastest pics of the front end (Headlight removal and bumper refitted with bonnet pins) and a couple of vids from Feb Trackday (Early morning session)

Any reason why you removed the head lights? Just curious.

Can you get some pics of how you clipped the front bumper on? Whats the advantage of doing this?

Couldnt get me a pic of inside the junction box for your battery to rear set up could you

Small point; you said :
"Once undone the shock pulls out of the strut then all the shock oil came out as well!"

That wasn't the shock oil! You're supposed to put 30-40 ccs of motor oil into the strut with the insert - it helps conduct heat away from the shock, making the damping more consistent and extending the shock's life.

Better get some in there then!! Thanks

Just a little update to this as I have not added to it for a while.

Today I managed to buy an LSD (3.73) for £150 so that is the next thing to go on the car.

I also managed to buy a full genuine Zender bodykit for £50 I think i'm only going to use the side skirts and the rear valence though as I have fitted an M3 lip to the front.

I have been reading the 2.8 upgrade on Wiki and I think this is a route that I'm going to go with this project.

Your car looks good!

rix313 wrote: Can you get some pics of how you clipped the front bumper on? Whats the advantage of doing this?

x 2

Quite simple really I removed the bumper inner and kept the two side mounting points and fixed two bonnet catches through the front valence and through the bumper. I'm not 100% happy with the fit but they work and when I get a chance I will improve on the mounts.

I will take some pics when I can (I came off my motorbike so not very agile at the moment!)

After over a year out of the car due to my motorbike related injuries I thought I should update this a bit!!

(Copied from another thread)

Trackday booked for 14th April 2011 at Snetterton on the new 300 curcuit got a few little bits to do before then!!

LSD to be fitted I have refurbed it just waiting for a gasket from BMW to arrive on Fri then it can go on.





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Charged the battery and fired the old girl up today!!

Started first time - not bad considering it has stood for nearly a year!

Diff is all back together and filled with oil just need to fit it on now also while I was having a look at some of the spares I have collected I found that one of the old air boxes had a JR cotton panel filter in it (Same sort as a K&N) so gave that a clean up and fitted.

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LSD is fitted

Took me best part of 2 days to get it fitted!!

New water pump Check
New fan belt x2 Check
New Oil and Filter Check

Just got to sort the drop link mount as one has completly broken off!!

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Excited and a little nervous not used the car on track for about a year and now got to learn the new curcuit!!

Drop link mounts are being made as we speak Quite handy sometimes having an engineering team at work!!

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The diff has transformed the car so much quicker now.

The new curcuit is superb the new infield is really quite quick the only corner I was having trouble with is the hairpin at Sears just couldn't get that one right, I was getting way too much understeer. It has highlighted the fact i need to get some proper trackday rubber on the car though. My new fav corner though has to be Oggies hard on the brakes turn in and then flatout you can get so much speed out of there it's silly then it takes you to corner at the top of the straight.

I managed to wear out the pads on the rear they are right down to the metal!!!

Overall a very good day even if it did have about 300 Red flags during the day mostly down to the Caterham boys testing for the weekend and falling off track!!

Got to have a bit of an 80's battle with a couple of 205's and a couple of porsches which was good even managed to pass a couple of Scoobies so must of been going quite well!!

Pictures by Tony Harrison

nice project, but still needs a bit lowering

priediic wrote:nice project, but still needs a bit lowering

Just what I was thinking - time to ditch the cheap 'fast road' suspension and fit/build some proper coilovers.
Photographers should not be able to see daylight under your car unless they are lying on the grass

New (Trackday) tyres
Cage
Coilovers
Adjustable topmounts

All on the shopping list

Hi, we've just started a track-car project that for this season will be very similar to yours, can I ask how you've got the harnesses fitted? Are you using the rear seat-belt points in the back and the seat subframe for the side belts or do you have eye-bolt plates welded in?

Cheers

Please, please fit a cage if you are going to have harnesses. IF your car rolls over, you will be seriously injured unless you have a cage fitted (if using a harness). Even a simple bolt in half cage is better than no cage at all.

The harnesses can be easily attached to eyelets screwed into the rear seatbelt bolt holes (at the base of the rear seat).

seconded.

going on track with what is a road car is madness.

you really need to have a cage for lots of reasons...safety, safety and safety also helps to stiffen the car too. I have seen a few incidents now where cars have no cages and its not pretty. 2 guys killed in one incident.

if you go for harnesses then do not use the eyelet holes in the back seat as the angle of the harness is too acute and causes spinals issues. you need to make sure the harness is at 90 degrees over the body so better to have on a cage harness bar or on top of the original back seat mount area on top.

I would also look to ditch the glass and go polycarb to help reduce weight as well as remove the shatter potential.

make sure you have a fire extinguisher and quick release buckles on the harness.

track day tyres are good but you will need o uprate your brakes first as you will be carrying more speed around as a result of them. get brake cooling/ducts sorted out too.

have a look at my e30 in the members gallery which has been well sorted for track days. there really is no such thing as a cheap track day car!!

DC

I now have this to fit



I need to remove the sunroof cassette to get it to fit but will be alot safer with this fitted

Next trackday is booked for 17th Aug at Snetterton but don't think I will have time to get the cage in before this.

RobCallow wrote:I now have this to fit



I need to remove the sunroof cassette to get it to fit but will be alot safer with this fitted

Next trackday is booked for 17th Aug at Snetterton but don't think I will have time to get the cage in before this.

Nice