My Track Toy Build

[MrBenn]

Thought I'd document the build of my new track car for a bit of fun. I've just booked a track day at Castle Combe for the 1st of May and I've basically got the whole car to build!
I have most of the components from my last track car which I raced in the pbmwc for most of last season. Unfortunately I got hit whilst driving on the road by an lorry which mashed up the whole rear quarter, and also smashed the front end up in my last race. The car was in a sorry state and when the MOT ran out I decided to scrap it and start again.
The end spec will be:
325i with a good service
Safety devices B6 roll cage.
GAZ gold Coilovers front and rear
Black compound polybushes for the rear trailing arms, subframe, front arb and diff bush, M3 solid eccentric front lollipop bushes.
4.1 LSD
Z3 or E46 Steering rack
Braided hoses all round
Rear brake-balance adjuster
Pagid rs29 Front pads, EBC yellows rear
Miltek exhaust
Toyo R888's
Single Cobra Evo-s bucket seat with 6 point harness.
Fire extinguisher and Electrical cut-off with switches inside and out.

It was a beauty of a day today, so I got out there and started on the seemingly endless list of jobs that need doing. Here are some photos to whet your appetite


mmm beige



I've chopped the same section out of an e30 I just scrapped so fingers crossed the repair shouldn't be too hard.....fingers crossed

Dirty old drum brake and small case open diff setup


Offending item removed

Front control arms and anti roll bar removed
That's all for today, most jobs were easy enough but the rear beam gave up a pretty good fight as usual
Will update as work progresses, hopefully tomorrow

[punk_sy]

nice little collection there mate should be a beast when done . nice deadline aswell

[Jim78]

Keep the pics coming....

[MrBenn]

nice little collection there mate should be a beast when done . nice deadline aswell

Cheers mate. Yeah I like a challenge!
There's lots that's not essential to have done before Combe, but some jobs, like the steering rack would be silly not to do now whilst the engine's out. It needs a respray inside and out but I'm planning on having a crack at that too as its only a track car.
Got a few jobs done today. A bit more stripping of interior and some cleaning of the engine bay. Nothing worth photographing.

[rix313]

Nice one

I'm only down tha road in Westbury. Be cool to come have a look

[MrBenn]

Nice one

I'm only down tha road in Westbury. Be cool to come have a look

Your more than welcome to come have a gander, although you may want to wait till the more exciting stuff starts. You wouldn't know anyone in the area that could do a cheap (and I mean cheap) respray do you?
Alex

[StuBeeDoo]

I've just booked a track day at Castle Combe for the 1st of May and I've basically got the whole car to build!

That's a challenge! Good luck with it.

Flippin' 'eck! I thought mine was bad, but it's nowhere near that.

[MrBenn]

I don't think I've still got the photo, but when I bought the car, there was a massive bit of what looked like seat foam stuffed into the hole!! lol

[LeonNewton]

[quote I thought mine was bad, but it's nowhere near that.[/b][/quote]

+1

[rix313]

Nice one

I'm only down tha road in Westbury. Be cool to come have a look

Your more than welcome to come have a gander, although you may want to wait till the more exciting stuff starts. You wouldn't know anyone in the area that could do a cheap (and I mean cheap) respray do you?
Alex

Spot on! look forward to it.

If there is I'd like to know too, my paint work is awful lol, will have a search.

[MrBenn]

Did a bit of work on the car today, removed the steering rack and pipe work, brake servo and master cylinder, stripped off all the sound deadening in the engine bay and found this




I knew there was a leak but FFS! There's also a few small holes inside the scuttle by the windscreen wiper motor, but some anti rust gunk and silicone sealant should sort those out

[LeonNewton]

re shell FTW

[nickso]

indeed. anything around the heater box is doom for an e30 IMO. i only just managed to save mine although it was nowhere near as bad as that.

[jbh]

as I've said for years.. the water sits behind the sound deadening and rots the car behind there unseen... needles to say when I'm changing the engine on my sport it will be loosing all of its from in the engine bay

[MrBenn]

Got a bit more stripping done at the weekend, removed all the sound deadening, removed the dash and heater box and removed the brake box thing so I could fully investigate the rust.




A bit of rust here that I hadn't noticed before.


There are some nice bits


I picked up a standard e36 (3.4 turns) rack today and decided to have a go at bending the standard e30 pipes to fit, as I'd read quite a few other people had done it. I thought it was going to be a real PITA but it turned out to be pretty easy and took less than an hour. Just heated the pipes up and bent them. The bottom pipe is really easy, the top one a bit harder. I test fitted it in the car and it looks like everything will be fine. Just need to make up the spacers to mount it and then sort out the steering joint.





Next jobs on the list:
Chop out the rust and cut new plates to be welded in.
The roll cage fitting kit is due this week, as long as that turns up I can rent a welder for the weekend and get the holes patched up and the cage mounting points welded in.

I've changed my mind and I'm not putting a 325 in there now, thought an S14 might me a bit more fun

[jbh]

holy sh*t ive scrapped better

[MrBenn]

holy sh*t ive scrapped better

Yeah that is going to be 'fun'

......you should have seen my last track car

[rix313]

Tha amount of odd shaped day light in the foot wells is comical!

[MrBenn]

So a bit of an update is due! I got the car finished in time...JUST! Missed half of the day at Combe on Friday but managed to get three 15min session in the afternoon so all was not lost. Followed round the pbmwc lads for a few laps to remind myself how it goes and then went round them and set a new personal best - 1.23 dead. As mentioned in another thread, all went fine apart from a small hole in the sump, probably on my last lap, caused by some idiot leaving a bolt on the front of the e36 rack and it rubbing against the back of the sump! Chemical metal to the rescue!

Here are some photos of the work over the last few weeks.

E36 rack bits and bobs, decided to get Pirtek to make me up a pipe rather than run my home-bent one. Also got a local machine shop to make me up a solid steering donut and some 13.5mm spacers for mounting the rack (£10 for the lot!)







Then onto some very basic service work, replaced the spark plugs, sump gasket, oil filter, drained all the oil from the cooler, replaced the exhaust gaskets, painted the exhaust manifold (just so it doesn't look minging) and fitted new engine mounts.









Then it was on to making the old girl a bit more water/air tight Some really bad welding, followed by over zealous use of P40 filler and some black hammerite, you'd never know


This was smothered in p40 to make it water tight.....lovely!







Then the rear beam. New black powerflex bushes for everything and a lick of black paint. Got a 4.1 lsd, although I think a 3.9 would have been better for combe and just using the same disks and pads as was on my old track car, ebc disks and yellow pads.






Then dropped the engine in. Fitted a Z3 short shifter kit. Painted the engine bay black. Fitted seat, harness, dash, steering wheel etc







Then spent 24 hours trying everything to get the engine to run.....including cutting out the fuse box and soldering in a new one which didn't cure anything




And the S14 is here, but I want to do some service work on it before taking it on track.


I've also just put down a deposit on an m3 shell so the s14 will be going into its rightful home in a few weeks/months.

Jobs left to do, re-spray inside and out, black inside, army green (satin) outside, and I'm still deciding if I'm going to put the cage in. Could do with some new tyres, these have had 8 races, plus a few track days and plenty of road use, and I'm thinking about an uprated front anti-roll bar but after the fight I had fitting this one with the powerflex bushes, I'm thinking it could be fine left as it is!

And for good measure, a picture of me looking like a gimp driving round combe

[rix313]

And for good measure, a picture of me looking like a gimp driving round combe

EDIT: Damn you for changing it lol



Have to let me know what the black bushes are like. I've got purple on mine or going on mine.

What strut tops are you usin?

[MrBenn]

Have to let me know what the black bushes are like. I've got purple on mine or going on mine.

What strut tops are you usin?

We should have a good idea if there is any difference after the weekend, my mate is running purple on his and I expect we'll have a go in each others to see if there are differences, he's running an e36 rack but without the pump or pipework, a 3.9lsd, and purple bushes, other than that they are identical.

The front suspension top mounts are these ones

[JimmyC]

Alex you've been hanging around with James too much ;)

Good to see you still have the aviators, whens your first TTRS outing?

[MrBenn]

Alex you've been hanging around with James too much ;)

Good to see you still have the aviators, whens your first TTRS outing?

Yeah still rocking the aviators

TTRS - I am just weighing it up at the minute. I need to find out if there are any spaces for the rest of the races this year, do you know, or know who to ask? Only need to put the cage, fx and leccy cut off's and I'm ready to race!
P.s do you have my trophy from last year - Best bodger!

[JimmyC]

Yep trophy at my house

TTRS if you enter you should get to race, we are always buying more grids so we can get as many people out as possible.

If your quick you'll probably get a space at snet on the 13/14th June as we are likely to be getting an extra grid there for TTRS- email info@p8r.co.uk and send a form and cheque in.

[MrBenn]

Yep trophy at my house

TTRS if you enter you should get to race, we are always buying more grids so we can get as many people out as possible.

If your quick you'll probably get a space at snet on the 13/14th June as we are likely to be getting an extra grid there for TTRS- email info@p8r.co.uk and send a form and cheque in.

Excellent, I'm glad someone has it. I may ask if you can take it to snet to give to James or Tim, at least then it'll be in the right neck of the woods.

Snet is way too far away and I need a break from working on this car! But I do love Cadwell Park, so you never know

[rix313]

How easy are the rear sub frames to drop out? I've got a new diff coming and if its easy enough to drop the frame I'll do that and get some poly bushes for it.

[MrBenn]

Not that easy, but chances are your old bushes will be fcuked so worth doing anyway, and fitting the new diff when its on the floor is about 100x easier than trying to do it laying on your back under the car, which is a real git.
Basically just unbolt everything, take out the rear seat and hit the bolts that go through the subframe back up into the car, undo the handbrake lines, brake lines and speed sensor on the diff and the whole rear beam will probably just stay in position, you have two options stand on the disk/drum and jump up and down or slam the trailing arms up and down a few times till they drop. Re-fitting is a bit easier. Old subframe bushes can be removed with a three leg puller and a blow torch, the new ones just push in.

[rix313]

Where's the best place for the axel stands on the back when bouncing up and down to remove it.

Doesn't sound too much like a mission.

[MrBenn]

I think I just put mine on the sill in front of the subframe bracket.........didn't have an engine in the car when I was fitting mine, and lots of stuff in the boot......lent on the boot and the whole car started doing a speed boat impression and nearly came off the stands Be careful!

[rix313]

Do you know any one with a car trailer I can borrow/rent?

[MrBenn]

Do you know any one with a car trailer I can borrow/rent?

No sorry mate. Its something I will be looking into in the near future though. I don't mind driving it to the closer tracks/races but it only takes one little hickup and you don't have a way of getting home! Unfortunately I need to go and do my trailer license, buy a tow vehicle and a trailer... Not cheap! Might go down the transit transporter route instead.
Is your track toy not road legal then?

[rix313]

Well I'm not insured on it or I wont be when I want to use it in a month or two.

I got a quote though, Sydenhams in Frome rent them for £36+ VAT for 24hrs, which isnt too bad, cheaper than me insuring and taxing it.

[GeoffBob]

Rix313, I had a look at your build on your site: http://www.visionracingdevelopments.co.uk/

Nice work mate!

[rix313]

Thank you very much

[MrBenn]

Nice to meet you on Saturday Richard, sorry I didn't have more time to chat. We'd wasted some time in the morning mucking about with the red one so we were trying to get as much track time as poss in the afternoon. Let me know the details of the combe track day your doing, I may well join you