Started turning wrenches on the car last night. I pulled a few parts off.
So far it looks like i will be replacing the entire core support.
318IS to SE30 build thread
silence
#41
Matt_H
#42
No need to replace it. Just pull it back roughly into place. It doesn’t serve any structural purpose anyway. You just need it up there to mount the radiator, hold the headlights and keep the hood closed.
I found that a good ratchet strap or come-along will do the job just fine. Mine looked a lot worse than that before some massaging.
This machine looks like a much better starting point for a Spec car. Good luck with it.
silence
#43
[quote=“Matt H.” post=65045]No need to replace it. Just pull it back roughly into place. It doesn’t serve any structural purpose anyway. You just need it up there to mount the radiator, hold the headlights and keep the hood closed.
I found that a good ratchet strap or come-along will do the job just fine. Mine looked a lot worse than that before some massaging.
This machine looks like a much better starting point for a Spec car. Good luck with it.[/quote]
Matt, take a look at the passenger side radiator support… its pretty bent up. I ended up removing it all last night:
I reinstalled the strut bar to help keep things straight.
I need to finish drilling out the spot welds, and then i’ll start prepping the new piece.
silence
#44
So I spent a few more nights, and this past weekend fixing the front end of the new car.
After cutting out the bent core support, and prepping the new core, i was able to give it it’s first test fitment.
While it was easy to access, I Iinstalled a set of Condor Speed Shop Motor & Transmission Mounts and a Power-steering Delete block.
Before welding I made sure all of my panels lined up.
A few hours later it was all in.
…and after some adjustment, all the panels lined up perfectly.
Ranger
#45
Better late than never. This is how I pulled my radiator support out last year.
http://www.spece30.com/forum/16-general-discussion/56721-rangers-car-repair-thread?limit=10&start=10
silence
#47
Well, I finished the frontend repairs last week:
They turned out much better than expected, considering i used a bunch of junkyard parts. I pieced the headlights together from 3 different broken sets!
I then focused my attention on starting the repairs to the rear of the car:
Both bumper supports had been pushed in, and crushed a bit of the mounting points on the unibody as well. I used a chain to pull most of it out as well as the usual assortment of “standard” bodywork tools:
… I also had to usesome not so standard tools like a modified Harbor Freight pipe bender to push the rear sheetmetal back into place…
Turned out pretty good:
silence
#49
WOO HOO!
I received my provisional race license at Sebring this past weekend!
…I’ll be jumping back on this build in the coming weeks… my goal is to have the car ready by October.
silence
#50
I spent the last few nights tearing down & putting new gaskets and seals on that old tired m20 i had sitting in the garage… i plan on swapping it in this weekend.
silence
#52
Few updates:
installed an IJ crank scraper
Picked a Saturday, and attempted to swap motors in a day.
Around lunch time we pulled the old lump out with the help of a few friends.
This one had a cam in it. The replacement M20 is completely stock.
Found out that my trans casing was toast… and that i had been driving it like this since i bought the car.
Threw in an untested thansmission and the refreshed m20. I then realized that it was a G240 when the mounts didn’t line up… I grabbed the wrong transmission off the shelf, so we pulled the trans off again and reinstalled the correct one.
Towards the end of the night I was able to weld in the spec exhaust.
Finished it in time to go home and watch the MMA fights!
2 Weekends later, i was able to convince my father to come help me strip the interior
We ended up removing all the tar off the floor boards and trans tunnel. It still remains on the rear seat.
Lastnight I decided to pull the sunroof tray after work… I drilled out all the spotwelds and cut the underside of the tray out on 4 corners of the casette.
It tool longer than i planned, but i got it out without damaging the sheetmetal.
I then welded in some small tabs to keep the sunroof panel in place, and used some silicone caulk to seal it up. looks OEM 
silence
#53
So We started on the cage last friday by pulling out the front glass
The next step was to pull the doors, 1/4 windows & remaining interior.
Here’s our Kit from Roll Cage Components based out of Va. Some assembly required.
I’m pretty happy with how the joints are coming out:
Got it all tacked together & marked the spots on the unibody that needed to be drilled…
…before taking it all apart again to drill the chassis, then tacking it together again, welding the underside & dropping it through the chassis to weld the tops
Last night I drilled some holes in the rear bulkhead for the rear downtubes. It was a lot of work getting them to line up perfectly, but i’m really happy with the results.
This hasn’t been tacked in yet, but it shows the proposed placement of the plate & tube.
things are moving smoothly
silence
#54
[B]8-24-12[/B]
This evening we spent some quality time with the Harbor Freight pipe notcher. The plan? Finish X- bars…
In between notching & tack welding, there was a LOT if this going on…
Once the dust settled, correction, metal shavings settled… We had a clean set of X-bars tacked in place.
[B]9-11-12[/B]
We made a little more progress today on the cage after a 2 week hiatus. I cut the tack welds out of the X bar, and then made the new lower down bars that you see pictured. It’s slow going, but it’s going to be perfect!
[B]9-12-12[/B]
After adding the lower downbars, I realixed my Xbar didn’t fit the same way anymore, so i had to redo therear diagonal bar. Once that was done, I finished the main hoop diagonal, and the first half of the harness bar. The next step was to mount the seat.
[B]9-14-12[/B]
The seat was supposed to be a bolt in affair… Since It did come right out of the turbo car… But after a few tries we realized the height was too high. Now we need to make new seat mounts and ditch the stock e30 sliders.
I ended up modifying the Kirkey seat brackets… Here’s a pic of John(forced firebird) welding them.
The final seat positioning is LOW! Pretty much on the floor board… There’s lots of room for a helmet & rollbar padding.
[B]9-15-12[/B]
Started on the rollcage again yesterday, by welding in the 6 base plates.
[B]9-16-12[/B]
Today I started by mocking up the passengers side X bar.
Fully welded
Time to start mocking up the NASCAR bars on the drivers side. I’ve decided to stack 3 vertical bars instead of the 2 pictured.
Base plate welded and ready for the foot-saver bars…
Finished welding the X-bar, NASCAR bars and the foot-saver bars… All that’s left is to finish weld the rear downtubes and to finish fabricating the X brace!
[B]9-17-12[/B]
Finished up the rear diagonal & downtubes tonight.
All that’s left is the harness bar and second half of the X on the rear downtubes!
[B]9-18-12[/B]
All twisted up, finish welding the rear downtubes.
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/564620_466636043368328_1757644385_n.jpg
More good times, welding the rear downtubes
Rear down tube X-bar is in, and harness bar is in place! Almost done!
[B]9-25-12[/B]
Finally finished the cage on the new Spec E30!
Fabricated a seat back brace last night… pretty happy with the results.
Tag, one of the locals came by to help seal up the rear sheetmetal.
Jay(johnny cash) finished up the new bracket for the emergency cut off switch… John(forcedfirebird) used his big Tig welder today to weld it on for us.
[B]9-27-12[/B]
Heat gun > window tint
silence
#55
[B]Sept 28[/B]
Shawn Waggoner and another buddy came by the shop & helped finish up the wiring… The car was also blowing fuse 10 on startup, which turned out to be a grounded wire under the dash…
Installed the dash, there isnt much left underneath it.
[B]Sept 30[/B]
I was running low on time, so the turbo car donated its already gutted doors.
Installed the gauge cluster, centernet & harness… for some reason my fuel gauge isn’t working at all.
[B]OCT 2[/B]
Once it was all together, our vinyl guy came by and installed the necessary decals for this weekend’s event, and I took her home for the night.
[B]OCT 3[/B]
Want to know what the best part about building a Spec E30? You can drive it to work 
New rollcage?
Check!
New rotors & Race pads?
Check!
13 lb wheels w/R-Comp tires?
Check!
Ready to kick some ass this weekend at the last NASA event @ Sebring?
[B]CHECK!
[/B]
I’ll be posting updates of the event this weekend here:
[URL=“https://www.facebook.com/CondorSpeedShop”]The Condor Speed Shop Facebook Page[/URL]
silence
#56
[B]OCT 5-7[/B]
loaded the car up on the trailer with the help of my friends.
We grabbed John’s excursion, and a handful of us made the trek up to Sebring, Fl for a weekend of racing.
Our small caravan stopped for some lunch. All the e30’s hit the track over the weekend…
After about 3.5 hours we made it to Sebring, although it was in the pouring rain…
After unloading the #12, I took it to the NASA’s tech station where the new Spec car passed, and I received my annual tech inspection sticker!
The next morning, all the racers were up bright and early preparing for a FULL day of racing.
We had a small spec group of only 4 cars this weekend, but that didn’t stop us from having fun.
Condor’s new Spec E30 made it through both practice sessions, Qualifying, 4 sprint races and a 2 hour enduro this weekend without a hitch… The junkyard motor is a bit underpowered, but what a great time! We had a blast with everyone who come out with us, and all of our track friends!
silence
#58
Thanks Al.
[B]Dec 9[/B]
Tore into the spec car yesterday… We’re getting ready to paint the interior & rollcage soon.
Pulled out all of the safety equipment and the dash…
[B]
Dec 12[/B]
Jay Greene aka(JohnnyCash) came by today to help me prep the cage for paint and we threw some primer on it.
After a few beers, the primer was dry and although it was midnight, we decided to go for it…
Jay doing his thing…
Reaching all the tubing is a lot harder than you think. I’m glad I pulled out all the windows to access it all.
It’s Looking Badass! I love it!
Here’s how it looked at 2AM.
silence
#59
[B]Dec 13[/B]
Phase 2
After letting the rollcage tubing try for a few days, I had to tape it all up to paint the interior. At first I was planning on using paper to tape up the tubing, and aluminum foil for the wiring. After thinking about it and realizing how much work it was going to be to wrap everything with paper, i decided to try something new… Reynolds Wrap. I had not heard of anyone else trying this, so it was a bit of a risk, but it went on pretty easy. With the help of Christy, I had it wrapped in about an hour and a half.
Sorry, no pics of me shooting the interior with paint… nobody to take the pics 
[B]Dec 17[/B]
I let it all dry for 4 days, before unwrapping it. I love it!
[B]Dec 18[/B]
Today I re-bolted my seat, about an inch further back. I needed a bit more space, now that the steering wheel was 1.5 inches lower. I installed the dash and cleaned up the wiring under the dash.
Almost done, need to install the cluster, center net, harness and doors.
