 |
|
Purchased my 1990 325i in 2007 with the goal of a DE car and maybe more.
Carolina car that had wandered to Minneapolis and survived a 6 hour drive back to Milwaukee. Nice exterior but the rest needed some work.
DE transformation with SE30 suspension, Kirk bolt in bar,
harnesses race seats, and having fun.
Time for the next step. Hanging out with the MW SE30 folks this year, checked off into DE4. Down the slippery slope we go.
Day one:
Baseline:
Shop had done a great job in installing the Kirk Bar
Result install plus chassis flex and a bit of oxidation on the sleeves = bear to get out. Progress
Interior progress
Next up: carpet, dash, sun roof…
Hah,in the run groups at Road America I tend to feel like I’m bringing a Q-tip to a gun fight. Making up distance and pulling away in corners is fun but not enough. Looking forward to running with pack of e30s!!
A little more progress.
Carpet is out and no rust surprises
Front windows are out
Sunroof is out, and headliner and assorted roof interior is almost done (still need to tackle the cassette)
Ran out of time today. Dash still to do.
Our cars are identical now!
Kudos for removing the carpet in one piece. Carpet knife is my friend.
[quote=“cosm3os” post=69243]Our cars are identical now!
Kudos for removing the carpet in one piece. Carpet knife is my friend.[/quote]
Looks like he cut it under the heater box.
Boris3, Looking good.
Thanks, and correct on cutting around the box. Rest will come out when I get the dash/box out. Kyle, carpet knife is my friend as well but I was worried about slicing wires underneath so figured I would try to pull it out more or less whole.
Rich, I’m excited to continue to see the progress, looks great and known on a great chassis
You still get full credit from me. I was tearing mine out by hand by the time I got to the stuff around the pedal box.
Crud on the C pillar. Drivers side came off fairly easily, passenger side adhesive was slathered on extra thick. Some enthusiastic tech inspired by senf on the wurst
Dash is out. As you can see the PO’s stereo wiring was a rat’s nest that will take a while to untangle. Wires unattached behind the dash and others spliced in all sorts of interesting places.Helps to explain why whenever I hit the defrost button fuses would blow and the radio would die. Made taking the dash out a bit of a pain. Wires were threaded around and over the duct work.
Airbag steering wheel so still have assorted orange things to pull. Also some left over AC components.
Heater core/box keep it or lose it? It’s Wisconsin, not sure how well the rag on a stick approach will work.
Great prgress, Rich. Scary what you find in a 25 yo car. Last night we found speaker wire being used in a temp switch!
Good progress in the prep.
Removed some of the rat’s nest wiring. This is all radio, speakers and two sets of antenna wires. PO’s philosophy: when it doubt run more wires.
Pulled the rest of interior AC piping and the evaporator (is that a pain!), cruise control box and wiring, and SRS box and wiring. End result was a lot less clutter. Decided to keep the heater box and core. Too many times scraping frost off windshields in early spring and late October events up at Road America.
A Goof Off bath to clean up the worst of the glue on the C pillars, Put the steering wheel and seat back in, called for a tow.
Off to the cage builder we go
Delivered
Update: Progress on several fronts
First, I found a trailer. Just a fews month old. Bought in IL in August to bring a car up to Milwaukee and too small for the owner’s other business so he put it up for sale. 300 miles on the trailer 2013 model.
A few cage progress photos: main, forward, and rear hoops tacked, rest of the pipes are cut and more progress slated for this week
Still playing with seat setup. FYI, Cobra side mounts on a Suzuka GT will not work with VAC plates, had to go with the VAC mounts. A lot of placement holes to play with, and still working on it.
Old airbag steering wheel replaced with a used sparco wheel, new momo hub, and new quick release hub.
A bit more progress. Still just tacked. Nascar bars driver’s side and footwell bars still to go. Welding this week.
Almost ready to come home. Cage is in, welded and painted. Just a little work left to do on cutting the dash to fit, and a little clean up. Stopped by the shop tonight to take and look test fit the cluster. Sweet welds. Kudos to Chris Taylor at CS Motorsports in Lannon, WI. Chris has been working on cages for 944s and this was his first e30. He’s spoiled now with having room to work with.
Here’s a few pictures:
That thing’s going to pull away from the field!