Rebuild thread: MWSE30 #12

#21

Nicely done! I didn’t think things would go this quickly for you. What are you going to do with the rest of your winter?

#22

John Van Houten is a stand up guy. Truth be told, he’s forcing me to build a better car than I probably would do myself cause he won’t let me half-ass anything! He’s building it like he would build his own car, and if you’ve seen his own cars you know I’m in good hands.

#23

Haven’t had the pleasure of making the gentleman’s acquaintance. Looking forward to it and to seeing your fully-assed car.

#24

Update 11/17/12:

Final preparations for cage.

Got the third brake light back in:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/90175573@N06/8192260989/

Getting the sunroof cartrige out. JVH’s fancy spot weld driller wasn’t getting the job done (difficult to find the buggers), so cutoff wheel comes out. Probably took as long to get this done as all the steps up to this point!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/90175573@N06/8192249653/

New lid in:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/90175573@N06/8193346178/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/90175573@N06/8193339038/

Wanted to get more wiring out before the cage, but just running out of time. I’ll have something to do in the cold months, I guess. Gonna try on the seat this week so we can tell McMahan where to put stuff and then off to OH next Sat.

#25

For future reference, and if John ever wants to try again, the key to finding the spot welds is all about the lighting. Touch helps a lot too. I was in a darkened garage with one of those 500W work lights. Moving the lamp around to give it different angles of incidence, usually the shallower the better, allows you to see all the welds. It does take a while to find them all and the DIY photos are an invaluable guide to narrowing the search area. I did miss one and had to redrill, but using the $5 HF spot weld drill and the light let me get them all in under an hour. Maybe under 30 min. Not as quick as the cutoff but you’re left with more material on the lip to work with.

#26

Yah, I think lighting had a lot to do with it. He was going more on feel and they just aren’t as obvious as say a 70 cuda’s spot welds.

#27

Nice progress!

Did John just weld in two clips on either side of the sunroof panel?

#28

He did, but he wasn’t happy with it cuase the ridge on the roof was curling. Got it in there good enough to trailer to McMahan and we’ll have him work some magic.

#29

Update: car is at McMahan’s. Sorry, no obligatory pic on the trailer. Hope to have it back after the holidays.

Even better news, JVH came home with Luke’s new E30 car. Look for a build thread soon!

#30

UPDATE TIME!

The car has returned from McMahan and, even though the design is nothing exotic, the work is his usual stunning craftsmanship.

JVH inspected the motor and we’re hoping just a new water pump (old pulley bent) and some tune up parts will have it purring again. I’ve got a half a garage of parts from the old car to bolt up and we’re ready to go!

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#31

Congrats, Kyle!

#32

That is a nice cage. What does a cage like that cost?

#33

Guessing 2500

#34

Spent a couple hours at the shop. JVH has everything off the car, so I did the hard job of giving her sponge bath. She’ll never be cleaner!

Pic of the engine cleaned up with the new adapter to run a remote filter and an aftermarket cooler. The old odb/sender will be moved to the fender.

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#35

Rear brake hardlines were toast. New ones installed:

#36

3/3/13 Little Update:

Went to fit up the front subframe to find that it was bent in the accident. The one that came on the donor looked good, so JVH welded up the new reinforcements.

Rear end and swaybar are in. Axles were shot, so they are being replaced.

Trans/clutch are mated to the engine. Gonna drop the body on the motor this week!

#37

Nice progress! What bushing bracket re-enforcements did you go with for the rear swaybar mount to body? Still need to order mine.

#38

Dunno. They came off the old car.

#39

Snowy day update (3/5/13):

While I pulled off 6.3 miles of pin striping, JVH was kicking ass . . .

“Nom nom nom”

Fuel filter relocated:

New AKG mounts

Fuel tank cleaned up and new tubing installed. All we had laying around was a pump for a 318is. We’re pretty sure pressure is fine, but anyone know about volume?

When I left, tired from all that pinstriping remoal, JVH was plumbing the remote oil filter and new oil cooler.

#40

Update 3/6/13:

Remote fuel filter, new oil cooler, and remote OP/OT sender installed:

Radiator and fan installed:

At the Windy City BMW Annual Dinner I threw in lots of entries into the AKG raffle and promised myself if I won the gift certificate, I’d treat myself:

Big thanks to John Van Houten for a fantastic build!