 |
|
Hey everyone,
Just wanted to announce that we’ve purchase a '89 325is donor.
We’ve got 2.5 months worth of stripping, suspension, cage, painting, transmission (yes I need to do a tranny swap), and about a million other small things. Should be an exciting prep with lots of photos (and likely questions) to come. Sleep optional.
We will be working closely with Speed Trapp Racing and crew to make sure I’ve got a solid build. It will be awesome!
Can’t wait to get out on track and play !
THAT it great news! I also wanted to add my thanks for coming out and supporting not only SpeedTrapp but SpecE30 too. The series is clearly about the driver and less about the car. Any improvements to driver skill and knowledge will pay off much more than in other series.
Wanted to give a quick update.
So far we have the sunroof and cassette removed. We found the best way to remove the cassette was a simple angle grinder and went through about 15 grinder wheels. At about $5 for a pack of 5 total expense was about 15$. We tried using a torch for about 5 minutes and quickly abandoned it as it didn’t heat the spot welds quickly w/o tarnishing the outside of the roof.
We’ve also removed most of the interior except for some of the sound deadening in the passenger area. The dash is off and ready for cage mid next month. We also have our tranny bits coming as our donor is an AT and we’ve already picked up a MT for $350.
January should be exciting for suspension, tranny and cage. Lots of pictures coming soon!
We’re aiming to be on track for Feb 14th HPDE event!
Dan
Here are some pics.
Here is the original car. Looks like the clear-coat is in perfect condition. Yeah right 
Looks like someone was in here doing a after-market stereo install. It’s always interesting what you’ll find. I wasn’t really expecting to find electrical tape, connectors being used as taps and twist-on connectors for romex in your house. The wiring harness was totally destroyed.
As we take the dash apart I even found a rubber band holding something together!
On to the sunroof and cassette. As mentioned earlier, angle grinder worked the best.
Overall we’re making good progress. We can’t wait to get this puppy on the track! We still have lots of work to do though.
Small update, but she’s off for cage install with TC Designs. When I get the car back I’ll post some pics.
Then the fun comes with swapping out the AT with a MT. Good stuff!!
It’s almost like Christmas! All my tranny bits arrived today and we’re taking the car to get the tranny installed on Sunday. Can’t wait to get the AT out of this puppy!
Another update - It’s a big day! Got the car back with the tranny. We had Redline 75w90 used for tranny fluid, ATE Super Blue for the brakes. It’s silky smooth and general inspection reveled I need to replace a freeze bolt, someone had put in a rubber one, so I need to get that replaced. Also, noticed the lower A-arm bushings were toast, so I ordered up a couple of AKG bushings from Walter at vmwerks. I’ve also primed the cage and went on to paint it flat black, which basically is a two day affair. I made the trek down to the SJ pick and pull yesterday and got my self a new hood. I also noticed a few other bits at the pick that I want to get , but it was raining yesterday and was not really stoked standing in the mud at a pick and pull so I’ll likely head down there next week. 
Looks like our punch list consists of wheels, tires, exhaust and a few other small bits to get (wheel bearing, brake pads, etc) it HPDE ready. We’ll still have some other little items to do, but it can wait until after the 3/21-22 event.
I’ll post pics tomorrow as the camera battery died on me
Here are some pics as promised! This coming weekend we have suspension, exhaust and wheels.
Raw cage fresh from TC Designs:
Starting to mask off the cage:
Finished with primer and paint:
Seats and Harnesses put in:
Looks nice! I noticed very few of your guys’ cars have penitrating (NASCAR style) door bars. Is there a reason for that?
Chris is bringing my car up this weekend and we are going to get started on it. I have 3 weeks to have it ready for the next event 
Very likely we won’t have it ready but we’ll do our best. Maybe it won’t be so bad to have the first event in the the new car be a thunderhill instead of sears, I’m not as accustomed to the rear tire spinning, all by themselves!
Actually neither the Spec Boxster or the E30 have NASCAR style door bars. They look like they protrude out, but don’t.
Like you we’re crunching to get to the 3/21-22 event and holding off on some of the non-essential items but we will still do them in the interest of being on track. Best of luck and look forward to hearing about your build as well!
mikeski38 wrote:
If you haven’t ordered a spec exhaust yet, do it right now. It’ll take 2-3 weeks to arrive.
Well another weekend has gone by and more great success! We’ve got the suspension installed and the Traqmate gear installed. We’ve got 13 days left until track-day. I went to the pick-and-pull again and got a new cluster and dash. The cluster tach died and instead of just getting a tach, I grabbed the whole cluster. Between the two clusters I got a fully working cluster (and 100K miles knocked off the odometer ) I’ll likely put on the new dash after the first event since it’s not super critical to getting out on track for the first event.
Next weekend is our last weekend and we’ve got Steering Wheel, Exaust and Wheels/Tires left and lastly Vinyl. It’s going to be ready by the skin of our teeth and don’t have all the super trick items, but we just want to get the car close for now and then take the next month or two and finish up the niceties (A-arms, bushings etc)
I’ll post pictures in the morning.
Speaking of which, we noticed that we have a rubber freeze plug. Are they easy to replace? What’s involved? Going to troll the forums to see if I can find any tidbits.
Dan
Here are the suspension pics, note no wheels installed yet
Prepping the car for full suspension removal:
Old shock removed:
New shock put back together and ready to be installed:
Finally, the car and I. Notice new hood and front emblem. Wheels and tires coming soon!
Well, after a furious build of about 2.5 months she’s ready for HPDE.
Strip
Cage
AT to MT swap
H&R suspension
Wheels/Tires
Spec Exhaust
Data Acquisition
Various wearable items
Here are some pics.
Before:
After:
