Hello all Having bottled my last attempt at drifting, I'm back to scratch the itch. Previously had an E36 compact but was uneasy with the idea of turning my daily into a drifter and then after deciding to stick with karting, sold the car to tart up the van and free up some money for karting. Unfortunately, karting seems to be in decline on the island and I couldn't help but watching the drifting over the fence and be envious. Was quite attached to my new ford puma daily and didn't fancy ditching its 45mpg, comfort and ability to go anywhere. Didn't want to spend a huge amount as Im supposed to be saving for a house and already have 2 cars (and a VERY patient girlfriend) but was struggling to find anything. Went to see an MX5 that had been badly "painted" (a term I use very loosely) with the masking tape still on the sills, meaning it had filled with water that had nowhere to go so sounded like I was driving a paddling pool. Was about to give up when I was pointed to a taxed E36 saloon with coilovers already fitted for £350 pics to follow Plans weld the diff drift have fun if I have lots of fun or are any good, I'll then maybe look at hydro handbrake geo setup pikey power mods
Good lad, unfortunatelly the only real 'safe' was of drifting is getting a trailer and tow car! i daily my drift car, and drive it too and from tracks, so far ive been lucky and always been able to drive it home but i expect my luck will run out oneday!
I was thinking about the trailer/towing frame option but it would mean having to buy something to tow it and I can't fault my puma as a daily. Plus living on this island means even if the worst did happen, it wouldn't be hard or far to get the car home. If I turn out to not be totally hopeless I wouldn't mind a trip to an event in the UK though which of course will be the time something breaks
Isle of Man. A few others on here and possibly more to come as the drift scene appears to be taking off here now
Accidental ebay purchase time. Was looking at bits I might actually need and stumbled across a genuine bmw e36 saloon roof rack with a few minutes remaining. Knew it would come in handy for transporting wheels/tyres so they aren't taking up space in the car. Pick it up tomorrow. Bit excited
Tracking needs doing before 1st event. It's a mile out Will lower the rear a touch unless its already at its lowest Spoiler has been bonded on with god knows what. Fun times removing that Tighten handbrake and remove armrest as its just in the way Get diff welded I'm just wanting the basics done so I can get out and have some fun instead of messing around trying to turn it into some flame-spitting monster. My motorsport experience tells me I won't know what needs changing until I've had a few go's and got the feel for the car anyway. Will be after some dirt cheap buckets as I cant imagine the leather holding me in place all that well and a nice grippy steering wheel should see me right. Then it'll just be a case of fixing/upgrading parts as and when they break
Clean e36 for the IOM, which part you in? Oh how you miss the mountain road when you live in the uk.. Strip it out and skim through Manx.net for drift parts
Busy day today. Had a real struggle to get the bonnet open as the latch handle is missing, but a quick search on bimmerforums helped me out :thumbsup Will be fitting bonnet pins asap lol Removed the old door handles from the doorcards and refitted the switch for the electric mirrors and fitted as grab handles. Happy as I was going to order some proper ones on payday so few quid saved yellow headlight film that I bought dirt cheap on ebay and never fitted to my old compact also removed the rear spoiler as I just didnt like it. Just need to get all the gunk off now - - - Updated - - - forgot to add, did a binnacle check and confirmed my temp gauge is working so obviously just need to check temp sensor is plugged in
seeing as the leather seats, comfy as they are, are useless at holding you in place, just got this for a tenner Also got a hydro for £20. Happy that so far I'm managing to do this on the cheap, which for a newbie, is exactly how it should be done imo
Bonnet pins arrived yesterday. A half hour job I thought. I was wrong. So glad I don't care about this car as I proper bodged it haha Old dodgy pins removed Then used toothpaste to mark where to drill on the bonnet had to break out the man drill as my cordless just wasnt up to it Having reached this point, I assumed I was nearly done. Never assume!!! Just a few hours later As frustrating as it was, Im satisfied with the end result, although the driver side pin needs lowering a tad Then on went the roof bars Slowly getting to where I want to be
As the tyres on the steelies are closer to illegal than I'd like, just found a set of 5 of these with brand new tyres for £100 Bit gutted as I love the look of it on steelies
Rear driver side window kept dropping and letting the cold in. Think I've just broken it so it's stuck fully closed. SUCCESS!!
MORE BITS!! Another set of alloys with half decent tyres, some standard suspension and exhaust (that Ill probs sell or swap for other bits) for £30!! Also managed to blag a free bucket seat and a couple more wheels when picking up the bucket and hydro from my mate. Got quite a decent amount of kit now for peanuts pretty much Not done much on the car lately. Today I stripped the rest of the rear interior out, then pulled out the spare wheel to find a slight hole. BODGE TIME!!!! 1 x old number plate and some ducktape later Better than factory Then put on some wheels with road legal tread for pottering about Next month I'll be ordering the bits needed to fit my buckets, get the diff welded and possibly have a go at fitting the hydro
I like the toothpaste idea for marking bonnet pin holes, I just guessed then butchered the holes when I found they didn't fit.
