My 2 door E30

[driftnething]

I work in a vehicle salvage yard and this BMW became up for grabs one day...





It was an insurance write off and believe it or not the damage consisted of a broken sump, broken front number plate and very slightly bent front lip. The car was in ace condition prior to accident and the only let down was the drivers seat (ripped).
There was BUGGER ALL rust and i gave it a final inspection and decided to buy it, I always wanted a bimma to take to "the ring" and was happy thinking i could do that.

Never planned on drifting it to be honest and i got it fixed and mot'd and used it daily for a month or so untill...
After launching it from neutral to 1st out of a few too many junctions the torque converter gave up and it was time to put the mx5 back on the road !!!!!

so then it sat at work for a couple of weeks and somebody i know offered me another e30 (a 4door 2.5 manual!). 125 quid later and i had 2 bimma's !!!

After going to teeside for round one of "JDM ALLSTARS" i was bitten and wanted a track or drift car. when i got back i started thinking about what I wanted and realised the beast i had bought to take to "the ring" would make a purrrfect cheap skid car.

So the tranformation begins !

The idea of this was to build a cheap n cheerfull car which i could tow to tracks now and again for a bit of fun.

[driftnething]

I spent quite a bit of time on e30zone.net researching what to do and it seems the obvious first step is to put the car on a major diet and swap for the straight 6 luvliness !!!

Time to crack on !


The interior before... (complete with lunch box and 1 month old sarnie)


Rear seats/trim removed



Engine disconnected and ready to drop with gearbox/subframe/struts etc complete


I had managed to lose the keys for the car at some point and getting inside was easy, but the boot is another story !

This is me trying from inside the car. After drilling the spot welds on the rear seat panel I could almost get in. Tried smashing the lock with a screwdriver from outside and then gave up so i could continue with engine removal.



Not looking forward to tidying up the wiring loom


And here is the empty bay awaiting a good clean and 6pot rightness !

[Silverfang]

Sweet find here man

My advice as a fellow E30 owner would take the engine, box / diff from the 325i and bolt them in, AND the suspension and brakes, the standard 318i stuff isn't catered for if you want to tune it and the front stuts from the 318 are the smaller 48mm type, when the 325i will probably have 51mm struts and Bilstein shocks to boot

Bushings will be worn out more than likely and it's well worth investing in Polybushing the subframes, diff and front legs. I did mine and it tightens the handling up so much, the 325i antiroll bars will fit too.

E46 rear top mounts are a factory fit mod and a Z3 1.9 shifter which bolts straight in for a factory short shift that's less than half a B&M one at £26 all in!

I know that's a lot there to be said, but if you spend a little out and some time spent in transfering all the goodies over from the 325i, you'll have a car that'll perform really well and have cost you pennies in relative terms to tune up and a good basis for further tuning if you want to go futher

[MJG]

I agree, for track use you'd be best off with the 325i suspension and brakes, the diff and prop etc would all be needed anyway as small-casing diffs are not reknowned for their strength.

Good luck, that looks really tidy

[driftnething]

Thanks for the advice, thats definately going to be the plan, its nice having a whole donor car to play with

there is an e46 breaking at work now so i guess i will be removing a couple of top mounts tomorrow lol. its just a shame we dont have a z3 too but at £26 new i spose i'll get over it !

Plan so far is...

I am going to swap entire running gear from 325 (brakes susp diff etc), weld the diff, add a pair of buckets/harness's and steering wheel, weld up the sunroof, add a cage, service the 2.5 engine, put on my 15" bbs rs splits from mx5, also just got some lowering springs for £20.

wahoo just need a steering wheel + boss now, already have most other bits.

What would you recommend for an engine service before it goes back in ? i have run the 325 and its sweet as, but if im gonna do much to it then i'm sure it will be easier while removed from car.

thanks for advice

[MJG]

Sounds perfect, I think if the 2.5 engine's running sweet then just basic oil, plugs, and filters. No point meddling with it but some people would say to do the water pump, cambelt and tensioner too I guess. They aren't really expensive so maybe worth it.

[Silverfang]

Originally Posted by MJG

Sounds perfect, I think if the 2.5 engine's running sweet then just basic oil, plugs, and filters. No point meddling with it but some people would say to do the water pump, cambelt and tensioner too I guess. They aren't really expensive so maybe worth it.

Agreed, my waterpump was blown when i originally got my 320i and had it swapped out with the cambelt. If the cars still going past halfway on the temp when running it'll be the viscous fan coupling gone 9/10 times.

Either way, if it overheats 325i's CAN but not always , crack the head, or if the cambelt goes, you'll be looking for a new engine either way

[driftnething]

ok ideal I will get a new water pump, cambelt, tensioner, plugs, oil filter and oil soon then just looked at prices and surprisingly it aint alot. wahoooo

Is it easy to weld the diff up or shud I get someone else to do it ?? I have a mig and dont mind giving it a go but dont know if you have to weld a particular place or anything :|

[MJG]

Go on trampdrift in the articles section of the website there is a diff-welding guide. If you can weld reasonably well then go for it. Drain it and clean it thoroughly with brake cleaner/thinners etc, I normally set fire to it too to get rid of some more of the soaked-in oil on the gear teeth (take care not to burn/ruin the rubber seals). Then fill the pinion end of the diff (bottom bit if you have it with the cover off facing up at you) with soaked rags/kitchen roll to stop splatter getting down into the rest of the diff.

Dribble washing up liquid or anti-spatter on the crownwheel and bits you don't want to weld then MIG up the 4 meshing areas of the inner 4 gears. You then need to turn the central section through 180deg by rotating the pinion, and then weld the other side of the central 4 gears to eachother.

[driftnething]

ace i think i will be doing that myself then
thanks yet again !

[driftnething]

Just managed to get my "as new" seats and harness's for a grand total of £75

a friend bought this vectra on ebay (nice... lol) but the seats etc (which are mint cond) are unwanted - they just need a bit of councelling after being in a vectra and they will be ok again !







i do love bargains

[driftnething]

Ok

today my seats turned up and the bloke chucked in a steering wheel which i sold on for a £10er making the seats £65 bonus !



for £10 on egay i found an aluminium heel plate for the drivers footwell.



here is the stuff i removed from the interior minus the front seats because i want to keep them for a minute. Im thinking about chopping the subframes off and using them as sliding adapters for the cobra's.



I also removed the engine/box/subframe etc from the donor car and gave it a good clean up. i'm very pleased with how easy it was and how nice it came up after a de-grease.

[driftnething]

Spent this evening stripping bits off the donor car (dash and wiring mainly). I also got a spare rocker cover and inlet manifold which i have cleaned up and am painting black.



I just bought some lips for my bbs wheels and have dug the wheels out of the shed ready to be refurbed...



this is the color i have chosen for the centres



getting excited, i want the bits to turn up so i can get going

[Hammond]

Good work dude!!

[driftnething]

thanks

[Papercutout]

Thats nice mate, got yourself a series of bargains there!

If you're lowering - get yourself some shorter shocks to go in those 51mm struts too, will make a lot of difference. Ask MJG!

Lovely wheels, but when drifting, just run them on the front, collect as many spare wheels (the 14" steels), and 15" BBS as possible, they're great for drifting on.

[DK.#1]

Good to see someone doing stuff properly and taking the time to make things nice and clean too! Cool work! Shweet wheels btw!

[driftnething]

funny you say that "papercutout" I have just been searching for a bargain 51mm suspension kit on ebay, there is a kit for about £150 delivered (hot tuning).

sport suspension kit BMW E30 60/40 40/40 4 6 cylinder on eBay, also Suspension Components, Performance Tuning Parts, Car Tuning Styling, Cars, Parts Vehicles (end time 27-Jun-08 23:42:36 BST)


It looks like cheap mass produced crap tbh but,
a= its better than what i have
b=this is a budget "side" project for some seat time while my 6 year "so far"! project continues to drive me crazy and eat my money lol!

i have 12 wheels in total

4 x 15" bbs rs (for front only while drifting
4 x 14" alloys (the ones that came with car (in top pic)
4 x 15" (i think) steelies that were on the 325

i wanted the extra deep dish lips really but the original sized ones came up for £35 posted so i snapped them up

thanks for the nice comment DK.#1 and yea they my fave wheels EVVVVVVAAAAAAAAAAAAA lol

im hoping to get the car ready for aug dwyb at the mighty pod.

[driftnething]

haha only just noticed in the 2nd pic my mate shrek is pressed against his forklift window pulling a face...

[Quail]

Nice progress mate! Your shell looks mint!