Just reading that list of to-do's and there's no mention of an oil pressure gauge, have you already fitted one?
Yeah, I wouldn't even start it without an oil pressure gauge haha it's in the drivers side vent above the headlight switch. I haven't "mounted" it yet, but I'm getting to it. I've been mostly working on getting it driving, then I'll buy the plastic and make a plate for it to sit it
Is lieu of my coilovers coming in soon I decided to start reinforcing my rear sick towers. The top plates are 10 gauge steel and I just need to have the side plates rolled before I can weld them in. I'm also going to redo the welds on my X as they didn't come out that good. While I was thinking of who to roll and ways to roll the 10 gauge steel to fit my shock towers. I decide to try and figure out a mount for my expansion tank. I immediately disliked trying to take off my radiator cap and got carried away with an air saw and ended up making a new center section for my rad support and nose panel. Thinking of adding a plate between the two nose panel pieces as ducting, but I'm not sure yet. Came out good and I'm happy with it! I need to reinforce the parts that go down to the frame horns but overall it's just as "sturdy" as the stock panel was. And the nose panel fits perfect! I'm not using this nose panel but it's oem so I figured I'd make the mounts using it. And by the time I was done I still didn't like a lot of the places for my expansion tank... But I think I found one just need to make sure I can find a cap for the tank first! My fuel fittings are made and I have 8, so I should be able to get my fuel setup done once I finish my brake lines and get my coilovers in. I'm also buying plastic to make my own gauge panel too. Then it's not much left to get it driving!
Got my overflow tank mounted. I like the location because it's easy and out of the way.. Then I started building my center dash plate. I got sick of hard Motorsports waiting to get them in stock so I figured I could try and make my own and it didn't come out bad: Will have more gauges and a switch or two more on it before it's done and I epoxy it in. I will also be making the fuse panel plate out of lexan and make the top section of the drivers side vent too. But now that I have an idea what I'm doing it should be pretty easy. Broadway's also come in today so I can finish my front brake lines. Then I just need a prop valve, to run my line from the master to the hydro, and do my clutch line and I'll have brakes! I'll eventually have to finish my rear shock towers once I figure out how to roll the 10 gauge plate I have to reinforce the sides. Have to do a little more to finish up the fuel system but my fittings are finished so it's getting closer and closer.
Broadway's came in and this is all the way up in the front so I ordered flares and will get taller housing eventually. Love them. Brake lines are finished and almost bled. Just need a clutch feed line and it's all done (as long as that doesn't leak) Also built my throttle setup. It's a stock e36 throttle cable to my custom bellcrank setup I made to a 36" TPI v8 (c4 corvette) throttle cable to the throttle body. I'm not 100% done with it though. Currently it swings all the way to WOT and a little past so I have to make a throttle stop. I also still have to make the rear support for it, and overall smooth it out. Then finally get a counterclockwise spring. So far I'm happy with how it came out though. It's not hideous, it actually looks pretty cool IMO, and it functions great. Then pedal is a little stiff, but nothing is lubed and it's fighting an extra spring so it's expected and I'm not concerned with it. Anyways here's a picture of that: You can see the original design I made in the top picture, I pretty much completely changed it for this one. Currently I need to: Finish the throttle cable Make and put in my slave feed line Hook up my gas feed line Vent my gas tank Hook up my filler neck Wire random stuff in and it should drive a little (still have my MAF issue and waiting on gauges, so not far) Then I get to pull it all apart and paint it!
Haven't done much, been working on my friends new Volvo 240, he lost the key and I had to show him how to hotwire it and get it ready for the first event since it's going to be Prime Drifts "community car" that anyone can drift. I decided I hated the throttle setup and it was a little too stiff, so I am redoing it. I have all my new stuff designed, but haven't made anything yet. I'll take pictures when I do. I kinda lost motivation this week and decided to save a little money so I'm building my friends rad mounts, intercooler mounts, and downpipe for his turbo e30 this weekend and maybe I'll get back into it. I'm just really not looking forward to dropping the gas tank 8 more times. I did start to shave the firewall though. I will seam weld it when I get to it and fill in all the other holes I don't need either. I also put all my white parts on again and took off the spacers because I finally have stock lug bolts (after owning e36s for 3 years now). So I can't turn all the way now, but at least it rolls until my flares come in. Thanks man and congrats! Haha
Haven't done much. Mostly spent my time finishing my friends e30 stuff so he can make the first event because I knew I wasn't going to. Built his downpipe, rad mounts, and IC mounts. Still have to do his oil cooler and screamer pipe but it's almost done My car got pushed outside though, so it finally had pictures taken outside, by real cameras lol (not doing full size pictures they are too big) A picture of me welding my friends downpipe. He's happier than I am on how it came out.. I wish he had bought 304 and not 406 for piping, but oh well. But I did make some progress... In the pictures outside my spacers were off so it could roll. But I threw them back on and started on my flares. It didn't come out bad and I still have hot boy fitment lol. Only have one done but will do the other tomorrow most likely.
I got the passenger flare on. I might cut them shorter so they aren't so flexed and actually cover the wheel more. Also thinking about getting thinner front wheels, clearing stuff with a 17x9 is annoying, especially at my height. Also got my center vent delete pretty much finished up. I have a few more switches to put in like blower motor and fans, but it's getting closed to being put in Also got much closer to finishing my harness. Fuel pump, speedo, and fuel level sender are all hooked up. Gauge harness is made and the switches are wired. I just need to wire the cluster lights, power, and change my test light for the turn signals into the cluster instead of just a bulb. Then the cluster will be all done. I need to put all my sensors in and wire those which will be pretty simple, wire my fuel pumps to power and hook up their relay, then just need hazards, fan, high beams, and blower motor and I should be able to fully wrap my harness and mount it all. HOPEFULLY I'll find the motivation to finish all that this week/weekend, but the weather has also got me down. When it's nice out I have much more motivation to work on stuff. Oh well. Also decided to build a welding table for myself, better than lighting my wood bench on fire I guess..
Looking good man, i'm looking forward to seeing this thing done. I love the front end of this thing for some reason, looks gnarly. - Another e36 builder from the states
Wow!! such a nice build man. Are you planning on leaving the rear trailing arms stock with the rear true coilovers?
I love how it looks too! It looks so much better in person too.. I suck at taking pictures though so it looks weird haha. But thank you! Thanks man! And yeah stock trailing arms but I have modified trailing arm mount plates for better toe adjustment[emoji5]
well you should weld another bracket for the shock as it puts much more stress down there.. waiting for updates on your build though this thing is sick
Like reinforce the lower shock bolt? I've never seen that done before, but I'll look into it to see if it's an issue! Only times I've ever seen those break is in a car accident though. And thank you, hopefully I'll at least get the wiring done this week
yea just copy what we did in my E30. it even came in the instruction manual with the coilovers.. if you want better pics my car is getting on the lift tomorrow ill send you some
Oh okay, so just weld a bar so that here is a channel for the lower mount to slide into and the bolt passes through? I can do that. Mine didn't have any instructions that were e36 specific, but I probably wouldn't have read them anyways lol
Forgot to ask are you running the rear z3 reinforcement plates on those coilovers? I was told to run them since the shock tower is pretty weak up top, not sure how much it will actually do it doesn't seem to be a massive improvement. I've been thinking about just welding something up instead.
So I haven't done much recently, lost motivation, had some school and other shit I focused on, but oh well... I'll get back into it now, here it is outside in the sleet [emoji19] I made myself a new turbo inlet as I started working with welding aluminum. Definitely not my best stuff, but I'm getting better and I'll probably redo it. I also decided to work on getting my intercooler piping into one piece on each side to get rid of he couplers in between and the higher possibility of leaks.. Here it is outside in the sun in all its glory while I worked on the wiring. Hopefully going to have the chassis harness done with weekend if I can push myself to finish it. Only a few more things to hook up and I can get the nylon wrap for I and call it finished. And the harness itself I made my own plates for the shock tower tops that are thicker and fill the whole top of the tower. A fair amount of people have run just the plates in Europe and had no issues, but in the US everyone has a heart attack, maybe because the cars are more expensive here... Not really sure.
