Hamis' diary; Driftland toy for less than a mountain bike?

Quick background check... Im 31, from scotland, like cars, like BMX, like a challenge...

Local tracks are 40mins away from my house... knockhill & driftland. More fun to be had going sideways, so try to encourage all mates to build a car & get envolved... most say the same thing tho; "motorsports way too expensive"...

So the CHALLENGE... build a good looking car, that drives well reliably, & will put a smile on your face, for less than a mid range mountain bike. Reason?... my workmate (who use to do rallying) says he cant afford any car for motorsport, yet has a mid range enduro moutain bike in his garage (rarely used might I add!) which is worth £2400. My intention to buy & modify a car, for £2000, to prove a point!

Now any bawbag could buy a pumped 4cyl BMW or MX5, weld the diff, put 70psi in the back tyres & claim they built a car for under a grand... id imagine however, it will look & drive shyte... i wanna build a well set up, balanced, good looking car... Yeah, il probably follow a well trodden path with the route il take, but il document it here for myself, & if anyone reads this and is inspired or remotely interested in what Im writing, then thats a bonus...

Built a couple cars on a set budget now, after my first project got way out of hand. 10years ago building an s14 which I sank about £20k into... Was i happy at the time? Yes... Did i fell like a bawbag, selling it for £6k in 2010? AYE!





After loosing a fortune on s14 when i got bored of it, i set strict budget for a play toy & built an e36 328i for £2000. This was before e36 SCENE TAX so was mega easy to achieve. Hey, u could buy staggered style5's for under £200 a set! (I had 5 sets at one point!) and m50 manifolds were £30! Ha.







Decided i wanted something different after that, and built an r34. I swear, i bought & set this up for track for less than £6500! Again a time before drift scene had blown price of cars thro the roof!







Last budget car I built was an s14 in 2015. Was a hard one as s14 prices for cars & parts had started to get silly! Bought and built on strictest of budget for £4200! Sold when my wife fell pregnant as i decided to take a year off drifting to build a house...







Done a build thread for this car if anyones interested... >>>

http://www.driftworks.com/forum/dri...s/227539-s14-daily-driftland-toy-4kish-budget

So... bearing in mind that just about any rwd car now commands a serious premium; what have i decided to use as a cheap base car?!?

 

So... decided the best base car with potential that can be picked up cheap these days is... an E46 330i.

So searched ebay, gumtree & facebook and found this turd within budget... right car and comes with a "chip", "coilovers" and "poly bushes" which seemed a bit of a bonus...



Look past the rotten passenger wing, the urban camo drivers wing & shocking low ride height, and it looked like an old mans car. Shit colour, beige interior, and looking at previous mot's fail list and passes, its had alot of money spent on it over its time to keep it on the road. I assume (hope) someones loved it and its had an easy life in their old hands...

So i make the hours drive up the A9 to go see it. Car and engine was solid. Only thing letting it down is what modifications that had been done to it in last 6months since the current owners "mechanic" mate had picked it up... its so low on stock 17's that its basically sitting on sills and a shocking clunk noise when steering wheel is turned... all four tyres are also bald, and clearly its been the victim of many open diff one wheeler peelers...

End up buying it for £520, and got 6 17" stock se wheels, and 4 flat face 18" style 32's... jail bait it home, laying sparks bouncing all over road and park it up in my garage...



Before i start spending any money on it, il try MOT it and make sure its worth using for project...

 

So, pre MOT checks...

Wow! Some folk should see their tools and find a new job! The "mechanic" who done previous work made a proper c*nt of coilovers...

Found clunking! Cheap ebay coilovers and cheap top mounts. Should have a spring top cap to retain spring inbetween top mount, but spring sitting directly on to top mount on both sides! As a result car was sitting too low to drive, so he only half mounted lower part of coilover into hub, so it sat higher! Total death trap!





Borrowed a couple top caps of a mates spare coilovers just to get thro mot...



On rear, no coilover set up! Two blown rear shocks, and cut springs. I again borrow my mates spare rear coilover set up to get it thro mot so i dont have to spend any money yet...

Front rotted wing needed replaced, so i contacted QuickBMWparts in bellshill and by chance he has a wing in correct colour for £10... rust set in as usual but its whole. Off with the old!





Also removed the shit stickers which made a huge difference!





Bashed some 17" tyres on out my skid rubber pile, and gave it a quick vallet as the interior was like an ashtray/bin! Took it for its MOT (£40) and unbelievable it passed with no advisories!

 

So now we have MOT, and i know the cars solid, i start trying to source parts on the cheap.

I want MSR coilovers. HSD's are not in the budget sadly, and these MSR's are excellent value for money. The asjustable damper ones come in just shy or £400, but fixed dampening ones at £250, have 8kg and a nice stiff dampening. Ive got them on my e46 m3touring & a bit stiff for daily duties but will be perfect for thrashing round driftland.

By luck, i find a set on gumtree locally... seller states he bought them for his E46 but his mechanic says they are E36 fitment and he cant return them, but i can clearly see they are E46 from pics. We agree a price of £180 for the brand new unused coilovers. I feel bad, & assure the seller they will fit his car, but he stubbornly tells me they wont fit! Nae bother pal, il take them!



Take the old coilovers off to give back to my mate, and fit these...





Also have time to check car and find that it has polybushed front wishbone lollipops and dig out ecu to discover it actual has a remaped ECU by digital tuning solutions with raised rev limit!





In another bonus I find rear subframe chassis reinforcement weld on plates by rude motorsports in the glovebox! BONUS!!!

Also found a dave F style induction kit on ebay for £70... Remove old airbox and fit kit with heat sheild.





As i said, underneath the cars mint. To preserve that, full underseal...

 

Ha, cheers man. Yeah, plan is oem sport kit looks, and dakar is favoured colour at moment... using this pic for inspiration!

 

Will do mate... progress has been slow last month as ive been helping a mate with his project, and respraying my e46m3tourer, but picking everything back up next week on 330ci...

Aye, we all have a "mechanic" mate... ha. Lots of new bargain used parts to fit next week aswell!

Cheers.

Cheers dude! Yellows always been my thing!

Sorry to hear that guys... rwd car prices in UK have went mental recently with drift tax, however e46's are about only cheap motors knocking about.

Ha, taylors packed in drifting... he still has his car, but has zero enthusiasm to look at it, never mind drive it!

This was my thoughts... basically a guide for folk beginning, to show they can have a cheap starter car that wont break the bank, and not be a pile of sh1te...

 

So... things have been quiet on the thread last month... had a busy month, and havent been working on 330ci. I have however been dailying it, and am happy to report 1000 issue free miles... its defo passed test for being a good example, so ive been building up a large collection of parts for it... il update you next week with what bits i got on the cheap...

Heres whats been keeping me busy last month...

My mates e36 328i sport full rear end resto...



And a respray of my e46 s54 m3 powered touring, which im respraying to freshen up for selling it... (need cash for house extension, hence building budget 330i!). Nearly finished so il be back working on 330i next week...

 

So... been quiet here for a little while... ive been mega busy, and not a fan of the new way to post up pics, but worked it out now... made some real progress on the project car, which il update in full...

In the meantime i also finished my S54 m3 touring, which i kept as a sleeper, and have since sold, which gave me spare money to continue work on my house and garage, and more importantly my current budget project.

For those interested... this was the finished m3 touring i sold...

 

So... flash back to APRIL...

I intended to run the car on 18” e38 9j style32 square set, as i have 4 sets of them, so i can have matching drift rims to match...

To fit these wide low offset wheels, im going to have to flair the arches... so both front arches are a piece of piss to do, & the rear drivers side isnt too bad... bit of a fiddle getting all the sealer out, a quick trim, but it flairs nice...



But then the problem corner... the passenger rear arch is very crusty... so i start to flair it & realise its prety rotten... i was forced to cut away the inner arch, and almost tub it further up onto outer skin... i figure this is a temporary fix, before i paint the car, and properly rectify all body work...



Another thing the car came with was a small pot of paint... i use this to touch up scabby arch, to make car look less gash for the time being...



I then set up ride height, and ensure its square all round...



I was also lucky to source a 330i AUTO diff, with the 3.38 ratio for £70... this improves the stock manual diff 2.93 ratio for better acceleration... so I weld it up, fresh oil, & bash it in as its completly bolt in.



Then stick my 9j style32’s on the car, & drive it out the garage for a wash before an impending drift day at Crails big track layout...

 

So... its Sunday 23rd April... the cars a million miles away from being a drift car... still full interior, & just a welded diff and no handbrake fitted yet... however Crail only open the big track layout a handful of times over the year, so I dont wanna miss out...

I head up with a couple guys, & throw my drift wheels on in the pits...



Car drives decent, considering its still got full leather interior, & was very standard at this stage... pulls 3rd which is still a really long gear, even with the 3.38 ratio diff... but was bogging down if u werent flat out... overall was happy with it at this stage.



Did however have a monster delam... which tore up the shitty rear passenger arch, which i hadnt dealt with properly (mind i only done a “temp” fix on it), & damaged the rear bumper and skirt, and blew the exhaust off the hangers... luckily i have already got replacement sport panels waiting to be fitted!