Drift Hardbody with bmw suspension and VR6

Hey everyone, I just found this website and decided to post the pictures of my current project that i've been working on for the last 6 months.

It started out as a 1995 Nissan Hardbody single cab 2wd
This is somewhere I can dump the pictures that I don't post on my social media. Somewhere to keep a more detailed log of the build

 

When my Opa was younger he had wanted to be a millwright/machinist, but when his dad said he had to take over the family farm that was that. So he became a farmer, and slowly over the years he has built up a collection of metal working tools and has taught himself the basics and has in turn taught me a lot of the things he learned.

This build is a collaboration of ideas and designs from myself and my Opa


The day I got the truck

my Opa went on vacation for 2 weeks and didn't know the extent of the build yet. He told me "don't take the bed off and it better not be in pieces when I get back"


whoops
bed is off and I powerwashed all the mud and junk off the frame


just looking at what we need to cut out

There is so much stuff in the rear end of these trucks

We pulled the solid axle out to make room for the IRS

IRS set in rough place to see what kind of mounts i'll need to make

plated the inside of the frame rails and welded in crossmembers to hold the IRS

looking back on this picture I remember being scared to cut the frame up haha

had to cut it for wheel clearance

Bolted the IRS up and in the process of making spring perches



I didn't really like how I built these. They didn't look strong enough and there was room to make the truck an inch lower so I redesigned them

This is after the redesign. I felt much better about this setup

 

put the box back on to check ride height
I attached this piece of angle to get the toe as close to zero as possible so i could make my mounts in the center of its adjustment

The welds on the trailing arm mount

rear end all done minus shocks. I really like how with the E36 IRS everything is tucked under the bed. Since it has a split shock and spring instead of a coilover
I made adjustable lower control arms for the rear to fix the positive camber it it had Everything is tucked nicely under the bed.
This is about the time I decided to do the front suspension too and I was set on using the m52 from the bmw donor i bought
the engine bay isn't very long, but its very tall. This works to our advantage later on more cutting
don't need these anymore our next problem was that the bmw subframe was 31" and the truck frame was 25" in the front. There is no way the inline 6 would fit with the stock front frame Now its my first frame off project starting to make the frame rails for the bmw suspension. this is 2x4" box that we drilled holes in and sleeved I cut these subframe mounting points right off my donor E36 This is my opa and I assembling our new bender First bends after calibrating. Making our shock towers 1/4'" plate shock tower with a cutout for the wisefab camber plates I decided against the Bmw M52b28 in favour of a VW VR6 mated to a 350z transmission. It is the perfect engine for this build. It's a 6 cylinder engine the size of a 4 cylinder Opa testing out to see where the shifter will sit in the cab picked up a vr6 with headstuds and a huge box of parts from a really cool local vw guy When I bought the transmission adapter I didn't know I had to cut my bellhousing here it is cut and ready to be mated to the engine I re used the engine mount bushings from my donor e36 to use for the truck. I bent up some perches and welded them to the frame passenger side engine mount Driver side mount. I wanted to keep my power steering so I used the accessory bracket to bolt the mount to. I'm not sure how I feel about the strength of this mount. If anyone reading this has an idea i'd be more than willing to listen first time its rolled out of the shop in months. Felt so good The wisefab isn't making it easy to fit wheels on stock body. I might have to get flares or something. These are 16x7+48 I believe and 7 degrees of camber I rolled it over to the hoist and made a transmission crossmember for the cd01. Now it can roll on its own without support Now i'm painting the rear subframe and installing the diff so I can measure for a driveshaft. That's also something. If anyone knows a shop in canada that can make a driveshaft for a 350z trans and a bmw e36 diff please let me know. Both the local shops can't hold the e36 end in their machines subframes painted and ready to go back in maxed the coils low to see what kind of fitment I can get

 

i just went through your entire build thread. That thing is nuts man. You did all the work im trying to avoid doing haha

 

I never thought of that. I'm going to look into it. I'm sure we can make the adapter. Thanks man

 

Thanks man. The VR I bought has arp head studs and a new headgasket and rebuilt top end so it should hold a decent amount of boost from what i'm reading online

i'm planning on running it N/A for now while I work the anticipated problems out of the truck. Then once it's dialed I plan on turboing it and shooting for around 350 whp

 

thanks man, i'm trying to re use as many stock parts as possible

 

Pulling the fuel tank out of a junky Honda with a walboro 255 in it
Looks like it'll fit okay
Next onto hooking up the steering because I was tired of pushing it in and out without steering. Stock column on left, Honda column middle, and BMW column right
Cutting the stock Nissan column shorter to make the shaft angle less steep
When I cut the column I found out that the only bushing is at the very end. So I had to make a new one to keep the shaft centred This is the end I made to fit into the BMW steering rack. Rod turned down. Then I knurled it but it wouldn't grab the BMW end. So I put a keyway on it and now it's solid. I also kept the BMW collapsible section so the column doesn't try to kill me if I crash Got my chasebays booster delete. It fits great. This saves me from having to get a custom pedal setup. The stock booster wouldn't fit with the coilover mounts we made. My Opa doesn't think this will actually stop the truck. Anyone used it before? Got the first apk stickers made and slapped on the back widow custom driveshaft to connect the 350z trans to the e36 diff. It looks like The shop used an adapter to get it to go from one to the other. And then used a standard flange and
Bent up some 1x1 square tubing to hold the fuel tank. I put some self tappers through the holes on the edge of the tank but I am going to make straps for underneath as well battery tray. 1x1 tubing and expanded metal with 1/8" gussets unpainted battery tray