Yeah mate... that was first big project at my house. Bought the house with a small single garage, and back room... wanted more space, so drew some plans... flattened old one... and rebuilt to spec... {} {} {} {} {} Whole garage is sound deadened, central heated, tv for Sky sports, sink and all the tools i could need. {} {} Tool storage wall... have alot of mates round working on car; so putting tools on walls make them easy to find and tody up! {} {} {} Also got the back workshop where compressor lives, and i can fabricate stuff and mix paint... {} Took a good few months to build, but cost next to nothing as all labour was done by me, my faither and a couple mates... just watched a couple youtube videos on how to do bricks, joinery, felt roofs, and never looked back! Ha
So put a couple stickers on the car for bit of representation... MINTFABS obviously my mates buisness thats been helping with welding work, SeasideAlliance is my other mates and makes drift related clothing... {} {} {} Got sick of looking at my wheels covered in overspray... so painted my road wheels, drift wheels and a set of M-parallels for my E39 daily... {} {} Had a huge collection of dished style32’s that ive been collecting over years, but now thinned them out and left with... 4x 9j 18” style32 road wheels 2x 9j 18” style32 skid rims 4x 8j 18” style32 skid rims 2x 8j 17” contour skid rims (spares if i can only source 17” tyres) Been picking up sets over the years on the cheap, here and there... the wheels are obviously worth alot in todays market, but Im not gonna include the cost of wheels in the cars budget... if you dont like it, sue me! Main thing is, i wanted matching drift wheels to the front wheels! Ive had so many good pics over the years ruined by shite offset skid rims! Ha {}
wish to build something similar my self one day... thats one hell of a good job dude... car is looking stunning im also so glad youtube exists ha ha
Hahah, youtube taught me how to work on and paint cars, and build garages/houses! Ha. Cheers tho man, its turning into a decent looking wee bus for a car that owes me less than £2k! Almost caught up with all the work thats been done on car... working on something exciting just now, which il get to, but this was just the start of the month; Order from OpieOils... basic oil and filter service, and auxiliary belt... he recommended this oil, for what driving id be doing... {} Car had an occasional squeaky auxiliary belt... never change one before; quick youtube video later, and swapped it in no time at all, even with my fat hammer hands... {} Old belt was proper perished, so a worthy £10 spent! {}
The stock 2.93 diff ratio is brilliant in a 330ci if you daily the car, and sit all day at 70mph on a motorway with no interest in how quick you can accelerate to there. It is however very long gearing, and makes the car feel lazy, so if ur doing anything other than motorway cruising, its in your best interest to change it... So considering the above; i think the main question your asking is; are you better buying an auto 330i diff (3.38 ratio) for £100, or a petrol x3 diff (3.64/3.73/3.91 ratio) for £300 and an e46 328i prop for £50. My honest opinion; if you on a mega tight budget... £100 on a 3.38 auto diff is the one to go for... defo made the car more lively, and worth the money all day long... However; if there is a little more money in the pot... the 3.38 ratio did still feel a bit long, and if budget isnt as important, and you want the best... The 3.64 ratio seems absolutely bang on for a fast road, drift car. Its easier to keep car in the power band of the rev range, accelerates notably quicker over stock ratio, and still retains cruising capabilities (3500rpm at 70mph with 3.64). So if u can find an x3 diff thats not crazy money (some on ebay for £500-£700!!!) and the ratio is 3.64 or 3.73, and u can afford to whack £300 on a diff, id defo say go for it! I would say be aware that the 3.91 x3 ratio, in my opinion, would be verging on too short, ruining a cars capablity to sit comfortably at motorway speeds, altho if its just an out and out track car, prob still be fine... Ps. Dont even be tempted by a small case auto 4.44 diff... its waaaaaaaay too short, and wont be as reliable going from big case diff and shafts, to the small case setup... Hope this helps. Pps... small update; recently screwed in tow hooks front & rear, and stuck on sunstrip with a little advertising for my mates buisness. MINTFAB {}
So from the initial shakedown day at crail in april, one thing i learned is the stock lock is terrible on an e46... i wanted to address this and looked at my options... obviously theres not money in the budget for an all singing & dancing £1000+ pro setup... And the e46 with wide alloy arms doesnt have alot of small fabricators making full lock setups, like other models. So i call murray from MINTFAB in again... We sit down and look at options... ideally i wanted improved lock, castor and camber, and extra inner arch clearance for front wheels as my 18” 9j’s with a 225/40/18 tyre are already scrubbing on full stock lock! To achieve this on every other car ive had, was cut hubs, extended arms, and rack spacers. So thats what we had to do... your cant obviously extend 46 arms, so we were gonna use 36 arms, and get custom made eccentric lollipop bushes to suit different arm and castor requirements... I cant go into details of setup, as there is so many poor imitators out there, but what I will say is its soooo easy to fuck up castor when doing arms, and even easier to make a weak ass weld which will crack and be dangerous... these arms are welded properly, with additional bracing, extended and angled perfectly for an E46... please dont ask santa for a welder, give yourself a name like “mongfab”, and assume u can make these bits... theres already enough death traps on the road/track... for this reason im not putting any pictures up, especially of jig we worked out... {} Also modified the stock e46 hubs, applied same principle that murray uses on E36 hubs, for increased lock, and reduced bump steer... {} Then wire wheeled the arms and hubs smooth, and hung them up in my back workshop area, where they were primed... {} {} Purple basecoat... {} Heat resistant, sparkle purple top coat! {} {} {} Ultimately this is the finished article... the MINTFAB prototype e46 lock setup. E36 modified arms E46 modified hubs Custom made e46>e36 poly bushes Rack spacers Fresh Lemforder ball joints This setup is going to be tested on my car, and if it works aswell as I know it will, Murrays gonna start selling them as a full kit on his MINTFAB site. {} So fit new balljoints in my press... {} Remove old lower arms and track rods & ends... both track rods have zero play and appear fresh... tidy up all threads using wd40, coppergrease and a wire brush so they are easy to adjust like new. Passenger one proves hardwork, as its seized solid, but persivered with heat and free it off before cleaning it, as i didnt wanna have to buy a new one, and keep costs down! Ha. Put rack spacers on, and locktite the arms into the rack... {} Full setup on the car... of note; i didnt refit the rusty old dust shields, abs sensors or brake pad sensor... the ARB was also removed as big lock applications and the shortened droplinks required with coilovers, does not have the range to follow a fixed point on coilover, and hinders lock... Running 36 arms i would have option to mount droplink to lower arm like a 36, but the coilovers are so stiff im going to run without it, as i have in the past... if it doesnt work, and steering wasnt sharp enough, I can always refit it with 36 droplinks later on, but initial roadtests show me the setup handles perfect... {} As an added bonus... i find that the stock silver tag steering rag, that should be in the car, has already been replaced with a quicker purple tag rack. This saves me £60 from having to buy one! {} I then setup allignment to what i want, in my garage using oldskool stringline method... Initial testing of my car on the road, shows it has more than enough lock, self centres perfectly, turns in sharp, and the wider track and narrower arms allows clearance for the big wheels on full lock!!! So far so good, but real test will be on 21st oct, when it gets its maiden voyage around Driftland.
This is brilliant. I also love that you built your own garage, something im currently in the process of doing is getting a garage built on my drive, I'd love to give it a go myself but it requires the full works, drive digging up, foundations dug out, concrete poured etc, I think i'll leave it to the experts although its gonna cost a fortune! Any pictures of front fitment with the new steering setup? On my old E36, after I fitted E46 lower arms it gave it a nice bit of a camber and made it look more aggressive
Awesome job good luck with continuing your build! No offence but maybe you should check position of outer ball joint, as far as I know it should be pressed in like on the attached picture. {}
Cheers dude. Im going up next sunday 22nd, if ur heading up? Cheers. As i said at start, my aim was if i can get one other person who thinks building a car is outwith their reach, to read this, and see how cheap and easy it can be, its served its purpose... Its seems hard and alot, but i just kept chipping away at it, and had it built over the winter months. Defo worth it... whole garage cost about £4k (remote roller door was £1100 alone).... mate had a similar sized garage built by a company and cost almost £20k!!! Yeah, does make more camber extended bottom arms. I have adjustable topmounts to fine tune it aswell. Im saving picture of exterior camber shot tho, as im doing something else just now aswell, and a revealing pic as one... ha I got the arms used... i pushed them back in exact same way i pushed old ones balljoints out... as far as I could see it shouldnt really matter tho... round hole, round joint with 360• movement... only reason i could see it causing problem, is that its close to brake disc this way, but still a 14mm gap. Il look into it tho, and if there is any reason for spinning it 90•, il push them out and spin them round 90•. Cheers for heads up and advice tho mate.
Only thing putting me off is that I've never ever done anything building wise, and its the foundations etc and I now know that where I want my garage, the gas mains pipe runs underneath it...so if for some reason it needed digging up they would have to demolish the garage to get to it - whereas a professional would know how to sort that I guess? Anyway - this isn't a discussion for your build thread haha Cool car and I like the budget idea! seems to be working well for you
Really good read this and think I will make one as I have built an altezza for under 2k for skidding im from aberdeen so look forward to seeing this person