BMW E36 Coupé M50 Turbo Driftbuild

So to start somewere on the car i thought i finish the stuff the old owner didnt finnish completelly so grinding and made the rear firewall done and also remove the really hard sound adhesive stuff in the car and the trunk

So now when we have bare metal showing for the welds lets start forming a metalsheet to block this big hole with. So i came up with something like this!


After that i shaped a metalpiece for the speakershelf too, then we welded them both in place and sealed them of with some sikaflex.


Then i got sick of seeing the car as it looked so i had to do something about the apperence of her! But thats were my first planned driftbuild came in. Before i moved from my parrents i had a bmw e36 touring wich i had broken a mainbearingcap on and giving up the hope on when it was too much rust on her. So i took the hood, front fenders, lights, and front bumper from it and placed it on this and suddenlly i had gained some energy in the build again! At the same time we bought a rollcage for her, it was used before but showed no sign at all of damage so we bought it and got it home, it had really light surface rust wich i easilly removed with some sandpaper and primed it.



And then with some magic we got it in the car and now she lookes like this instead!


In this pic we had starting to mount the cage to the chassi and i've began clear some spots on the cage were we were going to mount extra pipes and belt bars. And later on the fabrication and welding of the boxes behind the seats for the cage middle legs to stand on started.



I also made a plate for the front firewall to but due to kables and such i bolted that if i need to remove it for something usefull

 

Then I decided to renovate the subrame and all the parts connected to it so i got it out and began to rmove stuff i wouldnt need.



So time for disassemble and to replace my bushings to new upgraded onces. So first step was to burn them out!


Then when the subframe was disassembled it was time for some grinding and removing of rust on the parts.

Then it was time to put some primer and paint on the parts and put in the new bushings.



So here are all parts done and new bushings everywere and painted.


Lets assemble it and put it back under the car again. The tirebowl is really making this job a pain in the ass so it will need to go!

Stay tuned for more!!!

 

so, since i got disturbed by the tirebowl it had to go, mailly due to make it look cleaner since i will be putting a mettal plate along chassi beams to make a nice floor for the fueldepartment that will go in the back.

So its more anglegrinder time!!!

Look how much more space i now had for the subrame and diff!!!



And here you have all scrapmetal i removed, WEIGHTREDUCTION WOHOOO!!!


Then i thought the only thing that connected the crashpeams vas a thin piece of metal looked alittle weak so had to upgrade that with a pipe from my cageupgrades. Turned out Really nice actually!


Welded it in place and then i finally made a floor inside and welded that to the frame too.


Next chapter of the car was to upgrade the front end and renovate the front subrfame so keep reading!

 

so now we have move to the front of the car and now it have ahppend alot since you saw the car last, i found some front fenders that might work good to the car, i have also bought myself a steering lock kit from t-parts here in sweden so now we need to get the front subrame and wheelhubs restored so we kan try it out!

So first up we had to restore the front subrame. It was really easy to remove all rust of that one and it turned out really nice with the paint.



After that I had to restore the wheelhubs and it was not as easy as the subframe to clean up but with some hours with a dentist tool it got ready for paint. And since the paint on the controlarms of the kit is yellow i whent with yellow on the whellhubs as well.


Okay, now all that had to be restored are done i can tell you alittle about the kit i ordered.

T-Perts are made from a Swedish guy here in sweden wich are highlly active in drifting himself and he actually drives a e36 so that gave me alot of thrust to this kit, also its actually almost half the price for this kit compared to a wisefab but still gives really good feeling and properties to the car while drifting. So here it is! The T-Parts E36 +55mm Kit!!!


So then i whent forward and mounted it on the car, but at first i hade alot of toe out even by measured from the eye, so i asked Tobias who sells the kit if i did something wrong or if i got the wrong part or if i have to modify, and he said that those tierods work for both the 55mm kit and the step above wich give alittle bit mor room for wheel angles so i had to shorten the tierods alittle and after that it worked really good.

Full Lock left, saddly these tires have too big profile so the rub but BMW's own rim that is similar to ocean super dtm rims (y-rondell they are kalled in swedish) worked good.


The next post was the biggest point in my build since i bought it. Stay tuned!!!

 

This Was the time i got the most motivationboost in the build!!! After 1.5 long years of building something that couldn't even touch the floor to something that looked like a driftcar made me so happy to see that all this time it wasn't for nothing and i started to realize what i was fighting for! To see the car on the ground standing on her own and to see how brutally agressive and low she was made me want to get this done so badlly now! Well, after a short moment on the ground and after i checked so nothing was a problem wile on the ground and after snapped some photos too of course, she went up on the stands again for some more mods.

Touchdown!!!



Not much higher than a s14!!!


Next upload will be from last week so now the posts are gonna be more split up. But the road here have been long and have really pushed my patiens to its max. But in the end it so worth it when i think about what i'm building!

Stay tuned!!!

 

Then it was time to jack her up again and now its time for some work with the front end and starting to prepare for a bashbar build! so out with the old, heres how it turned out after we chopped of the front. well see if i'll use the wheelarches or if i'll cut them away to but i think ill try to save as much as i can of them.



Then it is time to prepare for some paint so i've started to clear the wheelarches and enginebay from paint and rustprotection. Alot of work still left tho


I have also made an Mount for my e-brake (not the one on the pics) wich got in a really comfy spot and easy to reach without beeing in the way of anything.



The office feels really nice!!!


And now you have followed my journey of 2 years of building my dreamcar and still alot left, but next up will be to finish the bashbar, build my own dashboard and build the enginemounts for the engine that will go in the car, But for that youll have to wait since we now have came to the current status with the car. but dont worry, as much as im building now i have never been building before. Only this post was what ive done this week.

Stay tuned and ill stay updated!!!

 

Tonight I started to fabricate some dashboard for her since I like the clean racecar look more than the stock dash so here's how it looks so far

More work on the dash will come in the weekend, stay tuned!

 

Tonight we did some more work on the dash and now almost all tubes are welded and we began to make a panel for all switches and stuff. So except for those four 2-way switches and checklights there will be an engine start button, an main circut breaker and an DANGER DANGER!!! Light for the oil pressure. Except from that there will be some planning on the mount for the iPad that's for the ECU and other stuff.

 

Some update on the build again and this time I talked with Tobias at T-parts for some parts. This time we got some aluminium engine bushing, gearbox bushings, some trailing arm bushings and a oil pan plate to keep the oil in place when we kick her out in the corners. But T-parts in silver?! For me there parts should shine with there yellow colour so the yellow can had some duty. Afterwards I sent Tobias a photo, he approved I have also restored the gearbox mount and engine mount and for them we whent with a black colour and now they look brand spanking new!!!

Before


And after




At the moment I order alot of parts for the engine and I get atleast a package every 2nd day now. The latest part I got today and that was the intake manifold. Looks pretty okay actually.



These were only test fittings so far, tomorrow it'll go up on the engine hoist so we can start to tear her down and change all the gaskets and switch to my other oil pan for e36.

 

So tonight I started to tear the engine apart and clean it off. But before I did that I had to se how it would look when I got everything mounted on it and how much space it would take in the engine bay. Han I was a really tight fit actually so I really hop it will work.


So now it's teardown time!!! It whent really smooth actually, no problems what so ever. And to my surprise the engine looks brand new in the inside, only some old oil slugs that had to be cleaned but no bad gaskets or anything but this are gonna be replaced anyway. But except from tapering it appart only step forward I made tonight was to swap the oil pickup pipe for the e36 pipe. Then it was time to head home since the clock was 04:00 AM

 

Some more parts for the bimmer are starting to roll in now and now I have the ECU and engine harness for it so just some more cables need to be wired and after that I'll just need some sparkplugs and some more sensors and stuff for it. Then the engine can be assembled and mounted to the chassi. This car have always been a dream for me since I first saw a e36 drifting and here I am, building an absolute beast of a car, made for me and me only! I want to drive her so badly right now but I have to be patient a little more but soon I'll be able to feel her power let lose!