Sup. a while ago i built an s14, it was a ton of fun but way too much to daily drive. started off like this: ended up with solid everything, fresh rear subframe, extended arms, full kit etc etc did skids really really well, but i got really fucking tired of having it as my only vehicle, so i sold it in hopes of building something more sensible. something i could drive all year around, drive in comfort. something i could keep the interior in and go on long road trips in without feeling like a used sack of bricks after. i needed something german. so after some searching i bought an E46 for about a thousand bucks off of a friend of mine. he had it as a beater, it had fucked suspension and needed a ball joint. otherwise, the body was clean enough, it was facelift so the rear subframe mount was a bit stronger and it was a 320i. I don't exactly know why I like 320is so much, but I just do. So I pulled the trigger. thats my buddy kristoff posing beside the car on the trailer when I first bought it ^ the previous owner included a front end refresh kit which included a control arm. I was the only one out of all of my friends that had an S-chassis, everyone else drove BMWs, so they were quick to give me tips on where to start with the car. the first thing I did was order new BC coilovers, and address the ball joint and front end. Then I moved onto buying adjustable camber arms and poly trailing arm bushings. the goal was to build this car as a vehicle i drive more than i skid, and not the other way around (as i did with my other car) grabbed some trans am wheels for a good deal. 16x8 et 15 or something painted them to look cool got the car together about a week or two before the drift day I had been waiting for all year started. its a two day drift festival where you drift all day and party all night. I was stoked to shake the car down. got the car on some budget rubber. NS2s in the front and Ecomax in the back here it is on my trans am wheels in the front with a 20mm spacer and the BBS that i got with it on the back with skid wheels. the shake down went well, the car handles so much different from the S14. Very snappy, but much more grippy I felt. after I killed the few tires i brought i threw the other trans am wheels on and ruined my rear fenders fitting them then i got an M-tech II bumper and a hood vent (which was a fucking terrible Idea) did more skids had fun doing some skids with my friends got tired of the hood vent look, so i threw a spare hood i had lying around on. (i purchased a front clip for like, 300 bucks) did more skids heres a picture of how low it is: no adjusters in the back, fronts still have some ways to go down. i personally love the reverse rake look, everyone else seems to hate it. and now we're here. winter came, and at the last drift event i snapped my lower camber arm. got it welded back together at the track, but i was still sketched out and figured it was time to take it off the road for some maintenance anyway (did minimal work on it between drift events because i loved having a car that actually worked) Im doing an angle kit with rack spacers and E36 front knuckles. I have to work out if I have clearance or not, and depending probably work on getting extended arms. After some research and getting yelled at by friends, i realized extended E46 arms is a bad idea because welding cast aluminum is just plain fatal. so I think what i'll do is grab a set of E36 arms and have those extended to be an inch longer than E46. Not sure how everything is going to line up yet, so we'll see.. So far i've just been buying new parts. first thing i did was grab a new rear end. im reinforcing the subframe and decided a refresh wouldn't be a bad thing. the car does have 300K on it.... fresh rear end diff and axles off of a 90K car... dont even know how i ran into this deal but it was stupid cheap. ill be using my old diff and welding this one as a spare, chopping up the trailing arm for dual caliper brackets and throwing in the subframe on the fresh OEM bushings. got new camber arms that will be shortened half an inch and reinforced got a steal on a cool nardi wheel. also got some E36 knuckles modified. backwards converting the front end of hte car because you can get more camber adjustment out of E36 stuff. also bearings are bigger/cheaper to replace, list goes on. I also got fender flares for the rear fenders that i fuckin ruined. only 30mm wide. lastly i got some Meyle HD arms. I originally got them with the idea of pushing the ball joints out and having them extended, but i realize thats a scary idea. sucks that i spent as much as i did on them, but im just going to call it preventative maintenance because the previous owner didn't touch the front end, so i'll assume the control arms are worn out pretty badly as well.
hey dudes been gone and working. still have lots to do but heres the gist of it. put the car back on the road after about a month, because my trusty winter car was way too sketchy to continue using. this meant new winter tires: put em on some drift wheels and decided to call it. they're all very bent, but whatever. got a pal to reinforce my rear floor to eliminate any worry about that issue: we also did a dual caliper hydraulic handbrake setup while the rear end was out car lookin shitty went snow drifting, busted a tail light being too fatal got it on video: https://www.facebook.com/noiceonem8/videos/vb.1489879061229440/1639300932953918/?type=2&theater also had to do a water pump and some pulleys then it snowed again cars looking really trashy right now. life really sucks, i wish i could just put it somewhere warm but whatever. winters almost over. made a bracket for the hydro. fits in the factory place and aside from the master is totally hidden. then traded coilovers with my pal money gang steve. converted the front to E36 for camber adjustment. going to flip the camber plates to adjust caster at the shock mount, and just shim the knuckle to adjust camber at the hub. also bought his old angle kit, so that should be fun. adjustable front lower control arms, heim joints to replace all the ball joints and poly offset lollipops and shit. it should be a fun time.
