Felix 2.0 (Slow, full rebuild + now ls1)

[brainfood]

Alright, around this time last year, I did a build thread for my other car (in my sig) Felix.

So Felix 1 was great and all, but the shell was haggard as all get out, living most of it's life in WNY. We're making him better. Wayyyyy better.

In august of 2015, I shipped a 650whp e30 from NJ to CA for a friend, and had an empty trailer coming home, so to Craigslist I went. I stumbled on a rolling shell listed for $250 on my way through Sacramento, and told the guy if we could meet within two hours, I would be very interested.

1 hour later, I had a shell loaded onto my trailer.

( Pictures from my cross country adventure with a good buddy at mriterphoto.tumblr.com )



Now, the plan is to really take my time on this build, and do everything right. Felix 1 was a car to learn on, and this is the car to do it right on. Enlisting the help of a few fab buddies for some things that are out of my skill level, but everything else I aim to do myself.

Current major plans:
- Full strip shell. Top, bottom, inside, and out.
- POR15 the bottom
- Five lug swap
- Ground control/Fortune coilovers, condor bushings, sways, etc.
- d0p3 wheels!!!! for da stance (duh).
- Custom fit 4 point roll bar, built by a buddy who does racing cages.
- Shaved bay
- s62 + 6 speed
- ???
- Do a whole mess of burnouts.


I've got some cool tricks and new ideas to try on this car up my sleeve, so we'll see how they turn out. This is going to be a very long term build, because I'm also setting up my 2005 Tacoma for a cross country trip with my girlfriend.

So here are a few kinda potato pictures so far. Upcoming frames will be much better, I didn't have my camera today.

And I didn't take a ton of tear down pictures, because you've all seen that before, but you'll complain if I don't have something up here.

On the trailer, coming home from Cali.


My idea for removing glass, so I didn't fork it up with a screwdriver.


Go-go-gadget invisibility mode


idk


bing bang boom, badabop boom pow.


More updates when I get motivated again.

[brainfood]

Quick updates, gonna have my buddy bring his TIG and pipe bender over soon so we can start on the cage.







Also probably gonna do a slicktop conversion so I can get a little more headroom in the cage hoop.

[brainfood]

Build the rack over the past week or so, had some nice weather days pop up, so that was refreshing. (Kinda regret selling my motorcycle now :/)

Still have to build the tip-jig half of it, but gotta grab a jigsaw from my buddy and find some time.





Guest appearance of Felix.

[brainfood]

Remember when I built cars????

Been hella distracted after graduating, working stupid hours, parting out jeep's, etc etc. Finally got my ass in gear and here's the outcome. Plans have changed a good bit, so I'll let the pictures do most of the talking. I updated the original post too just because, but maybe you didn't read it.

Most importantly, the motor. The s50 dropped a valve during a highway run with my buddy... self-low compression swapped. (Still have good rods and crank if anyone needs them!)

_____ SPOILER ALERT, going ls1 now_______ (edit added, don't get hopes up)

I played around with the idea of an LS swap, but wanted to keep it in the family. First I bought an m62 (also for sale), and then I managed to find an m5 to part out, wuickly paying for itself. Now it's getting an s62.



I drilled out all the spot welds and cut the glue, pulled the sunroof assembly and made some room for the roll bar.



If you're doing it by yourself and you need a way to hold up the assembly so it doesn't kink the roof, I recommend something along these lines:



Inspiration picture for the interior. Gonna keep it simple. Probably do some dimple-die stainless floor panels or something to break it up a bit.



Shell then got shipped over to my buddy's place, and he's having his way with it currently. Any pictures coming through of the fab work are taken by him, so can't promise they'll be great quality.

Start of the boxes:




Main hoop got bent up today. I told him I wanted it tight, he doesn't screw around.





And that's it for now. Should have some more progress in the next few days. We're tying the cage into a rear strut bar and the diff mounts, which will be an e36 cover with the dual ears. Might be putting low door bars along the rockers, haven't decided on that yet however.

Thoughts on running a fuel cell out back, and using the old tank location to run some exhaust, maybe for a DTM style quarter exit?

[Kershaw]

Nice. Looks like a promising start.

[sampayne]

Wow, the fit on that hoop is great. Nice work!

[paynemw]

gettin' after it! sweet man!

[brainfood]

Sorry for the long delay guys/gals, been extremely busy with work and some other side projects, and my buddy Evan who has been building the cage setup has been slammed too, he's getting close to the end though, so it should be on the way back to my garage within the month.

SO. without further flapping of my internet mouth:

Started by cutting out the floor and building a jig to hold the subframe/diff in position.



Then proceeded to plate the sides of the frame rails.



Placement of the new crossmemeber and diff mounts. There's going to be some more bracing into the rail plates, and the towers will be tied together and into the diff mounts as well. I'm guessing I'll need to start stocking up on e36 diff covers sooner than later.



And to conclude this short update, I bought myself a birthday present earlier this month from Luther. 6cyl Z3 rear end, likely going to add a second set of calipers for dorifto funz.



I shall update more as I can / as I remember / oops I also bought a 1971 C10 that's going to steal some funds from this for now.

[MR E30 325is]

Excellent!

[2mAn]

you said "hella" ...are you from NorCal?

[brainfood]

you said "hella" ...are you from NorCal?

I am not, Buffalo NY area hahaha. Grew up on skating and punk music though, so I've actually been asked that a few times.

[MCreally?]

was this a rust control measure or simply a racing functionality modification, perhaps both? I applaud your engineering. While I can weld, I lack your alternative thought. Kudos, I might steel your rear diff setup.

[SkiFree]

Jeez that hoop is tight, looking forward to watching this. Stacks through hood?

[brainfood]

was this a rust control measure or simply a racing functionality modification, perhaps both? I applaud your engineering. While I can weld, I lack your alternative thought. Kudos, I might steel your rear diff setup.

This car doesn't have any rust on it being from california. A few little surface areas from where some water sat during storage times, but nothing crazy.

I also can't take the praise on the fab work, that's my buddy's brainchild for the most part. I went to him essentially saying I wanted the car to have the tightest cage he could build, and I wanted the run the e36 diff cover, and let him go at it from there. I'll dig up the thread he found for inspiration when I can.

[brainfood]

Jeez that hoop is tight, looking forward to watching this. Stacks through hood?

Intake stacks or exhaust stacks? WHY NOT BOTH????

But sadly no, will be running open ITB's on speed density tuning I think, but maybe a side exit DTM style exhaust.