Das Beast: My E30 track / street build

[dvallis]

Patching the firewall

I put my nephew to work making a template for the firewall sheet metal patch. :devil:



Here's the work in progress. Will get more screws, slight bends etc. I'm liking it. After we shoot it with paint will look OEM. It's mostly hidden by the engine anyway.

[dvallis]

Finishing the firewall

Firewall patch with more bends, holes, tabs etc. Using 3M double sided industrial rubber tape to seal the patch.



Patch in place and looking good.

[dvallis]

Wings and things

Of course, a simple day bolting on the wing turns into a freaking adventure.

Trunk is curved.



Wing is flat. (Made for an E30 M3 trunk) Oh joy.



Instead of cutting down the front of the wing, I decided to build up the rear. Started with a cardboard mold.



Filled the mold with MarGlass. Love this stuff. Cures in 15 minutes and it's hard as hell.



My dustless (sort of) sanding rig. Shaping the MarGlass with a sanding block.



After a lot of sanding, the wing base fits the trunk.



Making the trunk brackets.





Finally all done. Sits on the trunk nice and solid. Needs a bit of bondo and sanding to be ready for paint.

[dvallis]

Das Beast metal shop

Revisiting the interior metalwork today. This stuff takes a LONG time to get right. Had to (1) Invent a sub-structure for the rear deck, (2) Figure out how to connect rear deck and rear bulkhead, (3) Trim everything so it fits right, (4) Hunt for all the materials at Lowes and (5) Do it !

Of course there are always issues. Drill didn't fit here. Had to improvise with the Dremel.



The hardest part was fitting my body in HERE. @#$@#$!!!!! I am a big guy. Getting into the back seat and contorting myself around the roll cage was ..... interesting.



Six hours later, here's the end result. Very satisfying to have it look this good, considering the total lack of sophisticated metal working machinery. :devil:







Getting close to paint time. Going to sort the front end next.

[Blackthorn]

Love the build man, got me motivated to get a bunch of things done on my build that i had been putting off. Keep it up!

[2mAn]

The hardest part was fitting my body in HERE. @#$@#$!!!!! I am a big guy. Getting into the back seat and contorting myself around the roll cage was ..... interesting.

Im 5'6" and my roll bar is fairly similar to yours and it was a nightmare. I cant imagine how much of a pain it mustve been for you.

My wife came down to visit me while I was struggling in the back and snapped this pic of me a few weeks ago

[dvallis]

Das Beas Is Back

Now that the freaking arctic freeze is over we are back to work. Once the temp stays over 70 for a week it's paint time.

We're fitting the fiberglass hood tonight. High capacity double pass radiator needs to drop "1 so the fill cap will clear the hood.



Most guys use 4 hood pins. However, at racing speeds the front lip of a lightweight fiberglass hood will lift. We're starting with a hood pin dead center to prevent this. Will drill the BMW logo and fit over the hood pin when its all done. Should look very cool.

Don't screw up drilling the hood. :devil:



Center pin mounting in progress.



I like it.



Front left and right pins are easy.



Front pins mounted.



We used some caulk on the side pins, placed the hood then drilled at the caulk marks.



And here's the final result. Looking very Race Car. Still needs rear pins but we'll finish those next time.

[Digitalwave]

That radiator looks niiiiccceeee.

[dvallis]

Almost the end of Body And Paint

Man. Body work is totally OCD. Finally on the last steps

Apply guide coat. Shows all the high spots, rough patches and voids



Fix spots with glazing putty and more 400 grit sanding. Repeat ad nausea.



By the time you're done the guide coat is totally sanded off. Repeat for all fenders and body.



We're ALMOST ready for paint !!!!!!!

Did some other minor stuff. Here's something cool. Since the trunk now has a big ass wing attached, we're going to want extra security for it not to go flying open. Trunk pins!



Sexy! Will screw the final hardware on after paint.

[dvallis]

Fully pinned

Fabricated mounting bracket for rear hood pins. Bolts right on to existing mounting points.



Hood in place with all pins. Ready for paint. Metal bits get masked.



Trunk pins looking good.



Moving on to some fun things: Fitting everything in the front end (radiator, intercooler, fan, charge piping, cold air intake) so all metal work is done before we roll for paint.

[dvallis]

Back to Fabrication

MIG Welding ... Texas Style.

We're fabricating the trunk floor / rear ballast / fuel cell mounting plate. The MIG was not cooperating for a while. Wire kept welding itself to the tip. Turned out to be rusty wire. Once that got fixed it worked like a champ.



The trunk floor plate is 80 lbs of steel, so I was a bit concerned about it becoming a horizontal guillotine in a crash. Ha. I couldn't even break the temporary weld we made for a ground attachment with a hammer, much less the major welds. The floor plate is not going anywhere.



From inside the car ...



Front clip ... before.



After some metal work



We're going with a relatively high mount for the intercooler to leave room for an oil cooler below it. We could have dropped it to the frame rails, but that means re-fabricating brackets for the front clip and also relocating the oil cooler. Obviously we will loose the inboard headlights, but the left one is becoming a cold air intake in any case.



Front plastic bits still fit. Might need some trimming inside.



Radiator fits. String line is the front of the Jesus Bolt. We have lots of room.



But not enough for a fan. That has to be sandwiched between the intercooler and radiator. The SPAL 30102048 16" fan was too thick at the hub (3.5") We only have 14" x 23" x 2.5" to work with, so here's the solution. Dual SPAL 11" pusher fans 30101502 will put out ~2000 CFM and fit right in the space. Stock clutch fan is 2300 CFM so we're in the right ballpark.



More to come ...

[Digitalwave]

I am no expert, but I would be concerned with airflow through the radiator as it is being impeded by both the intercooler and the pusher fans sandwiched in between.

[downforce22]

Neat project, just found it.

It looks like you are running a precision 6262? I've got a similar setup on my car and similar intercooler. I flipped my intercooler so its inlet are near the fogs.



You may consider rotating you oil filter housing, it helps oil filter changes make less of a mess. I have a bit less room due to the awd motor mount arm of the 325ix.

[dvallis]

Thanks for chiming in above. I like this idea. Looks like it will give better airflow to the radiator and intercooler. Please post some pictures of your intercooler plumbing and turbo air intake.

What did you do with the oil cooler?

[downforce22]

Thanks for chiming in above. I like this idea. Looks like it will give better airflow to the radiator and intercooler. Please post some pictures of your intercooler plumbing and turbo air intake.

What did you do with the oil cooler?

Sure thing. At the moment I am not running an oil cooler because it kept leaking. I think it was the cheap fittings i got instead of the earl brand I should have bought. I was planning to stick it above the IC behind the kidney grilles. Neat hint is you can plug the oil filter adapter lines with rear diff drain plugs, the thread is same and it is reversible when you are ready for the oil cooler. Each plug is like $3 from BMW. By having the IC lower allows more air to the top of the radiator. The only draw back is that front frame core support that is below the radiator (behind the front valence) which would restrict airflow through the lower part of the IC. You have a late model, not sure what the fit will be like since mine is an early. Here are a few photos though of my piping (generic cx racing 2.5" with a few cuts made to length)

I have a silicone from the turbo and this turns down by the AC condenser hole. This was my initial setup with old manifold/turbo but otherwise its the same with the precision.




My mounts are kind of ghetto and the top is wedged in behind the center strip of the valence but it is really solid. Some of these mounts here turn the other way, mine just happened to be correct.



A 45 degree bend past the headlight and I was able to use another 45 into the BOV pipe straight to the AFM.