Das Beast: My E30 track / street build

[dvallis]

Thanks for asking. All is well except for time to work on the car. End of Q3 and into Q4 gets stupid busy in the tech sector, so its been minimal Das Beast. Got this whole weekend to work on it though. Updates on the way.

[325e '87]

Glad to hear it. We’re busy too, I just installed a new mri at GoImaging in Houston last Monday. The building was a mess but the manufacturer needed it done for Q4.

[dvallis]

Rob was on vacation and I was working, but we're back on track.

We pulled the car to our local performance exhaust shop. Owner needed to look it over and size up the job. We're on the calendar for him to start end of next week.



Back to fabrication. Here's the starting point for our lightweight windows: 1/4" Lexan (polycarb). SCCA calls out 1/8" min for side and rear, 1/4" for a windshield. NASA doesn't have a thickness spec. We're using 1/4" for mechanical stiffness. We found 1/8" just flops around too much. Each to his own.



Jig saw doesn't make really great straight cuts, so the angle grinder does a nice job for trimming and cleaning up.



Did some mechanical testing. Lexan takes rivets no problem without cracking.



Side window turned out good. I'm leaving out pictures of all the cutting trimming, fitting, trimming, re-fitting, cursing the polycarb dust, getting cleaned off in the driveway with a leaf blower etc. Lexan is a mess to work with.



Perfect fit. Repeat for other side.



Rear window turned out nicely as well.



Brackets are a work in progress.



More to come tomorrow.

[dvallis]

Window adventure continues. After working with Lexan (polycarb) for a while I'm changing my tune. It's messy, but darn good material. Easy to cut, bends nicely but doesn't crack. Takes rivets for a treat. A 4x8 sheet of 1/4" is only about $100. Really easy to fab windows with this stuff.

Here's a closeup of the rear window lower bracket.



Rear lower bracket complete.



Rear window installed. Damn. I can barely see it! :devil:



Here's a better view. You can see the aluminum trim work we did inside the C pillar.



Good look at the compound curves in the window glass from this angle.



After that, sides were easy.







Front windows will be pretty easy as well. Windshield goes in this week, THEN off to exhaust fab.

[dvallis]

We got GLASS!

Apparently these old school windshields are pretty hard to install. We got a referral from our local independent BMW shop (Black Forest) to their windshield guy. He's done all kinds of old school BMWs. Rob called a couple of other places for competitive quotes and got mouth breathers. "What's a bead"? LoL.

Anyway, the guy showed up got it done in and hour and went on his way. Wasn't the cheapest bid, but it was definitely done right. He was a "car guy" too. Does classics, exotics all day. Pretty cool.

[dvallis]

Front windows are in. Perfect fit. We still need to fab the locking mechanisms.

Windows come out for races or cruising, so we're not concerned about making them operational.

[dvallis]

The fiberglass hood is finally out of storage. It was in a cardboard box outside Rob's shed but survived pretty well.

Car will be inside the muffler shop overnight for a while, but maybe outside during the days. Point of putting all these body parts on is (a) waterproof it and (b) make engine bits less conspicuous to thieves. You never know.

Still need to get the front end on and waterproof what used to be the rain gutter.

I can almost see the BMW stripes on it. :devil:

[2mAn]

Das Beast: My E30 track / street build

Almost looks like a car again

[dvallis]

Bumper and diffuser getting some rework before installation.



NOW it looks like a car again!

[dvallis]

Need to finish rain-proofing the gutter, since our electronics package is under there now. Time to break out the Marglass again. Love this stuff. Short strand structural fiberglass. Workable like play-dough, for about 5 minutes. Then it hardens to the consistency of concrete. You need a real Artiste touch to use it. I left many "concrete blobs" on the trowel because I was dicking around with application too much. Throw that out and start over. Unlike Bondo, this stuff will never crack. You can hit it with a hammer. As my grandmother would say, it's "Hard as the Hobbs of Hell". :devil:

Notice Rob is not in any of the pictures? I said "Body work" and there was a sonic boom as the air collapsed, refilling the place he was standing femtoseconds ago. Just like the Road Runner cartoon.



Don't worry. This will buff right out. Sand it, apply some bondo, repeat ad-infinitum.

[dvallis]

Sanded out the marglass. As expected, it has voids.



Hence the bondo. Most of this will sand off. Gotta have zen patience for body work

[dvallis]

Exhaust bits are here. 3" 409SS 16 gauge. The 90s will get turned into a downpipe. The 45s are for the muffler. (See diagram several posts back) Got a couple of 4' sticks in another box for the main tube. Now we just have to get the exhaust fabricator onboard. He's elusive.

[dvallis]

I've got exhaust trauma. Getting the "shop which shall remain nameless" to do it has been like pulling teeth. "Call me next Monday". Monday arrives. "Call me Friday". Friday arrives, they don't answer. Grrrr.

In the spirit of Don't Push A Rope, I started calling around again. Everybody glazed over when I said the words "down pipe". Sheeh. Austin is performance automotive Siberia?

Finally, I called the shop who fabricated my cage eons ago (Winding Road) to get a recommendation. Front desk guy didn't know, got a fabricator on the phone. He turned out to be "The Guy". Was previously building custom exhaust for several years. Asked all the right questions, was very enthusiastic and knowledgeable, quoted a decent rate. Finally! Hung up feeling optimistic.

Here's the plan.

[Elysian]

Austin is performance automotive Siberia?

Emphatic YES to that. Austin is a weird town when it comes to car enthusiasts. I found Dallas much better when I lived there, and San Antonio also seems to have more car culture.

[zwill23]

I am also going to have to chime in on that.

The only way I've been able to get custom fabricating done around Austin is through the friend chain. Lately I've been forced to drive an hour to Spicewood every time I need anything substantial done. It's a pain, but I feel very good I've at least made that connection.

As I've embarked down the megasquirt process it's been slowly weighing heavier on me that I'm going to need to find a tuner in this area... time to start asking around