New to R3V: '91 325iC project in process

[talltorontoguy]

How much rolling / stretching of the rear arches did you have to do in order to get the 9" style 5's to fit on there?

[e30this]

very nice work...

[Dave McLaren]

Long time, no update. It was getting close some months ago, but another setback required the motor to come out again. It's all together and I drove it home day before yesterday. I have to take it easy as the motor only has 180 miles on it as I write this, but I've dipped in to a little bit of boost and it's fun. I'll get on it a little more after about 500 miles, then let it loose after 1000 miles.

I took some photos late this afternoon. Actually, my 9-year-old son took them and he shot a video clip of the exhaust sound.

Couple of shots of the engine:





Gauge console (crap photo; I'll try again):


Some shots of the exterior (M-Tech II install still to come):















YouTube clip of the TCD exhaust (my first YouTube clip so it's crap):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp0-n5Mcgow

[Dave McLaren]

How much rolling / stretching of the rear arches did you have to do in order to get the 9" style 5's to fit on there?

Sorry for this late reply. I haven't rolled the rears yet, but it could use a bit of work on the upper inside of the arches because the tire kisses that area on full suspension compression. It's not bad, really, which is why I haven't bothered. I had those 17x9" Sportmax wheels with the same tires on before and it also wasn't bad.

I heard the E30 M3 suspension has a slightly wider track than the standard E30 gear, but these rear wheels have a 26mm offset whereas the sportmax rears, with the 15mm spacer, netted out at 20mm. Maybe someone who knows exactly what the track difference of the E30 M3 is can shed some light on this. Anyway, it's not really a problem with the new setup or my old setup. Certainly the fender lip doesn't contact the tire, it's up inside where the contact occurred.

[Dave McLaren]

Hello my friend DAVE...

thats my boy..

looking forward to see when everything is done


nice project ..

ps,, the ALUWHEEL.. have you solved the fenders and so on

Hi Sveinbjörn,

I just discussed the rear wheel fitment in my post above. Not a big deal. For the fronts I decided not to use a 5mm spacer. We used a grinder tool to remove a little bit of the brake caliper where it contacted the wheel, and we did not use the anti-rattle clips because they had a big problem touching the wheel (as you know). After the front brake pads wear down some, then we will install the anti-rattle clips. This is our plan, anyway. Without the 5mm spacer the tire seems to have no problem clearing the fender lip.

Hope you are doing well, my friend!

Dave

[lylefk]

I think noobs should have to pay an extra 10% surcharge for parts bought in the classifieds, with proceeds going towards the picnic or something...oh wait, that would then include me. Never mind...nice score on the kit and cool vert!

[Mtriple]

Looking good Dave!

[txtorquemade]

THATS hawt

[e30slut]

nice

[///m3]

Amazing build and looking forward to updates soon.

[reelizmpro]

NICE, can't wait to see it sometime.

[Dave McLaren]

Whoa, my thread has been resurrected. I've not done much lately, but I have been driving the thing.

I just bought an Original BMW wind deflector thing from an eBay seller in Germany, and tried it out today. The thing works. I also bought some new OEM floor mats in the correct Indigo color, so those shabby old mats in the photos are history. I bought a pretty clean pair of Indigo leather cabrio front seats off eBay but I haven't installed them yet. Painted the front lip in a matte black so it looks correct. No idea when I'm gonna get around to installing the MTII kit.

One other techie thing for you guys running the 17" style 5s over E30 M3 hardware: I had a shop that repairs and makes custom wheels CNC out some material around the hub face on the front wheels so that I can use the stock anti-rattle clip without any spacers.

One goal I have is to take the thing to Bimmerfest next year, so even with my slacker approach to this, it should be all sorted by then.