Well A little history on what my cousin Carlos (Silence) and I have been doing for the past three years.
our past builds were posted on line here as well
link for 2007 GRM challengehttp://www.e30tech.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43921
Link for 2008 GRM challenge http://www.e30tech.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57621
Background
On July 28, 2007, after searching for almost 3 months we found this gem in Tampa. It needed a ton of work, but for the price it was a steal. It had 122,000 miles on a broken odometer that supposedly broke only 5 months prior. No records of timing belt replacement or any kind of maintenance other than a jiffy lube sticker on the windshield. It took us almost 5 hours of wrestling with the steering wheel to get her home. Anytime you went over 40 mph the entire car began to shake uncontrollably. The steering wheel had to be held at 3'oclock in order for the car to go straight. If you let go the car would shoot to the side, it was crazy! It seems that the car had seen some action off road with the previous owner. The good thing was that the engine was in good shape, it did not overheat, or make any strange noises. When we got her home we began to scour the internet and junkyard for parts. The first item on our long list was to do the timing belt and perform the basic maintenance, along with a complete stripping of any part that was of no use for us...
For the next 2 1/2 months we worked like crazy to get this car built. This was the first time that My cousin and I had ever worked on or owned a BMW.
After three months and no less then 400 combined working hours we had finally gotten the car ready. Both of us will say that it wasn't easy; Our body's reflected the hundreds of work hours that were devoted to getting the car to competition level. Although the car was still lacking a few more hours or work we were ready to take on the world. The event was held in Gainsville, FL approximately 4 hours to the north of fort Lauderdale. Upon arrival we were quickly humbled by the massive amounts of incredible cars that we saw when we turned into the parking lot of the event hotel. Excitement became doubt and concern for our car now named the "dirtE".
Once we were in Gainesville, our first priority was to get the car ready for the competition. So Friday morning after waking up at 5am, we drove the car from the hotel to the track. It was about 15 miles, where Carlos and i did some tuning. We basically adjusted the boost controller so the boost would come on smoothly. At the track we swapped our street tires with the Toyo RA1s, and did some last minute adjustments on the car. Carlos took it out for a quick spin on one of the side roads, and it died on him! Carlos had to push it about 1/4 mile back into the pits! After getting some help from Me, and poking our heads in the engine bay we discovered we had a huge vacuum leak. We plugged it up and were ready to run(we still had another vacuum leak that we could hear but couldn't find). Carlos made a couple passes on the autox course, and at one point we were in 8th place!... That is until the professional drivers took the course. We ended up letting a few of the pros drive the car, and they really drove it hard. Carlos' time was about 2 seconds slower than theirs, and when the dust settled we placed in 11th on the autox course. Next up was the concourse portion of the event(pictures from last post). The drag portion of the event was rained out, so based on the concourse score and the autox score, we placed 11th in the final. We had a blast and learned a ton about what to do and how to prepare for the challenge in 2008, We have huge plans for the car(think lighter, more power and more grip).
So once the challenge was over Carlos and I drove it around for a while, Carlos took it to work a few times, and I made some good videos of it on the road (you can see those linked below), but eventually it started stumbling and running like absolute crap.
Video#1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6WiC__mOi8
Video#2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl2eYpECWrY
Approximately 3 months later when we were finally motivated to begin working on it in preparation for the 2008 challenge my cousin Carlos went outside to push it onto the garage, and this is what he found!
During the next few months we knew that we needed to improve in all categories of the challenge. A few things that we had on the list for the year was to make the car lighter, handle better, more grip, look good, and more power. here is a preview of what we did in preparation for the 2008 challenge.
Our first order of business was...to perform a wire tuck. We wanted the engine bay and cockpit to be completely wire free, so without hesitation Carlos began with the under dash wiring harness. He stripped the entire interior of all wires, and only left what was absolutely necessary. Next he moved to the engine bay where i pulled out the chassis wiring and moved it so that it goes through the fender. It was a lot of work but it think it will be worth it to achieve the look that we want.
So with less than a week before the Grassroots challenge, Carlos and I began to prep the car for paint. We had an Idea for the look we wanted to achieve. Carlos did a quick photo-chop of our idea about 5 months ago. You can see it below.
So we began the bodywork, sanding, and paint prep. It took us about 2 days. The body was relatively straight, there were a few door dings, and we had some damage on the roof from removing the sunroof panel. Carlos repaired those areas with bondo, while Me and our wifes Mariana, Christy and friends Sue helped sand and scruff the areas that needed to be painted. We painted the car in a small 1 car garage. You can see the covered tool benches and washer and dryer in the background. There was not much room, but we did the best we could with what we had.The first coat was the semigloss olive green color. I got it from Sherwin Williams. It's an oil based exterior paint. Carlos (Silence) shot the entire lower half of the car with 2 coats. We used less than 1 pt. We didn't take any pics of it, but you can see the next step where we have covered the green with tape and paper, and already sprayed with the semi-gloss black. It sprayed on surprisingly smoothly with the $14.99 spray gun from Harbor Freight!
We then taped off the sections that were gong to be red and yellow, and Silence painted them in the following nights. We cut out some stencils that Silence designed, and we sprayed the bombs on the fender and the Iron Cross on each quarter panel. We woke up early the next Morning and pulled the car out of the garage. It was the first time we looked at it after completely painting it. Wow it looks so nice! I think the paint scheme came out great! We snapped some quick pics, and started packing for the long drive up
our past builds were posted on line here as well
link for 2007 GRM challengehttp://www.e30tech.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43921
Link for 2008 GRM challenge http://www.e30tech.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57621
Background
On July 28, 2007, after searching for almost 3 months we found this gem in Tampa. It needed a ton of work, but for the price it was a steal. It had 122,000 miles on a broken odometer that supposedly broke only 5 months prior. No records of timing belt replacement or any kind of maintenance other than a jiffy lube sticker on the windshield. It took us almost 5 hours of wrestling with the steering wheel to get her home. Anytime you went over 40 mph the entire car began to shake uncontrollably. The steering wheel had to be held at 3'oclock in order for the car to go straight. If you let go the car would shoot to the side, it was crazy! It seems that the car had seen some action off road with the previous owner. The good thing was that the engine was in good shape, it did not overheat, or make any strange noises. When we got her home we began to scour the internet and junkyard for parts. The first item on our long list was to do the timing belt and perform the basic maintenance, along with a complete stripping of any part that was of no use for us...
For the next 2 1/2 months we worked like crazy to get this car built. This was the first time that My cousin and I had ever worked on or owned a BMW.
After three months and no less then 400 combined working hours we had finally gotten the car ready. Both of us will say that it wasn't easy; Our body's reflected the hundreds of work hours that were devoted to getting the car to competition level. Although the car was still lacking a few more hours or work we were ready to take on the world. The event was held in Gainsville, FL approximately 4 hours to the north of fort Lauderdale. Upon arrival we were quickly humbled by the massive amounts of incredible cars that we saw when we turned into the parking lot of the event hotel. Excitement became doubt and concern for our car now named the "dirtE".
Once we were in Gainesville, our first priority was to get the car ready for the competition. So Friday morning after waking up at 5am, we drove the car from the hotel to the track. It was about 15 miles, where Carlos and i did some tuning. We basically adjusted the boost controller so the boost would come on smoothly. At the track we swapped our street tires with the Toyo RA1s, and did some last minute adjustments on the car. Carlos took it out for a quick spin on one of the side roads, and it died on him! Carlos had to push it about 1/4 mile back into the pits! After getting some help from Me, and poking our heads in the engine bay we discovered we had a huge vacuum leak. We plugged it up and were ready to run(we still had another vacuum leak that we could hear but couldn't find). Carlos made a couple passes on the autox course, and at one point we were in 8th place!... That is until the professional drivers took the course. We ended up letting a few of the pros drive the car, and they really drove it hard. Carlos' time was about 2 seconds slower than theirs, and when the dust settled we placed in 11th on the autox course. Next up was the concourse portion of the event(pictures from last post). The drag portion of the event was rained out, so based on the concourse score and the autox score, we placed 11th in the final. We had a blast and learned a ton about what to do and how to prepare for the challenge in 2008, We have huge plans for the car(think lighter, more power and more grip).
So once the challenge was over Carlos and I drove it around for a while, Carlos took it to work a few times, and I made some good videos of it on the road (you can see those linked below), but eventually it started stumbling and running like absolute crap.
Video#1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6WiC__mOi8
Video#2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl2eYpECWrY
Approximately 3 months later when we were finally motivated to begin working on it in preparation for the 2008 challenge my cousin Carlos went outside to push it onto the garage, and this is what he found!
During the next few months we knew that we needed to improve in all categories of the challenge. A few things that we had on the list for the year was to make the car lighter, handle better, more grip, look good, and more power. here is a preview of what we did in preparation for the 2008 challenge.
Our first order of business was...to perform a wire tuck. We wanted the engine bay and cockpit to be completely wire free, so without hesitation Carlos began with the under dash wiring harness. He stripped the entire interior of all wires, and only left what was absolutely necessary. Next he moved to the engine bay where i pulled out the chassis wiring and moved it so that it goes through the fender. It was a lot of work but it think it will be worth it to achieve the look that we want.
So with less than a week before the Grassroots challenge, Carlos and I began to prep the car for paint. We had an Idea for the look we wanted to achieve. Carlos did a quick photo-chop of our idea about 5 months ago. You can see it below.
So we began the bodywork, sanding, and paint prep. It took us about 2 days. The body was relatively straight, there were a few door dings, and we had some damage on the roof from removing the sunroof panel. Carlos repaired those areas with bondo, while Me and our wifes Mariana, Christy and friends Sue helped sand and scruff the areas that needed to be painted. We painted the car in a small 1 car garage. You can see the covered tool benches and washer and dryer in the background. There was not much room, but we did the best we could with what we had.The first coat was the semigloss olive green color. I got it from Sherwin Williams. It's an oil based exterior paint. Carlos (Silence) shot the entire lower half of the car with 2 coats. We used less than 1 pt. We didn't take any pics of it, but you can see the next step where we have covered the green with tape and paper, and already sprayed with the semi-gloss black. It sprayed on surprisingly smoothly with the $14.99 spray gun from Harbor Freight!
We then taped off the sections that were gong to be red and yellow, and Silence painted them in the following nights. We cut out some stencils that Silence designed, and we sprayed the bombs on the fender and the Iron Cross on each quarter panel. We woke up early the next Morning and pulled the car out of the garage. It was the first time we looked at it after completely painting it. Wow it looks so nice! I think the paint scheme came out great! We snapped some quick pics, and started packing for the long drive up
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