Meet "Blue Nose" M62b44 swap (Pic Heavy)

[marfcus]

How's the E30 coming along? One of my favorite builds on here.

[DIIRTY-30]

Overall ecstatic seeing how well everything lined up and not too big of gaps that can easily be welded flush no problem on the sides. That was ultimately my biggest concern is not shaving off too much. Nothing is currently welded its just pressure fit in place and hanging on by gravity. Figured I'd toss the plate filler & tails in to see how it looked.

man... when will you just enjoy and drive this thing?!

You know Simon I seriously thought of you while I was cutting it out


I'm sorry man i know i know i know... I just get too carried away.... for real I thought to myself "shit I really need to take pics of the car" and the little devil popped up on my should as always chiming in saying "this wont take **THAT** long." I'm gonna respray the engine bay & rear, clean up wiring and re locate a few things. It'll be worth it in the end, I can almost see the light.

Want to do the same to my car next?

I'm def down to come help out. I'm going to start welding the new piece back in so that's probably the hardest part of all. We'll see how that goes, if its a success fuck yeah lets knock it out.

I've got to do the same panel replacement on my sedan, any tips?

Wire wheel everything, remove all that seam sealer, spot welds are in a lot of really obvious places, theres maybe 3 I overlooked that were impossible to see. Mostly on the drivers side, separating the panel in order to not mess up the top of the body line, I chopped the tail section and pryed it with a flat head & angled flat bar to separate the seams. In total removal took about 3 hours, spot welds are a breeze its just the damn sealer that takes a while to get off.

As for fitting it up, I'm having the issue right now of only being one person. So when I line up the pass side it throws the drivers off slightly. I havent tacked anything down in place, just wanted to make sure the bumper holes lined up, inside of the panel, and tail lights aren't crooked or funky. Overall the trunk and tails line up really clean, and just gotta tap the tabs on the new panel near the bottom edges to mate flush and run a bead along the outside and grind it down.


I'm probably going to end up using 3m seam sealer, since thats a lot of peoples go-to choice but I've been looking at other options as well so I'll post when I do get around to that part once the welding finished.



20180913_120451 by Daniel Bourne, on Flickr



I also got these dropped off while cleaning up for the day, looking forward to trying to make something a little bit more stock for the ref.

[AwakenNoMore]

I've got to do the same panel replacement on my sedan, any tips?

[IRON-E]

Want to do the same to my car next?

[2mAn]

man... when will you just enjoy and drive this thing?!

[DIIRTY-30]

I begun stripping the engine bay of the truck bed liner since all it would do is get filthy and be a PIA to clean.

I've decided to go back and change a few things, try and push to get the engine BAR'd and see how that goes & fix any short cuts I took in the previous years since the car isn't going to be sold... well.... ever.

So I started disassembling the rear & spent about 3-4 hours drilling out the spot welds, exhausting but the seam sealer was worse than drilling. Still need to run a wire wheel over a couple spots with surface rust & seam sealer. Then go ahead and clean up the few edges before tacking in the new panel and confirming fitment. Overall I understand why places charge around 1k-1500 for this kind of a job, but lucky for me wire wheels & a spot weld bit is only $10.

[DIIRTY-30]

I've sat staring at the car the last few days, and getting tired of seeing this sit in my driveway. So I'm gonna start back up on it and re doing a few things & hopefully push to make this a smog legal deal since cali is so laid back you know...




Decided to cut some sheet metal, plug the vents under the windshield, removing the wiper & gonna extend it to make a true mono wiper like the ACS kit. I haven't decided if I am gonna relocate the fluid res where the blower motor used to be, but if the catch can goes, may just relocate the coolant tank to the battery spot. Also made my own strut reinforcement plates or whatever you'd like to call them, next weekend I plan to aircraft strip the whole engine bay & spray it again in an OEM Cirrus so it flows better.



In an effort to make it smog legal, I found a great deal for a set of stock exhaust mani's (Insert crappy phone screenshot) and bought them. I seriously had two sets, and gave them away for scrap which I totally regret doing now. All I need to make this thing legal is add cats, and swap in an m60 NBD right?







Side note I've had this OEM panel sitting in my garage for 3 years now. It's about time I fixed what the body guy couldn't straighten out, and put it to use. Been working a lot more on my tig time so pretty sure I can finally smash this out with some time and luck. Finally have a straight, correct, and flush tail light piece.

[wworm]

e31 needs to have a build thread... Especially if you arent doing anything with this car :p

+1

[2mAn]

E31 needs to have a build thread... especially if you arent doing anything with this car :p

[DIIRTY-30]

Just read through this whole thread, awesome work!

Have you taken any measurements for the m112 blower? I’d be concerned if the throttle body hitting the firewall without modification.

Honestly I havent really done a whole lot with the e30. My primary focus has been working on my e31, just finished swapping in a 3.62 lsd into that. Ive been on the fence about making a build thread just for it since noone really covers that chassis or modifys them often.

As for the throttle location, i took rough measurements when i bought it. The seller was an XJR collector, so he let me poke around a complete motor. Its going to be a tight squeeze but i think I can manage. Worst case, i dont have a blower motor or anything behind the cover so notching is very do able. Only thing thats positioned there is my fluid res tanks and thats an easy relocation project.

Based upon photos i took & measurements from his chassis, it should be a simple BFH job to make it all fit no problem. The harder part I see will be getting a proper sized elbow and what not & fabbing the linkage.

[dmjensen]

Just read through this whole thread, awesome work!

Have you taken any measurements for the m112 blower? I’d be concerned if the throttle body hitting the firewall without modification.

[wworm]

Seriously lol as long as they can join in theyre cool. I've found my guy under my car plenty of times when its on stands and have to take a 15 min break just cause he wont move out my way. He's a good supervisor and doesn't charge very much for his time and labor.

lol check out @easonauto on instagram. I used to apprentice there and the shop dog friday posts are hilarious. The dog, Ratchet, is one of the friendliest gooberiest dogs I've ever met. He fits the grungy friendly shop dog vibe so well.

[DIIRTY-30]

dogs dont give a fuck they just wanna hang out/are happy to be included in activities lol. They're perfect

Seriously lol as long as they can join in theyre cool. I've found my guy under my car plenty of times when its on stands and have to take a 15 min break just cause he wont move out my way. He's a good supervisor and doesn't charge very much for his time and labor.

[wworm]

dogs dont give a fuck they just wanna hang out/are happy to be included in activities lol. They're perfect

[DIIRTY-30]

Ah shit :( that's awful I'm sorry to hear that. Might I ask what happened to the poor fella?

My guy's barely over a year old but vet said he either was hit by a car or fell from a pretty good height as a pup. Found him tied up to a tree on the street in 110F heatwave. Knew he had something up with his hip/knee by his walking but was blown hearing it was dislocated/completely torn yet he'd still run full speed no prob when excited.

My girl shows me a lot of random dog videos, and it amazes me how they overcome & can readjust with missing limbs. Animals are pretty spectacular at adapting to things compared to us humans.

Great work!

Sorry about your pup, we had to amputate a leg for one of ours Friday.