cameras ready prepare to flash

[s14brent]

The sunroof delete piece finally came in....it's rough and will need some body work but I mocked it up in place already. It's kind of sagging in the rear because it's only mocked up for now with some self tappers. I'm happy with fitment/gap. I wont' have to use much of the window weld and it will look good (i think). I'll remove it, and do some light body filler by hand (too thin to hit with orbital) and use window weld on the edges to keep the interior leak proof hopefully!





So I decided to tackle some of the body work on my car since there is a few months gap of no local events (normal in summertime in vegas due to temps and EDC at the speedway). Meanwhile I'll be attempting to wrap it with a friend who has some experience doing it, body work is going to take a while still, I didn't trust a lot of bodyshops to be as picky as I am unfortunately so I figured why not!




I will be welding plugs in for the antenna and washer fluid nozzles




I've also decided to take up a local buddy to help build my roll bar - as it makes sense since this was a whole "learning" diy build from the start. I got a swag portable bandsaw stand finally and i'm excited to use it, it cuts like butter compared to cut off wheels/chop saw! I also got a cheap tube notcher that hopefully won't need upgrading since this is a small one-time project for now. Leaning on doing a weld in roll bar only (tied into reinforced rear towers), no door bars or full cage plans for now, will be removing fuel tank to finish up the rear -AN lines while I'm there.

[DEV0 E30]

Looking forward to the wrap, what color? Or is it a surprise?

If you and a friend are doing it, it's cheap and will last a few years even with getting full sun and being exposed to the elements (since we're in the same climate - Phoenix, AZ here).

My wrap is burning/browning in spots where the windows reflect directly down onto it, so if you cover it or keep it garaged - you'll extend the life.

Mine looked great until it sat in the sun outside instead of being in the garage - but it's the offroad/truck/multi-duty vehicle - focus isn't on cosmetics for it.

[s14brent]

Looking forward to the wrap, what color? Or is it a surprise?

Not a surprise at all, I bought a small amount (5x10) of “midnight purple” (slightly darker than technoviolet) and will be attempting to wrap the trunk, sunroof and flares first. If it is not great I will probably look into avery/3m colors options.

thanks for the tips, I keep it garaged and have it in mind that a wrap will probably have a shorter life span than paint but at least the body work will be done as that was the biggest issue. Theres not a ton of issues on the body, it seemed the problem areas were mainly the trunk/roof/hood.

edit (05/04): adding some pics because less is more.

Made some 20 gauge plugs for the washer nozzle holes on the hood.




20ga antenna plug metal glued in


random body work pics:




I'll be taking out the hood vents next and prepping the hood next I guess, I'll probably try to clean up and prep the underside for some black spray paint since it's super ugly under there! I need to get acetone to figure out how much more sanding is needed on the body, everything is covered in a fine layer of dust so it's hard to tell! I've been circling in sharpie areas that need a thin coat of body filler. I'll probably try to get that done by Sunday.

[s14brent]

seems like sundays are the only days i'm able to work on this so the progress is a bit slow. I had circled little problem areas around the car that needed a little body filler, so i tackled about 90% of them. I however found out when prepping my hood, that there was quite a bit of body filler already on there, which sucks but unfortunately the hood I want would be $1000+ shipping + aerocatch pins, and unfortunately I have had some expensive vet bills come up, so the hood will have to work for the time being.




washer nozzle delete came out looking good!



same with the antenna delete

My buddy decided to do a test wrap on a panel to make sure I wanted to buy the bulk of it. I think we have a go! Really happy with the body work progress though. It's very minimal filler and the body is looking straight.






Next up is sanding front and rear valance/bumpers. I may want to hit the body with some higher grit sand paper though as a final pass. It is a pain to clean pre-wrap, and makes the kind of low tack wrap super tacky which takes a bit more time I feel.

[s14brent]

It's been hard to get any progress done (as expected i suppose), been lucky to dedicate one day a week for progress which is moving a lot slower than desired. Most days in the garage are in the high 90's. My little swamp cooler in the garage has been a life-saver but I really want a mini-split more than ever!
I decided to finally tackle the worst part of the clear flaking. I can finally say the bulk of the sanding/prep has been completed now.




next part was getting rid of the rock guard on the bumper/valances - never was a fan of that for some reason





decided to also take off the stickers and clean up under the hood. I'll probably do a couple passes of primer and then coat with black spray paint so its' not a cluster of colors when I pop the hood in the future.



I might update this post again later as I think I'm going to try to put 3-6hrs in the garage today. I'm going to and wipe down the car in acetone finally and cover the bare metal areas with etching primer and blend that in, remove the trim clips that are still stuck in the doors and maybe start spraying the underside of the hood if time permits. Last part of the bodywork to-do list is bumper covers and then remove the sunroof delete and do a little body filler/prep on it, wrap, then install with 3M window weld. Then 100% go on the wrap!

edit: 05/26

Not a lot of progress yesterday. I ran out of black spray paint for the underside of the hood. It took so much time to clean up/prep before spraying. It does look so much better though and will do the job until I decide what aftermarket hood route I want to take.



I started to work on the bumper covers later that evening when it was cooler out and ended up hitting a few more spots with a little body filler. The rear bumper needed a little epoxy in the corner, It had some damage there from previous owner.

[s14brent]

Well this has been definitely a learning experience. Work and life in general is causing this to take way longer than I had planned. Note to others: if your paint is peeling, probably worth it just to pay for paint and body work LOL. I thought i sanded the car nice and smooth but if there is flaking on the panel its best to sand down that whole panel to primer. I have had some lifting as it's been getting hotter here and the wrap is way tackier now than it was on the test panels. panels that did not have paint issues are coming out pretty good like this fender.






there are some issues on the doors and rear 1/4. one of them is the blocking wasnt good enough on a door ding filler, and the rear 1/4 had a small section clear coat got pulled up, I honestly didn't know what caused the weird marks until we got to the trunk. Basically repositioning the wrap pulled up most of the remaining paint and made a HUGE mess - wasting the whole section of wrap we cut out.

So the remaining panels that havent been wrapped will be sanded down to primer - so everything is on hold again. That means every panel will have to be hit with 60/120/220/320 prior to next day attempting to wrap more. (i'm so sick of sanding....i almost wish i just dropped it off at a shop)

I also tried to window weld the sunroof delete panel in. It was a GIGANTIC mess doing alone. I think i'll be sanding most of it down with the rest of the roof and probably just wrapping the roof in one piece now.


propping up the rear of the panel was funny. I ended up using this shower curtain rod to keep it in place overnight.


looks like I'll be trying to do a shadowline-wrap on all the trim as well. I spent waaaayy too long on this single piece.


I have a few things i'll be trying to add while the front end is off. More on that in the next post hopefully!

[s14brent]

so this actually worked out really well. I decided to add in a chasebays radiator/intercooler sprayer - clearly just for a little help bringing temps down between hotlaps at the track. I mounted it behind the passenger headlight (still pretty accessible from the top even with the catch can lines nearby). I used some m6 rivnuts and just some washers for now to space it up a bit, it's only .57L so perfect to fill up as needed between sessions (perfect water bottle fill ups tbh).



ran the power/ground to an existing relay inside the car that my 52mm vdo gauges are on (has its own fuse for peace of mind)



mounted the universal bulk mount nozzles/sprayers on both sides of the oil cooler (pointing at radiator/spal puller)



mounted the switch somewhere easily accessible



little test video of it in action:

[s14brent]

Now that the weather has been better and time has opened up. I've picked up working on the e30 again. The summer heat and the freak mosquito invasion or whatever was enough for me to not want to be outside the past few months.

I ended up finding an old moroso battery box from my s14 and I needed a new battery since the one in the car was purchased quite a long time ago. I know I had it warranty swapped back in 2016, but that meant it was 7 years old at this point. I ran it to the passenger side because I'm dumb and wanted to use the box. I did see an e46 guy smash into a wall and see his battery explode (a few years ago) and it always lived in my head rent-free. I ended up getting a Braille B3121 which is 550cca and 21lbs. The stock battery is somewhere in the 45-50lb range, so this was a nice little drop in weight.



Somewhere down the line I decided I do not have the patience to wrap the front valence. I decided to just rock rattle canned bumpers since it is indeed a track car for the most part.I ended up replacing the trunk seal and tail light seal while I was there.



Hood looking a lot better than before. Really loving the pneumatic air riveter I purchased. Much easier and no-slip!


I.ordered a new oem kidney grille and replaced the foam on the headlight surround. I thought I bought a R side fog lamp delete plate but turns out I'm dumb and bought one for an e34 instead (must have been tired, but i'm definitely out of the return/exchange period. I'm actually not going to run the brake vent or delete plate for a bit because I'm not sure what direction I'll be going forward - my bumpers aren't in the greatest shape I should mention- which is the main reason I decided to spray bomb them) I also drilled some holes through the valance and OE IS lip for strategically placed zipties.. I'm pretty tired of dragging the lip around the track and I figure the lip won't last much longer if I keep dragging it around at events.



exciting putting it back together and it looking like a car again. the door trim and grommets are not going to be fun I already know it. I have the tiny little corners by the rear wheels that I need to still wrap, and then I can throw on the rear flares. The sideskirts and the spoiler are the last 2 large pieces to do. I threw on the roof rack today, it was a hard decision but I did use it in the past. It really was just taking up too much space.



Prior to putting the roof rack back on, Ihad to clean up the rubber foot pads because old clear coat was stuck on them - so no matter how bad this wrap looks to me, its waaaay nicer than it was beforehand.



In other news, I'll be buying back my old e39 touring that I did the manual swap and M54B30 swap on. Buddy I sold it too is giving me a great deal and he's just out of garage space so its been on hold for most of the time it was in his possession. I'm kind of excited to get that thing back!! Not 100% sure on plans and won't be deciding until its actually mine again.

Oh yeah....I also installed some type-s underglow for night events LOL


------
update 10/31: finally got the car off jackstands. WHAT A GREAT FEELING!!

[s14brent]

Well I finally had time to give the car a wash today. I'm super happy with it. Import Face-Off/vegasdrift is Dec. 03. Might not be everyones cup of tea, but I do enjoy the hell outta this car. I can't wait for some action shots already!!

[econti]

Looks cool as hell with those wheels now, solid work

[Chilezen]

It has come together nicely, good job!

[2mAn]

Dang, when you can rock this sexy color!

[s14brent]

Looks cool as hell with those wheels now, solid work

Thanks man! it took way longer than I wanted but should look good at next event!

It has come together nicely, good job!

Thanks! I follow your cage-work. Wish I was closer!! Cage plans got pushed til probably next year. I just want to enjoy it until it gets unbearably hot here again!

Dang, when you can rock this sexy color!

I'm trying to find time to take it out for photos in the sun. Should look really good in both settings!!
---------

I already registered for IFO/vegasdrift on 12/03. Next plans for the car will be new fuel tank, replace all the hoses and probably do a -6 feed/ with a stainless mesh fuel filter setup..I actually don't think I need to overbuild (accusump+surge tank) for my local events. I just overfill the oil a bit and go on a full tank and have 0 issues (keep it simple stupid). When I drop the fuel tank I might take it to a local fabricator to do the half cage/strut tower reinforcements as I don't plan to put the rear seats back in at this point.
Also....need to make a rear seat delete (lower half only for now) so I can store the drift spares in the back (I'd use the roof rack for that but if I end up cording tires it will be a huge PITA to load and strap up there for the return drive home. Thinking about getting some 1/8" ply but kind of wanting to go ABS for looks. Pretty sure the plywood would take the tire loading better.

[s14brent]

Found out the next few vegasdrift event dates and it turns out they're on saturdays weekend of CES and the day before the superbowl here in town......the next one i can actually make will be in March, so i better really enjoy this event on the third!

been super busy and barely have had time in the garage, fluid check and nut and bolt torque checks are complete and ready to rock.

one of the the weirdest things is the seat belt receptacle bolt holes are m11x1.25 - i'm currently using this as a grounding point for the battery (which is temporary and can easily change) but i wanted the best connection i could which required a retap to get the coating off the threads

I also threw the back seats back in. I don't have the time to do the rear seat delete without rushing so i'd rather have the -an bulkhead fittings protected while transporting wheels/tires to the event. I'm thinking about getting an early model deck lid (i actually have a buddy who's willing to get rid of his but i need to look into the whole dying process). I see no point in not having speakers (creature comforts) but i do not want to reinstall the 3rd brake light. I just hate those things for some reason. Anyone got tips on dying - i know there are a few guys here who have covered it in their threads.

this is an upgrade i should have not waited so long to do. I absolutely hate the rubber covers on the pedals and actually had skateboard grip tape on them but because of all the clutch kicks it seemed like i had to replace the grip tape annually. really liking the feel now.


friend sent me these random test shots he took on film.




^ that one is of me wondering if i've made a HUGE mistake.

here's just some random shots i've taken over the past week.

[s14brent]

so sunday was pretty amazing all around. got some gas and headed to the local track.





I went out there with 4 brand new tires (did not use the 2 rears used to drive there) 2x accelleras//2x achilles both in 205/45/16 all tires were set to about 25psi (cold) prior to heading to the track.


interesting that the Accelera Phi-R lasted about 9-10 laps total. (3 hot lap sessions of 3 laps each) wear was much better than the achilles.


the achilles atr-sport 2s on the other hand.......6 laps did this.....brutal (est about 5 laps and flipping i would probably get 10 laps out of these but cost me extra time and money IF* theres a tire changer on site)


I started sweating because I was out of tires at this point..... luckily a friend on site gave me a pair of take off Nitto NeoGens in the same size!! - these actually wore down the best IMHO I did about 14 laps with these (and these were used and i'm pretty sure old!)

There hasn't been a ton of photos yet, but here are some of my favorites so far!




The take-away from this event is as much as I don't want to....I need to go to 17" wheels sooner than later. I basically burned through $600 of tires for 30 laps. I think 215/45/17 and 235/40/17s will be the ticket. The brand selection/compound options are much better and there were some guys getting over 20 laps on kendas in that rear size and they were closer to 300hp range.
The problem for me is that the car will be about an inch taller at that point....so I'm thinking about running an early 2000s snow-plow style kit to compensate some of the gap. Not stoked about the idea, but there is a carbon-kevlar lined one here locally so shipping and waiting for one from lativa wouldn't be an issue.

I also have 2 events on this KAAZ LSD and its time to change the oil. I think I'm going to drop it out and install it into my 3.73 case. I'm still fighting in gearing out there. but 0 complaints with the car, it felt absolutely amazing and the cooling wasnt an issue at all - probably due to it being about 60 degrees out.