Wide Body Street car/Time attack build

[meltingmanmedia]

[Northern]

I saw some misc updates on ig and reddit, glad some more stuff made it here!

I love seeing the mockup pics - car has a lot of potential

[meltingmanmedia]

I saw some misc updates on ig and reddit, glad some more stuff made it here!

I love seeing the mockup pics - car has a lot of potential

Im trying to do better about keeping the thread and other content of this pile of crap going since the ball is rolling a little better now!
Its got a ways to go but It'll get there soon enough!

[meltingmanmedia]

The E30 showed up to the shop Friday morning with some help from a friend so I could get some good stuff done this weekend!

The first thing on my to-do list was to clean up the hack job I did of cutting the rear quarters for starters. Now that I have the proper tools, lighting, and space to do so, it was a really satisfying afternoon spent. I only ended up working on the driver's rear just to see what I'm working with as far as 1. Sheet metal work complexity 2. figuring out how to keep the elements out without doing crazy tubs 3. How to mount side skirts.

So I threw down some masking tape as a guide, and I picked up the fancy Snap On air cutoff wheel my boss gladly paid for to use once and got to cutting.



Some might ask why I didn't just keep it all close and just clean up the round radius I had already done, and the only real answer to that is cleanliness, my fabrications skills arent high enough to do that in a way that are going to meet my standards, AND this gives me multiple solutions for mounting side skirts and doing other stupid things lol.
After the easy part of cutting the quarter panel, I cut the inner fender area back and tried to keep a uniform inch or so of metal left over to give me more surfaces to weld to when I make a very simple flat tub. I could cheat and use plastic and hardware, but metal, while being more work, I feel like will be more rewarding.




This little project made me feel a lot better about things. It was giving me "I built my car for Instagram" vibes... Now it's looking like I actually care about how I'm doing things.

For the rear of the car, I'm not really sure how I'm going to do the rear bumper setup. I could cut everything under the body line where the bumper meets the quarter panel like most seem to do, but that creates a lot of work for making a whole new trunk floor and lots of other things. When I improve my fab skills I'll probably have another opinion on what to do, but for now, it'll do. I don't even have a bumper cover that works for it yet... There are more important things.

I don't have a good shot of it, but in my upcoming youtube video I kinda point it out, but for the side skirt I have a few options for how to mount them. Ill get a picture and draw up my ideas and post them here tomorrow! This week I will finish the passenger rear by matching my work as best as i can around the fuel door. But good things are happening now and I'm excited about it!!

[meltingmanmedia]

Side Skirts and Exhaust

I finished up the passenger side rear quarter panel without lighting myself or the car on fire cutting around the filler neck and evap canister. Still have some cleaning up to do with a flap disk, but it is mirrored to the driver side now.
Now to continue my exterior plunder, my brain has been wrapped up in how I should secure the side skirts to the car. I've seen it done a couple of different ways on the original DL Customworks car and other people in Europe. But there are only so many of these kits out there and theres definitely no instructions lol, so continuing on instructionless ill just have to let my creativity get me somewhere.



Anyway, since the sideskirts are basically just aluminum bricks and have no aerodynamic qualities to them other than a slight taper, I busted out some cardboard and made a replicated version with a twist. Since the body, and wheel and tire setup protrude so far, it made sense to me to have the skirt taper in behind the tire to get rid of some of the "dirty" air created there. Im in no way shape or form super knowledgeable in aerodynamics, but I've tried to study up enough to at least be able to make the car less of a rolling cinderblock. If you look at most race cars in IMSA, DTM, Global Time Attack, side skirt design is usually pretty similar from car to car. So copying these ideas as simply as possible, I came up with this.



Ignore the piping coming out of the skirt... I'll get to that in a bit. But since the aluminum skirts are the exact same original shape as this cardboard replica, I can do the exact same thing to them by cutting them and welding them back like this. Its simple, it looks better, and gives me the illusion that it's functional lol. Mounting them though is still very up in the air. Suggestions would be helpful if anyone that reads this is knowledgeable in this regard! I've got angle bracket ideas, tubing ideas, and all sorts of others, just not sure of the best route to go while still retaining removability. The curve of the rocker doesn't make the design easy.

Now to the exhaust. To throw in some flare and make my life even harder, why not cut through the whole rocker and pinch weld to run a 3" exhaust out the side In true race car fashion? The side exit is still a very rough idea as well, it'd be really cool but not sure its worth the headache. When the car has a turbo eventually a lot of heat is going to be introduced and pushed through a very short length of exhaust that runs right under the passenger seat. And it also creates a leg burn hazard for whoever sits on that side... Most likely always my girlfriend and IDK if I want to have that problem lol.





That's pretty much where I'm at mentally at this point of the week with side skirts exhaust and cutting! Ill have more to add as the week goes on and I tinker some more! Also looking into MRT fully adjustable DTM style front control arms, should do everything I'm looking for up there! If anyone has any experience with them please help me out!

[moatilliatta]

A car with that power Id rock a fuel cell, then just dump the exhaust out the the rocker back there where the fuel tank was, Leaves room for a muffler if needed.. Unless you want to build a fuel cell that replces the orginal tank... to keep weight shift centered.

I have MRT DTM arms on my car. Sure there is info in my build thread.

[meltingmanmedia]

A car with that power Id rock a fuel cell, then just dump the exhaust out the the rocker back there where the fuel tank was, Leaves room for a muffler if needed.. Unless you want to build a fuel cell that replces the orginal tank... to keep weight shift centered.

I have MRT DTM arms on my car. Sure there is info in my build thread.

That's one of those things I keep thinking about. I love where the tank is in regard to where the weight is located, but it would be the best way to do it if I do decide to do a side exit. So many factors to consider...

Instead of MRT I bit the bullet impulsively on AKG DTM style. Who knows if that was the right decision or not, but i guess ill find out haha

[moatilliatta]

MRT castor block is dual sheer and has a third mounting point. You can now adj anti dive. I went with a billet replica DTM castor block VINK makes to try and net me some more header space.

What are your goals for the DTM arms?

[meltingmanmedia]

MRT castor block is dual sheer and has a third mounting point. You can now adj anti dive. I went with a billet replica DTM castor block VINK makes to try and net me some more header space.

What are your goals for the DTM arms?

My goal at this point for them is to just get more camber without adding some crazy angle and adding in some more drift car-like characteristics. I went with the 25mm wider setup so I can get away from the 0* of camber the car has currently. Castor doesn't need much adjustment but having the option would be nice. Anti Dive would be a nice addition, but in all actuality, it's gonna be street-driven more than anything so it's not a must.

[moatilliatta]

The DTM arms cut steering angle. Not sure what drift car characteristics a TT car needs?

Camber plates should get you 3.5 deg camber.. Probably don't need any more for the street..

With that tall of a tire, Im not sure how low the front would go and if roll center would be needed..

[meltingmanmedia]

The DTM arms cut steering angle. Not sure what drift car characteristics a TT car needs?

Camber plates should get you 3.5 deg camber.. Probably don't need any more for the street..

With that tall of a tire, Im not sure how low the front would go and if roll center would be needed..

Yeah thats what Im saying, definitely DONT want the drift car characteristics. The decreased angle is definitely fine with me it the steering angle is probably exactly the same as it is now when the tire contacts the body.

Right now I have SLR camber and castor plates on the car. But with factory style control arms, i cant get anything other than 0* of camber without the tire wedging itself into the body. The geometry is all sorts of goofy right now.

Ride height wise i could probably go another inch lower all the way around. The rear is already really really low as far as clearances go, the front has a good bit of room so roll center hasn't become a worry yet. I havent gotten a chance to get a good feel for it yet though.

When you did the MRT arms, did you have to get rid of the J-hook point on the frame in front of the LCAB?

[moatilliatta]

The tow eylelets I bent verticle and they look to be clearing the castor rods. When I trailer it now I dont X the front straps to keep from re bending them.

[meltingmanmedia]

The tow eylelets I bent verticle and they look to be clearing the castor rods. When I trailer it now I dont X the front straps to keep from re bending them.

ah okay, smart. I went through a bit of your build thread and its really awesome. I definitely would like to/need to do a rear strut brace like you did and reinforce the strut towers.

[meltingmanmedia]

Back to work

Right before the control arms were ordered and delivered, my boss got his Harlekin Polo from Belgium picked up from the port in Galveston and the E30 got kicked off the lift and on to quick jacks in the corner so the Polo could have a quick little week and a half makeover before Eurodistrict. (Ill throw up a photo of it at the end)

Not that I was in a huge hurry to get them, the AKG DTM style control arms showed up super quick. Quality seems to be top notch and the install was as simple as it gets. Getting it properly aligned will need a bit more work since I've got about a 1/4 toe in on each side just eyeballing with a tape measure. While they work like they should, and made the car to where I can turn lock to lock now... I don't love the angles I've got going on. Castor is probably in the mid to high teens ( I can adjust more with the castor plate but it will require notching the strut tower) the tie rods are extended a lot and angled towards the front of the car quite a bit with not a lot of room left to adjust. So regardless, I'm probably still going to have to do some work to get more clearance at the back of the footwell. All good with me since its the safest way to make it work and have the best alignment.

But all in all they were a good purchase. I can adjust from every direction now, and I've added an inch of track width up front!

Now back to sideskirts and filling holes...

[meltingmanmedia]

New issues have shown up. Sometimes old cars are fun, sometimes they make me want to toaster bath myself.

If you've read this thread from the start, you've seen the bit about how this car was a track or autocross toy at some point in its life. Wasnt a big deal to me, there was no evidence of there ever being any problems with the frame or it being wrecked at all. But for some reason, the car has about 1" of offset difference in the front wheels. Quite the predicament. This issue wasnt noticed before due to the fact that i couldn't align the front correctly anyways.

But for something to be that far off, there has to be something weird going on somewhere.

So far i have:

1. Measured point to point for all the front end body shop chassis alignment specs and nothing seems to be off at all
2. cross measured front to rear for the subframe using the same schematic for the front
3. set camber plates to match
4. adjusted all control arm heim joints to match down to the exact MM
5. made sure my wheels where the same offset just in case there was a mistake in the casting
6. Kuckles are the same
7. brake rotors are the same
8. fender flares are within 3MM difference
9. ride height is the exact same

Ive literally measured and referenced everything i can to figure it out, and nothing seems to be off except the strut towers maybe.

The strut towers measure correctly to every alignment point aside from across due to me not being able to measure that way with the intake manifold.

The thing that i have found to be different is how far the strut tower is from the fender on each side. The driver side of the car measures from the furthest inside point of the fender to the closest strut bolt 4" exactly, and the passenger side measures to 4.5". Pretty big difference. There appears to be no damage anywhere, and my only thinking is that maybe the car was either just driven really hard without a strut brace, or ran over a curb and tweaked the strut tower maybe. I cant find any factory specifications for where it is supposed to be though and I'm unsure of which side is correct. Im assuming its the driver side that is the correct side though. So I'm expecting to take it to a frame shop at some point and have them pull it back to where it has to be if that really is the issue.

BUT, in the same light, that's affecting camber and castor by a couple degrees, not track width, and that makes the whole thing even more confusing.

I can measure from the frame rail to the brake rotor front and rear and that's where the biggest measurement difference is, and the point of the issue. I really am at a loss for what it is since every thing is the same everywhere else...

Has anyone ever had an issue like this?