Wide Body Street car/Time attack build

[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 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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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!

[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]

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!

[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]

[meltingmanmedia]

Idk what I did... but it works now...

Since last weekend was such a bummer, I decided to prepare for once and have everything I could possibly need to make some progress getting the car to move on its own power. It honestly took me about 10 minutes to get it going and I have no clue which two things fixed it. I through on the new main relay and then ran a new 8awg wire with a huge 50 amp Maxi fuse from the trunk, over the car's roof to the fusible link connection on the firewall.
I flipped the fuel pump on, and after a few sputters, it fired up. Huge relief in my book, I was dreading having to dig even deeper or mess with the tune just to get it to start.

I spent Sunday actually doing things the correct way so I could take it for a spin up the driveway and back. I wired the fan and fuel pump to the 8 gang panel and the panel to an accessory-powered fuse so it wouldn't work with the car off. After testing power to the fan and fuel pump, the car wouldn't start for reasons unknown... I'm assuming the draw was too much and it wouldn't even fire up with jumper cables on the E21 to give the assist. So I made sure I was getting power at the factory pump wiring and wired it back up and all was right as rain.

The brakes were the main downfall for the weekend.
Obviously stopping is important. Especially when you're pulling up nose to nose with your Girlfriend's beloved Euro-converted E21... As I was pulling up I realized they stopped working, I then tried to stall it and the car just went faster.... So I yanked a hard left and the tires and their terrible clearance stopped it against the inner wheel well, narrowly missing the front of her car. SO, after the wiring fixes on Sunday and cleaning all of that mess up, we bled the brakes as good as we could get them and now it will stop if you ask it nicely... they definitely still need a bit of work but they'll do for driving down the driveway.

The Broadway suspension coilovers felt great for having such an aggressive spring rate which I was very surprised about. Even driving across cattle guards they were less jarring than the Eibach springs on the E21. Very relieving to me because I thought I was going to want to switch them out really quickly and with their price tag, that would've sucked lol.
Long story short, this was a great weekend for the build and now real progress can be made to make it back up the body kit and wheel and tire setup.

Here are some clips of me with a goofy ass grin on my face cause I got to drive this thing after so so long!

[meltingmanmedia]

I need some help problem-solving...

This car is going to be the death of me before I even get a chance to drive it again....

A new crank sensor was put in this weekend, and still no start or spark. So, I think that the main relay for the DME is toasted or something is wrong with the fusible link (not sure I understand what that is at this point.) I've done a lot of digging and can't seem to find much other than things id need a test light or multimeter for. It would be great if I could remember to bring one with me each time... Electrical isn't my strong suit.

Im going to go ahead and buy a new relay since its $20 but after that, I don't know where to go if it doesn't fix my problem. I adjusted the gap as much as i could of the CPS and still nothing. It will crank all day long but no spark, no movement on the tach.

Is there something I'm missing? I know I can adjust the sensitivity of the crank sensor in tuner studio, just haven't had a chance to download it onto a computer with windows instead of my MacBook since i couldn't get it to connect the last time i tried.

My last resort would be to swap harnesses but that would really suck and I feel like it has to be a really stupid, easy fix at this point since nothing changed since the last time it ran.

But on a slightly more positive note, I did put it all the way on the ground again, with the seat in the car so I can at least pretend it moves...

[meltingmanmedia]

THE WEEKEND FOR PROGRESS!!

My work trip this upcoming weekend to the L'oe Show in Pottstown got canceled luckily. Two weekends in a row with no time off during the week to work on the car was going to drive me insane. Does anyone in this forum attend Euro shows on the east or west coast often? It'd be cool to meet some E30 people that aren't local. I'll be in Vegas for a whole 10 days for SEMA since our company car is in the main hall at the Milltek booth, so if anyone wants to shoot in the desert or something let me know! Not trying to hang out with my boss and his wife all week...

Anyways, the OEM crank sensor showed up today so I can go ahead and start the car and run it through its paces a little bit since it's sat so long. My Sabelt seat wouldn't mount to the seat brackets I already had and I don't feel like ruining something I could sell, so I ordered a Sparco base plate that should be here tomorrow so I can actually sit in the car this time around. I've got my fingers crossed that I can drive the car up the driveway and back into its spot in the shop at some point.

I swear this will be the last time the car gets an update here without anything cool happening. My coworker is finishing up his engine swap this weekend to make room for me, and then its straight to cutting some more, lots of welding, Redesigning side skirts, or just mounting the ones I have temporarily (id like them to actually push out the dirty air behind the front tires).

My list of what I need to accomplish is this:

1. Wire in Solid state relay panel and wire it to fuel pump, fan, lights, and maybe starter relay (using the panel as a switch to starter relay cause it definitely can't handle that many amps)
2. drop rear subframe for camber and toe adjusters to be welded in
3. side skirt mounts
4. cut and seal rear quarter panels
5. Front end alignment fix (custom control arms probably)
6. relocate filler neck to trunk OR quarter glass if I wanna be super gangster
7. clean up the bodywork and wrap the damn thing
8. Strut brace that ties into subframe so I don't rip through the rear strut towers
9. lots of wiring and clean up inside and out

These are just the things I need to do to get it kinda street-able, then I can do all the cool/ fun stuff that will interest more people I think.

Wish me luck... This is what it should look like by the end of the year... If all goes well and I win the lottery

[spike68]

It's about time I found your build thread ;)
We exchanged a few messages on reddit a while back. (I'm Schwarz_Impul)

Glad you're making progress! Cant wait to see more updates on the body. I'm particularly interested in seeing the construction of the side skirt piece. I've never understood how they are constructed. Feel free to provide some detail :)