ttrousdell's Project Thread (E30 M3 & S38 swap content)

[ttrousdell]

For the last few weeks I have been slowly bringing my style 5s back to life. I never imagined it would take so much work to restore these wheels. Over 4 hours have been spent on the bolts alone. Below you can see the progression from first taken off the wheel, to wire brushed, then finally polished.

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You are looking at close to 6 hours of polishing right here. I started at 220 grit and ended at 1500. Finally a coat of mothers polish was applied. Eye candy.

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Finding a place to fill and redrill to 4x100 has proved to be much more difficult then I thought. Can anyone recommend a place that does this. I am willing to ship.

[ttrousdell]

smile for smileys

I finally got around to putting on the smileys I bought in Europe. Unfortunately they don't share the same connectors as the US headlights. The solution...use the connectors from the washer fluid pump since they are very similar then splice it all together.

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[ttrousdell]

Thanks for the complements and yes they will have to be redrilled. They will also need 10mm spacers to clear the brake calipers and 57.1 to 74.1mm hub rings. Fenders will have to be rolled at the very least.
From the start of the build I have always tried to keep the stock look while trying to make the powerplant anything but. Its simple, no ridiculous body kits, no stickers, no roof racks, and no trinkets hanging off the car. The car should look like it did when it came out of the factory but make it lower and bigger weaves. Sorry if you disagree but this is my opinion.

[Cabriolet]

man, i like what you have done with the place. such a nice clean turn around.

[CW325]

nice! are you going to have them redrilled?

[ttrousdell]

I'm a firm believer that no matter what kind of wheels you put on an e30, the basket weave will always look better. This past weekend I traded my rotas to E30 F34R for a set of BBS RC090s 17x8 et20 5x120. They are no where near perfect condition but I will make them beautiful again. Tires are on the way and ill be running 215/40. Now on to the pics.




Another picture of the car after lowering. Sitting on 14" weaves.

[bzboardz]

wow great work!

[ttrousdell]

rust repair

This past fall the east coast was hit by a large rain storm. Unfortunatelly for my interior, my "elephant trunk drain" was all gummed up and a lot of water ended up in my e30. The only option was to remove the carpet to avoid mildew and rust. Ironically this is just what I found when I removed the carpet. I recently got my hands on a 110v gasless mig. Although I'm used to stick welding and the mig is cheap, it still gets the job done.

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Step 1

• Mark off rusted area to be cut with chalk

Step 2

• Cut out along marked area

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Peices after being cut out.

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Step 3

• Cut out new peices from similar gauge source. In this case I used the hood from my car that was in the accident. Cutting wheel/angle grinder works well for this.

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Step 4

• Weld new peices in. Make sure you lay a few beeds around the perimeter of the peice before completely filling the whole gap in. The metal will warp if too much heat is applied.

Step 5

• Grind down beads with angle grinder to get a smooth finish. Paint should be applied right after to avoid oxidation of new clean metal surface.

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[ttrousdell]

First photo shoot with the new suspension. Special thanks for my friend Tiago (toointoxicated60) for all the help.

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Motor shot. Most of the issues have been worked out since the first start and I finally put the O2 sensor in.

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[ttrousdell]

susp cont.

S3.73 all cleaned up looking fresh.



I knew the pads were shot from the P.O. but this is insane.



Getting ready to drop the subframe out. Of course something thats been in the same spot for 22 years is reluctant to move. A good shake let it free but I bent one of the bolts that holds up the subframe. Luckly they can be pulled out right through the body fairly easily.



Subframe out.



Burning out the old bushings. Fire is your friend here. I cant imagine removing them easily any other way.

[ttrousdell]

It became clear right away that it was the right move to redo the whole suspension. The next two pictures give a good idea of the kind of crap i had to deal with.

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Putting in the new bushings on the front sway bar.

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Old struts, control arms, and tie rods out. Remember to buy the locking washers for the new tie rods. The front suspension only took about a day of work then it was on to the rear.
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The first thing to be removed from the rear was my ancient looking diff. Along with new seals, a good cleaning was in order.

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[ttrousdell]

Suspension Finally!!!!!

Summer is here and I now have free time to build. As promised the car is going low. Two weeks before the suspension tear down, the hunt for all the parts began. I scored a H&R race kit with 1k on it for $350 and all the other various parts were ordered from online. Poly everything would have been nice, but its a little to expensive at the moment.



Many new goodies.






More suspension progress coming soon.

[ttrousdell]

Thanks everyone. She is running and better then ever. Ive never had so much fun in a car. Here's a little clip right after the swap..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6nDEF7Sx-Y

[zshopa]

is she runnin well?

[CW325]

Really nice build, its amazing all the work you put into it so far!