E30 M3 Steel Bodywork Conversion

[FunfGan]

I know you've heard this a million times so far, but ill say it again ;) : Absolutely Brilliant job! The skill and craftsmanship you seem to have is simply inspiring. Keep up the good work, I hope to do something like this much later in life, with a slightly different powerplant. When I have money... and im not in highschool:-P

[Massimo]

You win!

I am done.

See you guys.

[dirtysix]

Yup.
Project still kicks arse.

[Jean]

I like the diff cover with two mounts.... does the e36 cover bolt right up to the e30 diff w/o any modifications (other than fabricating/welding another hanger for the diff mount that is).

[e30conv]

looks great man, you got skills. keep the progress coming

[bzboardz]

I like the diff cover with two mounts.... does the e36 cover bolt right up to the e30 diff w/o any modifications (other than fabricating/welding another hanger for the diff mount that is).

2 things... the cover has to be relieved from the inside to clear the reluctor ring, which is bigger in diameter on the E30 ring gear than the E36 ring gear and then a spacer has to be machined to raise the speed sensor .300", so it clears the ring, as well. Other than that, it's a bolt-on affair...

Garey

[xworks]

beautiful work and a great read,
will be following this one till the end.
Can't wait to hear that engine.

[bmwmech1]

beautiful work and a great read,
will be following this one till the end.
Can't wait to hear that engine.

Honored to have a post from you on my lowly thread, sir! I am in the midst of re-engineering the rear shock towers/mounts so I can tie them into the cage and give a substantial amount of re-inforcement to them. Once done, I can fully finish and weld in the cage and then I'm on to primer, seam sealing and schutzing in preparation for the bodywork phase. I have and will use your thread as reference/guidance/stress relief/humor as I continue slogging through my project... Look forward to your next post on your thread!

Garey

[BeirBrennerE30]

Looks good!! Did you cut away sheet metal on either side of the dash to clear the Apillar tubes? Any worry about loss of strength where the car was cut away or are you going to weld the tube straight into the body all the way along? I would love some close ups!

[bmwmech1]

Looks good!! Did you cut away sheet metal on either side of the dash to clear the Apillar tubes? Any worry about loss of strength where the car was cut away or are you going to weld the tube straight into the body all the way along? I would love some close ups!

The cage will be welded to the shell in as many places as possible, so I was mostly worried about getting the tubing tucked as tight as possible and not so worried about what had to be removed to accomplish it, Lol! I'll get a lot of closeups as I continue to install the cage, but I don't have much in the way of more pics yet... soon...

Garey

[BeirBrennerE30]

awesome... POST LOTS OF PICS!!! AND THE CLOSEUPS!!!

[evil_twin]

subscribing to this thread.

[bmwmech1]

So, I was a bit stuck this week, which is why there were no big updates. I was stuck on how I was going to re-engineer the rear shock mounts and towers to handle the stress of the coil on shock setup I plan on using. I got the shocks a few weeks ago and I had previously gotten the springs, but I had not nailed down how I was going to mount them and also how to/how much to reinforce the tower. Happy to say, I'm no longer stuck and progress is underway again... whew! I scoured the net looking for any rear shock tower mods to gain a little insight into some of the methods already used. Didn't find much, but there were a few pics of the DTM cars, which used a coil on shock setup in the rear. Now, these are no holds barred race cars, so the "streetability" of these applications is really not practical, but they did give me some inspiration and direction. What I ended up with is pretty practical for my application, very functional and should be more than robust enough to handle the loads.
I used 3/16" plate to construct a hollow "pod" to mount on top of the tower, with a pair of 1/2" holes through it to mount the upper spherical joint. This is in turn tied into the rear cage downtubes directly, with a cross tube between the 2 pods and 2 diagonals down to the new crossmember I added for the dual ear diff mounts. Now, I could go ape shit and run tubes here, there and everywhere, but remember, this is in the end a street car, so I want a full interior, minus the rear seat and I don't want a jungle gym of tubes all over the place. I added the cage for the strength it adds to the shell and it will be fully welded to the shell wherever possible, but I'm not going overboard, just to have more tubes visible. In fact, I have tried to integrate the cage into the car so much, that there won't be many tubes visible at all. That being said, I am subscribing to the "less is more" idea for the cage. Or, better said, the "least amount to do the job" idea. Here are some pics...

Shock mount "pods"...





How the shocks mount in them...





And where they sit...





So that was up until last night... This afternoon, I was able to get the downtubes tacked in, the crossbar tacked in and the diagonals to the crossmember tacked in. I still have to add plates to the sides of the towers where the diagonals from the new crossmember tie in, but I wanted some pics, so I just tacked them in temporarily for the photos. The pods are fully welded on to the tops of the towers and there are 3/16" plates welded on from underneath where the pods sit, so it's effectively more than 3/8" thick, including the factory sheetmetal. Should be robust enough for the loads of a street car...

Looking aft from the front. This shot gives you a good idea of how "tucked" the main hoop is at the B-pillar...





From the trunk...



And the "node" where the front and rear downtubes tie into the main hoop, drivers side...



So the plan is for a harness bar, straight across at the base of the window height and that's probably all for the rear. The front will get a dash bar at the firewall and tubes out to the front strut towers and that's about it for the front. Then I have to tie into the cage everywhere I sectioned the shell to sink the cage into and that's all she wrote for the fabrication. Happy with the results, happy to be almost done with the cage and happy it's the weekend...

Garey

[Jean]

Garey, keep the updates / pics coming !!!

[BeirBrennerE30]

Looks great... with the interior back in your are barely going to know there is a cage there.