E30 M3 Steel Bodywork Conversion

[bmwmech1]

Wow, I really like that brake setup!

Rear suspension looks good too. How the clearance between the spring and frame rail / wheel well?

Thanks... since I used the smallest ID coil spring on the smallest diameter shock Bilstein makes, the clearance is good. Really good actually... between the shock and the framerail/wheelwell there is ~1/8"-3/16" and with an ET41, 8.5" rear wheel, with no spacer, there is more than an inch between the wheel and the spring. It's pretty nice. Plus I have the rear fenders rolled almost flat which gives me more than an inch between the tire and fender on the outside. I think I could get a 10" wide wheel on the rear, with room to spare! The brake setup should be pretty slick, too... It's pretty adjustable with both the balance bar and the proportioning valve. Combined with the E36 M3 front calipers and the E32 735i rear calipers(which are the same part number as the E30 M3's), it should have excellent stopping power. Pedal effort should also be really good, for a non-assisted car. The pedal arms are the longer, 6.25:1 ratio and the MC are 5/8" bore. Should be good... just gotta get it done!

Garey

Garey

[bmwmech1]

^^^^ This, car is looking incredible. Love all the custom fab stuff sick sick sick..!!!

Being a fab-man yourself, I appreciated the compliment! Nice magazine spread, BTW! Congrats! We'll see if I can't get this one in a few when it's done...

Garey

[Garageaholic]

Garey,

As you know, I'm doing a similar swap.... This whole 600 reply thread is nothing short of a complete how-to writeup that I've frequently found myself referring. Thanks for the very detailed explanations through your very comprehensive dissertation. Great job! We gotta meet up this summer. We're not far.

Frank

[bmwmech1]

Garey,

As you know, I'm doing a similar swap.... This whole 600 reply thread is nothing short of a complete how-to writeup that I've frequently found myself referring. Thanks for the very detailed explanations through your very comprehensive dissertation. Great job! We gotta meet up this summer. We're not far.

Frank

Thanks Frank, I'm sure we'll run into each other this year, since this car will finally be done and out at the shows this summer. This is the abridged version, here on r3v... there are two separate threads on e30tech, one for bodywork and the other for the engine swap. The bodywork thread alone has over 110K views and 1000 replies, lol!

Garey

[dude8383]

Garey,

I've been following your thread since day one and as everyone else has said... amazing work.

I was looking at your brake setup and couldn't help but wonder if the placement of those reservoirs would make adding additional fluid (when bleeding) a bit of a pain. Maybe I missed something in your posts about the ease of access there?

[bmwmech1]

Garey,

I've been following your thread since day one and as everyone else has said... amazing work.

I was looking at your brake setup and couldn't help but wonder if the placement of those reservoirs would make adding additional fluid (when bleeding) a bit of a pain. Maybe I missed something in your posts about the ease of access there?

The simple answer is yes, but only a bit... the reservoir unbolts and slides out of that "cave" rather easily and the extra slack on the stainless feed lines is intentional, for that reason. Thankfully, bleeding the brakes is not a once-a-month kind of thing. All good things require effort though, right? I investigated a bunch of different reservoirs and mounting locations, but given the space constraints underhood and where other things had to go, I thought this would be pretty cool for it to be hidden and was willing to put up with a little inconvenience to make that happen...

Garey

[bmwmech1]

I keep moving along, getting stuff checked off my list, as I go... I pulled the motor out of it Tuesday afternoon, made up the front brake hard lines and got them installed and got the bracket for the remote oil filter mount welded in. I also got the clutch line run to the top of the transmission, remade the drivers side exhaust manifold and got my AN adapter fittings for the power steering pump and rack and my high pressure 6AN hose made up and installed. Also made my X5 oil filter inlet/outlet plate with 10 AN bungs TIG'ed on. Justin picked up a set of E32, 735i rear calipers for me, so I swapped those on, also... direct bolt on to my rear 318ti brackets and for those in the know, they are the same part as the E30 M3 rear calipers. They are 4mm larger pistons than the 318ti rears, so that will help out with the front to rear bias, since I'm running E36 M3 front stuff. Pics...













Garey

[catuned]

Give me a second to close my mouth.. that is some good stuff

[85e325]

Give me a second to close my mouth.. that is some good stuff

Thats what she said!

[bmwmech1]

^^^ Haha, thanks guys... As promised, a few more pics from tonight. Not much, as the snow started to move in, so I stopped early and came home. I may go back over for a while tomorrow. Anyway, I got the exhaust modification wrapped up tonight and was going to bend up my last brake hard line but I stopped for the night. I did snap a couple of shots of the dual filter setup though...









And the filter setup...









Garey

[dball4]

Wow, very cool build. Can't wait to see the finished results. Truly automotive genius

[bmwmech1]

Thanks man... you and about 1000 other people are waiting for it to get done, me included, lol! It's getting close, by the day...

Garey

[iamsam]

What I REALLY want to know is what kind of power that motor will be putting out, because I am considering doing the same thing, regarding the B44 block w/ B40 everything else.

[dchun]

i just discovered this thread today and spent the past half hour skimming the pictures.
you sir are truly passionate about cars!

cant wait to see the end result!

[bmwmech1]

What I REALLY want to know is what kind of power that motor will be putting out, because I am considering doing the same thing, regarding the B44 block w/ B40 everything else.

We all want to know that... we should know in a few months, once I get mine up and running...

Garey