Late the the SA party

[Hick]

Im a little late to the schwarz army party but i think i can make up for that...

Bought this car early 2010 from some kid on e30tech. Needed a lot of work...







The idea was to swap in a trans, fix some rust and paint then flip the car for a nice profit. In the mean time a friend let me autocross his 89 325is with the same suspension as my 318is that i have been autocrossing for a few years now. Well, I won my class back to back in his car, over 15 other drivers. So needless to say, this new car is going to become my autocrosser.

Well, as i began work the car was ticking, nothing bad. Went to adjust the valves and found a stripped head bolt, so it began.



Bought a block from a good friend [same guy letting me abuse his car] for $50, 114k on the block. Took the head in for a complete rebuild. Picked up some no name long tube headers fo' free! Freeflow cat, Magnaflow muffler. Stripping the suspension off of my current DD/autocrosser once this car is ready.



Progress......

[Hick]

Then came all the fun rust repair....









Mocked up the headers while i was driving the exhaust studs. I think they are some IE knock off ebay headers. Look fine, have some rust so i wont be wrapping them, just some high temp paint so they look good for for a couple months.





Started to weld the down tubes but my crappy harbor freight welder died, for the 8th time in the last year. I bought another one, for what i do it does the trick.

Started to work on the motor. One of the head bolts wont torque, im a little annoyed by this

[Hick]

Oh it never ends..

I knew i had a leak in the gas tank, but i was not sure where. Dropped the subframe to do the diff seals, subframe bushings. Dropped the gas tank to check it out. The typical places are rusted, but its got a bad spot on the seam... Bill H has got a tank for me, thankfully.







Burning out the old mounts. Suprisingly one was still in good shape, and the subframe has clearly never been out in 280k, and 20 years. BTW this was not done anywhere near the gas tank.



Reinforce the trailig arm tabs, they love to break off with anything bigger than a 14mm bar. Also made beefy mounts for the chassis bracket.



Cleaned off the diff... i would guess there was at least 5lbs of drt and grime all over it.



Stripped the green car for all its goodies. I feel like ive abandon a child... poor car



A friend lent me his badass brake line bending tool and bubble flair tool. The line from the ABS pump to driver front needed replaced, as well as the lines in the back and the brass T for the rear line.... AND... the trailing arm lines.



OMG!!







Garage looked like a smoke house, power washed the carpet and floor mats around the corner. Dried out by the next day in 90+ degree heat, if theres any 'pro' of this kind of weather.



Heres the new seats, its called Anthracite, not Houndstooth like i wanted/was told. But its different, and thats what im going for.







OLD Blaupunkt head unit, 1992ish... has a friggen Aux-In jack! Sounds great, now i have to rewire the illumination with some LEDs, the OE incandescents all burned out, and are not the right color.



Drove it to the end of the street and back with no exhaust... pretty sure the neighbors were not too pleased.







Well, the car gets around. Exhaust is done, body work (that i can do) is done. Got a few bugs to work out but for the most part shes ready to go.... and sit in a garage until the snow is gone.

Full custom exhaust. Long tube headers, free flow cat, Moroso mid muffler and Magnaflow rear muffler. LOUD AS HELL! I didnt want it to be but oh well, sounds good either way.

Already threw a fault code in the 2.3 miles ive driven, 1223 Coolant Temp Sensor

Gods chariot:

[Hick]

Hiding for the winter [notice the junkyard iS skirts for $8]





And this is where i am today.... this post covers a lot from the past year or so...



Drove it home yesterday, forgot what a quick car felt like, my 318is just isnt enough, sorry m42 lovers.

Put the BBK on last night, so the car is almost done.

[moe30]

Lookin good, builds like this make me want to tear my car apart lol

[N2MYE30]

Nice progress! Man, I wish I had this much time to f with my cars.

[Anguz]

:up::up:wow now thats how you do work
i can tell your a good man
dude

[CorvallisBMW]

fucking sweet! Nice work dude.

[Simon S]

Excellent.

Project threads are so much better when posts and pictures are about what you've done - not B.S.ing about what you'd like to do..

Props on the no-nonsense build. Very enjoyable.

[Hick]

Thanks dudes. Once i get the brakes sorted then all i need is an alignment and shes ready to go.

[OhioriderAaron]

I want a ride along Joe! Looks great, and I'm surprised this wasn't posted on here earlier man! :D

[Joe G]

I see some local names i recognize... Great work. Hopefully my car will be running within the next few days and we can meet up for a cruise or photoshoot.

[MR 325]

Great thread, great work so far!

I have to ask though, what happens to the 318 now?

[Myster-E]

Love the headers on it man!

[CHIF8008]

Mmmmm sexy :)