E30 Rally Build Thread

[lostininglewood]

Love this thread!! Nice welder pick up, I have the 150 which is the 220v and it's been great over the past 7years.

[MasterOfPuppets]

Wheel update

So, as mentioned before, I picked up a set of TRM C1 15x7 wheels from TireRack.com. They shipped incredibly fast and arrived as pictured above. For anyone worried about brake clearance, here's a profile shot:



Here are the wheels prepped for paint after a few minutes with an orbital sander and some foam sanding blocks:



And a few shots of the result after many thin coats of rustoleum:







Gonna be truly ridiculous.

Meeting with Pops tomorrow to discuss making room in the shop for the E30 this winter. Also found a local guy in MI who is a pro welder who can TIG it all up when we get it tacked together. Big updates to come!

Also, I finally tackled the interior cleaning from our CORE rally day. My method may not work as well in a car with parts left on the inside.

[iamsam]

Awesome! When are you getting your rally tires?

[MasterOfPuppets]

Awesome! When are you getting your rally tires?

Today!




This pic looks stupid, but what I'm showing is the stiffness of the carcass - that's about 150 lbs of my weight on that foot with almost no sidewall deflection. Good stuff.



On a side note - got the 75mm Vorschlag studs done in the back. No drama whatsoever. I'm holding off on front until I decide which struts are my "A" set.



If you're wondering, no, you could not fit the center caps over them.

Tires should be mounted later this week, then it's out to a gravel road for seat-of-the-pants testing (the best kind).

[drutt23]

Sweet man!! Love the wheels.

[iamsam]

Sweet man!! Love the wheels.

Oh look, someone from Sheridan!!

Me and a buddy at work were joking that I am the biggest dealer of E28s in Sheridan. I sold two to my buddy up there, and I may be heading up there this weekend, actually, gonna be a relaxing trek across WY, cruise control, and wait.....

Also, I will be selling a third E28 to my buddy (a parts car) AND i may be selling a 4th E28 to another buddy up there in Sheridan. Will prob end up being the only 4 E28s in Sheridan. Ha ha!

[MasterOfPuppets]

Wheels and Tires - On

So, got the tires mounted today and slapped them on immediately after work. One immediate problem leaped out at me:



This was due to a previously mentioned incident involving a fellow E30 owner/driver/racer and 18 seconds on a rally circuit, in which my valence got shoved up and back a few inches. So, once again the Sawzall solved all and actually produced a presentable result:



I then took it for a cruise and seat of the pants gravel test... a few observations:

1.) Gravel rally tires are very, very noisy on pavement
2.) They grip surprisingly well on wet asphalt
3.) They grip crazy well on gravel (specifically, wet gravel)

A few shots of the car as it sits now:





So far so good.

[lambo]

My god that is so awesome. I must see this some day...

[iamsam]

HA HA HA that looks hilarious!!!! In a good way of course.

And sorry about your valence, i do feel pretty dumb about that.... me, the hard core E30 enthusiast wrecks your car around the first turn of the track...

Honestly though I might suggest removing the front valence completely and fabbing up a skidplate that sort of goes in its place, and can protect the underside of the radiator as well as the motor in one modular piece.

Can you steer lock to lock without rubbing? It looks pretty tight there in the 3rd pic.

[lambo]

Honestly though I might suggest removing the front valence completely and fabbing up a skidplate that sort of goes in its place, and can protect the underside of the radiator as well as the motor in one modular piece.

Yeah! Something like this would be pretty neat

[iamsam]

^^ exactly. Like that, but less beefy obviously. Just so that you can nose-plow into the ground safely after a jump or something, or take a jump off of a tree stump.

[MasterOfPuppets]

Honestly though I might suggest removing the front valence completely and fabbing up a skidplate that sort of goes in its place, and can protect the underside of the radiator as well as the motor in one modular piece.

Can you steer lock to lock without rubbing? It looks pretty tight there in the 3rd pic.

The skidplate thing is probably a good idea, the only trouble I can see is finding a solid place to mount it way up in front, maybe on some of the bumper structure. I could make a big aluminum front and under-engine plate and then a "HDPE" plate for the rest of the underbody (once someone can explain what "HDPE" is and where to buy it).

I didn't really check the full steering travel, but I cranked it pretty good going in and out of the driveway and didn't get any rubbing. Seems like it will be fine.

And finally, I seem to have developed a large power steering leak, seemingly from one of the hoses from pump to rack... who sells 'em? And does anyone sell steel-braided ones?

EDIT: Just had what may be a brilliant idea. From what I can tell, the E30 front bumper mounts to some kind of shock absorbers just like in most cars. So, if I attached my skidplate to the bumper itself in front, and fabricated a way to mount it in the rear so that it could slide longitudinally and still be vertically rigid, I would have a shock-absorbing front skidplate! But would it be better?...

[kts]

I love the wheel colors. Makes me want to get and paint a set of TRMs.

[Gobig_us]

If the HDPE your talking about is the one i'm thinking of then HDPE is High Density Poly-Ethylene. You can buy it at any plastic distributor. It cuts really nice if you cut it on a CNC. I've also cut it with a skilsaw and it cut like butter. Just make sure it's clamped really good.

[iamsam]

EDIT: Just had what may be a brilliant idea. From what I can tell, the E30 front bumper mounts to some kind of shock absorbers just like in most cars. So, if I attached my skidplate to the bumper itself in front, and fabricated a way to mount it in the rear so that it could slide longitudinally and still be vertically rigid, I would have a shock-absorbing front skidplate! But would it be better?...

No, prob not the best idea. Those bumper shocks are one-time use, as in they compress, and don't de-compress, and you have to buy new ones. The idea is to save you in one collision, not to provide continuous energy dissipation from your front bumper for all your ramming needs.