E30 Rally Build Thread

[MasterOfPuppets]

I got a wire welder and I'm in NM

If you're volunteering your equipment/services, I hugely appreciate it! I can't think of anything I need to weld in the near future, but there's always something...

Hood pins and shift light showed up today, gonna tackle those tomorrow. Need to thread hunt for which wire is the tach signal, unless someone knows offhand. Have the dash completely out now as well, need to decide whether to flock it or just paint it flat black. Opinions?

Also, can anyone imagine needing the "upper" vent setting in a race situation? I can obviously see defrost being needed, and the lower vents would be used for heat in a winter event, but the upper seems useless without AC. If I ditch it I can use the giant vent holes for gauges/swithces. Thoughts?

[billybobjoseph]

I meant to eliminate the sunroof but I see you got a patch with holes in it already. Let me know in the future

[KenC]

I read "DIY Cage." How much cage building experience do you have?

I'd go with at least 100ft of DOM. It's usually sold in 20ft sticks.

Here's the one that we had put in our LeMons car recently:

[MasterOfPuppets]

I read "DIY Cage." How much cage building experience do you have?

Enough to get the job done. I myself don't have a boatload, but the guys I'll execute the cage with have done several 7.50 certified NHRA cages and a few tube frame car builds. The big challenge will be making sure the design itself meets the FIA spec since that's a new ballgame for us.

The basic plan is to build a PVC cage, get the layout ok'ed by a scrutineer, take a very long time to get everything cut, bent, and tacked together in steel, get the tacked-up version ok'ed by a scrutineer, then pay someone to TIG it up nicely. The key to the cage build will be a very long time scale.

[Dave003]

Nice build man i got an old 8 ball in mine pool ball knobs FTW!

[b*saint]

If you need any sheet metal designs laser cut, Ill get it to you at a r3v deal.

[KenC]

Enough to get the job done. I myself don't have a boatload, but the guys I'll execute the cage with have done several 7.50 certified NHRA cages and a few tube frame car builds. The big challenge will be making sure the design itself meets the FIA spec since that's a new ballgame for us.

The basic plan is to build a PVC cage, get the layout ok'ed by a scrutineer, take a very long time to get everything cut, bent, and tacked together in steel, get the tacked-up version ok'ed by a scrutineer, then pay someone to TIG it up nicely. The key to the cage build will be a very long time scale.

What are the FIA specs?

I wouldn't waste your time/money on a PVC mock-up. If you have guys that have experience with building cages and tubular chassis cars, then they should be able to do it no prob. I'd just sketch one up so everybody is on the same page. At least that's what we did and it worked well.

Go for the NASCAR style door bars on the drivers side as pictured in our car. It'll give you some needed room. Ours bows out into the door and actually touches the outer skin.

[KenC]

Edit: just read the 2011 FIA standards. Doesn't look like anything too elaborate. I'm not sure you can use the bowed doorbars though.

[MasterOfPuppets]

What are the FIA specs?

I wouldn't waste your time/money on a PVC mock-up. If you have guys that have experience with building cages and tubular chassis cars, then they should be able to do it no prob. I'd just sketch one up so everybody is on the same page. At least that's what we did and it worked well.

Go for the NASCAR style door bars on the drivers side as pictured in our car. It'll give you some needed room. Ours bows out into the door and actually touches the outer skin.

Edit: just read the 2011 FIA standards. Doesn't look like anything too elaborate. I'm not sure you can use the bowed doorbars though.

Since in this situation more than in drag racing the cage has a functional purpose, I figure I'll do a mockup to see what makes the most sense in terms of bracing the suspension mounts, leaving room for seats, visibility, how hard it is to climb into, etc. I already have the PVC from a previously aborted Jeep cage build, but the entirety of it was only ~$40. Seems worth it to not have a scrutineer say "if only you had done this one bar differently..."

And I seem to remember the FIA being set on the gusseted crossing diagonals for both doors. I'd probably do that anyways so that a slide into some trees would trash the door but hopefully wouldn't touch the cage and thus cause less danger of cage de-cert.

[MasterOfPuppets]

If you need any sheet metal designs laser cut, Ill get it to you at a r3v deal.

Cool. The only thing I can think of would be a center console gauge/switch panel... we'll see.

[SlapDash]

You can have a look at my cage, done by Cage This, here: http://www.slapdashracing.com/Build_Updates.php

It's built to Rally America specs and was recently logbooked with flying colors. You can't see it in these pics, but the cage goes through the firewall and attaches to the strut tower, and through the rear seat panel and attached to the rear shock mounts.

Hope this helps.

[billybobjoseph]

How/where is it attached to the strut tower and the shock mounts? Do you have pics of that?

[MasterOfPuppets]

Hood Pins

RA rules require that the hood be openable from outside, i.e. the latch mechanism must be disabled and replaced with pins. So, I ordered a blue anodized aluminum 1/2" pin and post set from Summit for ~$15. After much deliberation, I decided that the easiest and most effective way to implement the pins would be to essentially duplicate the function of the stock latch, as in holding the front of the hood down. That way, to open the hood, you unpin, the front of the hood lifts up as if you pulled the latch, and you go from there.

The only tricky part of the install was picking a location for the posts. I ended up going pretty close to the rubber stops that the hood sits on. I drilled through both layers of the core support for the posts. After I took this picture I decided to buy some fender washers for each side of the core support to avoid crushing it too much, but here's the location I chose:



Due to the odd movement the hood makes as it comes down, I had to cut a slot shape in the hood's subframe for the post to move through. Because I chose a post location that lined up with a hole in the hood frame, This was done easily enough with some snips and came out like this:



I also had to run the washer line through a different hole. The hole for the pin through the hood skin as so ragged because I only had a 1/2" drill bit, and fitting a 1/2" post through a 1/2" hole blindly takes mucho filing.

The set came with some little plates for the top of the hood to protect the paint from the pins (and to cover up the ragged post hole). I riveted those on with aluminum rivets. I also whipped up some little retaining wires with some 1/16" cable and a ring terminal. Here's how the whole pin assembly came out:



And the whole hood:




Here's one for the M20 fans:



I think it came out slick, and should meet the RA requirement for a total of ~$20. Also, since I had to remove the headlight assemblies to get the posts in, I took the chance to paint all of the grill pieces in my chosen color scheme for the car. I'll post pics tomorrow after reassembly, but suffice to say... the colors are unusual. Here's a teaser:

[iamsam]

Mike, there is a thread on here somewhere where a guy sells gauge panels that go into the stereo hole and vent holes. I'll see if I can find it.

Also, the hood is really starting to come together aesthetically with those pins. I am also really curious now to see what it will look like with the orange grilles.

EDIT: found it. http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=86233&

[MasterOfPuppets]

Mike, there is a thread on here somewhere where a guy sells gauge panels that go into the stereo hole and vent holes. I'll see if I can find it.

Also, the hood is really starting to come together aesthetically with those pins. I am also really curious now to see what it will look like with the orange grilles.

EDIT: found it. http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=86233&

Those gauge panels look like a great product for a street/track car, but I wonder about their durability in a brutal rally situation. Not that the panels themselves would break, but it seems like they would come undone from the dash and start flinging around by the gauge wires. I figure I'll bend up a sheetmetal gauge panel to replace almost all of the AC and CD player area of the dash and have everything centrally located for quick reference.