Swapping Chassis / Clean M50 build

[mr2peak]

I hit a pothole with my 318is M50 swap car and bent the frame :(

Good side if this is that I picked up an alpine '87 eta chassis for $300! It will give me the opportunity to clean up the things that bothered me about the original swap.
First off it has the early rear arches! I'm going to shave all the brackets and paint the bay and finally have an engine bay that isn't full of cosmoline. The interior of the new car is in amazing shape, and I've always rear wanted pop-out windows. Fitting the plastic bumpers might be a bit of a chore, but it needs to be done. I can try and hide as much of the wiring as possible, and correctly mount the power steering reservoir that has been floating aimlessly around the engine bay. I'm hoping that I can place the power steering and windshield fluid in the spot that the battery sat on very early cars, maybe get a nice divided aluminum container that isn't as much of an eye sore as the old plastic stock parts.


I've already started pulling out the eta engine and planning the logistics of the swap. Should be getting an engine hoist later today!

[mr2peak]

Ordered paint for the engine bay late last night, as well as a generic Summit Racing brake proportioning valve so that I can correct the system when I delete the ABS.
Paint: www.paintscratch.com
Proportioning valve is this one: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-G3905/

Also hoping that I can get an engine hoist this weekend. Been offered a loan of one on another forum, just need to work out a deposit and go pick it up!

Also hoping that I can get my hands on a decent camera so this thread is more interesting! For now here are some cell picks:

My new $300 car


And the motor/trim/panel donor, old pic from when I did the subframe install:

[Dj Buttchug]

how does one hit le pothole and bend chassis?

[mr2peak]

Short answer:

[A_Whelan]

That must have been a huge hole or you were going fast, fak.

[324td]

oh wow, i've seen car crashes with less damage than that.
GL with the swap!

[samiam3356]

good luck

[mr2peak]

1) Removed the ABS system apart from the 8mm nuts. Actually everything that's held on by an 8mm nut or bolt is still on the car! Lost my fucking socket.. another thing on the shopping list.

2) Removed the brake booster and throttle cable,

3) Finally got the engine and transmission out of the car! Also half the drive shaft with it, too much of a pain to undo those bolts under the car. Friendly guy on 2002faq gave me the loan of his engine hoist, thanks Jerry!

Also took a look at the head, just as the seller described the valves froze in place due to lack of oil. 1 broken valve, many bent ones, and every piston hit a valve hard enough to leave a good mark. Bottom end still turns fine though so I'm saving the crank. Might make a coffee table with the block :)

Hoping I can borrow an angle grinder from a friend to shave the bracket. I tried punching my way through the spot welds with a large screw driver and hammer, not the way to go don't try it. Made more work for myself.

Anyway, some pics to please the masses! Not much really. Parts anyone?

[mr2peak]

Even though I live on a privately owned dead-end street, my neighbors are complaining about the car work that is going on. This really sucks and may put an end to the project. Just had to listen to a 20 minute phone call from the neighbors complaining about how it makes there houses look like "white trash'. Fucking retarded.

[Beej '86 325es]

That's almost the exact scenario I was in last year. My '86 white 325es was too far gone with rust. Reggie's Motorworks found a near perfect '86 white 325 to swap everything over to. We got to do everything the way I WISHED I did it the first time. :)

[Dermeister3]

If the street is privately owned, tell them to kindly "Fuck off". if you are part of a community where there are laws against doing car work on a street (public or private) then get a cheap ass carport and move it to your lawn.

[mr2peak]

That's almost the exact scenario I was in last year. My '86 white 325es was too far gone with rust. Reggie's Motorworks found a near perfect '86 white 325 to swap everything over to. We got to do everything the way I WISHED I did it the first time. :)

That's the plan! How'd your car turn out?

If the street is privately owned, tell them to kindly "Fuck off". if you are part of a community where there are laws against doing car work on a street (public or private) then get a cheap ass carport and move it to your lawn.

Wish I had a lawn in front of the house..

The street is a private street shared by the neighbors, it's a dead end, effectively a shared driveway. I am doing the work on the side of the street in my parking space and in no way blocking anyones right of way. However they claim that because I am working on my cars it is devaluing their property...

After doing some digging I have found this: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/di...file=745-759.3

It's the legal code governing junk yards. In order for them to go after me for anything, they have to decide that I'm operating a Junk Yard. Which means that I can't sell any of the parts I've pulled from the car because that would make it a place of business in a legal sense... seeing as I haven't sold any parts yet it seems I'm in the clear. The other way to fuck me over is by proving that this is an "establishment" for doing car work. It isn't, because I don't happen to do this a lot!

The other argument is liquids, they are worried about car fluids getting into the ground. Understandable. However I have and have been using a product that you pour on the spill and it absorbs it, then you sweep it up and throw it away. It's very much like cat litter. I haven't spilled much at all, but it's impossible to catch everything when tearing apart an engine and removing it.

My saving grace: if they declare that I'm a Junk Yard or Establishment, I have 30 days to move everything before the state comes and cleans it up. So if they go as far as giving me written notice that it's a Junk Yard, I will still have time to finish :) I just have to deal with some pissed off people.

[deutschman]

Hhhhmmm. I told you this would be harder then you thought. I knew that c**t next door would give you grief. It looks like you skipped putting the tarp down ha? That would have saved you a lot of trouble.
Just the fact that you have no transportation is going to make this a hard project to complete. There are always things you will have to run to the store for like grinding disks and other supplies which wont be fun with nothing but a bike. Ones your in school it will be even harder because you will have to find a way to get to your parents house every time you want to work on the car. Never mind the fact that they will want their parking back when they get back from Europe. I would suggest stripping everything you need off the 325e and getting it out of peoples eye sight as fast as you can!!!
You might have bitten off more then you can chew here ha?
To get spot welds off you need to drill the weld out with a drill bit or spot weld remover, then weld it up. If you just try and grind the brackets off you will go threw $60 in disks and be at it all day! Thats what I was trying to tell you before. Removing brackets, filling the holes, bondo, and paint will take a while to do right.
When you do large projects like this it is good to have your own tools for the job. Side grinder, welder, wrenches, ratchets, sockets, and so on. Other wise you end up borrowing some ones garage of tools and most people only like to lend one thing at a time. Trying to swap 70% of the parts off of one car and on to another with nothing but a basic socket set is going to be hard to do.
I also feel like you will find your self spending WAY more money on this than you think.
I have a side grinder you could barrow, you just need to find a way to get over here to get it. I also have to say that I am wary of letting you barrow my tools while I am not around because you tend to work a bit messy and things get lost when you don't keep them organized.
Also the spring compressors you wanted to use and your clothing is still in front of my door waiting for you.
I know I am sounding like a doomsday profit, but I feel that I should point some of this stuff out as your friend. I hope this all works out for you man. Ill be back on the 31st, and I will try and help as much as I can between work and stuff.

[deutschman]

PS
Can I get some of the shifting linkage from the g260 off of you? I wonder of it will fit the g240 I have...

[drutt23]

Was there a boulder in the bottom of that pot hole???? Dam bro....Good luck with this! I agree with deutschman. You will need a lot more tools than a basic socket set....If you wanna see some engine bay work you can look at my thread. Link is in my sig. I have quite a few pics and you can ask me questions about it if you want. A lot of work, but definitely worth it in the end.