Pitchblack Motorsports Rally e30 318i (now with M50) - and some Porsche 924S stuff.

[phenryiv1]

S
Meanwhile, I decided to do away with most of the stock cluster since the only thing that still works on it is warning lights and turn signals, and it will probabl not fit well with the cage's dash bar anyhow. But I don't just want an open hole there, and I'm too lazy to make a good panel. So I got creative and just modified the stock cluster (just the front part of it).....essentially it's just there to hold various warning lights, lol. So anyhow, that's what I did, and it saves me the trouble of making anything new. I know, it's strange. I kind of like it, lol

Do you want me to cut you a plexi panel in the shape of the OEM cluster?

[irish44j]

nah, this should be fine so it has the factory attachment points. I have lexan here and can cut it easily if I change my mind. I think this will work out well.

And with that in mind...

A few little (and big) things came in the mail today:

First, a couple packs of LED strips (red and white), which I'll use for interior and trunk lighting. Will have separate switches so we can have the red on night stages if needed, and white if we need real light. Cheap and easy....we'll see how they turn out. I tested them and they're good brightness for interior stuff.



Also got in a 12-wire plug I ordered off ebay to consolidate all my cluster wires to make install/removal easier. Assembled and everything work. Nice.









Oh, and got five fresh new Altimax Arctics in, after selling my 15" Winterforces. These are said to be better for winter rally (among street snow tires) and 14" is better for wheel selection at the moment.

[irish44j]

Aand....as we wait for the big projects in a few days, here's a few more little ones. Detail stuff, stuff that I want to do, stuff that I don't really *need* to do right now but what the hell. And because I like the little personal/creative touches :)

First, got a box in today from Primitive Racing with my first aid kit and spill kit. Yeah, I know I could have assembled those myself for maybe a few less bucks, but I don't feel like spending an hour in WalMart and the Pharmacy rounding up stuff. Easy button here, and they shipped fast.

So first order of business is to mount the first aid kit. Already had this planned out. Some of you may ask "why in the car instead of the trunk where a lot of people put it?" Well, I figure that any significant injury in the car would likely take place in a rollover or contact with a wall, tree, etc. And if either of those happens, it may not be possible to get the trunk open (Nick couldn't get his open after the truck hit him in the e28). So by putting it here, I'll have better access.

It's not bolted down, but instead held with two high-strength straps running through some individual chain links welded to the bulkhead. Now hindsight is 20-20 but I welded on the links and then remember that's a pop-out panel there held in place with weak tack welds. So had to go around it and tack weld it in place better so the whole panel doesn't pop out. D'oh....but whatever, it's done now.







Project two....in the works. Some ghetto-fabrication using the passenger-side vent assembly and some lexan. This will be used to mount power outlets for Jim's navigation gear (iPad) and phone. Can never have too many power outlets (though an alternator upgrade may be in order in the near future...)

Anyhow, more on that when it's done.



And third....I hate the little twist-knob for the spare tire boltdown. And I want leverage to get it tight. And a support bar for the center of the upper load board (see post last week). Anyhow.....a weld nut, couple washers, some steel stock, and a cut-in-half bushing axle and there it is....

[badwella]

That's a great idea for that spare wheel nut. Definitely gonna do something like that for mine now.

[irish44j]

So good mail day today....skidplate arrived from Ben at red46.net.

This is a nice piece.....perfect to the spec I designed. 1/8" stainless, very strong, and really nice looking with good workmanship. In case anyone is wondering, total weight is a shade under 20lbs (compared to 11lbs for my rallycross skid that I've used for 3 years). Will be more once we add the central U-support brace from the frame rails, but that's a bit later.

In any case, red46 builds a number of smaller skids for e30s and other BMWs for rallycross or lowered street cars, so check out the site! Much better than some of the other ones I've seen available for e30s.

So, while I still have to finalize attachment points, I did a test-fit and all is perfect. Some pics, of course..

new vs. old

[irish44j]

So, we're doing stuff

[Northern]

cage is starting to look really nice!

[irish44j]

well, cage build is coming along. Ozgur worked until 7pm yesterday with me and we got most of the main components in (plinth boxes, main cage structure, harness bars, roof bars, etc). I still have a few tacos to make and add on, and I need to install the rear stays later this week. All in all went fairly smoothly, though my welding remains quite un-pretty. Getting great penetration and heat signatures on the tubes, but damn I really need to work on making them look good lol. That said, looking at some of my first welds on the cage and my most recent, it's night and day (and Ozgur did a lot of them too, and he's much better than I am).

In any case, since we used plinth boxes and were able to drop the cage down to do the top welds, the cage is VERY tight to the structure of the car. Like within 1mm at the a-pillar tops, and right along the door cards (with just enough room for my hand-crank windows to rotate if I shorten the knob). Also because the car is a sedan we had to "massage" the bottom of the b-pillar for clearance on the door bars and sill bars. In the end, turned out pretty good and I've been able to tie in some new seatbelt lower brackets directly into both the b-pillar and the lower door bar.

Why seatbelts, you ask? Because, I want to drive the car on the street and we all know that 6-point harnesses are not legal...the car is noticeable enough so don't want to give the police any reason to ticket me....So, seatbelts are retained.....though I hope the retractors don't break because removing them would be next to impossible, lol.

Anyhow, a bunch of random pics. More to come as I progress.

Ozgur showing Andy how to help out


Ozgur doing some overhead welding


Yesterday


Door fitament....tight, just how I wanted it.


Rear plinth box. Welding that close to the gas tank (and fuel pump on the other side) was a bit scary...



Front plinth box. Before you say anything, yes I have to strip that rear edge and tie it into the sill. Totally spaced on that one..



A-pillar bar fitament


Tacos! Need to add one more on this side and then do the other side


Seatbelt mount and tie-tin


As it looked earlier today


Roof bars. clearance in the front for the roof scoop


And a couple ugly weld pics so you can make fun of me




So that's about it for now....

[irish44j]

So after several days of sore knees, a few welding spatter burns (mostly on my ankles..grr), and sitting and lying in every known position - particularly in the trunk - well.....the car has a completed cage!

A few points of note: First, we built this cage to be TIGHT to the car. The door bars touch the b-pillars (and are welded to them), and the A-pillar bars almost touch as well. Gives more room and better sightlines from inside the car. To do this we dropped it off of plinth/sill boxes to weld the tops and then lifted it back onto them.

We also used a bent windshield bar to snug up better to the roof and allow straight roof bars for better headroom. A test-fit in my seat and my helmet doesn't hit anything no matter how hard I try - not the roof bars and not the side hoops. So that's good, because I just dropped a good chunk of money on a nice new helmet...

What else....well, if you look closely at the pics you can see my welds are not the prettiest things in the world, but they are strong with good heat patterns and that's what matters. This is a rally car, not a cars-and-coffee showmobile.

Otherwise, it was just a matter of fitting, more fitting, welding, more welding, etc. For paint, since it's 30 degrees now with a blizzard coming tomorrow I just did a quick brush-on job to keep it from rusting. Can't spray in the garage and sure as hell not going outside to do it. I'll make it look nicer in the spring when the weather is nicer.

So, here are a few pics. Now to clean up the disaster area in the garage and start putting the rest of the car back together (including figuring out how to get the dash back in). That reminds me, you'll notice there is no dash bar. That is "for now" since it's not required for rally. I plan to add one in the spring, but don't have enough tubing, a bender handy, or sufficient time to deal with it right now.









Now time for Snowmageddon. The WRX and Sequoia are both sitting on their snow tires and ready to go do some snow-hooning with 18-24" on the way :)

[img]

[irish44j]

So we're at about 30" and it's still snowing here. The WRX even on wintersports had zero chance of going anywhere (couldn't even get up my street), so I had to take the big boy for some "rescue cruising." Did pull out a stuck Altima and help out a few other people. The Sequoia on good Revo2's (winter rated) is damn near unstoppable and I did some untracked/lightly tracked hill/woodland roads where I stopped and measured 23" depth and the thing had no problem with it :)

I'm tinkering on the rally car with wiring and stuff, not really worth posting about, so here's some snow pics instead.

WRX


the suburbia-beast


Pretty gnarly back in there..

[TheEightAlpha]

Winter wonderland ?

Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk

[irish44j]

So meanwhile, in between shoveling and winter exploring I've been doing some little and not-little things on the car. Only three weekends after this to get the car done and logbooked, so time is of the essence.

First off.....we made a rules mistake with the cage, as Rally America (though NOT NASA Rally, who is going to logbook this car) requires that the front of the roof "V" end within 100mm of where the windshield header bar meets the side bars. Ugh....we were slightly over that and while I personally don't think it's a big deal, apparently there is one scrutineer in this region known for busting out the tape measure and busting peopel for it. So might as well be legal.

So, got out the cutting wheel and grinder and cut out the two roof bars. Will cut some longer new ones to go to the appropriate spot. No big deal



While talking with one of the RA national rules committee members, he also suggested (not required) a few other minor reinforcements (gussets/tacos), which I'm knocking out. This is one of them (the third taco at the bottom on the sill bar). I had planned to enclose that anyhow.

Also got my dead pedal back in and did some wiring harness routing and protection, since I'm not using the "channel" in the side sill.



Then put the roof panel back on since I'm done accessing stuff from above at this point. This time not using rivets, but instead stainless hex bolts with locknuts on the bottom. Serious pain in the ass to put all these in, especially since I don't like this roof panel and plan to replace it this summer...





Random: my first-aid kid mounted



Ok, time to put the dash back in since all the lower bars and stuff are done. To do this I had to cut about 4" off each end (basically the outer half of the vent), which is more cumbersome than it looks, and also cuts away most of the metal side supports, which are kind of important...



Now I'm working on ways to graft the outsides of the vents back on (more for looks and to enclose the dash better than anything else)....First I welded a tab onto the A-pillar cage bar as an outer support for the dash, which really makes it solid. Then got creative with large zipties. It's not pretty, but it will do for the time being. Will do something a bit more "quality" once it warms up. Right now function > form.







And....on to wiring everything back up. Laid down some packing blankets because i'm tired of banging my knees and ass on the seat mounts, etc. Put an electric heater in there (garage is 35 degrees), and got it all wired up. After testing everything, it all works fine :)





So, that's where we stand right now. More to go after I shovel more snow tomorrow. On a side note, my trailer is currently 150 feet from the street in my side yard, behind a fence. With over 2 feet of snow between it and the street. Hope it warms up here in the next few weeks, because i'll need to get it out in less than a month :)

[econti]

Late, but what's your reason for not gusseting to the A pillar?

[irish44j]

Late, but what's your reason for not gusseting to the A pillar?

If you mean against the windshield frame sides, my reason is:

"running out of time to make this first rally, and it's not required, so I'll do it later"

For the moment I'm doing the cage to be legal and get on stage at the winter rally. After that I have about 4 months until the next rally, so will have time to make a few (optional) additions to the cage that I want to have. That's one of them. Alternately, if I find time in the next week or so I may just do it now. We'll see.

[irish44j]

Late, but what's your reason for not gusseting to the A pillar?

dammit man....my borderline OCD wouldn't let it slide now that you mentioned it.....so got out a few remaining scrap sheet metal pieces, cut them up, dimple-died them, and now we have A-pillar gussets.....