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

[phenryiv1]

Some nice weather today, so it's project day again (isn't every day?)

the main tasks today were...to start the sunroof delete.

Then on to sunroof. After removing all the sunroof, crank, etc I got the cutting wheel out and basically cut the front part of the frame off. I wanted to leave a lip there to give me some options for how I'm going to "fill the hole" when I'm done.

For the rear half, I'll drill the rivets out and then heat the sealant and it should drop right out. Figured it would be easier if I just got rid of the front half separately.

Did you get any closer to a solution on how you plan to do that?

I will be right behind you on the delete. I have only opened mine a handful of times and am pulling the headliner anyway.

[FunfGan]

Thanks Kevin - yeah, I have a 5-point sparco harness that I used to use for autocross in the wrx that I'll use initially. It's FIA cert is expired, but the certs are a freaking scam anyhow, and since rallycross doesn't require them, I care not :) Also I have an old G-force latch 5-point that....geez...I bought at OG racing like 10 years ago! Been sitting in a box for almost that entire time, haha...

Also will have to figure out the best way to mod these seats to use sub straps.....

I'm not spending money on passengers, lol.....they can wear a regular belt. If someday this car becomes a full-on rally car (possible, though fairly doubtful) then I'll obviously be moving to a full cage, fixed seats, and full harnesses. For now, just making incremental improvments!

Josh- You can have one of my current harnesses for free for the passenger seat once I have the cage built and fixed backs with 6 points go in this summer.

[irish44j]

fab :)

[irish44j]

Finished sunroof delete tonight. Was actually pretty easy - cutting wheel to the three side tabs, and some heat to the sealant, and it drops right out (most people use a heat gun, I just used a propane torch :) ).







ok, well almost drops out. Looks like my aim was slightly off on a couple of the spot welds on the forward section, so when trying to drop it down I just slightly kinked the roof sheetmetal. Don't really care since that section will be covered by the replacement panel anyhow.

Without the sunroof frame, the roof is really flimsy. I plan to cut a few "slats" out of the original frame cassette and re-use them as stiffeners, since they already have the right curveature to them anyhow.

Once I do that, I can basically but the bar back in and install the seats and put the rest of the interior back together :)

Sill scrounging around to find a 2x3' piece of 16ga sheet metal to make a cover panel for the sunroof. I plan to just seal and rivet it on at this point, since I'm not looking to strip the roof for welding.


oh, also last night I think I located the source of my occasional fuel smell. Looks like one of the tank hoses was leaking a bit. the hole doesn't go all the way through, but maybe it was allowing the lip of the hose to leak or something.

[irish44j]

50k views....nice. Well, 1k of them are mine, posting updates probably haha.....anyhow, at least that shows that there are 5 other people here who have looked at this thread every time I update it. For that, I salute you :)

[unevolved]

Long time reader, here. Just don't always have anything productive to add.

[irish44j]

Long time reader, here. Just don't always have anything productive to add.

:p

feel free to add unproductive things or criticisms as well!

[irish44j]

Minor project tonight: installed some eyebolts (with backing plates) for a 6-point harness. the positions aren't exactly where i'd put them on a real track car, but they should do the job for rallycross. Luckily, I had 3 of these mounted in the WRX already for my autocross harness, so I just took them out since I don't plan to use a harness in that car anymore.

now I'm on the prowl for an expired 6-point camlock I think. Don't need a current cert on it, so hopefully I can find one secondhand off some racer that requires current SFI/FIA certs. then I'll put my 5-point or 4-point on the passenger side, since it will rarely get used anyhow.

[irish44j]

after failing to find anyone local with a scrap piece of sheet metal I could use for the sunroof hole, went to Lowe's and just bought one for $30. 2x3 foot, so it's already cut to the right size at least. It's 18-gauge, which I think is pretty much the same thickness as the OEM roof sheetmetal, though mine has so many coats of paint on it it's hard to measure accurately with a caliper....

trimmed the corners, marked and drilled holes for the rivets, and marked where i'll make the cutout for the roof vent. I also plan on putting a couple longitudinal stiffeners on either side of the vent, just so the panel doesn't deflect when I open/close the vent.







Tomorrow I'm having the roof support bracket welded back on. Sunday is supposed to be an odd 70-degree day here in January, so the plan will be to prep and paint the roof panel and probably get it all installed. Hopefully will have time to put the rollbar back in and get the seats permanently mounted as well.

the parts I stupidly cut off and now need to re-weld on..





Also finally getting around to starting to remove the only remaining soundproofing on the car, above the gas tank. I keep on forgetting about it since I have a "parcel shelf" there usually. This stuff is pretty thin and doesn't seem to weigh much, but it may be about 5lbs all said.....



One other little thing I did the other night. since all my interior lighting is removed I've been annoyed a few times driving at night when I needed some light (and had to pull out a maglite, lol). So i'm going to stick some kind of switchable light up between the visors where the check panel used to be. There are a few screw mounts there, so it should be easy. Even spliced into some switch power with the original seat belt warning light wires that are already there for the check panel, so that will make it easy.

[irish44j]

On a side note, just saw some photos on facebook of Roberto's PR-winning (and MR 2nd-place with Gorka driving) RX-7, which is moving up with Roberto to MR this year. The car was already pretty quick, and he has now gutted the interior (though it has a full cage) and also done a sunroof delete. Not sure what else he's done, but I'm sure he has some things in the works (:o)

Spencer's 318is (also moving to MR this year) now (or will soon) have fresh suspension and an exhaust that doesn't sound like ass.

Pat&Jason's 325e is about to get an "i" motor swap, has been further stripped, and Pat is basically replacing all the old trashed bushings and mounts throughout the car, many of them with solid pieces from Condor Speed Shop (on the hood of my car). They may also do an e36 rack swap, I can't recall if Pat said so or not. He has a build thread here for more information (as does Spencer, though he's a slacker at it).

In short, MR should be quite a shootout this year, which will be fun.

[irish44j]

today "the welding guy" (knuckehead92 on r3v) came over to re-attach my roof crossmember. Tacked along the roofline and then welded the ends to the old brackets. It's nice and strong now, so I can proceed with the other projects.







In one of life's little ironies, about halfway through his welder wouldn't feed the wire (turned out later to be a loose wire connection inside), so he used my "new to me" snap-on machine to finish the job. I was pretty happy to see that it works well. now I just have to learn to use it, lol.



That all done, I continued getting the cover panel ready. Got the roof vent back in, did a bit of touch-ups on the edges, and primed it. Will paint it next nice day.



leftover green metallic paint from some project long ago for the inside. Actually kind of matches the faded seats, hah



primed, somewhat. Foggy/rainy day isn't good for painting



Then another buddy came by and I helped him install some vintage Bosch lights. He bought them 25 years ago, stuck them in a cabinet, and is just now installing them! Awesome..



we kicked it 80s style in my driveway today, for sure!

[phenryiv1]

Pat&Jason's 325e is about to get an "i" motor swap, has been further stripped, and Pat is basically replacing all the old trashed bushings and mounts throughout the car, many of them with solid pieces from Condor Speed Shop (on the hood of my car). They may also do an e36 rack swap, I can't recall if Pat said so or not. He has a build thread here for more information (as does Spencer, though he's a slacker at it).

In short, MR should be quite a shootout this year, which will be fun.

FINALLY, I get some love!

I am scrambling to get the e36 swap rack before I do the motor swap. Money is getting tighter and tighter as I buy all of the "while-I-am-in-there" parts...short throw shifter, shifter busing/refresh parts, weighted shift knob, motor trans mounts, strut mounts, injectors, etc. With the motor and trans swapping out, I am trying to do anything that will be easier with the motor out of the car.

I still need to get an electric fan (might as well delete the mechanical fan while the motor is still out of the car) and I am considering a header (again, might as well install while the motor is out).

All in all, I think that you are right- MR will be a LOT more competetive this season. I managed to be right in the middle, which made me the leader of the "new" guys. Next season it looks like I will have to step up my driving, as I won't be able to blame the car for shortcomings. Of course, you won't either...

With the M42 your balance should be a lot better. Your high-end HP will be better than what I had this past year (and worlds better than what you had last year!), and your torque should be awfully close to mine. All of that with a lighter and better-balanced car than you had in the past.

With my B25, I think that I may have to look into rally tires. We really were traction limited at times, and I have been considering looking for a wider wheel and a 205 tire once we see how the car puts down the "new" HP. Even on fresh winter tires, we had several times in every run where we went from oversteer to understeer (or vice versa) in a second. Summit Point clay is just plain slippery!

On a related note, Nick just bought a new "i" head for his 2.7 S-eta. If he can get it in and running properly, that e28 will have a LOT better power than last year. Plus, he goes from a motor plagued with leaks to one where he can feel a little more comfortable pushing it. We'll see if his money buys any reliability. If so, that is one more competetor in MR, as we know that he can drive- he has just been sidelined with DNFs due to equipment failures.

[irish44j]

Some things accomplished today and the last few days:

First, got my hands on an old e30 hitch. Pretty funky design, but it has a 200lb tongue weight and my intention is to use it for a little cargo tray on the back for wheels or my big gearbox or something. We'll see. It'll be nice to have either way and isn't all that heavy so I can live with the weight way back there.

Only issue will be fore install that it bolts to the bumper, and since my bumper is tucked it doesn't fit quite right. I'll have to mash in the spare tirewell a bit :)



On to the sunroof delete completion. Got some paint and finished the panel. Then I test-fit it and drilled rivet holes. After, took it off to clean off the shavings



then added some window sealant/adhesive to keep it watertight



and it's on. turned out pretty good I think. Not perfect, but good enough for rallykar :)







Here's an underneath view. I put a couple aluminum L-brackets to stiffen it so it doesn't bend/kink when I open and close the roof vent.



Also cleaning off the hood, because it's going to get painted matte black. Carlos is working on some new vinyl for Condor Speed Shop, one of which will go up here.

The OEM clearcoat gave up the ghost, even with heat and being very careful removing the vinyl stripes. Who cares.....will sand it all down and paint it with some rattle-can matte black :)



touched up a few spots with filler primer, what was left in two old cans...



off-topic, stopped by Harbor Freight on the way home and for $8 picked up a set of 1/4 drill bits, some wire brushes, and 550-box of cotter pins, lol. Love me some HF.



After helping Gary with the Land Cruiser, his payment was something out of his trunk. An old-school spotlight that plugs into the cig lighter. So very 1980s....



What else......oh, Carlos hooked me up with a fellow racer in Florida who, for almost nothing, sold me a 6-point Schroth camlock harness that has its FIA/SFI cert expired. I looked it up and it's about a $500 harness, so I paid about 10% for it :) Should be here in a few days.

Also STILL waiting on the oil pres/temp sender. I ordered one with an M12 thread, which are hard to find....and apparently the vendor is having a tough time finding it too, lol....

[irish44j]

Spent some time today chatting with a couple of my sponsors (and/or future sponsors) today about graphics for the car. Time to make this thing look good :) That got me in the mood to proceed on some of the painting associated with the new black&white theme. Last year all-black was a bit boring, and the gray hood was pretty crappy looking. So this year's plan will be to change to white wheels (still the bottlecaps), and the gray trunk will turn matte white. The hood goes to matte black. First coats came out pretty good for rattle-can. It will get some wet-sand and a couple more, but it's just too damn cold to do much painting right now...



and added my new stripes. At least for the moment, we'll see where I go with this :)



they're painted on, not vinyl, by the way. Rustoleum "Professional" which sprays a very good thick and even coat. Better than I expected, actually.



we'll see how wierd/odd I go. I get bored easily and always want to tinker either with the mechanicals or the look - whichever I feel like at the time.

[irish44j]

some good progress today with 60-degree January day and for once I'm not at work.

First, got some mail last night:



VDO dual oil pres/warning sender. Most people order the standard one from Summit with an adaptor from elsewhere. I took a bit longer, but managed to find one with M12 thread that fits right in to the stock filter housing. One less complication.

Unlike other e30s, the M42 has the OEM oil warning light sender at the rear side, but has a dummy plug on the frontside as well - so it can take two senders at once, without a "T" fitting like all the other e30s have to use. Very convenient.

Here's the dummy plug:



Compared to the sender:



Sender fitted. It's inside the PS belt "circle" so had to run the wiring forward toward the radiator to clear.

Hooked it up to the VDO gauge I previously wired in, and works great. About 60psi at idle - right where an M42 should be.



Second package was a surprise. Norbert Schneider, who runs the Rally Gruppe 318IS in Germany (which is basically a "spec e30" series but on gravel and dirt), sent me a full-car series decal set (windshield banner, side banners, and other stuff). And I had only asked for a couple stickers from the series (in trade for some of ours). I'm going to send him some of ours, as well as an SCCA rallycross banner and some other things as payback.



Here's a photo of his car that he sent along with it:



I'm not going to put the full set on, but wanted to do one of the side, which fits well with my black and white theme. So with the warm weather, did some painting and some sticking :)

Also finished up the hood painting (matte black), and repainted the trunk white (it had been gray/silver). So I'm more or less done with painting for a while I think :)