Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

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

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    #31
    nice project


    7speedshop.com

    Comment


      #32
      thanks....slow start, hopefully will be more interesting once it comes time to get it dirty :)

      so, a few evening projects since the kid and wife are in bed.

      First, tucked the rear bumper. Since it's damn near impossible to get the rear pistons out of the chassis had to do this one on the car. Knowing from the front how messy it was going to be, I put together an "anti-mess" setup that worked not too badly. Consisting of a milk crate with a garbage bag in it, and some cardboard cut and taped to basically deflect all the piston oil spray into it rather than all over the garage. And a small hole for the drill.

      Worked like a charm, with minimal mess!



      the contained mess



      tucked. will probably trim back the black gaiter like I did in the front, but it reeks of hydraulic oil back there at the moment so I'm going inside....





      Once inside, time for a nice easy project watching tv and sitting on the couch. With the wife eying me to make sure I am not doing anything that will make a mess, lol.

      So of course there is the tail light bulb blank where the euro models get the rear fog light. I was originally going to get this all wired up and functional, but dont' really feel like it at the moment. So for the time being I just set it up spliced into the brake light line, so when the brakes are applied I'll have two sections of the tail light light up rather than just one. Got the extra spring clips from a spare/beat-up set of tail lights sitting in one of my parts boxes....



      I'd get a pic of them lit up, but the car battery is dead. I'm not sure why, it's been dead every day this week and have had to jump it. Car has a new alternator and the battery is less than a year old, so my guess is that I have a drain someplace, which is going to be an epic pain in the ass to figure out. A project for a really boring winter day....until then I'll just pull the negative terminal to keep the juice alive...
      Stage rally/rallycross e30 build/competition journal
      Track/street e21 build
      visit Condor Speed Shop
      visit Motorsport Hardware



      [FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"] 1985 318i/M50 Rally Car - 1988 Porsche 924S - 2005 Sequoia tow pig - 2018 GTI

      Comment


        #33
        no real work today.....yardwork and football.

        did get the black fleet out in force this morning as I prepped the triumph to go into its backyard hibernation for the winter


        forward-hinging hoods, FTW!


        into hibernation. This winter will be BMW time
        Stage rally/rallycross e30 build/competition journal
        Track/street e21 build
        visit Condor Speed Shop
        visit Motorsport Hardware



        [FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"] 1985 318i/M50 Rally Car - 1988 Porsche 924S - 2005 Sequoia tow pig - 2018 GTI

        Comment


          #34
          (:D)

          After a good bit of looking around, stumbled upon a good CL deal on a pair of seats out of a Porsche 944. As you can see, one of them seems to have been eaten, and the vinyl is quite cracked on both (especially the driver's side), but mechanically they're in perfect shape - all controls work perfectly, rails slide smoothly, and the driver's seat power controls are functional. And damn they feel so solid and strong compared with the BMW seats.

          Also I'm quite certain Porsche/Recaro designed these seats using a model who has exactly my body size, because I dont' think I've ever sat in any car's seat that fits more perfectly.

          To fit these in the e30, I'll have to rig up a way to make the track/bolt width 1" wider, but that shouldn't be difficult since the entire track assemblies unboat from the seat (another great feature of these seats). Since these are gonna get dirty and beat-up anyways, I'm in no rush to reupholster them, will just get some decent covers for the time being.

          All in all, even as beat-up as they look I'm extremely pleased with this pick-up!



          Stage rally/rallycross e30 build/competition journal
          Track/street e21 build
          visit Condor Speed Shop
          visit Motorsport Hardware



          [FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"] 1985 318i/M50 Rally Car - 1988 Porsche 924S - 2005 Sequoia tow pig - 2018 GTI

          Comment


            #35
            Sweet! Love the consistent updates. Nice work so far.


            Go here be happy!

            Ratchet Garage e30 V8 build.

            Comment


              #36
              so for today, a test-fit and figure out how I'm going to mount these. As figured out earlier, the Porsche seat tracks are 16" spread while the stock BMW seats have a 17" track width. Another issue is that the Porsche seats sit VERY low. When sitting on the floor where the OEM seats were, I feel like I'm a gramma trying to see over the dash.

              So, in true grassroots style, let's see how we can kill two birds with one stone. Luckily sitting around the garage are some old Thule roof rack bars. Just the right size and very strong, they'll do. Plus they'll raise the seat about 2" or so.

              First I figured out where to mount them to be appropriate for the Porsche rails. I decided to use the OEM inner bolts (near the driveshaft tunnel) for my inner mount, and for the outer I would go 1" in from the OEM bolts. Will have to seal the holes up later. SO that I could crank down the 17mm head OEM bolts, I opened up some holes in the top of the bars just big enough to fit my 17mm ratchet, and then drilled the holes in the bottom to match up. The result is two rails bolted to the floor.

              For the outer rails, I through-bolted them into the floor and will order some backing plates to give some extra strength. The nice part about the Thule bars is they are big enough to fit a box-end wrench inside to hold the nuts that the new seat bolts will connect to...a plus. Ideally I'd just tack-weld the nuts in there, but lack of a welder makes that difficult, lol.

              Another issue: The porsche seats have holes to bolt up the BMW female seatbelt receptable (even the same bolt is used) on the inside, but there is no matching bolt on the outside for the belt-side bottom anchor, which bolt to the BMW seats. Will have to figure something out, but will likely bolt those into the floor with a backing plate, since there is room to do so.

              Another issue: The porsche rails are very narrow between the "U" profile. No decent-sized bolt will fit in there and still allow a socket or wrench to get to them. As a solution, I got on McMaster-Carr tonight and ordered up some grade 8 Allen bolts that will fit much better, and will allow me to just use a big allen wrench to tighten them down without interference.

              So that's it for now. Passenger seat test-fitted. Some pics:

              the rails. I'll seal up the original mount bolt holes. I hammered them out, but now that I see the clearance I could have just left them in and used them as guides for the Thule rail. Oh well, will do so on the driver's side.



              profile


              the result
              Stage rally/rallycross e30 build/competition journal
              Track/street e21 build
              visit Condor Speed Shop
              visit Motorsport Hardware



              [FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"] 1985 318i/M50 Rally Car - 1988 Porsche 924S - 2005 Sequoia tow pig - 2018 GTI

              Comment


                #37
                Very cool project man! I'm enjoying the heck outta reading this!
                Originally posted by LJ851
                kingston is the play by play announcer for this thread.
                ‘Tis by the grace of God that my cars run!

                Originally posted by unloadedak
                #teamross
                Siobhan's Build Thread - UPDATED!

                Comment


                  #38
                  Thanks, eventually we'll get to the fun stuff!

                  Also, just found out that 113 lbs of 325i suspension and brakes are on their way via FedEx, as well as some used Bilstein HDs :)
                  Stage rally/rallycross e30 build/competition journal
                  Track/street e21 build
                  visit Condor Speed Shop
                  visit Motorsport Hardware



                  [FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"] 1985 318i/M50 Rally Car - 1988 Porsche 924S - 2005 Sequoia tow pig - 2018 GTI

                  Comment


                    #39
                    minor stuff tonight as I wait for the seat bolts and a bunch of suspension stuff due in tomorrow..

                    First, made the support rails for the driver's side seat


                    Installed


                    now needed to figure out the seat belts. On the BMW the outer bottom seat belt attachment bolted to the seat. On the Porsche seats, no such attachment exists, so either I'd have to have a bracket welded onto the seat frame (neh....) or bolt it up elsewhere. Luckily, the retractor is located in the lower b-pillar, so decided to just use the same bolt (in a longer length) and bolt the outer seatbelt end to the same place, since I already know its reinforced.

                    Problem: the BMW seatbelt end has this S-bend bracket, which of course is backwards of how it needs to be to fit well without having the belt twisted. I decided on somthing like a seatbelt, where my life is at stake, I did not want to re-bend the bracket the opposite way, which would weaken it. Plus, it was too long and would sit up higher than the seat anyhow.



                    Also doesn't help that the springload in the passenger's belt retractor is no good...

                    Solution: Since the rear seats are out and not going back in, and I don't need the rear seatbelts. Luckily, the rear seat retractors bolt right up in the same place as the front ones, though the belt guide is slightly different. Looks like it will work fine though.

                    Also, and even better, the lower belt end uses a standard L-shaped bracket. Exactly what I need to bolt it directly up in place, keep the belt un-twisted, and at the right height. Done and done.

                    I just cut an access hole in the b-pillar trim. I have an idea about how to make it look cleaner, a more elegant solution.....we'll see if it works out at a later time.

                    In the end, the belt is at just the right angle and placement, so pretty pleased with this improvisation..



                    Stage rally/rallycross e30 build/competition journal
                    Track/street e21 build
                    visit Condor Speed Shop
                    visit Motorsport Hardware



                    [FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"] 1985 318i/M50 Rally Car - 1988 Porsche 924S - 2005 Sequoia tow pig - 2018 GTI

                    Comment


                      #40
                      Finally got the bolts in for the seat. Now that I look at them, I think I may order a larger diameter. I'm sure these are plenty strong, but they look so small, lol.

                      Also gotta love McMaster-Carr. They ship two little boxes of nuts and bolts in this big-ass box


                      In any case, the seats are mounted now and fully functional. After trying them in various positions the only issue is that they do sit a bit lower than the OEM seats. With the electric height adjustment at full "up" the driver's seat is ok (though I could go for another inch or two higher) but the passenger seat (no height adjustment) is pretty damn low. Upside to this is that there is plenty of helmet room. IDK, it's fine for now as I sort the car out but at some point I'll probably want to tweak the mount size. Maybe when I someday reupholster the seats.

                      how 'bout all the black duct tape. Almost blends in, lol


                      oh....and got three much bigger, very beat-up packages via FedEx today: front and rear suspension and brakes from a 325i (minus springs, shocks, and the front control arms - all of which I already have the stuff I want to use). I'll replace all the bushings on everything and pick up some cheap rotors and used pads, most likely. Need to do some cleaning up and repainting while I'm at it. Project for the next week or two.
                      Stage rally/rallycross e30 build/competition journal
                      Track/street e21 build
                      visit Condor Speed Shop
                      visit Motorsport Hardware



                      [FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"] 1985 318i/M50 Rally Car - 1988 Porsche 924S - 2005 Sequoia tow pig - 2018 GTI

                      Comment


                        #41
                        so....decided not to autocross today. Why, you might ask? This is why. Shaved AD08s would not have been fun.



                        so did a few things in the garage. The bulk of it was disassembling, rebuilding, cleaining, and painting the front and rear 325 calipers. They look pretty now :)



                        Disassembled the gauge cluster to see if I could figure out why my tach isn't working. All soldered connections look fine, the board looks fine, and I tested the board batteries and they have the power I'd expect (1.5V)....so either the gauge assembly itself is bad, or I'm not getting signal from the sender. Will look into it more at some point.

                        While I was messing with the gauge, also jumped the test circuit to turn off the inspection warning light. Small victories.....

                        Got a bit bored watching my Mids getting shellacked by Notre Dame.....so back to the garage for a bit. Cleanup and somee cosmetic stuff...yay.
                        Stage rally/rallycross e30 build/competition journal
                        Track/street e21 build
                        visit Condor Speed Shop
                        visit Motorsport Hardware



                        [FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"] 1985 318i/M50 Rally Car - 1988 Porsche 924S - 2005 Sequoia tow pig - 2018 GTI

                        Comment


                          #42
                          minor stuff today as I wait for some bushings and parts to come in.

                          de-chrome of the window trim. After significant use of scotch-brite pad to get rid of the sheen, and adhesion promoter, did 3 coats of NHT epoxy paint in matte black on the entire chrome frames, mirrors, b-pillars, and the little quarter window seperator.

                          between getting rid of graying plastic and un-shiny chrome, and the black I think it makes the car look much better (and newer). Before putting the mirror back on I checked the hidden trim area by scratching it with a screwdriver.....and it didn't chip or scratch. Some tough stuff. Should survive a while.

                          Stage rally/rallycross e30 build/competition journal
                          Track/street e21 build
                          visit Condor Speed Shop
                          visit Motorsport Hardware



                          [FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"] 1985 318i/M50 Rally Car - 1988 Porsche 924S - 2005 Sequoia tow pig - 2018 GTI

                          Comment


                            #43
                            dealing with a power drain someplace that is causing dead batteries.

                            I narrowed it down to 3 fuses that were drawing voltage with the car off:

                            Fuse #28: small draw. Unhooked the power antenna (don't need it) and cig lighter (don't need it). No more draw. Will remove all that wiring.

                            Fuse #27: large draw. Must be a short someplace. This fuse runs to interior lights, central locking system, on-board computer, and radio.
                            1. radio: unhooked it, and no significant change. The "constant power" for the radio memory has a very minor draw, so that's not the issue. Will hook it up again later. still need tunes.
                            2. on-board computer: this is a 318i. Pretty sure I don't actually have it, that was a 325 option I think.
                            3. central locking: not working anyhow, so I pulled the control box and will pull all the wiring in the future to clean things up. Don't need it, don't want it, who cares.
                            4. interior lights: I suspect this is where the drain was, but I'm not tracing every interior light wire in the car. Besides, I have no need for them, they're dim as hell anyhow. I'll probably run new wires on a master switch if I want them in the future.

                            result of all that: Fust #27 is no longer drawing any current (shocker!).

                            2 down, 1 to go.

                            The one left drawing current, a large current, is #21. This fuse controls all kinds of crap....including the active check control (which my car doesn't have), service interval indicator (which I would love to eliminate), the clock, and most importantly the tachometer. My tach (and associated fuel economy gauge) haven't worked since I bought the car, so I suspect either I'm grouding out someplace causing the tach NOT to work, or the tach itself is shorting. Either way, this is going to take some investigation. I'm almost certain this is the harness that's causing my battery drain, so it's going to be the one I take apart to figure out and trace wires. With any luck, if I can find the short it will make the tach work again. That would be useful to say the least!.

                            wish me luck...ugh.
                            Stage rally/rallycross e30 build/competition journal
                            Track/street e21 build
                            visit Condor Speed Shop
                            visit Motorsport Hardware



                            [FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"] 1985 318i/M50 Rally Car - 1988 Porsche 924S - 2005 Sequoia tow pig - 2018 GTI

                            Comment


                              #44
                              Good luck :p

                              Seriously though, great build! Love all the work and progress you're making.


                              Go here be happy!

                              Ratchet Garage e30 V8 build.

                              Comment


                                #45
                                #27 is killing mine too! -_-

                                cool project though
                                Originally posted by E30_(1st Musk)_
                                HONDA IS WHERE EVERY TREND DIES! .

                                24v swap Oil Pan..F/S

                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X