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

[irish44j]

Spent the early evening watching my boys from George Mason whoop up on the mid-conference-dwellers from Delaware to go to 14-5 and 6-1 in the conference (with Towson and their 37-game losing streak coming up next).

Then I got off my arse and pulled the dashboard. Pretty straightforward, didn't break anything but did take some elbow grease to get it the last 10% over the steering column. As you can see, this dash is pretty nasty. The plan is to hit it with some bondo, sand it all down good, and then FLOCK IT!

Below the dash is about 25 years of nastiness, so that will take a good amount of cleaning up before I put this all back together. Somehow I think putting it in will be more work than getting it out......I also plan to clean up the wiring a bit, and replace all the HVAC seals while I'm at it, with some weatherstripping.

[dnick]

holy FLOCK thats a flocking cracked up dash... flock that shit

lol ;)

[FunfGan]

Mine was worse still ;)

[irish44j]

lol....posted that picture on my FB page and said that someone had broken into my car and stolen my dashboard.

it's pretty amazing how many of my friends think I am serious, lol....

non-car people :D

[dnick]

ahahahha thats great

[irish44j]

a few little things tonight:

First, my HVAC fan has been squeaking like a mofo. Clearly the sign of bad bearings, but replacing the entire motor isn't something I'm real interested in. So, opened it up, everything works fine except the squeak, which I isolated to one of the bearings, of course. Hit it with some WD40 and ran it for 10 minutes full blast with no noise. I'm sure it'll wear off eventually, but at least I knwo the quick fix. Just needs to get me to and from events in March without noise.



The cover had about 2" of pure grease from 27 years of use on it. Took it to the sink and scrubbed the crap out of it. Yay, it's clean.



Now we move to the dashboard.

Lots 'o cracks. I took a knife and beveled the edges which had slightly turned up. Then I used plastic epoxy to fill the gaps. I went through 2 full tubes and still could have used a bit more. But not running to the store, so I filled the remainder with some glazing putty. Let it dry, did a bit of sanding but will do more tomorrow. It's not going to be perfectly smooth, but the flocking should cover it it for the most part - and it's still 100x better than it was before.

post-bevel




a bit 'o sanding


----

the thought that is constantly in my head now is that I want an e36 steering rack in this car. Every time I drive it I enjoy it, but I really DON'T enjoy the school-bus steering rate, which will be hell in rallycross.

So I'm on the lookout for the e36 rack on the cheap. We'll see if that happens.

[irish44j]

Also stopped by my local steel warehouse today and they weren't much help. Wanted to get some C-channel pieces for seat brackets and all they would sell me is the stuff I wanted in 20-foot pieces for $70. Um...no.

Also inquired about various thicknesses and materials in about a 3x3' size for a skidplate, and again all they'd sell is in 4'x10' pieces. Aluminums were $300-450 and 11ga carbon steel 1/8" was still $170.

So, I'll be looking at scrapyards and hitting up some of my "industrial" friends to see what scrap stuff they have lying around. This kind of material would be so much easier (and cheaper) to find if I didn't live in "the city"/"the burbs" and instead out in "the country" I imagine.

I asked the guy about scrap pieces and he more or less gave me a dirty look as if I asked him if I could sleep with his wife....

Called up my dad (who lives out on the bay in the "country") and just so happens he is going to see his local metal guy tomorrow (to get some stuff for the marina). He said he's going to check into whether HIS guy has some scrap that would be of use to me. Fingers crossed!

[FunfGan]

I expect an incredibly bad-ass skid plate.

[irish44j]

Yeah, we'll see. My lack of welding ability and my lack of major machine work tools (like a press bender) will likely result in something fairly basic, lol. Then again, this car sits so high it's unlikely it will ever take a hit unless I go full airborne :D

I have some plans though.

[kts]

First, my HVAC fan has been squeaking like a mofo. Clearly the sign of bad bearings, but replacing the entire motor isn't something I'm real interested in.

blower motors are $13 (+$2 core) at Crazy Ray's. i can go pull one for you sometime if you get tired of the WD-40 trick.

the thought that is constantly in my head now is that I want an e36 steering rack in this car. Every time I drive it I enjoy it, but I really DON'T enjoy the school-bus steering rate, which will be hell in rallycross.

So I'm on the lookout for the e36 rack on the cheap. We'll see if that happens.

i may have an E36 rack for you soonish. i've been toying with just getting a rebuilt rack for mine vs using one that came from a car with 150k+ miles that i picked up.

also debating about trying to rebuild it myself but not sure if i have the know how, tools, or patience.

Also stopped by my local steel warehouse today and they weren't much help. Wanted to get some C-channel pieces for seat brackets and all they would sell me is the stuff I wanted in 20-foot pieces for $70. Um...no.

Also inquired about various thicknesses and materials in about a 3x3' size for a skidplate, and again all they'd sell is in 4'x10' pieces. Aluminums were $300-450 and 11ga carbon steel 1/8" was still $170.


I asked the guy about scrap pieces and he more or less gave me a dirty look as if I asked him if I could sleep with his wife....

What are the dimensions for the C channel you're looking for? I can see if my friend has any and can cut some for you. He'd probably hook you up for cheap.

Might want to check out Home Depot/Lowe's/other hardware stores, I have seen a few in my area that sell smaller sized metal sheets that may be what you want.

Also check hobby stores, apparently some of them have smaller sizes of sheet metal for not too much $.

And yea metal supply shops are weird like that when you ask them for scrap pieces. :(

[irish44j]

blower motors are $13 (+$2 core) at Crazy Ray's. i can go pull one for you sometime if you get tired of the WD-40 trick.

cool. I plan to hit CR's again next month for some random stuff, so we'll see how the WD works out. Thanks for the offer though!

i may have an E36 rack for you soonish. i've been toying with just getting a rebuilt rack for mine vs using one that came from a car with 150k+ miles that i picked up.

also debating about trying to rebuild it myself but not sure if i have the know how, tools, or patience.

I work fast. Within the last hour I've arranged to meet a local guy for a non-leaking e36 rack for $50 :D

All I'm gonna need is the spacers and extended linkage bolts, right? My PS hoses are almost new, so I want to re-use them if it's possible.

What are the dimensions for the C channel you're looking for? I can see if my friend has any and can cut some for you. He'd probably hook you up for cheap.

Looking for it with about a 2-3" width and 1 1/2"+ leg length. It's to basically raise the level of the Porsche seats, which sit too damn low. So doesn't need to be ultra-heavy-duty like industrial stuff, but shoudl be strong enough to support a few hundred lbs without bending, when mounted sideways (in a "C" profile). I need four 24" pieces.

Might want to check out Home Depot/Lowe's/other hardware stores, I have seen a few in my area that sell smaller sized metal sheets that may be what you want.

yep, looked locally already. Really I should just steal a stopsign off the corner, lol. That would be perfect.

Also check hobby stores, apparently some of them have smaller sizes of sheet metal for not too much $.

And yea metal supply shops are weird like that when you ask them for scrap pieces. :(

good thought. I actually have a buddy working at the biggest hobby shop in NoVa, so I'll touch base with him for sure.

[kts]

All I'm gonna need is the spacers and extended linkage bolts, right? My PS hoses are almost new, so I want to re-use them if it's possible.

From my reading of the DIY I believe that's all you need. I haven't done mine yet. Since my car is an airbag car I think I only need the spacers. Go me! ;)

Looking for it with about a 2-3" width and 1 1/2"+ leg length. It's to basically raise the level of the Porsche seats, which sit too damn low. So doesn't need to be ultra-heavy-duty like industrial stuff, but shoudl be strong enough to support a few hundred lbs without bending, when mounted sideways (in a "C" profile). I need four 24" pieces.

Looks like he doesn't have any C channel anymore. :(

He recommended this place: http://www.accessmetalsinc.com/default.asp?iId=GFJGH

Which is a hike for you but if you are going back to Crazy Ray's sometime it's not too far away.

His words: "That is where I go all of my metal, it was a walk in place, buy as much or as little as you want. Good prices."

Also I assume you got in the car with your helmet on and the seats installed? I was shocked how much head room my helmet takes up. :(

[irish44j]

Looks like he doesn't have any C channel anymore. :(

He recommended this place: http://www.accessmetalsinc.com/default.asp?iId=GFJGH

Which is a hike for you but if you are going back to Crazy Ray's sometime it's not too far away.

His words: "That is where I go all of my metal, it was a walk in place, buy as much or as little as you want. Good prices."

Also I assume you got in the car with your helmet on and the seats installed? I was shocked how much head room my helmet takes up. :(

cool, thanks for checking. I'm sure I'll find some at some point.

Yeah, checked with the helmet. The cool thing about the Porsche driver's seat it it has a four-leg up-down adjustment, with almost a 3" heigh change. Right now I have it jacked all the way up to the highest setting and it still sits a few inches lower than my e30 seats. So I figure if I raise it 3" more, then I can lower it back down to fit helmet!

And my passenger porsche seat is non-adjustable, so it's sitting at the LOW setting. I sit in that seat and can hardly see over the dash, lol.

[irish44j]

FLOCK'D

Came out pretty decent, and took about an hour (plus it will be drying overnight). Actually pretty easy, just paint the adhesive on (it's thick stuff!), and use the little tubular "flocking gun" for lack of any better word for it. I missed a few little tiny places with the adhesive, but noplace really noticeable. Also messed up a little part on top of the gauge hood, by accidentally grabbing the edge of it when I moved the dash.

Went with the gray color, since I figure black will get really dirty, really fast and dirt will just blend in with the gray. In person looks pretty good - not perfect, but 95% of my cracks are now totally invisible and no more sun-faded black color. Pretty pleased with this for a $25 project!

before:


after:

[Holland]

Do like.

This is the first time I have looked in this thread, and it's really cool. Our builds are eerily similar in quite a few ways, it was cool looking at what you did and saying "hey, I remember doing that too". Hell you even solved a couple things I still need to do on my car.

Good luck sir and best of luck to both of our M10's.