Nikita, the Alpine `87 325is REVISED getting built for the track!

[318kid]

Very nice score!

Also I like the seats. Where did you get them from? How much?

[Joe G]

Kingston, answer your phone!

[kingston]

Very nice score!

Also I like the seats. Where did you get them from? How much?

Thanks man! They're Recaro Pole Positions. I swapped a set of plastic bumpers for the Recaro bases and sliders, then paid $850 for the 2 seats. I also have $100 into the Scroth harnesses. LOVE the setup!

Kingston, answer your phone!

Sorry Joe! I left my phone in my wife's car! Good meeting you yesterday, and thanks for hanging out and wrenching. I love it that our cars are nearly identical twins, and I can't wait to shoot some pics of the 2 of them together.

Here's Joe's Car: an `87 Alpineweiss 325iS with Recaros, and S50, weaves... a lot like mine, actually!


I plan to swap the windshield wiper motor out today, and figure out how I want to mount the Hellas...either just bolt 1em to the DBs, or get a light bar. Thoughts??

[kingston]

More work will ensue this weekend. Installing the passenger-side half-shaft, various light bulbs, then doing the Tbelt & tensioner, plus the water pump. No idea when they were last done, so it had to happen ASAP!

I also ordered a new set of fogs for the Alpineweiss coupe, since the ones on there were mis-matching, and roached UPDATE: Bought the lights, installed them, then removed and sold them. Ordering a set of brake cooling inlet ducts from Summit soon!

Hopefully I can start refurbing the CSI wheels on Sunday. On Sunday the car also goes to Bob Buxbaum to have some electrical issues dealt with , `cause I HATE electrical work with a passion!!

[Joe G]

Sounds like a busy weekend, Kingston! If I wasn't out of town I'd be lending a hand. Do work!

[kingston]

Sounds like a busy weekend, Kingston! If I wasn't out of town I'd be lending a hand. Do work!

No worries, brother Joe! Hope you're someplace tropical!

[kingston]

UPDATES (REALLY!)

Well, it's been a long time since I posted any updates. In between taking Siobhan (my M50-swapped sedan) to the track, and racing Lilo in Chump Car, I've tried to help a few of my friends with their cars as well. Now, I'm finally starting to make some progress again, although right now it's slow-going.

Here's one of the CSI wheels! Bob Buxbaum was nice enough to sandblast the centers for me, and because he felt like he owed me a favor, he did it for free! Thanks Bob! As they sit now, the centers are just bare metal. I'm going to clear coat them so you can see the centers as they are. Plus, more paint would just add more weight! I'll end up doing the hex caps in gunmetal, probably. The bolts will be gunmetal as well, except for 3 that will be red, 3 that will be deep blue and 3 that will be light blue. I'll put these 9 together to get the Motorsports colors on the bolts. UPDATE: These wheels will go on Siobhan, my Schwarz, 24V-swapped Sedan. I have a set of TRMs for Nikita in SE30-legal 15x7. ET25.

Here's one of the CSI wheels with the centers media blasted

I also finally got around to getting the steering rack off of the `97 M3 that Tommy and I bought. I brought it home today and cleaned her up a bit. UPDATE: Sold the steering rack, since it's not SE30-legal. Which is a bummer, because it's SUCH an improvement over the stock E30 rack...

SOLD

More soon! I'm picking up some front suspension & brake pieces next Thursday or Friday... I've got big plans. Let's see if I can find the big budget to accomplish them!

[F34R]

I love blasted/cleared wheels.

[kingston]

The interior has been gutted. I still need to remove the heater core box so I can remove the tar underneath. I also need to remove the tar from the rear seat bench.

How she looked when I pulled the carpets up:




Starting to clean up the tar. I used dry ice to make the tar hard. Just leave it on there for a few minutes, then kit that section with a chisel. Move dry ice to a new section, continue. Lather, Rinse, Repeat. The get the tar up, I used what basically amounts to paint thinner. Here's the car in progress:



And afterwards:




I was really happy to find no meaningful rust, just a couple of light surface areas. This will get cleaned up, treated with POR-15, then the car's interior will get sprayed. Probably white, but possible light grey...

Starting to clean up the rear of the car's interior:




The sunroof cartridge is out!

Dropped the roof liner:

Dropping the insulation

With the insulation all off:


Removed the sunroof panel:


Drilling out the spot welds:




Cutting one of the (4) brackets:


After applying heat from a Heat Gun (Harbor Freight FTW!), and some careful prying and more cutting, the sunroof cassette is out!


The naked roof!


The whole removal of the sunroof was SOOO stressful for me doing this for the 1st time. I tried really hard to not warp the roof (which I accomplished). I did end up with a couple of spots where the paint bubbled up due to the heat of the angel grinder cutting through the brackets right by the roof skin. But you have to go looking for the spots to find them, as they're pretty tiny!

More (and pics) soon!

[kingston]

My great friend Samir came over to help, and we started by pulling the tint off of all the windows, including the OEM tint on the front windows. Pretty straightforward, really. We used a hair dryer to heat up the glue on the windows (didn't have the heat gun at the warehouse), sprayed window cleaner on to help release the glue, and peeled S L O W L Y !


Samir inside the car, removing the tint.


Samir working on the driver's side rear quarter window.

Nikita Before:
Nikita After:

MUCH better!!

Samir wanted to pull the dash (fine with ME!), and he had gotten most of it out. Then our friend Matt Hutchins showed up, and he and Samir got her pulled!


Dash out!


Today I pulled the insulation behind the dash. Here's how she sits now:


More soon!

[85e325]

Cant wait to see how it turns out, I love watching track cars come to life!!

[richard.bratton]

This better be done before I return from my Afghanistan vacation!!!

[kingston]

This better be done before I return from my Afghanistan vacation!!!

Whassup, Fishman? Hope you're doing OK, playing in the sandbox.

Yeah, she should be done by then. The plan is Chump Car & a lot of DEs in `13, then Comp license & SE30 in `14. I learned a LOT racing at Road America last weekend...

Are you running ABS in the aquarium? And I know you aren't running the heater core. Any regrets about that?

[kingston]

More gutting a a few new parts!

So yesterday while my wife was getting some well-deserved rest, I went to the warhouse to work on Nikita some more...

Heater core box removed...with a BFH!

Now that I have seen how this all fits together, it would be easy to remove it properly.

My friend and partner-in-crime, Samir, came over to hang out & help twirl wrenches.

Peek-a-boo!

I sold the Wedge Engineering seat bases and Recaro side mounts I had for my Recaro Pole Positions, because they sat too high for me to fit in the car with a helmet! With the money I ordered a set of MASSIVE sidemounts for the driver's seat. These use the stock E30 sliders (which I'll ditch when I actually go racing, but for `13 she'll be a DE car, and not all Instructors are the same height as me!). A few weeks later, a friend of mine traded his E30 for an E36, and sold me his MASSIVE setup, so now I have an instructor's seat setup as well!


Driver's seat


Instructor's seat

And I now have my PS delete plate to install!

Pretty nifty! Still not sure about deleting the PS, but I can always hook it back up if I don't like the feel. My PS pump was on its way out anyway, though, so why not?! Because Racecar!

[efficient]

cool thread. keep up the good work