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

[kingston]

cool thread. keep up the good work

Thanks man, much obliged!

Pretty much finished up the tar removal on Sunday. For what it's worth, I found the Heat Gun method of tar removal to be VASTLY superior to the dry ice method!

Rear bench in progress

This took maybe an hour start-to-finish!

And done! Started removing the foam on the driver's side C-pillar, too...

Looking better!

Transmission tunnel pretty much done now

Next time I'll probably pull the pedals to make access to the tar behind them easier.

And a cool little shot my friend Samir took when I was cutting out the sunroof cartridge!

Always wear your safety glasses, kids!!

More soon! Woot!

[kingston]

A few more pics of my progress on the interior, and a shot of my bitchin' new steering wheel:

Stripping all the seam sealant that was put on with a BRUSH!
Transmission tunnel:



Shiny!

Driver's side rear floorpan:


That was fun!

And my AWESOME new steering wheel, which was a really thoughtful gift from my friend & partner-in-crime, Samir! Thanks dude!!!!

Italvolanti Formel, as used on the E30 M3 DTM cars!!

More progress coming VERY soon!

[King Tut]

Nice build thread. I actually found that without using any heat or ice on my tar, I was able to just pull it up with my bare hands. I still have most of it in place as it is low in the chassis and even with me being a heavier driver, I didn't need to remove it to make minimum weight.

[IronFreak]

How much weight do you think you removed by taking all that out? That had to drop the center of gravity a bit. (referring to the sunroof.) What do you plan on sticking into the sunroof hole?

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 sports to find them, as they're pretty tiny!

More (and pics) soon!

[kingston]

Nice build thread. I actually found that without using any heat or ice on my tar, I was able to just pull it up with my bare hands. I still have most of it in place as it is low in the chassis and even with me being a heavier driver, I didn't need to remove it to make minimum weight.

King Tut,
Thanks for the info. I've already removed ll the tar now, so we'll see if I'm going to run into weight problems. On my sedan, the trunk tar just lifted up, but I wasn't so lucky with my track car... Oh well! Next weekend I drive to St. Louis to remove all the tar from Lilo the Chump Car Racer. I'll be packing my heat gun!

[kingston]

How much weight do you think you removed by taking all that out? That had to drop the center of gravity a bit. (referring to the sunroof.) What do you plan on sticking into the sunroof hole?

IronFreak,
The sunroof skin will go back on, per SE30 rules. I could just rivet a piece of sheet metal on, and get by with it, but instead I'm going to tack weld the skin in place, then use something that essentially amounts to liquid weld. Then I'll sand it down, prep & paint it.

SLICKTOP FTW!

I should have weighed all the sunroof stuff, including motor, wiring, cassette, roof liner, foam insulation, tar, etc, but alas, I did not!

[IronFreak]

Make sure you post up some picks of you filling it in. I'd like to do something similar to mine as well. Will you completely seal the insert by welding? or just tack and seal. You could always bring it up here and let me tig it for ya~!

[kingston]

IronFreak,

Will do! I keep meaning to road trip up to Omaha. My pal Adam Kemmerle is there, and a met 2 more peeps at a Euro Meet (the WinterTreffen) I put together in Kansas City last weekend.

I gave some thought to selling Nikita, as I'm picking up another E30 for my DD, and having three is a bit silly, but I have decided to keep all 3 cars!

A little more work happening:

Look ma, no glass!

Pulling the front & rear glass was child's play!

I DO need new front & rear lockstrips, though, as mine were pretty gross. And are also now broken. I think I'll get the black ones rather than the chrome ones that were on her before...

I also grabbed the ZHP shift knob that I'd lent to Lilo the Chump Car Racer. I'll pop that on Nikita for now, but I've gotten turned on to a killer new shifter. We'll be running it in Chump, and Nikita may end up getting one as well!

More pics & news soon!

[IronFreak]

Yeah Adam was over at my house last weekend checking out my car. Really cool dude. Nice knowing people that know more about these cars then me! Hey on the sunroof cassette, were your spot welds on the front visible?? I have stared at that location for a long time, felt around and I can't find anything. is there a chance my wasn't spot welded there?

Here is a sneak peak of my car as it sits.....a build thread will come soon.



If you come up, give me a shout, Love to meet you in person!

IronFreak,

Will do! I keep meaning to road trip up to Omaha. My pal Adam Kemmerle is there, and a met 2 more peeps at a Euro Meet (the WinterTreffen) I put together in Kansas City last weekend.

I gave some thought to selling Nikita, as I'm picking up another E30 for my DD, and having three is a bit silly, but I have decided to keep all 3 cars!

A little more work happening:

Look ma, no glass!

Pulling the front & rear glass was child's play!

I DO need new front & rear lockstrips, though, as mine were pretty gross. And are also now broken. I think I'll get the black ones rather than the chrome ones that were on her before...

I also grabbed the ZHP shift knob that I'd lent to Lilo the Chump Car Racer. I'll pop that on Nikita for now, but I've gotten turned on to a killer new shifter. We'll be running it in Chump, and Nikita may end up getting one as well!

More pics & news soon!

[kingston]

IronFreak, yeah, Adam is good people.

There should be 5 (IIRC) spot welds on the front part of the cassette. Took me forever to find them, since I didn't really know what I was looking for. But I eventually found the tiny little dimples that were the spot welds.

You guys will have to set up a meet in Omaha!! I'll road trip up for it, and bring some other peeps!

[IronFreak]

Totally, I have been making some really good progress on the car considering the actual amount of time I have been able to spend on it. Between Adam answering a lot of my questions and my buddy chuck climbing all over the car like a Monkey it has really gone pretty smooth.

Hopefully late spring it'll be ripping up the roads.

IronFreak, yeah, Adam is good people.

There should be 5 (IIRC) spot welds on the front part of the cassette. Took me forever to find them, since I didn't really know what I was looking for. But I eventually found the tiny little dimples that were the spot welds.

You guys will have to set up a meet in Omaha!! I'll road trip up for it, and bring some other peeps!

[kingston]

It's strange to have a car torn down to nothing, isn't it? I'm getting more comfortable with it, but every once in a while I look at my track car and ask myself what the heck I've DONE?!

[IronFreak]

Yeah, I really try not to think about that haha! It's not the first time I have done this to a vehicle....the only thing that I get knotted up about is the wiring.....it gives me headaches just thinking about it. I'd say I'm a couple weeks from actually starting the reverse process of putting it back together. Going to build a rotisserie this week and mount it up. flip it over and strip the rubber, stitch the seams and fix any rust under it. hit the car with paint then the actual building process will start.

[kingston]

Yeah, I really try not to think about that haha! It's not the first time I have done this to a vehicle....the only thing that I get knotted up about is the wiring.....it gives me headaches just thinking about it. I'd say I'm a couple weeks from actually starting the reverse process of putting it back together. Going to build a rotisserie this week and mount it up. flip it over and strip the rubber, stitch the seams and fix any rust under it. hit the car with paint then the actual building process will start.

Nice! I don't think the SE30 rules allow seam welding, though, if that's what you meant be 'stitch the seams.'

Pretty awesome that you are building a rotisserie! I will be interested to see that, as I may end up doing a total restoration on my sedan starting next Spring.

And, yeah, wiring...* shudder *

[IronFreak]

Yeah, I decided this isn't going to be a spec car awhile ago. with all my schooling and work, I don't have the time to travel around enough to justify that. I'll probably hit some cone events and what not, maybe look into some of the HPDE stuff if it comes to mid america or Hastings.

Rotisserie will be nice, I HATE welding upside down. plus I know there are a few areas I need to fix, someone missed a jack point on the front drivers side jack stand location and folded up the steel pretty bad.