Unevolved's M42 Build Thread

[unevolved]

I guess I should introduce myself first. I'll start at the beginning and illustrate with pictures.

In high school, I drove this:



Had a bunch of fun on the forums, and thankfully was too broke to go through a ricer phase. Once I got to college, though, I discovered race cars. I got a job at a local race prep shop and built four of these:



At the same time, I helped start a program where students built this:



and competed it at the Grassroots Motorsports $2009 Challenge. I ran that program for two years, and we built this:



While I was running those programs, I realized I needed a way to fund my own shenanigans, so I worked at a different race prep shop doing this kind of stuff:



and



Eventually, though, I stopped working and focused on school. However, school at the moment consists of this, for which I'm the project manager getting us ready for competition in June of 2012.

[jaywood]

I like your attitude!

Looks like fun man! More pics of m42.

[Vivek]

Looks like you've had fun. More info on the actual m42 build?

[Pantless Spency]

haha im loving this slideshow,
if you have thick skin i'm sure you'll fit in here just fine :up:

[unevolved]

But today, I brought this home:











She needs a good bit of lovin'. This is my first BMW, but I was very methodical in choosing one. I wanted a car I could afford to drive every day, be RWD, manual, and 4-door, and cost less than $3000. There really weren't very many options. I have a lot of friends with E30s, so I had a few people push me into it.

[unevolved]

Damn, you people are replying faster than I can make posts.

The car hasn't been in my driveway for more than 6 hours, and I've already torn into it. The one mechanical issue was the right outer CV boot was torn, so I replaced both halfshafts with remans from O'Reilly's.

Big mistake. The splines on those bad boys were terrible. I had to go through each spline with a needle file and clean them out to get them to fit. Couldn't I just have returned them? Probably. But that would be admitting defeat.

I don't have any pictures as it was too dark out. My next task will be tearing apart the driver's seat to see why the back is tilted to the right hardcore. It's pretty damn irritating.

[Vivek]

Crack free dash :D

[unevolved]

Nope. There's a small one to the right of the middle AC vents.

Anyone know the easiest way to get the driver's seat out? It doesn't look like the seat slides far forward enough to get a socket on it, and I couldn't fit a wrench in there (although I couldn't find a normal 17mm box).

[CHIF8008]

welcome to E30's! haha

hope you have a fun and well needed bonding time with the car as you work on it

[CHIF8008]

you have the famous cholo lean. congrats

two nuts up front. two bolt in the back.

may also have to remove the bolt for the seat-belt on the side of the seat(if that year has it like that)

[Pantless Spency]

Nope. There's a small one to the right of the middle AC vents.

Anyone know the easiest way to get the driver's seat out? It doesn't look like the seat slides far forward enough to get a socket on it, and I couldn't fit a wrench in there (although I couldn't find a normal 17mm box).

if for some reason they are two door seats you can tilt them forward in the most far forward position and get access to the bolts, other than that use a slim wrench

[Vivek]

Nope. There's a small one to the right of the middle AC vents.

Anyone know the easiest way to get the driver's seat out? It doesn't look like the seat slides far forward enough to get a socket on it, and I couldn't fit a wrench in there (although I couldn't find a normal 17mm box).

I used a socket I believe. If not just use a normal wrench. I don't remember the size, but it's almost easier than removing a wheel. The first thing I did when I bought my car (well one of them) was to remove all the seats, clean the entire interior, and condition the leather.

[unevolved]

Yeah, sorry, I wasn't very clear. I know which 4 bolts hold the seat down, but I can't get a tool on the rear two. Is there a trick, or is my seat just fucked up?

[Vivek]

It doesn't slide far enough forward to access the two rear bolts? Then your seats fucked up. Try a slim wrench or a ratchet extension with a pivot on the end to get under there. I'd say your seats are toast. Comfort seats shouldn't be more than like 75 bucks for the pair.

[CHIF8008]

your "cholo lean" may have screwed up the 'lean forward' feature. thus making it impossible to get to the rear bolts.

pull on the side handles on the backs on the seats and push evenly against the back of the seats from behind


comfort seats suck anyway. not very comfortable