I am sure most of you recognize my E30 build thread, (Which can be found and viewed at this URL - http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=170390)
I was going to try and incorporate the progress for my E30 trailer within that thread, but I feel that it will be too disorganized, especially due to the amount of work that both pieces of Bavarian metal are going to be receiving over this winter.
So here I am instead, creating a new virtual place to capture and chronologically keep track of my trailer building process.
This thread will hopefully turn into a place with sound and viable information about what needs to be done, what options you have (based off of your own creativity and desired level of "finished" that you want to achieve), and some laws and rules pertaining to building a homemade trailer (especially if you live in AZ, like I do).
Before I start, I would definitely like to give a big thank you to Jalves619 who was generous enough to donate this steaming heap of crap to me so I could embark on such an epic journey in the E30 world.
I also want to say that the 'final' (I use that word loosely because I honestly do not know how far I will take the trailer build in the far off future) build level of my trailer will be similar to the black one that Matt made, with the open sides and general roughness. It will not be taken to the sophisticated level that MR 325 went to with the boxed sides and the more completed look. I currently do not have the desire nor the skills to take my build to that level.
Here we go....
The car started off as a late model 325i, and it spent a good portion of its life living in a very rust inducing part of the United States. Needless to say, it suffered from rust in a multitude of places. Which sucks for a car that you would like to use to get around. But doesn't necessarily suck quite as bad for a trailer, that you wont be using to get around in everyday.
Thus, it quickly became clear that something had to happen, and the most badass of options was to turn it into an E30 trailer. There are other creations that have alreay been built that offered a relatively good idea of what to expect. So the car was taken on its final drive and dropped off in my garage, where it would change in the most radical of ways.
Here is what it looked like after Jalves619 grabbed a bunch of parts off of it.
The car stayed in almost that same condition for a couple of weeks as various bits and pieces were removed and the engine was prepped for removal.
One eventful Thursday night the engine was pulled. Nothing too exciting here, apart from the fact that we could simply cut away portions of the car that were getting in our way during the tear down process.
Before the night was over we decided to hack the roof off as a celebration for the work we had done.
Note that we cut the B and C pillars higher than they will be when the trailer is finished, to avoid damaging the metal as the chassis is flipped and rolled around during the build process.
This is how the E30 spent the night. We cut the brake and fuel lines from underneath the car in the general area that we wanted to cut to avoid a rather dangerous encounter with a fire. I also drained the remaining fuel from the gas tank before I went to sleep.
We reconvened a couple of days later, on Saturday, to continue the mayhem.
These are the results.
First we cut it in half just a little in front of the rear seat tray. Again, this is not the final size of the trailer. Its much much easier to take away some more in the future, than to try to add some.
Then in half again, after we pulled a bunch of parts off, by slicing right down the middle.
We cut the car in half this second time to ease the disposal process. If we lived in a city where people came by and picked up scrap metal to recycle for a profit, we would have left the front half of the car in one piece and simply called somebody. But we didnt have that luxury.
The next logical step to the two of us was to flip the rear half over and prep and take care of the underside of the chassis. So that is just what we did.
We proceeded to pull out the trailing arms and the gas tank before we decided to call it a night.
This is how we left it. I have made more progress since last saturday (the 6th of October) but I have failed to document said progress with pictures. I will make it a priority to snap photos of the modified subframe and the grinding I have done to the trailing arms and the underside of the chassis tomorrow after I get out of class.
Tentative 'within the next week' schedule is to get the underside completely stripped and recoated, as well as coating the subframe and trailing arms in some sort of sprayable form of protection and then getting it back onto its wheels so it can be more easily moved out of the garage, so that the real project this winter can be brought inside. There are predictions of snow here in Flagstaff in the upcoming weeks and I definitely do not want my E30 to get snowed on, so in the garage it must come!
We will all see how well I stick to that schedule.
As always, I appreciate your time and interest when it comes to the things that I am doing and documenting for you all to view.
I was going to try and incorporate the progress for my E30 trailer within that thread, but I feel that it will be too disorganized, especially due to the amount of work that both pieces of Bavarian metal are going to be receiving over this winter.
So here I am instead, creating a new virtual place to capture and chronologically keep track of my trailer building process.
This thread will hopefully turn into a place with sound and viable information about what needs to be done, what options you have (based off of your own creativity and desired level of "finished" that you want to achieve), and some laws and rules pertaining to building a homemade trailer (especially if you live in AZ, like I do).
Before I start, I would definitely like to give a big thank you to Jalves619 who was generous enough to donate this steaming heap of crap to me so I could embark on such an epic journey in the E30 world.
I also want to say that the 'final' (I use that word loosely because I honestly do not know how far I will take the trailer build in the far off future) build level of my trailer will be similar to the black one that Matt made, with the open sides and general roughness. It will not be taken to the sophisticated level that MR 325 went to with the boxed sides and the more completed look. I currently do not have the desire nor the skills to take my build to that level.
Here we go....
The car started off as a late model 325i, and it spent a good portion of its life living in a very rust inducing part of the United States. Needless to say, it suffered from rust in a multitude of places. Which sucks for a car that you would like to use to get around. But doesn't necessarily suck quite as bad for a trailer, that you wont be using to get around in everyday.
Thus, it quickly became clear that something had to happen, and the most badass of options was to turn it into an E30 trailer. There are other creations that have alreay been built that offered a relatively good idea of what to expect. So the car was taken on its final drive and dropped off in my garage, where it would change in the most radical of ways.
Here is what it looked like after Jalves619 grabbed a bunch of parts off of it.
The car stayed in almost that same condition for a couple of weeks as various bits and pieces were removed and the engine was prepped for removal.
One eventful Thursday night the engine was pulled. Nothing too exciting here, apart from the fact that we could simply cut away portions of the car that were getting in our way during the tear down process.
Before the night was over we decided to hack the roof off as a celebration for the work we had done.
Note that we cut the B and C pillars higher than they will be when the trailer is finished, to avoid damaging the metal as the chassis is flipped and rolled around during the build process.
This is how the E30 spent the night. We cut the brake and fuel lines from underneath the car in the general area that we wanted to cut to avoid a rather dangerous encounter with a fire. I also drained the remaining fuel from the gas tank before I went to sleep.
We reconvened a couple of days later, on Saturday, to continue the mayhem.
These are the results.
First we cut it in half just a little in front of the rear seat tray. Again, this is not the final size of the trailer. Its much much easier to take away some more in the future, than to try to add some.
Then in half again, after we pulled a bunch of parts off, by slicing right down the middle.
We cut the car in half this second time to ease the disposal process. If we lived in a city where people came by and picked up scrap metal to recycle for a profit, we would have left the front half of the car in one piece and simply called somebody. But we didnt have that luxury.
The next logical step to the two of us was to flip the rear half over and prep and take care of the underside of the chassis. So that is just what we did.
We proceeded to pull out the trailing arms and the gas tank before we decided to call it a night.
This is how we left it. I have made more progress since last saturday (the 6th of October) but I have failed to document said progress with pictures. I will make it a priority to snap photos of the modified subframe and the grinding I have done to the trailing arms and the underside of the chassis tomorrow after I get out of class.
Tentative 'within the next week' schedule is to get the underside completely stripped and recoated, as well as coating the subframe and trailing arms in some sort of sprayable form of protection and then getting it back onto its wheels so it can be more easily moved out of the garage, so that the real project this winter can be brought inside. There are predictions of snow here in Flagstaff in the upcoming weeks and I definitely do not want my E30 to get snowed on, so in the garage it must come!
We will all see how well I stick to that schedule.
As always, I appreciate your time and interest when it comes to the things that I am doing and documenting for you all to view.
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