►►►Tales from IronFreak and his shop shenanigans◄◄◄

[kingston]

Cool stuff man! Glad to see you getting to make some more progress!

[shameson]

This build has surpassed Charlie Sheen with all it's winning

[IronFreak]

Cool stuff man! Glad to see you getting to make some more progress!

Thank man, are you back in the states? I can't remember when you said you were returning. Super stoked to see the suspension on your car!

This build has surpassed Charlie Sheen with all it's winning

Thanks man, it's coming together, I made another purchase this morning. To compliment my MS2 setup and keep fabrication simpler I picked up an LS6 ported throttle body. They house the TPS and AIT sensors so I wont have to screw with that.



I have a lead on my fuel rail setup that I should be purchasing late this week. After that about all I need is gaskets and new hardware and I can start putting the motor together.

[kingston]

Ross,

I get back tomorrow night around 7:30pm. Picking up the new DD on Saturday, and there will be some dinero headed your way as well!

[IronFreak]

Nice! have a safe flight back! And make sure you post some play by plays of the suspension installation!

[IronFreak]

Well I got some very exciting yet stressful news today. I have been remodeling my basement for my wife, so she can run her daycare business down there. we are almost through the major parts of the remodel but something came in the mail today. Her official license from the state....good and bad. Good, now she can start bankrolling the money, bad, I have a crazy amount of work to get done soon. The state has to do an inspection within 60 days of issuing a license. So not only do I have to finish the basement, I have to get my car finished and in rolling condition so I can transport it. We have to use the garage as one of the main egresses so it can't be "cluttered" or have all the fun flammable toys out there either.

Guess I'll be busy working in the garage this weekend!!

[FunfGan]

^ Don't you still have your EFI setup? I just finished mine, so I can give you a description of what wires go where if you want to go back to it.

I only had parts of it. I appreciate the offer though! Just got it tuned and everything.

[IronFreak]

Teaser........



Had to open the garage for some fresh air. Big updates tomorrow......

[Exodus_2pt0]

It's amazing how all that haze sneaks up on you under the welding helmet.

Looking forward to the updates! Weld up those seams!

[IronFreak]

As promised! Get ready for pictures!

Let me start off with two things, 1. If there is ever a shortage of seam sealer in the world, blame it on BMW, holy crap......

2. No matter how good you clean the seams, there is still glue in there, and it makes your welds explode randomly, burning the piss out of you in inconvenient places and throwing you into fits of uncontrollable rage.

Rant done.

I got out in the garage around noon on Saturday and went to town for the next 6-7 hours. The first thing on my list was to finish stripping seams and fix the little rust issue on the bottom of the car.

Here are a few pictures of the remaining areas that I stripped.



Both front and rear wheels wells, I cleaned the seams on the shock towers because there are some areas in the engine bay I can't get acces to with my grinder.


Passenger side rear. There was some pretty bad rust behind that gas tank breather cover so I cut that out. I'll show some repairs here in a minute.

The front jacking points had some rust issues as well



So I removed them and fixed the rust. This was the passenger side, not near as bad as the drivers.




Drivers side was worse, but still fixable. I'm debating on putting that wraps around the radius just for some extra protection...not sure if I really need to though.





No back to the hole in the rear. I cut out the bad rust and clean the surface rust really well. Cut out a patch piece and welded that bad boy up! Ignore the crappy welds on the bottom....I didn't realize there was a gap until I was at it with the welder. Had to get a little creative so I wouldn't blow through the metal haha.





I was planning on re-making the rear shock towers so they were "beefier". But after cleaning the seams and looking at what I had to play with I figured, why reinvent the wheel....when I can reinforce it! So I stitch welded the seams and built some reinforcement plates.






Here are a few pictures after all the seams were welded, the interior pictures show a better idea of how many there are.






After the bottom I flipped it over and started on the engine bay. I focused on the passenger side first.

Before:


Currently:


Right about then the wife came out and said dinner was ready. I proceeded to eat and pass out on the couch haha.

Yesterday it was kind of rainy here. As you should know by now I work out of a single stall garage and have to locate about half the garage into the driveway when I work on the car. So instead I decided to work on the coilovers.

This is kind of a step by step for those of you curious how the e36 cut-n-gut Koni inserts work. I got the blown struts for free, and just paid shipping....goodies in the background.



First thing you do is drill a tiny hole to get the oil out. once the hole is drilled, push and pull the shaft and pump all the oil out.



Next you have to cut the top off to pull the old guts out. I cut right below the radius of the crimp.



Like so.



Then yank it out!



Clean the inside out really well with a chemical bath or brake cleaner. Here is a quick picture showing how it goes together.



Next thing is to strip the tube of everything you don't need. I took off the factory spring perch and abs bracket. on the left is a completed strut, the right is stripped.



Then, get out your trusty flapper wheel and go to town!!



Next, use the drain hole from before as a pilot hole and drill it to 1/2". Make sure this is centered.



And the goodies! I test fit the sleeve, MAN are they a tight fit, I had to use a rubber mallet to get it back off. All I have to finish now is the sleeve perch which I'll use my own concept. Then I am going to sandblast and paint the sleeves and assemble.



That was about it for this weekend. Not quite as far as I wanted to get, but a lot further then I have gotten in the last 2 months. I plan on finishing the coils throughout the week. Reinforcing the front sub frame next weekend and finishing the engine bay.

[Exodus_2pt0]

[IronFreak]

Hahaha, that made me laugh....That is about how I felt when I walked into the garage Saturday!

[eurotrash]

Less welding more burnouts. Im impatient damnit

[JCarp90]

Less welding more burnouts. Im impatient damnit

^^^^^

[deutschman]

You know what you need? One of those small soda boasters from Eastwood. That will get rid of all the seam sealer and also save you a lot of time.
Good to see some work getting done :)