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

[IronFreak]

Fixed that for you :)

Nice!

[IronFreak]

Well I got a lot checked off my list this weekend, almost all of it in fact.

1. swap motors on engine stand - DONE
2. orginize shop a bit - DONE
3. add support legs to bender - DONE
4. get all the suspension and wheels on the car - DONE
5. get car on the ground - DONE
6. start bending stuff! - NO QUITE

I did play around with the motor fitment though. It was nice to see it on the ground again, it had been on stands since Mayish.



I had a spare block and I was itching to see what kind of fitment I had.



We got it to this point and realized I needed to modify the oil pan. Many guys just go get a Camaro or GTO pan, but I'm stubborn, and own a nice grinder.....

clearance issue...


Marked up.


Cut.


I'm still undecided on whether I'm going to use it or not.....One being ground clearance. What do you guys think about the depth of the oil pan? I'd have about 5" of ground clearance after the motor was installed.



I'm really thinking about making my own oil pan, possibly front sump. I really haven't decided yet.

We also checked fitment on some other important areas.....



I'm going to have to lower the seat and adjust the mounts towards the center. My head it really close the the roof, once the cage is in I'd be bashing my head against it constantly. Also move the mounting points on the floor back about 5-6". We'll see, I have some other seats in mind as well, might say screw it and get those instead.

If any of you are curious about the z3 hub 5-lug fitment, these are 17x8" style 119 with a et47. No spacers and they're almost flush, guess I'm going to need some flares to cover the 275's..........




I also got the bender all fixed up. We were going to start bending pipe then realized that the nesting software we had used for the pipe had calculated it wrong. It was such a pain to get the pipe to my shop we wanted to make sure it was right so no bending. Plan is to get that started next weekend!

Stay tuned!

[DER E30]

Nice build!!! Can't wait to see it finished!

[MR E30 325is]

Excellent! Subscribed!

[IronFreak]

Thanks guys.

Well I was going to start bending this weekend, but I thought it would be cooler to get a raging cold and cough my lungs out. so here I sit self medicating this sickness instead of doing man stuff...........

[kingston]

Pics of coughing, or it didn't happen


















J/K man, feel better!

[IronFreak]

You're cute. Plan is to get started Friday night. My last night of class is coming this Thursday and then I'll have a 3 week break.

Funds for the project will shrink a bit the next couple months, have to buy a new DD vehicle.....

Also......over the weekend I had a crazy idea for my 5-lug swap that was formulated through my cold medicine induced hypnotic state. I'll shed some more light on it when I hear back from the machine shop. If everything works I will have access to a very large selection of wheels......

[IronFreak]

Picked up this clean little daily yesterday. Was so sick of not having a truck to haul stuff in. It's a GMC Sanoma STX, I have the original window sticker and I guess it was the fully loaded model of its day. It came factory with all red, has a 4.11 posi rear, factory buckets, digital dash. Kind of a cool little truck. Plus........I have a spare ls1......

[IronFreak]

Well I started bending the cage up this last weekend. Not a lot of pictures, I'll do a better job with that next weekend. Anyways I had a shop helper, I needed an extra set of hands so the wife put some gloves on and I put her to work.



Got the main hoop done, Unfortunately I did some math wrong.....I'll be using it for smaller parts, or maybe put it in a e36......It was a touch to wide. I got some bendtech software that will help verify my math going forward.

Here is a little video of the bender I built in action, thing works great!



More cage updates next weekend!

[stanhayward]

Truck's a 350 at the moment? Cool looking little daily, man, I'm a fan of mini-trucks and one day I want to make an E30 truck ;)

[IronFreak]

No, it's just a little 4 banger now. Tuned it up over the weekend. I'll daily that until the e30 is done. once I can daily the e30 over the summer I'll do work on the truck. The spare LS motor I have needs a bore anyways so it'll be awhile before it's ready.

[stanhayward]

Dang didn't know they put 4s in those trucks. I bet the 4.11 compensates a bit though. LS1 would be dope :)

[IronFreak]

it helps......still slow as crap but it's a great daily for now.

[IronFreak]

Fixed the video

[unloadedak]

318is truck.