My turbo 24v alpine coupe

[mitchlevy7]

I have no idea what I am doing

[2mAn]

I have no idea what I am doing

good luck!

[CorvallisBMW]

When in doubt, bondo.

[mitchlevy7]

When in doubt, bondo.

to be fair, I learned by lesson on the white car but putting way too much and it cracked. Trying to sand it down to a skim layer just to fill in where the seam sealer was and marks from the angle grinder. Going to go back to it in a little bit

[mitchlevy7]

Got some done the last couple nights. I think im getting filler down after actually looking at how to do it.

First of all, I was sanding down the big spots with like.... 220 grit... when it should have been 80. so I got some 80 and everything went alot faster.

Put more filler down last night and did alot of sanding tonight. Masked off and got self etching primer on all the bare metal spots and then filler primer everywhere else.

[mitchlevy7]

Did more filler on the drivers side friday... not enough hardener, so when I went back to sand yesterday it gummed up.... so I had to grind it back out and start again. I am almost happy with passenger side.

I picked up a another motor. I know its premature. Gotta get this motor in and running before I start on the next one. Put the bottom end in the trunk of my fiesta and nobody was at the shop to help remove it.... so I got creative.

I took apart the whole bottom end until I got the crank out while it was still in my hatch.....

Cleaned it out and put it away for later.



Its an M52b28. Only cost $100!

Right now I am looking for an S52 crank and finding a shop to bore it out to 86.5 so I can have a 3.2L s52. If I can get the crank and machine shop work done for 500, Ill have a built S52 bottom end for about 1750... Going to do 9.0:1. I'm used to these DI motors with high compression. My Fiesta ST is running almost 26psi at 10:1 !

Also, the motor I built for our sponsored mustang ecoboost just reset its own world record on Saturday. 10.39 @ 129. All turbo (has nitrous setup but never used).Not bad for a 4 banger, huh?

Also been messing around with tuning alot more. Actually got to tuning a customers built motor mazdaspeed 6 last week and got more done on my Fiesta ST. I feel like im finally getting passed to hump of being unsure of what to change and why. With COBB, there's over 300 different tables to tune out of the 22,000 in the ECU. Going to make the e30 a cinch. Feeling confident.

[2mAn]

Get that bondo as thin as possible and it will look great when you spray it all, assuming your painter can do a good job.

nice score on the M52, you can sell the crank and immediately profit on the block

[mitchlevy7]

That is the goal. I've been trying to sand it so the high spots are bare metal and the bondo is only in the low spots.

I bought paint matched paint and was going to rattle can it.... I've had some good success with this. I am clear coating it afterwards. In the end, it is temporary as I will get the whole car painted in the future. I know its not the "right" way, but in the end, I am going to have alot of it covered anyway....

[mitchlevy7]

Just did what I hoped would be the last layer of body filler.

I took off the front valance so I can start mocking up the fmic and oil cooler. Planning on mounting the fmic so that it's in the lower grill and the oil cooler behind the kidneys.

Ordered a mishimoto oil thermostat yesterday. Realized thay the way I had it set up before it would take a year to warm the damn car up. I was choosing between the earls thermostat, improved racing, and mishimoto. For the price I got it for the mishimoto was the way to go. The earls would have looked better but it didn't come with fittings.

Powdercoater said he would be ready for lips and faces next Monday

Doublechecked my tire choice and changed my mind. The 245/45 t1r only have a tread width of like 8.4 inches. The r888 is a full inch wider in tread width. (9.4 ish). It's only 20 ish dollars more per tire and they are so much more meat. R888 all around it is!

Hope to paint the bay by the end of the week and start getting the motor in.

Got quotes to bore the m52 to 86.5 from VAC. not terrible but in the end it might be cheaper to rent a torque plate and get it done locally. Anyone have insight on mahle vs je or cp pistons? Je and cp end up being a few hundred cheaper. Also K1 rods vs eagle? O ring the block vs the new oring headgasket?



Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

[mitchlevy7]

Lips are cleared (powder). Didn't take away as much of the shinyness that I had expected. Needs some wetsanding and another layer though as there were some outgassing bubbles.

Ordered R888's all around. Awesome deal on them.

[mitchlevy7]

much meat

Works been crazy busy. No time for e30 stuff.

The clear powder on the lips "outgassed" in the oven. Gotta wetsand and reclear. Waiting on a time slot for the centers. Once they are assembled, I am getting studio pics.

[JamesE30]

Haha nice tire choice! I bought R888s as well. Looking forward to seeing them mounted!

[mitchlevy7]

Haha nice tire choice! I bought R888s as well. Looking forward to seeing them mounted!

Hoping to get the lips and centers finished in like 2 weeks and then ill have them together and mounted real quick.

Today was the day I have been waiting for for a long time. A day when I had both the time and energy to get some stuff done.

Started by mocking up the intercooler Forgive the bar at the top



I ordered this intercooler after taking some measurements with the plans of using 3" piping all around.

Made some mounts for the bottom of the FMIC



Welded them on to the bottom of the core support.



Mounted brackets to the bar Going across the core support.



clearanced the valance a little, for airflow AND to clear the intercooler



More. Did the bottom, as this is where most of the airflow actually will go through.



Made brackets and mounted the oil cooler. It sits between the FMIC and radiator and will sit behind the kidneys. I will make some airflow holes in the bar so air can still get through, although, I think the oil cooler is almost overkill itself. Lines will route under the headlight.



All together now.

All the brackets came from the same $6 bar of 4'X1.5"x1/8". Time to finish the body work in the bay and paint and get the motor in. If I didn't get the cooler mounts done before, I wouldn't be able to paint the whole bay at once.

I swear I don't have a early 2000's flip phone.

[mitchlevy7]

I finally got to the point that I was somewhat happy with the bodywork/got tired of sanding and realized half of the bay was going to not really be seeable.

I started with primer and these stupid rattle cans were all crapping out on me. They would start spraying big chunks. The primer was the worst. And then the big chunks would dry so when I went to sand (i waited a while) it was gumming up the paper.

Then when I went to do the base of color, those cans were acting up too.

This is how it turned out



I finally just decided to step up to a real paint gun and paint. Why not? I have a compressor.

Going to sand it all down flat and go at it again in black with a gun. I plan on changing the color of the car down the line or at least dipping or wrapping it (looking into dip with gloss over it, so it looks like real paint) and black goes with everything. Plus the shiny turbo will stick out more =]

Changed my mind on wheels again. Smoke clear over the whole thing. Polish looks a little hazy anyways. Ordered gold hardware for the centercaps too. so excited for the wheels....

[mitchlevy7]

Layed paint down today.





Did the painted portion of my mtech one spoiler and the hood brackets too. Decently happy with it. First time using a paint gun. Will wet sand to try and get it a little better. Theres some fish eyes and stuff.

This week I am goint to try and start to get the engine bay back together and meanwhile take off the turbo manifold and fix some stuff. Theres some really terrible welds on it and the inside of the collector really needs to be smoothed out. If I were to go back in time, I would have just bought the rsi/good n tight manifold or make my own, which is in store for round 2.