86' Widebody Eta Track Car Build

[thestein1016]

Skip to page two for wide body content


So I figured I’d finally put a “build” thread together in hopes of keeping the motivation high and encouraging me to finish this thing.
Background:
(Skip to post #2 for E30 content)
A little about me: Graduated back in 2012 and have been working as an engineer since. I work roughly 45-50 hours a week and my commute is roughly 1.5 hours both ways, so the only time I have to work on the car is on the weekends which is fine as this is just a hobby. My background in fabrication started with gopeds at the age of 11, then 1450 trucks at the age of 16, shifter karts in college, then turning to BMW’s around 2013-2014.
100_0606 by Chris Mui, on Flickr
100_0604 by Chris Mui, on Flickr

100_0549 by Chris Mui, on Flickr
newride4 by Chris Mui, on Flickr
ultimate13 by Chris Mui, on Flickr

My original plan was to purchase an E92 M3, but fresh out of college I felt that money could be spent better elsewhere (stocks). Stumbling around autotrader, I ended up finding an 2007 E92 335I which already had some cosmetic upgrades. I lowballed the guy hard. He ended up taking the offer and the next thing I know I have an 2007 with less than 34K miles. The plan was simple, a little performance upgrade here and there, nothing crazy. But one thing lead to another and we all know how that turns out. I got more and more interested in tracking this car, but just couldn’t justify running the risk. At the end of everything, I ended up just doing a M3 conversion front and rear. Car is FBO and puts down 464 wheel HP on ethanol and 15 deg increase timing. The car is badge-less of course..
IMG_20150806_194710_nopm_ by Chris Mui, on Flickr

[thestein1016]

Which lead to me picking up an E30. Being friends with the local shop, they had told me the perks of the E30 lifestyle so the hunt was on. A few months later I stumbled on a guy selling a 86 E30 Eta. Description read that it had a few issues but for the price I was willing to check it out. A friend of mine and I headed up to Bakersfield where we met the guy. We met at a AAA and he gave me the run down. The PO thought the driveshaft or CSBwas shot as it made a weird humming sound while driving. He also thought the syncros might be going as well. Well, we test drove the car anyways and all the symptoms he described were there. I was fairly confident I could fix the problem without investing a lot of money so I lowballed him and he accepted. $1500 dollars later I have an Eta!!!
E30: Initial Purchase by Chris Mui, on Flickr
Well, we start the drive back. First thing to do was to top off as the drive back was just shy of an hour...supposedly. No big deal, find a gas station, fill with gas, and off we go..
This is a result of us filling up…
E30: Gas Leak by Chris Mui, on Flickr
Called the PO asking what he had done and he said he just recently replaced the tank gasket…. At this point I’m assuming he did it wrong. We pull the rear seats and sure enough, gas is everywhere. We put a towel in there and soak much as much as possible and are on our way. 40-45 minutes into our trip my friend calls me and tells me that he’s lost 2nd and 4th gear. At this point I’m thinking WTF. Call the PO to ask him what he thinks and he doesn’t know. Well, money has already changed hands so we have no choice but to continue. Knowing we don’t have 2nd or 4th, of course there would be LA traffic. After 3 hours, we finally made it.
E30: Home by Chris Mui, on Flickr
The following weekend I went ahead and started tearing down the car to figure out the shifter issues. After removing the exhaust, drive shaft, and some other miscellaneous parts the culprit was a broken shifter arm assembly and a sheared off harmonic balancer. While I had everything off the car, I went ahead and had the drive shaft rebuilt/rebalanced as well as replacing the giubo, csb, and other misc. nuts and bolts. I also decided at this time to replace the motor and tranny mounts with some pieces from garagistic, black out the trim and started gutting the interior as it was already trashed.
When all that was said and done, a quick wash and polish and I was left with this:
E30: Jackstands by Chris Mui, on Flickr
IMG_20140511_192835 by Chris Mui, on Flickr
Looking back at it now, Im kinda sad that I took such a good looking car and ripped it apart… o well.
So the car pretty much stayed stock for the next couple of months while I acquired parts.
FB_IMG_1428502750775 by Chris Mui, on Flickr
So before I decided to strip the car, I decided to move it back to my parents’ house.
IMG_20140621_104752 by Chris Mui, on Flickr
IMG_20140622_080839 by Chris Mui, on Flickr
Dropped the subframe, easy peasy.
IMG_20140621_131119 by Chris Mui, on Flickr
Then installed the Z3M bits and pieces while including new subframe hardware, camber/toe brackets, TA bushings, etc.
IMG_20140712_124147 by Chris Mui, on Flickr

[FlyLizars45]

Looking good man! Just picked up my 86 eta project also

[thestein1016]

Test fitting some 17x9 style 32’s
IMG_20140726_120023 by Chris Mui, on Flickr
IMG_20140726_115956 by Chris Mui, on Flickr
I probably could have gotten away with just camber but I opted to get fender flares.
IMG_20140810_113451 by Chris Mui, on Flickr
and when I finally got the ride height dialed in and the flares mounted to my liking.
IMG_20140920_175916 by Chris Mui, on Flickr

[thestein1016]

Now that the flares and suspension where done, I turned my attention to pulling the dash in preparation for the cage.
Removed the doors... well just because
IMG_20141005_103300 by Chris Mui, on Flickr
Pull the dash... quite simple actually
Who can guess what shift lever that is???
IMG_20141011_092759 by Chris Mui, on Flickr
During this time I also picked up my seat, brackets, and sliders
IMG_20141224_182823 by Chris Mui, on Flickr

[thestein1016]

Now that the car was on all fours, I decided it was time to cage it. However, at this point all my tools are at my house so I packed her up and moved her back home.
I thought I would be able to save some time by buying a pre-bent cage... I was slightly disappointed.
IMG_20150503_153233 by Chris Mui, on Flickr
Main issues were location of main bar in relation to countour of the body. Halo was also bent at a weird width that would interfere with the body. Luckily, I have my own bender and notcher. I took this as a opportunity to make my system air over hydraulic...
IMG_20150717_160803 by Chris Mui, on Flickr

[thestein1016]

Now onto the rollcage!!!
Plinths
IMG_20150516_200537 by Chris Mui, on Flickr
A-bars with main hoop cross diagonal
IMG_20150530_072140 by Chris Mui, on Flickr
Rear down tubes with 1 cross diagonal
IMG_20150620_111850 by Chris Mui, on Flickr
I decided to reinforce the rear strut mounts, just in case I do a true coilover in the rear
IMG_20150612_180321 by Chris Mui, on Flickr

[BECKSTER]

Great progress! She looks mean

[BUDNUNTA]

Awesome looking welds dude

[fight4life28]

Car looks great! Track car only?

[2mAn]

I got a little nervous as I watched the progress, but I have a good feeling about this one. Where in socal are you? I need to know so when I need tubes bent I can harass you :up:

[thestein1016]

The car is much further along then the pictures show. I'm just really behind loading pictures. Hopefully I'll have time this long weekend to post them

[thestein1016]

Car looks great! Track car only?

Yeah, track only. However there might be a few times here and there when I might want to take it through the drive thru at In n Out, haha

[thestein1016]

I got a little nervous as I watched the progress, but I have a good feeling about this one. Where in socal are you? I need to know so when I need tubes bent I can harass you :up:

Located in Pomona/Phillips ranch. Just let me know. if I'm working on the car, you're free to use it.

[IronFreak]

Curious on those flares, they don;t seem to be the typical ones you find on most e30s. Looks good man, you and I seem to have the same vision for our cars. keep it up. sub'd.