86 eta 5.0 swap...

[Elysian]

Accidentally ordered the 16" Spal fan I need while trying to order some 3" 180 degree bend to repair the dented exhaust on my S3. Didn't realize it was in my cart on Summit when I ordered the exhaust pipe.



Exhaust piping:



One of two dents I need to repair in my S3's exhaust:



Going to cut out the dented spots in a bit of a pie cut shape, then weld in new metal. Should be good practice for when I need to build the exhaust on the E30.

[uturn]

Why can't you get a good PDR guy to work on it? Good luck

[Elysian]

Why can't you get a good PDR guy to work on it? Good luck

Not sure what PDR is, professional dent repair? I'd rather do it myself and learn something, which has been the theme of my entire E30 build.

[Elysian]

Exhaust on the S3 is fixed, top end and passing performance is back to what it should be. It's ugly but functional, doesn't leak, so I'm good with it. Coated it with header paint to keep it from rusting. Learned quite a bit that will be applicable to the E30 when I get to building the exhaust.

[Elysian]

Had a dream I finally got to drive my E30 V8, was great, but now I can't stop thinking about it and how much work I have left to do

I also had to fix lighting issues in my dream, go figure.

[Elysian]

The wheel centers are back from powdercoating. The only mounting surface they did tape off was to the hub, so I'm going to wind up having to sand some coating off on each wheel center, as well as drill out each hole... Still, they look great. Can't wait to get my wheels together.

[Elysian]

I started getting ready to work on the BMW this weekend, was going to start making brake hard lines, but then the OEM Bilstein shocks for my Miata showed up and I installed those instead

Thankfully my Miata "build" is almost done, only thing left to do is a front sway bar, which I'm not in a huge rush to get at this point, the Karcepts bar I want is $675

[Elysian]

Been working on the car a bit lately, friend of mine helped me bolt the suspension back up a few days ago.

Today I finished up the radiator hoses, then ran the brake lines for the drivers side.






Need to find the clip that holds the brake line on the bracket in the wheel well, but pretty happy with how everything is lining up so far. Still need to run a line to connect to the rear brake lines, and a line to connect the passenger side front brake caliper.

[2mAn]

Quite the process! Just went through the whole thread. Love how throughout this whole build the eta that this build was for is still sitting in the corner of the backyard lol

[Elysian]

Quite the process! Just went through the whole thread. Love how throughout this whole build the eta that this build was for is still sitting in the corner of the backyard lol

Yeah, and now that we're moving I'm actually going to be giving it to a friend (who is also an r3v member though I forget his username). He's helped some on the build lately, and will continue to help till we get it rolling under its own power.

edit: Thanks for the move!

[Elysian]

Didn't take pics of everything I did today but got a lot done.



Power steering lines are made, and you can also see I trimmed back the bracket that holds the power steering pump on.

Lines at the steering rack:



And where I think the power steering reservoir will live. Need to build a bracket and modify the line, but it's got just enough room there, even if the motor shifts when driving.



I also finished the front brake lines and the clutch slave line, but didn't take any pictures. I still have two more small hard lines to make for the rear brakes, but that won't take too long to do.

[Elysian]

Need to put the E30 in storage temporarily so we can show the house, so today I got it on the ground. However, the VERY cheap wheels I bought were for an E38 7 series, so they are much larger than normal E30 wheels. They're only 16" rims but the tires are very large. The 17s I'll be running have a similar outer diameter, so I used the opportunity to properly fit them. That involved some minor sledge hammering on the front and cutting the rear out for the widebody over fenders.







The front drivers side tire does rub slightly at full lock to the left, but otherwise has free range of motion. I also raised the ride height as much as possible, and have basically confirmed I need different springs.

[Elysian]

Today was all about the front end. I probably did things backwards, but I don't care I got a ton done. Started with the Aerocatch hood latches, wow I love them.





While the primer was drying on the hood I moved to the fenders. Major interferience, was a similar story with the 17s when I had them on there.



Chopped them out for the wide body overfender, but didn't take it as far as I probably could because I'm not ready to mount the wide body kit yet, so just roughed it in with enough room to steer




After both fenders were attached I put in the headlights and the headlight trim, as well as the lower panel for the bumper.





That's where I left off, but I feel extremely accomplished today. Next steps are install the rear differential and driveshaft, install the e-brake handle, and make sure the e-brake works. I only need the car to be able to stop via e-brake to get it out of the garage so it can go into storage.

[e30m3s54turbo]

Looking good.
If you go 17” what size tires are going fit under fenders?
Im running fat tires on my e30.
Thanks on latches. I been searching for a while….

[Elysian]

Looking good.
If you go 17” what size tires are going fit under fenders?
Im running fat tires on my e30.
Thanks on latches. I been searching for a while….

I'm building a custom 3 piece set of style 5's, 10.5" front and 11" rear. The fronts may not tuck under the Pandem kit with the E46 lower control arms, but we'll see.