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Jeremy's "How not to build a Pro-3" thread - 2017 update!

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    Jeremy's "How not to build a Pro-3" thread - 2017 update!

    Since many of the links are dead, I am going to spend some time updating this thread now..

    First, if you are unfamiliar with Pro-3, a little about it. Pro-3 is a series ran in the PNW that is somewhat similar to Spec E30, except we are allowed a little more free reign with parts such as suspension, exhaust..etc. The full rules can be found at the Conference site, or just go to the Pro-3 racing website:

    PRO3 Racing is the Pacific Northwest's largest and arguably most competitive race group in the Pacific Northwest. Visit us and learn how you can join our exciting and growing group of racers!


    As with any project, I just had to lay out some goals, and first and foremost for me was to get the car on the track for the 2011 season, as you'll find out, it didn't work out that way.

    So tag along as convert a 1985 325 into a race car.. (feel free to make observations, offer advise, or just tell me to go to hell.)

    Seeing as how this thread is worthless without pictures, here we go:

    Here is the car as I got it in Fall of 2010..






    Not exactly the best looking thing, but it already had a 325i motor and tranny swapped in, the interior mostly stripped, and a race seat. So not a bad start..

    So the first step was to finish gutting the interior and get the cage installed. I don't have any photo's of the "fun" I had removing the sunroof cassette, but let's just say, it wasn't pretty. Made the rookie mistake of accidentally cutting the center roof support at one end..oops.

    Any way, once I had the dash and the rest of the interior soft bits, I dropped it off to have a cage installed. One thing to note, always ask around the track for shop recommendations about stuff like the cage, because sometimes there is a reason most of the people in a particular class use a particular shop over another (I will explain more later..)

    Here's the car at the cage builders



    (sorry for the crap cell phone pix..)



    The cage builder was nice enough to note my car was the dirtiest car he had ever worked on - thanks?



    Welcome to Thunderdome!



    I have had some people ask why I didn't go with NASCAR bars.. First, the original intention was to leave the stock glass in place since I couldn't fit the car in my garage, plus X bars are a touch lighter, and for me, a little easier to get in and out of. You may also note, I tried to tag as much of the wiring harness with blue tape when I removed the dash, this was somewhat helpful later on.

    Once I got the car back from the cage builder, I began cleaning and masking so I could paint the interior. This was a long process, and no matter how much time you spend cleaning, you will probably miss something along the way, and not notice until after you have finished painting.









    It's not perfect, but it will do..

    Spray bombed with Kylon Professional, and touched up with a brush of the same color. The side windows were removed by the cage builder, as was the windshield (though he destroyed the windshield.. so another unforeseen cost.)

    After the paint dried, I began the fun process of thinning out the stock harness. Because the car had a 325i motor swapped, as well some funky lowjack system, the wiring was a mess, so I figured I would just strip it to the bare essentials to remain class legal and it still run right. A couple tips when attempting this, document EVERYTHING! I printed out the electrical wiring diagrams for both the stock 85 harness, and the 89 325 i harness, and then made notes of what was removed.




    mmmm.. spaghetti.




    labeling the connectors with a Sharpie helps.

    One thing to note, there is documentation for cars that did not have the Active Check system installed, and if you are building a racecar, it's not hard to convert your car to this system, it just means you will be spending some time splitting factory looms apart (not recommended for the faint of heart..)

    Once I had the wiring somewhat making sense, I rebuilt the looms and reinstalled the dash; easier said than done. The cage builder made the forward uprights so tight against the A-pillar that I couldn't use the stock dash mounts anymore, and need to fabricate something to work. This is great when you are driving, but does mean you need to modify the dash to work. Good thing it's not a crack free dash!







    Eventually, I was able to get the dash to stay put, and I got a new windshield installed. I also built an plate for the tach and gauges which not going to win any awards, but it works.





    That Corbeau seat is only temporary, eventually I will stick in the Sparco from my old Focus racecar.
    Some of the smaller bits were installed like the Wink rearview mirror, fire extinguisher, and drivers side net (which was a pretty cool swing arm design I welded up!)




    Then I built some Lexan side windows, and got the R888 installed on the Konig rewinds, here's how she looks right now:





    I had a couple issues passing tech, but worked with the cage builder to get them sorted out.

    By this time, the 2011 season was over and I still had a bunch of small projects left to do:

    install brake pads, braided hoses, finish heat wrapping headers and install, install 4.10 LSD.

    Also, I plan on doing some more cleaning, and see if I can rescue what is left of the exterior paint.

    August 2011 Update



    Better view of my super cool swing arm for the drivers net



    While I was in Seattle last weekend at the TC Motorsports open house, I bought a couple things, first was a set of used RA1's for my Novice races next year, and then for $50 I got some shorty headers. They are not the best design, but lighter than the stock manifolds I got on the car right now. Luckily, I still had the header wrap kit I bought for my Focus racecar.. Should be good for at least another 30 HP (according to the advertisement.)



    The R888's ended up getting sold off since they were not the tires that Toyo had expected them to be, and eventually were phased out of the series.

    Cool part came in the mail and was able to install before heading out to Hood-to-Coast:



    It's not a replacement for the AKG, but it is a lot more comfortable than what I had before (and doesn't become detached when you least expect it..)

    September 2011 Update

    Alright, so I have decided to keep moving forward with my bucket.. (still have not found a fitting name for this heap.)

    Last night, put the front up on jack stands and decided to take a look at what was what underneath. Here was the first view:



    Not too bad, all things considered. The bushings and ball joints had been redone a few years back, but not sure how many miles were on them. I will probably upgrade them just so I know what is good. I did notice a wire zip tied just to the back of the tranny.. hmm



    ahh yes, that would be the O2 sensor wire. And yes, it was not connected! That explains a few "drive-ability issues" when cold. The good part is the fact that the harness from the ECU is OK, it's just the O2 sensors connector that is fubar.

    Oh well, moving on..

    Let's attack that front suspension!



    meh, I have seen worse. It actually looks like the brakes where in decent shape, and the rotors are plenty in spec. This is promising, so I think I will just change the brake lines (the stocker's where close to new, but I want braided for the feel..) and install the HT-10's.

    Got the line installed and the strut out (got some new-to-me struts coming this weekend from Adare Motorsports.)



    A couple positives, the brake fluid was blue, and pretty clean, and there was no issues with stuck bolts, everything seemed in decent order. Next order of business (besides attacking the other side) is to get the pressure washer under there to clean the arches, clean up the welds where the plates for the roll cage are and re-coat with protectant.

    One nice thing about a project car, there is always something to do on it. Over the course of this build I have started to lay out some commandments that thou shall follow when building thine race car.

    Commandment 1

    "Set a goal, and then only spend money on projects that help ye achieve said goal"

    OK, I actually stole this idea from a book called "Go ahead, grab the wheel", but the basic concept is, while building the project only spend money initially on projects that get the track on the car, everything else can some later. This means some stuff will be upgraded later as money is freed up, only spend on the basic's to make the care safe to race.

    Commandment 2

    "If you got time to lean, you got time to clean."

    As stated before, there is always something to do on a car. Just by their very nature they are dirty pieces of machinery, and unless you have a filtered, hyperbolic chamber to store your car (no.. you don't) you probably could clean something on your car. With money tight towards the project, I tend to find random stuff to clean, and paper towels are cheap. Plus, I have added a little addendum to this commandment in that if you remove a part, clean it as best as you can. Still got time on your hands? Clean the area that you removed said part. It's really amazing what an hour of cleaning can do for your car, and your mentality..

    More commandments will be added later, time for some photo's..

    When we last left our project, the front and rear suspension where apart, and I had sold of the shocks and springs. OK, nothing has changed with that, because I am still undecided on what is going back in. I did manage to pick up some used Bilstein sport shocks from another racer (thanks Scott Adare) which came already installed in housings. The cool things is, I now have two sets of front housing, and one of the ones I got from Scott had a brand new front wheel bearing assembly!



    After some clean up, the rear shocks and bellows look not so bad:



    And since I had some time, I decided to clean up the dif I was going to install:



    The important part of this dif:



    yep, it's a 4.10 posi.. hoo rah!

    Since the weather was so nice, and I got tired of do landscaping on the house, I decided I would yank off the exhaust and get ready to install headers. For removing the exhaust manifolds, I moved everything out of the way: The coolant reservoir, the ignition coil, the spark plug wires, and holder:



    Taking the time to get stuff out of the way really helps with sanity, especially when dealing with stubborn exhaust bolts.



    After a few sprays of WD-40, some sore knuckles, and a full vocabulary of swearing, the exhaust was out of the car.



    And the manifolds removed.



    This gave me an opportunity clean the side of the block and some of the nooks and crannies in the engine bay. Once again, if you are bored, pick up some paper towels, some Simple green and do a little cleaning.

    I had originally planned to fab up an exhaust myself, but in the end, I did the right thing and had an exhaust shop do it correctly..

    Well, I got a little bored one day and decided to do a little engine bay clean-up, decided, let get this annoying thing..



    Figured I didn't need cruise control on a race car, so it was removed, leaving a beautiful bracket.



    So to the chagrin of my neighbors last night, I fired up the compressor and ground that ish off.



    While I was "deleting" the cruise control wiring, I saw this little doo-dad next to the fuse box. Well, I don't need anything that makes a noise at 500hz, so it left the building.



    Now I just need to get a can of Alpeinweiss to touch up the paint.


    Shop dog:



    ^^ if your garage is even a foot large than mine, there is no reason for you not to be able to work on your car.. just sayin'..

    A Little update, since the weather is turning to garbage, I am spending more time in the garage on the car without guilt..

    Over the last week, I managed to drop the rear subframe so I could swap the stainless brake lines on the rear, and also a package came last Friday from German Engineering:



    Yep, it's his coilover kit. Couldn't wait until the Group buy came through, so he and I worked out a deal (which we had been in the middle of prior to his group buy listing..)

    This is the first version of my Homemade Coilover setup (revised later and still on the car in 2016)

    I started with one of the front struts,



    He has said that you can leave the stock spring perch, which seems entirely possible, but you won't have an easy time adjusting the height while they are installed in the car.



    So I decided to remove the stock perches.





    The leftovers



    Here is what I was left with, yes the cut was a bit rough, but I was using my electric cutoff instead of the air one (the compressor is loud and annoying.)



    I eventually broke down and got out the air tools and cleaned up the cut some



    Once I had it looking a little prettier than before I shot the whole assembly with some leftover paint from the header wrap. It's high temp, and probably not necessary (and I was being lazy about driving to the store for more black spray paint.)



    I taped off the top because I wanted to try a little trick.



    yeah, a little JB Weld. I was really paranoid about the sleeve coming loose, so I put a thin coat of JB Weld on a small patch of bare metal. If nothing else, it will keep the sleeve from rotating if I do adjustments on the car.



    U Like?



    I then managed to finish dropping the rear subframe and swap out the brake lines. The lines were still original (and Keith would appreciate this) with the DOT date of 5/1985, so they would be OK for Pebble Beach... If I hadn't thrown them in the trash. Since I still had time to kill, and beer left in the bottle, I decided to get my 4.10 LSD installed and maybe re bolt the rear subframe back in. It was a hell of a lot easier to install then remove, and as a tip for others, helps to have two floor jacks!



    This was about the time the wife got home, and I was ready for some food.

    October 2011 Update:

    The diff went in with no problem, and I filled it with fluid. I started to bolt everything together, when I realized I had forgotten to mark the driveshaft halves before I removed the rear section, that was a bonehead move.. Luckily, the driveshaft had some previous marks available:



    Ahh, thank you Munich Motorworks!

    While I was under the car, I was inspecting the various mounts, and the tranny one's looked decent.

    Moving to the front, I installed my newly built coilovers (thanks GE) and one of the front wheel bearings.

    I have the adjusters a bit higher than I would like on the front because I wanted to wait for the suspension to settle some before I lower it any more, and I wanted to be able to get my car out of my driveway (it's rather steep..)



    Here's the car with the junky 14's on it just after I got all four corners installed.



    The car hadn't settled yet, and the rear's are much lower than the fronts. You can kinda see the drop off of my driveway behind the car, it's dangerous when icy.

    After my feeble attempts at welding up the exhaust, I gave up and dragged the car over to a nearby exhaust shop. They welded me up a pretty basic setup, the hardest part being the front bend for the first 3 cylinders header pipe. It's a bit tight..



    Here is the rear setup of the German Engineering coilovers. One thing I did was put an O-ring over the bottom perch rubber and then slipped the adjuster over the O-ring. This kept the bottom adjuster from flopping around when unloaded, not sure if it will benefit at all, but worth a try.



    As for the oil cooler, I have not installed the stock i motor oil cooler since the front valance is vary different on '84-early '85 cars. There is next to no space to mount it ahead of the radiator. Not a huge bother, will be remedied soon.



    With everything bolted together, I bedded the brakes, and took her for a test toast. It was loud, maybe even too loud at times, so I may be revisiting the exhaust if I get dinged for it at PIR next year.

    This last weekend though, I did have a chance to dyno the car. Something to remember: this is a BONE STOCK m20b25m though it did have a re-ring and head gasket done before I got the car (talked to the guy who helped install it at the dyno day); and while I did put a new cap/rotor and plug wires, I have not changed plugs, adjusted the valves, or cleaned the injectors. In fact, I just remembered that the gas in the tank is AT LEAST 2 years old (it was in there when I bought the car!) So that may have some affect on the numbers. Regardless, the car sounded decent when flogged.



    Here's one of the pulls.. (click the link)



    November 2011 update:

    I decided that having the oil cooler might be better now then later, so I picked up a used one from another r3v member and got set to stripping it..





    February 2012 update:

    While doing some shakedown drives, I noticed some sponginess to the brake and clutch pedal. After bleeding the system and rebuilding the clutch master/slave cylinder, I couldn't figure out what was going on. I ended up taking the car down to my buddy Ryan (Dynasport) shop for another set of eyes on the problem. Eventually we found the problem - the firewall was excessively flexing!

    This was caused by a tear in the sheetmetal..



    So we decided the easiest fix was to weld a thin piece of sheetmetal over the firewall area, which did add some re-enforcement to the firewall (shhhh.. don't tell anyone.) While we had the master cylinder out, we swapped in a better looking unit, that later I found out was off an E34..

    Finally, I got the car out for a track day (bro!)



    This was at ORP. In February.

    So there was a little snow..



    But the car ran good, and handled decently!



    Permission to Buzz the Tower..



    March 2012 update

    Fun day at track today!

    The Good: got my clearance for entering first Novice race.
    The Bad: spun a bearing in the motor hald way in.
    The Best: Was able to finish the weekend out driving two friends (Tucker and Eric's) cars.

    Eventually, found out that the spun bearing was due to a worn oil pump driveshaft tang that engages the drive gear, causing oil pressure to go low at times.

    So time for a rebuild!

    Grabbed one of the spare motors at Dynasport and tore it down for a quicky rebuild.

    May 2012 update

    First Novice race, completed, do I look happy?

    New motor ran great, right up until the last race..

    That isn't good. Guess I may have over r3v'ed it.




    Well, I better hurry up and get everything together for the ORP triple at the end of the month. This also included mounting the oil cooler. Up to this point I had been using the eta oil filter housing, which worked great at PIR, but ORP gets HOT, so I wanted some extra protection. Didn't really want to have to build TWO motors in one season.

    Since my car started as an 85, there is no provision for mounting the color, meaning I had to fab a mount:



    Not pretty, but it works!



    Got the car back together for the Triple, but it turned in to a comedy of errors which resulted in a DNF for Saturdays Novice race, but after borrowing my buddy Gary's PRO3 car was able to finish Sunday's novice race. Ended up, the stock motor mount gave way, and because my car uses the early cooling system, the alternator pulley lurched over and sliced a hole in the radiator bottom hose.

    August 2012 update

    Did my upgrade race back in July, and am running the NASCAR race at the end of the month (would end up being the last NASCAR race at PIR..)

    The test and tune the day prior I ended up losing throttle due to the plastic adjuster cracking and falling off. Luckily, I had a spare at home, and have added another to the spares box.

    Car was a bit loose during the race, but still took the checkered flag! New motor ran strong. Had some contact with another driver going in to Turn 10 who re entered the track after hitting the grass-dirt while trying to go three wide. Resulted in a pushed in fender lip:



    But that would not be the worst damage of the weekend. My car is still street legal, so for the races at PIR, I just drive it back and forth to the track. After a great weekend of racing, on the way home, the car made a awful sound in the engine area, and I lost a little power and got some nasty surging at idle. At first I thought it was a rocker arm exploding again..

    That would not be the case. All the rockers were fine.. uh oh.

    Eventually, I pulled the head and found the issue:




    Something went through the number 1 cylinder. After some sleuthing I found the culprit.

    Yep, the bolt from the AFM had been sucked down in the chamber. Let that be a lesson kids, loctite anything that could fall in the intake tract.

    November 2012 update

    Well, the PRO3 car has been hibernating in the garage while I have been running an RX7 in Chump and a friends ITE E30 (eta powered) car in enduros.

    Finally did some work to it though, and lifted the front end up, only to find I had broken one of the camber plates on the front:



    Guess, I will need to replace those as well.

    EARLY 2013 Update


    This season there hasn't been time to spend on the PRO3 due to me becoming a daddy in May, and trying to finish a basement remodel before the Kiddo was born. But I still managed to swap the number 1 piston and get the motor back together poorly. After getting pissed at it, and dropping it off at Dynasport, I found out I had forgotten to install the little rubber plugs in the head and the motor had ingested a bunch of metal shavings when the piston was beat to hell. So Ryan and I decided to install a spare, junkyard motor in to the car just to get it driving again..

    Did a couple upgrades:

    Added some weight to get a little closer to the minimum (still way under) and a proper fire system.



    Also a skid plate.





    The car was back together and I was able to attend the Rose Cup races. Unfortunately, that was a bust as well when my car kept dying during the opening laps of each session. In fact, in total, I probably completed 2 laps total!

    DERP.

    August 2013 update

    Got the ignition problem figured out, and managed to have the rolling chicane out for the Dash for Kids.

    Car was slow, and so I decided that was going to set it up SE30 with the new NASA PNW starting up. So that meant, changing the diff, reinstalling glass back in the side windows, the spec exhaust and manifolds back on the car and the spec suspension.



    October 2013 Update

    First run in SE30 trim.

    The SE30 suspension is definitely a step down from the old coilover setup. And as such, when it was raining on the first day, I over corrected the car exiting Turn 12 at PIR, and kissed the wall..




    I managed to "clearance" the tires enough to keep it from rubbing and finish the weekend. Though I did managed to pick up some more "love taps" courtesy of a close race with a Spec Miata.



    Most of that can be fixed with some massaging by a BFH.

    February 2014 update

    Finally able to pull the wrinkled fender off and install a new one. Replaced it with an eBay one, which on a race car is just fine, but for a street car I would be a little hesitant. The fit is close, but not 100%.



    While I had the fender off, I cleaned the inside of the wheel well and the suspension with some degreaser, and removed a bunch of the undercoat (becauseRaceCar). Then buttoned it all back up. Yes, the hood still doesn't sit right, but looks fine for now.



    March 2014 Update

    Back out to ORP again for a test and tune. It was slow. Depressingly slow.

    So I have decided to revert the car back to PRO3 specs before the next conference race..

    April 2014 update

    After a very poor showing the 1 hour enduro, decided to go ahead with converting the car back to PRO3 spec..

    June 2014 Update

    The conversion back to PRO3 is coming along. First order of business was the suspension.. Gone is the SE30 suspension and in it's place the revised version of my home built coilovers. I sectioned the stock housing and installed 325ix Bilsiteins in them and decided to try those out for Rose cup. Needless to say, I cut a bunch out of the housing, and now shorty gets Low, low, low, low..

    The car handled better at Rose cup with Coilovers back on, but the 3.73 gears and exhaust were killing the car. In the end we spent most of the race weekend bird watching - save for the race that a Dodge Viper decided to dive bomb us in to turn 4.

    Some quick work with a sledge and we were back out. In the end though, we discovered the Viper had bent the rear subframe, and so we got a replacement unit together, and Ryan at Dynasport got it installed before the Historic races at Pacific Raceway next month.

    End of 2014 update

    After the end of the season, I decided to let a different set of eyes assess the car, and I packed the car up to Accuracy Auto in Seattle (JParker.)

    I gave him a laundry list of things to do: Lexan windows in the rear, reinstall headers, corner balance, fix my dead pedal, custom air intake box, new bushings on the suspension..etc.
    March 2015 update

    Picked the car up from Accuracy and got it back home to get the rest of the work I needed to do started before the race season. First thing to address was the mangled rear quarter panel, so in with tin snips and welder.




    Out with the bad

    In with the replacement panel


    And some paint


    Not gonna win any concourse awards, but it's good enough for a racecar.

    Figured, since I am getting the body sorted, time to add some spice to the pain scheme.


    My daughters favorite color is Purple, so guess what color dad is adding to the car?



    May 2015 update

    I ended up stealing this idea from a fellow PRO3 owner (Ben)




    It's just cable crimped to the door latch mechanism. Actually works really well, because you press against it to open. Works better than the stock mechanism, and after countless races, never "accidentally" opened the door.

    June 2015 Update

    Back to the Rose Cup races!!

    Car wearing it's new scheme, almost.





    August 2015 update

    Rose cup was good, even though the car was still slower than I would like. Needed to finish up the pain scheme for Dash for Kids, and Lizzy wanted to help.




    Lizzy even offered to do some wrenching



    The Dash for Kids went well, and the car ran great right up until the 1 hour enduro. I had been battling heat in the car for a while, and thought the skid plate was restricting air flow to the engine. I ended up removing it just before the Dash, but it didn't change anything. So we were running first place in the 1 hour enduro. Ryan and I had a stupid fast driver change, and I was just waiting for him to bring it home for the win in our class. On the last lap, I saw the checkered flag and realized Ryan didn't pass by. Uh-oh.

    Apparently, the headgasket finally let go, and the car was a steaming mess when he managed to limp it into the pits.. Guess that means time to pull the head again.

    Yep.




    But the car ran well and looked good!



    2016 update

    Well, since I had to pull the head, we did some other work on the "to do" list. The refreshed head with reground cam is going on in prep for running my car in the Lucky Dog Race at the Ridge this spring.

    This goes in there:




    March 2016:

    Track day bro!

    Everything was back together, and I felt like the car was running the best it has in a while. Some of the mods that I did while getting it back together was a 270 regrind cam, Ground Control coil over kit that came off the Alpina, and a AAF rear sway bar. The car handled and looked good, even in the rain!



    Until the driver made a stupid mistake and lifted on the back straight of PIR. Lift off oversteer in the rain and I played Morse code with the back wall leaving the drivers rear corner looking sad.



    No more track days early in the season after this, I can't deal with body repair any more..

    Speaking of repair, I decided I need to do something about the sad state of the car, and so I cut the whole corner off.. Better aero?



    Just kidding.. Used my rudimentary metal fabbing skills and managed to make the repair look somewhat like a car again.







    the front wasn't as bad, and just required some massaging with a body hammer and some paint.







    There is pretty much not a single panel I have not beat on or replaced on this car now. But hey, it's a race car - if I wanted a spotless show car, I have others to choose from.

    June 2016:

    After getting the car looking like a car again, the team decided to give it a run in the Lucky Dog enduro at PIR. So we slapped on some 200 tread wear tires and entered. Instead of my usual Hawk pads we stepped up the game with some Performance Friction 08's. They definitely have a different feel then what I am used to in the car - and half way in to the race I flat spotted one of the front tires pretty bad miss judging the bite on the pads..

    So back on the trailer early again.



    The car did pick up more body damage from one of the other drivers tangling with a couple mustangs, and the general NFG attitude concerning the car.



    August 2016:

    The only race I have consistently competed in each year is the former Dash for Kids, and this year was no exception - representing the Lucky Dog race league:





    Fun weekend racing with friends and the car performed great considering we swapped in a ZF transmission behind the M20 in preparation for the next Lucky dog race at the Ridge.

    October 2016:

    Lucky dog at the Ridge. Another team race, and we were actually running good, though the car felt a little down on power.

    We were running really good in our class, and actually better than we knew because there was some confusion regarding the number and timing, and actually ended following the wrong car number (which was much slower than us - though we didn't know that at the time..)

    Everything was looking good, and our final driver was in (the only one on the team who has never really caused any damage to any of the team cars) and we were about 10 minutes from completing when the call came. The car was dead on the straight with a blown motor.

    Well, at least it was a spectacular failure - if you're going to lose a race, go big I guess..



    As turn workers and other teams were slowly bringing us parts of the motor back we were all feeling a little wasted from racing and found ourselves at another crossroads for the winter.







    Well, that makes internal inspection easy..


    2017

    the car has pretty much been off my radar for most of this season, and I had even purchased a new shell to build a new car. But I gave up on that idea and sent it off to the crusher. The racecar was circulating around various peoples trailers and driveways, so at one point, I had no clue where it actually was. But I figured with a blown motor, it couldn't get too far.

    Besides, I had plenty of other projects to keep my attention and wallet occupied.

    Fast forward to now (June 2017) and the car makes it's way back to the Dynasport shop and is once again acting as a desk for parts and I have been able to look over it again. After a few of our team drivers competing successfully in the ST class at the last PIR race, the new plan is to set the car up for a run in ICSCC ST class. Which means M30 time... So stay tuned for that!
    Last edited by djjerme; 06-05-2017, 08:21 AM.
    1991 325i MT2 Touring (JDM bro)
    2016 Ford Flex
    2011 Audi A3 - wife's other German car

    #2
    Good job Jeremy. I do recognize the cage builders shop.
    One of the reasons for NASCAR door bars is that it gives you a little more elbow room. I'm busy as hell with work, but will do my part and help you out with the paint when you are ready.

    Comment


      #3
      Thanks Keith, I am not sure what is on it going to be salvageable, there is this weird beige/pink hue on the hood that was not there before the cage was installed (looks like something dripped on it..) Also, the roof has some bad rust specks all over it, as well I did burn through a little when I was welding in the sunroof. As well the trunk lid has a bunch of pits from my die grinder and cut off wheel (having a small garage sucks..)
      1991 325i MT2 Touring (JDM bro)
      2016 Ford Flex
      2011 Audi A3 - wife's other German car

      Comment


        #4
        Well then, I'll just bring a roller and some tractor paint. You can be the farm-all pro3.

        Comment


          #5
          lol I've never seen wire masked with foil.

          Awesome progress! keep it up, I wanna see more.

          Comment


            #6
            In case anyone is wondering what it cost to build one of these, I have been keeping a running total of all the bit's n pieces:

            item cost notes
            85 325e shell............$1,500.00
            Roll cage..................$1,899.00
            harness........................$62.99 SFI 16.1 or 16.5 2” with HANS or 3” (ebay)
            roll cage padding...........$14.75 Saferacer (5x 36” at 2.95)
            window mesh................$24.99 Saferacer
            Window met mount........$19.99 Saferacer
            Interior Net..................$29.99 Saferacer (wrong size)
            interior mirror................$20.22 Ebay
            cutoff switch................$23.80 Advanced Auto Parts
            Fire system..................$26.99 Full extinguisher w/ 10 BC or Halon gas or NAF S3 gas must have pressure gauge metal mount (eBay)
            brake lines....................$59.95 eBay
            brake pads Front........... $92.00 Hawk HT10 (TC Motorsports)
            brake pads Rear.............$81.00 Hawk HP+ (Amazon)
            wheels....................... $346.00 Discount Tire Company
            tires...........................$450.00 Adare Motorsports
            Front Windshield...........$225.00 Installed
            Lexan side window....... ..$30.00 Lowe's
            Wheel studs...................$54.08 TC Motorsports
            Hood Pins.......................$9.95 Saferacer
            timing belt.....................$31.31 Amazon
            timing belt misc parts........$9.82 Kuni BMW
            Water pump...................$34.54 Amazon
            Radiator........................$35.97 Pick N Pull ( E28 )
            LSD rear (4.10).............$220.00 craigslist
            Shift Knob (7 inch)..........$49.95 TRM Tuning
            clutch.......................
            Mass Air Boot...............
            Cap & Rotor ...................$17.97 Pick N Pull ( E28 )
            Chip.............................$70.00 Dinan from craigslist
            Power steering elim..........$22.00 TC Motorsports
            Header..........................$50.00 Used from TC Motorsports
            header wrap...................$26.77 Advanced Auto Parts
            exhaust
            oil gauge........................$44.99 O'Reilly
            water gauge...................$29.99 O'Reilly
            Fuel gauge.....................$20.00 O'Reilly
            camber plates................$300.00 Used r3vlimited
            Shocks/Struts................$300.00 Used from Scott Adare (Bilstein Sports – Eibach Race)
            Front Strut bar................$50.00 Craigslist
            swaybars.......................
            E90 drop hats.................

            project total................$6,234.06


            Stuff without prices, is stuff not purchased yet.. I think this represents pretty close to the bare minimal to make a track worthy car. It will in no way be competitive (unless I have somehow some unknown amazing magic driving ability.. I'm talking Harry Potter ish abilities..)
            1991 325i MT2 Touring (JDM bro)
            2016 Ford Flex
            2011 Audi A3 - wife's other German car

            Comment


              #7
              Even though it may pass tech, do you feel comfortable with the "fix" on the cage?

              Comment


                #8
                There have been several. Bruce Feller at Spokane just past turn one was the worse. Look around-there are numerous cars with dents on the roofs from rollovers.

                Comment


                  #9
                  I'm not trying to be a safety nanny, but....

                  Comment


                    #10
                    I would have cut a small patch in the roof and welded from above.

                    An experienced cage builder should know how to weld and assemble a cage so that you get the top of the main hoop... hell even our inexperienced guy did it correctly.
                    Originally posted by Gruelius
                    and i do not know what bugg brakes are.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Had the similar problem when my ex had her cage done (not enough heat penetration on the welds). We ended up cutting it out and re-welding it. And to top it off, the builder managed to dent the crap out of the roof.
                      About your paint: sounds like it is shot. I can give it a go with a buffer and make it look good at 50 feet going 100mph down the front straight. Proper sticker placement will hide the rest.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        I know a guy in McMinville that did our LeMons cage. His labor was CHEAP.

                        PM me if you're interested.
                        Originally posted by Gruelius
                        and i do not know what bugg brakes are.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Proper sticker placement will hide the rest
                          Don't touch those, that's a load bearing sticker.
                          1991 325i MT2 Touring (JDM bro)
                          2016 Ford Flex
                          2011 Audi A3 - wife's other German car

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by djjerme View Post
                            Don't touch those, that's a load bearing sticker.
                            ROFLMFAO!!. How do I make a sig out if that?

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by Keith M View Post
                              ROFLMFAO!!. How do I make a sig out if that?
                              Copy the quote, open your user CP and paste it in the signature section.

                              Comment

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