A taste of whats to come...

[P Arkus]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

Thanks! Did some more work yesterday. Fitted back the front calipers and then got busy on the rear. Put the rear subframe back in with the help of a few friends, and of course with my luck forgot to put the big washers that go on top of the rear subframe bushings. So back down it came lol. After installing it all properly, I mounted up the rear swaybar and started piecing together the parking brake. I set the rear trailing arms on some blocks of wood until I can get my rear struts in. Need to retrofit some dust covers for the new GC Koni's as I dont want them wearing prematurely.



So only have a few housekeeping items left to go before I can put the car back on wheels. Pretty happy about the progress I made this weekend. Hoping the nice weather sticks around so I can spend many more weekends wrenching like this

[Circuits]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

Looking good Pat!

[P Arkus]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

Another good day. Retrofit the dust covers from my OEM rear struts onto my Koni struts so they dont get full of crap while driving. Finished up all the suspension work in the back, then installed the parking brake and rear rotors and calipers. So all the brakes are attached, however since I will need to redo the brake lines since i'm going boosterless and deleting ABS, none of the lines are yet connected. Only working brake right now is the parking brake but I still need to adjust it properly.

So I spun the coilovers down as far as they can go, put the wheels on and gave it a test. I'm liking the results




Once the car is done i'm gonna get the fenders professionally pulled so that I can ride low, with some nice sized wheels/tires and no have to worry about rubbing. So far tho, i'm liking the potential of these coilovers. Also stood and bounced on the front subframe and the car barely moved. Really looking forward to driving on this setup!

[bobkatkat]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

Hawt!! So Hawt!

[GINCH]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

Yup! Looks damn good Pat! Can't wait to see (and hear) it when its all done!

[P Arkus]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

So a long awaited update on the swap. Since my last update, I got quite a few things done. Firstly, the engine is all back together now with the exception of a few minor bits and pieces. Timing this thing was fun to say the least (DOHC V8 = LOTS of moving parts), but with Nick’s help I got it all done and turned it over pretty freely so I’m comfortable with that.



Had my valve covers and acoustic covers painted earlier this year as well. Valve covers are a flaky copper while the acoustic covers are black with a goldish copper flake to them. Will flow really well with the car once everything is put together. Had to do some minor paint shaving as I forgot to tell the guys to tape off some parts. So I had to scrape the paint off the mounting surfaces and also had to pull all the studs that hold the coils packs since they ground to those, but that was pretty simple just time consuming. You can see the flake a bit better in this pic.



And here is how the finished product looks like. Havent put the acoustic covers on yet as I don’t want to risk scratching them on install. Couldn’t really avoid that risk with the valve covers so I’m hoping for the best.




Car also went into EPIC Rod and Custom for some custom fab work. I cant say enough good stuff about the work that Sam did. E30’s have a welded on radiator support. Seeing how the V8 plus the 6speed transmission are so bloody massive, I really didn’t want to risk damaging anything by hoisting the engine in from the top. Putting it in through the bottom was also not an option as the heads would not clear the frame rails. Many guys who have done this swap have built their own removable rad support. Since I didn’t have the fab skills to do it myself, I looked to outsource. First I spoke with Nick to see if he would be willing to do it, but his shop was not currently doing any custom fabrication. So I went over to talk with Vitek and Aaron at Viteks Autoworks. At first Aaron said he could help me and do it, however it would be his first time doing this project. A few days later he called me back and recommended Sam at EPIC Rod and Custom. He said that Sam was the one who did a majority of their custom fab work. They both came over and checked out the E30 and what I wanted done, and I could tell Sam knew what he was doing. So fast forward to the completion of it, now I can roll my engine into the back quite easily.

Original Rad Support


Rad support removed


So since the car came back from Sam’s shop, I’ve been trying to tackle little things here and there everyday. First on the list was to clean up the engine bay and some of the wiring. I scrubbed the engine back clean and got rid of the ABS wiring. Since I wont be running ABS, I didn’t see a point of having the extra wiring in there.



Also pulled the carpet on the interior. Once the nice weather hits (possibly this weekend depending on how much time I have), I’m going to be dying the carpet black. This is to go with my new 1M Floor mats that I have and my recaro seats once I get them reupholstered, which will most likely be next year due to budget reasons.



And finally today I finished installing my Wilwood pedal assembly. Most guys remove the steering column to do this task, but I heard it was doable without so I gave it a shot. Well it works, but my god what a pain in the ass that was. I didn’t want to pull my steering column because to do that I would have to remove my whole dash. So the first test fit of the pedal box went in and I bolted it down temporarily.



The tricky part to this was that I needed to drill 3 holes through the firewall to bolt the back of the pedal box down to the car. This was tricky since I didn’t really have a good angle to get into from the inside, so I had to guess from the outside. I drilled a very small hole to ensure I was at least in line with the pedal box, then drilled and dremmeled out a larger whole until the bolt fit. This is what it looks like from the engine bay side

Sandwich mount


This is what I had to work with from the inside

Back of pedal box


So with that all done, the next steps are dyeing the carpet, putting it back in, running the brake lines, fabricating a small plate that will act as a seal between the engine bay and the cockpit while holding the brake lines that go to the pedal box, fabricating a small plate that will hold all the master cylinders, and figuring out the wiring. Most of the wiring I already have figured out, just have a few things I need to research further. I’m hoping to do a testfit of the engine shortly after returning from Leavenworth. I feel I might need to do some grinding in the engine bay to make sure everything fits. I also still need to “massage” aka pound back the firewall & tunnel to allow my transmission to fit properly. Also need to install my clutch and flywheel and mate the transmission up to the engine. Slowly but surely its all coming along nicely!

[jacktown]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

Unreal, Pat. Obviously, I can't wait to see this all come together.

[Geobmx4life]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

Love this thread! And as awesome as it looks and I can't wait to see it on the road, I'm glad it's not my project !!!Lol....awesome job Pat!

[witchcraftz]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

Looks amazing already. Will be awesome when it's all compete.

[Circuits]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

Nice work Patryk!

[GINCH]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

Impressed my friend! Can't wait to see it all together!

[Canadian Turbo]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

Progressing nicely, keep it up!!

[P Arkus]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

Took advantage of the nice weather this weekend and started to dye my carpet black. Ran out of product after the second coat so i picked some more up and finished this evening.

I used Dupli-Color vinyl and fabric dye and it turned out awesome. I brushed the carpet out after each coat to ensure it still moved freely and that i got all angles of the fibers. Its a bit stiffer than stock, but i cant say i've ever touched my carpet to ensure its softness while driving. I'll let the picture do the rest of the talking.

The upper piece is dyed, the lower piece is factory color.


Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk

[witchcraftz]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

I've seen the Duplicolor before but wasn't sure how well it would turn out. Looks really good!
How many cans did you use and technique?

[Adcodo]

Re: A taste of whats to come...

looks great!