E30 Frankenstein Progress Thread

[semaj4712]

Figured I would update this for everyone, if anyone cares, but over the last few weekends I have pieced together more of my car for Bimmerfest and it is pretty much ready to go with everything I wanted to get done before then...

First off I finally pulled the trigger on the red mudflaps from Rally Armor...

but before I installed them I wanted to fix up the bottom most portion of the body where there is this black line that clearly wasnt painted when the car was resprayed, the original bronzit is coming through and it looks like ass...


So I tapped off the side of my car and went to town, I did the sides and rear lower parts




I think the end result speaks for itself, A TON BETTER!

So then onto the mud flap installation, the fronts simply drill a hole in the universal mud flap from rally armor, and then attach it...I also drilled in another screw to prevent the flap from spinning but super easy on the fronts...




The backs were more of a pain, infact a complete pain, so much of a pain infact I didnt take any pictures

But here is what it looked like finished...


And as you probably dont remember I broke my front plate and so I ordered this for bummerfest, but still on the fence about it, not sure that I like it too much...


And then the other day I picked up the old gauges out of my old car from the new owner, and I recylced the oil pressure and oil temp gauges and put them into my center console where the ashtray was. I am extremely happy with how they look, still need to instal the sender tho, but that will prolly happen in the next week or two depending on how much time away from working on my bike I get



I know the pictures is shit, Ill get a better one tonight when I leave work

[rsingh3g]

Those flaps are looking great on this car

[semaj4712]

Those flaps are looking great on this car

Thanks mate

Anyways so earlier this week I decided, well somebody attempted to steal my front wheel and got the lugs about half way off with a vise grip before somebody saw them, however I was unaware and drove off, thus eventually shearing my spacer in half...

Like this





But motorsport hardware saved me and I picked up some new 15mm spacers from him, and the difference in build quality is night and day, and they fit 100 time better...I will probably pick up a set for my rears when I get some free moneys



Also Bimmerfest was last weekend, so here are some pictures snapped of my car over the weekend...





Also linked my fuelly to this thread, im averaging about 20mpg which I think is pretty good considering how I drive

[scweet14]

damn, love the work that went into this thing, i wouldnt of suggested switching out the leather for the cotton but it looks great either way. also i suggest keep the mudflaps, gives it a cool offroad/rally look! very agressive man!

[Troy_Shark]

How much work was it to get the rear seat to fit well?

[semaj4712]

damn, love the work that went into this thing, i wouldnt of suggested switching out the leather for the cotton but it looks great either way. also i suggest keep the mudflaps, gives it a cool offroad/rally look! very agressive man!

Thanks man, everyone seems to really like them, and I just dont for some reason, I think they only reason they are still on the car is I am lazy, but who knows maybe they will stay

How much work was it to get the rear seat to fit well?

Well not as easy as the front...the bottom piece is actually reupholstered onto the e30 bottom, but we had to use two bottom seats as there was not enough material in 1 to do it...and the upper piece is essentially bolted through the rear wall as low as I could get the seat to go...the bitch is that with the top seat being taller than the e30, once the top half is in place and bolted in, and flush along the top...its near impossible to fit the lower piece in so that it clips...you really have to force it and every time I work up quite the sweat doing so

[semaj4712]

Ok so let me start out this update with a huge disclaimer...

I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOU DECIDE TO DO THIS TO YOUR CAR< IF YOU DIE BECAUSE YOUR SEATBELTS FAIL!

Okay now that we got that out of the way, i am pretty sure that this is entirely safe however I am not engineer and I am just an enthusiast who likes to make cool shit...

Anyways so I spent the last few months trying to source a set of bmw motorsport seatbelts, you know the red ones with the bmw motorsport stitching that came in the e36 m3 LTW...I know a few companies claim to sell it or maybe they do, but they always seem out of stock whenever I tried to buy them, and sets seemed to always go for 500+ and well, I cant justify spending that much on seatbelts...anyways a cheap pair of fronts showed up on bimmerforums and after nearly getting completely lost in the mail they showed up...and today I got antsy and sat down to see how easily they would go in

I had seen pictures of the e30 seatbelts before and knew they were similar but not the same as the e36 and that it was not a direct fit, what I didnt know was that with a drill and about 30 min, anybody with a little know-how could make them work...

Here the e30 and the e36 seatbelts sit side-by-side

You can see the mounting position is much lower on the e36 but for the most part that is the only difference...and it is...

So I drilled out the ...rivets? things holding the mounts together and with a good bash with a rubber mallet they came apart (I also ground the ends off one side but got too excited to take any pictures of it



I then drilled a 1/2 inch hole dead center in the mount, where I felt as if there was still enough structural integrity left in the mount, however if you drill to high it will not fit, so this seems like a happy medium



After that it literally bolts right in just like stock...shockingly easy, the only thing that doesnt look totally stock is the bolt through the top piece as the e30 cover does not work, but I am going to look and see how the e36 covers it up and possibly see if that will fix the problem...



And the good news is the e36 seatbelts will work the e30 receptacles so no need to replace those, now I just need to figure out the rear seats and getting them to match




...And now I have a new money pit which is just great...