The Adventures of Golden Boy, my Rebound E30

[CubbyChowder]

Got an exciting package on the way which should be here in the next few days, but in the mean time this showed up today. It's the Condor Shorty weighted shift knob, which should compliment the IE Super Short Shift Kit and DSSR nicely:

[Welfare]

Dammit,

I thought your 2002 build was epic. I can see this being even better.

And that roof rack setup is absolutely amazing.

[kristianbolster]

this is coming out great

[delvin]

You should try and salvage that vintage rear tint for golden boy...

[CubbyChowder]

Thanks guys. Delvin, that purple tint isn't coming anywhere close to Golden Boy haha

[CubbyChowder]

Very exciting day for me, a highly anticipated package showed up. The contents being...




These coilovers were pretty much the last piece of the puzzle before I start tearing into the E30. I'm trying to gather all the parts necessary for the suspension overhaul and 5-speed swap so that I can dedicate a week solely to the E30 and bust it all out (that's the ideal outcome anyways). I'm expecting to run into setbacks and realize I should've ordered parts that I didn't, but I'll cross that bridge when it comes. I have a few little odds and ends to order still.

Couldn't help myself, had to lay it all out and take a picture. I left some random things out but you get the gist. Getting antsy and excited! It's going to be a lot of work.

[royalife]

Dope picture of all the laid out components. looks like those bottle caps on the parts car are good candidates for a 3 piece build, just saying.

[CubbyChowder]

Dope picture of all the laid out components. looks like those bottle caps on the parts car are good candidates for a 3 piece build, just saying.

Thanks dude, that would be sweet

[CubbyChowder]

After a lot of anticipation, I finally got the E30 up on the lift and started working on it today:



I attacked the front suspension first since I'm still waiting on a few parts for the rear subframe. Got the strut assemblies, sway bar and control arms off in prep for the CAtuned coilovers and IE sways:



I also decided to take the exhaust off, which was a bitch because the downpipe was hitting a heat shield tab coming off the motor mount, so I pulled the sawzall out since I have another downpipe in better condition anyways:



Tomorrow I'm renting a spring compressor so I can get those strut housings disassembled and chopped up.

[GLi16v]

Subbed, you had me at early/beige model.

[cblock406]

Man, I am loving this build thread. Can't wait to see more!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[FowlerE30]

This is dope! Cant wait to see how those CAtuned coils take your car down. Got a qoute a long time ago for a set of 1552 wheels, theyre beautiful.

[Benwalsh91]

Love all of your work and love the way the e30 is coming along.

subscribed, and this is the first thread i have subscribed to even though i have been lurking for a while.

[CubbyChowder]

Thanks a lot everyone! Much appreciated.

Made a bit more progress over the past few days. Rented a spring compressor from Autozone and got the front strut assemblies stripped down:




I measured 2-1/8" up from the bottom of the strut housing to make my cut and whipped out the portaband saw. This cut does not need to be perfectly square and precise (but you should still take pride in your work and get it close ):



Got the remains of the original strut housing prepped for welding:



I prepped the coilover tubes and drilled a few holes in the bottom of them so that I could plug weld them:



One thing I really like about this coilover design is that the bottom coilover tube inner diameter is machined so that it fits very snug around the original BMW strut housing, which ensures that the new coilover assembly will be positioned correctly when everything is welded up. Here is how it sits before welding. I set the bottom of the tube 1" up the strut housing:



My TIG welds aren't nearly as beautiful as some other guys', definitely still getting the hang of it. I'm confident with the penetration of the welds, but my technique could use some work. Anyways, got them all welded up:



Gave the bottoms a coat of paint and assembled the coilovers!




Now that that was done, the next task on my list was to take care of these guys:



My friend Rob let me borrow this handy tool to press the lollipops onto the control arms, worked great:



And there we have it folks:



Started putting things back on the car, including the Ireland Engineering front sway bar:





I put the original rotors back on for now just so I could roll the car around, the new brakes will go on at a later time within the next few weeks. I won't be able to actually drive the car again until the full suspension rebuild and 5-speed swap is done so it'll be a little wait, plus the battery is toast (keep forgetting about that). I have a lot of work ahead of me! Happy to be making progress.

[Fleetlin49]

Nice work! Can't wait to see it sitting on the ground!