Getting Warm...

Work days have been hit or miss lately... Much of the work has focused on little odds and ends and finishing up the major suspension components. Finnaly was able to open up the garage door and let some fresh air in and get some decent non-dungeon'esk pictures...

Few more bits and pieces and the car can sit on its own wheels...

Still Cold - Out of propano again.

Started working on buttoning up the rest of the interior. The door bars interfered with what I had for an inside door handle so I had to rework that. Made this nice little bracket and utilized the OEM door handle. Linkage connects the latch to the handle and works great.

Finished up all of the wiring as well. Haven't heard it run for awhile now so it was good to get the ignition wired back up and fire up the engine for a bit. Few more minor interior details and I can focus all of my energy on the brakes and suspension goodies.

Also began prepping my strut housings for their new components.

Stock rusty perches were cut off and a collar will be welded on to support the coil over sleeves. Custom strut mounts and camber plates will be machined and cut to allow for full adjustment of camber from the engine compartment.

Cut off the factory brake splash guards as well, and will be making new pieces that allow brake ducting to supply air directly to the center of the rotor.

Some minor updates today, finished off painting and just started tearing the masking off and rebolting on some of the interior bits...

Also included a pic of the wheels I'll be running. 15x7 TR Motorsports wheels weighing in at 13lbs. I have some Toyo R888 Spec Miata take offs to keep costs down.

Grant Steering Wheel with a quick-release hub.



Pic of the seat back brace I whipped up. Will be pinned and allow for a change in seat position.

Originally had a Sparco Rev seat but it couldn't accomadate my "healthy" figure. Went with this Ultra-Shield unit and am VERY pleased with the fit and finish.

Finger Painting...

Finally got some heat in the Midwest and topped off the propane for the heater. I cleaned and scuffed the tubes of the roll cage and took off some excess tar this morning. This lead into coughing and smelling paint fumes the rest of the afternoon. I got a majority of the inside painted, but hopefully will be able to pick up a few more cans on Monday and finish everything off. I am using MRO industrial paint from Seymour. Apparently they are the: "Originator of the paint can." Stuff goes a long way and I only have 2 cans of primer and 2 cans of color wrapped up in the project thus far. Another can or two should finish it off. Color choice was "light gray" Looks better in person - little like primer in the pictures unfortunately.

Yeup, a blog... I mainly wanted to have a document of the main parts of this build for future reference for a possible sale, and also to document my second build, I guess to start off a portfolio of work if you will.

A little background: this E30 was actually my first car when I turned 16 and went through hell for 3-4 years driving down gravel and being punished at local auto-x's. The car came from Florida and was purchased in Cedar Rapids, Ia. The only rust when I purchased the vehicle was on the sunroof panels. The chassis is still rust free and in great condition considering the fore mentioned. I started this revival process in the spring of 2009 by pulling the engine and going through all of the upper end and replacing all the necessary seals/gaskets in the lower end. The car then had plans for a daily driver/track day car but that lasted about a week. The car started to take on the form of a full race car starting in August of 2009 and just as of recently has gone full swing with a full IT legal cage from Performance Fabrication Inc in Dubuque Iowa. (http://www.perfabinc.com/)

My main goal is to be race ready by April 17th for the first event of the season with Midwestern Council (http://www.mcscc.com/). This gives me roughly 15 weeks to complete a lot of odds and ends that will make my little white e30 race ready...

From here I have the cage fully installed and ready for clean up and a fresh coat of paint.