Bimmersport Race Car Number 2

[OLLIE 26]

First step was to do a bit of shopping on trademe to find the right candidate to be the next bimmersport race car. After test driving a few Gus and I decided that this ruby red South African Built E30 was the one.

Pre-facelift, 2 door, no sun roof, good paint job, the right engine and gearbox ... it was a good starting point.

Phase 1 Stripping & Caging

Gus drove it back to my place on the shore from the dealer down in pukekohe, where the next day I started stripping the interior. took out the seats, dash, carpet, headliner, doorcards, and well basically removed everything.

it appears the car had been leaking through the drivers door

Using a heat gun and a scraper i spent a few hours removing all the sound deadening inside the car, i removed the final residue with septone wax and grease remover from super cheap, i recommend septone products.

Stripping the car made a nice big pile of stuff in my driveway, and I filled up much of a green wheelie bin with sound deadening material and other bits and bobs.

Next we had to remove the long range tank from the boot, thanks to Will who supplied the bits needed to convert to a normal set-up. no doubt he will put the long range set-up to good use.

[OLLIE 26]

ok so now I had pretty much stripped everything from the interior and the car was ready to go and get a skeleton built into it (roll cage).

So i phoned up a tow truck and sent it round to Chris at cage FX to work his magic on it

while the car was with Chris i went round and took out the bulky air-con heater unit, and put in a non AC unit instead. (thank you Will again) I did this because it made it easier to fit the dash bar in and also loses about 5kg of weight and frees up a fair bit of space too.

It was a long time coming because Chris is a busy man but after 6 weeks I finally got the car back and was impressed with the workmanship. We decided to put in a pretty comprehensive 8 point cage, for increased safety and rigidity.

We sent off the homologation and logbook forms and a week later the car was officially a track worthy race car so to speak (on paper)

Phase 1 was complete and we could now move onto more technical stuff ...

you may be thinking "aren't you going to paint it"? of course, it would have been painted immediately however I removed all the suspension and half the engine and it was stuck on axle stands in my drive, where it would sit for another 5 weeks while i concentrated on phase 2 - suspension & underbody.

[OLLIE 26]

Phase 2 Suspension

Now that I had the car back I pulled all the suspension out, including the sub frame and the diff. Unfortunately i didn't take photos of this as it was just me doing it in my lunch break. All i can say is that the underside of the car was very dirty and the suspension components were very rusty. these 2 pics should give you an idea.

it helps a lot to have a rattle gun at hand!

Like i said I had a lot of rust and sh*t to deal with ...so i spent a lot of time making friends with my angle grinder, using a wire brush i cleaned up the parts and removed loose rust

The next step was to use rust converter (septone again is good) then clean the surface ready for painting. I decided to paint the big parts like the subframe with underbody rust proofing. It is a thick bitumen based product and i thought it would be ideal for sealing out the rust, i just used a brush to paint it on.

and these are the results (no before and after shots sorry, my camera man was all trigger happy with the angle grinder)

subframe - still with old bushes in

trailing arms - with new urethane bushes in (orange stuff is grease not rust)

I got new control arms from Steve at Wairau Suspension to remove any possibility of play in the ball joints and I cleaned and painted up the bush lollipops ready for the urethane offset bushes

I also got new FAG front bearings from the guys at Auckland Bearing Distributors

I got quite carried away with the painting and made sure every last bit was rust free and had a fresh coat of paint.

I just have the front struts to do but I haven't quite got around to doing them yet.

bonus photos of Gus burning out the trailing arm bushes (see how rusty the suckers were!)

[OLLIE 26]

Phase 3 Brakes

the next step was to re-con the brakes, I started with the rear brakes, once again they were very rusty and they got the same treatment as the suspension parts, this time obviously i used temperature resistant brake caliper paint. I chose satin black (septone) but i still think red would have made me stop faster.

here are the rear brakes completely disassembled on my washing machine, the photos were taken after the rust had been converted (most of it)

as you can see i was in for a task honing and polishing the cylinder and pistons, the chrome on the pistons was pretty good so i just gave them a polish, i ordered the seal and boot kits from BNT and using brake fluid as lubricant i reassembled the caliper assemblies.

stainless steel braided hoses

rears

fronts

In this series braking is a vital part and a good setup could mean the difference between 2nd and 1st, after much research and decision making the guys at BNT and I came up with the best solution for pads and rotors and here they are (the rest of the info, i might keep to myself for now)

front rotors and pads

rear rotors and pads are stock (no photo sorry)

[OLLIE 26]

Intermission Wintery Crapness

I had to take intermission, the weather not only prevented me from getting the head off the engine, it also gave me the flu so i was out of hardcore action for a few weeks. So i tinkered about with silly things in my cosy little workshop.

the car braved the elements (it has no windows by the way)

while little work was done in the tidy, spacious workshop

what work was done exactly?

all red tail lights

M3 style red needles

Sanding of the rear spoiler

Creation of the gauge cluster, it goes in the middle air con vents in the dash (stay tuned for the finished product)

[OLLIE 26]

What now?

it's 5 weeks to the 1st race and there is still 7/10 phases left ...

Phase 4 - Head Rebuild and refit,

Phase 5 - Refit of engine ancillaries including belts, leads & cooling system

Phase 6 - Refit all the suspension and the new 4.1 diff

Phase 7 - Interior - Painting the Interior, tidying wiring looms, refitting the dash and fitting the seat, harnesses, gauges & kill switches

Phase 8 - Exterior - The car gets it's make up put on - Vinyl graphics, re-attaching exterior parts - headlights, grills, spoiler

Phase 9 - Full service - bleed brakes and clutch, change diff, engine & gearbox oil, fit new battery

phase 10 - Intake and exhaust + dyno tuning

And finally there will be a tie up the little loose ends phase.

stay tuned, i'll keep you posted. any help to get the car ready by the first round is appreciated.

[bravo 34]

Awesome work Ollie. Looking like its being done right - way more progress than I thought you'd made.

Top marks.

[Andrew 30]

10 phases.. oh man.. hah

[Gus 5]

phaser

good sh*t, want to see this done (hopefully sometime in next year) so let me see how your getting on!

[OLLIE 26]

phaser

good sh*t, want to see this done (hopefully sometime in next year) so let me see how your getting on!

it will be finished in a month

[ED1RTY 2]

Good stuff Ollie, i see you have gone the whole hog with painting etc. But trust me, give it 2 or 3 meetings and it will be dirty as again

Always good to give things a fresh lick of paint, cant wait to see it finished.

[Nobimmer 694]

Good stuff,major transformation.

Got some lights in need of a session,will give ya a ring and come have a gawk.

[Silver Fox 43]

So Ollie, will it look anything like this when finished, wet weather racer?

[OLLIE 26]

So Ollie, will it look anything like this when finished, wet weather racer?

haha badass. nope it won't look much like that at all.

maybe your car should look like that? it would have eaten pit wall for breakfast.

[Silver Fox 43]

touche

[Andrew 30]

So Ollie, will it look anything like this when finished, wet weather racer?

THAT RULES!

[bravo 34]

It's a disco chassis and running gear from memory.

[Silver Fox 43]

What's the latest Ollie, up to date pics?

[OLLIE 26]

heres a quick update, i have been flat out working and working on the car .....

The head is off the car, it has been tested for hardness and i will be dismantling it 2moro before i send it to get skimmed and have the valves seated.

you can see the 3rd cylinder along possibly has a fuel valve thats not sealing properly.

Weathered Waterpump

Intake Manifold needs polishing up, this is the before pic, after pic will come once i've done it. haha

Here is what the exhaust manifold looks like now

And this is my attempt at a wrinkler finish rocker cover, i'm happy, it was a rush job using a heat gun to keep the temperature right so that the paint textures and cures properly.

[OLLIE 26]

So ... I decided to fit my bonnet pins

I marked and drilled the holes for the pins to mount into. (between high and low beam head lights on each side)

I then began drilling holes in the bonnet

Finally i marked and drilled the small mounting screw holes and stuck the suckers on

I failed to mention all the die grinding and steel cutting i did with my dremel to get these holes perfect, heres a blurry pick from underneath the bonnet.

[nz320i 0]

How much to overhaul the brakes? did you buy a kit from BNT as my brakes are shocking..

[OLLIE 26]

How much to overhaul the brakes? did you buy a kit from BNT as my brakes are shocking..

yeah i did them myself, because the pistons were in good nik I only needed the seal and the boots & clips. got them from BNT for about $14 per corner. Obviously i painted the calipers also.

depending on how bad yours are they may need to be honed too.

[OLLIE 26]

It's been a while since an update so here we go.

I Refitted all the suspension in just over half a day.

Pressed on Offset Front arm bushes

reassembled 51mm front struts and fitted them with koni adjustable shocks, progressive king springs, BMW offset top mounts, new FAG bearings and slotted rotors.

... and then I had to rush it on to the tow truck to head to the painters where i spent 5 hours masking it outside so we could paint inside.

and it came out like this ... (excuse the phone camera quality)

In the meantime i was working on stripping the head and rebuilding it. notice my neatly labeled bags and valve spring compressor tool.

slight wear on the camshaft concentrics (found a replacement)

Some cleaning in the parts washer, then off to the pros to get the valve guides replaced, the valves seated, seals replaced, and valve spring pressures set.

More to come soon ...

[hybrid 1039]

awesome work dude ... so stoked with how far youve come with it!

[westy 614]

Aye. Shes lookin orsum.