Leaderboard

well the bad news was that the above "TRD close ratio gearkit" turned out to actually be just a standard K50 gearkit so that went back and i got my money back, wasn't the sellers fault as he was misinformed when he received it etc, cheers Stu for being an honest chap and taking it back. So last week i was quite busy on the car and as a result didnt get many photos but i got the coilovers finished, guesstimated the springs to be about 150-160kg so about right for the starlet. Becuase the struts are longer they gave the car some positive camber so some bug eye steering knuckles courtesy of Andy C sorted that out and they are now neutral, at some stage ill do longer bottom arms to get a wee bit more negative but probs not as it handles and turns in really well now. They other thing i did the night before my event on saturday was put in a quaife quick rack, this is one of the coolest mods i have done so far and makes such a huge difference, the steering is now 2 turns lock to lock rather than the standard 3.5 and it drives like an absolute go kart, check out the video below and see the minimal steering input compared to my previous videos, it is much much safer to drive hard. The rack is a AE86 quaife quick rack and pinion from palmside.co.nz and was very easy to modify to go into the starlet rack, its very obvious when you put them next to each other but all it needs was i think 32mm off the long side of the rack to make it the same length as the starlet rack, then drill a new hole and tap it in the end for the rack end to screw into and your sorted.org.nz. I got a new bearing for the pinion rather that try deal with swapping the old one over. So for the event on saturday just been i have new suspension, 15mm castor, slight neg camber and a quick rack and the car is now much easier and very fun to drive, particularly on the tight flowing sections of road. Saturdays sprint was a 4.9km gravel sprint on Tararua road, run by the Danniverke car club. It was good to have Rhys there in the KE20 to have something to aim for and bench mark myself against. The car was struggling with gearing again, 2nd gear was to slow in road speed and high in the revs for a lot of the flowing stuff but the car was bogging and not revving in 3rd, it needs either a 5.1 diff and ignore first gear or a close ratio box quite bad, watching rhys's video i can see how the box helps so much (apart from getting off the line). I was super stoked to be close to him in my first run, then actually got about 2 seconds on him in the second run but he put down a solid 3rd run and got me by 3 seconds. Im really happy to be close to him like that tho and it shows the changes to the car have helped, also stoked that the both of us took down a couple of 4age powered cars in our little 4K's. well here's a few photos courtesy of Jeff Wells, ill buy some final res shots off him at some stage. And a video i banged together of run 2 (outcar) and run 3 (incar), bloody youtube decreased the quality heaps tho which sucks a bum.

So I was now on the lookout for an engine and gearbox and came across this beauty an HT Holden with a not very factory Chev V8 in it. Got it from some extremely dodgy guys in Linwood, Christchurch for $1000. Trailered it home and proceeded to do burnouts until the diff blew - not surprising it was just the standard banjo type! 2 17-04-2016 3-52-39 PM 3 17-04-2016 3-52-44 PM This is my Father (GuyWithAvaiators grandfather) giving it a go as well - I remember seeing mum coming down the road in the distance and Dad encouraging me to light it up as she passed! 4 17-04-2016 3-52-37 PM 17-04-2016 3-52-37 PM 17-04-2016 3-52-37 PM Was kind of glad the diff blew as when we got back home and took a look at the front suspension was about to fall out from rust anyway. It turns out it was a 307 Chev with a powerglide - with some nice Holly rocker covers and it ran extremely well - great oil pressure and good compressions all round. I sold the genuine Holden V8 radiator for $100 - ripped out the pedal box and floor shifter and dumped the rest. (Actually we attempted to blow it up with a Oxy/Acetylene bomb first) I mentioned we got it some some dodgy types - when we dumped the body a Butterfly knife (the completely illegal type) appeared from under the dash.

All I have to say about last night is this:

this is the ignition module that lives inside the dizzy. ordinarily its not in two pieces but my one is. its fucked which is the cause of the non existent spark. 2016-04-18_09-24-00 by sheepers, on Flickr it goes without saying that the module is impossible to replace so Nick the sparky bought over some other bis and pieces to see if we could get the car to go again. we put a system together using parts he had but it only worked sometimes so Nick is going to test them properly tomorrow so we know which bit (the pickup or the module) is fucked and then go about trying to find new ones. hopefully then it will go properly. 2016-04-18_09-24-09 by sheepers, on Flickr on to other things. brakes, i have them. i got all the parts i needed from Sterling so i was able to put new seals and hoses in the front and new slaves in the rear. its been a very long time since I've had anything to do with stock celica brakes and man are they shit. they have a stupid slider setup that wasn't a good idea when they were new, let alone 40 years later. BUT - the good thing about celica struts is that the brake bracket bolts on with 4 bolts (rather that the caliper mount being part of the casting) so its pretty easy to make brackets to suit pretty much anything you want to fit. 2016-04-18_04-08-52 by sheepers, on Flickr other things that happened - the windscreen washers work now, ummm thats about it. if we can get the thing to run I'm going to try and take it for a warrant this week. 2016-04-18_07-15-18 by sheepers, on Flickr 2016-04-18_07-15-26 by sheepers, on Flickr 2016-04-18_07-15-04 by sheepers, on Flickr

White padded leather would also be acceptable, as long as you pad the wheel wells too

I had a thread up a while ago but its gone. I got it off my great aunty, Her partner bought it new and made the tray for it. He used it as his builders vehicle for years and after he died it went in the garage and did the odd tip run. They put some covering on the door cards which has gone a bit dumb bit I'll leave it as it'll do more damage than its worth to take them off. I just about sucked the seat up my bum on a couple of corners on the drive home. Anything close to the recommended retail speed on corners was at the limit of the tyres The day I got it home No options ticked here, it had a radio blank and a cigarette lighter blank, and just a you have cooked the engine light instead of a temp gauge I've taken the tray off and given it a cleanup/under seal. I'll need to do it again later. It didn't want to go up the drive without doing skids, 20 year old commercial tires are a bit shit in the wet. I pulled the bench out and rangid in some speakers with only the finest mdf and cable ties I had

A gold star goes to forum user chris r, who, out of all the places I'd posted about this issue (even a dedicated Civic / CR-X group on Facebook), was the only one to suggest the coolant temp sensor. Fixing that seems to have nicely fixed the issue. It needed a new dizzy cap and rotor anyway as those items were in sad shape, and plugging the vacuum leak was good too, but it was the new sensor that stopped the stalling. The car's running great now, and for a good price too. Well done to Tower Auto Electrical, and thanks again Chris! I owe you a pint.

By this time I had mounted the steering rack - complete with welded tie rods (no certs needed here ) Time to test fit the motor and box - just hook it up to the front-end loader and drop it in - I just needed to straighten out the inner chassis rails and in it went. 6 17-04-2016 3-53-00 PM Built a rear crossmember support and bolted in the OG Holden one - job done cars020 cars022 10 Points for an ID on my car in the background?

Looking promising that I can make this, two nights in a row of no coughing and/or farting from the Rover. May even bag an elusive sticker or two

Still keen on an answer to this tbh.

If welded on it will need a cert. If bolted on no cert required. See table 3.1.1 https://vehicleinspection.nzta.govt.nz/virms/in-service-wof-and-cof/general/vehicle-structure/structure-incl2.-frontal-impact

Sooooo, unicorn shit has been aquired. Genuine TRD new old stock (thants right brand new) k50 close ratio gear kit. And not only one kit, but two, although the second is missing 5th gear, got lost someone in its last 30 years of storage. So pine right now

Height, pitch of voice and youthful appearance add to that illusion also... ...wait. Chris. Are you married to a high school student???

Minutes work https://youtu.be/Ibdq6SD21gU Voltage reg is getting warm but hasn't hit thermal cut off yet. will do a test at work all day and see how it goes. Will probably put a bigger heat sink on/use the ammo tin as a heat sink when I eventually put it in there. I still have to figure out why the '1' of the 10 hour(s) doesn't change over. And I'll have to test/figure out why there is no switching going on in the transistors for the voltage doubler. Then I can work out what I'll be doing with the set buttons and mounting of the dekatron

I swear i pine over this more and more with every update mr sheepers...

A ride?

thanks Tom!! good to meet you too, if your ever in the neighbor hood just drop in. I'm mostly in the shed…...

The only thing that makes that bog job OK is that it's only an Austin 1300.

Yay, Burgers! Am bringing some speakers for chees- and a compressor for brockzilla. Anyone want anything else (see my lock up purge thread)? Tell me know cause I gotta grab it tonight.

Sorry I don't have a direct line contact myself, but I've found calling the likes of Autolign or Stocks direct usually yields good results - those guys are often times the distributors for a lot of the big brands and know where to find stuff if not. They'll also be able to advise on a shorter shock for you - all the shock manufacturer books have the dimensions listed.

As above, I'll have stickers with me. $5 each and the money goes back to Oldschool. A worthy cause.

In case you come across some large sand dunes?

the price of a left handed bit is quite a bit more than a standard one, but... if you have a lot of potential stuck bolts its handy

Oh, haha. Thanks man. That's exactly what I did and now it's out. But the left hand thing is a good idea, that I didn't think of.

2nded

Finally traced this problem down - a lot of people had suggest bad ground so I thought I'd double check that but they all turned out good. I was then thinking about running a 12v source to bypass the ignition switch - kill switch etc in case any wiring was shorting out in that area - I was trying to work out where to run the power to and I thought I'd just check the resistance from the positive battery lead (the battery was out being recharged at the time) to the 12v wires that lead to the coils. Everything read as expected but then I noticed that the resistance shot up if I moved the positive battery lead around - up down left right etc. I removed the lead (which lead to the starter solenoid) and all the braided metal is breaking down at the starter solenoid end (weirdly the starter has never given any issues) the 12v lead to the rest of the loom branches off where the main positive lead attaches to the starter solenoid. Knowing that the starter motor is still getting enough juice somehow I took the lead for the rest of the loom and attached it straight to the battery positive terminal and goodbye ignition troubles - she's been running fine for three days now! Theres a few pics of the lead below the smaller red wire was leading the the main fuse / rest of the loom before I bypassed it. So all in all it kind of was a bad ground - only on the other side of the battery - I'm a new lead made up for it and hopefully she keeps on trucking as its been pretty bloody irritating getting to the bottom of this problem.

No narrow block 4x4 gearbox - they are all wide block to accept a larger flywheel/clutch combo. Best bet is to use the original block and swap all the good bits from the narrow block over to it. There is an adapter which the Starion guys use to swap VR-4 engines using the original wideblock gearbox, but they are harder and expensive to come by and is just easier to use the original wide block.

Square sidewalls man, get just the right tyre and they look the bestest. IMO. Not too balloon, not too stretch. Ahhh.. Semi-slicks are usually the best for it, I find.

Boring progress ahead: So the rubbers above the windows have always been pretty ropey, they had had an extra foam strip glued on at some stage and they were getting hard and brittle. I managed to buy the last NOS item in the country from Mitsubishi (one side only) a while ago, for a retardedly high amount of money. Sadly, after sitting around all those years it turned out to be pretty average too. Already splitting after being on the car a few weeks: Not too chuffed about that. I also got some generic ones from Rare Spares but the cross section was so different that I thought they weren't likely to fit the same channel. Turns out that the indicated dimension is close enough that it can be squished into the rail and actually makes for a really good fit and a pretty easy install. The only difference being that the new seals do not wrap around on the inside but that is no big deal. Both sides are all fitted up now. I spent ages adjusting the window positioning on both sides to get the fit right and they are sitting pretty mint now. It looks much better, the rubber is firm but not too hard, seems nice.

I thought i'd bombard this thread with more pics (when is there enough pics though?). As some of you may have seen the video in the previous post of my 1st time at pukekohe race track! This was an awesome experience for me, I found where my limits ended as a driver (where I ran out of balls) and also things that weren't quite right about the car. Our spots for the day Lucky for me, I had an awesome workforce to help with everything from chocking my car after every run to tips of what I should and shouldn't do on track. One of the BMW race series drivers (Raewyn) decided to humor our efforts as well haha Like I mentioned earlier, I had my fair share of problems throughout the day. 1st issue while blasting down the back straight (everything feels slower on the track for some reason haha) when my lovely wife noticed the abnormal reading on the wideband AFR gauge. Obviously assuming the worst, my stomach was in my throat as I limped back to pit lane. Car sputtering and misfiring. To my relief when opening my bonnet, my intake elbow had popped off . A quick turn with a screw driver and we were ready to go again! Unfortunately not many photos of my E30 doing werk. One I did find of me chasing Raerae while a holden who almost had a deep and meaningful relationship with a subaru followed. (Not sure about this front bumper setup) Marcus had his own fair share of problems. His low offset and wide tire combo were having a good time with the arches, so out came the hammer. I could see that he wasn't very happy about his brand new falkens getting rekt by his guards, but not one to shy away from a photo opportunity... Did I mention this was all on valentine's day? Haha Things I would definitely change is the stiffness on the rear. I had wound up my rear shocks to max stiffness before the track day thinking it would be a great idea. Hell no. It made the front sweeper and the part over the hill very scary as the car would "step out". I also ran into cooling problems after 5-6 laps, maybe because the rep m3 front has no air ducts for airflow? But i'll upgrade the radiator as well. I need to sort out traction. Maybe related to the shocks? Either way an LSD will be a great upgrade. Here is a video from the day with my buddy Daniel K from Corsbe - Big thanks to all my friends that came to the track day just for support and banter! Hopefully not too much of a read! Ill leave you with one last picture of something we can all appreciate Visit JWNZ for more photography goodness! Website: JWNZofficial.com Instagram: @jwnzofficial Email: JWNZofficial@gmail.com

hey clint do i need a cert if i weld a plate between the front chassis rails on my landrover to accept a winch?

I'm just going to put my two cents in and the viva looks amazing on steelies with hubcaps….

Had a fresh look at this today. we suspected a faulty cap so I replaced it and no change. I had another look and I put a diode in backwards. Now I just need to figure out the 10s of hours and the charge-pump for the dekatron.... Got a quick video and will do a quick burn in test and see if it stays happy

That is a good way of putting it..it is only maybe 50 mm bigger diameter change but looks much fatter/blobbier spec than that. I don't personally like the stretch tyre look ( yawn..) but neither do I like bulging sidewalls. However I do like the turbos but I like them more on the wagon because manky, tatty, messy cars suit nice wheels more. If you know what I mean. Plus the steels help with the whole grandad spec style thing. But then I often think that widened steels are a bit over done and yawn spec where as a nice set of turbos is not often seen on older cars like this. I'm gonna roll the turbos for a while longer anyway, because I can, plus one of the steels as a slow leak to sort out.

I decided to put my Sunday off to good use and do some work on my new cluster. Pulled it apart and removed the batteries. I don't care if the SI lights don't work if it means the cluster lasts longer. Unfortunately the batteries have already leaked a bit so I'm hoping this cluster works fully, I haven't tested it. Painted the needles red and polished the clear cover on the front. I wanted to remove the red lense for the lights that light up the cluster to get a white light, however I found out that it's moulded into the top of the cluster so it's going to take some work to do. I'll work on that once my other cluster is out so I have a spare to mess with.

Following the successful design of one my cousin built. I started on a new creation. It involved the chassis from one of these Thames van by David, on Flickr and a V8 of some sort So I got a chassis 5 17-04-2016 5-59-18 PM 4 17-04-2016 3-52-51 PM As these vans are forward control, I cut about 2 feet off the front - and converted it to rack and pinion (thanks to an Avenger) you can see the rack ready in these pictures. Also at about this time I got these wheels and tyres for $50 from the McLeans Island Swapmeet - these vans are standard Ford 5 stud, stud pattern. I also got a Bedford diff (more on that later) which very nearly fitted the springs. 7 17-04-2016 3-52-55 PM

Subfloor almost done http://www.iforce.co.nz/View.aspx?i=4fu3nkcs.qfr.jpg

Went in on Friday afternoon to do some more work and things were going well, on track to have the engine in the car this weekend. Until I went to swap the exhaust manifold to the e28 one. This is where things came to a halt, much like a stance car that has hit an unforseen bump. So 9 of the studs came out nicely, either stud and nut or nuts came off. But 3 didn't want to play along, snapping under the nut. There was some stud protruding so I thought it was in luck. However this was not the case. I tried doing the double nut trick, welding the nuts to the studs, vice grips etc. Either the stud would not budge, or it just snapped, leaving me nothing to work with. Still, not the end of the world, time for the drill. So I went about trying to drill them out, which went well on 2 of them, however on the third, the drill bit snapped inside the hole. If my emotions at the time could be expressed in an image, I think this would be fitting: The offending obstruction that will need extraction: If this wasn't enough to set me off, I went to try and buy some tools I thought might work to try and resolve this sinkhole of a situation, such as carbine tungsten drill bits to hopefully drill through the drill bit, every shop I went to was either closed or had nothing. So not only do I now have extra expenses and the awaiting of a very unpleasant task, but my weekend is also wasted as I couldn't do anything further. Which has also delayed my driveshaft as I can't drop it off to be modified until I am sure how long it needs to be, which I need the motor in for. So there you have it. Here I was hoping I could show you all how to do an M30 conversion in a week. Might be 2 weeks now.

If you wanted to buy new http://www.bungalowandvilla.co.nz/catalogues/switches.pdf

He'll punch your card if you know what I mean

Thanks mate! I was buzzing out at people liking the thread post but no posts haha. Yeah she's awesome Put that ring on it as fast as i could mate haha cheers Thank you for the kind words! For the rotary, I wanted a NA mild port something somewhat reliable and different, itb etc. Thanks man, it was tough! But right now I look at the car and how infamous it is, it's all worth it. haha I gave you the keys, you gave them back! haahaa

ive fitted a pair of Toyo proxes 4s in 225 50 15 on the back and the car is back to not sucking. i have calculated the exact improvement in handling and feel as 2 billion percent.

Ok so there has been stuff happening, the rust in the front end was a bit worse than I thought so it took some time to fix but it is all sorted now, hard to see in these pics but it is all sorted So I got my 4 holes drilled for mounting the radiator and once they were done it was time to put the engine back in. It was all pretty straight forward, I did spend some time tidying up some little bits and pieces like finishing off the gearbox crossmember which needed some speed holes filled and painting. Pretty happy to have the motor back in though and it shouldn't have to come out again (I hope) So the next task is the exhaust, I bought 3 180deg bends and chopped them up to make this 2" primarys that will run to the diff with a resonator in each, then into a 2.5" pipe and a muffler at the back. There isn't a lot of clearance with the steering box but it is going to have to do. Steering box clearance and underneath and underneath again.... SO the exhaust is all but done now (I built the rest of it ages ago) and I will get some pics of the whole thing finished as soon as I get in connected up. I need to get a couple of bends before that can happen and sort out the hangers but that shouldn't take too much. I have told work that I need to take more time off in the next few weeks as I am determined to get this thing finished. Oh yeah and I heard back from LVVTA about my steering arms so they are all go now, I have a mate lined up to machine them which should happen in the next few weeks. And I will finish up with a shot of the engine bay with the carb inb place More to come soon....

haven't done a lot on this lately but have found a sweet chin spoiler. That's good enough for an update right?

Small update, have done a lot more than this but no pic's yet Radiator mounted and a few other bits finished. 4a lurking in there.

been slowly getting this engine wiring sorted out. Everything seems to be working as it should, have got spark and injector pulse. Weekend mission is to get oil and filter on and it, fill with coolant and sort out the fuel pump situation. With all that done it should in theory fire straight up! Purchased this lip, its going to be a shit to mount but it will look the part when its on there. And just for something different i tried some wheels on. SSR MK3s 14x7.5s. They fit pretty sweetly but the front guards will need a good rolling. Also done this just to liven the engine bay up a bit sorry about the shitty pics!

So i have sorted out the driveshaft problem i was having. I guess the difference came from the fact that i went from auto to manual gearbox. The engine is definitely where it should be. Found a two piece driveshaft from an early L200 and fitted the front half of that to the back of the existing one and it fits perfectly! yuss! just need a new universal for the middle and to swap the hanger bearings bracket over and that's sorted. Now i just need to modify the x member so it will bolt on where the old one did and all will be swell. But that makes for some pretty boring pictures. I also took the springs out of the front and tried some wheels on for size......

Thanks to some encouragment from Low'n'Slow, find herewith the latest chapter of my E30's build. The story up to ~2008: The project started in mid 2002, when I was given an E30 323i with a motor that was more of a 6cyl oil-pump than an internal combustion engine. So I setout to replace the engine with something more modern, BMW motors at the time were rediculously $$, with medorce HP gains (~190hp out of a M50B25). A 2JZ-GE sounded like a good option with 220hp and reasonable $$, but I couldn't find one. Until I stumbled across 2x complete 1JZ-GTE's with a JZA80 W58 for a whopping $2200. Then the fun began, and the engine swap, front brake upgrade & Cert' were done by mid 2003 in time to be used for our wedding. Which had a trio of 80's BMW's, being the E30 3er, E34 5er and a E32 7er. Not being content with the handling / braking, I did a '5 lug swap' using E36 Compact parts and M3 Control Arms. I used Porsche 996 Monobloc Brembo's up front with some nice Koni Coilovers. Stock Compact rear brakes, with Koni Shocks and Kings 'Low' Springs, still had it sqatting like a china-man with the 218rwkw it was putting down. With the Compact rearend, using the same E30 Axles & Diff this became the next 'weakest link' and was given the boot for some more custom DiY-age. Consisting of a late-model E28 5er subframe, trailing arms and axles, with a Supra *A70 G-series LSD (of which I have 3 for less $$ than one BMW LSD). At this time I needed to convert the rear to coilovers also to use the E28 trailing arms, which involved building some custom shock towers, and bracing to the new diff mount. The rear brakes were also beefed up to complement the front with matching porker 996 brembo monbloc's on big vented E36 M3 discs. After a couple of year of abuse, track days, suspension tweaks, exhaust mods, interior stripping, the old girl was not very street friendly and a bit anti-social. Which brings us to my current 'brain fart' situation. [edit] Dug up a few old pics: [/edit] Our first son was born in December 2008, and I had 6wks off work (well timed with the Xmas close down at work) and thought, geez this is cruisy, perfect time to get stuck into those 'bright ideas' I've had. Heck, there seems to be plenty of time to get things done..... Well, almost 5yrs later, as you can guess I couldn't have been more wrong!! ***** Rewind to December 2008: Well over X-mas, with a new addition to the family I had a bit of time on my hands and an angle grinder waiting for a good time. The goal is to be a fun track / clubmans race car. The mods meet the OSCA rules (Namely: max. 305mm firewall setback & No.1 cylinder no more than 5% of the wheel base behind the front axle), should I get the itch to take things up a notch (and find/win some $$$). As you will see, there is a long way to go yet.... I'll let the pics take it from here: Pulled out the engine & gbox and sat one of the rear sump pans I had in the bay. Then took to the firewall with the angle grinder. Jump forward in time a bit. Possible new location for the intercooler & radiator. Some new end tanks for the IC will be on the cards. ***** Brakes are well sorted, made sure of that a couple of phases ago. Porsche 996 Mono-block Brembo's with Pagid RS4-4 pads (oranges). Front: Rear: (also with the E28 rear-end and coilover) ***** Righteo then, a few pics of the limited progress. Downpipe & Wastegate done. Bit of a squeeze past what is left of the firewall Fitted up to the original 3" zorst just nicely NB. The tilton pedal box will be ~6-8" back from where the accel pedal is now. PS. Great tube notching/coping app. Couple of old ones (6/2005 ), of the rear towers (for running coilovers). incl rear bracing and diff mount. Welding to the panel steel was a PITA, was a 2 person job one holding a big copper bar (as a heat sink) in the wheel well. ***** Been a quiet winter, spending time in the warm with the kids had a bit more appeal than the cold garage. But it's spring, so lets check out the new growth... Got the new Firewall & Trans Tunnel folded up, and have started fab'ing into place. The top half of the firewall is now welded inplace. Next is the trans.tunnel O'Joy ***** Metal work nearing completion. Just have the area around the shifter and the steering column to go. Then onto seam sealing and some rattle can red. ***** The E30 saw the light of day for the first time in +4yrs (March 2013). Found a small dragon lurking in the bay... And a smaller one making the engine sounds from the drivers seat... Took about an hour to get him out of there. And a couple of the finished tunnel / firewall. Now it's off to Bam's toget the rollcage done ***** Well, she's back from her holiday at Bam's Just need to sort out my expired race licence(s) and send off the homologation paper work. Had to dial it back a bit to meet my budget, plus I'm never going to want, get or expect 10/10th out of an old E30 chassis. So what would have cost a lot more $$ didn't really add any more value (to me). It is still a pretty comprehensive 8pt cage with nice direct load paths through the main members. Most of the 'extra' stuff can easily be added later if so desired/needed. Also, the way Sch A now reads, and from discussions with MSNZ, directly tie-ing the 'safety' cage into suspension or driveline mounting points is a no-no (ie. top of the rear shock-tower, rear subframe attachments, etc...), With the emphasis on occupant safety and not a means to building a half tube frame reinforced chassis, unless you head down the 'free concept' path and prepare all the engineering calcs/certification. Now I need to pull finger and get the motor & loom back in there *joy* ***** Enough of the retrospective stuff, back to the present. Got the race license sorted and homologation all done Got the cage all prep'd & primed with some nice black etch primer. The exhaust manifold has been machined and painted with some arguably sacrifical 2000° VHT, along with the downpipe. Fab'd the oil drain for the turbo and blanking plates done for the rear water line (heater core removed). The Motor and Box are back in so I can get a few bits'n'pieces fab'd up. Checked I could put it in with the exhaust manifold on, so I can get it wrapped while on the engine stand. Got the seating position set, and setting up the steering column at present. Printing out the template today for the mounting brackets to weld to the dashbar so I can check before getting them cut. If you've driven an E30 you'll unterstand that the steering wheel positon is not adjustable, and is on a semi-bus angle. Not so good when you've moved the seat back 8" and lowered it, so the firewall mount has been raised to flatten the angle. The new column mounts will have a small degree of adjustability built it. I've got a deep dish Mod-08 Momo Wheel and will need a quick release, so should work out well for reach distance. The lower steering column is a bit of a DiY hodge-podge, not wanting to preclude the possibility of getting her re-cert'd for road use, I have used a selection of E30 & E36 Uni's & shafts that can be bolted together. The 'rag-joint' was replaced with a nice steel disc to hold the 2 halves together. Then onto mounting the pedal box. Will now have to do some real work so I can get some new pics up. Hope you enjoyed the read for now.

Radiator is all welded up and inlet plumbing fits well, onto the outlet next. Intercooler inlet mods are all tacked in to checking, needs a minor tweak with a BFH or similar, bit pretty darn close. Outlet to the throttle body also fitted up nicely. Just waiting on a oil cooler (OEM) delete fitting to arrive from Oz and I can start one the new cooler & thermostat and plumbing...