westy's 1985 BMW E30 "Alice"

[westy]

Morning chaps. Quite like this here forum, so thought I might join in a bit more.

Discuss

http://www.oldschool.co.nz/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=24194&start=0

This is the original thread (dont have to log in to view).

http://www.bimmersport.co.nz/forums/index.php?showtopic=23929

Cliff notes:

Two cars

'85 318i (hope this is oldschool enough).

2000 328i 5speed man.

to make one?

Adding bits

Front

Woody spitties ftw

Yay

Alive

Current state

Will it ever look like this?

Thats all for now. 18 months in and a long way to go.

[westy]

The other side

Hate doing things twice so this kinda sux.

Also, in the absence of a decision as to how to improve the flares, I've left them alone

[westy]

1/2 decent updates this time.

[westy]

Very early mock up of the front air-dam.

Checking angles, thickness of lip etc.

Long ways to go.

[westy]

Panel gaps

I swear E30's have some of the worst panel gaps going.

[westy]

I'm baaaack...

But I only have;

A tidy(ish) garage

A bit of steel

And a ruddy great hole

But at least I'm doing something ha.

[westy]

On a roll

[westy]

Painfully slow progress

In other new, I have now a set of these to refurb.

[westy]

Well, well. Two days, two updates.

First side came together reallly slowly but the other side was much better.

Still some trimming to do and not quite sure if the size of the hole is right yet, but showing some potential.

To spotlight or not to spotlight, that is the question.

[westy]

Glad to see the back of that to be honest.

Now, bumpers.

[westy]

Have been working on these.

A little tricky to see the detail so here's a close might help.

[westy]

Mucking around with a few things lately.

Painted and polished the front bumpers so should be ready to get a mould off them.

Working on the rear bumper buck.

Filled some more holes

Finally got the gearbox back in after replacing the input shaft bearing

And pissed about with this for a while

Also bits and pieces like fuel lines, proper brackets for the front end blah blah.

[westy]

Made one of these, which is nice.

[westy]

[westy]

Some more pics of the project that never seems to get anywhere

New flares

[westy]

So Christmas is gone and so are the hols so...

Managed a bit of work, nothing major but even a little progress is nice at the moment.

Mounted Andrews seat. Cheers fella!

Sorted a position for the shifter higher and further back than stock and uses the stock E46 stuff.

Also, because of the unknown age and specs of me poor old welder, I did some destructive testing on some tube with 3mm wall.

So with 2.5mm wall cage steel I think we're all good for weld strength.

Finally, anyone care to critique my cage landings?

Thinking maybe they protrude too far from the sill?

[westy]

Teaser...

[westy]

So, enough of the shithouse updates, here's something decent.

It aint perfect, but it is red and shiny!

[westy]

Some random shots of stuff I've been mucking around with.

[westy]

Decided this

looked like sh*t.

So cut grind weld grind hammer file some more and

Reckon I might've got it.