E36 cheap track day toy

E36 cheap track day toy

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Discussion

rm163603

656 posts

247 months

Thursday 24th July 2014
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TheEnd said:
The M3 front roll bar has a different style, it has shorter "arms" and a lot longer droplinks that go to the body of the shock, which changes the leverage on them.
Indeed.

Apparently you can use the 328 bar with the M3 style droplinks if you have the fixings on the shock. This makes it even stiffer at the front.

I thought about trying it but what put me off was that the fixing on the shock severely limits the adjustment range for the front ride height (and I had the 328 shocks already).

Removing the rear shock has a similar effect so that seemed easier!

Hamster69

Original Poster:

747 posts

145 months

Thursday 24th July 2014
quotequote all
Hmm all good info, but you seem to need exactly the right set up to get this to work without the rear arb. Im goint to stick with the new bushes on the rear for now. I dont want to get to brands and find it wont go round corners. Up to now the handling has been awesome, hopefully this will make it slightly more so.

Edited by Hamster69 on Monday 8th September 22:23

rm163603

656 posts

247 months

Thursday 24th July 2014
quotequote all
Hamster69 said:
Hmm all good info, but youseem to need exactly the right set up to get this to work without the rear arb. Im goint to stick with the new bushes on the rear for now. I dont want to get to brands and find it wont go round corners. Up to now the handling has been awesome, hopefully this will make it slightly more so.
Sounds sensible.

You don't want to change too much at once as you will never know what caused what to change.

You could try disconnecting the bar temporarily at Brands and cable tying it out of the way if you wanted to see what it did.



Hamster69

Original Poster:

747 posts

145 months

Thursday 24th July 2014
quotequote all
That is very true I could. I have driven many cars with the ARB disconnected on the road, often the old S class (W221) listening for creeks and noises. Not sure I would like to try it on the back of the E36 it very near the drive shafts. Anyway it's only held on with two M8 bolts, if I disconnected it I would remove it. For now I'm more than happy with how she moves.

Back on the ramp again tonight. O/S/R wheel speed sensor to replace. Of coarse you forget how hard these can be when you haven't done one for a while. Especially when it has been in there for 18 years. In the end I had to drill through the sensor in several places and crush it to pull the old one out. Then out with the Dremel and a small sanding head to clean the rust out of the sensor hole. Realised when I finished I didn't take any pics. Sorry.

Now I'm close to being ready to go. Just a bit of wheel balancing and a clean left to do really.
Couple of new bits turned up for the track day kit this week. I decided after the ball joint went at Donnington I would be a fool not to take a Jack.



Yes the Jack was cheap but hopefully it will never ever get used. Have tried it at work on a 911, it works fine.
I still have my bandit helmet. This is for those gullible idiots who sit next to me. After nearly three years of doing this I was bored of keep having to borrow a helmet or borrow a jack if something went wrong. I am after all a professional. Should turn up on the day like one.

Defiantly enough work done for today though, time for a beer.


rm163603

656 posts

247 months

Friday 25th July 2014
quotequote all
Hamster69 said:
That is very true I could. I have driven many cars with the ARB disconnected on the road, often the old S class (W221) listening for creeks and noises. Not sure I would like to try it on the back of the E36 it very near the drive shafts. Anyway it's only held on with two M8 bolts, if I disconnected it I would remove it. For now I'm more than happy with how she moves.

Back on the ramp again tonight. O/S/R wheel speed sensor to replace. Of coarse you forget how hard these can be when you haven't done one for a while. Especially when it has been in there for 18 years. In the end I had to drill through the sensor in several places and crush it to pull the old one out. Then out with the Dremel and a small sanding head to clean the rust out of the sensor hole. Realised when I finished I didn't take any pics. Sorry.

Now I'm close to being ready to go. Just a bit of wheel balancing and a clean left to do really.
Couple of new bits turned up for the track day kit this week. I decided after the ball joint went at Donnington I would be a fool not to take a Jack.



Yes the Jack was cheap but hopefully it will never ever get used. Have tried it at work on a 911, it works fine.
I still have my bandit helmet. This is for those gullible idiots who sit next to me. After nearly three years of doing this I was bored of keep having to borrow a helmet or borrow a jack if something went wrong. I am after all a professional. Should turn up on the day like one.

Defiantly enough work done for today though, time for a beer.

Good progress!

Those speed sensors are a nightmare... My ABS doesn't work as one of the sensor wires got caught in a wire brush when I was cleaning up some rusty bits. I've tried removing them in the past though and as you say you end up drilling them out.

I'm working on moving my battery to the rear passenger footwell at the moment and making a carbon bulkhead panel to fill the hole where the seats used to be.

SPT28

425 posts

205 months

Friday 25th July 2014
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Hamster69 said:
Nice work SPT28. Looks like you may have spent a bit more on paint than I have, unless you did that all with a brush?
Is there a build blog out there for your weapon?
Sorry just spotted this and realised I hadn't replied.

Strangely enough most of the paint was done by me and my co-investors at the time having saved up for a while. We used to run it like this - yup that is primer smile



The final finish was done my a mate who's a sprayer for eagle e-types. We rented a workshop for two days, stripped and prepped the car and then let him loose, all in it probably cost £300 so not masses but a reasonable sum given the cost of the car! smile

No build thread as yet but really should get round to writing one, if nothing else like you it's nice to keep a record of things.

Hamster69

Original Poster:

747 posts

145 months

Friday 25th July 2014
quotequote all
I like to use the build thread as blackmail on my friends who drive her. You are welcome to have a go, but read this and you can see how much work I have put into it! Seems to make them treat her with a bit more respect lol.

rm163603

656 posts

247 months

Wednesday 30th July 2014
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Just finished a couple of upgrades.

Fitted a carbon panel for the rear bulkhead and moved the battery to the passengers rear footwell.




vx220

2,689 posts

233 months

Wednesday 30th July 2014
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How strong is the parcel shelf?

Does the standard rear seatbelt upper mount go through it or into "c" pillar?

rm163603

656 posts

247 months

Wednesday 30th July 2014
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vx220 said:
How strong is the parcel shelf?

Does the standard rear seatbelt upper mount go through it or into "c" pillar?
The standard rear belts fix to the shelf so it's plenty strong enough. They actually attach closer to the middle of the shelf than these do.

I've had strengthening plates welded into the shelf as well...

The other option was attaching them at the base of the rear seat but that meant the belts went down at quite an angle and in an impact the belts would also be trying to pull you down which I didn't think was ideal. The MSA blue book wants the belts to go back horizontally (or as close to as possible)....

vx220

2,689 posts

233 months

Thursday 31st July 2014
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Cool
I have seen so many cars over the years with belts over the seat and down to the rear lower mountings


BullyB

2,344 posts

246 months

Thursday 31st July 2014
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rm163603 said:
Think I may steal that idea.
Was it simple to do?

Hamster69

Original Poster:

747 posts

145 months

Saturday 2nd August 2014
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So I decided it was also time I did something about the angle of my harneses. So I bought a cage.
Ebay came up trumps again. Now I just have the problem of it being in Spalding, while i am in Cambridge. Every courier I have aproached have said its to large or to heavy. It deffinatly wont go in the back of my car otherwise I would just go and grab it myself.
Causing major grief and I havent even got it yet.


carpetsoiler

1,958 posts

164 months

Saturday 2nd August 2014
quotequote all
I have a Touring, which it will fit in the back of. But I am based in Southampton! If it would help though, let me know, and I'll do it for fuel money.

Hamster69

Original Poster:

747 posts

145 months

Saturday 2nd August 2014
quotequote all
Top Man, but a mate from work is going to take me this afternoon to pick it up in his dads van.
Pics of assembly to start next week hopefully.

rm163603

656 posts

247 months

Monday 4th August 2014
quotequote all
BullyB said:
Think I may steal that idea.
Was it simple to do?
It was...

The battery box is from Merlin Motorsport, it houses an odyssey extreme 30 battery.

I did a bit of dremmeling on it so I could use a ratchet strap to hold the battery in and keep the lid on.

I used one of the brass post converters that you can get for the odyssey battery and a short bit of cable with two m6 rings on it to connect the battery to the original positive battery terminal.



BullyB

2,344 posts

246 months

Tuesday 5th August 2014
quotequote all
rm163603 said:
It was...

The battery box is from Merlin Motorsport, it houses an odyssey extreme 30 battery.

I did a bit of dremmeling on it so I could use a ratchet strap to hold the battery in and keep the lid on.

I used one of the brass post converters that you can get for the odyssey battery and a short bit of cable with two m6 rings on it to connect the battery to the original positive battery terminal.
Cool, cheers.
So you just re-ran the positive cable to the new location. Where is the negative connected now?
I would look at my car but it is locked up about 1000 miles away.

rm163603

656 posts

247 months

Tuesday 5th August 2014
quotequote all
BullyB said:
rm163603 said:
It was...

The battery box is from Merlin Motorsport, it houses an odyssey extreme 30 battery.

I did a bit of dremmeling on it so I could use a ratchet strap to hold the battery in and keep the lid on.

I used one of the brass post converters that you can get for the odyssey battery and a short bit of cable with two m6 rings on it to connect the battery to the original positive battery terminal.
Cool, cheers.
So you just re-ran the positive cable to the new location. Where is the negative connected now?
I would look at my car but it is locked up about 1000 miles away.
The battery cable reaches that area quite easily. It's about the perfect length for it.

I've re-routed the cable between the carpet and the back seat base, there is room in there aplenty especially if you remove the foam in the corners. There is also space behind the carpet for the leads route down and pass through and into the battery box so you can't see them.

I made a new earth using an existing hole I found and a big self tapping screw.

Basically you need:

Odyssey Extreme 30 battery
Merlin battery box
25mm endless ratchet strap
4 X M6 X 20 countersunk head bolts (to hold the box to the floor)
4 X M10 X 25 washers (to stop the bolts pulling through the grp box bottom, using M10 with the countersunk head bolts makes the bolt heads very low profile)
Some foam (I used camping mat foam)
Some cable ties
1 X Odyssey positive battery post converter (basically a battery post shaped piece of brass with an M6 thread through it.)
1 X positive Battery cable 16mm sq 40cm long. M6 ring terminals both ends.
1 X negative battery cable 16mm sq 30cm long. M6 ring one and and M8 the other.

Drop me PM if you need more details.


Hamster69

Original Poster:

747 posts

145 months

Tuesday 5th August 2014
quotequote all
So, got the cage. Laid it all out last night. Its going to be a fairly big job. Probably have to lose the door cards and cut the ends off the dash off. So im going to leave it till after Brandshatch and Bedford. Dont want to rush it and make a mess.
Anyone have any good ideas about welding it together in the car?

rm163603

656 posts

247 months

Tuesday 5th August 2014
quotequote all
Hamster69 said:
So, got the cage. Laid it all out last night. Its going to be a fairly big job. Probably have to lose the door cards and cut the ends off the dash off. So im going to leave it till after Brandshatch and Bedford. Dont want to rush it and make a mess.
Anyone have any good ideas about welding it together in the car?
Sounds good!

I think what people normally do is cut holes in the floor so they can drop the cage feet through and weld the rest together more easily. They then weld a plate over the hole and weld the cage feet to the plate.