Alpine e30 progress/build thread

[m42b32]

straight6pwr said:

but an e30 stuck in a garage is an e30 not being driven! its needs to be a balance, for sure.

For the last year the car has been a wrecked e30 which is definitely worse than an in-progress e30! I'm hoping to have it back on the road, at least for a little while, next summer. The initial plan was have it ready the minute the snow melts but I think, with pulling the engine, I'll say mid to late summer is a goal.

[KaiserRolls]

When I re did mine over the last two winters I missed a few of the larger events I really wanted to go. I convinced myself that doing it right the first time would be worth it. When the stars aligned and I got to autox at road America on good tires it all made sense. That one event was worth it, the car felt awesome. Especially knowing you had done it all yourself. Even if it's going to be a daily cruiser or weekend warrior. Just knowing that you did it right the first time is great

[m42b32]

Been making some minor progress, worked on Wednesday but cut it short because it was 15 degrees in the garage...Got the rear section of the exhaust out (crappy muffler was welded to the hangers, what a PITA to get off) popped out the o2 sensor, about to drop the mid-section when I decided I liked not having hypothermia.

Also started tearing down the front struts to clean and repaint

They already have VAC sway bar mount reinforcments welded on, and on closer inspection I found a nice surprise:

I didn't notice them initially because they are a bit crusty and blend in really well, but there are a pair of fixed camber plates attached to the strut mounts that I had no idea were there. I love little surprises like these. They seem pretty simple to swap in and out, so it will be interesting to see what they do to the handling once the car is back on the road.

[Jdesign]

Thats cool! It looks like something from when the car was still somewhat new.

[straight6pwr]

its going be hard to remove those hex key bolts from the rust!

[KaiserRolls]

straight6pwr said:

its going be hard to remove those hex key bolts from the rust!

Kroil

Heat

Swear

Kroil

Heat

Swear

Kroil

Heat

Swear

Try ratchet

Starts to strip

Try again

It loosens

Try again

IT STRIPS

DRILL IT OUT

THROW PLATES IN TRASH

rethink life

[m42b32]

straight6pwr said:

its going be hard to remove those hex key bolts from the rust!

That was my thoughts at first too, but if you look closely they are actually welded to the plate around the edges. The strut tops had the original studs punched out and then the camber plate installs through the resulting holes. There are some rusty nyloc nuts on the back that I can hopefully get off without too much trouble. Worst case scenario, I snap a screw and carry out the last two lines of Kaiser's post...

[HipMF]

Haven't been following this thread too closely, but reading the last couple pages, it looks like you're on the right track. Good to see you're saving the car. Wish I would have had the time and resources to do something with mine after I crashed it.

[patsbimmer1]

Inductive tools work wonders!  I've used this one personally and for anyone who spends any large amount of time working on old or rusty cars this is a lifesaver!

[Jdesign]

patsbimmer1 said:

Inductive tools work wonders!  I've used this one personally and for anyone who spends any large amount of time working on old or rusty cars this is a lifesaver!

Well thats interesting. I have never seen such a thing.

[m42b32]

Those are incredible! I got to use one when I was replacing the control arms on my e36. They seem to be quite expensive but the ability to heat nuts and bolts without heating everything around it is probably worth it. Maybe some day...

[straight6pwr]

works better than a torch?

[andyhundley]

Those flame less torches are great.

[patsbimmer1]

straight6pwr said:

works better than a torch?

Heats as well without melting everything around it!

[m42b32]

Continued work on removing the old core support, got the two upper and one lower connection points cut out and roughly cleaned up:

Also started dropping the front suspension, got the front struts removed after work today. I'll will be swapping the billies and vogtlands over to the M3 strut housings once I get them all cleaned up. Don't worry about the stress on those rubber brake lines, they're being replaced and I just wanted them out of the way. 

I installed a momo hub and a bolt pattern adapter from Crowder's (Highly recommended for all your steering wheel adapter and spacer needs, its well made and the black textured finish hides it nicely since I didn't want shiny aluminum visible) in preparation for a new wheel that should be arriving next week. 

[m42b32]

Got all the AC parts removed up to the connections that pass through the fire wall, exhaust is out up to the header, got the front subframe out:

Started cleaning it up (its nasty) and preparing to weld in sway bar and engine mount reinforcement plates. 

Then went and pulled the steering rack:

I'll be swapping to either a standard e36 rack (linear 3.4 lock to lock) and deleting the power steering, or swapping in an e46 zhp rack (linear 3.0 lock to lock) and keeping power steering. Haven't decided which yet though. 

Disassembled the old struts to swap everything over, just need to paint the new housings and I'll be ready to start bolting things back together in the front. 

I also worked out a way to disassemble brake calipers easily without the use of an air compressor and turning your piston into a missile. 

I compressed the pistons as far as they would go to remove as much fluid as possible, this way you minimize any spray when the piston pops out.

I ordered an M10x1.0 (brake line thread pitch) to 1/8 NPT adapter and a 1/8 npt schrader air tank valve on ebay. This threads into the caliper housing (with the bleed screw installed) and allows you to connect a hand bike pump. 

It only took a single pump to push the piston all the way out and it came free with a light pop, no missile or fluid spray. 

I'm glad I decided to rebuild these instead of just cleaning them up, they were full of muck, fortunately no rust on anything internally though:

Things are progressing nicely!

[Earl]

Why a zhp rack versus a z3 rack may I ask? I had talked to Rich from Rack Doctor about this when I bought my z3 rack and he stated this when I told him that I saw the zhp rack was said to be quicker.

"I'm not sure where this information is coming from but I have heard this a few times lately and it is inaccurate. The Z3 is a faster ratio rack. It is more expensive true but it is also a better rack. The unit it self is steel body so it tends to be more durable. Forums can be a good thing and a bad thing. You have to weed out the good, the bad, and the ugly.  People often talk about ratios and this changes from vehicle to vehicle because it is a trigonometry equations that will change from vehicle to vehicle based on wheel angle and turns. This is why we simply go by turns. The Z3 rack is 2.7 turns. Thr ZHP is 3.0 turns. In the simplest terms, you're cutting a quarter turn off the rack. The rack you currently have is 3.4 turns. So almost the same amount from that to the ZHP as the ZHP to the Z3. Most mechanical things are simple but people like to make them difficult maybe to enhance their ego. I guess I am too old LOL"

[KaiserRolls]

I know you will, but Check the subframe super closely. When I did the weld-in stuff, my old subframe had some cracks that were hard to spot until I cleaned the entire thing, the new one that got welded checked out fine. Are you going with the garagistic plates?

IIRC, I also had these areas welded up

Also keep power steering. Yes driving without it is fine, you won't notice it cruising or driving regularly. Parking lots are whatever, but holy crap it is nice for autox. This is why I'm reinstalling it lol

[m42b32]

Earl said:

Why a zhp rack versus a z3 rack may I ask? I had talked to Rich from Rack Doctor about this when I bought my z3 rack and he stated this when I told him that I saw the zhp rack was said to be quicker.

"I'm not sure where this information is coming from but I have heard this a few times lately and it is inaccurate. The Z3 is a faster ratio rack. It is more expensive true but it is also a better rack. The unit it self is steel body so it tends to be more durable. Forums can be a good thing and a bad thing. You have to weed out the good, the bad, and the ugly.  People often talk about ratios and this changes from vehicle to vehicle because it is a trigonometry equations that will change from vehicle to vehicle based on wheel angle and turns. This is why we simply go by turns. The Z3 rack is 2.7 turns. Thr ZHP is 3.0 turns. In the simplest terms, you're cutting a quarter turn off the rack. The rack you currently have is 3.4 turns. So almost the same amount from that to the ZHP as the ZHP to the Z3. Most mechanical things are simple but people like to make them difficult maybe to enhance their ego. I guess I am too old LOL"

I have seen the same info from rack doctor, the main reason is it is quite a bit cheaper compared to the z3 rack, on rack doctor with the core charge the z3 is $509 and the ZHP is $350. I also want to avoid the twitchiness of a rack that tight since I expect a decent amount of freeway driving once the car is done. From Kaiser's response, it looks like a power steering delete isn't worth it for auto cross so I will most likely be keeping p/s and going with a tighter rack. 

KaiserRolls said:

I know you will, but Check the subframe super closely. When I did the weld-in stuff, my old subframe had some cracks that were hard to spot until I cleaned the entire thing, the new one that got welded checked out fine. Are you going with the garagistic plates?

IIRC, I also had these areas welded up

Also keep power steering. Yes driving without it is fine, you won't notice it cruising or driving regularly. Parking lots are whatever, but holy crap it is nice for autox. This is why I'm reinstalling it lol

Yeah I have the garagistic plates, I was disappointed by the quality, they look like they were cut out by a 5 year old. I know they were pretty cheap and I'm welding them on but still... Good call on welding those gaps though, I hadn't thought of that but it makes sense to do. I started cleaning it up but didn't get too far, I found a little deformation on the driver's side motor mount (bowing up a little where the mount bolts down), so I'll have to flatten that out and check for cracks. 

Thanks for the info on the power steering too, I am planning to auto-x this so that is really good to know. I am leaning towards keeping it now based on what you've said and what I have seen on r3v, etc., deleting it was mostly a cost driven idea and the couple hundred saved might not be worth it.

[KaiserRolls]

Garagistic leaves something to be desired almost always. I had to mess with the ear shaped engine mount reinforcement plates to get them to sit so the bolt hole lined up and there was enough contact between plate and subframe for welding. Rear trailing arm reinforcements were the same way. It was annoying.