Alpine e30 progress/build thread
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I do have a fender roller. Free rental to any forum member.
That would be incredible, I'll shoot you a PM when I'm back in town on Sunday
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Got some potentially bad news today, UPS had a train derailment and it is delaying my last package of parts. Supposed to be delivered tomorrow so we will see!
In other news, I finally back in town and made more progress after work today. Got my new Stromung exhaust installed, the tip is perfectly centered in the cutout after very minimal adjustment and everything fit together really well, couldn't be happier with the purchase.
10mm wheel spacers arrived from Motorsport hardware, these are needed to clear the front brakes and I now have about 1mm of clearance between the anti-rattle clips and the back of the wheel face. I got all four wheels mounted and set the car on the ground (for the first time!) to check fitment in the front. The spacers have pushed the front wheels to a 16x7 with an effective offset of et3, which was much lower than I was hoping so I was concerned about excessive poke. With the car on the ground and rolled back and fourth a bit to let things settle, it wasn't as bad as I expected, but still not great.
I got the car back up in the air and pulled the struts. M3 struts are a million times easier to remove than the standard e30 ones as you can unbolt them from the tie rod/control arm mount instead of splitting the ball joints, had both of them out in less than 30 minutes
I have two options as far as adding camber to the front. I have some fixed camber plates that should add maybe 1-2 degrees when combined with the standard strut mounts. I also have a set of the E30 "camber correction" strut mounts, though I do not recall how much camber is added. I could potentially use both the correction strut mounts with the fixed plates, though they may add too much and cause the springs to hit the inside of the strut towers. I guess I will have to mix and match till I can get things to work. Both will require normal struts hats as opposed to the drop hats so the front will be raised up a bit.
Other things accomplished:
- Front lip installed. (I lip for now, the IS lip is still in primer)
- Fogs and brake ducts installed
- Axles torn down and cleaned, awaiting boots
I guess I could post this one up too:
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e30s arent setup that way earlmeister. the knuckle and the strut are one piece.
car is looking awesome! love how wide that tire looks up front.
Dan
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You could add shims between the knuckle and strut to add a touch of camber
This way you keep your drop hats
It looks sketchy but is very very common
I wish it were that easy on an e30! The M3 struts are two piece but not like the e36/later cars, the split is horizontal between two cast parts:
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Got cut short on Wednesday due to the nasty storms rolling through, but in that time I installed the camber plates and camber correction strut mounts, got the fan mounted for good, and a few other odds and ends.
Last night I went in determined to drive it home. Got there at 5pm and worked all the way to 2:30am.
- Brakes flushed and bled
- Cooling system filled and bled
- Power steering hoses/reservoir assembled, filled and bled
- Rear sway bar links shortened and installed
- Axles re-booted and installed
Got the wheels on and set it on the ground, I did a half-assed string alignment to get the toe zeroed but I will definitely need to get a proper alignment asap. The gas is pretty old but it smelled ok, definitely going to dilute it with fresh 93 once the tank reaches half and add a can of seafoam to clean out any gunk. Cranked it over for a few seconds with the ignition leads off to circulate the oil, put the leads back on and it fired right up!
Test drive went as well as I could've hoped. Handles great, rear sway bar is a little creaky over dips, and I definitely need to fit the e32 master cylinder ASAP as there is way too much travel in the brake pedal.
Drove it home last night and to work this morning, felt really good to have it back on the road! It runs nice and cool and everything seems to be working as it should.
Only issue I have found so far (other than all the oil leaks, but those were there before...), is that the passenger front caliper bleed screw is leaking a little bit of fluid. This is likely contributing to the soft pedal a little bit. I cleaned it off this morning, along with the paint in that area...dammit, and tightened the bleeder down a bit more. Checked it when I got to work and it's still leaking. Its possible I got some junk on the mating surfaces, so after work I'll be pulling the bleeder and cleaning them as best I can. Hopefully that solves it...anyone have any experience with this?
Driving impressions:
- Z3 rack is worth its weight in gold (seems to be the going rate anyway...)
- Shifter almost feels like it's gated and the placement is perfect
- Smaller steering wheel is amazing
- Needs a lighter flywheel
- Brakes are not confidence inspiring at the moment
- A speedo would be nice because guessing won't be fun when there is a cop checking speeds and there is no traffic to match pace with. Hoping to have that sorted shortly (body side plug and sensor socket on the diff are different)
- I feel every pebble in the road and it's awesome
- Poly mounts on the m42 really aren't that bad, NVH is definitely up there though
Going to give it a good wash after work today, and then I'll see you at the picnic!!
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In other news, I finally back in town and made more progress after work today. Got my new Stromung exhaust installed, the tip is perfectly centered in the cutout after very minimal adjustment and everything fit together really well, couldn't be happier with the purchase.
Looks good! I got mine centered by readjusting the front pipe but I don't have anywhere near the clearance as you've got between the exhaust tip and top of the rear valance. I end up with about 1/4" max and as a result it hits on anything but smooth roads. Kind of annoying. Hangers/straps are about six months old. What am I missing?
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Looks good! I got mine centered by readjusting the front pipe but I don't have anywhere near the clearance as you've got between the exhaust tip and top of the rear valance. I end up with about 1/4" max and as a result it hits on anything but smooth roads. Kind of annoying. Hangers/straps are about six months old. What am I missing?
Just replied to your pm!
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i think you definitely win the award for 'worked hardest to get their car done for the meet'
- I feel every pebble in the road and it's awesome
preach it, brother!
Dan
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i think you definitely win the award for 'worked hardest to get their car done for the meet'
Does it come with a cash prize? Because I could use one haha
I just really wanted to enjoy it this summer so I picked a deadline that seemed reasonable a while back. Turns out if you slack for the first few months things pile up quick
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Z3 rack is great, be warned, by summers end it will feel normal to you and only after driving a car with the stock E30 rack will you remember how great it is
That's why he's getting the other one finished before the fall cruise.
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That's why he's getting the other one finished before the 2020 fall cruise.
Fixed that for you haha
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