1JZ E30 Vert Build Thread with Pastry filled wheels

[Jdesign]

patsbimmer1 said:

I never realized Varrstoen had a reputation of being a "rep wheel".  I was under the impression they built a decent wheel, is that not true?

They build "quality" rep wheels. They are certainly not at the bottom of the food chain like rotas or xxr, as they do make nice 3pc wheels too. The wheels I have are CCW Classic reps for sure, but they are a decent (1pc) cast wheel. Although they are not 3pc like they look like they are, the wheel hardware is threaded into the casting. I have seen and owned rep wheels where the hardware is part of the casting OR glued!!!! into the face of the wheel.

[Jdesign]

So I have been working on this quite a bit lately but havent really posted much. So here is what has happened:

New wheels on the way from Poland. I have spent a fair amount of time to find a really nice set of there rare German Eclairs for the right price and ended up making a post looking for a set and these appeared.

Besides that, I also started digging deep into my engine harness double checking everything and making sure all the wires had sheathing and were completely free of cracks and splitting. I found that one of the grounds was back-feeding to my TPS which was explains some of the issues I was having at more than 50% throttle. I fixed this and went for a drive only to realize my coil packs are toast. I will be ordering new OEM coils and should be ready to go.

But that didnt stop me from messing with the one last eye sore in my engine bay. THE FUSE BOX.  I started by unscrewing the box and labeling all of the connections. Once I got the box out I had to feed the entire head light harness back through the fender/ frame rail and carefully fed it into the firewall into the car.

Here I continued labeling and removing extra wires and labeling the extras that I wont need just in case I ever decide I want to reinstall them in the future.

I plan on mounting the fuse box under the dash in the large void where the ABS ECU use to be. I also will be making a mold of the big rubber plug that was in the fire wall and mounting the round harness plug into it for now. I hope to run standalone next year, and all of this will change again.

[B C]

Stunning wheels!

[jc43089]

Wow those wheels looks great.  Fun stuff tucking the fuse box.  I will be doing the same thing on my e36 when it goes back together someday.  I think Earl did that on his compact as well.

[Earl]

Relocate all of the fuse boxes!

[Jdesign]

Snap said:

Stunning wheels!

Thank you!! So many people hate them but I love the simplicity of them. The chiseled spokes and round center really matches the boxy yet smooth lines of an E30 IMO.

jc43089 said:

Wow those wheels looks great.  Fun stuff tucking the fuse box.  I will be doing the same thing on my e36 when it goes back together someday.  I think Earl did that on his compact as well.

Thanks!! The fuse box was a last minute, "welllll I really need to do this, I might as well" type of moment.  Its way more work than I intended to do since that car was so close to being road worthy. Its nice having less components in the car and being able to remove half of the wires though. Insane that the ABS and A/C required so much additional wiring. 

I have added and removed components in the fuse box of my E36, and I must say, it looks way easier than an E30, so consider yourself lucky.

Earl said:

Relocate all of the fuse boxes!

YASS!! in preparation for a perfectly spotless bay.

 

[Earl]

Wobbies old car=P

[Jdesign]

Does he still have that thing? Last I saw it was sprayed rootbeer and had an LS swap.

[straight6pwr]

wow those wheels are sexy! never seen them before.

also, i love a shaved engine bay as much as the next guy, but pulling the kick panel and contorting yourself to check fuses = f* that.

[Jdesign]

straight6pwr said:

wow those wheels are sexy! never seen them before.

also, i love a shaved engine bay as much as the next guy, but pulling the kick panel and contorting yourself to check fuses = f* that.

Ughhh. I know. I will be using twist screws instead of Phillips down there to help ease the pain.

[Earl]

Jdesign said:

Does he still have that thing? Last I saw it was sprayed rootbeer and had an LS swap.

I'm not sure. I think it may be gone. He built that wicked 2002 and I believe sold that as well.

[m42b32]

I gotta say, when you said eclairs I was sad because those white ones that have been on the chicago(?) craigslist for a while dont look all that great. But those, maybe its the color or a better angle, they look awesome!

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[Jdesign]

m42b32 said:

I gotta say, when you said eclairs I was sad because those white ones that have been on the chicago(?) craigslist for a while dont look all that great. But those, maybe its the color or a better angle, they look awesome!

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

yeah I talked that dude down, but they were so beat.

[Jdesign]

UPDATE!

- I am half way through relocating the fuse box under the dash. I started to look into Mil-spec connectors for the firewall and realized I'm getting carried away.... again. I will revisit this once I go standalone and just pressure myself to move forward. For now I am making my own firewall plug and connection.(pics to come)

-PCB for the fuse box has a compromised section on the underside in the corner. This looks to be from excessive heat or voltage. This was used for the "HIGH" fan speed on the AC condenser I believe. I wont need this particular circuit but I will fix it anyways just to prevent the possibility of opening the fuse box up again in the future.   

-Coilpacks came in and I got a great deal on them from some random site I found on google. $59 for OEM Denso's compared to the normal $98 they are each. ( I must note that they are NOT Chinese knock offs either!)

-O2 sensor also came in. I ordered a new one of these for two reasons. One, I was using a 5.0 mustang sensor due to research online, it was considered the same and I found one locally the same day. Two, I might have fouled that new one out driving the car rich for a month or so when I first got it running. Denso one was ordered from Driftmotion and showed up fast.

-One of my wheels showed up. Still waiting on the other 3. Turned out the centers are not painted at all. They are just clear coat over bare brush aluminum. i am really stoked about this because refinishing them will be super easy! 

Progress has been very slow due to late nights at work and lack of motivation. Hopefully the last things I really need to order are tires. I have a set of S.Drives waiting in a shopping cart online, but I want to wait till all the wheels get here before I order.

Some recent pics or the wiring mess:

[Earl]

Hell yeah to progress

[Jdesign]

So..... All kinds of Good and BAD things happened recently. Lets make a list shall we?

1. Good thing: Wheels actually came and the guy didnt run with my money
2. Bad thing: The wheels are all damaged because the guy "claims" he has shipped hundreds of wheels but packed mine like shit. Cool.
3. Good thing: He says he filed a claim already and it was for the whole price of the wheels. Anyone have any idea on how long a claim takes to process for the USPS and the odds I get any money out of this?
4. Bad thing: I need to buy new barrels or to take the wheels somewhere to get the bends out of all 4, and I would prefer to do it locally. I drive past this trailer every morning, but the guy has yet to respond to my calls or voicemail...

This is the worst one.

[Earl]

I wouldn't even bother fixing those. Contact Paul Ehrlich and tell him you know me=)

http://ewheelworks.us/

New barrels are probably comparable to how much you'd pay to have yours fixed. Either that or you can see if Paul could have yours fixed.

[Jdesign]

In other news, I got a lot of random stuff hammered out on the car including the mass majority of the wiring.  

1. Moved fuse box wiring into the car
2. Removed another large handful of wires from ABS,Cruise,A/C, and wipers
3. Made tidy with what I could to the mass of wires under the dash.(I will revisit this when I swap to a tan dash)
4. Drilled a new hole from the underside of the dash to the drivers side front frame rail and will have to reconnect all the wires for my headlight harness.

I addition there were other random things addressed that were on my list too.

1. Fix the leak in the PS reservoir from forgetting to use thread sealant on a fitting
2. Remove the O2 sensor and solder in the new OEM Denso unit
3. Fill all of the rubber firewall plugs with urethane to seal up the holes- I did this only for the large plugs that were not round.
4. Remove waste gate and confirm the Spring size and gasket is in good condition
5. Get new hardware for wastegate and for sway bar end-links. -Currently the new braided brake lines rub on the end-links at full lock. 
6. Start laying out the cut line for the hood nose piece. 

Also, if anyone wants a hood mat, I have an extra now that I do not need.

Polishing this like I wanted too may not be a possibility as finding a hood in great condition is not going to be cheap. I will take a stab at this first with a few metal forming tools. 

[Jdesign]

Earl said:

I wouldn't even bother fixing those. Contact Paul Ehrlich and tell him you know me=)

http://ewheelworks.us/

New barrels are probably comparable to how much you'd pay to have yours fixed. Either that or you can see if Paul could have yours fixed. 

I think that all depends> when I was a SEMA  I saw some awesome wheel repair machines. I will contact him and see what he says. Thanks Earl!

[Earl]

There are some pretty neat things out there. I have a feeling people charge a lot that use them though to have a quick ROI=/