FuturisticConcept Art BMW E36 with a V8 on a bottom dollar budget

[Jdesign]

SO.... Did a lil test fitting this weekend...

NOW.... mind you this is at lowered height, no lift, no cutting. With the jack under it I get about 3" of droop and the wheel spins freely. I think with the lift I should be able to clear everything up front. I will just need to trim the bumper and I should be okay.

I have yet to test the rear, and I will be a little concerned with running into the subframe mount.

[REKIII]

Wow.  

Now, I agree that from a utility standpoint, this wheel/tire combo will be much better, but I'm still on the fence aesthetically.  I'm excited to see how the final stance (I hate myself for using that word) will be.

Very cool.

[Jdesign]

So I ran across this today now....

which gives me a lot of hope that this will work just fine!

[B C]

It took a beating pretty well!

Are those wheels custom built?

[Jdesign]

B C said:

It took a beating pretty well!

Are those wheels custom built?

Which wheels?

[Jdesign]

Not much to look at but I made a little progress on this. Cleaned up the new subframe, painted it and installed new bushings. I also removed the trailing arm bushings and ordered new Ball joints for the trailing arms. I will be painting the swing arms next before installing all the new stuff.

I still need to order new brakes for the rear, but then should have everything to complete the rear end swap/upgrade.

[B C]

@Jdesign in the future

[Jdesign]

B C said:

@Jdesign in the future

 I never realized Biff had euro bumpers

[jc43089]

Jdesign said:

 I never realized Biff had euro bumpers

Duh, it's the future!

Also are you doing upper and lower ball joints on the trailing arms instead of the non M style with one ball joint and one bushing?  I did that on mine and I don't see any reason why not to.

[Jdesign]

jc43089 said:

Duh, it's the future!

Also are you doing upper and lower ball joints on the trailing arms instead of the non M style with one ball joint and one bushing?  I did that on mine and I don't see any reason why not to.

Yes, although I stupidly forgot that I have new bushings that I made from delrin for the lowers already on the car as seen here: 

https://www.wibimmers.com/board/index.php?/topic/4537-futuristicconcept-art-bmw-e36-with-a-v8-on-a-bottom-dollar-budget/page/18/

Im also contemplating if I should just find a cheap fuel cell instead of replacing the fuel tank.... Thoughts?

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[jc43089]

Jdesign said:

Im also contemplating if I should just find a cheap fuel cell instead of replacing the fuel tank.... Thoughts?

What's wrong with the fuel tank?  Maybe I missed it.  The stock tank seems like a good design, it's low and fits around the components of the car well.  Any fuel cell is going to be further back and higher up.  Also capacity might be an issue, it would be annoying to stop for fuel every 150 miles.  I would think tanks should be all over from junked cars, there isn't anything to go wrong on them unless it gets punctured.

[straight6pwr]

roof rack +

[straight6pwr]

another idea: put a hole in top of the trunk lid and put that tank in the trunk so you can see it. maybe leave the filler hanging out a hole in the lid or the fender.

[Jdesign]

jc43089 said:

What's wrong with the fuel tank?  Maybe I missed it.  The stock tank seems like a good design, it's low and fits around the components of the car well.  Any fuel cell is going to be further back and higher up.  Also capacity might be an issue, it would be annoying to stop for fuel every 150 miles.  I would think tanks should be all over from junked cars, there isn't anything to go wrong on them unless it gets punctured.

It has a hole in it. When the car bottoms out, it smushed the floor into the tank a poked a small hole in it. I patched it, but I have a new tank I got from TJ. But since the floor is all destroyed, its likely to happen again unless I smasheth everything with a BFH. Not that I dont mind doing that, but I thought it might be smarter to just get a fuel cell. IDK you are probably right about keeping the stock tank. 

straight6pwr said:

another idea: put a hole in top of the trunk lid and put that tank in the trunk so you can see it. maybe leave the filler hanging out a hole in the lid or the fender.

LOL. I plan on cutting the whole floor of the trunk out while im doing the subframe and all that stuff back there. I think its a smart move to relocate the battery between the strut towers vs. the stock quater-panel location in case I hit something. With that, I figured it might be easy to run a fuel cell but in the end it more messing around that I dont need to do right now. I just want to get this thing road worthy again.

This is similar to what I was thinking:

[straight6pwr]

you'd never have to stop for gas with 45-50 gal.

[Jdesign]

straight6pwr said:

you'd never have to stop for gas with 45-50 gal.

IDK if I would even get moving with the weight and use of diesel in a gas engine. But seriously, that's obnoxious and  would require some extensive fabrication to make sure I don't explode when I hit something. (I really plan on hitting something)

[straight6pwr]

they hang these off the sides of trucks and everything is hunky-dory.  i've never seen a semi truck on fire before.

[Jdesign]

straight6pwr said:

they hang these off the sides of trucks and everything is hunky-dory.  i've never seen a semi truck on fire before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpnCB2OwgVY

[YoungCR]

straight6pwr said:

they hang these off the sides of trucks and everything is hunky-dory.  i've never seen a semi truck on fire before.

I’ve seen more cars burning on the side of the road then tractors but it does happen haha. It’s usually electrical issues.

[jc43089]

Also for a truck it's filled with diesel which doesn't readily burst into flames like gasoline...