A purists nightmare - E46 drift build

[Tkuhn]

UPDATE 

Taped off and painted the subframe/strut bracing. Man was it a pain in the ass and Im not completely happy with it but it will do for now. Mostly not happy with how there is no way to match the barely painted interior where I sprayed it silver.

Also got the dash skin installed with the steering column. I need to wait on fully finishing the dash as I have some wiring and other modifications to take care of yet. But its starting to look more like a car with the dash in! Also worth noting that this car came with grey interior and this dash is the one from my 330i. Really need (want) to find some black door panels but holy shit does everyone want an arm and left nut for them.

The rear trailing arms are completely finished as well. 

Hubs were redrilled to 5x114.3, hoping to have the wheels done soon to show you all! Brand new upper ball joints and lower bushings were installed along with new wheel bearings. Had both arms powdercoated satin black and topped them off with 90mm motorsport hardware studs (might have been a little excessive on the length lol) and the final tough was some syncro design works RTABS. (such a quality looking and feeling product, super hyped on those!)

Also I cant take credit for the second caliper bracket install but they are weld on tabs, previous owner of my 330i did them. These are the rear arms from the 330, and it will also be getting the front knuckles and brakes from the 330.

Andd got the rear trailing arms, upper and lower rear arms along with the new Stance true rear coilovers.

Fabbed up this harness bar as well with the help of @SamHolzmann and @WildBill burned in the brackets that I made for the support rods. The support rods are from a nrg harness bar. Reason for making one is NO ONE offers a reasonably priced harness bar and the end goal for this car will be a caged (down the road of course) so this will do for now for sure!

Sam painted all of my calipers and brackets in the same color as the engine bay (we used a high heat primer) then I Drilled out the new rear rotors to fit the new lug pattern and got the rear calipers installed. I used the condor speed shop rear stainless brake lines, just need to run the other stainless lines for the standalone master on the ASD handbrake that i have from the 330.

And finally I was able to throw some of the left front suspension togeather. I repainted the MG Solutions angle kit, also repainted the knuckles. Still waiting on new hub bearings for the fronts and they will need to be redrilled to 5x114 as well. Needed to get this all togeather to see if I needed extended brake lines or if the stock length condor ones would fit (as i was informed they would with the angle kit and the 330i had stock lines). Well just as my luck goes they wont work. So those are in the process of being exchanged for the lengthened ones.

[jc43089]

Noice!!!!!

[wasnt m3]

I'm impressed with the progress of this. You should splurge on some new anti rattle clips for those calipers, everything else looks so nice!

[Tkuhn]

wasnt m3 said:

I'm impressed with the progress of this. You should splurge on some new anti rattle clips for those calipers, everything else looks so nice!

Thanks! And I totally forgot about them until I put the brakes togeather lol, so it may happen. So much more to do yet!

[suspenceful]

Agreed, awesome progress on this. Can't wait to see it on the road!

[Jdesign]

Cranking away!!! DO you have a set deadline or event in mind?

[Tkuhn]

Jdesign said:

Cranking away!!! DO you have a set deadline or event in mind?

Automotion, then hoping DD70 the weekend after automotion

[Tkuhn]

UPDATE

Finally fabbed up a hand brake bracket (just need to get some nice bolts for final assembly). Also got the lines made and routed for the dual calipers as well and I am super happy with the way it came out.

As you can see I got the rear Condor stainless lines in as well. 

Also wrapped up all of the interior harness with split loom and that changed the entire look of the interior for me.

Also got the driveshaft installed with new guibo and center support bearing. The condor trans mounts came from the 33oi which I had installed last season as well.

[i_love_cars]

wow dude, great progress. Fabrication is foreign to me, I only know how to take things apart and put them back together.

[Tkuhn]

i_love_cars said:

wow dude, great progress. Fabrication is foreign to me, I only know how to take things apart and put them back together. 

Haha thanks! And I can't take all the credit. I can do fab stuff but I have alot of good friends to help as well.

[i_love_cars]

absolutely, almost nobody does it all alone but still good skills to have and a very impressive amount of work going into this

[Tkuhn]

i_love_cars said:

absolutely, almost nobody does it all alone but still good skills to have and a very impressive amount of work going into this 

For sure! Appreciate it!

[Jdesign]

Damn looking good!!! Those stainless hydro lines are awesome, is there a reason you didnt run hardlines?  I assume this route was more expensive.

[Tkuhn]

Jdesign said:

Damn looking good!!! Those stainless hydro lines are awesome, is there a reason you didnt run hardlines?  I assume this route was more expensive. 

With the hydro getting so much pressure so quickly it is better to have a little give in the lines. That's what I've read and been told as well. Could be just a myth but if I was to hardline anything it would be the interior part since the lines under the car need a flex point either way.

[Tkuhn]

UPDATE!

Ill be honest with you guys I feel like this update will not be as in depth as it should. With my deadline for the weekend of May 19th quickly approaching a lot of work needed to get done and I slacked a bit on taking photos.

Chase Bays power steering resiviour, lines and cooler installed (Had this on my 330i previously.)

Rebuilt my vanos with new seals and the anti rattle kit from Beisan.

New radiator mounts strapped to the new CSF radiator.

Got the dash installed and with that came a lot of progress getting all the wiring under the dash and etc figured out.

Also installed this Parts Shop Maxx engine vitals gauge. The one i went with has settings for oil pressure and coolant temp along with voltage. Awesome little gauge for the price i must say. Also in this pic you can see where i removed the DSC button and the panel there and made a carbon panel to go into place.

Made floor plates thanks to the help of @Sam_Holzmann and another friend.

Now onto something I am not super proud of but with the price of black door panels in these cars I decided to clean them up and use interior paint to make them black LOL. I must say they turned out really well. Also re-wrapped the arm rest panels along with the A pillars (I dont have a photo) Was also able to transfer over the Harmon Kardon speakers and amp from my 330 into the car.

And got the car running!!

Had some serious time consuming hiccups with this. First was the expansion tank rubbing on the power steering pulley due to the thicker radiator. Really suerprised that CSF doesnt have a solution for that but we were able to shave some plastic and make clearance for the pulley.

Then there was some odd clacking coming from what sounded like the intake on start up and went away after awhile. Was a very intermittent problem as well. Also was throwing multiple misfire codes and misfire on start up codes.

After chasing the problem trying multiple different things we found that a hose came disconnected under the manifold causing a gigantic vacuum leak. Once that was fixed the car idled awesome and everything was looking great.

Now onto the wheels. To be completely honest the build was running out of time and money so i used the ole rattle can on my wheel faces.

And I sanded the lips to prep them for a friend who is able to polish much more efficently than I am able to.

With new valve stems and new hardware installed I was able to get the wheels together, get tires and have them mounted pretty quickly.

Wheels are SSR Vienna Courages, 18x8 +37, 18x9 +37 and to be honest I had no idea how they were going to fit the car because by the time I had my re drilled hubs on the car I had the wheels apart to refinish them.

Id say it worked out pretty damn well for guessing.

Next up was the daunting task of aligning the car which we did all in shop (its damn close to straight and even). With everything being completely adjustable in the rear and front it was quite interesting, but we got it.

Finished up some things in the engine bay like all the seals and etc. Also have the radium catch can installed but I have it routed not the way they intended as I dont have a CCv and it is meant to work with the CCV, Id like to get one and hook it up correctly in the near future though.

Took the car for a drive and ran into some issues... the m54b30 which was from my 330i had a flash tune from RK-Tunes. Everything was done correctly wiring wise other wise I know the car would nit have started. When driving the car it was rev limited at around 5200 RPM. Tried a few things including swapping a MAF with no luck. After doing some research I figured out that it may be because the cars ABS was completely removed and the cluster no longer has a module to talk to. With that being said I emailed Jordan at RK-Tunes knowing that with my past experiences along with a friends there was a good chance I would not get an email in the time frame that I needed to. So while talking to someone on a facebook page I came across the fact that he also does flash tunes. He runs a website that he sells his own products as well as comissions other peoples products that they have specially made for these cars but have not broken through to the big companies. His name is Mike Dodge from Seemslegitgarage.com . So he hooked me up with an all new DME, ews deleted and tuned to my specific needs for this chassis and build. I swapped the DMEs and drove the car and BAMMM were in business. While Jordan may be a great tuner he lacks in customer service and Mike promised me he prides himself on making sure he is there for customer support. 

Still some finishing touches to touch on but the car is running, driving and now at home where i can work on it more frequently without driving to the shop.

Also a big thanks to @Earl for gifting me the Euro M3 style roof extension for the rear window!

[Ryan...]

[jc43089]

Wow, looks awesome!

[Jdesign]

I agree, I cant wait to see it in action!

[Tkuhn]

Jdesign said:

I agree, I cant wait to see it in action!

USAIR DD71 this weekend! Made it to the dells and back with only a problem with my engine vitals gauge reading 12psi with the engine off and 145 psi at like 35 mph which isn't even possible to my knowledge lol.

[Jdesign]

Tkuhn said:

USAIR DD71 this weekend! Made it to the dells and back with only a problem with my engine vitals gauge reading 12psi with the engine off and 145 psi at like 35 mph which isn't even possible to my knowledge lol.

Is that boost or oil pressure? LMAO  I totally want to go, but I have plans this weekend.  Keep us posted and take lots of pics out there!!