Bodywork nastiness done, back to the fun stuff. The essentials are done, if I hook up the battery and ground strap, it has what it needs to run. Now on to the sensors, chassis functions and then canbus gear. The grounding block turned out great, just as I imagined. It's so nice to route grounds without the stupid ring terminals.
So annoying how labour intensive this stuff is but starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. 3 weeks left, hoping to wrap up wiring this week. Going to try to leave a minimum number of things as "wireless" for the show (like all the bluetooth driveshafts at SEMA), maybe just the diff oil pump if I don't get around to it.
Sad to see my ghetto water pressure gauge go but wiring in these new sensors is so exciting. It made me realize how happy this stuff makes me which would have been about a zero not that long ago when I had no experience with anything else. Now that I've worked with these VDO spade connectors, traditional wire and stuff, now to be using proper crimped on connectors from AEM and Tefzel wire, it's almost drool worthy. But I also realize you have to have lived the alternative to appreciate it. Oh well.
Trudging forward. I was conflicted about what to do about the wires going back into the engine bay for auxiliaries (lights, ABS, fans, boost valve etc) and the best solution would be a bulkhead but the only good ones I saw were Autosport and I wasn't interested in paying a grand by the time I was done buying the connectors/parts and crimper. Then a friend told me about this bulkhead he had used before which is excellent quality and normal DTM style pins. A lot of work but so satisfying!
So what brand of bulkhead is that?
It's not branded as far as I can see but I got it here:
Cool, thanks!
The car is wired. 5 hours a night, 10 a day on the weekend, and I think I'm now legally in a common law relationship with my crimper but it's done. Next I just need to bundle things up and hang the connection bundles. Then the dash can go in and it's on to finishing touches. I'm pretty burnt out so I'm not sure how far I'll end up going but at least need to clearance the rear frame rails for the 345s and assemble the front wheels and mount tires.
I think after the show is over, I'm going to take up knitting and watch soap operas for a few months.
Home stretch
Assembled and cleaned up the tails. Also shadowlined the chrome, should have done this long ago but never had the motivation to do cosmetic stuff over mechanical/electronic projects
Ready to rock. See you guys at booth 1351
So you traded an obsolete digital camera for this car? Nice!
This thing is awesome.
Made me go back and reread this whole thread. Great stuff! Picked up on more details. Coupla questions:
Did you lose a ton of weight?
Is that diff cover titanium?
Haha yep, I even have the original owner's email somewhere, I keep meaning to send him a photo or two... maybe I will after I take some on the show floor.
Not quite a ton but getting there, down from about 350 lbs to 220ish.
No that guy's stainless.
Dude. You dropped a third of your body weight. That's like an additional 20 hp for the car, in addition to all the suspension and braking benefits. Is there no limit in your search for performance?
Keep up the good work, on both fronts.
In reply to Nader :
Thanks! No I guess not, I may just change course from time to time. A few years back I hit my lifetime powerlifting ambitions and sort of naturally lost interest, so after that becoming weaker as a price to pay for chasing other metrics became acceptable. Maybe the E30 will go on a diet one day too, in the form of a carbon body... the next big goal for it though is Bosch M5 ABS. And chasing down Donohue's 1:16 917/30 Mosport lap time
Car looks amazing!
In reply to Lof8 :
Thank you!
Going to be a while before it sinks in, probably after I get back but it's definitely real now
Came for pics of the car at PRI. Found satisfaction.
Car looks incredible. Definitely belongs in the PRI hall.
In reply to Mezzanine :
Thank you sir! The integral of one dude learning in the garage for 10 years...
What are your plans tomorrow? I'll try to be around more often so swing by the booth or go get some lunch
Well, I am absolutely pooped but what an absolute experience of a lifetime... I couldn't hang around the booth much because while I wasn't interested in professional critics talking E36 M3 about a 10 year integral of my learning and effort, I was more worried about complements because they badly trigger my impostor syndrome. But from what I'm told it was a huge hit, esp with people that matter to me (guys who build and appreciate unique and fast cars, rather than hard parked show ones). The highlight of the trip though was when the owner of ARE took me to see Parnelli Jones' old shop. It's currently run by his old partner Eddie (no one seems to know his last name, he's just Eddie to everyone). He has absolutely mind blowing stuff in the shop (if only things could tell stories... esp that dyno) and even though he's always working on priceless Offys and Cosworths, the stuff he keeps under tarps are his collection of 200 some odd hit n miss engines. I also was introduced to and had a super cool conversation with Howden Ganley. The war stories this man has to tell made me drool listening (not the least of which about being Bruce McLaren's 3rd employee). There were also a bunch of shiny cars and engines and E36 M3 at the show, I don't really care about much of it, you can find better pics elsewhere anyway.
Saw the builder of the RP968 billet engine at PRI and he was also displaying his freaking billet stainless CNC collectors. This one caught my eye because it's a twinscroll rotated 90 degrees to have the same fitment as an open collector, so I can make a compact twinscroll. So the trigger has been pulled and a new item added to the winter scope creep - new manifold... Having done some milling of stainless when we simply needed to do some skim passes on my diff cover to make it flat, and burnt a controller, and also looking at the tool paths, I can only imagine what his CNC looks like...
That's a lot of awesomeness to take in--congrats on the respect(s)! I copied the pic with the lists, as the wisdom within is priceless and hysterical. You must be circling the drain of 40 soon to appreciate . . .
I've never had any urge to visit Indiana, but PRI may change that, if I could snag a ticket some year. SEMA just seems a bit too donk, but worth going nevertheless . . .
Here's looking forward to motivated track video of this car in action. We've got some good testing zones in northern CA . . .
The last track test had a little bit of motivation but I can't wait to start squeezing towards the outer edge of this car's envelope. I want to be in the teens next year:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4EcIRmzCK4
Yeah Indy in December doesn't sound like a good idea other than the show being for true gearheads. SEMA tries to have a guise of being for industry participants only but it doesn't even have the appearance of verification. PRI doesn't really check anything either but they make you submit a business card or paystub proving that you work in the industry which probably goes most of the way to prevent random muppets from attending... but it doesn't stop me. I went my first time when I started a side consulting gig and my incorporation lists motorsport consulting as part of the activity. I got approved and all but I thought they actually checked my docs. Next year I offered a friend to go as my employee, and he said ok if they ask for documentation then sure. He got approved without even uploading anything.
It's funny, my first year attempting to go, I tried to get friends in the industry to piggy back on and they all said they're tapped out with passes (incl Tim S of Grassroots fame). And that was the last year it was in Orlando. To add insult to injury, the hotel we were staying in for a Florida vacation was being used as a trailer parking overflow lot for the show...
When I finally went and it was in Indy, I was bitching to guys there that they should go back to Orlando. They all unanimously said no freaking way. I forget sometimes that they're actually there to do business and not jerk off, and being in Indy in December means the family says "yeah you go do that, bye". So they can actually be productive.
But the reality of it is that with such a small town having what seems like a doubling of its population with the show in town, the concentration of cool people becomes utopian. You can hit up pretty much any bar or restaurant after hours and find a group of half or fully in the bag guys bench racing. Also those that are still ambulatory, often find their way to a gokart track. If your schedule permits, 100% go.
Well then, that turned out quite awesome!
You'll need to log in to post.
