BMW Compact Build
Posted by NoCoast
Grant Hughes Super Moderator Location: Whitefish, MT Join Date: 01/11/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 6,818 Rally Car: BMW |
Contemplating parting ways with the new shell. Located in Denver, needs a few big things and a ton of little shit.
Straight and clean title 1996 BMW Compact with a full swap from a 1996 328i for the 2.8L I6 engine. FX Racing lightweight flywheel and Sach's clutch kit, Zimmerman rotors and Porterfield R4 pads, TRM modified ECU with EWS security delete though swapped all EWS stuff from donor car. Carbon fiber door panels, carbon look lightweight mirrors, FIA 253 roll cage (sill plus angle door bar), Mishimoto radiator, hoses and aluminum expansion tank. New Bilstein Touring shocks all around (same shock I've done over 600 competitive gravel miles on in other car over last few years) Car was fired up at one point but just idled as driveshaft is not installed yet. No exhaust but all the parts and a nice muffler to build the collector back. Fuel lines need secured under the car, brake lines need redone, rear T was cut out, no seat brackets, expansion tank needs mounted and fan needs resolved. Will take $5k on whatever stock BMW wheels I have laying around. Email me at grant@rally.build if you have questions or any interest. Grant Hughes |
Grant Hughes Super Moderator Location: Whitefish, MT Join Date: 01/11/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 6,818 Rally Car: BMW |
Message I sent with some redundant, some reiterated, and some new information.
As far as parts to purchase, biggest it needs are the brake system as it's missing the rear T on the brake lines. It might have braided lines to the calipers already, I cannot recall if I had put those on. I had planned on the Massive Motorsports dual master pedal box with a pair of Tilton masters and redoing rear brakes with braided lines to accomodate a hydraulic handbrake. I have parts list, it's around $800 and was worth 3 seconds per mile for my driving style to be able to consistently have unboosted brakes with a proper brake balance (Lands End 2015 vs 2016). On the current car I run the Zionsville Auto radiator shroud and expansion tank but had planned on skipping that for the Compact and just using Mishimoto radiator and expansion tank. The expansion tank needs mounted and an electric Spal fan needs added to the system. Fuel lines are dangling as the location of the filter is more near the bottom of the firewall on the six cylinder vs. on the engine in the old four cylinder and there isn't mounting provisions for that on the Compact. Pretty easy fix. Dave Brown was helping assemble the car back in 2016 and lost some hardware like Guibo bolts and such but those have all been replaced. The correct driveshafts combo should be around but I never got far into that as I had hoped to source a medium case diff upgrade (diff and E30 halfshafts) but had also decided to try to keep the small case diff for intial use and get the car moving. Pretty standard upgrade in these cars and well documented. I have a nice muffler and the mandrel bent pieces from Columbia River Mandrel Bending to build the exhaust from collector back. Needs fabricated though obviously. The sunroof skin needs some love to patch the hole. Dave got a little overzealous at times with the patch panel as well. Needs some wheels as the ones that are on there are not mine. We could work out a deal for a set of EvoCorse from Rally.Build if you'd like, the aforementioned 3 seconds per mile at Lands End was also enough to go from never having wheel problems to bending six in one event. Subsequently I don't know if I even have any stock wheels left at this point. Stock seat brackets are still in the car. We did a heater core delete as they are a known failure point and usually pretty unneccessary in Colorado based cars though you may consider an aftermarket heater like the Summit ones. I have one there for my other car that you could look at, they are like $150 or something like that. Figure snow event in December I should probably figure out some kind of at least defroster.
That's all I can really think of at the moment but I'm sure there are a few other things. Cage still needs gussets in main hoop welded in (I made them just not installed) and the rear V bars from center of main hoop to rear shock top mounts. Should be a pretty easy Tuesday night fab/welding project. I had planned to do them when I was there in June but my trip got cut way short. Am tentatively planning a trip in September to work on the car further. If it gets too far along though I'll probably end up deciding I want to keep it. The Compact is the best looking BMW body style for rally and the semi-trailing arm rear is theoretically stronger than the multi-link used on the sedan and coupe models for gravel use. It's also a much nicer shell than my current car. Oh, it also already has a racing stud upgrade in the hubs. Grant Hughes |
Grant Hughes Super Moderator Location: Whitefish, MT Join Date: 01/11/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 6,818 Rally Car: BMW |
Car is almost ready to fire and move under it's on power. Few things forgot to add...
Z3 quick rack with new ends! Lithium lightweight battery Mishimoto shroud and electric fan. This thing should run and drive hopefully on Monday. Going to finish radiator shroud, dash fitting, and rear brake T hopefully before I fly back to Montana. I'll be back at Christmas to get more work done. Exhaust needs fabricated but have a box of Columbia River madrel bends, a 2-1 Y pipe, and a nice Vibrant muffler that come with the car. Optional parts here that could be sold with it. Double stacked 4.27 medium case diff - $500 Not 4.10 but probably 2.9x LSD with no rear cover - $100 EvoCorse wheels with Federal gravel tires, $1400 for four, $2000 for all six. OMP RSPT seats, harnesses, etc are all negotiable. Grant Hughes |
Grant Hughes Super Moderator Location: Whitefish, MT Join Date: 01/11/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 6,818 Rally Car: BMW |
Grant Hughes Super Moderator Location: Whitefish, MT Join Date: 01/11/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 6,818 Rally Car: BMW |
Mike Ball Infallible Moderator Location: Simi Valley,Ca. Join Date: 07/15/2011 Age: Ancient Posts: 466 Rally Car: Nope...I wish...RWD 2 Door Jeep XJ 4.0 5-spd Dirt-o-cross car(we have no grass!)2.3 ZX3 rallyx car(sold) |
Mike Ball Infallible Moderator Location: Simi Valley,Ca. Join Date: 07/15/2011 Age: Ancient Posts: 466 Rally Car: Nope...I wish...RWD 2 Door Jeep XJ 4.0 5-spd Dirt-o-cross car(we have no grass!)2.3 ZX3 rallyx car(sold) |
Mike Ball Infallible Moderator Location: Simi Valley,Ca. Join Date: 07/15/2011 Age: Ancient Posts: 466 Rally Car: Nope...I wish...RWD 2 Door Jeep XJ 4.0 5-spd Dirt-o-cross car(we have no grass!)2.3 ZX3 rallyx car(sold) |
Mike Ball Infallible Moderator Location: Simi Valley,Ca. Join Date: 07/15/2011 Age: Ancient Posts: 466 Rally Car: Nope...I wish...RWD 2 Door Jeep XJ 4.0 5-spd Dirt-o-cross car(we have no grass!)2.3 ZX3 rallyx car(sold) |
Mike Ball Infallible Moderator Location: Simi Valley,Ca. Join Date: 07/15/2011 Age: Ancient Posts: 466 Rally Car: Nope...I wish...RWD 2 Door Jeep XJ 4.0 5-spd Dirt-o-cross car(we have no grass!)2.3 ZX3 rallyx car(sold) |
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