been busy in hoopty land!
In an effort to button up the S50 car, I installed rubber trailing arm bushings to replace the sad poly that was in there. Subframe bushings were quality and showed no wear, so they stayed.
The 3.25 diff that was in the car leaked from every orifice, and I had a nice n' tight '93K mile 3.25 on das shelf that I threw in with an AKG bushing that matched the subframe bushing hardness with some fresh 75/140. Been using 75/140 on the last few diffs, after a chat with dr. Zakspeed about how it seems to work better on 30 year old used diffs. I concur and have had better luck with it over the traditional 75/90.
She'll be up for sale in Indy soon to cap off my "year of the sell"
Untitled by
Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr
Untitled by
Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr
Turbo 318iS went to a new home- a buddy had been looking for a rust free chassis for ages, and I just passed along the deal that I got on this thing to him, to move stuff along in the year of the sell.
Untitled by
Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr
Which brings me to the steamy pile of garbage he blessed me with in return.... a rusty '90 auto coupe that has been more or less fully refreshed in the drivetrain/suspension sector.
LCA, steering rack, IE springs, konis, head rebuilt by the famed Turn In Concepts in Cincinnati, long tubes with a full custom exhaust. He tore the car down for paint after doing the work and found a bunch of rust. So now it's my responsibility to make it go away. The goal is for this to leave in one piece, as it runs/drives/stops/steers super well. Would be a killer drift car with a manual, but that's an avenue for someone else to explore.
Untitled by
Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr
Untitled by
Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr
And then a cool local guy from Indy who used to make M42 coil on plug plates waaaay back in the day wanted me to come free up the driveway spot that had been taken up by his uber rusty 318iS for a while. He sent me this shot of the Cavallino in the car and I couldn't say no.
Untitled by
Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr
Untitled by
Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr
Meanwhile, I had been trying to sell the slicktop 318 4dr without much/any luck for $3500, which I thought was cheap. The car needed suspension/brake work but it wasn't bad. I needed the space, so I posted a "someone please save this car before I part it" ad on R3V FB and a cool dude from FL promptly picked it up, so I didn't have to cut the roof off on live stream after all.
Untitled by
Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr
I have been saving a superETA motor for my keeper hoopty, and finally yanked it out of the car that it was in and popped the valve cover off to find everything one hopes and dreams of. New HD rockers, new cam, ARP studs, etc. It had been sitting, so I pulled the head off to inspect the bores and it was all perfect.
So in the coming weeks I will be throwing this back together with an OE dealer head gasket and hoopty will be back on the road! I'm going to leave the mess that is the current quarter panel situation for now, but hopefully next winter I'll have Tim @ClassicDaily stitch a quarter on it for me.
I bought a garagistic X brace for the car, and had F&R strut bars on the shelf I've been saving for hoopty to stiffen up all of the salvage flexing it likes to do. I also talked to my buddy who is a great fabricator, and we discussed adding a bar on the floor in front of the rear seat, tying the b pillars and floor together to help the chassis out. Once he gets time, that will get done.
Last piece of the hoopty suspension puzzle needed are camber plates to replace these GC race plates. I need some street camber plates, ordered them from IE and they said they're having issues making them so they couldn't fulfill the order. I'm not spending $500 on ground control units, so if you're reading this and have some used touring/street camber plates, hit me up.
Also, once S50 car sells, after a long long way, it's finally M3 time! That's all for now, folks.
Untitled by
Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr
Untitled by
Bobbie Morrone, on Flickr