After spending a few years building a TT3 E36, I had an incident at Barber Motorsports Park, destroying the chassis.
Video of the incident can be seen here:
https://flic.kr/p/GhQKDa
I tried to fix it, but the chassis was bent all the way back to the gas tank.
This thread will document the rebuilding of this car into a new chassis.
Last edited by darbyfam; 11-06-2017 at 02:58 PM.
Well, as soon as I find a good photo hosting site, I will be updating it more. Imgur is not working well. Suggestions?
I will keep the Bagelmeister FB page up to date more than this probably.
I've learned from another member that Chrome has an extension to fix the pictures. However it's only good for chrome and not mobile.
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
Initially, we believed the shell could be repaired and the car went to the frame shop for a week. Turned out it was bent worst than they thought and we gave up on repairing that shell. I purchased another shell for $200 and started preparing it for a full cage.
Got all the sound deadening out, all the wiring removed, the engine bay painted, the rear subframe and RTAB pockets reinforced.
Last edited by darbyfam; 11-06-2017 at 03:08 PM.
The plan was to re-build the car as an ST3/TT3 race car with a full cage, giving me the option to race or run time trials.
The day the black shell was ready to go to the cage builder, I found a deal I couldn't pass up. 1995 BMW M3 project with a full cage already installed. It also had plenty of suspension upgrades and a Ford 302 under the hood. The seller was asking $3500 for the car and all the spares, which included some great parts like TC Kline coilovers, Z3 steering rack, Turner rear lower control arms, Bimmerworld aluminum diff/subframe mounts, TC Kline lollipops, and on and on.
I have a close friend who was interested in the 302 and the shocks, so we split the cost of the car and headed off to Ohio to pick it up. Fifteen hours and 900 miles later, I had a caged shell ready to head home.
Last edited by darbyfam; 11-06-2017 at 03:13 PM.
When I got the car home, I pulled the rear subframe to look for any subframe/RTAB mount damage and found the car had OEM subframe reinforcements, but the RTABs needed attention. A quick call to CondorSpeed and Chris Carver Motorsports and the RTABS were reinforced and ready to take on the subframe.
I merged all the best parts from the three cars and ended up with:
Bimmerworld sold subframe bushings
Rogue Engineering solid differential bushings
Turner aluminum lower control arms
TC Kline RTAB bushings
DiffsOnline 3 clutch LSD with polished gears and Rogue Engineering diff cover
New control arm bushings and ball joints throughout
Bimmerworld brass caliper guides
Zimmerman cross-drilled rotors
Hawk HT10 brake pads
ECS Tuning stainless brake lines.
I then moved on to the front subframe and did the same thing. I ended up with:
Z3 rack with new outer tie rod ends
New ball joints, lower control arms
TC Kline lollipops
Zimmerman cross-drilled rotors
Bimmerworld brass caliper guides
ECS Tuning stainless brake lines
I also upgraded the steering guibo with a CondorSpeed product.
During the teardown of the wrecked car, I found the AST 4100 coilovers had been bent fairly bad. I got an estimate to rebuild the shocks and re-valve them for higher spring rates. The estimate was between $1500 and $2000. At the same time, I found a set of JRZ single adjustable coilovers for sale on M3Forum.net for $2000. I picked those up as I felt they would be an upgrade over rebuilt ASTs and they were already valved for the 850F/950R springs I planned to use. The picture from the FS ad
I will not be using the springs or helper springs from the picture. I purchased a set of properly sized Eibach springs to be installed later.
The body of the car was in very good shape with only one sign of past damage - which was repaired very well. The clear coat was failing, so I decided to go for a full re-spray in white. I worked through the car and removed all the mouldings, etc and pressure washed it inside and out. It is currently ready to head to the paint booth this week.
You can see the wrecked shell in the background. I am holding on to it until this project is done just in case I need something off of it. I think I am going to pull the brake lines off that shell as the ones on the white shell show some corrosion at the ends.
All the moulding will be freshened up before going back on the car. I also purchased new M3 badges. I was able to save the S2R Carbon sunroof delete out the other car and it will go in this one. It will not be painted, but is getting a fresh clear coat applied as is the Brooks carbon wing.
Last edited by darbyfam; 11-06-2017 at 03:35 PM.
Good luck man! Do you have a lot of competitors in ST3 TT3?
99 M3 STU/ GTS3 Project
We have a very small region (New Orleans) but we tend to make a class for contingency in TT3 at each of our events. Same for ST3 on the race side. Would love to figure out an easy way to make it work withing the 10:1 hp/wt for ST/TT and fit in a GTS class as well. Going to either need to ballast or de-tune.
I have given your offer much consideration and, after a good hearty laugh, I have decided to decline it .
In all seriousness, I would like to have multiple tunes in the MS3PRO so I can easily move classes without ballast. After this car is complete, I will go back to the dyno and see if I can make that happen.
Perfect. My sugestion was going to be to try and build the car for the class (NASA/ SCCA/ HSR/ whatever) that you would have the most people to race against. Since you are at a good crossroads of having built and modded a car already which is a lot of fun and have lots of parts and this new blank canvas...
99 M3 STU/ GTS3 Project
I am the Asst. Regional Director and the Time Trial Director for my region. I will always keep my car TT-legal to support my program. I wish the GTS hp/wt were more in line with TT/ST as it would make it so much easier for people to move around and make large classes. The way things are now, I can run TT3/ST3 easily but would have to ballast to get in to GTS3.
Remains to be seen what this car will weigh, so I have to wait for that. Also, my last dyno was on a Mustang (304WHP). The Dynojet numbers will be 5-10% higher. We will know before the start of the 2018 season though.
Dropped her off today for paint.
Last night, I attempted to do the 5th gear and reverse detents on my transmission. The reverse went well and was quite easy (following some YouTube videos I had found and with the right tools). When I got to the 5th gear I had an issue that set me back quite a bit.
When removing the bushing as shown in the below pic (copied from internet), the bushing fell in to the transmission. Curse words followed. The front of the bushing rolled over and, when I tried to tap on it some more to get it small enough to get out, it pushed in instead. This was my first attempt at working on transmissions. Lesson learned.
Luckily I have multiple sources for getting it fixed.
Last edited by darbyfam; 11-13-2017 at 07:49 PM.
Stopped by the body shop on Friday to check on the progress of the car. Was happily surprised to find they are fixing all the dents on the car - something I didn't expect them to do.
Car was supposed to get it's first coat of primer later on Friday but I didn't get a chance to stop back by and check. Will drive by on Monday.
And a side note to this build, I was lucky enough to attend a Ferrari club event here in New Orleans where the oldest Ferrari know to exist was in attendance. It's the second car Enzo ever built and was valued in the $40M range. It was participating in a rally around the city of New Orleans.
Good progress. I'm anxiously awaiting the release of the TT5 rule set. From what I've gathered all us TTC guys are going to be hosed and will either have to add a bunch of weight, detune, or both.
I've gotta see if I can easily add some weight or decide to add power and jump up classes, which I don't really wanna do...
'03 911 Turbo 6MT fun car
'18 Toyota Land Cruiser Daily driver/Ski Machine/Off Roader
'15 Cayenne Diesel Wife's DD
'17 KTM 690 "Adv" 2 wheeled Adventurer
Couple of shots from the paint shop.
Getting two stage on the exterior and single stage on all the interior.
I found this rendering on Instagram by http://motiveartworks.com. I will be doing this ghost flag graphic on my car. No yellow mirror though.
Last edited by darbyfam; 11-22-2017 at 07:07 PM.
She is home and ready for re-construction
Step one will be installing the wiring harness.
NIce! You need a MaxJax in that garage. It will change your life.
99 M3 STU/ GTS3 Project
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