~~ M3Rob95's R3skew Spec E36 328i Interior/Safety prep ~~

[M3Rob95]

Hello everyone,

I am back with yet another Spec E36 build! This time, we will be focusing on the interior prep. The goal of this will be weight savings and safety.

We plan to do the following:

-Strip the interior and sound deadening
-Remove heater core and all A/C components
-Weld sunroof panel in place
-Proper 1.75x.095 DOM 6 point + foot protection roll cage
-Proper Schroth harnesses and window nets
-SPA fire system
-Long Acre electrical cut-off
-Momo Mod 78 steering wheel with quick release hub
-BimmerWorld fuel starvation kit
-And more!


Enough talking about it, lets see the pictures!

Took delivery of the car and got it to ZeE36Hunter's garage with no issues.




Here is one as soon as we got the car in the garage. Let the transformation begin!


First, we must remove the front seats. You would think it is just 4 bolts...

But of course its almost always more. I wish these came out as quick as you can scroll through these pictures




Moving on to the rear seat area:





Out comes the glovebox assembly:


Then the steering wheel, gauge cluster, center console parts, etc in order to remove the dash


And like magic:


Here is one from outside the car:


Moving to the truck really quick..


Need to get this boy some rsm enforcement plates!


The stereo wiring was looking rough and the factory amp was missing:




Starting to get a nice pile of wiring:


More messed up speaker wiring:


More to come with this later.

Quick few pictures of under the hood.

Removed the hood insulation and washer jet system.




More room! Parts are gone but still need to give it a quick detail to make it look all shiny again


Pulled the coolant drain plug from the radiator so that I could remove the heater core components and install the AKG heater core delete kit.

Found the same shaped crud that I found on my M50 engine from my Spec E36. Good thing for magnetic plugs getting it out!


Time to start on the dreaded sound deadening

Nice and clean!


The process





And repeat!

[M3Rob95]

Doesnt take long to get a nice pile:









Ta-da!

[Flacker]

If this is same car I saw saturday night, did u fix the coolant leak?

[blackozone]

How extreme do you get in removing the wiring? I'm working on race-prepping a 318 Coupe and we gutted a hell of a lot of wiring.

[M3Rob95]

If this is same car I saw saturday night, did u fix the coolant leak?

Who is this? I do not recognize the screen name...

The car has not left the garage since I took possession of it. Maybe you are thinking about my friend Hunter's black e36. I think something is/was wrong with his expansion tank cap and it was acting funky when we dropped it off with the cage builder.

How extreme do you get in removing the wiring? I'm working on race-prepping a 318 Coupe and we gutted a hell of a lot of wiring.

We get very extreme! We remove everything that is not needed. For this initial phase of this project, we are leaving much of the central body harness to retain windows, door lock functions, and misc stereo components for long treks to the track.

The interior has come a long way. It is 99% ready to be sent to the cage builders!









Did a bit of painting of the rear deck to help eliminate glare.




Got the BimmerWorld fuel starvation elimination kit. It is a very nice kit and I recommend it. Nothing like not 1, but 2, new fuel pumps!

Out with the old:


In with the new:




All the heater core parts have been removed and the AKG motorsports delete kit is successfully installed.

A few parts that were removed:

[moldye36]

Subscribed!

This is exactly where i am now with my car and this is already such a great thread. Cant wait to see the final product!

[M3Rob95]

Subscribed!

This is exactly where i am now with my car and this is already such a great thread. Cant wait to see the final product!

Thanks for the compliment. This one is definitely going to be nice.

We just dropped the car off at the cage builders so there will be more updates soon!

[NakNak]

Awesome, any more pics of the Bimmerworld duel fuel pump install? Is it pretty straight forward? It has been sitting in my garage for a while now waiting for install...

[BimmerDawg]

Is this yours, or are you building for a friend? Great work so far.

[M3Rob95]

Is this yours, or are you building for a friend? Great work so far.

I am building this for a friend/customer. I have enough e36s at the moment, lol.

Here are some long over due updates. Finally have time since it is Easter

During the cage build:












The cage builder delivered the car for me.


Finished product. I was very happy with how it turned out. It is very tight to the body resulting in a lot of head room, etc. More pictures:













Nice weld on the harness bar on the main hoop:


New Momo Mod 78 350mm wheel:


Quick release hub for the new Momo steering wheel. I really like the engineering of this particular QR. Thanks Discovery Parts! :





The heater core firewall block off plate looks amazing! :



Installing the really nice SPA fire system. The bottle seemed larger than I have seen, but if the car catches fire, we wanna fill that baby with foam!

[papiichulo]

Those welds are kinda questionable

[325Trckslt]

I dont think the drivers door bar would pass. Welds are questionable. Doesnt seem the have good penetration.

[M3Rob95]

I certainly don't want to start a welding/cage argument but this is a mig welded cage versus tig which you might be thinking. The cage is rock solid! I am sure everyone on here can do better

[325Trckslt]

I certainly don't want to start a welding/cage argument but this is a mig welded cage versus tig which you might be thinking. The cage is rock solid! I am sure everyone on here can do better

Im sure it is solid. Just letting you know for a little bit of information to pass on to your cage builder. Im more worried about the drivers door bar then anything.

[papiichulo]

I'm a welder by trade. Even for mig welds, they're sloppy. Could've used more heat

[MechEng7]

I have to agree, those welds are questionable. I don't mean to fuel the fire, but when safety is concerned I will voice an opinion.

[M3Rob95]

I still think y'all are mistaken. It must be the photos...

[M3Rob95]

I am going to have my friend who is a welding inspector / structural engineer check them out. This is certainly not my cage builders first rodeo..

[papiichulo]

image-1125994952.jpg



image-2250129213.jpg



image-4270512910.jpg

All examples of what a mig weld should look like.

[328iJunkie]

Those are the best mig welds ive ever seen. I almost thought they were tig...

[papiichulo]

Those are the best mig welds ive ever seen. I almost thought they were tig...

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic of not. But thank you

[DurtyMD]

Thanks for all the pics! Why didn't y'all decide to go with nascar bars and gut the doors? That's still legal in SE36 right?

[M3Rob95]

Thanks for all the pics! Why didn't y'all decide to go with nascar bars and gut the doors? That's still legal in SE36 right?

You're welcome! That certainly still is legal for SE36. The topic was brought up in the beginning but we decided we wanted to keep the doors in tact for a number of reasons. The car is still driven to HPDEs and whatnot. We wanted to keep the window regs and door locks functioning like factory, as well as keep the door panels and speakers for the long car drives to the track. This is not a dual purpose car but they do like to drive it to the track versus tow. I personally do the same thing and it has never let me down. One more reason why I love the e36. Unfortunately after the cage was installed, the door panels did not fit 100% properly with the cage. The doors could close but the panels were barely hitting the cage and it wasnt perfect. Instead of hacking up the panels which might have looked funky, we left them off entirely. I did get to spend several hours removing the gum from the vapor barrier. That stuff is a huge pain in the rear but I have a good process now if anyone ever needs to tackle it on their cars.


Awesome signature by the way!

[M3Rob95]

Forgot to update the final product..









At Roebling with NASA for the first on track test drive!

[stealthbeam]

Looking sweet!