She lives!

Subframe and Trailing Arms

Drilled and chiseled out the remnants of the bushing that was stuck to the body.

Couple of battle scars from drilling out the aluminum bushing parts, only superficial marks the structural integrity is still good.
Had the same result with the passenger side, currently in the process of drilling and chiseling this side out as was done with the driver's side. Not going quite as smoothly as the first one so I will let this sit overnight with a good soaking of penetrating lube.

While I am waiting for the pentrating lube to act I installed the new trailing arm bushings. Probably one of the smoothest installs on this build so far. I'll let the freshly painted subframe dry for another day before I bolt the arms back on.

Rear End "Enhancement"

Been working on cleaning up the rear end components and removing the old bushings during the week in hopes of reinstalling everything this weekend. That's not going to happen. Pressed the IE poly differential bushings in, some minor tweaking was required but overall they went in smoothly.

My first attempt to remove the subframe bushings was to cut the steel bushing structure and then bend it out as I had done with the control arm and differential bushings.

This obviously didn't work out real well so I turned to burning the bastards out, about 10 minutes for each bushing and they hammered right out.

Like normal I am too impatient to wait until the subframe is cleaned up to put in the new parts. So I pressed in the new poly bushings, this may come back to bite me in the ass...

The other half of the subframe bushing was still stuck to the budy of the car. My thoughts were that it was stuck on the stud itself so I drilled a series of holes in the side, sprayed some penetrating lube and went to work with a pipe wrench. I successfully cracked the aluminum along the holes I had drilled which made me think that it would come off quite nicely now...

Boy was I wrong, the only part that was stuck was the very top where it was pressed into the steel unibody. So I successfully snapped the aluminum at the body and will have to find some way of chipping the rest of it out. Of course if I hadn't pressed the new bushing in I could have thrown it on the lathe and turned it to eliminate the interference with the left over aluminum.

The 1/4-1/2" of aluminum that is still stuck in the body, hopefully I don't end up with the same result on the passenger side bushing.

One actual success that I had was the subframe and differential got a couple coats of primer and paint to stop the rust buildup. This will never be anything close to a show car so only the loose rust was knocked off, no need to get the surface smooth.

Bushing replacement in the rear end

Dropped the rear end to replace the bushings for the subframe, trailing arms and diff mount. What is not visible are the internals to the original subframe bushings that are still stuck on the body mount studs.

Separated the diff from the subframe to make it a little more managable to move around a clean up. Probably scraped off 2 pounds worth of dirt and other crap that was stuck to the outside.

Disassembled the rest of the rear suspension so that pieces can be brought into the basement to be worked on where the temperature is above freezing.
Everything ready to be worked on in the comfort of the basement. Poly bushings just waiting to be pressed in.
Original differential mount came out fairly easily, not sure the subframe bushings will be quite as nice.

Upgrades/Replacements Begin

While waited for the cage builder to have some time to build me a cage I decided there were some things that I could purchase and install in the mean time.

From Bimmerworld.com I picked up the following:
-OEM Control Arms
-Powerflex Offset CA Bushings
-Ireland Engineering Poly Motor Mounts
-Upgraded (Stiffer) Rubber Tranny Mounts
-Powerflex Poly Rear Diff Mount
-Hawk HP+ Pads
-Brembo Blank Rotors
-To be delivered in March...D-Force LTW5 15x7's ~13lbs each

From TurnerMotorsports.com
-Bosch W8LCR Spark Plugs (no local stores carry copper plugs anymore)
-A couple spare lug bolts

From TireRack.com
-Avon Tech R-A's 205/50R15's

The stack of 205 Avons is approx. 2.5" taller than the stack of 225 Azenis...sweet.


First to get replaced were the control arms. I assumed this would be as simple as it was on my old Nissan, well it wasn't and quickly led to the replacement of the motor mounts sooner rather than later. The inner balljoint on the passenger side subframe did not want to cooperate. It was a combination of having zero room due to the aftermarket headers running in the only place where a wrench would be useful.

Even after removing the subframe with the passenger side CA still attached the balljoint still refused to come loose so we resorted to grinding the bitch off.

The quality motor mount completly sheared the top mounting plate off when the subframe was dropped.

The engine sat supported by the jack and a backup jackstand for about a week while the subframe was cleaned up and the control arms were installed. Note the new shiny yellow IE motor mount.

New contol arms installed on the subframe. Much easier to properly torque the balljoints when you aren't cramped around the engine. However putting the subframe back on the car alone with the control arms mounted was an interesting experience. Slightly awkward/heavy trying to align holes while working around the engine being supported by the jack.

Subframe finally re-installed and the engine supported with the new mounts. Took a few attempts (1.5 hrs) to get the subframe mounts and the motor mounts to all line up. Will take a lot less time the next time the subframe comes off now that I have the process down.

Interior Cleanup

After a few weeks of early season skiing the weather is warming up a little bit so I now have some time to get back to working on the car.


Finished up scraping off all the interior sound deadening material, ended up being about 13 lbs worth.

Picked up a set of used Corbeau Forza seats from a friend. They are crappy and uncomfortable but will do the job at least for 1 season until I have more cash in the budget for seats.

The headliner was the last thing that needed to be removed before the cage can start being installed. It ended up being much more of a pain in the ass than anticipated. But at the same time I removed all the sunroof components and will eventually hard mount the sunroof panel, no more tilt/slide sunroof now it will either be in or out. Headliner, sunroof track and motor was about 10 lbs worth of stuff.

After ripping off the headliner foam there is a bunch of glue still on the sheetmetal which will need to be cleaned off. Easier to do it now while there is space rather than trying to work around a cage.

Carpet Removal

First attempt at removing the interior carpet resulted in me finding out that in order to remove the carpet in one piece I would have to remove the entire dash. This would end up being a big pain in the ass so I decided to just cut around where the carpet passes under the dashboard. Yanking the carpet out still sucked after cutting around the dash but after 20 minutes of pulling on it it finally came out. Weighed in at 35 lbs which now puts me over 200lbs of material removed.

With the carpet removed I can see that there are some rust areas in the floor which will need to be address, for now they have been primed to prevent further rusting. The sound deadening material on the floor also needs to be scraped off, there isn't nearly as much as was in the trunk but it might all add up to 10 lbs.

Done so far

When I bought the car it was idling rough and needed a little assistance when started cold, so I replaced all the vacuum hoses and hose clamps (everything was original) this helped the cold start issues and smoothed out the idle but there is still some tuning to be done to compensate for the cam which the previous owner had installed.

Next up was the tach which was no working, I assumed it was due to the 3V batteries on the service indicator circuit board so I ordered some replacements and soldered them in. It didn't solve the problem and I haven't had time to investigate further.

In order to get ready to have a roll cage installed I am in the process of gutting the interior. First up was the trunk liner and the rear seat; combined weight of ~50 lbs. Next was to scrape off the sound deadening material from the trunk; weight ~53 lbs.

Also now removed are the front seats (~45 lbs each non-powered) and the center console. Next up is to remove the carpet and scrape off the sound deadening material from the interior of the car.

The background bullshit nobody really cares about

After participating in two HPDE's with my '96 Nissan Maxima and competing the local autox's for a year and a half I decided I needed a dedicated vehicle.

I wasn't willing to risk my new daily driver on a road course, so I began my search for a track vehicle that I willing to put through the wear and tear of track days and autox and wouldn't be devistated if I happen to make a mistake and put it into a wall. My requirements for a vehicle were RWD, manual, 4-cyl turbo or 6 cylinder engine and preferably unique. First thoughts were 944 Turbo S or 280Z Turbo, I then came to realize that the Porsche would blow my budget in maintenance costs and the Datsun would be too difficult to find one in good shape and had limited aftermarket. So with the recommendation of the fellow racers I decided I was on a mission to find an e30 325is. After searching the want ads for a couple months and ebay I found what appeared to be an '87 325is in good shape in near by Massachusetts. I ended up buying it and am currently in the process of getting it in shape for a full season of track days and autox in 2008.