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[Chelsea DeNofa]

Hey guys. First off I am sorry for being late on this and not reply to many posts over the past 9 weeks. Other then a few breaks when the car went to paint or when Technica Motorsports was putting the motor together and in the car I was way over my head in building this car.

I am trying to keep this simple and show the main ingredients of the car build. I also probably should have done a better job documenting it, but time was the big issue here.

Lets keep this thread pertaining to the car only, and not the events its driven at or any of that stuff. Thanks!

Here is the car when we picked it up, All $300 worth of her! Its a 1994 325i Sedan loaded with heated and power everything.



We rolled the car into the shop and began the gnarly tear down. This car starts its new life at 144k miles. My coupe started its life at a much later 197K.




As we were removing the unneeded parts, we came across an airbag. I think everyone on here knows what needed to happen…

http://s66.photobucket.com/albums/h279/ienjoydrifting/?action=view&current=IMG_0796.mp4

Further interior removal





During a lunch break pulled this stuck car out. We saved a car full of kids lives…



Dry icing the sound deadening out. This was an entire day of madness, this car was nasty!




What didn't come out with the dry ice had to be wire wheeled out with an angle grinder. This was painful… hot molten sound deadening flying all over the place.
I thought I was ready for action, still got owned by the crap flying everywhere


325i Motor is OUT! No more 170hp hoopdee!



Jimmy is a little rusty at removing exhausts…



We removed the entire engine and chassis harness as well. Weighed over 100lbs! I think we later got it down to about 15lbs and 13lbs of it is factory engine harness. Sorry, no Pic of that yet.

We also took a grinder to all of the seam sealer and stitch welded most of the seams with the mig welder.



Here is my X5 with all of the argon needed for fabrication on this car! Talk about needing 3 of the big ones, and needing them by tonight! X5 is going to lose a floor pan and manifold!



Here are the boxes we build for the man hoop to sit on. Collin from Toxic fabrication getting some juicy welds on.




Bending the main hoop. We still use the cardboard style because its fast and effective!



Main hoop fits tightly into the car



Tig welding in the rear down bar mounting plates.





Rear down bars in place. The are notched and ready to be welded.



Diagonal Bar and Harness bar welded in.




Juicy!

[Chelsea DeNofa]

Front down bar fitment. I love working with 1.5 dom. Fits like a glove. No BS gussets. I like function, This car will not even look caged from the rear door forward.




We also took the time to fit the lower door bars into the door seam and weld them as one.

Before


After


Fitting the driver side nascar door bars




Quickly taking our time for a great finished product.




Just so that you know everything but the floor plates were tig welded 360 degrees. I am working the foot pedal while Collin of ToxicFab.com has the torch.



Primered up and ready to go to paint.




Just before paint we had to set the body up for the Level7TUNE flares. So out BC Racing Double Adjustable Coilovers went on. Fancy external reservoir dampers will really allow me to dial in the grip at each track.



Car is rolling again!




Modifying the rear quarter fenders for my flares and allowing suspension travel to happen!



Tacked up the seam for strength. We did not do this on the last car. That led to bent rear 1/4's extremely easy.



We quickly fitted some of the body parts and sent the car to paint! At this time we went dark on Facebook and other media outlets. No one would know the color or any details on the build. This is what went down during the last 30 days of my cars build.



6 days after dropping the car off, we got a call from the paint shop. It was ready! I wish it would have been a sunny day, but you get the idea…







I spent all night getting the body stuff put back together and loading the car onto the trailer with all of the necessary parts needed to make the car run. After another 20 hour day. We were ready to head to Technica Motorsports in Atlanta for the driveline build.








Arrival picture! Finally some sun!



I gave Bret and Jordan 2 weeks to completely redo the driveline and install all of the rear subframe goodies… I am sure they wanted to kill me when I said "thats what sponsors are for right?" lol.

[Chelsea DeNofa]

Here are some pictures of the motor during the build last year.







While they were building the car I took a much needed vacation. Went to FL and spent some time with the girlfriend, checked out the Daytona 500, the local Orlando drift scene, and went to south florida to visit some old drift buddies. I don't think the guys as Technica can say the same.

2 weeks flew by and it was back to work on the car. I drove back up to Technica Motorsports and met with Bret as we went over the new build. I knew we were now on the same page with the build and how is was starting to take a toll on our lives lol. I then jumped in the car and fired her up for the first time. Of course it fired instantly and idled perfectly. The purple power was alive and well! I backed it out of the bay and immediately noticed its lightweightness. I am not kidding, it was unbelievably noticeable. Drove her down the street a little and BOOOOMMM! The hood flew up and smashed the windshield! We forgot to secure it!!! Of course I feel like an idiot because I have seen this happen many times before and always thought, hah "I am so glad I always check my hood pins!" DOH! We then loaded it on to the trailer as quickly as possible. We were really in a hurry now because the car needed to be done in a WEEK for my unveiling party and it was running, but no where close.



On the way home my wheel bearing decided to say "peace out" on me. Of course it was sunday and nothing was open to repair it. But the show had to go on, so I rugged up a BC coilover spring perch as a suspension limiter on the equalizer and with the help of a few straps we were ready to limp it another 500 miles home. It turns out I was able to make it!




That Monday we got into the shop early and started getting to some more exciting work. I also called the window guy and had him rush an order for tuesday. Here is our new steering wheel setup.




And out broken windshield that we worked so hard not to damage while building the car and cage, only to break it on the first 300 ft of the cars life


We also finished up our new level7TUNE E36 Flares. Fitment is beautiful. We then sent them right to paint.



Before paint we were unsure if we were going to build new front fenders or utilize our level7TUNE fronts. As a last minute decision I decided to do the flares for a old school JDM touch. Out with the cut off wheel on that fresh paint! I put Collin on the driver side.



They Looked kind of wonky in white. But man do they look awesome later


We also installed some more sweet circle track parts! Purple SFI rated harnesses for our Sparco Circuit Hans seat.



These braze wheels are just temporary and are spaced to correct fitment.

Fresh new windshield!



Awesome Ricey taillights set the mood



It honestly took an entire day to do these lexan windows. I am really happy how they turned out. Aluminum rivets and all! We may take them out and add a black trim around the edges to make it look more racey but over all we were able to do the whole car with ONE 4x8 sheet so I am super happy!



Flares painted and reinstalled after paint. 1 day turnaround at a paint shop! I had to flirt a little for that!

[Chelsea DeNofa]

Here is the part I am sure you guys really want to see, The steering angle. We were able to achieve 61 degrees with a 17x9 +0 wrapped in a 245-40-17. The angle is insane. Everything posted here is included in our kits. We did however make a mistake on the mill with our stainless sleeve inner diameter for the FCAB. In a rush to have the car ready for the event in 6 hours,  we remade a mild steel one at the last moment. Normally there is no modification to the arm, But since we were not able to head back to a mill, we had to modify the arm a little bit in a jam. You get the idea tho. These are exactly like the early 99 arms, just with a different inner ball joint.









Then we moved on to the little final touches. We added some sparco latches to hold the trunk and front bumper on, as well as a new flex-a-lite black magic 3500 cfm fan for our Level7TUNE radiator setup.

It all turned out very well. Definitely one of the lighter e36 turbo sedans? lol. Here is a picture of the scales before we corner balanced it and added a few lbs of ballast.



Alignment rack while practice is going on at the track lol.



MOD LISTS

Drivetrain

Motor
-Technica Motorsports built S52
-JE Pistons
-Stock Rods and Bolts
-ARP 2000 Head Studs
-Cometic .70 Head Gasket

Turbo System
-Precision 6262 Ball Bearing Billet Wheel Turbo. T3 .63 a/r exhaust housing
-Precision 46mm compact wastegate
-SPA Turbo Manifold
-Technica Motorsports Factory ECU Tuning
-Technica Motorsports Blow-Through MAF
-Technica Motorsports Injectors
-Technica Motorsports Oil Feed adaptor
-Walbro Fuel Pump
-S-Max Performance 22x12x3.5 mid mounted Intercooler
-Secret Services Auto custom 3 inch aluminum intercooler piping
-Secret Services Auto custom 3 inch aluminum Exhaust
-Secret Services Auto aluminum coolant expansion tank and coolant catch can
-NonStopTuning Alternator and Aux pulley system
-Toxic Fabrication oil catch can with -10an lines.
-Level7TUNE aluminum radiator

Chassis, Suspension, and Brakes
-Toxic Fabrication stitch welding and reinforcement.
-Toxic Fabrication roll cage
-BC Racing ER-Type Double Adjustable External Reservoir Coilover System
-UUC rear camber arms
-UUC rear trailing arm bushings
-VAC Engine Mounts
-Technica Motorsports chassis harness and fuse box
-Technica Motorsports rear subframe bushings
-Stock M3 brake calipers with brass guides and Technica Motorsports Stainless lines
-Level7TUNE Drift Spec Ebrake pads
-Brembo drilled and slotted rotors
-Secret Services Auto bash bar

Interior
-Sparco Circuit Pro Hans (Driver)
-Cobra Suzuka Pro Kevlar (Passenger)
-Safety Racing sfi belts. Purple and black
-Secret Services Auto ultra low seat brackets
-Level7TUNE Ebrake handle
-Circle track 14" aluminum steering wheel
-Speedway quick release and splined steering shaft
-Autometer water temp, K's 60mm boost, AEM UEGO wideband
-Technica Motorsports Modified dash
-Level7TUNE Battery Box

Exterior
-GM Plum Crazy Purple on every inch inside and out. (Sponsored by Nevrslo)
-OEM M3 sideskirts as well as front and rear bumpers.
-China Special r-iced out taillights
-Level7TUNE big BRO flares front and rear
-Nevrslo carbon roundels
-Long acre power cut off switch
-Sideways Vinyl
-Level7TUNE lexan windows

Steering, Rollers, Tires

-Level7TUNE SMAK (super mad angle kit)
-Level7TUNE steering knuckles
-Level7TUNE front lower control arms
-Level7TUNE delrin front control arm bushings
-Level7TUNE tie rods
-Enkei RPF1 17x9 +18 Front and 18x10.5 +15 rear (18mm adaptors all around)
-Nexen N9000 245-40-17 front and 275-35-18 rear

Id like to thank everyone who had hands in the build, Mike at Nexen Tires hooked me up with a truck load of their fresh tires, Bret and Jordan at Technica Motorsports built an awesome motor tuned like factory, Josh at Nevrslo supplied a clean shop to work on and a ballin paint job, Collin at ToxicFab.com designed and fabricated the cleanest e36 cage, Mike from NonStopTuning supplied the venue for my premiere and helped fund the build, The Right Step for their Texas drifting support, BC Racing Suspension for a set of killer dampers and awesome support, Aaron and Jimmy for getting their hands dirty, Ashley from Sideways Vinyl, as well as the Awesomeshop owners Mike Peters and Dereck Rodgers for helping out before Irwindale, Wade for helping put the final touches on my car during his vacation, and anyone else who got their hands involved!

Some great shots from our unveiling party.







Few Action Shots







Videos of the unveiling and event the following day





Irwindale qualifying lap with wall tap on inner bank





Proof that the car was worth it

[zaquan]

so sick , car looks good man

[i drift volvos]

Car looks sweet! Please don't add black trim to the lexan....they looks so clean as is!!

[slideshow240]

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[CBR_TOY]

pretty nifty build... Plum Crazy Purple is nice!

[z28evans]

Great write up, nice build - and awesome car!

[Surge]

8======================================D


love it!

[91jzCressida]

sex!

[Emilio]

Feel any difference with the longer wheelbase?