Our Dumb Blog

I think this weekend I’ve managed to accomplish everything necessary to call the car legal for ARA. Still plenty to do, but the major welding hurdles have been accomplished thanks to my codriver and fellow Vee people.

Bending:

Notching:

Welding:

Top of the brace bars done:

Cutting:

Cursing:

Overall, great success! I didn’t get a photo of the finished bars yet, but they came out reasonably well considering the retrofit. The must-do list is shrinking. I need to paint the new bars, install a modern rally computer and intercom and sort out the shifter and I should be good to rally.

Fire suppression finally installed. Stroud did, in fact, send the right bracket/clamps. It’s just the bracket looks short and the clamps didn’t reach because the car is bent. Some massaging with a sledge hammer and it fits fine now. I hope to be done bending and flaring tubing for awhile. The steel stuff is rough.

Driver side nozzle is under the steering column:

Codriver nozzle is under the soon-to-be-removed terratrip.

Next up: I need to do something about the driver position. Actually, the driver position is mostly fine. Maybe a little higher than I’d like, but that gives me enough pedal clearance. I can barely reach the steering wheel, which is easily fixed with the steering wheel spacer the car came with. I think the original builder was taller than the previous owner. Unfortunately, that does nothing for the shifter. It’s pretty hard to reach in 1,3,5. I’m thinking I should buy some cheap ebay shifter and bend it. Open to advice from Josh or any other E30 people reading. (I don’t really care whether it’s a “short” shifter or not, except that short will probably also make it easier to reach).