Please note, that these plates are specified to fit specific situations by each manufacturer.  We have found that because the side plate mounting hole dimensions are the same on virtually all racing shell seats, that you can use different side plates from different manufacturers to fit your specific application.  We mention what each plate is designated for only to help you find the specific plate when ordering, not to guide your choice.  You must use the measurements we provide to figure out what works in your situation.

Brey Krause Side Plates

These side plates are very often used when we do Porsche 996 installs because you can buy off the shelf a whole lot of parts that work together to create a safe and clean installation of everything - seat, harness, and fire extinguisher.  But that is far from the end of what they are good for.  These side plates have a provision for an inboard lap belt mount which is something most other plates only dream of.  This sets them apart from the other side plates.

This particular set of side plates is the R9073 plate, which according to Brey Krause is specific to the Cobra Imola II GT and Sparco Evo 2 Seat.  We’ve used it for Suzuka GT as well, and think that it probably will work for other seats too.

Side View - BK r9073

Front View - BK r9073

The Inboard Lap Mount BK R9073

Keep in mind that there are other Brey Krause Plates available as well. We hope to bring you more dimensions on those very soon.

Cobra Side Plates

The Cobra Side plates are made of aluminum and are very beautiful. They feature a bend which is usually a great thing if you are trying to mount a narrow seat, or if your car has wide mounting locations. Obviously we sell the most of these to Cobra Seat owners, but we also use them for other applications.

Cobra Side Plate

Side View - Cobra Plate

Front View - Cobra

We will continue to add information to this post as we have time.

Heater Valve

I started out the work this week by buttoning up the heater valve installation. When i refurbished my heater box, I either misplaced, lost or threw out all the hardware needed to bolt in the heater valve. No big deal, it was all about 3 cents from the dealer, but it was definitely specialty hardware. Square M5 nuts that slide into the plastic work perfectly don’t just sit on most hardware shelves. So once that stuff showed up, I put it all together as shown on the left. The Bracket that normally holds the two pipes is NLA, so I will have to fashion one from some other metal on my own. No biggie.

I installed this thing, and got the new grommet installed on the firewall that surrounds the heater pipes. The easiest way of doing this is with dish soap. I know it sounds funny, but lube it up and it slides right in.

E28 M5 Oil Cooler Installed

I bought an E28 Oil Cooler becuase it has a larger capacity and I didn’t have an Oil Cooler. So I mounted it up to factory locations with some custom rubber bushings. It’s not quite level. I haven’t decided if I’m going to keep it like this or drill/fabricate a mount that allows it to mount perfectly level. I’m leaning towards leaving it as is, but we’ll see.

Now I need to figure out the plumbing on this thing.  That’s one of the last things I have on my list to do that I’m not sure what I’m going to do.  Keep in mind I have the Euro Oil Filter housing on my motor, I haven’t decided if I can run stock lines from a Euro E36 M3, or if I have to plumb  with stainless hose and fittings.  We’ll see.

Half Shaft Installed

Half Shaft Installed

Driveshaft Installed

Guibo installed

I then went to finish putting the driveline together. I put the half shafts in and bolted them up. I had installed the Diff a week ago or so. It’s a 3.25 out of an M Roadster. I bought a finned M Roadster Diff cover as well, which I installed with new hardware and gasket. I’m still waiting on my new drain plugs as you can see, and once they’re in I will fill the diff with fluid.

Once I got the half shafts installed, I worked my way forward to the driveshaft. It’s an E36 328 driveshaft that I picked up from a local yard. I swapped the center support bearing out for the E30 unit with new dust covers. One thing I will tell people is that you really need to make sure the first dust cover is seated well before putting the bearing on, otherwise you’ll never get it to go on. I used a properly sized pipe that slid over the splines section that I was able to tap in with a dead blow hammer. It sat perfectly on the inner bearing race. And of course all the normal hints like marking the shaft before you separate each section apply here.

A/C Compressor Installed

I also installed the A/C Bracket and compressor. I had originally thought that I was going to use the compressor from an M Roadster because it was smaller, but I didn’t realize that it mounts with a different plate/bracket situation. So since I had already powdercoated the standard bracket, I went with the standard compressor. Now all I need is the right pulley tensioner assembly and a Power steering pump and I’ll be all set with the accessory belt situation. Once that’s done I can install my radiator.

E30 M3 Gauge Cluster

Oil Temp Sender Wired

I installed my E30 M3 Gauge cluster in the car. I had to run wires for the Oil temperature gauge. This was pretty easy, I had to tap switched 12 volts, ground and run a signal wire. I ran the signal wire and installed it in pin 19 on the body harness plug. This is where it sits in an E30 M3, and I’ll be able to build my X20 plug to interface with the c101 and have it all work out nicely. I don’t have this sitting quite right, as the trim piece is covering some of the turn signals. We’ll see what I can do to fix that.

Dashboard Trim Panels

Center Consoles

E-Brake Console

Rear Seat Finished

Once I installed the gauge cluster and the trim panel below it I installed the center consoles and shift knob again, since I had to take them out to install the heater valve. The Brand new rear console piece has a totally different material finish than the old school front console. I am assuming this has to do with the Recycle-ability of car parts changing. I also pulled the rear seat bottom out because I had to install the last set of receptacles that were backordered from BMW. It’s all set now, with the receptacles sitting nicely in their spot in the rear seat. I have the third belt hidden under the seat, as I don’t plan on having 3 rear passengers at any time soon. My rear parcel shelf doesn’t have any holes in it yet, so I don’t have the weird triangle thing on it to hold the third belt anyway.

Painting the Rotors

I started this day by cleaning and degreasing the brake rotors. I am using Frozen Rotors for my rotors because they rock. They’re on every car I drive. Per the recommendation of the guys over at Diversified Cryogenics (the Frozen Rotor folks) I am painting these with 1500 degree exhaust paint. I masked off the rotor face. I sprayed the paint in a few coats throughout the first part of the day.

And then I moved on. I pulled the car down off the lift (We have a 4 post lift) so that I could pull the wheels off and do some more suspension work.

Spring Height Differences

The first thing I did was pull the front wheels off so that I could swap out the front springs. I had originally purchased 8″ springs from H&R when I had the debacle of the not-fitting front springs from TC Kline. These springs were too tall. With the coils spun all the way to the lowest settings, the front end was still too high. So it was time to put in the 6″ springs.

Now that I’ve swapped these out, I’m happy with how the car sits.  I have enough adjustment to lower or raise the car’s height in front.  We’ll see how the 400# springs feel.

I also just want to say that the E30 M3 Front strut housing design makes it infinitely easier to swap out the springs.  All you have to do is pull four bolts on the bottom of the tie rod lever and three at the strut tower and the whole unit comes out, ready to be worked on.  Much cooler than having to pull the tie rod and control arm off the standard E30 version.

Brake Calipers Rebuilt

I finished rebuilding the brake calipers with all new seals. I added all new hardware, including the bushings and caliper pins. There’s not much to say about rebuilding calipers, it’s a pretty easy process, but it’s much easier with compressed air. Having these powdercoated makes cleaning them very easy. With just a paper towel wipe, these will clean up pretty good.

Brake Carrier and Rotor Installed

Front Caliper and Brake Pads

Parking Brake Installed with heat shield

Rear Rotors and Calipers Installed

Brand New Half Shaft

Headlight Buckets Installed

I built my freshly powdercoated headlight buckets with H1/H4 hella light fixtures. I purchased them from Susquehanna Motorsports in Pennsylvania, a place I’ve purchased 3 sets of lights from (for all my E30’s) and I’m quite happy with them.  They seem to always have what I need, in stock, ready to go with little drama.  That’s what we go for here at HMS.

Of course, the headlights went in with new OE hardware including new body nuts and screws so that these things should be cake to adjust for the rest of their life.  One thing that I didn’t figure out is how to get the new headlight adjusters to fit into the small notch they are supposed to go into.  The only thing I didn’t try is heating up the plastic to see if that makes it more malleable.  But they work fine as is, and aren’t bouncing around at all.  Only time will tell if this shortcut comes back to bite me in the ass.

The Ultra-Rare M-Technic Badge

In full effect

Once The headlights were installed, I put the European Grilles back on, and installed the fabled M-Technic Grille Badge that my buddy Chris had. This thing is apparently über-rare and completely NLA. So it’s cool to have one on my car. It’s the little things, right? I wish these things installed differently, but you just bend the tabs around the slats in the grille. Seems to work fine, but it’d be nice to have something with threads I think.

City Lights rockin

Fogs are working

Rear Lights Working

The next thing I worked on was lighting. I didn’t get the low beams working, I have to suss out a few more relays to get them their requisite 12 volts. But I did get the city lights working. Love em. Also, the Fog lights work as well. I want to re-wire the fog light connectors, as they are a little ratty and I want them to be money. I measured them and ordered some from BMW, we’ll see if they are the right ones.

I also go the rear lights working, in addition the reverse lights and stop lights.  The Blinkers work, but I didn’t have the right bulbs, which I now have.  The system does not like it when you install dual filament bulbs where you aren’t supposed to.  I ended up with a hazard flasher relay that was freaking out.  Good stuff.

Windshield wiper hardware

More Hardware

Sunroof Deflector Guides

I got all new hardware for the winshield wipers, which included some new rubber pieces to keep them all snug around the sheet metal. These pictures aren’t very exciting for you, I’m sure, but refreshing these things is very satisfying when building a car.

I also got new guides for the sunroof window deflector. These are the small pieces that attach to the deflector and the sheet metal, which force the deflector down as the sunroof comes forward. The old ones were all scuffed up, and these look a lot nicer. Not only that, since they are so smooth the sunroof is able to go forward much more smoothly. Function following form is nice too.

Rear Seat and Belts

Rear Seat Belt

B Pillar Seat Belt

Here’s two shots of the BMW Evo seat belts installed, along with my rear seat from an M3. Yes I know the upholstery is a little tired, but the rear seat will be recovered to match the new Recaro’s I have coming.

It should be said, that seat belts should be replaced every 10-15 years in a street car. The belts do degrade over time, and you’ll want to go ahead and spend the money on new belts. Totally worth it. Now, spending the cash for the red belts was questionable, but in my opinion worth it. But don’t trust me, it was my opinion that got me into this whole mess.

Moisture Barrier

Door Card Installed

Passenger Door card

I made a moisture barrier out of some heavy duty plastic from Home Depot. In this picture, I made it a little big, I had to trim it a little bit, so that it was completely hidden by the door pad, but you get the idea. I used Silicone to adhere it, because once dried the silicone can be cleaned up with no mess if I want it to.

I still have to install the the door pulls.  I thought that I lost them, but a few days ago I found them, so next time I’m working on the car, I’ll throw those on, as well as the mirror switch and door handle surrounds.

Fuel Pump Access Door

In the “not so exciting” department, I installed the new fuel pump and fuel pump hoses. I also installed the fuel level senders, which are also not very exciting. But of course the car wouldn’t go anywhere without these items, so they’re pretty important. Besides, I really wanted to close off these fuel doors so I could install the rear seat.

I will have to re-open it though, because I want to double and triple check that all the hoses are on correctly before I fill the system with fuel.

New Light Switch Plate

Illuminated Shift Knob

Continuing in the interior, I installed a new headlight switch plate and button, as the one in the car was pretty gnarly with no silk screening on the button. I also picked up the lighted shift knob with integrated shift boot from Turner Motorsport. This thing is totally awesome. They do a really nice job with the kit that they supply (I assume it’s their kit and not BMW’s). It comes with the right wiring to splice into the light for the cigarette lighter, providing a quick disconnect for the shift knob. Top notch. The feel on this thing is killer. I wish it wasn’t so expensive, otherwise I’d have it on my daily driver.

So we’ve got the cowl cover, headlight buckets, headlight rings,  exhaust hanger, and A/C bracket all done in black.  In gray we have the swaybars, brackets, brake calipers and an extra set of headlight rings.

The working space

So Then came the day when it was time to put the motor in. This day marked a huge swing in momentum. I have really turned up the juice since this day. In any event, I had to start by clearing a bunch of space in the garage. I was stoked to be able to do this on a lift, it made it a hell of a lot easier.

After I cleared space, and got all the necessary tools together, everything started to work itself out. I covered every painted surface with a thick blanket to help with safeguarding the paint, and rolled the engine over to the car.

Fetch Me The Engine Hoist!

A view from below the car

Starting to go in

Coming together

Almost in!

Sitting in the bay

The engine leveler that we had was barely adequate.  I had to work it pretty hard by installing it almost all the way back, and then using literally all the threads it had to get the motor to tilt enough to go into the transmission tunnel easily.

But that was pretty much it.  It was really that easy - there weren’t any tricks except for muscle. And for that I never EVER could have done it alone, I had the help of Matt (fellow HMS Rocka) to help guide the motor in. You can’t see him in any of the pictures, but he’s under the car making it all happen. We got it to slide in really easily - those of you that have done this swap already know how easy it actually is.  We just took our time to make sure it wasn’t hanging up on any of the freshly painted sheet metal.  We didn’t even tear up any of the brand new sound insulation that was installed on the firewall.

So once the engine was installed, I bolted up all the mounts and got on to putting the shift linkage together.

Transmission Mounts

Shifter installed

Closeup of the linkage

Another shot from below

With the E36 ZF transmission, you can still use the E30 transmission crossbrace. These are stock transmission mounts - I fully expect to blow through these pretty quickly, but I want to run them to see what it’s like. Remember, I’m not going for a race car feel, I want it to be cush and quiet. So wherever I can use rubber mounts, I am.  I installed the UUC Short Shift Kit with DSSR.  This is an awesome piece.  And even though it’s made for an E36, it fits my E30 perfectly.   The shifter is a little bit farther towards the passenger side than it normally is in an E30 with the Getrag G260 transmission, but It’s not uncomfortable at all.

The next few pictures are just some shots I took of the engine sitting on it’s mounts.  This felt really good - a real milestone, and as I mentioned before a turning point for my own energy putting the car together.

These motor mounts are not the ones i will run for real.  As you can see on the Driver’s side, the mount is tweaked pretty good.  I have already replaced these, as you will see in subsequent pictures with the Green Trapezoidal 535i mounts.  I found a thread somewhere on some forum with these mounts listed as working well.  They obviously didn’t work for me.

Sitting quietly

passenger motor mount

driver motor mount

ready to fire it up

intake side

intake side

money shot

A/C going in

So, return it and try to get the right part, but wouldn’t you know it - that was the “last one” and they aren’t going to re-order the part.  Ok, send it back, pay the restocking fee (I swear to you that HMS Motorsport has the most lenient return policy of anyone in the business) and find the part elsewhere.

*sigh*

Front strut installed

Front Subframe Installed

So I got the front subframe installed with no real issues.  I installed the E36 M3 steering rack with a kit from Zionsville Motorsport.  Expensive? Nah, it was worth not having to fab anything and knowing that I got a good steering rack, not one that I’d have to rebuild instantly.  With the front subframe installed, I was able to put the front struts on and get the whole front end mildly setup.  The tie rods aren’t fully torqued in, and I haven’t done an alignment.  I’m waiting to do that until the car is totally ready to roll.  So because of that, the boots aren’t installed, they’re just chilling there.

Rear Trailing Arm Mount

So the front was going together pretty quickly, so then I went to work on the rear subframe/trailing-arm assemblies.  Unfortunately, this was much more difficult.  In a previous post, I talked about how I had the rear toe and camber kits from Ireland Engineering welded on to my rear subframe.  I went to install the subframe without the trailing arms to make sure that everything fit with no issues, as I had read some e-wisdom about how some people had to bang their sheetmetal with a sledge to make room for everything.  As you can see in this photo, there is plenty of room for the trailng arm brackets that were welded to the subframe.  But if you notice, there is very very little room between the bracket and the subframe bushing (the green polyurethane thing).

Bushing FAIL

So I pulled the subframe down, and got on to figuring out how to make this all work.  First off, I installed the trailing arm bushings.  Rubber, because this is a street car, and I want it to be cush and quiet.  The first ones went in, but tore on the way in.  I was using the special tool, but they didn’t really want to go in.  So I got another set, and lubed them up real good with some dish soap, which I have since used millions of times while putting the car together.  Once they were lathered up, they went in much easier.

Rear Subframe Bushing Modified

But getting back to the adjustable trailing arm mounts.  I wanted to keep the adjustable brackets, not to mention being fairly committed to them, as they were already installed and powdercoated.  So I shaved the top of the polyurethane to make room for the nut on the outboard side of the trailing arm mount point.  I don’t think I lost much support, because there is a heavy duty washer that goes over the top of the bushing, as shown here.  Only time will tell if this setup works.  If it doesn’t work, I’ll happily go back to stock subframe bushings, as I like the way they feel.

The Rear Setup

Awaiting Installation

Awaiting Installation

Right, so then after I successfully installed the trailing arm bushings, and the trailing arms into the rear carrier, I had everything laid out on a pallet waiting to go in the car.  Here are a few photos of how it looked before going in the car.  I was kinda surprised at how light the whole assembly is, but there’s no brakes, or anything on this so that’s probably why.

Holes didn't line up

But then I ran into my next problem.  I installed the whole assembly in the car with little problem, but then I went to install the little plates that bolt to the side of the body.  The bolt holes came nowhere near lining up.  They were about 1/4″ off, which is miles in this application.  So I assumed that the pins were bent.  I had to move the car shortly after, but knew that I’d be dropping the subframe again, so I could just fix the problem then.

So now I had to put some wheels on the car in order to move it around.  I started messing around with wheels that we had laying around to see what it all looked like.  So I’ll just post all the photos I took messing around with the wheels, as there’s nothing really important about any of the pics.  At some point I got a little excited and just started taking photos of the car.  The pictures are quite grainy, but they are there in any event.

In the first couple of pictures you can see the condition of the tank prior to my work. There were a couple patches of rust, but also exposed metal where spilled gasoline stripped the original paint off the tank. Granted this car won’t be driven in the snow, but exposed metal rusts quickly so it’s good for me to coat it.

I won’t get into all the steps of the tank refurb work, because POR-15 does that on their website and it’s not that exciting. Suffice to say I cleaned the tank, sealed the inside with the kit, and then painted the outside. It seems to have worked very well, as the coating has stood up to some harsh treatment so far, including a couple stray tool strikings, etc.

In addition, I POR-15′ed the pedals as well, as they see some pretty harsh treatment in the car, so I wanted the paint to be pretty durable.

Ireland Camber/Toe Pieces Installed

Rear Trailing Arm

Body and Transmission Brace

Reinforced Front Subframe

Front Strut with Hub

Mario up at Vintage Sports & Racing did the prep work on my suspension pieces. He welded in the reinforcement tabs on the front subframe and welded in the rear toe and camber adjustment plates in the rear. He also welded in the front swaybar reinforcements on the front strut assemblies and installed the wheel bearings. Everything was powdercoated in a light grey color. I love the color, especially for the under-the-car stuff like the suspension pieces.

The picture here shows the TC Kline VVS spring. It doesn't fit.

Then I built the front struts with pieces I got from TC Kline, Ireland Engineering, Ground Control and H&R. Why cobble together a setup from scratch? I didn’t really, I bought it all through TCK, but the springs the sent me were 60mm ID rather than the 2.5″ ID that the GC perches and Ireland top mounts were. TCK suggested I file down the spring perches to work with the 60mm stuff, but I didn’t like that idea, so I decided to switch the springs to 2.5″ rather than try to make the 60mm stuff work. I just bought the same spring rate springs from H&R, and everything went together pretty easily.

I made spacers for the Koni inserts to get the body of the strut sitting where I thought I wanted it. This was admittedly a guessing game, but putting everything together, it looks like I’ll be stoked. I have plenty of travel both up and down, so that’s what I was going for. I then went to put everything together with 8″ front springs, which I would soon find were too long, but not until I had installed them all in the car.

The TCK Top Mount

TCK top mount assembled

So, the next puzzle I had to figure out was how to put the top mounts together.  TCK sent me these tapered Red top mounts, that had a very small surface area where all the force generated from the spring would meet the top mount spherical bearing.  You can really see this in the photos to the left.  The first one shows the top mount slid onto the strut piston, and the small ring is a spacer that is the only thing that contacts the spherical bearing. You can see when it is all put together, that this setup gives you a lot of articulation of the spherical bearing, but keeps the entire weight on the bearing alone.

The Ireland Top Mount

The Ireland design had a much larger area rollerbearing type setup that put the force generated by the spring on the large machined aluminum plate.  You can see that in the photo on the left.  The sliver ring is the top piece of the roller bearing.  I’m not an engineer, and don’t even pretend to really understand everything that goes on in suspension work.  But I was wary of installing those red top pieces because I figured the bearing would self destruct instantly.  So I put it all together with the Ireland piece instead.  I’m hoping that if any of you readers out there have experience with this setup, you’ll let me know what you found.

The whole assembly with the Red top mounts

Here is a closeup of the Ireland Camber plate.

I installed the fog lights and front turn signals

A quick shot of the project corner.