Meet "Blue Nose" by DIIRTY-30

8 minute(s) of a 417 minute read

Overall ecstatic seeing how well everything lined up and not too big of gaps that can easily be welded flush no problem on the sides. That was ultimately my biggest concern is not shaving off too much. Nothing is currently welded its just pressure fit in place and hanging on by gravity. Figured I'd toss the plate filler & tails in to see how it looked.

Wire wheel everything, remove all that seam sealer, spot welds are in a lot of really obvious places, theres maybe 3 I overlooked that were impossible to see. Mostly on the drivers side, separating the panel in order to not mess up the top of the body line, I chopped the tail section and pryed it with a flat head & angled flat bar to separate the seams. In total removal took about 3 hours, spot welds are a breeze its just the damn sealer that takes a while to get off.

As for fitting it up, I'm having the issue right now of only being one person. So when I line up the pass side it throws the drivers off slightly. I havent tacked anything down in place, just wanted to make sure the bumper holes lined up, inside of the panel, and tail lights aren't crooked or funky. Overall the trunk and tails line up really clean, and just gotta tap the tabs on the new panel near the bottom edges to mate flush and run a bead along the outside and grind it down.


I'm probably going to end up using 3m seam sealer, since thats a lot of peoples go-to choice but I've been looking at other options as well so I'll post when I do get around to that part once the welding finished.

I also got these dropped off while cleaning up for the day, looking forward to trying to make something a little bit more stock for the ref.

As I was working on the rear panel replacement, I did away with the undercoating & cut/welded in an antenna plug. Laid a skim coat over it to blend and eventually moved onto the engine bay. As much as I loved the look of the bed liner at first, cleaning it was a PIA. So after much deliberation, I broke out the aircraft stripper and have been going to town.

Shortly after beginning this, another project arose. I came across a CL55 AMG that I bought for under $500 with 100k miles on it. Originally the plan was to split the cost & drop the drivetrain into a 190e that a friend was going to purchase. Well... after a month or so, it didn't come to fruition so I gave him back his $200 and began selling the parts from the chassis.

So after this chassis stat in my driveway with my e30 around the other side of the house; after picking to bare bones and scrapping the shell. The e30 finally made its way back into the driveway to be continued. Luckily I had a halfbaked idea of the braking system similarities on the w215 chassis and my e31 so I kept the rears. Which I'll leave to that thread when I update that soon.

I began revisiting specific things initially I wanted to either change or clean up.

-Oil filter location
-Oil temp/pressure sensor loc
-Water temp sensor
-Exhaust for bar
-Engine bay color
-Raise hood fitment
-Windshield wiper assembly
-Access to fluid res tanks
-Clean up harness wiring both engine & engine bay
-Integrate Alpina wiring into engine wiring for cleanliness

ANDDDD back on the ground as if nothing happened..

Rolled the motor out one morning and let the dog go at it while I sat back and learned..

Went ahead and gave the x5 mani and e34 a side by side look and mental how tf am I going to do this... Its been a while but I believe theres two different sides for the passenger pending models. This one did not clear the motor bracket at all, but I'll make it work. Just to give an idea of the issue I photographed it of course.. As seen in the photo, the flanges can't even come close to mating with the block

Started part washing and began ordering more parts, such as the CCV, m62 breather line, tube, and paints. Also picked up some 245s for the rear :hitler:

Decided to rid the e30 of the oil catch can and cooler so that when inspection does occur the only truly noticeable stand out items that have been "tampered" with are the oil filter housing lines. Whereas everything else should relatively appear factory as I ca make it.

Made sure the inside of the manifold was still all nice and clean..

Unsure if the fuel reg line was like this prior to removing the motor but luckily theres plenty of e38s at the junkyard to harvest this stupid $15-20 hose from haha.

I will continue to update a little later or tomorrow after finishing a job. Though this hasn't been updated in what seems like ages, this car hadn't slipped into the crack and been forgotten. Neglected in favor of my e31 slightly but I do absolutely miss driving this. My phobia of losing it due to the ever enclosing laws CA keeps pushing & the LAPD / CHP crackdown on cars... I'd rather this be above board and not be messed with than lose it paying impound fees and what not.