The Cart Before the Horse: Spec 3 Build

[Senor_Taylor]

Update on the car. It passed emissions, but failed safety to lower ball joints and an airbag light, which I never saw come on.

That brings me to my next question: What things can I get away without replacing in the suspension, and what things are imperative that I replace to avoid a fiery death?

Can wait:
RTABS
Shocks
Springs
Sway bar bushings

Replace immediately?:
Control Arm bushings
Tie Rods (inner and outer)
Ball joints? E36s have a ball joint rear exactly? One on the front control arm and one on the rear trailing arm?


So then, if I'm replacing Control arm bushings and Ball joints, I should just go ahead and install the E36 m3 Front control arms that is required by Spec 3 right? How do I get those? Buy them new? They're crazy expensive! I know E30 control arms are not serviceable so you need a new one when the ball joint fails. Am I missing anything that NEEDS to be replace before doing DE?

Can I get away without an oil pan baffle for now? Oil pump nut? Do I need reinforce sway bar mounts and such? I don't care about what's going to help me go faster just yet. I just want to get out there and make sure I don't break the car, myself, or both at once.

[D_Eclipse9916]

2 ball joints per front control arm (you can press E30 M3 ball joints in E36 M3 arms, but you don’t have the arms to begin with)
2 ball joints in rear per side for upper and lower arms
RTABs and corresponding reinforcement washers

Those are all critical, no ifs and or buts. If you are in there though... might as well do subframe bushings/ sway bar reinforcement/ rtab reinforcement and diff bushings. This is assuming this is the car you are taking to race. If not just do bushings/ball joints and watch those areas carefully. RTaB failure is what demolished my E46..

[Sijray21]

so square 17x8.5 K1s? offset?

[Senor_Taylor]

2 ball joints per front control arm (you can press E30 M3 ball joints in E36 M3 arms, but you don’t have the arms to begin with)
2 ball joints in rear per side for upper and lower arms
RTABs and corresponding reinforcement washers

Those are all critical, no ifs and or buts. If you are in there though... might as well do subframe bushings/ sway bar reinforcement/ rtab reinforcement and diff bushings. This is assuming this is the car you are taking to race. If not just do bushings/ball joints and watch those areas carefully. RTaB failure is what demolished my E46..

I didn't see the reinforcements in the rules. I'll read again though, I probably missed them.

Your pocket welds failed though, right? I can't imagine the bushing itself failing could do that except for the bolt also shearing. Right? Scary.

Spec3 requires M3 front control arms, so my thought was to just buy those and put them on now, but Simon pointed out that I could do it cheaper now since I'll probably wear out this stuff by the time I go racing. In that case, it would make sense to press on the inner and outer ball joints and a new CAB while I'm under there doing the tie rods.

The front suspension, I'm fine with redoing, but I don't want to put anything in the rear that won't be legal when it comes to spec3. Maybe I'm over thinking it and should just focus on the immediate future here. Anything that will wear out in 2-3 seasons, I'm fine with it not being spec legal. Anything that may last longer than that, I'd rather do it once and do it the spec3 way.

The "ball joints" in the trailing arms are just bushings on the lateral link thing, right?

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so square 17x8.5 K1s? offset?

I don't know the offset yet. I'll know once I have the car at my house, hopefully this weekend. I'm going to test fit them on the GTI before anything, then I think Scott has dibs if he wants them. I can't find any photos of these on GTIs.

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[Sijray21]

My fault I thought you already had it in your possession.

The bolt pattern should be 5x120 for the k1s, right? The VW is 5x112, but I think you can get it to work with wobble lug bolts or an adapter if you want to risk that.

The 17" rim should clear the brakes though.

[Senor_Taylor]

Good news: I got the car today

Bad News: Simon lost the title so I'm waiting for him to get the replacement

Good news: The car runs very well

Bad news: It needs ball joints to pass inspection

That said, I have been reckless with my credit card and ordered the following:

- Front suspension refresh (Control arms, CABs, tie rods, sway bar endlinks). This will go along with the Shocks, springs, and M3 top hats I have.
- Front Shock tower reinforcement plates
- Hardware to mount my Front Subframe X Brace
- Rear shock mounts and reinforcement plates. These go along with the rear shocks, springs, and trailing arm bushings and ball joints. (Only thing that leaves for the rear is Subframe and Diff bushings, along with reinforcements, which I may pay a shop to do since they'll need to be welded.)
- 2 sets of Rotors from FCPEuro, so I should be set for life


So, I figure I'll do all of that at the same time before I get the car inspected. I'm installing the roll bar now as well. After it passes inspection I'll install my seats and harnesses.

What's left to buy:
Wheel, Hub, Quick release Hub
Brake pads (What should I get? Just go ahead with the Hawk DTC pads?)
Electric Fan
Tires for the Style 32s. 225/50/15s preferably.

Is there anything else I need to get and install before hitting the track in March? I don't know if I'll get the Subframe and Diff bushings done before then. Man... this is so much. So much to remember. I know I'm going to forget something.

Photos:

[Jake]

You will have to feel out brake pads and decide what you like best. Hawk and Performance Friction (PFC) both make good options for the E36. I have used Hawks off and on because of contingency winnings, but I vastly prefer PFC pads. I think the PFC's have a better pedal feel and last longer.

Hawk = DTC-60
PFC = 08

Those are the compounds most people run for full-racecar status. Both may be noisy on the street, but not an issue if you are really just driving the car to/from events and not DDing it. Talk to Brian at OG Racing for either brand of pads.

If you want to save some money, you can run the stock steering wheel for a while. Quick-release hubs are oddly very expensive. Or, get a wheel but not the quick-release. Since you are just doing the rear rollbar and not a full cage right now, the QR won't be as helpful (because no door bars to negotiate) and it's easy to add later.

[.RJ]

Quick-release hubs are oddly very expensive.

For a good one.

Dont buy a cheap one, it will be awful.

[Apoc]

I might have a sparco QR I took off the 911 lying around. I thought I wanted it for security, but turns out the horn was more valuable. I just can't remember if I sold it or not, so I can dig through boxes of you're interested.

[Senor_Taylor]

Thanks Jake. I ordered some HP Plus pads for cheap on Amazon today and I'll burn those up by the time I get a good feel for the car and can bump up the pads.

I might have a sparco QR I took off the 911 lying around. I thought I wanted it for security, but turns out the horn was more valuable. I just can't remember if I sold it or not, so I can dig through boxes of you're interested.

Yeah, no rush. I'll need to work on getting my credit card paid down/get tax return before I buy anything else for now. Let me know if you find it.

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[Senor_Taylor]

Got both seats installed and roll bar install finished. Really hoping I can somehow get this registered as an antique, otherwise I'm ripping the seats back out and installing the stock seats to pass inspection.

Currently have the car partially stripped from the front seats back and the rear suspension taken apart so I can throw the new RTABs on once my limiters come in, and can throw in my old spec 3 suspension with reinforcements. I'm not touching the rear subframe for now or ball joints in the rear control arms. I hope to ride that all out for a season until I can pay a shop to drop the subframe and weld in subframe reinforcements and do those bushings for me.

I think tomorrow or Friday I'll tear apart the front suspension so I can refresh everything there and install my subframe XBrace as well. I hope to be okay without the weld in subframe reinforcements for a season as well. Hopefully by the time I have this finished, I'll have the title and can get it registered. Hoping to have it ready-ish by the last refrigerator bowl so I can get some "track" time in it before March VIR.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Or just register as is and not get it inspected? In Virginia I had vehicles never inspected for years. It’s a track rat, it’ll almost never hit the street.

[Sijray21]

It's a 95 so if he wants plates at all to drive on the street he'll need at least a safety inspection. VA won't let you even register online without one (tried with the z3 last year). He could probably skirt the emissions if he 'garages' it elsewhere. Next year should be the first year he can get antique plates.

[Senor_Taylor]

It passed emissions.

Failed safety for a ball joint. I can hopefully get it to pass this year, but then I'd need to reregister next year as antique because I won't have the seats and stock wheel at that point


DJ, I'm not sure I'm willing to do that. I have no idea how you get away with driving a car without an inspection sticker, but that's one bad tail light or a blown blinker away from me getting a huge ticket. I don't think I have that kind of luck.

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[Deceus]

I had to double check because it's been a while since I got one but that ticket is $30, just throwing that out there. Expired registration is $25. Driving without insurance can get you hit with a $500 "fee" but inspections and registration are far from huge tickets FYI.

http://www.courts.state.va.us/courts/scv...hedule.pdf

[.RJ]

I dont think you need back seats for inspection. I got my old integra racecar through inspection...

[Jake]

I dont think you need back seats for inspection.  I got my old integra racecar through inspection...

Correct. VA safety inspection doesn't care about rear seats or what the front seats are. Your race seats will allow  a "pass." They do require a 3-point belt for the driver only, and a functional window for the driver only.

[rherold9]

I thought the belts just had to be DOT? So, they could theoretically be 3, 4, 5, or 6? Yeah, as long as there isn't an airbag light on you can pass with different seats

[D_Eclipse9916]

It's a 95 so if he wants plates at all to drive on the street he'll need at least a safety inspection. VA won't let you even register online without one (tried with the z3 last year). He could probably skirt the emissions if he 'garages' it elsewhere. Next year should be the first year he can get antique plates.

Really, are you sure?  Virginia never required inspection for me to register a car.  If you register it in an emissions county you are required to have emissions before registration but not inspection.

Edit: Just checked on DMV's website and it mirrors what I said. You must have emissions to register, but you have to "have" inspection sticker to "operate" on the road.

NC ties inspection to registration (and emissions) and it's one of the reasons why I want a modern car that won't get modified much.  At least we don't get a sticker on the windshield.

Having registration is important, a safety inspection ticket is like $30 + $75 court fees if I remember.  Far from "critical".  Hell, my trailers have NEVER had their inspection done either, and I have been towing for 8 years. Not saying you should and I 100% wouldn't tell you to do it if you feel uncomfortable. Just saying there are "options" to get you through one year.

[Sijray21]

I was confused before; I was thinking of emissions for ffx registration.