Continuing the dismantling

After a reasonably successful week of selling a few bits, I took the opportunity of a lazy Sunday afternoon to head up to the workshop and dismantle a few more parts from the 328:

Took the front end off - bumper, grille, lights etc. Not bad for an afternoon's work

Really coming apart now

Finished the day by taking the radiator out, as typically happens, the bucket was positioned in totally the wrong place and so most of the contents ended up on the floor

 

Labelled up the parts of the loom I'd dismantled, and then decided that was enough for one day, truth be known I didn't fancy lying in puddles of coolant! Next time will work on getting the inner and outer wings stripped and some of the ancillaries - in prep for getting the engine and box out.

8 months later... now it actually begins

I said I would try to keep things in order... well I sort of did! Flash forward to February 2012 and things are finally starting to happen :-)

Part of the large gap was saving spare cash to purchase the kit, some of it was wanting to keep an eye on the BMW to see if any major mechanical glitches would reveal themselves. Well, aside from having it SORNED and in the workshop, only starting it once a month and driving it around the farmyard tracks, I couldn't really find anything wrong with it! But the saving was taking forever, especially with an upcoming wedding (I'm actually quite fortunate that the soon-to-be Mrs omara04 is incredibly understanding and allow me to embark on a crazy project with less than a year to go until a huge financial commitment!!)

So I  spoke to Peter at GKD, and I decided that a good way to get the project moving was to purchase the chassis as a start, and then buy the rest of the modules in pieces along the way. That way the saving can be done in parallel with the build. Good idea I reckon!

So with that in mind I've set about stripping the E36 to get at the vital components I'll need, and trying to flog some of the bits I don't need on eBay. Fortunately there's quite a lot of blingy bits on this particular model that I think the rest of the E36 community might want. (incidentally email me on omara04@yahoo.com if there's something you need!)

So we're going from a whole car to one of many pieces:

Start:

Less some fairly major extremeties:

All the pieces after they'd been removed!

 
 Next step is to get these sold and carry on stripping!




 

Getting the Donor

Greetings dear reader

I'll be honest with you - this is a little bit out of sequence as I started this blog somewhat after the project started. But I'll try to keep the posts chronological until we get up to date. Bear with me!

In June 2011 I finally made the plunge and bought the donor:

A 1995 328i Saloon, which I purchased on eBay. 200,000 miles, fairly decent spec, and quite a few goodies which I knew I could strip off and sell seperately.

 I made the trip up from Plymouth to Sidmouth, after I won the auction for £400. Quite pleased with the motor on the whole, but as the Tax was expired and worried about my prospects of a) getting caught by plod, and b) breaking down; I elected to borrow a trailer and drag it back behind the disco.

Got it back to my workshop, and as I drove it up and down around the yard I was still beaming with the result. It purred like a kitten and offered no 'orrible mechanical clunks or knocks. Result! There were a few peculiar defects, mainly electrical things not working, dashboard clocks inop etc. but nothing that would worry me for the kit car build. 

Just need to save up and get the kit now!

And so it begins!

Hello all! Welcome to my blog for my latest project - I'm building a kit car!!

First let me take the opportunity to explain why I'm embarking on what would seem to many as a bizarre and bewlidering past time...

I'm completely bonkers on Engineering, and have been all my life. WIth my day job as a Chartered Engineer I love solving problems and working on Engineering projects, but as you progress up the greasy pole of Management, you find yourself further removed from the exciting stuff, and instead get buried in strategy meetings, spreadsheets and project plans!! So what better way to keep in touch with your roots than have a go at something like this. As an avid builder of lego technic as a youngster, I see this as nothing more than a natural extension of that childhood fascination with technology, and a kit car certainly fits the bill as the ultimate "grown-ups" lego kit. 




My long-suffering (but beautiful and intelligent ... thank you dear, keep reading) fiancé would blame Mark Evans and "a racing car is born" for this endeavour...

I've been keen on cars for as long as I can remember, and I started along the DIY motorsport craze with 4x4 and offroad vehicles. Whilst I've still got my various Land Rovers and I'm still heavily involved in www.plymouthoffroad.net ( I do love charging through a muddy field with the glorious sound of a V8!!) I fancied a different challenge. Something different to welding a rotten Discovery chassis!!




I'd done quite a bit of homework and reached the conclusion that I think everyone will do soon - traditional Ford-based kit cars are going to become very hard to get donors for; thanks to the demise of the Sierra. I've seen some interesting new ideas based on using the FWD Zetec powertrain and mounting it behind the driver, but I really fancied a traditional "sevenesque" kit, with an up front North-South Engine and RWD. So what other high-powered 90s rep mobile offered a ready supply of cheap donors? The answer was simple, BMW E36.

And so I got onto the idea of the GKD Legend - proven and reliable BMW engines, with a glorious 6 cylinder, superb handling, very good write-up both on the track and the road; and the staff had an excellent reputation for great customer service. What's not to like!

So this will be my attempt at a blog, build diary, memoirs, insight into insanity - call it what you will... but I hope you enjoy it.

End Goal - a GKD Legend: