Right, 2015 is here. The year *fingers crossed* when shit actually gets done and REAL progress is made.
There have been so many set backs with the body and I am a little shocked to think that this all started in May 2013... So really very little to report!
BUT, now things are happening and there is movement in the hotrod camp!
Just before xmas we stripped down the donor car! Wahey! It all went a little bit like this:
We headed down to Insane Creations to tear down the donor car and carefully extract the motor and desired running gear.
Once all done, the plan is to get the body back from the body shop, drop the motor on to the frame rails along with the new body and start mocking some bits up and plan out the final chassis dimensions and so on...
Anyway... A friend of mine Adam arrived with his trailer and we loaded up the old girl for the final time and set sail to Portsmouth!
After a nice straight forward drive down and a brief stop for supplies (beer) we arrive at Insane Creations and roll the old girl in to the workshop.
We get stuck in after having a cup of tea (first of perhaps 100 this weekend) and a quick look at what else Ron and the team are working on currently. Most of the interior is stripped already as you can see from previous posts so.. Bonnet off and time to 'carefully' remove the motor. Nearly all the ancillaries won't be going on the 31 Coupe but if they are, smaller ones will be used as pretty much everything on the BMW was HUGE!
A few hours later, as the car is getting crushed regardless, we decided to chop the front out to make engine removal a little easier...
Exhaust off, prop shaft off... The remaining fuel and oil lines chopped and the engine bay wiring loom isolated... Time for the tug!
The headers on the right hand side of the motor were giving us a little grief getting the old girl out so off they came and at long last... FREEDOM!
WOW, the motor was so much bigger than we all first thought and it was really tucked in to that engine bay well! A few more cups of tea followed by a beer and pizza to celebrate!
It really is amazing how well they packed everything in to that engine bay
We then retire for the evening feeling good at how much we have accomplished.
A few more beers then we make camp in the motor home to get much needed rest for day 2. The tear down is still far from over.
Up at 7.30 to get the workshop opened up and the kettle on. Whilst waiting for everyone to arrive I have a little play with the grille shell which will be going on the hotrod.. Yup, the motor sticks 2.5 inches out each side of the grille!! It's one big lump!
Day two see's us tackle the rest of the wiring loom, the fuel tank/pumps, dash, suspension,, hubs, brakes and anything else that remains. Carefully labelling the loom as we go so we know what it all does. Deciding to keep the majority of the loom to see if there is anything else we need later on. The car drove in to the workshop so hopefully we have everything we need.
The car now looking a little lighter...
Fuel tank, pump, all under car wiring stripped out...
Turns out there was some nice original paint left on the car... Behind the dash!
Steering column, dash, ignition barrel all stripped out. The pedal assembly is far too big so this was junked also.
Finally all the cross members front and rear come out along with all the suspension, diff and so on which means we load the car up on to the trailer to get scrapped. This concludes day two working on the car.
We clean ourselves up and ready for a curry with all who have helped over the past two days. Swarfega in the eyes... Not the best idea ever... But worked a treat so no pain, no gain...
After a fantastic evening with quite a few beers and a great curry, in the morning of day 3 we get the kettle on for the penultimate time and start breaking down the suspension and clearing the shop.
With all the needed components now stored away with the loom and everything else we need, we sip our last cup of tea (pretty sure this was number 100) and start the journey home.
What's Next?
Well, the body will be done soon and we can start mocking up the rest of the car and getting the welders out! It's all getting very exciting now and I can't thank Ron Haslett and the Insane Creations team, along with Adam (the hero) and the Wren family for their help over the weekend. I can't wait to see this all evolve now!
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