Low e36 drift build

[jkeane97]

Hi, i'm Jack. Here's a brief rundown of my e36 drift "build"

I'll let the pictures do most of the talking. I got it in late 2015 as a 328 with a welded diff, modded knuckles and a hydro. Its the car I learned to drift in and the only major changes I've made to it over the years have been visual and suspension upgrades.
How it looked when i first got it

2016
Got 15" BBS's

Crashed it

Fixed it

Got the HM kit

Tubed the rear arches (really badly, done with a stick welder lol) and got overfenders. Also got a pair of 17x9 WMB Cr Kais and 17x9 T7rs. Used adapters to fit them

2017
Got a new bonnet and lowered it more

Painted it

Fitted a diffuser

Crashed it again

Fixed it

Got rid of my civic around this time too

Made an exhaust. You can also see the plate I made to protect the fuel and brake lines. Also picked up some 17x9.5 WMB Xd9s at some point

2018
I got some BC coilovers with true coilover rears so that i could lower the rear of the car some more. Up until this point the car was on TA technix coilovers with cut rear springs

Then i set about making some kinked rear upper control arms to go with the new coilovers. You can see in the 1st pic how close the standard upper control arm was to the body. This was at the height the car is in the last few pics

Prototype

Finished product

I also reinforced the rear strut towers to go with the true rear coilovers

I installed the coilovers and arms then lowered the car as low as the coilovers would allow

It was way too low. The fuel tank, floor and frame rails scraped on everything so i raised it up a bit

~ I'm at the photo limit so I'll finish this off tomorrow ~

 

[jkeane97]

Whoops those last 3 photos shouldn't be in that post.
Anyway as you can see in the last 3 photos i crashed and bent a front lower arm and broke a knuckle so i made my own modded knuckles and extended lower arms. The new knuckles gave slightly more lock than before and have muuuuuuch better steering feel. I think the main reason for this is because I only reduced the ackerman angle by half of the standard angle and i'm pretty sure the previous modded knuckles had 0 degrees ackerman. I also extended the lowers more than they had been previously (previously were extended 30mm, i went for 50mm) to push the wheel out a bit further, in an attempt to help with rubbing.

Because the front wheels poked out a bit more i modified some standard metal front wings to cover them. I did this by cutting slits in the arch, bending them to get the shape i wanted then welding them up.

They looked good but they rubbed quite a lot which ended up ruining them as you'll see in later photos.
I also re-did the rear tubs as they weren't high enough and the tyres would rub on them.

Loads of room now

Fixed a rusty/dented to shite section of the rear floor. The bit I welded in sits about 10mm higher than the standard section to help with ground clearance. You can also see how badly the fuel tank scrapes. Its the lowest hanging part of an e36 at the back.

Used 3mm thick steel.

Made a quieter backbox with turndown tips. Got a mate to Tig weld it for me.

That was the car done for a bit.

 

[jkeane97]

Next up i wanted to sort out the fuel tank scraping issue as i was worried about scraping the whole way through it. I made a new tank out of stainless steel that would sit behind the back seats between the strut towers. I made it to work with the standard fuel pump to keep it nice and simple.

To go along with the new fuel tank i raised the rear section of the floor where the fuel lines run as they also hang very low.

With all that done i could lower the rear of the car back down without worrying about scraping on anything important.

Went to the Drift Games winter bash in October 2018. This was my first time driving at Mondello park aaaaaaand the clutch went after 3 laps. Only pics from it are of the car sitting in the pits lol.

Fixed the clutch and installed a lightweight flywheel while i was at it.

2019
Then went to the Drift Games spring bash in February 2019. Went much better this time, car had no problems bar bursting a rear brake line meaning I had no handbrake for the 2nd day.

 

[jkeane97]

The reason why the rear brake line burst is because as standard the lines run between the trailing arm and the body and the pipe must have got pinched as the suspension compressed. I fixed this issue by re-routing the brake pipe so it couldn't get pinched again. Whilst I was there i noticed that the trailing arm was only around 5-10mm from touching the body, limiting my suspension travel. (The picture below has the coilover unbolted and the suspension compressed until the trailing arm touches the body)

So I notched the body to allow the trailing arm to move up higher.

Testing the new suspension travel after notching for the trailing arm (Coilover unbolted and wheel pushed up with jack). This is as low as the car can go. At this height my kinked upper arm is touching the body (Where the spring usually sits). At this height the rear of the sill would be pretty much on the ground.

Next up i decided to make a strut brace with a built in tow hook.

Also went from a 215/40/17 all round to a 215/35/17 to try and stop the front tyres from rubbing. It didn't help much.

Few pics from a drift day where i didn't run the kit.

Had another crash. This one was a bit more catastrophic than the last few. Rear end completely destroyed, passenger side doors wouldn't close properly, kink in the left hand side of the roof etc. It was obvious that the chassis was pretty fucked at this point but i set about fixing it anyway.

Cut the rear end off.

Removed the chassis legs.

Capped off what was left.

Drivers side.

Got a new rear end.

Trimmed it to fit.

Welded it on.

Made a tube frame to strengthen everything. Used 44.5mm roll cage tubing.

Painted with Hammerite. Looks shite, should have sprayed it instead.

Painted the new rear end (badly) and it was done

Went to the Drift Games winter bash again in 2019 but the car broke down halfway through the 1st day son only got half a day of driving.

 

[jkeane97]

2020
The car has been sitting up since then collecting dust but all it needs (hopefully) to get back out is a new crank sensor.

The next plan with the car was to cage it but with the car being bent to shit and very rusty i didn't see any point in caging this shell. Thats where this comes in.

The plan with this silver car is to build it up over the course of a year or two and in the meantime keep drifting the black car.

I started off on the silver car by repairing the 4 jacking points as they were quite rusty.
Rear drivers side before

After

Also fixed this shitty rust repair someone had done in the past.

There was some misery hiding underneath

All cut out and new metal welded in.

Done.

With all the rust sorted i moved on to raising the frame rails. I never did this to the black car and i really should have cause the rails on it are completely fucked at this point.

Marked.

Cut.

Tacked.

Every mm helps.

I also cut out and raised the rear sections of the floor, the same way I did on the black car.

Next up i started into the cage. This is my first time making a cage so its going to be a learning process as i go. I made the back seat panel removable so that i could easily work on the rear legs of the cage (it now has tabs and rivnuts so it can be bolted back into place).

Then i made the boxes for the main hoop to sit on.

Then bent up the main hoop. It took 2 attempts, the first hoop ended up being too wide. Also i'm using 44.5mm tubing for the whole cage.

Fits nice and tight.

And that's where im up to so far. I'll update it further when i make more progress with the cage.

 

[jkeane97]

Also completely forgot to mention that I've recently made a new version of the kinked rear upper arm.

They feature:
High clearance for super low ride height
Adjustable length (+/-10mm)
Heavy duty M20 rod end
Much stronger and have more clearance than the previous design

If anyone's interested in a pair let me know

 

[LooneyE36]

Very very impressive build man. Your fab skills and determination are something to behold. Just goes to show what can be fixed!

 

[SteveMc]

Also completely forgot to mention that I've recently made a new version of the kinked rear upper arm.

They feature:
High clearance for super low ride height
Adjustable length (+/-10mm)
Heavy duty M20 rod end
Much stronger and have more clearance than the previous design

If anyone's interested in a pair let me know
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You seem to be a tidy welder, is welding/engineering your background or have you just picked it up as you go

 

[Roofless_]

Irish people seem to build the best cars lol.

Well done, build looks great and your fab work is perfect.

 

[Bu11et]

Great build so far man!! Fab work is something to be proud of! Look forward to seeing more

 

[jkeane97]

Only a year and a half late but thanks for the kind words lads. I worked as a welder/fabricator for 5 years and i've also recently just finished a degree in mechanical engineering.

Continuing on from the last post i finished the cage in the silver car.

Raised the rear strut towers.

Made the back seats fit around the cage.

Raised the rear subframe by 30mm. Standard on the left and modified on the right.

Fixed rusty trailing arm pockets.

Started working on some high clearance rear upper spring bucket arms.
Version 1

Version 2

Version 3

Version 4

Version 5, the finished product.

The arms offer 55mm more suspension travel before hitting the chassis. The spring perch area has been lowered which drops the rear ride height by 10mm. The arms have lots of clearance around the driveshaft boot to prevent rubbing. The outer bolt hole is slotted allowing for 4 length settings: -10mm, -5mm, 0mm and +5mm. The arms can be used with or without a rear anti roll bar. I've also been experimenting with super short springs to go with the arms. I've been some 70mm tall 24k springs with these arms in my black car.

If you're after a pair of them shoot me a message on instagram @j_keane_97.