These wheels are VERY impossible to find these days. The fitment is meant for E34 5-Series & E38 7-Series BMW’s… but on my E46, the fitment is AMAZING. I managed to snag a staggered set off eBay today… and I’m VERY stoked about it.
Racing Dynamics RGP’s: 17×8.5 ET+13 Fronts, and 17×9.5 ET+20.5 Rear.
CHROME.
I cannot even stress how rare these things are… let alone in such great condition. The chrome is refinished… but beyond gorgeous. I have actually had better luck importing these wheels from Japan than finding them here in the states. These wheels were posted on eBay for 30 minutes before I snagged them!
I’m a sucker for yellow headlights… so the Destroyerâ„¢ was destined to get them. I also picked up a nice black bull bar that I can mount some Hella 500′s up to.
I’m proud to present to you, the Destroyerâ„¢! It’s an ’06 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD.
Due to the malfunction with the e46, I was forced to up my time-table on getting something reliable that can tow and haul.
It’s got a 6.0L V8 Vortec motor pushing 300hp/360tq – rated to tow 12,000lbs!
All done! HUGE thanks to Erin, Byron, and Matt for helping with the install! The car feels so much better. The struts were so blown… the fell apart when we took them out. Oil went everywhere!
The stock 15-year old suspension on the Corolla is beyond blown out, so I got some new parts to replace the bad stuffs. I didn’t want to go crazy with anything… so I snagged some goodies off eBay. I like that all this cost less than one set of springs for the e46!
I had the drift car officially stripped of all her vinyl for about two whole days… then she got wrapped with new graphics! It was kinda cool having her all black and shiny again. With those ol’ Racing Dynamics tucked under the wheel wells… she was indeed looking more old-skool euro – much to my liking.
I got the primary base of the new graphics on the car about an hour before I had to be at the track for Round 2 of Formula Drift @ Road Atlanta. I got most of the sponsor logos on the car at the track, and actually finished the rest of the application after race-weekend.
I designed everything in Illustrator… and it’s kinda crazy to see it go from the screen to the car. I’m an old skool veteran to vinyl application… but never anything this large in scale. I couldn’t have got-r-dun without Tracy’s help at Batlground. Everyone conked out asleep, or went home… but she stayed up to help me hinge the vinyl onto the car… proving once again that Batlground is the BEST ever. Thank you Tracy!!!
Ol’ grrrl is finally starting to look like a racecar instead of a street car with more stickers than you can count. Now… about some aero…
;P
This is a screenshot out of Illustrator of the file I was working with:
Weeding vinyl on carpet isn’t much fun.
On three… I’m going to close my eyes, and this will be applied… 1.. 2..
THREE! Man, that was easy. ;p
Batlground and Gran Turismo East logos complete.
Headed to the track with more vinyl work to do…
At the track…
On the track…
About a month ago at Black Hills Circuit I managed to crack my subframe. I didn’t hit anything, or do anything out of the ordinary compared to how I usually drive.
They only thing that really makes sense is that this was a small fracture that has been compounding over time. Possibly a hairline fracture that has slowly grown with each aggressive-arsed clutch kick.
I talked to R&D over at Turner Motorsport, and had them assemble a fully reinforced subframe… complete with aluminum subframe and differential bushings.
I’m actually glad my subframe cracked where/when it did – because sure enough – just as Turner R&D advised… there were cracks in the driver-side rear subframe mounting point that I couldn’t see until the subframe was removed. The infamous subframe weakness in the e46 subframe mounting points WAS starting to be exploited – so fortunately I caught it in time before the entire thing tore out of the car. I am still VERY surprised that the damage was so minimal considering the on-off torsional load that has been put on that subframe (and it’s mounting points) for the past 3 years.
Fresh out the box… 
Turner also reinforced the rear sway bar mount: 
Almost ready to yank-r-out… 
The crack near the mounting point: 
Another view of the cracked subframe: 
Rear end: out. 
New vs. Old: 
All assembled: 
I forgot – I ordered shiny blue Turner adjustable rear camber arms! 
METAL. 
Crack detail: 
Pwn4g3. 
In order to reinforce the front subframe mounting points… you have to drop the gas tank… which should have been easy – but it’s German… so it wasn’t. Once I finally got it out, the remaining mount points ground down to metal, battery, alternator, and ECU disconnected… we had to rig the rear end on a dolly and carefully move the car over where the welder was, because I was on the far lift – where the welder doesn’t reach. Nerve racking doesn’t even begin to describe the fun that was. :P
We got it over there, all prepped and ready to weld… got two of the plates welded in the bottom mounts… and ran out of argon, and had to finish the welding the next day (the day before Drift Fury).
Bye-bye stubborn gas tank. 
Cuts inside the trunk above the mounting points: 
Ground down METAL ready to weld: 
Daniel Willie behind the stick:
GRINDING METAL! 
Driver side rear lower reinforcement: 
Driver side front lower reinforcement: 
My shop glasses from high skook pwn u. 
Drrrty mohawks > Clean mohawks! ;P
Driver-side front subframe mounting reinforcement – ready to be primed and painted.
Passenger-side front subframe mounting reinforcement.
Driver-side front rear mounting reinforcement.
Passenger-side front rear mounting reinforcement.
Primed.
Painted
I lifted that rear-end into the car, and bolted it up by myself. (j/k)
OMFG DONE!
On the alignment rack at Gran Turismo East @ midnight. *Note the “UNSPONSORED(tm)” sticker’s partial removal to reflect how I felt, lol.
I CANNOT THANK BATLGROUND ENGINEERING & GRAN TURISMO EAST ENOUGH for their help. I would not have been able to get all of that madness done without them, and definitely would not have had the car ready for Drift Fury otherwise. Seriously… there is a reason I say they are THE BEST IN ATLANTA… because they are.
I will say it again – Batlground and GTE are the BEST in Atlanta.
<3
I got my baby some new kicks today, c/o of Marcos Ruiz. He hooked it up, and they look SLAMMIN’ on the car. I snagged two 15×7″ Watanabe’s, and four Centerlines (2:15×7,2:15×8). Once I get tyres for the 15×8′s… I’ll prolly rawk the Centerlines all the way around – until I can find two more Watanabes… then they will be on there. Its amazing what offset can do for a car. I <3 it!!!
I couldn’t stop staring at the car tonight. It totally changed the demeanor. She doesn’t look like an SR5 to me anymore… but one step closer to a GTS!
Now… about that 20v…
Imagine the European luxury that BMW delivers in a 2001 325Ci as a single piece of paper. Now imaging taking that paper… crumpling it up, and tossing it out the window at a buck twenty. :D It’s kind of old news… but I figured I’d post it up anyway. The e46 is one step closer to being a racecar over a street car. After purchasing an AutoPower rollcage (and it being a deathtrap), it was returned… and ol’ grrrl was taken up to Robinson Racing just north of Atlanta. The guys at MazCare recommended them to me and said they’d take care of me. They weren’t kidding!
(bye-bye deadly cage…) 
(the Sparco owns the stock seat ;P) 
(custom seat bracket from Wedge Engineering) 
(pre-prepped for the cage fabrication) 
(more pre-prep)
Robinson Racing did an amazing job with the cage. It’s very non-intrusive, I’m extremely far away from the bars, it’s so tight in places that you can’t squeeze a piece of paper between the bar and the interior panels. They welded an extra bar between the strut towers in the rear… eliminating the need for my rear strut-brace. They hooked it up! This being my first car with a full cage… I was very impressed at the drastic difference in rigidity. The car slides around like a little go-kart! I didn’t completely realize how much the body used to flex until I felt the flex gone. I love it! I would really love to know how the car would feel seam welded as well. More to come soon… :)
The inevitable had to be done. After over a year of procrastination/exuses on my behalf… Hooman and I finally got our li’l eight-six one step closer to how we planned it. The car’s original 1986 panda red/black combo needed a refresher of sorts… and she finally got it! $65: 11 kans of krylon, two rolls of painters tape, one fine-grit sanding block, one sunday paper, and two 5-hr day’s work… and I present to you – Atlanta’s ONLY white/black panda eight-six!
Step ..1: Wash her down & remove excess drrrt.
Step ..2: Wet sand any problematic areas (such as the Jesus fish a previous owner applied ;)). 
Step ..3: Rattle-can the wheels ultra-flat black. 
Step ..4: Begin masking off windows, tail lights, & trim with painter’s tape & newspaper. 
Step ..5: Bust out the Krylon. 
Step ..6 (not really illustrated): Mask & paint lower half of car & hood satin black. 
Step ..7: Leave her sit overnight & start the next day with a fresh head clear of Krylon dust. 
Step ..8: Tape & mask the black portions of the car to prepare for the white. Use the sunday paper to aid in covering the black portions you already sprayed.
Step ..9: Start the white paint application. 
Step ..10: With the white paint applied, give her some time to dry & cure. 
Step ..11: Take dorky picture of self with gas mask on. (BTW, I highly recommend one of these – especially if you’re doing this in a poorly ventilated locale.)
Step ..12: Unwrap your work carefully and slowly… the paint still hasn’t completely cured, and you don’t want to destroy hours upon hours of work.
Step .. 13: Bask in the glory as the fruits of your labor are fully unveiled. 
Step ..14: Rawk out more post-completion poses. 
Step ..15: Bring her to the surface & back into the real world! 
Hooman and I are the biggest dorks on the planet, and we love every minute of it. We had to rawk it out Initial D style. :D This was a team effort for sure. I was primary masking technician, since I’m so damn picky about detail… and Hooman was primary paint batallion, since he’s the rattle-can master. We could not have rawked it out so hard individually. I thank him for putting up with my time-consuming mask techniques… I think it turned out RAD!
