The 318is

[Byron]

Update time!

About a month ago, I had a wheel fall off the car. I had lent my lug bolts out to a friend so I was using some 15mm spacers and extended bolts. I've run these for close to 3000 miles, but I had them on steelies this time, which apparently had a deeper bolt hole. The bolts stripped themselves out of the hub and the car fell down doing about 15mph. No damage other than the stripped hub and my bumper being popped out of the mounting bracket. I needed new rear wheel bearings anyways and my trailing arms were getting a little rusty, so I took the opportunity to just replace them as a whole while I was doing the subframe.

While the car was down with the stripped hub, I sent the shocks to Bilstein USA to get shortened and revalved to match my new springs. A week and a half and $450 later, I got a set of pretty much new shocks and struts back.



Put them in with the new springs (750F 900R, up from 300F 475R), and was instantly dissapointed with the height. The new springs were so much stiffer that the front of the car was now an inch higher than it was before



So I found a set of Swift springs that are pretty much the same rates but an inch shorter, they should be here Wednesday. I'm going to shorten the struts another inch and a half too when I go to put them in.


And todays project was to get the rear fenders rolled. You may have noticed how shitty my offsets have always been in the back. Since getting the coils close to 2 years ago, my rear fenders have only had a pipe roll. All the factory undercoating was still trapped inside so it really did nothing, the RF's rubbed even with the battleship status.

So before the adjustable subframe, the RS's stuck out about 3-5mm without tires. Pretty nice fitment, but not where I wanted it. With the adjustable subframe, the fenders sat on the tires before I even got past the curb protector. So back to the fender rolling. I wanted to keep the factory body line as best as I could just so I could brag about how much I could fit under the stock fender. I think I did pretty well.



No rub all the way till the trailing arms bottom out



For some reason, the passengers side Stuck out further. I measured twice and cut once when I did the subframe, so I know the camber is the same on both sides. I've heard of this problem before with e30's, just could never tell that it was this noticable.





So I had to roll the passengers side slightly more than the drivers. Luckily you can't see both sides at once, so it's not noticable unless you really look. I didn't take any detail pics of the after roll for some reason.

Ride height in the back







Down and ooot



Unfortunatly I'm still waiting on some bolts for the adaptors so I only have the front RS's mounted. Once I get them in, expect on the ground pictures.

[Byron]

boom, pm'd

[mo diesil]

thats cool write up. pm me about the zender valence i would mind grabing that

[Byron]

Alright, here's a step by step to try to answer all the questions I always get.




Started off with the ix shocks. Pictured next to stock length e30 shocks.



Then I measured the strut housings multiple times and finally made the first cut. I did not use that cutting wheel in the picture, I used a exhaust tubing cutter so the cut would be both smooth and exactly perpendicular to the housing.



Then repeated the previous step until I had this. That is exactly 1" sectioned out of the housing.



Then I threw away the 1" section and welded the top and bottom halves back together. I used 3 magnets to hold the halves aligned correctly while I was welding.



And ground down the area of the weld that was closest to the tire to prevent possible future fitment issues.



Now the ix shock inserts are about 3" shorter than the stock inserts ( I have the exact measurement somewhere), so I had to make a spacer to make up the difference (3" - 1" sectioned = 2" spacer, again, the shock difference is a rough number so don't quote me on that). The spacer will sit inside the strut housing underneath the ix shock.

So I found some thick wall pipe lying around the shop



And cut it to length



Then reassemble the housing and repeated for the other side.

[WillE28]

can you upload pic of your shortened housing

[Byron]

Buy this one! haha


And I shortened the housings myself. I sectioned an inch out right below the factory perch and welded it back together rather then cut the top off and search for a tap large enough. I have pictures on my home computer that I can upload for you if you want.

[mo diesil]

that valance is sweet i would like a zender valence.
and a question about your fronts did you send them to GC for modification on DIY? also did you section them on just cut off the threads and retapped.
thing looks sweet man, hopfully see it in person this year

[Byron]

More parts! Got my new rust free subframe with camber and toe adjusters pre welded in. Less work for me to do and it was cheaper than the adjusters alone would have been. Gonna throw a coat of POR15 on it before I stick it in the car



And a Zender valence that I got for only $175!



Unfortunatly it's way too low for me to run, this pic is with my car in wintermode with the coils all the way up (aka 4" higher than I run in the summer).



So I'm probably just going to fix it up a bit and sell it and keep looking for other valences.


And one of my poor broken 540i

[Byron]

WTF?! All she ever talks about is her boyfriend! I'm just trying to make conversation and change the subject

[Average_Jerk]

Hmmmmmm

http://providence.craigslist.org/mis/2279010996.html

fucking lol!

[Kielan]

Hmmmmmm

http://providence.craigslist.org/mis/2279010996.html

OMFG!!!

[Gator]

Hmmmmmm

http://providence.craigslist.org/mis/2279010996.html

[1rawc4]

We moved the meets back to Applebees in Warwick, and I've been bringing my 5 since the e30 is partway taken apart and boring looking at the moment. You can still come by though, we're a friendly bunch and we meet every Wednesday night starting at 8:30ish.

To bad it's going to rain tomorrow. If its clear next week I'll show up. Be pleased to meet everyone.

[BeefCurtains]

Aka about 13 seconds of acceleration

Less.

[Byron]

Still sounds like some fun though.

It's still a lot of fun, and honestly I really don't need to go that fast. But I know that once I have the supercharger on, I'm going to want to keep accelerating haha.

m62! sweet. You guys having any meets in Coventry soon? I wanna check the out car. Oh and I figured out where you live, I was driving around Kingston and seen your car and a white wheelie car in what I'd assume to be YOUR driveway. Would have popped in but I was working, and you'd have no clue who I am.

We moved the meets back to Applebees in Warwick, and I've been bringing my 5 since the e30 is partway taken apart and boring looking at the moment. You can still come by though, we're a friendly bunch and we meet every Wednesday night starting at 8:30ish.

And that's totally my house if you saw the wheelie car haha. Next time you're driving by and both cars are in the yard feel free to stop by!

I've been following your build thread, and that sucks that you're having to deal with the speed limiter, just like on my car was. I don't know if the engine or computer is hard to get around because of lack of aftermarket or w/e like on my car, but FluidMotorUnion was actually gonna help me get around my speed limiter. If you can't figure it out you might want to send them a shout, they seem like really helpful guys.

Also are you going to SOWO? I really want to check this car out.

Yeah I'm sure they could help out, but the WAR chip should be able to do it by itself. I need to call Miller and ask about it but I haven't had the chance. And I'll be at SOWO for sure, it's my deadline date for finishing up all of this years projects lol.