'88 BMW E24 635CSi Highline

[Jorge]

I decided to 'learn' to weld yesterday. After being told how to turn on the machine by text, I thought why not try weld in the studs which are causing me an utter headache.

This was the outcome.

Welding?

I lol'd. It was gasless, which I'm blaming. Would have been perfect without that.

I decided,after wasting a good 5 hours on the 'new' top mounts to 'modify' the originals. I ground down the sides of it to start with, then ground off the top of the mounting hole. This made it thinner, next I burnt out the rubber bushing. It fits, with the supplied rubbed coated Airlift washer it works, just. Will do until I get a machine shop to do things properly for me. I got one side fully fitted, with only minor airleaks. One of which is from the braided leader hose. It can't physically be tightened anymore, and it has a shit load of PTFE tape on, so I don't know what to do there. Losing about 1PSI every 20 seconds.

[Nuts]

Great progress bud, loving it.

[stinkinrich]

Wish I could be there to fucking help man.

[Jorge]

Cos once top mount is on strut, you cant see bottom of the studs.

Yeah future change will be that, nice and neat. All needs to come off for painting soon, just need it moving.

[Anonymoose]

Get some mounts cut by a machinist and get them to drill and press the studs in, they're cheap for jobs like that, attach the strut to the top mount then install to car no? Why you doing it separate?

[Jorge]

Few more photos, boring but look kinda cool.

I made some inroads yesterday to completing this. But yet again tiny setbacks costing me time.

Marked out the supplied top mounts for cutting down to size.


Eating my way through cutting discs, chopped down the the top mounts roughly. You don't see them anyway.



Took a flap wheel to the edges to smooth it off somewhat.


Work out where the holes needed to be, from where I thought they should be. Terrible mistake on my part. Wiggle around a drill bit until its right.


Using a socket and a vice, due to the lack of a press, force the studs into place.



Complete, odd, mishapen top mounts. That don't fit perfectly, and the studs probably did need pressing as half came loose. Leaving me in a very tough situation with regards to trying to fit them....




Fronts are on, need to do the airlines, and put caliper back on as well as tighten all the bolts. I haven't done the ARB droplink yet. That can wait. I'm getting impatient.

Rears are a cunt. Plain and simple. No room above the mount to get your hand, one side top mount is fitted and tried to fit the strut to that, failing, otherside, strut is fitted to top mount, top mount goes to be fitted, two studs come loose. One stud is holding it in place at the moment whilst the others just spin.

Also the holes for the airlines were like 2mm too high. I need to learn the whole measure twice cut once thing. So thats an arse ache of filing to get it lower down.

All in all, progress, yet slow. Fingers crossed today.

[DannyE32]

this is so awesome that now im following you on instagram

[NegativeCamber]

Your help has been an absolute blessing in this build man. I half wish this was an E23 to be honest. Swap?

no problem man. i anxiously wait to see this thing dumped. sure, we can swap nose panels.

[Jorge]

Your help has been an absolute blessing in this build man. I half wish this was an E23 to be honest. Swap?

[NegativeCamber]

yes! this makes me happy. o how i wish my 7 was a shark nose like yours....

[Jorge]

And the sorry state of it.

BMW E24 635CSI by Jorge-, on Flickr

BMW E24 635CSI by Jorge-, on Flickr

[Royal_T]

Just plan nuts..

[Jorge]

Thanks man. AC Schnitzers, offsets are above, something like 2 and -6, 17x9/10.

Some photo progress. Waiting for JamesB to sort out some more pictures.

Took the struts to a friend to weld them together, took a while to find someone who could help me out.

The workbench:



Firstly, prepared the cut eyelets for welding to struts.



These were then welded, 1/4 at a time, to the bottom of the rear struts.


Rear struts complete. Easy as that.


Next, after removing the shock from the front hub. The tubes were cut down. This probably should have been measured as Negative_Camber did with his, to act as a perch for the Airlift strut, but being impatient they were just chopped.


The supplied outer pipe sleeve was then ground down to a flush fit with the base of the hub.



And tacked in place, as always, safety first.


Welded as far round as possible, this is about 3/4 of the overall tube but should be more than strong enough to hold it.






And complete



Unfortunately, I didn't have a wheel in the car to test how low the strut can go. I went home and measured up with a rear style 32. It was close, this is with a 15mm spacer.



Took them back to my friend to weld the next morning, jobs a gooden. 1/4 at a time again and allowed to cool.


Tested with a front ACS Type 1, only a 5mm spacer was required to make it fit.

Other progress over the weekend included drilling and cutting down the top mounts. Unfortunately, I fucked up the holes and they're slightly out of position for the front turrets. Not a huge problem, but it is when you don't have any drill bits.

The same issue affected the rears, we could not drill into the turrets for the airlines. This meant that late on Saturday evening I had to call it quits. I missed taking it to the BMW Festival at Gaydon yesterday.

Been out today with a long shopping list to make sure I got everything possible as to not get in the way of fitting:
16x HSS Drill bits (1-13mm)
1x Counter sink drill bit
3x Cone drill bits
6x Hole saw bits
5x Cutting discs
2x Flap wheels
1x Hammerite Satin Black Spray
1x WD-40
1x Packet of rubber grommets

This is to add to the growing list of shit I have had to buy already, had to used loosely as buying tools is quite fun so why not when you need to...?
Angle grinder
2x cutting discs
Gas soldering iron
Impact wrench
Needle nose pliers
Length of 2x4 wood
...probably more?

Back to it tomorrow, hope to see it aired out. There are not many jobs left to complete (as a list for myself)
- Drill top mounts to fit
- Press in studs
- Fit top mounts to struts
- Cut off drop link mounts from old
- Weld on drop link mounts
- Fit front hubs/shocks
- Fit braided air hose from interior
- Cut already laid airline to footwell on N/S
- Cut airline on O/S, refit carpet, accelerator pedal, steering column trim, bottom dash panel
- Drill holes in rear turrets
- Fit rear struts
- Connect already laid airline to rears
- Program the controller

Not much really....

[Nuts]

wow bud, nice clean 635 you got.
I love your current wheel, whats the size and offset?

[Jorge]

IMG_4389-1 by Jorge-, on Flickr

Slowly, but surely, progress is under way.

Need to go buy more drill bits and cutting discs today as the top mounts aren't perfect.