Touring International

[Earl]

I got some work done on Thursday and Sunday, but I only took one picture=/

Lets start off with the trailing arm bushings. I figured out why they will not seat. I simply installed them incorrectly. You are supposed to insert each poly piece, and then run the sleeve through the middle. I ran the outer pieces in, with the sleeve in. When I put the inner pieces in, it trapped air. This kept them from fully seating, and is now keeping me from taking them out. All I can think of now is to drill a small hole in each one to let the air escape, and then install a zerk fitting so I can grease them in the future. I will let you know how this works after Wednesday.

Now for work that actually got completed. I got sick of seeing the firewall/trans tunnel insulation just dangling there, so I finished tugging the rest of it out.



Other than that, I finished removing all of the seam sealer that I could find and also finished smoothing out the mounting points for the old ABS brackets. The next step for the bay is to weld the seams to keep any filler used from cracking. I wish I could fill every imperfection in the bay with metal, to stay away from having to use filler. That would take a whole lot of time and I would still need filler in the end to smooth it all out. Hopefully I will just need a light skim coat to fill small indents and to smooth all of the welded seams out.

[Earl]

So to start on a bad note, I may have to destroy my new bushings to get them out. I drilled a hole in the end of one arm to release the air, and that didn't help at all. I'm really not sure how else to remove the bushings without damaging them=/

Good Note: I should have some boxes showing up today=D Not sure exactly which ones, but they're all great.

I got something done yesterday that I have been meaning to do.

Started by removing this:



To access here (among other reasons):



So that I could bundle these here securely:



So that I would be left with this:



Bye bye wires. Also snapped some pics of the bay ready for the seams to be welded:





Then I was peeling plastidip off of my front bumper. I will never plastidip a car again. The removal is so tedious=/



Updates tomorrow with whichever boxes arrive=P

[Earl]

My boxes didn't end up showing up on Thursday. UPS needed me to sign for them, and I wasn't home. So of course I took off Friday just to be able to sign for them. They came 7 minutes after I would have been home from work=/ Oh well.

Anyways it was like Christmas thanks to Bag Riders=)


I asked them to draw on the boxes to see how creative they are. I had a good laugh





Contents of two of the boxes




The third box was my UAS Airhouse 2's for the rear. I got the tank raw so that I could paint it myself. Here is while it was drying:


I also picked up an AC-Schnitzer style CF lip on Saturday in need of repairs. A friend and I are going to fix it and then it will be getting painted to match my rub strips.

Other than getting parts and painting the tank, I didn't get any work done on the car. I had a local get together Saturday and then realised that I didn't have anything I needed to get any work done on the car. Wednesday I will be getting the bags mounted to the trailing arms and hopefully fixing the bushing situation. I also need to figure out how I want my trunk setup to be. I want it clean and classy, but not boring.

Updates to come after Wednesday

[frink84]

nice work. peeling plastidip is a bitch. i found goo gone liquefies it. makes a mess but it comes off!

[Earl]

nice work. peeling plastidip is a bitch. i found goo gone liquefies it. makes a mess but it comes off!

I heard that works well too. Im not sure how good of an idea it would be to use on a plastic bumper though. I was told that claybar works really well too. Might have to give that a try.

[R. Jani]

To access here (among other reasons):

What is that in the middle under glovebox?

Good progress here. Did you get the full airlift E36 kit? I bought universals and later found out that they where releasing kit
Working on now how to mount all in the boot.

[Earl]

Are you talking about the grey piece? It is a pad under the dash. We didn't get the glovebox with the cubby here=/ I just bought the airlift fronts. I am using UAS Air House 2's for the rear. The Airlift rears seem too much to me when all you need are the Air House 2's. Plus the Air House 2's are $65 a piece, versus $600 for the airlifts......I am trying to figure out what shocks to use. I believe late 90's mustang gt shocks work great.

[R. Jani]

Well that explains the missing cubby.

600 is a lot and 280 for shipping. You can forget buying.
I have SS-5 bags that I'm trying to figure out how to mount.

[Earl]

Installing those will be as simple as mine. Grind the spring seat off of the frame rail and trailing arm. Then, drill and tape a hole in the trailing arm, insert a stud, and thread the bag onto the trailing arm. Drill a hole in the surface coming off of the frame rail and put a bolt down through it, into the top of the bag=)

[bimmerbabe]

You won't be needing the pad any more as soon as you get our glovebox =)

[Earl]

And out come the secrets=P lol

[KyleAnderson]

I am trying to figure out what shocks to use. I believe late 90's mustang gt shocks work great.

79-93 Mustang are what you want... about 2" shorter than stock. Top mount size is the same, and lower needs about 18mm added to it (I used a bunch of washers). I'm using Strange Engineering S6000EM shocks. 10 way adjustable, and Amazon has them for $140/pair shipped. My Z is about 3/4" from laying frame with stock wheels/tires.

[Earl]

I'll look into those=) I know a fellow 318ti.org member used 97 mustang GT shocks and they were a ton shorter.

[R. Jani]

Installing those will be as simple as mine. Grind the spring seat off of the frame rail and trailing arm. Then, drill and tape a hole in the trailing arm, insert a stud, and thread the bag onto the trailing arm. Drill a hole in the surface coming off of the frame rail and put a bolt down through it, into the top of the bag=)

Sounds simple but I'm stil a bit confused. How are you going to connect air line into the bag?

[Earl]

Haha How did I forget that? Just drill another hole in the top mount and attach the air fitting.