Thom's bagged E46 saloon/sedan - Airlift, BBS RF - UK Build

[Thooooom]

as promised..











its amazing the difference the wider wheels and camber arms have made. i've had so many nice comments over the last few days and have been blown away by the amount of people who noticed the new fitment. really pleased.

[Thooooom]

some photos from Ultimate Dubs car park last weekend.





some more coming soon.

[Thooooom]

Damn that looks AMAZING.

I always thought your fitment was perfect and it couldn't get any better but you just proved me wrong.

haha thanks man, ive always wanted more camber but didnt really know what to expect, fitting these for the first time and dropping the car down blew my mind, i would have loved to have seen my face light up haha.

You're my hero.

Perfect. 10/10 Would bang.

thanks guys!

This was all over my instagram timeline on Tuesday, and deservingly so. Bloody hell, what a perfect build. Get a photshoot with the new set up so I can update my desktop wallpaper

haha sorry about that man. will hopefully get some nice photos soon!

Golded man . Impressed beyond measure.
Its nice to see your sticking with it , Im getting tired of people changing cars and wheels like they do their underwear lol .
Cant wait to see more pictures !

yeah i agree, this has given me a whole new love for the car again. the wheels will never wear off for me.

[12vsex]

Golded man . Impressed beyond measure.
Its nice to see your sticking with it , Im getting tired of people changing cars and wheels like they do their underwear lol .
Cant wait to see more pictures !

[Mehowski]

This was all over my instagram timeline on Tuesday, and deservingly so. Bloody hell, what a perfect build. Get a photshoot with the new set up so I can update my desktop wallpaper

[Dr.AK]

Perfect. 10/10 Would bang.

[UpperClass]

You're my hero.

[SnazzyQ]

Damn that looks AMAZING.

I always thought your fitment was perfect and it couldn't get any better but you just proved me wrong.

[Thooooom]

PIC HEAVY UPDATE

It took way longer than i thought to find somewhere who would fit my tyres. i rang about 15 garages before i found anywhere. most people either didnt understand how a narrower tyre would fit on a wider wheel, or knew what stretch was and wanted nothing to do with it. But eventually i found somewhere willing to do it. its always scary watching a bunch of random guys handle youre expensive wheels unaware of the value of them.



not as much room in an e46 as you'd think, it wasnt a comfy drive.



polished them when i got back with Mothers billet polish, this stuff is incredible.



stretchy



i put the wheels on straight away, and am SO glad i didnt go wider. turns out 12.7mm more lip makes a hell of a difference. i've still managed a 5mm spacer up front though (might swap for a 10mm, undecided as of yet)

so specs are now
17 x 9.5 et 8
17 x 10 et 6

215/40/17 tyres all round.

adjusted camber arms, lots of camber...





i also managed to get arch to lip up front. for anyone that knows e46's well you'll know that this isnt very easy, especially with Airlift struts. the added camber has bought the lip up to the arch, so althought its not any lower it definitely looks it. My biggest **** with this car before was the lack of arch to lip up front.



and here is the result. i havent got precise measurements but my iphone suggests its around 6 degrees front camber and 9.5 rear. i might be way off this is just what i got using the compass app on my phone.








the rear toe in was crazy so some modifying was in order. I dropped the rear trailing arms and removed the brackets that bolt to the chassis. this photo shows a before and after of the holes that i elongated to allow for more toe adjustment.





turns out even with the elongated holes its not possible to get perfect toe as the trailing arm fouls on the chassis where it mounts to the bracket. I'm happy with how close it is to 0 so i'll see how long my tyres last. I aligned the fronts using tracking sticks, which i'd never used before but we're pretty simple to use actually.

thats all for now folks, here's one more for good measure...

[b5brendan]

To good my dude

[DeMaroE46]

Your wheels give me a chub.

[najim]

This is a brilliant build mate. I've been silently following it on here and on instagram for a while

[Minuki]

Looking really good man! RF's are such a good style.

Need to do something about a sump guard this year.

[Thooooom]

woah.

So glad you kept these wheels instead of changing them.

Also those new lips are just perfection.

thanks man, they need a polish as they still have some machining marks on them, but im happy.

Camber arms are now on, not as bad a job as i was expecting!

[SnazzyQ]

woah.

So glad you kept these wheels instead of changing them.

Also those new lips are just perfection.