Austin's E46 build (2/10, do not recommend)

[mozinqo]

Pikeville is a nice area, but I'm sure it is lonely for you

I dated a girl who lived out there

Yeah, it's a nice place. Honestly, the car scene in the Pikeville (well, more the Goldsboro) area has been growing a ton lately. It can still get pretty lonely but it's getting better. It's mostly all replica wheels/parts and guys with a foot ground clearance who put things like #static and #solow on their instagram pictures though

[ImAwesome]

Pikeville is a nice area, but I'm sure it is lonely for you

I dated a girl who lived out there

[mozinqo]

Cool build. I like where its going.

Thanks man, hopefully it ends up making a cool car.

E46 looks good.

You look good.

[mozinqo]

The issue isn't with pressure, it's with flow rate. Those valves, at least the ones I've seen, are set up in a way that every time the suspension compresses they add air to the bags and every time the suspension extends they vent to atmosphere. That means that literally every bump the car goes over will vent air from the system, and the compressor will basically be constantly running. That's not a problem with a belt-driven York that makes more air than is expended in most hurricanes, but it is a problem with a small electric compressor, which I doubt will be able to keep up.

You could set the valves to not be very sensitive to bumps by attaching their linkages inboard on a suspension arm or adding some slack into the linkage connections, but then you're limiting how sensitive they are to ride height changes. That kind of defeats the point.



Driving aired all the way up is hard on your bags, particularly if the bags are captive at both ends, and it's certainly uncomfortable. Manual paddle valves are dirt cheap; you can get a set of four from Bag Riders for like $80, and they'll give you all the control you could want. That'd be the way I'd go.

Yeah, I see what you're saying. The plan was to use it just for airing up and airing down not for adjustment while driving. I'm not sure that's possible though. I assumed airing all the way up would be bad on bags so the idea was to set the valves where I wanted my ride height so it would stop there. I'll probably end up just doing paddle valves, it definitely seems like the better option for a quick thing. I'll see if I can't get a more technical system going in the long run.

[arellarenz]

E46 looks good.

[laBeef]

Cool build. I like where its going.

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

A viair compressor pushes 150 psi, and a truck runs on about 60. I won't act like I know much about car air systems though, so what's the problem with that?

The issue isn't with pressure, it's with flow rate. Those valves, at least the ones I've seen, are set up in a way that every time the suspension compresses they add air to the bags and every time the suspension extends they vent to atmosphere. That means that literally every bump the car goes over will vent air from the system, and the compressor will basically be constantly running. That's not a problem with a belt-driven York that makes more air than is expended in most hurricanes, but it is a problem with a small electric compressor, which I doubt will be able to keep up.

You could set the valves to not be very sensitive to bumps by attaching their linkages inboard on a suspension arm or adding some slack into the linkage connections, but then you're limiting how sensitive they are to ride height changes. That kind of defeats the point.

I'm still not 100% on using the height valves either. I'm thinking of just doing it with switches and letting the bags air all the way out/air all the way up. That seems like a simpler way, and it isn't like I can't redo it after sowo. Advice is very much appreciated!

Driving aired all the way up is hard on your bags, particularly if the bags are captive at both ends, and it's certainly uncomfortable. Manual paddle valves are dirt cheap; you can get a set of four from Bag Riders for like $80, and they'll give you all the control you could want. That'd be the way I'd go.

[mozinqo]

Holy crap! That must have been an experience! Once, I forgot to torque my lug nuts on my e30, I got about 200 feet down the road and it felt loose in the steering wheel... I went home in discovered my loose front wheel... That scared me...


Excited to see how the air set up goes!

It scared me too when it came off lmao.
I'm excited to see how it goes too, hopefully we can figure something out with it.

one of my friends lost a wheel doing about 60 and it completely trashed everything, cant imagine how scary it must be haha. its always cool when you come back stronger though! your plans sound awesome and i love the air build, its expensive stuff so doing what you can to save yourself money is awesome!

It was pretty bad, I ground down a lot of stuff under my car but nothing that wasn't fixable. It wasn't the funnest ride I've ever been on though. I'm hoping I can make them as awesome as they sound

updates........

They should be coming soon, either tonight or tomorrow depending on what all I get done.

So, if I'm reading the photo of your scavenged air ride components correctly, you're going to use truck air ride height valves? If you're using them like they're used in a truck (you know, connected to the suspension for height control), you're going to need a serious compressor, either engine-driven like a York, or something ridiculous like an Oasis.

That or you're using them like paddle valves, in which case, more power to you, so long as they don't allow flow side-to-side when closed.

A viair compressor pushes 150 psi, and a truck runs on about 60. I won't act like I know much about car air systems though, so what's the problem with that? I'm still not 100% on using the height valves either. I'm thinking of just doing it with switches and letting the bags air all the way out/air all the way up. That seems like a simpler way, and it isn't like I can't redo it after sowo. Advice is very much appreciated!

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

So, if I'm reading the photo of your scavenged air ride components correctly, you're going to use truck air ride height valves? If you're using them like they're used in a truck (you know, connected to the suspension for height control), you're going to need a serious compressor, either engine-driven like a York, or something ridiculous like an Oasis.

That or you're using them like paddle valves, in which case, more power to you, so long as they don't allow flow side-to-side when closed.

[kittenpuncher]

updates........

[Thooooom]

one of my friends lost a wheel doing about 60 and it completely trashed everything, cant imagine how scary it must be haha. its always cool when you come back stronger though! your plans sound awesome and i love the air build, its expensive stuff so doing what you can to save yourself money is awesome!

[DER E30]

Holy crap! That must have been an experience! Once, I forgot to torque my lug nuts on my e30, I got about 200 feet down the road and it felt loose in the steering wheel... I went home in discovered my loose front wheel... That scared me...


Excited to see how the air set up goes!

[mozinqo]

Alright, it's been a while but a lot of not so cool things have happened which have led to some very cool things being but into the works.

Let's start with the not so cool. By not so cool, I mean I almost died.



Apparently, our smaller impact doesnt tighten lug nuts enough, who knew? Well, I know now. Surprisingly there wasn't a lot of damage to my frame or any of the under side of my car, my fender was destroyed and my wheel flew a few hundred feet after hitting the ditch. All things considered, watching my wheel fly was pretty cool. The fender part wasn't quite as cool.



We have a parts car, so I was able to get another fender pretty easily though. Which leads me to the very cool things being put into the works. I own a sticker business but I've never wrapped a car before, however I've heard it isn't too hard. I'm in the process of looking for the color I want right now (note: I'm planning on being done before SoWo, so I have about a month.) I've basically decided on brown gloss metallic from Avery, for reference here's a picture.



My brother also traded his GTI for this



which left me feeling like this



so I'm bagging my car now too.

DISCLAIMER: This will most likely be the most ghetto air set up to exist on stanceworks, if you don't like that then I don't like you.

I'm on a pretty tight budget, and with sowo approaching soon..it's going to be interesting to say the least, and this build thread is about to get a lot more posting. So last night, we went over to my dad's friend's shop to look for some air-y things we could use. I'll be buying the bags, the tank and the lines but I should have everything else I need laying around. We were able to find all of the fittings and some 3/8 line, and a few more things that are going to be a bit more "custom".



so much room for activities (also excuse the poor picture quality, had to use my dad's phone)



maybe some day I'll be looking for one of these



all in all, it was pretty productive and I was able to find all of this out there



oh and I just bought some new wheels too, should look pretty good with the brown I'm going to try and keep them on the DL though.

So, to end this post, the plans for the next 30 days are to do a complete air system with a lot of fabrication, fit my new wheels once they come in, do a lot of fabrication work to my suspension (besides the air) and try my hand at wrapping my car. It should be a fun 30 days, and hopefully everyone will get to see the finished product in Helen.

[mozinqo]

Looks good so far, certainly pretty low.

Thank you

I'm planning on being lower once I get around to adding some protection to that oil pan..and exhaust, and everything else underneath there.

[mozinqo]

During weeding, with the sample. This thing took forever, my cutter decided to randomly stop cutting then sent an error message, hours of googling later, here we are. They should fit from the bottom of my doors to about an inch and a half under the side trim and they're matched to my wheel color for now. I'll probably get tired of them in a month and take them off, so I don't care about how terrible they're going to look

If you haven't noticed, I have no idea what direction I want to take this car. Part of me says just to run a set of RSs and minimal camber and body work, so euro styling. The other part of me wants excessive camber and fender/body work, on a set of aggressive wheels with VIP styling. I'll probably end up going with the latter because it's more fun, and makes more people mad.