Simple M3

[bwwaaaa]

The Struggle

So these last two weeks have been kind of annoying and a definite struggle for the M3. While I was beyond happy with how the Rega project turned out, it was immediately followed by some really shit luck. After getting the wheels on, I decided it was time for a realignment. I wanted to adjust my previous alignment mistakes, and get this sitting exactly how I wanted. Now admittedly, the car is low but looking at clearances I had hoped my new alignment would give me the breathing room I wanted. So I booked an appointment and took the car in.

This is where things went very wrong. For those of you who don’t live in Phoenix, AZ: we have exactly three places you can take a low car for an alignment. Only one of those is remotely close to me (and still 30 minutes away). I had previously taken the M3 there when it was on the Fifteen52s, and while I wasn’t blown away by their service, they got the job done. What more could you ask for?

I dropped the car off first thing in the morning, and by mid-afternoon I got a phone call.

“Pick your shit up, we aren’t working on this”

Not how I wanted my afternoon to go. The owner of the shop started yelling at me over the phone to get my car out of his shop. I couldn’t make heads or tails of the call, and finally got him to calm down enough to explain why. His tech was inexperienced in driving lowered cars, and there is a very substantial curb you have to go over to enter the alignment bay. The tech turns the wheel full lock, and (at speed) goes over the bump. This unrolled and ruined my fender.

So now I’m in a weird position. The owner of the shop is heated at me because I brought a low car to his speciality low-car and exotics alignment shop.

I had to talk him down from a cliff, and get him to align the car anyways. It took them over 24 hours (he had to keep the car over night), and the next morning I went to get it and the alignment visually looked off. They did nothing to address the fender, and while the owner apologized for the damage he also lectured me on how tight my clearances were on the car and how much he hates dealing with low cars.

Again, his shop is advertised (and his social media presence shows) they only deal with enthusiast cars, track cars, exotics and so on.

I get home, threw the fifteen52s back on until I could sort this mess and went for a drive that evening.

Something was definitely off with the alignment, and I was still none to happy about the fender. So I gave my friend a call who just happened to get some alignment plates in for doing things himself. He agreed to help me fix the fender and realign the front of the car.

What we discovered is the shop basically only added camber to the front passenger wheel, and adjusted the rear toe. They did absolutely nothing else. The driver’s side wheel was at -2.0, the passenger -3.8. It had overall toe out. So I raised the car a hair, and we redid the front alignment. This was our first time aligning a car, but actually we ultimately got the front toe near zero, and the camber is now reading -3.8 per side up front. As for the fender, it still looks bad with the cracked paint, but at least it’s flat now. We used a hammer and dolly to take out some of the flair and damage underneath.

My custom 8mm spacers arrived as well. As it turns out there are no 5x114.3 spacers with a BMW hub bore on the market. So I ordered a set of 8mm and 10mm for the car. I only need the 8mm for now, though I may change it to 10mm later if I’m feeling extra dangerous.

I was also able to obtain a Scmiedmann LTW wing from a friend of mine. He bought it and shipped it in from Germany, but just sold his M3. He already got all the body work and primer done, so it just needs a color match at this point. I had about given up on finding a good LTW wing, so I’m very pleased with this buy. I’m now on the fence if I should color match and put it on now, or wait until the car gets repainted later. I’m impatient but you know... it looks so cool.

So there’s the update for now. I can live with fender damage and the embarrassment of driving around the car like that when it’s my fault, but in this case it was just a shady shop and idiot kid that ruined my day. Fortunately eventually it’ll be permanently resolved when the car gets painted, but in the meantime I’m still pretty bummed.

[Fruttolo]

Dude this kind of fuck up heats the shit out of me, you've been way too calm in trying to deal with that asshole anyways after his retarded guy blew your fender. How can someone see a car that's tight fitment and manage to destroy it is beyond me, if you're not able to drive it CALL THE OWNER and do not touch it ffs
Also what the fuck is wrong with the owner, you never yell at customers, first thing should always be apologies in a case like this, not yelling and saying it's the customers' fault and then proceed to do a shitty job too.

Jeeesus christ what a world.
Anyways the car looks cool, and the wing will be perfect, but I think you should wait and paint it with the rest of the car.
Glad you managed to diy that fuckd alignment btw, how do you like the drive now?

[hinrichs]

Wow what a shop and business owner. I can not believe he called yelling at you after what happened. If your car was such an issue they should have said anything when you dropped it off. I am glad you got it all sorted out with the toe plates. I have a set of them...yeah I cant figure them out hahah. I cant wait to see the ltw on once you get it, or the car resprayed.

[Steven_318ti]

Dude this kind of fuck up heats the shit out of me, you've been way too calm in trying to deal with that asshole anyways after his retarded guy blew your fender. How can someone see a car that's tight fitment and manage to destroy it is beyond me, if you're not able to drive it CALL THE OWNER and do not touch it ffs
Also what the fuck is wrong with the owner, you never yell at customers, first thing should always be apologies in a case like this, not yelling and saying it's the customers' fault and then proceed to do a shitty job too.

Jeeesus christ what a world.
Anyways the car looks cool, and the wing will be perfect, but I think you should wait and paint it with the rest of the car.
Glad you managed to diy that fuckd alignment btw, how do you like the drive now?

Couldn't have said it better myself, that's no service, your guy f**ked up, take the hit and deal with it like the "professional" business you are or claim to be!!!

LTW wing is great, love them on 4 doors, get it colour coded and fitted asap :-D

[bwwaaaa]

Dude this kind of fuck up heats the shit out of me, you've been way too calm in trying to deal with that asshole anyways after his retarded guy blew your fender. How can someone see a car that's tight fitment and manage to destroy it is beyond me, if you're not able to drive it CALL THE OWNER and do not touch it ffs
Also what the fuck is wrong with the owner, you never yell at customers, first thing should always be apologies in a case like this, not yelling and saying it's the customers' fault and then proceed to do a shitty job too.

Jeeesus christ what a world.
Anyways the car looks cool, and the wing will be perfect, but I think you should wait and paint it with the rest of the car.
Glad you managed to diy that fuckd alignment btw, how do you like the drive now?

It’s especially bad when you figure they advertise themselves specifically as a low-car friendly alignment shop. That’s all they do. Sure, if I pulled up to some random shop, I get it, but this is 100% on them. This last weekend, when I picked up that wing, the friend I got it from had also taken his slammed car there. They made him take off the bumper to get it aligned, and the owner bitched at him the whole time that he hates doing low cars. The owner just has a bad attitude.

That said, the alignment specs you gave me are waaaay better than what I had before. I’m sure I’m a hair off, but it still feels much snappier and responsive than it did before. Finally on the right track, my car feels like an M3 again haha. Thank you!

Wow what a shop and business owner. I can not believe he called yelling at you after what happened. If your car was such an issue they should have said anything when you dropped it off. I am glad you got it all sorted out with the toe plates. I have a set of them...yeah I cant figure them out hahah. I cant wait to see the ltw on once you get it, or the car resprayed.

That’s what I thought, like they could have taken one look at the car on the spot and said “Nope, sorry go home” before anything happened or they touched the car.

Yeah the toe plates are tricky man, it took two of us probably three hours of trial and error to get it right. The first time we got the toe to zero but the steering wheel was clocked to the left. Second time we got the wheel straight but it had toe in felt like garbage. Third time was the charm though, I’d say it’s like 98% correct. Which I’m pretty pleased with having never done that before and doing it with some metal plates and tape measures. I need to go do the rear in short order, but now that I kind of know what I’m doing I hope it goes quicker haha.

Couldn't have said it better myself, that's no service, your guy f**ked up, take the hit and deal with it like the "professional" business you are or claim to be!!!

LTW wing is great, love them on 4 doors, get it colour coded and fitted asap :-D

The guy is definitely as far from professional as you can get. And thank you! Still on the fence about painting it now or later, either way I’m excited to get it on. I think it’ll complete that Rega/InPro combo I just did haha.


Thanks all for letting me rant. I can live with fuck ups when they’re my fault, but it always feels the worst when it is completely out of your hands. Fortunately I’ll be able to make it like it never even happened in short order, so some silver lining to this whole fiasco.

[cblock406]

I would be furious with that shop. FWIW, every time I've had an aggressive fitted car aligned I've set my camber where I wanted it and had the shop square it up to whichever side had the most. Then had them set the toe and caster. I also used a competent (and expensive) alignment shop. Shout out to Truline lol

[Fruttolo]

It’s especially bad when you figure they advertise themselves specifically as a low-car friendly alignment shop. That’s all they do. Sure, if I pulled up to some random shop, I get it, but this is 100% on them. This last weekend, when I picked up that wing, the friend I got it from had also taken his slammed car there. They made him take off the bumper to get it aligned, and the owner bitched at him the whole time that he hates doing low cars. The owner just has a bad attitude.

That said, the alignment specs you gave me are waaaay better than what I had before. I’m sure I’m a hair off, but it still feels much snappier and responsive than it did before. Finally on the right track, my car feels like an M3 again haha. Thank you!

I know the struggle with shops anyways, most of them would not touch nor be able to put my vw on the alignment rack, the last I went to aligned it backwards (couldn't believe it when I checked, it was undriveable, looked into it and discovered they set the toe IN when I told them OUT...)...good thing I have a friendly shop that lets me do my thing on the car on the rack without interfering, so I basically do my own alignments since 2015 LOL
I'm super happy I was able to help you, keep me posted with your feedback when you drive it more and if you feel like you need to change something

[Miroteknik]

Sucks about the shop. That's one of the reasons I threw the towel in on the RX7. Was sick of nobody in my area wanting to do alignments, stretch tires, troubleshoot wiring, fabricate custom components, etc. If you want something done right, do it yourself. But because I'm not trying to be my own tire shop, welder, tuner, bodyman, and alignment shop, I was done with the drama. I was sick of going to "professionals" and not getting answers. Can't get work done? Cool. I'll just drive stock. I've got way bigger things going on in my life than to get jerked around by brickheads talking about liabilities and warranties. Let alone take my pride and joy to a professional to get it trashed, and then get yelled at on top of that. Yall be safe im good.

[19birel]

Geeze, wild shop experience you had, to say the least haha. At least you and your buddy were able to get it aligned nicely! The LTW wing is going to super rad on there once its painted up!

[bwwaaaa]

I would be furious with that shop. FWIW, every time I've had an aggressive fitted car aligned I've set my camber where I wanted it and had the shop square it up to whichever side had the most. Then had them set the toe and caster. I also used a competent (and expensive) alignment shop. Shout out to Truline lol

That’s a great idea, I wish I had thought of that myself. I may still take the car to a shop to get everything perfectly dialed in, so I’m halfway there now haha.

I know the struggle with shops anyways, most of them would not touch nor be able to put my vw on the alignment rack, the last I went to aligned it backwards (couldn't believe it when I checked, it was undriveable, looked into it and discovered they set the toe IN when I told them OUT...)...good thing I have a friendly shop that lets me do my thing on the car on the rack without interfering, so I basically do my own alignments since 2015 LOL
I'm super happy I was able to help you, keep me posted with your feedback when you drive it more and if you feel like you need to change something

Yikes, see this is exactly why I have such trust issues with shops. I know it’s a high pressure environment and there is a lot going on, so it’s not always their fault when mistakes like that happen. But man, I feel like I hear so many more stories of things going wrong, than positive reviews these days. Bummer.

And yes, absolutely, still putting miles on the current setup so I’m sure I’ll be back to you soon for advice haha.

Sucks about the shop. That's one of the reasons I threw the towel in on the RX7. Was sick of nobody in my area wanting to do alignments, stretch tires, troubleshoot wiring, fabricate custom components, etc. If you want something done right, do it yourself. But because I'm not trying to be my own tire shop, welder, tuner, bodyman, and alignment shop, I was done with the drama. I was sick of going to "professionals" and not getting answers. Can't get work done? Cool. I'll just drive stock. I've got way bigger things going on in my life than to get jerked around by brickheads talking about liabilities and warranties. Let alone take my pride and joy to a professional to get it trashed, and then get yelled at on top of that. Yall be safe im good.

Sorry to hear that man, that’s rough and I 100% feel your pain. Like I said in a reply above, I don’t know what it is about the automotive aftermarket, but that seems to be par for the course. And it’s almost impossible to be 100% self sufficient, at some point you have to go get tires put on, or get someone to weld something, because it’s simply not practical to have thousands of dollars of equipment for fringe cases. And yet, without fail, these shops seem to deliver an awful experience. I’ve only found a handful of good shops over the years, and I cannot say enough good about them. But they’re definitely unicorns, sadly.

Geeze, wild shop experience you had, to say the least haha. At least you and your buddy were able to get it aligned nicely! The LTW wing is going to super rad on there once its painted up!

Much appreciated! I’m getting impatient seeing it sit on the shelf, the temptation to just color match it now and slap it on before getting the whole car painted is high, but I’ll hold out to make sure it all comes out perfect haha.

[bwwaaaa]

Vaders

Title obvious, I bought Vaders. Some background on how we ended up here. I do not love Vaders, for a number of reasons. They look cool, but they’re so heavy, and actually kind of unsupportive for the amount of bolstering they have. But, after the Sparco fail, I really needed something for the M3. My friend Shane was back in town and is actually going down the Recaro bucket route himself, and so he agreed to sell me his seats at a great price.

They’re manual, non-heated Vaders. To everyone else, the best version, for me I’m slightly disappointed to be losing power seats and butt warmers. But they look great in the car, and after a drive around the block I think they’re keepers. Any complaint I have (weight, bolstering, etc.) is negated by the fact that my M3 is, and always will be, a street car. For longer road trips, I’ll definitely be happier in this than a bucket seat. Also having the flexibility to position them around as necessary is a bonus.

The primary reason I had to have new seats is the gears in the sport seats were all stripped out, and were stuck at a horrible lean. While drivable, it’s definitely not ideal. While I could have replaced the gears, I can’t correct the slightly bent drivers frame. It really sat all out of whack. For the price I paid for these seats and the immediate added comfort to the car, I’m pleased with my purchase. What I’m not pleased it trying to install these damn anchors with an injured back. I pulled my back a couple weeks ago, and it was pure misery wrestling these monsters into the car haha.

I think 2021 is going to be the year of paint and interior. I would like to get everything reupholstered, the headliner needs redoing, and I just ordered a part that is totally not needed but will force me to rip apart everything in there anyways. But after all of the work I have planned, I’ll be just an S54 swap away from my dream car.

[hinrichs]

Nice score on the seats. I agree they really arent that great, but deff a big upgrade from the stock sport seats.

[Steven_318ti]

Love vaders in saloons, they missed out badly over the coupes in this aspect, those look in fantastic condition aswell, any update on the LTW ;-)

[bwwaaaa]

Nice score on the seats. I agree they really arent that great, but deff a big upgrade from the stock sport seats.

Thanks! Yeah I went for a quick drive over the weekend, so much better over the stock seats.

Love vaders in saloons, they missed out badly over the coupes in this aspect, those look in fantastic condition aswell, any update on the LTW ;-)

Thanks! And no updates yet, it’s patiently waiting on the shelf for paint and body haha. I don’t want to color match it now and have it a shade off from the rest of the car when it gets resprayed eventually. At least, that’s what I tell myself.

[bwwaaaa]

Just For Fun

I picked up some wheels for my TSX daily, but now I’m having second thoughts putting them on the wagon. For shits and giggles I put them on the M3 (hey, gotta make use of that 5x114.3 conversion right?). Now I kind of just want to keep these for the M3 as track wheels

They’re 18x9.5 et38 Rays Gram Light 57dr wheels. Found them for a good deal in Tucson, a couple hours drive from me. I had purchased them with putting them on my CW2 daily driver, but late night boredom had me test fitting on the M3. From what I read a 255/35 tire will squeeze under the fenders. Though I’m noticing even with my 8mm spacer up front it looks like tires will foul with the strut. Possibly need 10mm but that doesn’t quite line up with what I’m reading online with others who have run similar spec. Any E36 guys here run a similar spec?

I’ve been wanting to go do a few track days this year, but I’m admittedly a little hesitant to track on the Regas just because if anything does happen to them they are such a pain to replace. 57drs are a dime a dozen, easily replaced if a curb claims them. This is all just a thought experiment for now, but I figured some wheel pics were appropriate for these Forums haha.