Trunk Impaired

[Trunky]

Is the roof dented? I dig the color though!

Not that I'm aware of, must be a weird reflection. I was too lazy to do the rear bumper today, it was hot as shit outside and my air conditioned garage is full!!! GRRRR!!

[Trunky]

M-tech rear bumper finally went on today.



EDIT: Tow hook is in because I stupidly didn't order a cover and I figured it looks better than just a big gaping hole.

[BigBody]

Rear looks just as good as the front, good job!

[ratty]

I'm looking for an exact car just like this. Do you mind saying what you paid for it, or pming me what you paid?

[Trunky]

I'm looking for an exact car just like this. Do you mind saying what you paid for it, or pming me what you paid?

It was a $3500 find on ebay, bought sight unseen. I got lucky because the thing was flawless, 170k on the clock, perfect interior (I really don't think the rear had ever even been sat in), garage kept, original owner, still has original dealer window sticker and plate. My car's condition is pretty uncommon so I certainly wouldn't pay over that for a base model, most can be had for less. They're cheap, fun, efficient little cars. (I got 35mpg before swapping diffs)

[Trunky]

Well It's been almost a year since I made this intro and I'm happy to report that things have been coming along rather nicely over the past few months. I got my RZ's repaired and refinished by a local place and discovered that what I wanted wasn't really financially viable. Thanks to the good ole EPA chroming is strictly regulated to the point where no one wanted to even have the machine on their premises. Normally this wouldn't concern me at all but as we chipped away some of the paint there was a nice chrome layer right underneath it, too ruined to be restored but not able to be removed. So basically in order for the wheels to be "dechromed" they'd have to be sent out of state where the regulations aren't as strict, he estimated this would cost a couple grand on top of the repair cost. Not ready (or in any position) to pay that I had him just bring the wheels back to their OEM finish. It took 50 days, but the way I see it $10 a day is not too bad. At some point (when I can afford it) I plan on having them sent out and refinished properly. For the money though I'm pretty impressed with the result:



Then things got a little crazy. I moved and had to kind of get settled in to my apartment. There was really no good place to work on the car aside from the parking lot (which my neighbors really appreciated ).

Got the wheels mounted and balanced on new Kumho Ecsta AST tires 205/40/17 (which cost me about $200 shipped on Black Friday)







Aside from desperately needing a bath, it became obvious that a drop was imminent. Cue the Stanceworks ZCC.

I basically had my local garage in tears over this project. They're more accustomed to domestics, so something radical like a coilover installation was breaking new ground for them. I got a few phone calls that made me a bit nervous (the most worrying of which was my mechanic telling me he'd have to hack up the the front strut tower to make it work) After talking him off the ledge I explained how it mounted up and everything was peachy. He called me up later that day and said I "might want to have a look" at something. Knowing how low the kit is designed to take the car I had spooled all the adjusters up to their highest setting to ensure that it would be able to make it off the lift. I walked into the garage (he was tearing into the rear suspension at this point) and it was damn near tucking tire on the highest setting, on the lift! He looked at me like I was crazy when I told him it looked fine to me.

On the day I went to pick it up he described the ride as "interesting" and "definitely different" needless to say I wasn't all that confident. After recruiting a few of the guys to watch the front bumper to make sure I didn't tear it off leaving the parking lot I was on my way. Naturally whenever you switch to a coilover setup you lose a fair amount of ride quality, but I'm fairly surprised at how poor the road conditions have to be for the ride to become really bad. As it sits (meaning the last two pictures, the first three were before I had adjusted the rear down) the kit is at its highest setting in the front and it's lowest in the back. I have new poly RSMs that will drop the rear another 40mm but as it is now (fairly neutral camber and no rolled fenders) it's not really necessary until I make other adjustments. There's no rub over bumps or at full lock and I've only scraped the nose a few times (the skirts are a million times worse). Again, excuse the filth of the car, it's been a bit rainy and I don't have my car wash supplies nor a place to wash it (I don't trust robotic washes)




(gross-ass brake dust )



The next plan is to have the fenders rolled a bit and dial in a little bit of negative camber, then put on the new RSMs and see how far down she'll go.

[Earl]

YES!!! Looking good. I'm glad to see us TI guys around. Everyone hates us. Would you mind measuring the ground to arch height at the rear? I just want to see how mine will sit on the Style 5's with 205/40/17 as soon as I finish mirror polishing the lips=D I'm at 23". Is that a stock exhaust with a cheap tip?

[Trunky]

YES!!! Looking good. I'm glad to see us TI guys around. Everyone hates us. Would you mind measuring the ground to arch height at the rear? I just want to see how mine will sit on the Style 5's with 205/40/17 as soon as I finish mirror polishing the lips=D I'm at 23". Is that a stock exhaust with a cheap tip?

Seriously. A low Ti is a double h-word crime waiting to happen.

Sure, I'll break out the tape measure here in a bit and see what I come up with. What suspension are you on? I have a picture somewhere of how the tires look mounted on the wheels but off the car (which would give you an idea of the tire stretch you'd be looking at on an 8.5j wheel) I'll see if I can find that.

About the exhaust, I bought it like that so I really couldn't tell you but that would be my assumption. I don't think it changes the sound any compared to stock. Bought the car from an old timer so I'm not sure what his motivation to change it would've been. I looked at the brand once and didn't really recognize the name.

Let me know if I can help you out in any other way, always nice to see someone that loves BMW's bastard child.

[Earl]

I'm on the ever so cheap Rokkors. I may be going with air in the rear if it isnt sitting like I want. Or i have to put sleeves and springs over my struts and reinforce the towers for a true rear coil setup. And i love our Ti's and their personality lol what name is the exhaust? Stromung? Stock exhaust sounds like and electric car not much to be gained from and exhaust or an intake on our cars though. Lol I have a Kamotors carbon fiber intake for the deep sound and I'm gonna go with a resonator in place of the cat and thinking about a twin tipped magnaflow or similar muffler.

[Trunky]

I'm on the ever so cheap Rokkors. I may be going with air in the rear if it isnt sitting like I want. Or i have to put sleeves and springs over my struts and reinforce the towers for a true rear coil setup. And i love our Ti's and their personality lol what name is the exhaust? Stromung? Stock exhaust sounds like and electric car not much to be gained from and exhaust or an intake on our cars though. Lol I have a Kamotors carbon fiber intake for the deep sound and I'm gonna go with a resonator in place of the cat and thinking about a twin tipped magnaflow or similar muffler.

LOL Definitely not a Stromung, I would've ripped it off and sold it by now. I'll go out and check on it here in a minute. I plan on going for the only true way to get a deeper sound (bigger engine) but that's later down the road. Rokkors can get pretty low if I recall correctly, I had a set all ready to install then at the last minute sold them and got the ZCC instead. (kinda hit both ends of the price spectrum on that one) I'm pretty sure that's what EuroHB is on and he's way lower than I am currently (in the rear at least)



EDIT: Must've been imagining things, there was no brand name on it. But yes I can confirm that it's just some cheap exhaust tip.

[Earl]

I thought he sold his car? and im as low as you can go in the rear with rokkors. I removed the adjusters and springs pads and also got e30 bilstein hd's. Might get bilstein sports to see if it helps. Does he have fee factory mudflaps? I wants a set. Trying to get the factory roof spoiler atm. And i wanna save my pennies up for an s54 but will probably just get an m or s50

[Trunky]

I thought he sold his car? and im as low as you can go in the rear with rokkors. I removed the adjusters and springs pads and also got e30 bilstein hd's. Might get bilstein sports to see if it helps. Does he have fee factory mudflaps? I wants a set. Trying to get the factory roof spoiler atm. And i wanna save my pennies up for an s54 but will probably just get an m or s50

Not unless it was between March 2nd and now, which I guess isn't out of the question. Maybe you could go a bit lower in the rear with shorter Hyperco springs combined with "tall" Ground Control RSMs to compensate strut height for the lower spring height. May have to do a little homework to see which setup would be best but it'd be a lot cheaper than bagging it for sure.

[Earl]

I was thinking about those ground controlling shock mounts even the rear coil conversion would be cheaper than air. Is the spring and strut mount setup what you were thinking about getting before the zcc's?

[Trunky]

I was thinking about those ground controlling shock mounts even the rear coil conversion would be cheaper than air. Is the spring and strut mount setup what you were thinking about getting before the zcc's?

Well it's not a full front and rear coilover setup (no such thing exists for the Ti in this country as far as I'm aware) so the rear is still a divorced spring and shock setup like on a stock Ti. But yeah the kit comes with 5" Hypercos, AST adjusters, and soon I'll be running the GC "tall" RSMs. In the end the only thing that would be different between the two setups is the shortened AST rear shocks that come with the ZCC.

[Earl]

I just use e30 shocks which are the proper Ti length same rear suspension as an e30. So you can get the rear section for any e30 kits. But you can actually put sleeves on the rear shocks with springs and then remove the original spring completely. You just need to reinforce the side of the rear towers to keeo them from flexing.

Edit: I could get these at 4" to make it as low as I want and if its too low I can kit turn the adjusters up just don't know what rate I should get? http://store.bimmerworld.com/hyperco...rco-p1483.aspx