Das Beast: My E30 track / street build

[dvallis]

Rob did a good deed for one of his neighbors the other day. Came back as a gift card to Harbor Freight. Which Rob promptly converted to a ..... table press! This is going to make installing new bushings sooooo much easier.

[dvallis]

F#$%ing Bushings

So I thought removing the various subframe bushings would be a breeze. Just put it in the press and BAM you're done.



Apparently frame bushings come in three varieties: (1) "Gee, they just fell out of the frame.", (2) "I used a puller/press/homemade gadget and they came out fine", and (3) The f$#@ing things are molecularly bonded to the subframe from being in there thirty years. I got version three.

Not in the mood for screwing around today. In your best Tony Montana from Scarface accent: "Say hello to my leetle fren".



Chop out the center



Really? The bushing has a freaking metal frame surrounded by rubber? I have a solution for that. Hacksaw, cold chisel and Big F#@$ing Hammer.



Bushing removed. Rinse and repeat.



Same dance for the control arm bushings.





Forgot to order this from Garagistic. I have every one of their other frame reinforcements. Paying $10 shipping for one $10 widget is a bit egregious, so I'll just fab this one up myself.



Welding through paint and grease is bad news, so I bit the bullet and took an angle grinder wire brush to the subframe. "Why not sand blast?" you might ask. Because every sand blasting company I called could not spell subframe, ("I'd have to see a picture of what that is") or wanted hundreds of dollars for the job. Not my day.



Turned out pretty good, and didn't take too long. Most of the paint and grease ended up on me. :devil:



I'm beat. Calling it a day.

[kronus]

FWIW this is probably what you want to have had for those bushings: http://www.ebay.com/itm/50pc-Bearing...gAAOSwcL5XMz5f

[dvallis]

Got one. Did not work. Bushings were seized in there.

[sampayne]

Did you use any paint stripper on subframe or just straight wire wheel? Looks pretty good.

[dvallis]

Wire wheel maniac :devil:

[ThatM20Guy]

Wire wheel maniac :devil:

So shiny! Nothing a good angle grinder won't do.


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[dvallis]

Metal Fab

Time to fab the subframe control arm pickup reinforcements. Started with my cardboard templates from yesterday.



We grabbed some 10 gauge scrap plate for $0.50/lb at a local metal supplier. Was looking into using a plasma cutter and guide plates for cutting, but Rob had other ideas: Reciprocating saw with a heavy duty hacksaw blade. This thing went through the metal plate like a knife through butter. Impressive.



Metal hole saw and drill press made quick work of the holes.



Nice clean holes. Reciprocating saw finished the straight cuts.



Obi Wan did the welding for this one.



Tack welds first.



Then finish it off with full bead welds. That is some seriously strong reinforcement. I know because Rob dared me to try banging a test bracket off one of the plates with a hammer. A freaking tack weld took major violence to remove. Subframe will break in half before this thing lets go.



Rest of the reinforcement will be easier, since we have the other brackets.

[LateFan]

All good work here!

This looks like a great contraption for slicing your fingers and your belly when the bit grabs and the sheet lets go!

I saw that little press and thought, Oh, that's a good size, maybe I'll get that. But then your experience here made me remember guys saying they bought the 12 ton HF press and wished they had bought the 20 ton - some of those things are just stuck in there, and when they let go - BAM!!

[dvallis]

Photo opportunity only. I clamped it for operation. :-)

[Digitalwave]

Is that control arm area prone to breakage? I've never seen that reinforced.

I think with your welds you may be using the wrong type or not enough gas. I'm just a newbie and far from an expert, but I believe that is why you see that brown dustiness (contamination?) surrounding the welds.

[dvallis]

It is when you are racing. Lots of stress there. Not so much on the street.

Brown dust is just crap burning off the metal. Frame was not exactly clean.

[peterman]

It is when you are racing. Lots of stress there. Not so much on the street.

Brown dust is just crap burning off the metal. Frame was not exactly clean.

There is a product called picklex 20 which will etch metal and make is super clean. It helps the welds enormously. Its not cheap, but you dont use a lot of it either.
Looks good keep it up

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[dvallis]

Great tip. Thanks.

[badwella]

I believe you need to weld that inner edge closest to the control arm bushing hole. Stress will crack it right next to the factory weld. If you leave it as is, the ball joint stud will still be able to twist the metal inside/underneath the reinforcement plate.

Anyway, welds are getting better!