Interest in rear subframe camber/toe adjustment?

[AlarmedBread]

I've recently done this and had several people ask about it, so I thought maybe I can help the community out. I would offer pre-fabricated sub frames with eccentric bolts for camber and toe adjustment. If there is enough interest I will have a batch of brackets CNC machined, the ones in the picture were made from scrap steel, but you get the idea. I am not sure exactly what it would cost, but I'd like to do it with a core charge, send in your old non-rusty subframe deal. Most shops I've talked to wouldn't even touch this project. I'm fairly certain that I can offer a much better alternative than buying the IE camber kits and trying to find a shop to weld them on for you.

Here's mine, as I said the brackets on the ones you would get will be CNC machined and look a lot cleaner than these which are a tad bulky.




Let me know if you're interested and feel free to ask any questions.

[Toms73NovaSS]

where did you source the bolts from?

[ldsbeaker]

I would do this, but it's going to be a b***** to ship and all that.
I'm kinda thinking about which way I want to go on this, as I have a shop that will do it and is more than experienced. (they build race cars all the time)

The IE/Bimmerworld Parts are about $150-170.
"While you're in there" I want to do the RTABs (of course) and the RSBs. (Urethane stuff)
So, all together, it's about $400 for parts, and then the shop wants $500 to do it all.
$900 total

OR

I could get the parts and an extra subframe ($60 - saw the one on my car yesterday; doesn't look so hot anyways), then take the subframe and the Parts down to the shop to get it welded. Install the other bushings myself. (I have the CORRECT tools)
$500ish total? (welding shouldn't be THAT much)

So the way you're talking, if you're providing everything but the subframe, you'd have to charge at LEAST.... say $250 shipped? (to make any kind of money) This total acccounts for the following: buy the kits, weld it yourself, shipping and handling, and profit. But I don't know how much it costs to ship a subframe, or if you're using the IE/Bimmerworld kit, so that could flex the price up or down.

Am I way the heck out in left field?

[Mossman]

If you provide as good or better weld in kits as IE sells for a little cheaper I'd buy them from you and weld in to my subframe. I haven't heard any complaints about IE's kits but I've heard plenty of complaints about them as a company and would rather not support them, would rather give you $150 than them $170 for the same thing, how bout it :)

[Mossman]

also stripped subframes aren't that heavy and aren't all that big, shipping them would probably cost between $30-50 if I had to guess with DHL, UPS, or Fedex Ground if I had to guess

[CorvallisBMW]

IE kits are crazy expensive considering it's nothing but a $3.50 eccentric bolt and two slotted tabs. I would be happy to buy a sit if it were ~1/2 the price of their stuff

[AlarmedBread]

I could get the parts and an extra subframe ($60 - saw the one on my car yesterday; doesn't look so hot anyways), then take the subframe and the Parts down to the shop to get it welded. Install the other bushings myself. (I have the CORRECT tools)
$500ish total? (welding shouldn't be THAT much)

So the way you're talking, if you're providing everything but the subframe, you'd have to charge at LEAST.... say $250 shipped? (to make any kind of money) This total acccounts for the following: buy the kits, weld it yourself, shipping and handling, and profit. But I don't know how much it costs to ship a subframe, or if you're using the IE/Bimmerworld kit, so that could flex the price up or down.

Am I way the heck out in left field?

Welding is not the difficult part, it really only needs to be tacked on to work, but I'd run a full bead for peace of mind. The hard part is getting things all jig'd up and aligned perfectly, if it's off center a few degrees your alignment will be screwy with all kinds of cross talk just like eccentric bushings. Also if the brackets are offset up/down the trailing arm will bind up and you'll have limited adjustment and increased bushing wear. Slotting the holes is pretty tricky and takes a lot of time, one slip of the hand and you just made a your hours of work worthless with a bad slot (again cross talk and crooked bolts increase bushing wear)

I'm pretty sure it would be possible to offer the tab kits cheaper than the IE kit, but will have to get some quotes to figure out final pricing. You can do the slotting yourself if you have time, patience and tools. The bolts, washers and nuts run about $12 each, add brackets, cost of welding materials and bits that you have to use for the process.

I'd prefer to sell complete subframes because then I know for sure it will be done correctly, don't want someone to spend the time/money and end up with worse alignment than when they started and try to blame me for a bad product. There would have to be some kind of release when someone buys the kit that it's up to the installer to ensure it is done properly.

[Sean]

Hook a brotha up, Chris! :D

[CorvallisBMW]

I could get the parts and an extra subframe ($60 - saw the one on my car yesterday; doesn't look so hot anyways), then take the subframe and the Parts down to the shop to get it welded. Install the other bushings myself. (I have the CORRECT tools)
$500ish total? (welding shouldn't be THAT much)

FYI I just had the IE kit welded in, new TA bushings and new subframe bushings installed and sway bar reinforcements welded on for about $330. It was done by a shop that specializes in older BMW's though, so they knew exactly what they were doing and had put these kits in many times before.

[ditchdigger]

where did you source the bolts from?

They look like C5 Corvette suspension height adjustment bolts to me:up:

[AlarmedBread]

FYI I just had the IE kit welded in, new TA bushings and new subframe bushings installed and sway bar reinforcements welded on for about $330. It was done by a shop that specializes in older BMW's though, so they knew exactly what they were doing and had put these kits in many times before.

Did you bring them your subframe or the whole car? Thanks for the info on pricing, it's helpful for me to gauge what other people are doing. I'm not away of anywhere that offers pre-modified subframes like this so please speak up if you know of such a thing, I'm not trying to undercut anyone, just want to share the e30 love. ;)

[CorvallisBMW]

Did you bring them your subframe or the whole car? Thanks for the info on pricing, it's helpful for me to gauge what other people are doing. I'm not away of anywhere that offers pre-modified subframes like this so please speak up if you know of such a thing, I'm not trying to undercut anyone, just want to share the e30 love. ;)

I brought them the subframe already disassembled, with the TA's removed and gridning already done on the areas that needed welding. Basically, I tried to do everything that I could on my own before taking it to them.

Sorry for being OT

[AlarmedBread]

I brought them the subframe already disassembled, with the TA's removed and gridning already done on the areas that needed welding. Basically, I tried to do everything that I could on my own before taking it to them.

Sorry for being OT

No need for apologies, I was going to say holy crap that's cheap if they removed/installed all the parts from the car!

[bats]

Very much interested, I was thinking about AKG's eccentric rtab bushings, which are about 90$ more than the normal bushings.

[DipStick]

CorvallisBMW,
I will be looking to get my kit welded on in the next month or so. What is the name of the outfit that you took your subframe to? Would you reccomend them? Thanks.