noob lowering question

[BMW Fanaddict]

Hi all, just joined this forum, going to be looking into buying an older e30 maybe 86 or 87 w/ diving boards :/. But I am going to be looking to slam it. I am a college student on a very limited budget just wondering what the cheapest way to get it on its A$$ might be. It will be my daily driver so i dont really care about performance at all. Maybe is there any really cheap air suspension etc. Plz help!

[jlevie]

There are two ways to "slam" the car. Cut several turns off the springs (the ghetto way) or get coil overs. In either case you really need to include a heavy duty skid plate as the oil pan will be at risk.

[BMW Fanaddict]

how much do you think a skid plate would run me? anyone reccomend a cheap set of coils that will lower the car a great deal?

[rasputin]

wait for someone to be selling a set of springs, cut dead coil off front and get drop hats(aftermarket top spring perch), remove all spring pads and install.

you should be slammed, if not cut a little more off springs, add spring pads to raise up if need be.
skid plate, 100-200

and nothing wrong with cutting coils in moderation.

[Vivek]

Just cut your springs in half and blow the stock dampers if you don't care about comfort or performance. Anything more and you're looking at spending over a thousand on coilovers with shortened front housings. There's no midrange that's worth the money imo. Once you go into replacing your dampers, you might as well get shortened bilsteins/konis and shorten your front housings.

This sounds like extremely shitty advice, but in my opinion you should just do it right, or do it completely wrong. From a price point of view, you can get as low as you want for free with a cutting wheel. But when you start spending money, you'll quickly realize that it really makes the most financial sense to just get complete coilovers, and you'll like it a lot more.

[mbonanni]

JOM coilovers

~$400

[BMW Fanaddict]

Ok I'm thinking ill probably have to get a billy coilovers kit. They run around 740$. They are adjustable correct? What's the lowest Billy's can drop it? I have some vogtland lowering springs... But I'm mostly likely selling them to help get the money for my next car. They only lower it 1.6 and I definitely want to go lower than that. Anyone have pics of their e30 lowered on Billy's?

[bmwguy325is]

If you were a man you wouldnt even run springs

[BMW Fanaddict]

I don't ;)

[Vivek]

Ok I'm thinking ill probably have to get a billy coilovers kit. They run around 740$. They are adjustable correct? What's the lowest Billy's can drop it? I have some vogtland lowering springs... But I'm mostly likely selling them to help get the money for my next car. They only lower it 1.6 and I definitely want to go lower than that. Anyone have pics of their e30 lowered on Billy's?

Don't do that. If you wanna go low get GC (about 1k) or JOM and save some money. Or you can look into other coilovers like megan or bc, but to get low bilstiens and some springs aren't what you want.

[BMW Fanaddict]

Damn!!!! JOM coils are cheap as fuuuuu**!!! anyone run these? pics maybe?

[CHIF8008]

i ran them: powa of JOM


this was with very slight modification to them and not all the way down up front. rear was with adjusters out. eventually just got shorter rear springs

but then i did huge modifications and now only run the adjuster sleeve/ collars and front spring. and even that im replacing with other springs. but now i can set the whole car on the floor statically

[Vivek]

Damn!!!! JOM coils are cheap as fuuuuu**!!! anyone run these? pics maybe?

My sig is JOM's in the front all the way down. Rear has different springs but you can't run JOM Stagg shocks that low. I had maybe an inch of travel.

[BMW Fanaddict]

Alright I have seen enough... getting som JOM's. They look awesome and are very cheap... now about getting that car XD

[CHIF8008]

early models rock.