cameras ready prepare to flash

[s14brent]

That's a nice looking cluster. I really like the black trim rings. Reminds me of 80s 911 gauges (especially if you paint the needles red).

I've had luck restoring my cluster plastic with Meguiars PlasticX polish. It's not going to take any deep scratches out, but it does wonder on cleaning up everything else.

Thanks, I was kinda going for that porsche cluster look/feel with the black rings, very subtle upgrade, kind of keeps it feeling classic also. I am concerned about the painted needles and visibility at night. I'm not sure I want a dark needle at night if that makes any sense. The more I think about it, the more I think I'll just leave it as is, I'm actually very pleased how this turned out.

sidenote: I haven't had any luck finding any e30's at the junkyard or any local part-outs lately, so finding spare parts (cheap) to experiment on just doesn't seem likely anytime soon.

[mike.bmw]

That's a nice looking cluster. I really like the black trim rings. Reminds me of 80s 911 gauges (especially if you paint the needles red).

I've had luck restoring my cluster plastic with Meguiars PlasticX polish. It's not going to take any deep scratches out, but it does wonder on cleaning up everything else.

[s14brent]

I finally ordered the recaro seat base hooks & straps, shoulda got the 3" ones but I really don't care as I'm using a bucket seat currently. I just wanted this to be fixed already.





I decided to check the ground on the fuel gauge. I've been meaning to take it apart for some time now. Finally getting around to creature comforts - which is pretty nice for a change. Upon taking it apart, the first thing I noticed before was that the vdo bulb covers were melted/deformed.



The gears and si board were replaced by my friend/previous owner, so half the work was done on this already. I ended up buying some sylvania amber LED's for both sides.



The contact posts on the fuel gauge cluster seemed clean but i hit it with some sand paper, and soldered the board side ground just in case that was the cause of the erratic needle.



Lastly I sprayed some silver gauge rings with SEM trim black and threw it back together. silicone sealant and some zipties to hold it together to dry.



After all said and done, I found out the (coolant gauge side) 194 bulb socket was bad, luckily I had a spare from either an e36 or e39 that was identical. I'm pretty sure I could have gotten the old one to work, looked a little corroded - that's all.



tested it out before putting all back together, I must say it's really nice to have a cluster I can actually see at night now, it's not SUPER bright, but a huge improvement from before. I think if i revisit the cluster in the future I will get a spare cluster to grab the clear cover off of (mines not in the best shape- but you can't really tell from the front thankfully), I'd also like to grab the needles from the spare cluster and take my time painting the needles red and see if i like that, also spend a little more time cleaning the contacts. I was just trying to get this done today and not having the car all apart during the weekend.



edit: here's one of it fully illuminated in the dark, it's a huge improvement visibility wise - however i wouldn't mind an overall brighter LED next time as this is currently on max illum

[s14brent]

Something that could mess with your measurement is if the wheels are turned one way or the other. Maybe it's just me, but in the "after" picture of the wheel with SLR plates, it looks like the wheel is turned to the left a bit. It might make it look like the SLR plates helped more than they did?

I agree, the wheel does look slightly turned in, but here's one from last night that's pretty straight.






still quite a bit of improvement over the fortune auto standard camber plate

[Northern]

It really is a huge difference, and I was actually going to pm you. Do you think your GC's have that much affect? I was talking to Paul @ slrspeed via email, and what got me curious about going back to the fortune auto plates was what he wrote " Adjusting caster at the camber plate does not affect wheel position in the wheel well to any significant extent since the ball-joint position doesn't change, only the inclination of the strut." but almost an inch of adjustment is pretty darn significant in my opinion. I did not expect THAT much of a difference.

I agree with what he said because it's going to pivot about the lower control arm as you move the camber plate. Since the hub is only ~6" from the balljoint on the control arm and at least 4x that distance to the camber plate, you should only get (super roughly) 1/4 of your adjustment at the wheel.

Something that could mess with your measurement is if the wheels are turned one way or the other. Maybe it's just me, but in the "after" picture of the wheel with SLR plates, it looks like the wheel is turned to the left a bit. It might make it look like the SLR plates helped more than they did?

[s14brent]

well...the gc camber caster plates will just have to wait. threw the slr plates back on...and well... i'm cheap and did the old e36 camber mod..and i'm actually happy.

Grabbed some grade 8 12x1.75x 25mm bolts and 12x m12 washers. the 25mm bolts had the original amount of threads after the 3 washers. blue loctite'd jic.



The three washers actually gave me more camber than desired which is actually perfect because I could adjust the SLR plates a bit more forward (which i think gives me more caster due to its position). I took a picture of the slr plates finally (yes i know the nuts are loose here), couldn't believe i didnt have any other pictures of these plates installed. Basically when you give it more positive camber it moves the strut towards the front of the car increasing the caster minimally. however, adjusting these plates are a bitch, and i end up dropping the coil down to make adjustments. I'll take the car to an alignment rack to make sure everything is in spec (hopefully soon).



so this is how it currently sits...and i'm actually okay with this.



I'm going to sign up for either august auto-x or vegasdrift (both night events thankfully due to the desert heat), but i think I want to take it to the auto-x more to try to dial it in a bit - try to eliminate any understeer issues first before taking it out to a faster track.

[ForcedFirebird]

Akg's all the way closed down are pretty equivalent to treehouse. I just sold my pair because they did not help any with this issue and i'd rather have adjustable option. does that touring have e46 LCA's also?

Not sure if I still have the correspondences saved, that was many years ago now - but I do know he used the steel control arms, e46 give too much camber (and actually wasn't a "thing" back then to use e46 CA's). I saw your donor car was a '97, so the knuckles are the correct offset - the 95 m3 and non-m make matters even worse. There are also 2 different control arms. 95 m3 and all non-m3 got shorter control arms which would make you problem worse.



Vorshlag went though this in their GRM build since they used 5 lug...

https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showpost.php?p=1899183&postcount=15

[s14brent]

That looks like a lot of change(>1"?) for just the camber plate. I don't understand how it made such a difference when it's so far from the wheel/control arm pickup points

It really is a huge difference, and I was actually going to pm you. Do you think your GC's have that much affect? I was talking to Paul @ slrspeed via email, and what got me curious about going back to the fortune auto plates was what he wrote " Adjusting caster at the camber plate does not affect wheel position in the wheel well to any significant extent since the ball-joint position doesn't change, only the inclination of the strut." but almost an inch of adjustment is pretty darn significant in my opinion. I did not expect THAT much of a difference.

I built the front struts for this touring in Chile, with regular camber/caster plates and the treehouse style lollipops, the wheel is pretty centered in the wheel well...

Not sure how much offset the AKG allows, but there's a local here using the same with similar results (96+ knuckles, GC camber plates, treehouse style lollipops).

Akg's all the way closed down are pretty equivalent to treehouse. I just sold my pair because they did not help any with this issue and i'd rather have adjustable option. does that touring have e46 LCA's also?

[ForcedFirebird]

He already has AKG adjustable CABs. I'm not sure how adjustable they are, but likely equivalent.

I built the front struts for this touring in Chile, with regular camber/caster plates and the treehouse style lollipops, the wheel is pretty centered in the wheel well...

https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showpost.php?p=3230101&postcount=79

Not sure how much offset the AKG allows, but there's a local here using the same with similar results (96+ knuckles, GC camber plates, treehouse style lollipops).

[Northern]

He already has AKG adjustable CABs. I'm not sure how adjustable they are, but likely equivalent.

[ForcedFirebird]

The Treehouse style control arm brackets helps a lot. They bring the rear of the control arm further outboard than any of the other offerings (causing more caster correction than the strut tops will allow). Might be worth looking into.

[Northern]

That looks like a lot of change(>1"?) for just the camber plate. I don't understand how it made such a difference when it's so far from the wheel/control arm pickup points

[s14brent]

Now that looks like a fun car.
Great work

Thanks! it's getting there!

Sucks about the mishimito products, I stopped buying from them years ago after 3 radiators they sent me cracked. Lifetime warranty is great and all, but their products seem to require it.

yeah, i was really disappointed with the intake, they also made me pay $40 for shipping which is just outrageous, and it took 2.5-3 weeks to arrive. unacceptable in my opinion. I've had mishimoto radiators in my e36 m3 also, and had no real issues with it for at least 20k miles.



------------------------------------------------


So this has been bugging me for a while, and I got curious enough today about the fortune auto vs slrspeed camber/caster plates and how much they actually helped.






Hopefully this is self explanatory. The only thing wrong with the slrspeed camber/caster plates is that if you don't redrill your tower to e36/e46 pattern, your camber adjustment range will be off. - I sent a few questions over to GC, and found out, "Both versions offer 47mm of negative camber adjustment and 14mm of positive caster adjustment."






So I guess as of now I plan on ordering the GC camber/caster plates maybe next month finally. Meanwhile I barely have enough clearance lock to lock (but it clears), and the wheels fit better with some negative camber in place. (the poke was pretty bad).







I'm so close to having this setup the way I want it, but for those who didn't read in the past, for wider track/drifting don't do e46 LCA's - not entirely worth it when paired with e36 m3 spindle, the extended e36m3 weld-on upgrade is probably the best option, but would need 50mm overfenders/flares up front. I will keep this setup for now just because everything is basically new.

[pandaboo911]

Sucks about the mishimito products, I stopped buying from them years ago after 3 radiators they sent me cracked. Lifetime warranty is great and all, but their products seem to require it.

[MrAdam]

Now that looks like a fun car.

Great work