3SGE BEAMS converted 89 E30///Stock as a rock 88 E30 325i Touring///

[kameleon]

Cheap, will mean everything is new again on the front end. Will be fine with the heat so all good.

In future i would like to upgrade the front brakes (295mm MINI discs with RX7 or another suitable caliper i think) anyway but if it's coming off the car it may as well be cleaned up and refurbed in my opinion.

[shiboujin]

yay I know things about rollas! There's a diff between year models and gts/sr5. There's at least 5 different axle combos I can think of off the top of my head.

why powder coat the shields? Might crack off with the flexing it'll probably be doing.

[kameleon]

Spindles all sandblasted



And did the brake dust shields as well.



The powdercoating guy was in to have a KAAZ lsd fitted to his track corolla, but the axles in his shortened housing didn't fit blah blah blah so HOPEFULLy he can come in tomorrow to take the items to be coated so i can have them back to be fitted to the car early next week (fingers crossed!)

[shiboujin]

makes sense. thanks!

[kameleon]

Although it looks as though they are just welded at the base, the stock struts get cut down leaving 50mm of tube which the BC sleeves interference fitted onto. This is then welded to the spindle to stop it spinning/moving. when you look at it it looks odd and weak, but in reality this approach is quite strong. i would NEVER use these if they were only held on by a weld (aka sleeve welded straight to the spindle without using the original tube for support)

Why do BC say 50mm? That 50mm is thicker in their sleeve and i assume is that height to aid in getting the coilovers to go low. i have read of people cutting the strut even lower to 30mm, but i personally think they say 50mm for a reason.

[shiboujin]

how do you ensure that you don't weld them on crooked?

[kameleon]

Coilover sleeves were welded onto the spindle today.



Started sandblasting them ready for the powder coating (only had 1 hr, so only got one spindle and a dust shield done. more will be done tomorrow after work)



Spoke to the engineer about gussetting between the tube and the sleeve but came to the conclusion that it would do little to nothing so did not bother.

More work tomorrow!

[pandaboo911]

this is my favorite build :D can't wait to see it done

[kameleon]

Removed the crappy aftermarket rh headlight assembly (does not match the rh smiley headlight) and now have to build a set from the damaged rh smiley set i do have (virtually all broken including mounts), the smiley set of lh i have and those crappy aftermarket replacements. hopefully it all works out.

Found the kidney grilles lower mount broken off too, coincedence that the A/C guy has plumbed a new line behind it recently and it wasn't broken before? haha probably not. Oh well maybe a black on to put in it's place.

[kameleon]

Dropped the fronts off to be welded along with the sleeves.

Ordered new hubs, cups, nuts etc (really cheap so why not) and will be getting some small gussets welded between the coilover sleeve and spindle for some extra strength.

Once welded, sandblasted and powder coated they will be ready to go :) Hopefully i can get them done before this time next week.

[CHIF8008]

get the fronts on! :)

looks awesome man

[kameleon]

Thanks guys, will be more updates soon.

Looking at the car now the suspension has settled some more it has dropped more. Happy with the height and the sills are above legla limit.

[cbouchez]

Great looking car!!

Thanks for sharing the pics of the M3 race car.

Your car is looking great!

[Reap3r]

Looking good mate! How its sitting in the rear is a good height. Will look even better once its got the fronts in!

[sweet6e30]

keep the updates coming