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

[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.

[pandaboo911]

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

[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!

[shiboujin]

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

[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]

makes sense. thanks!

[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]

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]

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.

[kameleon]

Front hubs arrived

[kamotors]

great build

[kameleon]

Started on the headlights today. Dissasembled the crap aftermarket set to use the plastic bracket mounting and removed the good bits from the damaged right hand smiley set i have.

Cleaned and inspected everything i can and cannot use, but looking closer found the headlight rings all pitted and some dirt build up inside the lenses too. So they will need dissasembly and cleaning.

Decided to remove the left hand set in light of this and do the same, guess what more pitted surrounds and dirt inside the lenses.



So there are more bits going to the electroplaters now.

[kameleon]

This shows the pitting better.

[kameleon]

Long time no update.

Well the powdercoating turned out great. Fitted everything together this morning, and will get them fitted to the car today or tomorrow.






The headlight rings were going to be chromed, but it was price prohibitive so they were powdercoated in a satin black (will use this same colour for the gutter moulds etc in the future too)

HID kit has been ordered and should arrive early this week so i can refit the headlights to the car. The kit i ordered is 4300K 35W to match the late model BMW Xenon globes and have slim ballasts.

The above are just some camera phone pics, will add some better ones later.

[CHIF8008]

these adjusted all the way down: how low would the front sub-frame be to the floor?