My '73 Roundie Revival [BMW 2002]

[Dylanhat]

Wow! You're 02 looks awesome. Glad you decided to go with the M20 swap!

[CubbyChowder]

I got some work done today. I'm kind of slacking when it comes to documentation lately, I'm usually just too in the zone, which isn't exactly a bad thing haha. Got the E30 up on the lift, ready for disassembly:



I took my time and just enjoyed myself while I got the car ready to drop the engine/tranny. Observed everything really well and just got a better idea of how these cars are put together. All of this is pretty new to me so I want to learn as much as I can. The time came about 6 hours later, I situated my welding table under the car, unbolted the front subframe and rear tranny mount, lifted the car and there it was:




Now that it's out, I'm going to be refreshing the entire engine and doing preventative maintenance stuff, clean/paint, make it pretty etc. Then the swap begins:



I also forgot to post these, but I thought they were pretty cool. Just a couple pictures of the fronts aired out and no fenders haha, the rears are just on cut springs for now (hence the terrible rake) so I can move it around:

[JCarp90]

Like.

[CubbyChowder]

Just a small update. Bought this totaled 1989 325is yesterday. I'm keeping the M20, selling everything else that is useable and scrapping the rest. Very happy to say that this 2002 will be M20 powered :)

[CubbyChowder]

The tall ones are from ie...

http://www.iemotorsport.com/bmw/2002-suspension-steering/02adjsf.html

As for the delema, shoot me a PM and we'll figure something out.

Those are the exact ones I ordered, and I remember now that I later noticed that they looked different than in the pictures on the website. I also noticed the step on the backside wasn't machined into it, and I guess I just figured these were a new design or something. Too bad about all that, I really could've used that extra adjustment... These current ones really don't adjust much at all. My only option would be to do it all over again or source a new subframe and start from scratch. I'm gonna hold off for now and focus on the rest of my build for the time being. Thank you for your help

[SkiFree]

The tall ones are from ie...

http://www.iemotorsport.com/bmw/2002-suspension-steering/02adjsf.html

As for the delema, shoot me a PM and we'll figure something out.

[CubbyChowder]

Good to see the progress, a little bummed I didn't know what you were doing....

On the inboard camber for the 2002 I go with the taller bracket for the lowered racecars which would have had a much bigger change in overall adjustment. You can also see it already has a step on the backside for reinforcement.

And to reinforce what Lorin pointed out, on a semi-trailing arm the camber and toe are tied together (adjusting the camber, especially this dramatically WILL have enough of an effect to noticeably alter toe), and the off-kilter toe is what will eat your tires.

Well shit....that's not very ideal. Thank you for the info and for looking out, wish I would've seen those taller brackets before I ordered the IE ones, they seemed to be the only ones I could find. Bummed to hear about the toe situation, especially after just completing all that work. Not exactly sure what I will do at this point...

[SkiFree]

Good to see the progress, a little bummed I didn't know what you were doing....

On the inboard camber for the 2002 I go with the taller bracket for the lowered racecars which would have had a much bigger change in overall adjustment. You can also see it already has a step on the backside for reinforcement.



And to reinforce what Lorin pointed out, on a semi-trailing arm the camber and toe are tied together (adjusting the camber, especially this dramatically WILL have enough of an effect to noticeably alter toe), and the off-kilter toe is what will eat your tires.

[CubbyChowder]

Oh dope even cheaper than I expected, are you guys running large or small sizes?

I don't think there actually are sizes, I wonder why it suggests that. Just buy four rear wheel arches, 2 driver's side and 2 passenger's side.

[semaj4712]

Oh dope even cheaper than I expected, are you guys running large or small sizes?

[knuklehead92]

Looks great so far, couple questions for ya, where did you get those MK1 fenders from, cant seem to find the rears from RabbitParts.com, also I think in one of your first pages you talked about getting the rubber seals for the windows, where you buy those from.

Thanks

Also, how much space do you have on your wheels on the inside, I am trying to run 9.5s in the rear and your outside fitment is perfect, just curious about inside clearances

http://mtmfg.com/vw/2497/Volkswagen-Rabbit-Cabriolet-Sheet-Metal-I-1975-84-Golf-I-Rabbit

flares can be found here

[semaj4712]

Looks great so far, couple questions for ya, where did you get those MK1 fenders from, cant seem to find the rears from RabbitParts.com, also I think in one of your first pages you talked about getting the rubber seals for the windows, where you buy those from.

Thanks

Also, how much space do you have on your wheels on the inside, I am trying to run 9.5s in the rear and your outside fitment is perfect, just curious about inside clearances

[LJ851]

Toe is what wears your tires quickly, camber mostly just makes the wear uneven. I would recommend you add toe adjusters to the subframe to help this. You could pull the pivot bolt out of that side of the trailing arm when aired out and move it back half an inch or so to see if you like the change visually before you purchase and weld.

[AwakenNoMore]

Looking great!

[CubbyChowder]

This makes me so happy haha. Exact same process as the fronts on my E30. Awesome job dude.

Thanks dude :up:



Progress.

So I was in a bit of a dilemma about the rear fitment. In order to get it to sit where I wanted when aired out, I had to run a 20mm spacer. This meant I would have to run extended wheel studs as well. Extended studs and a pair of 20mm spacers would run me about $100 total. This got me thinking. The negative camber while aired out was pretty extreme, more than suits my taste. Instead of going that route, I decided it might be a better idea to kill two birds with one stone. I thought it would be a good idea to pull the rear subframe again and put that $100 towards weld-on camber adjustment tabs so I could add some positive camber back. This would theoretically eliminate my need for extended studs and spacers and bring some functionality back and give my tires some more life at the same time. Seemed like the better option, so that's exactly what I did.

So once my mind was set, I ordered the tabs and pulled the rear subframe again:



I notched out the original trailing arm mounting points in preparation for the new tabs:



Lined everything up and started welding:



As you can see with the new tabs welded in, the top half is not reinforced at all, so I thought it would be a good idea to box them in. To do so, I created 4 of these:



These filled the empty space, as shown in this picture. Notice that I purposely set the new camber tabs so that the lowest mounting point is about 1/4" higher than the original mounting point. I did this because it didn't seem like these camber tabs provide too much adjustment, so I wanted to make sure I could add enough positive camber to straighten things out:



Welded them up and then prepped/painted the whole rear subframe:





Once that was all done, I removed the bottom spring perch on the trailing arms by drilling out the spot welds with a spot weld cutter drill bit. This is where the bottom of the rear bags will mount:




And then ground everything smooth. You can see I drilled a little too far with the cutter on most of them. I've never done this before so it was a learning thing for me. I don't think it'll be an issue, I'll most likely reinforce that whole area anyways:



Got the whole rear subframe/trailing arm/differential assembly back together and ready to install (I temporarily bolted the spring perches back on so I could install the stock springs again because I need to get the '02 off the lift to work on a friends car this weekend):



Once everything was bolted up, I had the opportunity to see if all that work was worth it. To be honest, I thought it was going to make a bigger difference, but I am still happy with the end result. Here are a few pictures showing the differences between full negative camber (left) and full positive camber (right) at the aired out height:




As you can see, it's not a world of difference, but it definitely helps. I think I will still run a 5mm spacer to get the lip out a tiny bit more, and I won't have to run extended studs that way, so that's a plus! Hopefully my tires last a little longer this way as well. Keep in mind, these pictures are when the car is aired out, not at the height I will be driving.

With that squared away, I could focus on the fronts again. My replacement shock which I ordered from BagRiders arrived (ruined shock on left, new shock on right):



Was super nervous welding it the whole time but everything worked out fine:




Lastly, I welded on new tabs for the brake caliper line bracket to bolt to and then prepped/painted those. Super happy to see both fronts completed and painted up :)





So that's where I'm at now. I just ordered new brake rotors and calipers for the front, so those will get installed as soon as they show up. Once I'm done working on my friend's car and a "customer's" Jeep I will get at it again and get the brackets for rear bags fabricated and get those mounted up! Stay tuned!