6/83 grey market 323i.. mtech I S50 5-lug

[kronus]

in this update: a whole bunch of welding!

these dudes got welded on





reinforcement welds got cleaned up and primed with self-etching primer



.. and painted



trailing arm sway bar mount reinforcements got lined up with bolts (use your imagination for the other side)



and welded!



then it took me a few hours of whining and hurting myself to get all these fuckers onto the subframe:









anyway, glad that's over with, because fuck that whole thing. a digital level like this one helps a lot.

I might put it in now.

[kronus]

it might even be on the ground before the new year

[Bimmerman325i]

This is progressing WAY too fast now.

[kronus]

I did more things!

the subframe is apart and powerwashed, the bushings are pushed out, and I've been working on making some reinforcement plates for the diff mount:









these should more than double the metal thickness in this area.

I'm waiting on our shop welder to be less fucked up, then these will get MIG'd on.

I've also been attempting to decide if it makes more sense to put in adjusters, riser subframe bushings, or both. Leaning toward both, but would love some advice.

[kronus]

two updates in one week?!?! how can it be??

before:



after:



came out easy. dropped the diff on the ground a little. bushings are surprisingly completely intact.

found this:



completely sheared sway bar mount! conveniently, the next thing I'm doing is opening this box...

[ThatOneEuroE30]

I bet I finish this car before Simon's passes BAR :p

Lmfao chopped him down at the knee's

[kronus]

I need to buy pistons to move forward with the engine :(

[Cabriolet]

i think i saw that car in the same spot 2 years ago. it's time to finish her and come out on some drives.

[2mAn]

I bet I finish this car before Simon's passes BAR :p

low blow

[kronus]

I bet I finish this car before Simon's passes BAR :p

[ThatOneEuroE30]

Looking forward to another update in 6 months ;)

[2mAn]

Yay!! An update

[kronus]

also I'm pretty sure that by the time I'm done with this car, Mtech 1 will be uncool again.

[kronus]

You sold the M5, does that mean you're getting back to work on this?

yup!

(several months later lol)

today I did the front 5-lug conversion.

first, the recipient strut. I stripped the old bearing, bearing backing plate and dust shield off. The dust shield interferes with the rotor, so it has to go.



the bearing and a c-clamp I thought I would need to use.



I heated the inside part of the wheel bearing adapter with a torch...



..and it slid on by hand! I impacted on the second part to keep it in place while it cooled.



while the whole business was cooling, I modified the brake caliper carriers with a die grinder to fit the strut. If you don't do this, they will not be able to bolt up due to interference.



here they are, bolted up. you can see why they needed to be relieved.



rotor went on without trouble. The hub, however, was kind of a pain in the ass. Some creative sledging and impacting persuaded it into place, and the nut got torqued to 215lb-ft per e46 spec.



caliper goes on..



and, unsurprisingly, the wheel.



and, done. I did the second side in about 20 minutes.




for the record, I am using the Lithuanian hub adapters from Max399, E46 non-M hubs (they're the same as M hubs), and E46 328i rotors/calipers, which fit under my 16" wheels without any issues.

[2mAn]

You sold the M5, does that mean you're getting back to work on this?