E30 #2: 1990 Delphin: RHD ITB M20

[318aye]

195/50/15 BFG Sport Comp-2's will be here Wednesday along with a set of 75mm studs /nuts from Motorsport Hardware (Thanks Kaliboy!). Gonna check out Eurowise locally for the mounting/balancing.

Assembly Notes! I'll try and compile what I found on the internet and ended up using. Below is the most complete video I found:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxCwpc_ex7s

Materials:

Brakleen - Standard Lowes/Autoparts store stuff.

Loctite 242 (Blue) - Seemed to be up for debate. I err on the side of caution.

Silicone Sealant - Easy to fuck this up. There ARE metal specific ones. You want 100% silicone. GE is the high quality stuff. I used GE5050, the BFI video calls for GE 5000. Both will work. PRO TIP: After you cut the tip off (do it near the top, small hole is easier to wield), poke an allen key down into it to puncture the foil seal. If you don't, and try to dispense silicone, it'll shoot out around the plunger in the back and make a mess.



Process:

Assuming you've already cleared your barrels and lips of silicone (rotary scotchbrite pad if you don't want to spend 12 hours doing it manually), wipe down both halves with brakleen. Acetone or mineral spirits will also work. At this point I laid a small bead of silicone on the barrel outside of the bolt holes. The BFI video doesn't do this.



Also of note, my wheels assemble Barrel > Lip > Face. Many have the face in the center, and both sides of the face will need to be sealed in that case. I then lowered the face with bolts installed into the lip, and then lowered the whole assembly onto the barrel. This was done on a table with the edge hanging off, as in the video.



I then picked two opposite bolts, applied loctite, and made the nuts handtight. The wheel was then turned on its side. These nuts were torqued to 25 ft lbs. I then rotated the wheel 90 degrees, loctited and torqued the two opposite nuts. I found recommendations for 44 ft lb for new bolts, and 22 for old ones. Be sure to secure the bolt while torquing, as mentioned in the video.





With all four "corners" torqued, I then smoothed out the initial silicone bead. I ran another bead over it and smoothed that to fill any gaps.



After that, I continued to rotate 90 degrees and loctite/torque nuts on opposite sides to achieve a star pattern until all nuts were on. I then ran another silicone bead on the gap, and smoothed it.

You're now ready to let the wheels sit for 24 hours to let the silicone cure. BFI recommends another bead or two after that point, and another two days before mounting. I'll try and adhere to that and see how it goes. Heres a shot of the finished bead and the cleaned area on another wheel to try and show how much you really need to scotchbrite off.

[318aye]

Thanks guys. Much appreciated.

[ncbrock]

Those wheels are hot. I forgot about Korman, I'll try to be there.

[Nats88M3]

Damn nice looking wheels dude!!

[318aye]

Thanks guys! Getting them assembled, loctited, and siliconed today. Hoping to have tires on them next week.

[Dj Buttchug]

damn dude those came out beautiful. Dream wheels

[nickflic3]

wow those look great!

[318aye]

Pretty pumped with how they turned out.

[318aye]

I think both might be in the cards. Website says Korman is March 1st, not sure if that's 2014 though.

[N2MYE30]

Wassup! Those are going to look spectacular Daniel. See you at Korman or/and V@V, right?

[318aye]

Dan! Hi! Bengal Silver. Mine will be semi gloss.

[N2MYE30]

All tidy as usual here. Cool wheels too. Delphin centers or silver?

[318aye]

More progress. Wheels are waiting on the faces to come back from "It's Finished" here in Charlotte. Cool shop, owner was fully restoring a 356. They're getting the chrome plating electrically removed, and powdercoated bengal silver.

[tak7]

Looking good!
I was thinking about those wheels, mad at myself I didn't jump, they're gonna be sick!

[318aye]

Everyone arrived safely. Phew. Broke one down to see what I'm really dealing with. As expected, lips will just need to be reworked with a powerball. Barrels will need to be stripped. Might powdercoat, might just get back to metal and clear them. Hardware will need to be polished at the least, may replace as it appears to be heavily oxidized. Faces will get stripped, repolished, and have the centers repainted. Looks like they have a plastic centering ring for the hub bore that has definitely seen better days. May try and 3D print some replacements.