Bronzit E30 - OBDII S52 shaved bay - weekend/autox toy - Journey

[s14brent]

nice! i'm thinking of going with a full angle kit from slr and ditching the e46 lca's finally, so whenever I do that I'll have to do some measurements and then pick your brain, but i'm thinking 90mm might be what i'll need up front.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Progress. Cut and drilled some aluminum spacers for swaybar mounting to improve exhaust to swaybar clearance. Got a little overzealous with how many I made... looks like I only need 2 on each side which will provide a few MMs clearance between exhaust-swaybar-control arms.




Need to trim the corners to make them look nice.



Here's the x3 stack installed... loads of exhaust clearance, but the control arm won't fit. 2 spacers seems perfect.



Tack welded the control arm ball joints



Noticed that the ground control tapered bolt looked familiar.... I actually bought an allstar brand part ages ago trying to test parts to make my own bump steer kit. Looks like GC uses the same part. I could potentially use the longer piece to give more adjustment if I needed.. there's plenty of wheel clearance.



Here it is sitting in the arm.



New set of fender flares arrived from Russia. Jumboo brand. They're nice pieces. Fit the E30 arches very well. These were one of the very few flares I could find in 70mm size and classic style that didn't look like total chinese crap. They have a protective clear film over the outer surface. The finished surface is a very nice matte raw black abs. I will paint them bronzit once I've fitted them. Picking up another set of clean fenders to work with too.







Made some mods to the blast cabinet and its working well. Tested on one of the spindles. Getting close to completion of this whole runaway project...

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[Sh3rpak!ng]

nice! i'm thinking of going with a full angle kit from slr and ditching the e46 lca's finally, so whenever I do that I'll have to do some measurements and then pick your brain, but i'm thinking 90mm might be what i'll need up front.

yea I could see how you'd need the 90mm flare with an angle kit. Also really depends on tires. I'm running a 15x10 wheel with a 245/40 tire which is a bit smaller diameter than say 16x9 with 225/45

[Motheye99]

You are half way to this with that diff cover..
https://racecarsdirect.com/Advert/De...minium-436-dif


Can you link where to get those bump steer parts from GC. I have never seen them before.

great build

[Sh3rpak!ng]

You are half way to this with that diff cover..
https://racecarsdirect.com/Advert/De...minium-436-dif


Can you link where to get those bump steer parts from GC. I have never seen them before.

great build

Glad you're enjoying.

HA maybe hardware speaking I'm halfway there, but certainly not cost! That thing is listed for $5k

here's the bump steer kit: https://groundcontrolstore.com/colle...table-tie-rods

It's not specifically listed for an E30, but depending on which model/control arms you have it will work. Looks like they also redesigned it because my kit doesn't match the photos.

[Blake B]

Glad to see someone reviewing these fenders. Their ads are blowing up my instagram feed and I've been looking into them for my e30 and 2002.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Progress moving quickly now.


Quick comparison to validate that the struts are actually symmetrical. Never did that before...



Prepped for blasting.



My awesome wife surprise rented me a manual cayman for my birthday since she knew how bad I'd been aching to go for a mountain drive since I haven't driven the E30 in a number of weeks. It's pretty quick! I can definitely see how these cars make great track cars/sports cars with some choice mods.



Blasted more hardware.



Organic home grown bamboo spray booth



Expanded the bamboo spray booth :D



Parts laid out very close to assembling... just need to replace the ball joints and paint the control arms.



One joint definitely needed replacement. It was flopping around. Kinda weird but you can see a distinct difference between the two. One on the left looks almost like it got very hot... the joint has a blue discoloration while the other doesn't. Both have nearly the same mileage on them. Both are oem lemforder brand. The one on the right was still nice and stiff/solid.



Had to make some tools to press the joints out. Luckily I had some old axle nuts that were just the right size, tube, washers, welder... bam I've got a custom control arm ball joint press tool. Also replaced the bearings int he coilover top spring mounts. One of them was binding.

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[ForcedFirebird]

Love the bamboo stands.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Love the bamboo stands.

I figured someone wood!

[TeXJ]

I have thoughts of getting a Cayman S...

[Sh3rpak!ng]

I have thoughts of getting a Cayman S...

I'm not really a porsche guy so I personally wouldn't, but I have a definite new found appreciation and it was a fun drive

[TeXJ]

I'm not really a porsche guy so I personally wouldn't, but I have a definite new found appreciation and it was a fun drive

Were there things that you didn't like? How was the power? Able to pass to get around people, driving on the on-ramp fun?

[2mAn]

I’ve driven plenty of Caymans because I’ve wanted one for so long. There’s something underwhelming about them, especially when you’ve people driven a quick E30. The only Cayman that really got me excited was one with a 3.6 swapped in, but that car just left me with the feeling that the cars limits are so high that you’d have to be doing triple digits to get the blood pumping.

I’ll take less power if it’s in a package that also weighs less... and that’s what I’m building now. 100less whp, but also 1000 less lbs.

[TeXJ]

I’ve driven plenty of Caymans because I’ve wanted one for so long. There’s something underwhelming about them, especially when you’ve people driven a quick E30. The only Cayman that really got me excited was one with a 3.6 swapped in, but that car just left me with the feeling that the cars limits are so high that you’d have to be doing triple digits to get the blood pumping.

I’ll take less power if it’s in a package that also weighs less... and that’s what I’m building now. 100less whp, but also 1000 less lbs.

thanks for the incite!

[Gus]

Wow, what a thread! Great read and loved seeing the odyssey.

One thing to note - I see your missing the alternator ducting. I had mine die at the track the other day, I was lucky and managed to find a replacement nearby same day - it may or may not be related, but figured long periods of time at high RPM probably doesn't help, and they did come with cooling from factory.