Refreshing My 88 Vert Suspension. DIY???

[flamesone]

Hey guys, I'm finally ready to fully refresh my suspension on my 88 325i convertible, and i'm wondering how hard this is to do myself or with a buddy? I'm pretty mechanically inclined, just never done this before. I have already had the steering rack rebuilt, new tie rods, and new complete brakes: Calipers, rotors, pads, and lines all the way around. Now this is what I have and what i'm looking at doing.

Parts Consist of:
New M3 centered FCAB (not pressed into brackets)
New FCA brackets w/ bolts
New Front Control arms (R and L)
New HD Front sway bar links
New Rear sway bar links
New Rear Subframe Mount bushings w/ bolts
New Rear Trailing Arm Bushings (eccentric)
New Differential Mount Bushing
New Dust Shields (F and R)

New KW Variant 3 coilover kit w/ forged spindles
New GC urethane/alloy RSM set 10 mm
New GC SpecE30 Camber plates
New Race skids Heavy Duty skid plate

Wheels:
New BBS RS reps 17X8.5 et15 215/40/17

So this is everything i'm looking to put on the car, and i've never done this, especially not installing and adjusting coilovers. I'll probably have to burn out old bushings as well, and I don't have a torch or a press, but what do you guys think? Pay someone a stupid amount to put it in? or is this something me and maybe some help from someone from the R3v community can knock out ourselves? Guy at the local shop when I asked for an estimate to put it all in said probably 10hrs on the front, and 15-20hrs on the rear give or take. I just don't know if I want to fork over a couple grand in labor on something I can do myself and learn a great deal about my car in the process. What do you guys think?

[tewhalen]

I've never really worked on cars before, and I'm more than halfway through replacing the front control arms, sway bar links, and tie rod ends on my '87 convertible. Getting the bolt off of the passenger-side inner ball joint was the most trouble. So far, there's been nothing extremely dispiriting or troubling - finding the right tools for the job is most of the work, and the rest is just powering through without getting flustered and making stupid mistakes.

MVP tools so far:

• Oxygen Sensor Socket wrench, borrowed from AutoZone, which has proved invaluable at reaching and breaking loose that inner ball joint nut.
• Universal joint and lengthy extension for my ratchet to reach those two nuts from above
• 16mm bicycle wrench for getting that sway bar link off

The only thing I've needed outside help on is pressing the M3 bushings into the control arm brackets - I tried with a vice and didn't see it going well. I dropped them off at my local BMW shop and the owner knew exactly what I needed and did it for me in less than an hour.

[flamesone]

That's awesome tewhalen! Congrats on the progress so far, keep up the good work!! Yeah I figured pressing the bushings in, and possibly burning the old bushings out I would need some shop assistance. Thanks for the tool suggestions as well!! This definitely has me leaning towards doing it myself.

[Mwishlist]

It's hard to judge what mechanically inclined means but the suspension is pretty straightforward, unbolt the old part / bolt the new part on with a few caveats.

1. You have to be super careful with the front springs on the struts, they are under a ton of pressure and if you don't have them compressed properly when you disassemble, you will hurt yourself. The new coilover springs probably won't even be under pressure until installed with some weight on them, so it's just getting the stock springs off you need to worry about.

2. The rear subframe bushings tend to get stuck and it is a bitch to get them out. This thread was a godsend and I did exactly what he did and it still took about 15 minutes of hitting the steel bar with a BFH to get them to drop.

https://r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=136816&t=136816

3. The Emergency brake lines freeze in the frame, but you can just disassemble / disconnect them at the rear wheels and drop the sub frame anyway.

I was in the same boat, no torch or press, so I just dropped off my rear subframe and trailing arms to a local shop and they pressed out all the old bushing and pressed in the new ones in like an hour or two. Everything else I did myself and there are a ton of DIYs on this.

[flamesone]

Ok cool, I really appreciate the pointers and thanks for the link about the subframe, that should def come in handy if the subframe bushings give me problems.

It's hard to judge what mechanically inclined means but the suspension is pretty straightforward, unbolt the old part / bolt the new part on with a few caveats.

1. You have to be super careful with the front springs on the struts, they are under a ton of pressure and if you don't have them compressed properly when you disassemble, you will hurt yourself. The new coilover springs probably won't even be under pressure until installed with some weight on them, so it's just getting the stock springs off you need to worry about.

2. The rear subframe bushings tend to get stuck and it is a bitch to get them out. This thread was a godsend and I did exactly what he did and it still took about 15 minutes of hitting the steel bar with a BFH to get them to drop.

https://r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=136816&t=136816

3. The Emergency brake lines freeze in the frame, but you can just disassemble / disconnect them at the rear wheels and drop the sub frame anyway.

I was in the same boat, no torch or press, so I just dropped off my rear subframe and trailing arms to a local shop and they pressed out all the old bushing and pressed in the new ones in like an hour or two. Everything else I did myself and there are a ton of DIYs on this.

[Mwishlist]

Ok cool, I really appreciate the pointers and thanks for the link about the subframe, that should def come in handy if the subframe bushings give me problems.

No problem. Hopefully your's will just drop. Mine were stuck and I did everything from the bottom of the car; prying, beating them, tons of PB Blaster and they wouldn't even budge. But the steel bar and lag bolt trick totally worked. Good luck!