Suspension/wheel upgrade on my (H26). Thread resurrection!

[buster]

nice work james.I shall have to polish up my wheels as yours look amazing !!

P.S if you want to sell 2 of those heated switchs i'll buy them as ive got the loom.

[josh-hocking]

i shaw this car at milkbar with just the rear end on but looked amazing!! is there need for a respray? or are you a perfectionist?

[jimerilo]

itd be nice for you to show us all how your arch rolling experience went so all us newbs can learn a bit or too.! just a suggestion, and i dont mean to sound sarcy in anyway!

OK mate will post the pics up on this thread soon.

James.

Any update on the idiots guide?

Sorry forgot about this mate, here you go.

Firstly i must point out that the way i did this may not be the best or right way to carry out this task, its just the way i found easiest/best given the tools i had available.

So i jacked the rear of my car off the ground to a suitable working height and placed axle stands underneath and then removed my rear wheels.

Next i evaluated the condition of my arches, mine were still in very good strong condition thankfully, if they weren't i would not have carried on as they would have fallen apart once i had started tapping the arch lip back.



Before the arch lip can be tapped back the inner arches should be cleaned out as road crap/ salt sits around the lip, if you knock the lip back without doing this you will trap the mud/salt and this will accelerate the corrosion of your arches. I cleaned mine out with a soft wire brush and once clean i covered my inner arch in wax oil to prevent any rust in the future.



I then used a dolly and a flat faced hammer to knock back the arch lip.



I wrapped the dolly in a clean cloth ( to protect my paintwork ) and placed it on the outside of the arch paralell to the blow of the hammer which will be striking the arch lip on the inside.





Only gentle tapping evenly around the lip will be needed to knock back the lip and the dolly must be in line with the blow so the arch wont distort. The lip wont have to be moved very far to clear most wheels so dont go mad.

Sorry for the crap pictures but i hope you all get the gist of what i did.

James.

[jimerilo]

Four switches for the seats? Are you doing the back seats too?? I just replaced a couple of elements in my seats, and it's a surprisingly easy job, just time consuming.

Only done my front seats, the zoner i bought the loom off had four switches so got two for spare.

James.

[jimerilo]

nice work james.I shall have to polish up my wheels as yours look amazing !!

P.S if you want to sell 2 of those heated switchs i'll buy them as ive got the loom.

Cheers mate

Might sell the other two, will make sure the other two work first

James.

[march109]

Cheers thats perfect.

[jimerilo]

i shaw this car at milkbar with just the rear end on but looked amazing!! is there need for a respray? or are you a perfectionist?

Thankyou Josh, must apologize as i didnt realise it was you looking at my car until you left the Milkbar.

Car could do with a respray as a couple of panels have been re-sprayed by a previous owner in a slightly different shade and ive spent so much to get my wheels fitted that i cant have the paintwork letting the car down.

James.

[jbh]

this looks truely stunning mate how much is it costing to get the rear seats recovered to match ?

[buster]

James,
thats basically what i did with mine,also as you know i raised the rear end up but still find it catches very slightly if cornering fast with a passenger in.I think that it is actually catching above the arch though,and not the lip.The bit where it goes flat above the arch.To solve this,when i refurb my wheels,im going to skim 2mm off the centre to make it sit in a tiny bit more.

Cheers
Andy,

p.s . do you still have a spare 8j style 5 going spare ? Im needing a spare wheel for the boot.

[jimerilo]

this looks truely stunning mate how much is it costing to get the rear seats recovered to match ?

Cheers

A guy local to me re trimmed my rear seat for £200 but im not 100% happy with it so might get it re done at a later date.

James.

[jimerilo]

James,
thats basically what i did with mine,also as you know i raised the rear end up but still find it catches very slightly if cornering fast with a passenger in.I think that it is actually catching above the arch though,and not the lip.The bit where it goes flat above the arch.To solve this,when i refurb my wheels,im going to skim 2mm off the centre to make it sit in a tiny bit more.

Cheers
Andy,

p.s . do you still have a spare 8j style 5 going spare ? Im needing a spare wheel for the boot.

Using my spare rim as a spare now mate but may know of another set ( two 8" and two 9" ) that i might buy if are cheap enough as i would like the option to run 9's on the back so i would then have two 8's spare if you would be interested?

James.

[buster]

yes deffo.I thought you were using 9's on the back same as me.

[1bash]

Very Tasty

[jimerilo]

yes deffo.I thought you were using 9's on the back same as me.

Wanted to run a staggered set but couldn't find any at the time so bought this set of 8's instead.

To solve this,when i refurb my wheels,im going to skim 2mm off the centre to make it sit in a tiny bit more.

There is easily enough meat on the inner face to machine up to 4mm i would say so 2mm should be fine.

James.

[josh-hocking]

i shaw this car at milkbar with just the rear end on but looked amazing!! is there need for a respray? or are you a perfectionist?

Thankyou Josh, must apologize as i didnt realise it was you looking at my car until you left the Milkbar.

Car could do with a respray as a couple of panels have been re-sprayed by a previous owner in a slightly different shade and ive spent so much to get my wheels fitted that i cant have the paintwork letting the car down.

James.

its ok!! i suppose i look a bit out of place.

[buster]

O/T josh do you remember me grabbing you on the way out ? i was pretty sloshed
I didn't realise it was you until the end of the night !

[jimerilo]

Got round to fitting my rear seats that ive had re trimmed to suit my M3 front seats.

As i said before not really happy with them so will be coming out again to be re done by someone else when funds allow.




James.

[Cloggy Saint]

The leather does look a bit slack.

[fowler]

will tighten up once some heat and use have been put in them as the leather will shrink a bit agreed does look a bit slack !!

[jimerilo]

The leather does look a bit slack.

Yeah requested each horizontal section be properly hogg ringed back so each section will be pulled nice and tight but obviously he didnt hear me.

Tried heating them up to shrink the leather but this is the best i can get it.

Didnt pay alot for it to be done, but wish he had quoted me abit more and did a proper job.

James.

[markus_74]

Thought it was about time i treated my Sport to a little tlc and spend some money one her.
First thing on the list was to sort the brakes and suspension but after seeing Busters car at the Milkbar meet my mind started going abit overboard.
So instead of re-bushing etc the current suspension i decided to convert to 5 stud using M3 E30 components and also sourced a set of style 5 alloys.


Wheels look in good condition in this picture but are actually very rough.


First thing i did was clean and refurb the calipers this included new seals.


I then sandblasted the axle and also gave it a lick of paint


Next up were the wheels, i stripped these and gave the centres to my mate to paint while i stripped the laquer off the rims and then rubbed out all the corrosion, then with a newly aquired polishing kit polished them up


And here is one of the rims so far


Still have lots to do so will post up more pics through the following weeks.

Thankyou for looking and comments welcome

James.

Dear, James

I want to strip my 3 pieces wheel, but I'm afraid it will leak.

What is the sealer do you use after rebuilt it?

It is use aquarium sealer? or special sealer?

Thanks
Markus

[jimerilo]

Just a little update

Car breezed through the MOT and been using car quite abit, brakes are awesome compared to what was on before so well chuffed.

Wheels seem to be coping well against the massive amount of salt on the roads , been using meguires wheel wax on them which seems to be doing the trick.

Also tried to do an arty shot of my car this morning with my crap camera, didnt turn out too bad for me.





James.

[whipsey]

that looks niiiiccccee any full shots of the car?

[SK360]

Talking about salt on the road, on the way back from the Lakeside meet last night, there was gritter in the middle lane, horrible sound off all that sh!t hitting your car Defintely need to keep on top of it to keep the wheels looking spotless.

[jimerilo]

Finally got a chance to take some pictures of it while the sun was out over the weekend.

Had to lift up the back end also by using some 40mm springs (cheers Spadge) but can now have people in the back without any wheel/arch interferance now.











James.

[he30]

Wheels looking

You still taking them off james?

[jimerilo]

Wheels looking

You still taking them off james?

Yes mate only until the weather gets better, just bought some 15" BBS's today to use for the time being.

James.

[he30]

Don't blame you mate, wait for the summer

[beardymat]

looking sweet there james, bet youre glad you decided to stick with it instead of selling up. seems to be a winter thing where some people decide they cant justify keeping them as they dont use them.

sound familiar H ?

[he30]

looking sweet there james, bet youre glad you decided to stick with it instead of selling up. seems to be a winter thing where some people decide they cant justify keeping them as they dont use them.

sound familiar H ?

Damn me and my loose lips i think i've got a car addiction i have'nt bought one for 12 months........i'm in need of a fix lol.

[jimerilo]

looking sweet there james, bet youre glad you decided to stick with it instead of selling up. seems to be a winter thing where some people decide they cant justify keeping them as they dont use them.

sound familiar H ?

Damn me and my loose lips i think i've got a car addiction i have'nt bought one for 12 months........i'm in need of a fix lol.

Well you can always get your fix by buying my dads E12 M535

James.

[he30]

I thought you were gonna pm me some pics James? could be tempted

[jimerilo]

I thought you were gonna pm me some pics James? could be tempted

Oops forgot about that

Will see if i have any.

James.

[buster]

Looks very nice James.Im going to have to get my finger out and do mine.

[jase325isport]

That looks absolutely fantastic!!!!!, think i can fell a set of bbs splits coming on..