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

[jimerilo]

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.

[E30BeemerLad]

where did you get that rear axle sand blasted mate?

Got myself one today with a diff etc still attached, looks like it's been in the ocean for a while

Yours looks proper nice

mmmmm, sterling silver on style 5's, mammma

[jimerilo]

where did you get that rear axle sand blasted mate?

Got myself one today with a diff etc still attached, looks like it's been in the ocean for a while

Yours looks proper nice

mmmmm, sterling silver on style 5's, mammma

A mate did the sandblasting for me, charged me £20.
Off to see him next week shall i see if he would do yours?

[E30BeemerLad]

yeah that would be grand mate
cheers

[jimerilo]

Just a little update, put some tyres on the back wheels so i could offer them up to see if they are gonna clear the arches without modification.

That will be a no then so either going to roll the arches or fit some different rear springs with a lesser drop.

James.

[MadE30mike]

That looks the damage dude exellent choice

[hammoj28]

That looks fekin amazing!

[DaveD]

Looks really good ..If you are coming to the Milk Bar you can tell me how to refurb the wheels

[jimerilo]

Thankyou for your comments

Looks really good ..If you are coming to the Milk Bar you can tell me how to refurb the wheels

Yeah fingers crossed should be at Milkbar mate.

James.

[jimerilo]

Managed to get a few jobs done over the weekend.
Picked up a few bits and bats to have fitted when the back end is getting swapped. Ie prop doughnut, handbrake cables, Z3M diff mount and rear arm bushes.



Also purchased some new discs and pads off a zoner ( many thanks essfourteen )



Firstly the rear arm bushes, luckily i had some threaded bar/large socket in the garage to use to get these bushes in and out.



Then i painted both rear arms.

[jimerilo]

Managed to get my rear beam swapped yesterday.

Finally pinpointed the rear clunking ive been hearing when accelerating hard.

Two out of four of the diff mounts snapped!





Has anyone else seen or heard of this sort of thing happening before?

James.

[Andy325i]

Has anyone else seen or heard of this sort of thing happening before?

James.

Heard about a customer doing it on a 325i a few years ago, but to be fair he was a complete muppet with the car

Sure your a lot more sane!


Andy

[jimerilo]

Finally got round to finishing the back end, what do you guys think?



Just the front to do now

James.

[1an]

they look awesome mate

[saqi]

looking good bud

[brettski]

that looks really good mate i've got a sterling silver sport myself what was the total cost to get this done?! thanks.

[jimerilo]

Thankyou for your comments.

that looks really good mate i've got a sterling silver sport myself what was the total cost to get this done?! thanks.

I daren't think mate
Saved alot of money by re-furbing the wheels myself but still spent more than i wanted to.

[jimerilo]

Finally got round to working on the front end of my car over the last few days.

Started off polishing up the last three wheels (one as a spare) to a mirror polish. The one pictured still needs abit more work.




Then removed the front struts and found it was still riding on its proper H26/27 dampers and springs





Also managed to pick up a set of heated M3 leather front seats so sent my rears off to be re-covered to suit.



James.

[jimerilo]

Managed to put together the front end over crimbo

What do you think?



Still the rear seats to fit and then looking into getting her re-sprayed soon ready for summer.

James.

[march109]

very nice mate, but I'm still wondering if you rolled the rear arches to fit the rims or did something else????

I'm in the middle of something similar, I'm also uprating a few parts, but I'm not going for the M3 stuff like you, mainly because I have a set of 4stud bbs rs! But I have added Z3 top mount reinforcement plates, E46 M3 cab rear top moints, rear bush void fillers (group buy) and finally a z3m finned diff cover.

Yours looks awesome tho

[spikuzi]

Managed to get my rear beam swapped yesterday.

Finally pinpointed the rear clunking ive been hearing when accelerating hard.

Two out of four of the diff mounts snapped!





Has anyone else seen or heard of this sort of thing happening before?

James.

remindes me when i bought my car. the diff was nearly touching the street with the 3 bolts still on it and big chunk from the axle missing

[jimerilo]

very nice mate, but I'm still wondering if you rolled the rear arches to fit the rims or did something else????

I'm in the middle of something similar, I'm also uprating a few parts, but I'm not going for the M3 stuff like you, mainly because I have a set of 4stud bbs rs! But I have added Z3 top mount reinforcement plates, E46 M3 cab rear top moints, rear bush void fillers (group buy) and finally a z3m finned diff cover.

Yours looks awesome tho

Cheers mate, yeah had to roll the rear arches.
Spent along time cleaning all the mud/crap out of the lip then knocked the arch lip over carefully and then sealed it all with waxoil.

What dia/width are your BBS?

James.

[march109]

My bbs are 8J front and rear, fronts fit fine, the rears rub on 60mm and 45mm springs and I don't want to raise it any higher. So I'm gonna have to roll the arches, don't fancy PM'ing me an idiots guide to prepping the arches and rolling them DIY do you?

[jimerilo]

Managed to get my rear beam swapped yesterday.

Finally pinpointed the rear clunking ive been hearing when accelerating hard.

Two out of four of the diff mounts snapped!





Has anyone else seen or heard of this sort of thing happening before?

James.

remindes me when i bought my car. the diff was nearly touching the street with the 3 bolts still on it and big chunk from the axle missing

Yeah i got a big shock when i realised where the knocking was coming from.
Strengthened the new one so hopefully wont happen again.

James.

[jimerilo]

My bbs are 8J front and rear, fronts fit fine, the rears rub on 60mm and 45mm springs and I don't want to raise it any higher. So I'm gonna have to roll the arches, don't fancy PM'ing me an idiots guide to prepping the arches and rolling them DIY do you?

Mine still rub very slightly but this is due to tired rear dampers so got some Spax adjustable ones for crimbo to tighten the back end up.
Will try and take some pictures and pm you them to show how i rolled the arches when i have my wheels off to fit the dampers.

James.

[march109]

cheers dude.

[merkyboy]

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!

[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.

[bss325i]

Managed to put together the front end over crimbo

What do you think?



Still the rear seats to fit and then looking into getting her re-sprayed soon ready for summer.

James.

Looks stunning!

[jimerilo]

Also finally managed to source a used heated seat loom, switches and consol from various zoners/dismantlers so will be busy fitting this tomorrow



James.

[bss325i]

Also finally managed to source a used heated seat loom, switches and consol from various zoners/dismantlers so will be busy fitting this tomorrow



James.

I have all this to go into mine to including the elements which need fitting to my seats, not looking foreward to this!

[jimerilo]

I have all this to go into mine to including the elements which need fitting to my seats, not looking foreward to this!

Well i will let you know how fitting the loom goes.
As for the seats as long as you can get hold of the hog rings and hog ring tool the seats come apart fairly easily.

James.

[bss325i]

From what i can gather the loom is pretty easy, under the carpet from the junction box behind the glove box to the seats and switches.

[march109]

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?

[Cloggy Saint]

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.