Horse shoe gas struts and wrong parts

Mon Sep 17, 2012 3:29 pm

Eurgh! What an expensive day!

Got what I (and the bloke at the dealer) thought were the lifters for the horse shoe on a the cab shipped in from Germany at £44.41 (OUCH).
Got them and they are the ones from the frame of the hood not the horse shoe. Anything under £50 they cant return with out a £50 handling change... found the correct part on REALOEM now and they are... wait for it... £124.20... OUCH! SO all in all, the horse shoe gas struts have cost me £168.61!!!!!!!

Just thought I would have a bitch and moan because that hurt the bank!

Mon Sep 17, 2012 3:40 pm

diable wrote:Why didn't you get your ones restored and is your hood electric as I don't think I have any gas struts on my manual roof?

I have gas struts on my manual roof. Good luck restoring mine, the end of the piston that attaches to whatever via a thin metal hoop are snapped so they are now -C shaped instead of -O shaped.

I got in contact with a gas strut maker and provided I can find out the pressure and all the measurements of size etc. I can get them to make some up for me at a much lower cost than from BMW (same with the seat ones). So I think I'll be going down that route at some point.

Mon Sep 17, 2012 3:40 pm

Its a manual roof, its the struts that hold up the horse shoe, when you pull the door handle release for the horse shoe, pull the catch underneath it should pop up on gas struts, but mine don't. I have tried having struts repaired before with varied effects, so wanted nice new ones for a change... eeep!

The spares I now have, I have no idea what they do but this is them....

Mon Sep 17, 2012 3:41 pm

FinalD wrote:
diable wrote:Why didn't you get your ones restored and is your hood electric as I don't think I have any gas struts on my manual roof?
I have gas struts on my manual roof. Good luck restoring mine, the end of the piston that attaches to whatever via a thin metal hoop are snapped so they are now -C shaped instead of -O shaped.

I got in contact with a gas strut maker and provided I can find out the pressure and all the measurements of size etc. I can get them to make some up for me at a much lower cost than from BMW (same with the seat ones). So I think I'll be going down that route at some point.

They are 180N:
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do ... g=41&fg=55

Mon Sep 17, 2012 3:44 pm

Ooooh never spotted that they have pressure on there. I better get measuring up all the dimensions of mine and see what the company I got in contact can do.

A bit late now for you I know, but if I can get a decent cost from this company then I'll make sure to recommend them to others etc.

E: Darn, realOEM don't list the pressure for the seat ones. Was hoping they did so I could get a quote for all the struts I need.

Mon Sep 17, 2012 3:46 pm

Well i have two cabriolets with the same issue... this is for the one I am selling for now, not the resto one... but if i can get a decent second pair, I might put these ones on the resto car and the cheaper ones on the seller...

Keep us informed!!!

Mon Sep 17, 2012 4:01 pm

Erm quick tip guys, the struts from a old worn seat work a treat!!

Tried and tested a few times by myself on various cabs!

Q

Mon Sep 17, 2012 4:16 pm

Quaser wrote:Erm quick tip guys, the struts from a old worn seat work a treat!!

Tried and tested a few times by myself on various cabs!

Q

Completely different struts, so whilst they may work, they are built to take different pressures and extend a different amount. The horseshoe ones are very thin fragile things compared to the bulky seat ones. Plus, most seat ones are knackered these days anyway, especially if the seat is worn.

Mon Sep 17, 2012 4:17 pm

Quaser wrote:Erm quick tip guys, the struts from a old worn seat work a treat!!

Tried and tested a few times by myself on various cabs!

Q

Lol bang on. The sturts from a 2 door front seat. Bit of elbow grease and on they go.

Mon Sep 17, 2012 4:28 pm

I think there will be a strong market for these struts, need a set myself.

I don't think the horseshoe will pop up with the pressure from the struts, is it not that once up it won't drop whilst you are folding the roof in ? Then you push against them to get the horseshoe down.

Mon Sep 17, 2012 5:30 pm

I have a set from a set and for love nor money can I compress them enough to get them fitted, they are about quarter of an inch too long but so strong that you can't compress them by hand.

If there is some sort of tool to do this I'd love to know. Alternatively there is a place onlIne that can supply made to measure for £13 each. Never got round to ordering them though as other priorities at the moment for the cash.

Mon Sep 17, 2012 5:38 pm

Rtaylor2208 wrote:I have a set from a set and for love nor money can I compress them enough to get them fitted, they are about quarter of an inch too long but so strong that you can't compress them by hand.

If there is some sort of tool to do this I'd love to know. Alternatively there is a place onlIne that can supply made to measure for £13 each. Never got round to ordering them though as other priorities at the moment for the cash.

£13...

I got screwed by the stealer again!

Mon Sep 17, 2012 5:59 pm

these guys will re-fill your struts for about £5 each, usually takes about 3 days,

http://www.sgs-engineering.com/

Mon Sep 17, 2012 7:18 pm

e30topless wrote:these guys will re-fill your struts for about £5 each, usually takes about 3 days,

http://www.sgs-engineering.com/

Not always the case. They need to be tested first. Mine unfortunately could not be saved.

They also cost about 15-20 quid each to refill as far as I can remember.

Mon Sep 17, 2012 7:22 pm

FinalD wrote:I got in contact with a gas strut maker and provided I can find out the pressure and all the measurements of size etc. I can get them to make some up for me at a much lower cost than from BMW (same with the seat ones). So I think I'll be going down that route at some point.

Definitely interested in this, if you can get them to make them.

Keep us posted!

Mon Sep 17, 2012 10:22 pm

Gavla wrote:Not always the case. They need to be tested first. Mine unfortunately could not be saved.

They also cost about 15-20 quid each to refill as far as I can remember.

Well, mine are quite simply, shagged. One could do with re gassing and the other has gas, but as you can see in the below picture I can't use them.

Gavla wrote:Definitely interested in this, if you can get them to make them.

Keep us posted!

I've done all the measurements and should hopefully get a response about them in a couple of days with regards to prices. I know that once I have a price it would take them around 10 days to manufacture them. I might then enquire about a group buy potential if the zone allows them and I get enough interest in them.

We'll see though.

Tue Sep 18, 2012 3:26 am

compress them in a vice... they work a treat.. im just listing some on ebay now... ive got hundreds of these

Tue Sep 18, 2012 5:39 am

^^^^^^^^^^^^^ got a link ??

Tue Sep 18, 2012 6:39 am

some here too:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-E30-Conve ... 4abb27394e

Tue Sep 18, 2012 6:53 am

adit wrote:some here too:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-E30-Conve ... 4abb27394e

They are bootlid struts not hood horse shoe ones. You'd be doing well if you got them to fit!

Tue Sep 18, 2012 8:37 am

I bought mine off Ebay think it was £18 each

Bit awkward to fit you have to compress it a bit i used a cable tie

Works a treat

Tue Sep 18, 2012 8:46 am

Not the ones i bought but worth a punt

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-E30-CONVE ... 23228d71c6

Tue Sep 18, 2012 8:50 am

Uprated? Those are second hand used ones, they look exactly like mine (aside from the busted ends on mine

).

Tue Sep 18, 2012 10:09 am

Hmmm...cheaper than BMW but not the sort of cost I was hoping for...

The gas springs will cost £25 each + Vat

Carriage is £10.50 + vat within the uk.

Payment is by credit card.

Looks like I'm going to have to contact a few other gas spring/strut makers as £72.60 is still rather steep for these in my opinion, especially as the likes of willnz's link show they can be had for £45 delivered. I was hoping/expecting them to be around £40-£50 from this company.

E: I've got a list of people I can fire off emails to for quotes so will do that this evening and see if I can get them made cheaper than ebay sellers (with good quality materials etc.).

Tue Sep 18, 2012 11:29 am

willnz wrote:I bought from these blokes some years ago..

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-BMW-Convertib ... fd&vxp=mtr

At todays exchange rate that is £63.50 incl. postage

Are they any good?

Tue Sep 18, 2012 11:35 am

Gavla wrote:At todays exchange rate that is £63.50 incl. postage

Are they any good?

How'd you work that one out?

US $64.95
Approximately £39.92
+
US $10.00
(approx. £6.15)

I make that £46.07.

Which is why I'm going to contact loads of UK based companies to get quotes as if you can get them shipped from the US for £46 why can't we get them made here for less?!

Tue Sep 18, 2012 8:19 pm

FinalD wrote:US $64.95
Approximately £39.92
+
US $10.00
(approx. £6.15)

I make that £46.07.

Postage to Europe states $38?

So I make that £63.50 incl. postage to Europe

Tue Sep 18, 2012 8:38 pm

Gavla wrote:Postage to Europe states $38?

So I make that £63.50 incl. postage to Europe

Well I'm in the UK so it'd be $10.

Countries
Shipping
UK, Australia, New Zealand $10.00

Tue Sep 18, 2012 8:49 pm

Fairplay mate, I was looking at this on my mobile phone and did not notice the UK price while scrolling.

Anyway, really good price and willnz has confirmed that they are a good buy, I will be placing my order shortly.

Wed Sep 19, 2012 9:08 am

Haha...I asked the original guy about a discount on multiple items:

The next discount point is 10 units.

The price would be £18.00 + VAT each
Carriage £10.50 + VAT

So if I ordered 5 sets it'd cost £55 a set rather than £73, just a slight mark up on producing small numbers.