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340i wrote:yeah it was bad enough pulling them apart. fingers crossed i dont get any blood on the wheel centres, i think its going to be a dangerous undertaking!

The results will be awesome though! cant wait to see the result

ac/dennis wrote:

340i wrote:yeah it was bad enough pulling them apart. fingers crossed i dont get any blood on the wheel centres, i think its going to be a dangerous undertaking!

The results will be awesome though! cant wait to see the result

thanks. same here, my new rear wheel lips are being custom made in Germany right about now, i cant wait to get them back and get it all together.

I've made some new progress with my rear suspension...
i got these, which are meant for a current shape mx5:


heres the rear ones lined up against what i was going to use


and a bit of mix and match and i thought this combo would be about right. it seems Tein have the same idea as what i was going to do with having an adaptor. no more need to lathe down the old top plate that i was going to use. it just needs the adaptor and im done!


then i got looking at the fronts and figured why not pull those apart and see what we have...


remove the bottom bracket...

which is really nicely engineered i might add (like all the Tein parts i've seen)

and these bits come apart and we have a similar piece to before, but its alloy and a bit bigger

a quick check and it seems to be about the right size, good times! no need for an adaptor any more, i think ill just drill some holes in the top plates to match the holes in the chassis. it almost looks like it was made for it i reckon

back to the shocks, the front and rear are physically the same size bodies, but the fronts have slightly shorter shafts. as they're fully adjustable and can always be swapped back, im going to use the 'fronts' for now, as these should be a better overall length than the rears.

and here it is all together. all i need to do now is make the top plate fit the bolt holes where it bolts on the top and then make the bottom fit too. we're getting close!


and in other updates, i've bought myself another radiator overflow tank, which i plan on using as a windscreen washer bottle. i think they should look nice and add a bit of symmetry to the engine bay. and its really shiny!

Are you going to weld the bottom threaded section of the tien front strut into the front stub axle so you can use the complete front damper

Jason

Tein components do look really well made. Nice work.

Jason_323i wrote:Are you going to weld the bottom threaded section of the tien front strut into the front stub axle so you can use the complete front damper

Jason

If I hadn't had a custom threaded section made a few weeks back, I would definitely be welding the base of the front mx5 units to my stub axles. I havent checked but I'm pretty sure the shock bodies have the same thread size on the drift spec as they do on the mono flex.

slight progress, i think..

i had another look at the rear setup and dont think the green top plates are going to work, due to space limitations with the wide tyres. the coilover will need to come across as far inward as possible, so ive gone back to 'plan a' and will be using the smaller top plates (spherical bearing housings).

heres a comparison shot of the two types, plus the bearing housings off the tein camber plates im not using anymore. the black dots are where the holes in the shock tower are when the plate is centred on it.


heres the second reason im going to use the smaller ones, they sit the bearing higher (meaning the car sits lower )


heres my trial adaptor plate that i bodged up this afternoon, from some 5mm stainless.


and in the car (theres bolts missing because i havent cut anything to make room for them yet, but its near enough)


and another thing i noticed, the holes in the chassis arent symmetrical? is anyone elses car like this?
left side:

right side:



considering this, im thinking that the best solution may be to make a plate like the one ive made, but get it welded to the chassis and bolt the bearing housing straigh to it. opinions/thoughts???

and in other parts of the car, i did this the other day...

its a 'work in progress'

today was a happy day, i just got back from my trip to oz and now have two rear tyres! after getting the pair sent from brisbane to sydney and having one delivered to a friends place to bring over to me on the plane, i brought the other one back myself, which was interesting as i had a three day stopover in melbourne. i got a few funny looks at the airport and a couple of questions, but overall it was a pretty painless experience checking in a tyre as my 'luggage'

cool seats

cheers. they have headrests but i think they look better without them. i've just got to make brackets for the rear ones, they're only sitting in there at the moment.

all well not having headrests but if you have an accident your neck will snap off!

some shots of the rears when you start working on them would be great

oh that wouldnt be too good!
might throw the fronts on, or maybe just when im doing 'spirited' driving

in other modifications...

'before'



'after'

i have some chromed mesh grills which came with the car when i bought it, which (once i find where i stored them...) will be going on, to give it the oldschool racer look

Today was a happy day, I've found a local dude whos wrecking an e21 and have got myself a few spare body parts for a good price. Its also good to find another e21 enthusiast in the area, I thought I was the only one...

so far I've picke up another pair of twin headlamp grills so I can finish my custom (small diameter) single headlamp grills, and got a front valence, which I'm going to modify and then use as a buck for making a composite front bumper to my own design. ill be picking up doors and a bootlid next week, which I'm thinking about similarly using to make moulds for composite parts or at least to mould up some carbon fibre door and boot skins

Update:

Things have been held up somewhat, with the engineer who needs to approve my custom suspension design (ie. the guy who will be certifying the car to make it road legal when done) was attacked for no reason and had his leg broken. it then didnt heal correctly and he's been in and out of hospital for over a month and therefore unable to do any work. I'm also still waiting on my custom wheel lips so the wheel rebuild is on hold for now too. On the upside, I've been free to do snowboarding trips! (I'm off again tomorrow for the week... )

Anyways, I did a bit of a scribble today for what I'm thinking as far as plans for the next year or two, so let me know what you think. The overall concept is to keep going with the theme of many differnt influences. ie. Its a German oldschool road car but with new race-spec parts, Japanese-powered but American hotrod inspired engine bay, VW-scene style wheels, 'Stance'-style ummm stance... etc. The body kit will draw from the old 2002tii race bumpers and also from the current drift style kits (but with slightly less of a 'snowplow' feel I hope). There will be a bit of 'Time-attack' style thown in the mix too, but more at the rear of the car. If it all turns out pimp-my-ride-ish, I can always convert everything back to standard! The only thing I've not drawn in is an external oil cooler ('Bozu'-style), which I think look pretty awesome if done right.

hmmm, no responses to my plans, im not sure if that is good or bad...

update on the new wheels, there has been issues with the german supplier and my custom lips didnt get sent over! ive shelled out a fair bit for these so am hoping he comes through and there doesnt need to be legal dramas here. i have started to clean the barrels and centres up though, and plan to have them sanded, primed and painted soon-ish. its been over 8 years in the build now, so im over worrying about a month or two here or there lol