bmwe21.net forums

e21-Mark wrote:Cage nearly done.

I'm looking to make something to replace inner door and quarter panels. I was going to just use aluminium sheet, like was done with bulkhead and boot floor, but wondered if anyone had a better suggestion? Rigid plastic sheet maybe?

Rigid plastic sheet needs to class o (basicaly non flamable fro flame spread), alloy or carbon/grp

not cheap

http://www.carbonmods.co.uk/Products/We ... CS1MM.aspx

or abs

http://www.eagleplastics.co.uk/ABS-sheet.html

Ouch! Alloy it is then.

There's someone listing c/fibre door cards on eBay but they want about £240 iirc.

Got some paint on the race car yesterday. Going to finish painting cage and interior, prior to poly windows and screen going in.

Suspension and brakes are going on. Going to bin the EBC pads though, as found them to be rubbish. Found Hawk to be about the best for reasonable cost.



Some small repairs to do to the arches but nothing too tough. I know its only a race car but I still want it to be finished to a high standard.

lets trade cars, mine needs a whole lot of paint still

ebc are rubbish? any additional info?

croma_man wrote:ebc are rubbish? any additional info?

Just my own experience. I had red stuff in my old car (Jack's m42 powered) and whilst they were OK at first, they started squealing really badly and the pedal felt dead. I had orange stuff in my e30/s50 and they just didn't work like they should have. Swapping to Hawk transformed the brakes.

e21-Mark wrote:

croma_man wrote:ebc are rubbish? any additional info?

Just my own experience. I had red stuff in my old car (Jack's m42 powered) and whilst they were OK at first, they started squealing really badly and the pedal felt dead. I had orange stuff in my e30/s50 and they just didn't work like they should have. Swapping to Hawk transformed the brakes.

ive decided to go with ds2500 after reading hit n miss reviews about the hawk pads.

Well I'm sticking with Yellows for my new brakes, Will let you know how they fair on saturday at Lydden.
Never have squeeling from the yellows in those wilwoods before. Just make sure they are bedded in carefully.

This is what I do to bed in brakes:

On a very quiet country lane/or road
10 off stops with medium pressure from ~30mph to 5mph
then
10 off stops with medium pressure from ~70mph to 5mph
Then let them fully cool off.

This gets all the mating surfaces the same and inpregnates the disc witht he pad material. Also the medium pressure is to not overheat the pad/disc during this bedding in procedure.

Ben

and which discs? brembo blanks?

Also as another thought, As I mentioned the disc gets inpregnated with pad material be careful when changing to a different pad brand/material.

Would be best to start with new/virgin discs when using new pad brand/material.

Ben

PS The discs Mark has are from Main dealer (only ones I'd recommend for a track car), not sure if brembo are available for the E21 fronts.
I have tried the drilled discs from Walloth & Nesch and after a few track/race days they started cracking radially from the holes as most drilled disks do.

Thought I would pop in my notes on brake pads

On Butch fronts we have used the following (with heat ranges)
Pads: Willwood (tel: 01795 531871 Rally Marine Design) Polymatrix poly B no 15B 3992K 700f to 1500f heat range (HR) or Hawk HT8 harder compound 900f to1800f (HR) Hawk MT4 blue 500f-1300f(HR) (or Carbotech Europe 0800 0281 557) Castrol SRF brake fluid—do not mix!

Rears
Pads: Hawk HB100 HPS 0 to 700f (HR).HB100 HP plus 0-900f (HR)
or Polymatrix poly d 0 to 800f HR

heat ranges measured in degrees farenheit

NB heat ranges for front and back are a lot different-
NB2 these are for full race in hot conditions

people swear by Carbotech- they just seem to tear into the discs in my experience

would agree with Duracell- don't liked drilled brakes- always seem to crack- grooving is fine though

I have those polymetrix B pads that rally design supply for wilwoods, I really think they are crap.

I have bad experiences with most pads lol. EBC are rubbish indeed, Mintex don't stop or they glaze, oem is fair on the street but not good for a lap on the track, the Polymatrixes were out pretty quickly here as well for no bite and overheating too easily (have you seen their backing plates, thin as paper). For fast road and the occasional trackday I'm still a fan of Ferodo DS2500, use them on the E21 and E30. For track or mainly trackday use, Hawk has a great collection of pads, always one perfect for your application.

Discs: oem, Até, Brembo is fine, but drilled is always a risk, better stay away from those. Grooved is ok, pretty happy with Até PowerDiscs on the E30. But I expect the grooves will result in a higher disc/pad temperature so with my current stock discs I'll stick to plain. Have a full set of Tarox cross drilled and grooved but I'm afraid they will overheat even faster than the stock ones.