E46 Crew represent.

[Chavbo]

Couple of wee updates, now has another full year's ticket and I ordered some 13mm spacers (well, one, because I'm a fanny) to test fit - to space the rears out to look a bit more aggro in comparison with the fronts and to fit the track wheels over the brakes.

First, to see if I could a) fit them on the stud conversion and still have enough thread for the nuts, and 2) to check arch clearance on the rear with 265s and an effective 9.5j +14.

Before:


After:


It's quite tight with the arch lip and fits the threads no bother, but seeing as I only had one spacer I didn't try driving it... should work though

Tried the old 'BBS' wheels on next, not the most aggressive of fitments in 8 and 9x18 +35 but at least with 13mm spacers all round they won't look too bad.



Clearance is an approximate bawhair.





Then dropped it off up at Chizfab in Fife yesterday to sort out my broken arse once and for all - it had only really started cracking by just over 1cm, but I want to actually use it on track this summer so better to just bite the bullet. Will be getting the Redish Motorsport strengthening kit fitted as well, plus Powerflex subframe bushes and the debaffled back box attached too. I've not been hard on the car in the short time I've had it so far, so I'm choking to get it back ready to take a beating



Kyle will be taking plenty of photos of the repair so I can keep a record of it with the car, will fire them on here too

[_Jamie_]

Fixed yet?

[Chavbo]

Collecting on Sunday

[zeppelin101]

I slapped 15s on mine. Scrubs a little on one side (lower than the other) probably end up bringing that side up a touch...

Makes a big difference though, looks properly fat at the back!

[_Jamie_]

Collecting on Sunday

Nice wan!


I can see me going for one next, How does it compare to the E36?

[Chavbo]

It feels a lot more grown up and posh, but I'll have a better answer for you by this time next month as I'll have tracked it and driven it a lot more properly than I have been since I found the cracks. The E6 felt a bit more raw, but definitely less, um, "complete". Much more grip too on average road rubber but I've not driven it on RS-Rs yet to compare - have a new pair of 255s coming soon courtesy of Senor Quail

I slapped 15s on mine. Scrubs a little on one side (lower than the other) probably end up bringing that side up a touch...

Makes a big difference though, looks properly fat at the back!

Are you running 265s back there? It did look pretty tight but I'll need to test it out once I get it back...

[Chavbo]

Picked the car up from Chizfab yesterday (Check them out: http://www.facebook.com/CHIZFAB ) It's a bit more anti-social now...

Kyle took a load of photos of the work for me, here's a couple of the cracks, and then the welds and plates to strengthen it up:
































No pics of the rest, but it's now got Powerflex subby bushes, and it turns out the RTABs were already polybushed

Getting aligned in my work this week, then off on a road trio around Scotland next weekend to shake it down for the weekender

Happy days

[Dave270r]

Looking good, I'm looking forward to schooling you E46's with my Evo at the weekender

[SXRORY]

Nice to know it all sweet now I bet. Mine getting checked out at redish on Friday, he said he yet to see cracks on a 2005, what's the betting I buck that trend

[zeppelin101]

Are you running 265s back there? It did look pretty tight but I'll need to test it out once I get it back...

265/30s aye.

Annoyingly the arch lip is pretty flat anyway but the metal seems to fold back in just inside the arch lip which is where it rubs.

[Chavbo]

Looking good, I'm looking forward to schooling you E46's with my Evo at the weekender

We shall see I badly need to get some seat time in this thing so you're probably right actually

Nice to know it all sweet now I bet. Mine getting checked out at redish on Friday, he said he yet to see cracks on a 2005, what's the betting I buck that trend

It's a tricky one, with the age of yours I'd almost be hoping it starts cracking over the next year or so, so that you can get a goodwill claim in well before the ten years is up. Chizfab have done a few now - the one before mine was an 03 or 04 vert minter with just 40k on it, and the other one he's doing after mine is another black 51-plate with worse cracks.

Definitely peace of mind now aye, especially with the SMG feeling like it's about to tear the diff out with every shift on S6

265/30s aye.

Annoyingly the arch lip is pretty flat anyway but the metal seems to fold back in just inside the arch lip which is where it rubs.

Interesting... should mean I'll be ok with the 13mm then, I'll wait until after this trip before I fit them because it's seriously going to get it's dinner this weekend

[chrisyboi s14]

Thought I would put up here, I have a set a set of ksport front brakes 356mm 8pots, Everything needed to bolt straight on.
Been thinking about selling them as I'm probably not getting an m3 anymore.

[Chavbo]

Sounds like a decent investment but I'm already running 6 pots so I'm ok for now

Small update - roadtrip around Scotland was a success The car feels awesome, I didn't get a chance to have it aligned before it but it handles really well as it is, with the exception of trying to lock up the outside rear under heavy braking in the wet

Did almost 500 miles of awesome driving roads, avoiding as much main roads as possible. A few pics:


















P.S. Scotland has some mega driving roads, come visit us

[_Jamie_]

Antisocial ****.

[Chavbo]

I refer you to the facebook group convo entitled "wullie's a hom" where I invited you along on the trip but received a big fat dingy

[SXRORY]

Car looks right at home in them hills, nice "stance" too

[_Jamie_]

I refer you to the facebook group convo entitled "wullie's a hom" where I invited you along on the trip but received a big fat dingy

****.

Didn't realise it was that weekend LOL!

[Chavbo]

Bit of last minute pant-crapping but the car is sorted for the weekender with time to spare Had a tailpipe issue so now sporting one very shiny pipe and 3 filthy pipes, and pain in the arse front brake issues.

The 6-pots are a bit of an unknown, so the pads that were in it when I got hold of it were carbon lorraines bodged to fit... turns out they weren't bodged quite well enough, and wore at some seriously bizarre angles as they can't have been moving freely There's large chunks missing from edges, yet loads of pad left in the centres

Andy of Automek fame ( www.facebook.com/AutomekEK ) pulled a blinder and worked out what the closest matching pads would be and got them ordered up and fitted quicksharp despite being stupidly busy as always and the pads being an aboslute nightmare to remove, massive thanks to him He's redrilled the discs at the same time, thanks to massive amounts of solid pad build up the old pads caused. Managed to get a set of DS3000's at short notice, so they'll be getting bedded in on the M6 on Friday

Also stuck the BBS-a-likes on with Federal RSRs all round - 225s on 8j up front and 255 on 9j rears. Haven't had the chance to drive the car properly on them yet so Anglesey should be interesting, used to 265s all round







Weekender essentials...



Not sure I'm sold on 18s lookswise...will see how it handles at Anglesey, but I can see me selling all 8 wheels for some 19" CH-R reps or a square CSL rep setup and decent rubber in the future...

[zeppelin101]

Swap BBS for my CSLs?

[Chavbo]

Sure!

(You do know these are genuine fakes, right?)