Suspension mods finally done!

[///MD]

Borrowed a friend's air tools and compressor yesterday. It took 6.5 hrs but they're done! Finally got them on the car after sitting in the garage all winter!

Koni Adjustable fronts and rears
Eibach Prokit Springs
Eibach Sways fronts and rears with rear reinforcement tabs
Front strut tower reinforcement plates
Cross Drilled Front Rotors
Metal Master pads all around
Stainless Steel lines all around

I am tired....:orangesle
But oh so STOKED!:buttrock

[///MD]

Ooops, sorry about the pic rotation.

I added JTD RSMs also...
Here are the rears-

[M3Jokster]

could i see a pic of the rear reinforcement tabs.

i want to see how it was welded onto the frame

thanks

[///MD]

I'll work on the pic of the tab welds, Post soon.
Here's another pic of the rear. The welds are just out of sight, sorry.

[BlueM3Racer]

are those rotors zimmermans?

[guc32]

Could i see pics of the front strut tower reinforcement plates and the rear reinforcement tabs for the rear sway bars. If you have time to take the pics.

Thx

[QuestMCoupe]

Nice job! 6.5 hours is pretty good for everything you did. How do the Konis ride?

[///MD]

Yes they are zimmerman rotors. Can't report on the performance yet...

Konis are not bad, I have them on medium now, stiffer than stock, not uncomfortable. I may turn them down in a few days and see if it makes a difference. Handling is phenomenal! I can't say if it is mostly due to the koni's, springs or sways. probably all of the above.

The front stut tower plates are on the car, can't be seen without taking the strut out. So, sorry no pics of that. They sandwich between the strut bearing and the strut tower (body). Easy enough to put in when assembling everything.

I have to take off the rear wheel to get a good view of the reinforcement tabs. It is now 20 degrees and going to snow, so needless to say it will be a while before that pic gets taken. If you look at the rear swaybar mount from the wheel well, the tab is welded behind the mount (towards the front end of the car), on the outboard edge, covering the top nut holding the bushing mount on. (There is enough space to get the nut on and off) The other end goes inboard and slightly up and forward to weld to the subframe mount, next to the cylindrical subframe bushing. Got it?!

BTW, I got it aligned today, and surprisingly not far off... the rear was worse than the front.

[BMLRacer]

Looks nice and all, but for the love of Pete, CLEAN THOSE WHEEL WELLS!!! You're killing me here.

Brian

[///MD]

:( I know, I know... It is 20 degrees here though, and I would rather keep my fingers functioning a little longer. The dirt is killing me too. Good thing I didn't show th rest of the car:mdrbig

[aus]

Are those Koni's the "inserts?" I always thought they went inside the stock struts but it looks like the whole strut assembly?

Nice job on the install. Did you change out any of the stock bushings?

[rongineer]

Looks great, but you'd better paint those Zimmerman's before the car sees the real world or they'll be ugly rusty in a nano-second! Sorry, work is never done!

[///MD]

Huh? What do you mean paint the Zimmermans? Do they have a tendency to rust more than the stock rotors? Won't the paint just flake off?

The Koni's are inserts, I just took the extra time to obtain an extra set of strut housings and prepped/painted them the week before the install just for grins. The black cap is the stock plastic cap covering the top of the insert. The stickers came wth the inserts, so I assume they were meant to go on afterwards.
I retained stock bushings, the car only has 24K miles.

[aus]

Just prime and paint with high temp engine paint everything the pad will not touch. The Zimmermans are know for rusting around and on the hat very easily.

Nice job on painting the strut housing. Good Idea.

[///MD]

Shit. Great. What a PITA.

[rongineer]

I painted my Zimmerman's with engine paint before I installed them. I cut out some cardboard masks to shield the pad areas on the rotors. So far I've only had mild discoloration of the paint on the rim of the rotor. Good luck!


http://www.thespecialgift.net/Graphics/Front Brakes.jpg