Ski's M20 build thread

[lasvegascop]

Yes...yes it is '86 Testarossa.....my two girls that I care for very much



And a rare pic of me setting her up for the photo shoot


That's what I call HRE's and huge ass Brembos!!!!!! Yummy

[Tom D]

spring mountain?

[lasvegascop]

spring mountain?

Neg.....ghost mining town by Boulder City dry lake.....that was a good photo shoot day!!!

[gsumzzz]

Why is that man smiling?

[lasvegascop]

hahahaha.....donno? What do you think?


Soooooo I've found some rims that would fit my car with the E28 suspension setup...

What you guys think? They are the 16" 7" wide with 47 offset oem rims.... and for all 4 its only $625 free shipping!

[Brani]

I think they would look good. Some more classic looking wheels maybe too if you are going for that kind of look overall. I love your tread btw. Everything looks awesome.

[jjgbmw323]

Sweet Ferrari - I always like them given my family's being from Italy.

Love those brakes and rims on it..when you got the car where they on there or these are you mods?


Those rims are ok...I personally like BBS RS/RM, Borbets or Gottis better...
there is a set of 15 x 7 5 x 114 gottis for sale on ebay. You could run spacers on them....

[alpina323c1]

Hey Ski !!!!
Those rims would look awesome ........ I can just see it now , Yellow E21 with dark gray stripes and those rims , sweet heaven I have seen e21's with those rims and I love the way they look .

But it comes down to your preference in looks , I'm convinced that you have good taste and is going to look fantastic , keep up the work coming and posting those Pic.s
regards "H"

[Horstl]

Hi,
probably I missed something - what brake / hub setup are you using for the front?
Can you pls provide a shot from the inner side of the brake / strut?



rgds

Horst

Today I finished my brakes...all around all mounted and connected....All I need now is to bleed them along with the clutch.

I will be using DOT-5 brake fluid....Its twice as good as DOT 3/4 and its harmless to the paint....my kinda product!

[lasvegascop]

Hi,
probably I missed something - what brake / hub setup are you using for the front?
Can you pls provide a shot from the inner side of the brake / strut?



rgds

Horst

Holly smokes man!!!! Wow...thank you for bringing this up.....I dont know how but I skipped the whole part of doing the front control arms! Probably cause I got involved discussing this on another thread on this forum and forgot to cover it here....

So the front end is also out of E28 (09/87, 528eA). I needed a 5 lug front end with beefed up brakes. Old school way is, if it goes fast from the start it must stop fast too. hahahahahahha

So because the rear end is a little wider, I had to widen the front. After tons of time, drawings, measuring things out etc....I had no other way but to combine the E21 control arms with the E28 ones. The other reason were the ball joints. The E21 joints are very long and E28's, short as seen in the pictures below. If I left the E28 arms as is, which they would fit perfectly, then the front swaybar wouldnt have a place to mount and it is part of the whole front end geometry.

I build a jig, measured and re-measured and to work I went. Double welded all, tried to do a nice, clean welds cause any type of grinding weakens the weld (at least in my mind or something I was tought and read hahahah). Weld came out great and I cranked up the power to have very deep penetration/melting of metals.








And yes, up on top I used adjustable camber plates to fine tune the suspension. I painted mine red so it would match the other parts. All I needed is blue in my car now hahahahahah

These were found on eBay from a guy from Poland. Paid $127 inc shipping and the quality was excellent! Good metal thickness and the bearing was brand new....Why spent $300-$500 for the same thing?





Small disclosure:Pictures were taken from eBay auction...I hope it's ok w/ the owner?

Here they are mounted. As you can see, I had to notch the shock tower and weld in a piece to accomodate the mounting holes for the camber plates.



Again, thank you for the questions Horst.....and if anyone else sees something I havent covered please let me know...I want this to be as complete as posible and educational.....

I hope this answers your question? Let me know

[amarino]

I really want to see this at So Cal Vintage next year!

[lasvegascop]

I really want to see this at So Cal Vintage next year!

Really??? Thnx brother!

I'm working my ass off, I hope you can see that?

[gsumzzz]

Vegas, you amaze me. Great work.

Thought I had a busy day putting on my old oil pump with new sprocket and chain plus my old re-painted pan!

Did u stay with the VHT caliper paint?

[lasvegascop]

Vegas, you amaze me. Great work.

Thought I had a busy day putting on my old oil pump with new sprocket and chain plus my old re-painted pan!

Did u stay with the VHT caliper paint?

I did....after all that work I had no choice ya know? Like I said, it looks fantastic, but when it comes to wear and possible tear, this paint wouldnt stand a chance!!! I just hope I dont pick up a bouncing rock inside the wheel cause that will clear off all the paint!!! hahahahahah

I just hope that with extra heat that the calipers generate during braking it will cure even more, but sitting in the oven for an hour at 200 deg F it shouldve been done already.....

and thnx for compliments my friend

[Horstl]

Thanks for the documentation - great idea!
Anyway, at least local laws here are preventing ANY welding at suspension parts - so no option for me.
I'm no professional welder, so I cannot comment if this is good or not.

The pictures show no big difference between length - so why not just finding a solution for the outer ball joint?

rgds

Horst

I build a jig, measured and re-measured and to work I went. Double welded all, tried to do a nice, clean welds cause any type of grinding weakens the weld (at least in my mind or something I was tought and read hahahah). Weld came out great and I cranked up the power to have very deep penetration/melting of metals.







Again, thank you for the questions Horst.....and if anyone else sees something I havent covered please let me know...I want this to be as complete as posible and educational.....

I hope this answers your question? Let me know

[jjgbmw323]

looking awesome...

I worry the integrity of part has not been comprised? Ok...you know better than I do...

Good luck, please come to the bimmerfest.

We are thinking about going to the west coast but I think its just too far to do it....

[Crusty320]

great write up. You've got skills. Now you are gonna have to post a pic of your women with the finished e21.

[keeponkeepnon]

[QUOTE=Horstl;23561601]Thanks for the documentation - great idea!
Anyway, at least local laws here are preventing ANY welding at suspension parts - so no option for me."

If you feel at all worried about it you could weld in some little trangular gussets and then you would know it was stronger than stock.
I'm really enjoying watching your build come together. You must be working like a demon.

[e21Terry]

Regarding the spedometer, I read somewhere that there is a potentiometer either on the board or instrument somewhere that allows for at least some calibration. Don't know how much though.

[lasvegascop]

Thanks for the documentation ..........
The pictures show no big difference between length - so why not just finding a solution for the outer ball joint?

rgds

Horst

oh man.....funny you said that....that was my first idea and I searched just for the E28 ball joints! Spent a whole week or two, even ordered bunch....I think I got at least 10 different sets in my tool box but non would fit into the E21 control arm The control arm is longer about an inch or so, same distance you see on top of the shock towers where I had to move the camber plates. I did have some informal military welding training so I'm confident in my welding. Allegedly welded parts are stronger then original cast. What that means is, if you took a cast beam, cut it and the welded it, then put it under stress to intentionally break it, it would break in a different place. When you look at any earth moving equipment, ie. dozers, scrapers, backhoes etc, you'll notice weld marks on their blades. Those welds are not there cause the blade broke, they're there to make the edge 2x stronger, just by welding beads side by side. That's what I was doing in my spare time in the military.
I would've had new control arms machined out of solid steal, but the issue comes up again with the ball joints...they're pressed in at the factory and you can't even take them out without destroying one or the other. We will see guys, wish me luck!

looking awesome...

I worry the integrity of part has not been comprised? Ok...you know better than I do...

Good luck, please come to the bimmerfest.

We are thinking about going to the west coast but I think its just too far to do it....

I'm trying my hardest to make it...working my ass off.....but after a while body n brain are so exhausted ya know.... I still have a few months so I think I'll make it

great write up. You've got skills. Now you are gonna have to post a pic of your women with the finished e21.

You bet your butt she will be in those pics!!!

Thnx brother

[quote=keeponkeepnon;23563389]

Thanks for the documentation - great idea!
Anyway, at least local laws here are preventing ANY welding at suspension parts - so no option for me."

If you feel at all worried about it you could weld in some little trangular gussets and then you would know it was stronger than stock.
I'm really enjoying watching your build come together. You must be working like a demon.

Yuppers....I was thinking the same thing, I might come back to the control arms after all is done and over with.

Matter of fact, I might even run an E30 style swaybar and just run racing style ball joints? We'll see.....we will see

Thank you again for following my thread brother...sometimes I wish all of ya would just show up at my door step to help! A hahaahahahah ....(with the car and the beer!)

Regarding the spedometer, I read somewhere that there is a potentiometer either on the board or instrument somewhere that allows for at least some calibration. Don't know how much though.

Gotcha.....I know I saw a little potentionameter on the tach, but I didn't look or see on the speedo. We'll see if I need to adjust, if I do, you know I'll find it! Haha

[e21Terry]

FYI - While doing some research on e30 speedometers, I read that there is a potentiometer somewhere on the board or instrument that allows for some calibration.

[lasvegascop]

FYI - While doing some research on e30 speedometers, I read that there is a potentiometer somewhere on the board or instrument that allows for some calibration.

Do you have any specific forum/article or pics? Would love to see it Might get handy in the near future ya know....and thnx man

[Tom D]

Why is that man smiling?

mostly likely because he has a 3 car garage, a tesarossa, a 328i, a MB SLK230, a hot E21 and a even hotter girlfriend. that and because he's the last honest cop in a town they call 'sin city'.

[lasvegascop]

mostly likely because he has a 3 car garage, a tesarossa, a 328i, a MB SLK230, a hot E21 and a even hotter girlfriend. that and because he's the last honest cop in a town they call 'sin city'.

Thnx Tom... you're too much sir!!

[amarino]

So if I bring over a few cases of beer, can I take the E21 and Testarossa for a spin around the block?