Hey guys, I know this is a repetitive topic, but things do change. Recently in my research I came across vincebar, but the production times for the new version is up in the air. I'm looking to reinforce in about a month, I have a friend of a friend who welds that I'm going to be paying for some of his time. the CMP kit would be great, but $550 without shipping, and only for 2 of the mounts, just doesn't seem feasible right now. Kessel Performacne was recently recommended to me on a facebook drifting page, and their plates seems super thick, and well designed. Right now I'm thinking about going with them, but after months of research I still cant decide if weld-on plates are truly enough. Maybe just go with the $650ish Mason engineering bolt in brace? My car is a stock 330i, stock power, and I'm going to replace all bushings and such while the subframe is off the car.
Are plates enough to prevent cracking and tearing while drifting? I certainly beat the piss out of the car, and I'd rather just do it right and pay for the welding once.
Last edited by awp235; 02-09-2018 at 09:24 AM.
I got the condor speedshop reinforcements and welded them in a week or so ago. Still haven't even put back in the subframe.
I'm not a structural engineer so I have no clue. My chassis has shy of 200k on it and I only found 1 crack. I can see a rear strut bar helping but I don't really think you need to go that ham on it. Maybe seam stitching will help more than this vincebar thing. I've seen a bunch of other heavily tracked E46s still running the normal weld on stuff without issue.
Status: Someone put glitter in my oil. Wait. Why's all my oil outside the engine? What's that knocking?
We used pbm with 3m panel bond. Lots of surface area so I’m sure it’s on there good. The plates showed up mildly rusty which was lame but scotch brite took that off easily
As always, Promotor coming in and dropping some knowledge! Thanks for the quick response. My car has 225k and I didnt see any cracks from the underside when I was under there replacing the axle. though I saw one, but when I rubbed off all the gross insulation stuff, it looked totally fine. I'd have a hard time believing it's totally fine, but I dont see any yet!
I dunno about knowledge. Anecdotal evidence :-p
You really won't see the cracks until you wire wheel back the under coating. If you can visibly see them through it, it's pretty bad.
Do what you think will solve the issue. If you want to go ham with vincebar, go for it. It isn't wasting money. With a welder, you could probably do the same stuff for significantly less though.
On my personal car, I'm running the 330 setup as is for a year or two before I do the M3 rear suspension swap and LS swap. So I'll have info there on whether or not the normal weld on stuff is good enough. I think the fear of a frame crack drives a lot of E46 guys to open their wallets.
Status: Someone put glitter in my oil. Wait. Why's all my oil outside the engine? What's that knocking?
I used the Turner kit 2 years ago on my car, attached them with 3M panel bond. I had one 2" long crack once I got everything cleaned up. They're still holding up after 2 years. I also got some tubes of that BMW expanding foam, but have never got around to putting it in.
Last edited by Novablue454; 02-09-2018 at 10:58 AM.
Same boat as protomer, got the condor reinforcements but not exactly sure structurally if they're better than any other reinforcement
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