You can see the coating on your originals.
These parts sit around in warehouses and they don't pad them. That explains the bumps, bruises, debris collection and exposed steel corrosion. Every batch of arms varies. That explains the coating thickness (that and that they haven't been used wearing it down).
you are correct.. I looked at the old ones and there is indeed a thin coating. Nothing remotely close to the new parts and none of the dings and stuff though. I’ll see what the next set looks like, I’m def not keeping a set with worse rust spots than my originals. At any rate thanks for helping temper my expectations. Btw along the same line I just got another shitty long lead time part from bmw today. I’m replacing the exhaust heat shield and I got one with a couple tears in it. Functionally it’s fine but if I’m paying BMW prices I expect a proper part.
sirhodjibob - apologies for posting here so much - I think it’s useful info and relevant to this thread.
So I got the new arms from FCPEuro. They are great, new parts. The other set from Pelican were definitely refinished. Will be interested to see what sirhodjibob gets.
042FA626-AF31-4E97-86B5-AA88EA724C23.jpeg
8DEB9A3F-8F2E-4661-908F-2F3C3FBC75B4.jpeg
I mentioned I keep getting crappy parts .. I also just got a refinished fuel tank strap from ECS - dinged up with rusts spots and they just tried to throw a thick coating over it (also got a refinished x-brace like this sold as new a couple years ago). You can see what I got first time versus new parts that I eventually received after requesting replacements.
45CCA9DC-88AB-4D71-BAE1-750B1C7BDB9C.jpeg
3FA33F1A-A23F-493A-9FD8-1B4E4C66F39A.jpeg
Last edited by brianc; 05-26-2021 at 12:10 AM.
I'm curious why you guys are replacing this stuff, especially when you post side-by-side pictures.
I replaced my subframe, but my car spent its first 100k miles in New York, so there were some structural sheet metal items (like the subframe) that had a lot of rust and needed to be replaced.
But you guys are replacing clean arms and such with new stuff because... it's newer? Has lower accumulated airframe hours?
The bushings and ball joints and such do wear out, but the arms themselves? I've never heard of a failure that didn't involve some kind of impact.
I appreciate minty fresh / clean / powder coated parts, etc, but for stuff like this that would be better cleaned and powder coated than purchased new from the dealer and installed as-is, I'm curious what the drive behind this is?
-Josh: 1998 S54 E36 M3/4/6 with most of the easy stuff and most of the hard stuff. At least twice. 271k miles. 1994 E32 740il with nothing but some MPars. 93k miles.
I can’t speak for the thread starter but I install new parts a lot of times if there’s any rust and there are integrated parts (ie bushings). Sometimes I will just refinish parts like the front and rear subframe instead of buying new. I’m in CA and definitely very good climate and our cars don’t generally get anywhere near what a NY car can look like but they still get worn and some surface rust. To be fair I’m also OCD and have always loved to keep my M3 as new as I can.. definitely not just normal care... for example I send out my aluminum parts to get vapor honed (throttle body, alternator casing, tensioner brackets, power steering pump housing etc) whenever I’m in there working on the corresponding parts. I like taking it from a 8.8 to a 9.5 so to speak.
The subframe was replaced as I put a nice dent in the metal trying to press out the old bushings with improper tools. Probably not necessary to replace it, but it's my car.
I will say that when you add up costs for tools + time & labor + powdercoating to refinish and replace the bushings for all these parts, the cost difference isn't terribly drastic for just getting brand new parts that already have the bushings pressed in.
@brianc here are the upper control arms. As braymond141 mentioned mine do have some sort of soft coating on it that would appear to help with sound deadening:
Got the underside cleaned up nicely. I've seen people paint this area but I'm not sure why. It's coated and protected very strongly from the factory. Don't worry, the studs were replaced as well as the fuel filler hose:
Also replaced these plastic flaps. I should probably take pictures after I do things....
coming together nicely:
I decided to bite the bullet and get the differential rebuilt while I had it out. I dropped it off at diffsonline while I was in Massachusetts. Just doing a standard rebuild but with a 3.46 ratio and the Rogue cover. Definitely some great guys over there!
Looks really good. A lot of attention to detail. While I would media blast and powder coat the existing parts, I get that it is your car and your money.
I'm hardly the one to criticize someone for going overboard. Good luck with the rest of the job!
I got together with sirhodjibob a moth or two ago and checked out his car. His attention to detail is on another level and his car is in amazing condition. His work is both helpful and inspired me to get mine in a better shape.
Yes it is. I am going to powdercoat my swaybars so I should probably do these too. Were you able to find new rubber grommets or did you reuse your old ones?
Heads up..Sonic Tools is running a father's day sale if anyone is interested. I just scooped up their 1/2" torque wrench and socket/ratchet set: https://sonictoolsusa.com/
yes the factory undercoating is very strong, and the area under the subframe generally doesn't have undercoating other than some overspray.. it just has the yellow primer w/ no undercoat just like under the whole tunnel. That area is facing down and water doesn't stay there - and they also don't undercoat significant mating surfaces (subframe to chassis... trailing are to chassis pocket etc..).
- - - Updated - - -
Haha. I did the same. When I did mine I bought new parts and then prepped and professionally sprayed them w/ two part epoxy paint.
They are part #'s 51481977239 & 51481977240. They come galvanized which is good but they do tend to rust after a long while. This is what looked like new - couldn't find pic finished.
hb_bracket.jpg
Last edited by brianc; 06-04-2021 at 06:59 PM.
agreed sometimes it's cheaper to blast other times to buy new. And blasted aluminum parts will look significantly better than new parts that are already oxidized. I just got back my alternator housing, water pump housing, tensioner brackets, throttle body, etc.. from vapor honing. They look better than new and cost $140 for everything. In this case the cost of buying new parts would be ridiculous. However in other cases including the arms and other suspension and underbody brackets and trim I generally will just buy new. Obviously when the car was a daily driver it wasn't kept perfect to quite this extent - although I was still crazy. But it has certainly paid off - having 130k miles on it and looks & performs just as good as new. Keeping everything clean also helps immensely w/ tracking down and identifying issues.
al_parts2.jpg
al_parts1.jpg
One interesting part is the fuel filter cover. They're generally roached and scratched because it's one of the lowest parts under the car. It's NLA for the 96-99 cars. I'm interested to see what sirhodjibob does.
I completely refinished mine and covered in two-part epoxy paint.
Last edited by brianc; 06-04-2021 at 07:04 PM.
How crunchy are your tensioner pivot arm bearings now? Unless you removed them and have new on deck. This is a struggle for me. Even if you seal them off, something always gets in the bearing.
I'm curious. How did they bill you for the work? Guesstimate or by time? I have a vaporhone setup and have considered offering the service but the work is not as easy as it looks. M5x/S5x oil pans take me a solid 3+ hours alone just to get the sheen consistent. If you blast too quickly you get lines in the finish on smooth cast aluminum like this.
191286756_325617802302482_1962842321487558616_n.jpg193391662_332872208229650_5625628798310966478_n.jpg
they are replaced.
- - - Updated - - -
by the hour. It was 1.6 hours @ $85/hrOriginally Posted by Braymond141
https://electronbeamwelding.com/
by the way the bearings felt fine - they appear to be all stainless steel - but I was weary ahead of time and bought new parts.
That oil pan looks amazing! I was looking into setting up my own vapor honing as well. I have my own business manufacturing somewhat boutique stuff and many times will buy my own setups for stuff like this. I have to do my research to the 10th degree first but looking into it - would just love to do my own stuff.
Last edited by brianc; 06-04-2021 at 07:16 PM.
nice. this is mine. probably would have been more durable to just spray w/ industrial undercoating or powdercoating. As long as don't use spray can and use proper stuff should be ok.
Attachment 691512
A few more pictures. Still waiting on my rebuilt diff to be sent back from Diffsonline so not a ton of progress.
Dropped the front pipe to clean up and make life easier installing the new Dinan shifter. Replacing all hardware, hangers, and the rear O2 sensors. Also gave a good cleaning with some steel wool and Ospho.
Before:
After lots of elbow grease (the bottom side looks much better):
Dinan shifter:
AKG rear sway bar reinforcements welded in and underside pressure washed and cleaned:
Need to decide what fuzzy steering wheel cover to get for the track:
Last edited by sirhodjibob; 06-11-2021 at 10:39 AM.
I would go with the blue fuzzy steering wheel cover
Bookmarks