E46 Jaffster Build

[Brad @ evosport]

can't we all get along!

Jaffe is anal, Paint sounds like he is pretty experienced.

You guys should see some of what we have seen people do on CF roof installs - crazy. No center bow. Not using proper adhesives or clamping, etc..... CRAZY!

[Paint]

I'm just picking with the poor guy. I'm sure he knows exactly what to do.

I just heard the quickest way to get past Non-Spam status was to start up a conversation with you Steve that's all.

Best of luck to ya.

[Brad @ evosport]

lol - now that is funny. how much did Clay pay you to go and do that! lol

[Steve J.]

Haha, yea I heard thats being sent to all new BF members, just PM me 100 times and make posts taking cheap shots at me

Thanks for the advice. Have you tried different techniques, or was the the only one you have done? I'm trying to just see which available techniques works best...as I'm sure many work, but I'd rather do it right the first time. I guess you did a pretty damn good job considering how hard it looked you guys were working to get it off. Thats a sign of a good install.

Quick update pertaining to this Build Thread though...I just tried my Miller DVI2 out, and after realizing it did not come with a tip in the nozzle (Dumbass here, it was a long day, sorry) I got it running and its B-e-a-utiful! Amazing machine for the money, very happy. Even after 3 years of not mig welding, I laid down a solid bead first try.

Now to remove this undercoating and get this Mig welder going to work seam welding!

[jamesclay]

No buddy I did put it on.

LOL. When I say take a car to paint, Paint is half of the paint team at Bassen's. Not everyone on the forums speaks in theory Steve

[jamesclay]

lol - now that is funny. how much did Clay pay you to go and do that! lol

Paint is our newest member of the internet conspiracy to constantly poke at Steve. Or maybe I am not the only one that enjoys it every once in a while when he gets in over his head in BS

[CP Louie]

Paint is our newest member of the internet conspiracy to constantly poke at Steve. Or maybe I am not the only one that enjoys it every once in a while when he gets in over his head in BS

I confess I am a member...

[Paint]

Yeah, you were a victim of my favorite pass time, watching paint dry. Well, 10.5 hours, 3 colors, and 12 coats of paint later (ok one last jab) I'm done. You've been a good sport.

If you find a good method of getting something to work, stick with it. Don't over ANALyze. I just wanted to share one method with you.

Disclosure: I call them as I see them. Picking up what I'm putting down?
Until next time...

[Steve J.]

Paint is our newest member of the internet conspiracy to constantly poke at Steve. Or maybe I am not the only one that enjoys it every once in a while when he gets in over his head in BS

Only once in a while...oh you're being nice tonight James, whats up with that?

Paint, do you work for Bassen too, or just part of the on-demand team for when BW's WC cars get banged up?

Maybe we've met? We were at bassens shop a bunch in 05 if you were there then.

Some updates:

I got springs in today and tossed them on the Ohlins, fitted the booties, all is good, I just need to machine a couple centering rings for the needle bearings. Perches/etc are for 2.5" and I am using 60mm springs.





And undercoating removal continues...almost through my first knotted wire wheel, not bad considering i'm about 25-30% done. I'm thinking by sunday evening I should be close to done removing all this crap. Then I have a bunch of sheet metal peices to fab and weld on, finish some welding on the exhaust tunnel, and finish seam welding.

[szed]

What spring rates are you running Steve? I'm especially curious of the tenders.

Also where did you source those spring joiners and needle bearings? I have a couple of companies in mind for needle bearings but I wanted to see what teh Jaffster chose.

[Steve J.]

Well, for one thing they are special teh jaffster edition needle bearings, one offs, they have 1 billion nanometer ball bearings in each assembly, and have a new spaceage nasa/jpl developed lubricant that lasts for 300 years.

They are just off the shelf 2.5" needle bearings from RE suspension.

Tender rates are 25 rear, 40 front...trying something a little different than what has been used before, but not very far off (I'm trying slightly stiffer). I got an extra set of front/rear main springs that are 50lbs up, so I'm going to start with my baseline lower rates, and go up if needed.

Spring couplers/joiners are from H&R...I wanted red but this was the only color available. They match my calipers, bling

[onasled]

Great to see ya rolling here Steve.
Hmmmmm.... yep, I remember wire brushing that underside quite well. Goes faster then you thought, no?

[jwilly]

"I got springs in today and tossed them on the Ohlins, fitted the booties, all is good, I just need to machine a couple centering rings for the needle bearings. Perches/etc are for 2.5" and I am using 60mm springs."

Condoms for dampers. Good one.

[Steve J.]

Condoms for dampers. Good one.

Whatever works for you, sure, condoms for dampers it is.

Great to see ya rolling here Steve.
Hmmmmm.... yep, I remember wire brushing that underside quite well. Goes faster then you thought, no?

Yea, its not bad. Once I just sit there on the stool for get into a groove, it goes by fast. I figure with tonight, saturday/sun it should be almost there. I'm also going to get some gunk out from inside the car and weld om seams on the top side too...there is some nasty stuff in the car in a couple corners.

[Brad @ evosport]

What spring rates are you running Steve? I'm especially curious of the tenders.

Also where did you source those spring joiners and needle bearings? I have a couple of companies in mind for needle bearings but I wanted to see what teh Jaffster chose.

The couplers are from us. We have inner and outer, but typically you will need an outer like Steve has due to limited clearance between the inside of the spring and housing.

thanks
brad

[Steve J.]

Ah, yea, forgot to say that All the springs came direct from Evosport, including the pimp blue couplers.

As Brad mentioned, its a clearance thing. 60mm is just a hair smaller then 2.5" but its enough that I would rather not have a small alum ring inside there potentially getting bound up on the shaft and the spring.

Also note that this was just pitting assembly, the needle bearings on the rear will be going on the side with the main spring, not the tender. So when the tender is fully compressed, the main spring is the one that will be compressing and that will require the needle bearing more than the "solid" tender. The same with the fronts, as I have not machined (no lathe yet) the centering rings for the needle bearings, I just put them on there so they would not get lost.

[szed]

Ahh thanks for the insight.

Brad, I'll have to get in contact with you soon for a set, in that case, and probably order a set of tenders too.

[Dino Antonov]

Glad to see everything coming along, dampers look great.
I've been contemplating switching over from 2.25" to 2.50", as I'm having a difficult time finding hardware, needle bearings, tophats....

[Brad @ evosport]

switch to 60mm. I have everything you would need available!

[Dino Antonov]

switch to 60mm. I have everything you would need available!

60mm will work with the spring perches and tophats from my 2.25" setup, right?

[M3 Muscle]

Your lucky! Looks like the E46 has a lot less undercoating than the E36!

[Steve J.]

Your lucky! Looks like the E46 has a lot less undercoating than the E36!

Yea, I was telling people before that the E46 has a lot of spots that are just painted where the E36 had a nice thick coat of undercoating. There are only a couple bad spots on the bottom side that are very thick, otherwise, its a very thin coat of undercoating that comes right off.

The place where I want to get is in the car though, b/c there are a couple places where i guess they thought water/moisture could collect, and they laid it on really thick.

I'm in the garage right now, getting to work on undercoating right now.

[Steve J.]

Ok, well after 45min of undercoating removal, my knotted wire wheel was no more. So I will pickup a couple more tomorrow morning and hopefully by sunday evening I will be done removing undercoating. Then prep for seam welding, then reinforcement plates, then prep for cage! Engine coming in 3-4 weeks, i'm hoping to have it dropped in the car for some cage tubing mockup.

Since I could not do undercoating tonight, I decided to do some sheet metal work. I made the last brace for the fuel cell. I think there was some oil in a couple spots, b/c I could not get the material fully clean and it was slightly contaminated, made for 2 messy beads (in the center by the 3 smaller flares), but otherwise, it went well. I did not feel like mig welding this, but probably should have. Still happy with how it came out. I'll cleanup the 2 poor welds, and throw a coat of primer on it.





Undercoating - looks like I might just remove everything and repaint it. For the time it takes to remove the large flat areas, its worth it. I have to get the airgrinder out for the few small crevises the grinder can't reach.

[Steve J.]

Quick update. Productive half day/night, I got 95% of the undercoating off. I also purchased some Mapp gas to burn out the seamsealer where i'm going to seamweld.

The last 5% will probably take the better part of the week because it includes all the tiny corners where they piled undercoating and sealer into. So i'll have to use different tools/attachments, and get in there. I'll also prep some of the interior where I'm going to seam weld (basically just the panels by the suspension points).

One of my grinders decided to die today (cheap pos) so I had to use a smaller, old grinder that is not as effective, so what took me 2 hours to do should have only taken 1.

I'll take pictures tomorrow.

[PEI330Ci]

Steve,

Did you happen to sweep the undercoating "dust" up and weigh it?

I did this and was very surprised by how light it was. For example I did a pretty thorough job of the front wheel wells and came up with 2.2Lbs total of "dust".