My BMW 335i

[PranK]

Yeah, watched some of my over-funded Youtubers doing their own alignments with all sorts of crazy equipment and corner scales. Was cool but shit loads of work, I'm happy with somebody else doing it so long as I can get there without eating my own tyres.

That said, I do have a garage and once I clear some space from moving in (we've been here 3 years this week) I'll have the car in there on a level ground and may even invest in some quick jacks.

[niZmO_Man]

Congrats on the new garage! Do you have a hoist by any chance? And fancy me parking my R32 for a day to chase some electrical gremlins? (I'm kidding I wouldn't be bothered to do that to anyone)

[PranK]

I was thinking about a hoist, the ceiling is very high, but half the garage has a half-height loft for storage and I dont think I'll even be able to jack the X5 up under it as it almost hits me in my 6'5" elevated head when i walk in there.

And, yeah nah, maybe if I can convince Bec to let me get another car she'd be open to having as many as we can fit (cough @Duncan) but until that time you better steer clear! 🤣

[niZmO_Man]

Sounds like, to me, if you do some geometry calculations, you can fit a hoist in there

[PranK]

Some small fixes made over the weekend.

I've been trying to get the car sitting right on the 275's as well as reducing the rubbing as much as possible. I bought a guard roller but the lip within the guard is obviously made of high tensile steel because it took so much work and heat to get the smallest of movements that I totally flared my rear arches. It looks kinda cool.  

I also got inside the arches with a dremel to cut down the bumper and the bumper mounts. The first one (pictured) got a bit ugly but the next one was much nicer as I just cut slots and hammered them upwards. I gave it all a spray of primer too.

I'm still scrubbing a little bit on passenger side but it has less camber than the drivers, so once that is sorted it *should* be ok.

I drop a single corner down on the ramp to simulate that mismatch and see where it is scrubbing.

     

 

Here's my flares. The car is lower than this now. Excuse the bush fire ash on the car. 

 

I also haven't had windscreen washer jets for weeks so thought I'd tackle that. It looks like a leak is coming from under the headlight.

Just in there. See it? 

This would have been clearer and easier if I'd taken the front bar off, but basically the plastic hose connector has broken off the headlight sprayer. And because I couldn't be arsed taking the bar off and fixing what is already a gimmick, I just disconnected the feed hose and with some aquarium hose, circlamps and a drive shaft bolt I fixed it good. The hex piece I tried first did not seal too well (2nd pic) - not sure why I thought it would! 🤦‍♂️.

 

Because I hate things being broken, I will fix this, but until I could be bothered to take my bar off, this will suffice.

Note the BMW push-in hose connector. Because standardised fittings are too passé.

I now have an issue with my adaptive headlights always pointing too low and sometimes shaking back and forth when I'm driving. I'm keen to have these working properly.

On another note, I bought a set of EBC BlueStuff for the front. I looked at so many reviews; DBA Xtreme (not enough reviews), Ferodo DS2500 (Super expensive and hard to find), Hawk HP+ (hard to find, not many track/street combo reviews) and some others. Was able to get the Blues pretty cheap (~$250 delivered).

Also there's a motorsport joint in Hornsby that will supply and install a RacingDiffs LSD conversion for $850 which is pretty good. I know its not a proper LSD but I'm just not keen right now to spend $3500+ on a proper one. I figure I'll give this a go and see what its like, if nothing breaks I can sell the diff with this in and upgrade later if I want. There are some streets near me I cannot get up in the wet at all and just spin a lot in the dry, it would be nice to have traction on these. (I live on a big hill).

My first ever skid pan is coming up on the 8th of Nov. Can't believe I've never done one. Really looking forward to it.

[GTSBoy]

Never mind the ash - the massive witness mark on the leading edge of the rear arch make little baby jesus cry.

[PranK]

22 hours ago, GTSBoy said:

Never mind the ash - the massive witness mark on the leading edge of the rear arch make little baby jesus cry.

I know. It was there when I bought it, I don't know if I hate the scrape or the totally wrong coloured "touch up" paint more.

I do plan to fix that when I can build up enough confidence 🤣

[niZmO_Man]

It's just drift damage haha.

On 09/10/2024 at 10:56 AM, PranK said:

I bought a guard roller but the lip within the guard is obviously made of high tensile steel because it took so much work and heat to get the smallest of movements that I totally flared my rear arches

Haha yeah, the guards on my R32 were easy to roll. 1980s Japanese steel woo