Lifted E30 V2

[GunMetalGrey]

Very late compared to when I said it would happen, but oh well! 
I got some new shocks in the E V2, and these ones appear to have a bit more stroke than the old ones! 
While installing the new shocks I was also switching over to vert springs and e46 control arms. 
Getting the control arms ground down enough was fun, so was using some ratchet straps and 2x4's to get the CAB's on lol.

I got the cheapest shocks available, and as it turns out they don't have enough dampening. They seem to be a lot better than the old ones, but not quite what I need them to be. I will address this issue later. 

A blurry picture of the arm set up, and you can't really tell from the photo but it pushed the hub out 10mm

So now the tire is actually sitting outside of the flare. This is with a 10mm spacer, which is required for the tire to not hit the spring perch. I may actually be going with bigger spacers soon because the tires are VERY close to the spring perch.
I also need to find longer tie rod ends, as moving the knuckle out 10mm was more than the current tie rod setup can accommodate. I think I will go e90 inner and e36 outer, but am unsure what boot I can use for this setup. If anyone could measure the rough diameter of an e90 steering rack where the boot attaches that would be excellent. I can also be the boot diameter, just so I have some idea as to what I need!

So with that being noted, I got some flares that I think will work alright and shall be trying to fit those as time permits.
 

You may be wondering why that tire is all cut up, and I shall share with you. The seam and pinch weld area of the wheel well proved to be a bit of an issue on the last shell and the tire found itself hitting it plenty. This was very evident once I looked up under there!

I will grind down this area on the new chassis, and probably weld the seam to ensure that it doesn't split. This should prevent any further tire wear..... though it only happened on the side that lacked the vert springs. 
This new build is way more legitimate than the last already, as what is being done to one side is being done to the other lol.

I played around a bit with the rear travel potential for the car, and found that with the current flares and offsets that I am able to shove the wheel way up into the chassis, and still rotate the wheel.

I also found that at full droop I am very close the rocker panel!
 

If the springs would allow it (which they wont) I could get about 13" of travel out of the rear. I am not sure what true travel is, but I should measure the springs to find out!

I have been struggling to fit the strut top spacers in the car, and even putting the vert springs in the strut assemblies made getting the knuckle onto the control arm difficult. I have started thinking more about spacing the front subframe down, and adding the spacers to the strut assemblies. I know some v8 guys run subframe spacers to get more clearance for "things" and I may just do the same, but for much different reasons. 
I think bringing the front subframe down 1" would be excellent, and I would then get rear subframe bushings made to match, and create a new subframe support plate under the bushings. I think I could make a heavily offset diff bushing and still use the same chassis mounting point for it, and the shocks should have a long enough extended length to comply with the increased distance in the rear. 
This would certainly be a reasonable undertaking, but I am questioning if it would be worth all the time and money for 1 - 1.5" of lift. I am leaning towards it being worthwhile, as even 1" of lift is adding about 10% more height. This would also clear up some of my tire rubbing issues when turning. 
The only question that I have about subframe spacing is what I need to do with the front control arm bushings, can I leave them in stock position?

The geometry on this suspension is going to be wildly f*ed by the time I am done with this....

[GunMetalGrey]

I didn't take any pictures of it yet, but I swapped the E cluster into the car, and also put the tan door cards from the previous car into this one. It is very colorful in there now!

[suspenceful]

GunMetalGrey said:

I have started thinking more about spacing the front subframe down, and adding the spacers to the strut assemblies. I know some v8 guys run subframe spacers to get more clearance for "things" and I may just do the same, but for much different reasons. 
I think bringing the front subframe down 1" would be excellent, and I would then get rear subframe bushings made to match, and create a new subframe support plate under the bushings.

In other words, body lift?

Obviously you're going to want as much ground clearance as possible for this car. I wouldn't make anything closer to the ground. Unless by lowering the subframe, you won't lose clearance because you'll just be raising the body.

[GunMetalGrey]

suspenceful said:

In other words, body lift?

Obviously you're going to want as much ground clearance as possible for this car. I wouldn't make anything closer to the ground. Unless by lowering the subframe, you won't lose clearance because you'll just be raising the body.

Yes, a body lift. 

I would not change the ground clearance of the subframe, but it would increase the distance to the rockers and underside of the body. Generally it would be done to fit larger tires, but I would benefit from the height with the current tire size. 

The only part I am trying to figure out is if I would lower the motor down with the subframe, or attempt to keep it at the stock height which would allow me to build the skid plate 3/4" higher than last time and increasing the ground clearance of the lowest part of the car. The only reason I question this is because I would be lowering the rear subframe, and I am not sure how the driveshaft would like the angle that would be created. I will have to measure the length that the rear shaft would be and see what kind of driveshaft angle I would be running. 

Lowering the rear subframe would also help correct some of the camber and other weird things I have going on back there.

[Jdesign]

Awesome update. I would say space out the subframe.  I would assume that you could always just space out the CSB from the chasis to make the diveshaft happy again. I also want to know what flares you are going to use!

[GunMetalGrey]

Jdesign said:

Awesome update. I would say space out the subframe.  I would assume that you could always just space out the CSB from the chasis to make the diveshaft happy again. I also want to know what flares you are going to use!

I knew that I would be able to space the chassis up from the entire driveline, but ideally I would change the motor mounts to keep the motor at the same height relative to the chassis. This would get the oil pan up higher in the car and my skid plate could be brought up 3/4". The skid plate will be the lowest point on the car, so if I can bring it up .75" and bring the body up 1" I would be in a very good place for ground clearance. It would put me at either 12 or 13 inches from the ground to the lowest point of the rocker panels. 

I wish they would have put the other U joint behind the CSB (towards the diff) instead of being in the front of the CSB! I may start by spacing the rear down and seeing how the driveshaft likes it! 

As far as flares go, I will probably keep that one under wraps until I have one side done. 

If anyone wants a free shell, come bring a trailer to Appleton! I will need to get the E out of the shop soon

[straight6pwr]

i have no idea if this is even in the realm of sanity, but I saved my factory e34 rear coilovers if you want them. quick assumption would be you would have to cut/weld wider rear shock towers if you wanted to use them as a whole unit. or, possibly you could use just the shock as I imagine they are longer and have stiffer dampening (that's what she said) than e30 stuff due to the extra weight.

[GunMetalGrey]

straight6pwr said:

i have no idea if this is even in the realm of sanity, but I saved my factory e34 rear coilovers if you want them. quick assumption would be you would have to cut/weld wider rear shock towers if you wanted to use them as a whole unit. or, possibly you could use just the shock as I imagine they are longer and have stiffer dampening (that's what she said) than e30 stuff due to the extra weight.

Can you measure the "eye to eye" length of the setup? 
The only issue I see with using them is how much of an arc I am making with the mounting point on the trailing arm, and making an upper mount to suit this.

[straight6pwr]

will do.

[GunMetalGrey]

Start with the fender you don't care about. It makes life easier and less painful.
Add some tape, and a bit of sharpie.

Grab the grinder, make some cuts. 
 

Set flare on the fender. Realize that you are extremely happy with the way things are going. 
 

Next step, removal fender from other car. Feel bad for a few moments about what you are about to do to an almost perfect fender. Clear those feelings out by realizing that the paint on the lower portion is half white and half black, and that there is a weird indent in the upper corner of the fender. 
Touch the grinder to the fender, realize that what you have done is now irreversible. Then start enjoying it. 
 

Grab some clamps, get the flare to stay on the fender. 
Push the lifeless shell of the previous E out of the way, and admire what you have created. 
 

I need to trim up the front to match the flare to the fender, but this was obviously just a quick mock up. 
The fitment surprises me, and they will need very little work to fit almost perfectly. 

The stanceboi in me wants to lower the flares so they sit more flush with the tires, but then I remember that doing that would kind of defeat the purpose. 

The rears don't make me happy yet, and I need to spend some more time with them to figure out how I want to handle that. 

Some goodies should be arriving today for the car, and will give me plenty to work on this weekend!

[m42b32]

Are those from an XJ?? That looks awesome

[GunMetalGrey]

m42b32 said:

Are those from an XJ?? That looks awesome

They sure are! 
Thanks!

[Jdesign]

Well Damn, that looks like complete shit and you completely ruined the car now. Nice job. You should feel terrible.

(JK, Im just giving you motivation to keep going. I think it looks bad-ass, nice work!)

[GunMetalGrey]

It was another good weekend for the car, as a good amount of work got done!
 

I started with the passenger side front suspension. I needed to take the strut assembly out of the previous E for this, and knew that it needed a new wheel bearing so I was prepared for that. I loosened up the "axle" nut and then pulled the assembly out. I was prepared to fight with the hub/bearing assembly to get it out but luckily since it was so bad it slid right off! The hub was able to wiggle a whole lot, and I'm impressed that it actually survived. The ball joint for the strut assembly was also toast, but that's no longer an issue! 

This is a $20 wheel bearing/ hub assembly, so we will see how long it lasts! 

Does anyone have an e90 steering rack handy? I need to measure the diameter of where the boot clamps! I want to use e90 inner tie rods for the E (due to needed length) but don't know what I will need for boots. 

Thinking of pulling parts out of the old car, I yanked the pedal box out. There is a spring in there that I have not seen before. Anyone else run into these? 
It's set up to assist with pushing the pedal down, which was also odd to me. 

Finished up the fender flare on one side, and mounted it up.
 

There is a small gap between the flare and the fender in one or two spots, and I think I may just leave them. The shadow in the above picture makes it look like there is a huge gap, but there isn't! 

I'm very happy with the way it turned out, and will be starting on the other side soon. 

I drilled some holes in my door handles instead of doing something that was more worthy of my time.

Dunno, I like it. The car is also super dirty as that picture shows! 

A slightly less anticipated move had me pulling out the driveshaft again, and pulling out all of the fuel lines! Pulling the tank wasn't too bad on this one actually.. I now need to make mounting for this guy.

Hmm, what else. 
Took some more stuff out of the old car and pushed it outside. Pulled the diff out of it, never the greatest job. 
Ran the fuel lines through the trans tunnel again, and made mounting for that. 

It was productive, and thinking that tomorrow is November already scares me a touch because I want this thing ready in time for snowfall!

 

The other e30 was a bit jealous that it hasn't gotten any love lately. Just being beat on. 

There was also some wildlife wondering what the hell I had done. 

[Jdesign]

I like all of this. The door handles look great and so does that flare. I cant wait to see this thing shredding through the snow, as I'm sure your wildlife friend was thinking the same thing.

[HipMF]

Dumb. You should quit.

[GunMetalGrey]

Got the other front flare mounted. Didn't take a picture because it's the side closest to the wall.

Cut the rear brake lines out. I was hesitant to do so, but it practically crumbled apart so it was clearly for the best.
I'm running a new hard line down the trans tunnel and using braided AN lines that don't run on the trailing arms instead of the stock configuration. 

I'm looking forward to getting this thing drive-able again!

[straight6pwr]

you let a free thanksgiving dinner walk by. imagine an e30 guy chucking a control arm like a boomerang to hunt urban turkeys.

the flares are going to be perfect.

[m42b32]

GunMetalGrey said:

I couldn't get over why this picture looked so familiar and I figured it out. The basket weaves look really similar to the mesh wheels you could get on jeeps in the late 80's and early 90's and since e30's are a box just like XJ's it reminded me of this:

This car is awesome. I didn't realize the door handles were metal either, those holes are pretty cool. I always thought they were just some dense plastic or something

[GunMetalGrey]

I have worked on this very little lately, that or have just been doing stuff that takes a lot of time and doesn't look any different when done...

I have gotten the fuel lines ran under the car, and new lines ran where the fuel tank used to be and up into the trunk. I cut out the spare tire well and need to make a plate to cover that and provide clearance for the sump of the fuel cell. I will also be mounting the fuel pump and filter to the same area. 

I also ran the brake line for the rear of the car through the trans tunnel, and back to the factory T above the diff. I hate hard lines is what I have concluded. 

I also started slicing and dicing e90 and e36 tie rods to make something that will be long enough for the e46 control arm swap. 

I plan on getting this back on the ground and driving by the end of the holiday weekend, so there should be more updates (with pictures) soon!