Alpine e30 progress/build thread
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Why a zhp rack versus a z3 rack may I ask? I had talked to Rich from Rack Doctor about this when I bought my z3 rack and he stated this when I told him that I saw the zhp rack was said to be quicker.
"I'm not sure where this information is coming from but I have heard this a few times lately and it is inaccurate. The Z3 is a faster ratio rack. It is more expensive true but it is also a better rack. The unit it self is steel body so it tends to be more durable. Forums can be a good thing and a bad thing. You have to weed out the good, the bad, and the ugly. People often talk about ratios and this changes from vehicle to vehicle because it is a trigonometry equations that will change from vehicle to vehicle based on wheel angle and turns. This is why we simply go by turns. The Z3 rack is 2.7 turns. Thr ZHP is 3.0 turns. In the simplest terms, you're cutting a quarter turn off the rack. The rack you currently have is 3.4 turns. So almost the same amount from that to the ZHP as the ZHP to the Z3. Most mechanical things are simple but people like to make them difficult maybe to enhance their ego. I guess I am too old LOL"
I have seen the same info from rack doctor, the main reason is it is quite a bit cheaper compared to the z3 rack, on rack doctor with the core charge the z3 is $509 and the ZHP is $350. I also want to avoid the twitchiness of a rack that tight since I expect a decent amount of freeway driving once the car is done. From Kaiser's response, it looks like a power steering delete isn't worth it for auto cross so I will most likely be keeping p/s and going with a tighter rack.
I know you will, but Check the subframe super closely. When I did the weld-in stuff, my old subframe had some cracks that were hard to spot until I cleaned the entire thing, the new one that got welded checked out fine. Are you going with the garagistic plates?
IIRC, I also had these areas welded up
Also keep power steering. Yes driving without it is fine, you won't notice it cruising or driving regularly. Parking lots are whatever, but holy crap it is nice for autox. This is why I'm reinstalling it lol
Yeah I have the garagistic plates, I was disappointed by the quality, they look like they were cut out by a 5 year old. I know they were pretty cheap and I'm welding them on but still... Good call on welding those gaps though, I hadn't thought of that but it makes sense to do. I started cleaning it up but didn't get too far, I found a little deformation on the driver's side motor mount (bowing up a little where the mount bolts down), so I'll have to flatten that out and check for cracks.
Thanks for the info on the power steering too, I am planning to auto-x this so that is really good to know. I am leaning towards keeping it now based on what you've said and what I have seen on r3v, etc., deleting it was mostly a cost driven idea and the couple hundred saved might not be worth it.
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Garagistic leaves something to be desired almost always. I had to mess with the ear shaped engine mount reinforcement plates to get them to sit so the bolt hole lined up and there was enough contact between plate and subframe for welding. Rear trailing arm reinforcements were the same way. It was annoying.
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AKG wasn't much better for me on the front subframe reinforcement. They required a lot of bending and grinding to fit right and I know my m42 didn't tweak the subframe=P lol
Edit: I also figured it was more-so for the cost. Snap has a z3 rack and could tell you how it feels. I know finding a second hand one isn't all that easy but you can get them for $150-$250.
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Edit: I also figured it was more-so for the cost. Snap has a z3 rack and could tell you how it feels. I know finding a second hand one isn't all that easy but you can get them for $150-$250.
Didn't think of looking for a used one since I never see them come up for sale on r3v or anywhere, everyone just says go to rackdoctor. I did a quick search on ebay and after some digging, I ended up finding a rack from an '02 non-m z3 with only 60k on it for a really fair price! Looks like i'm going the z3 rack route after all
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IIRC I am running e36 inners and outers. They are a few mm beefier
Edit: I have a random e36 rack
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IIRC I am running e36 inners and outers. They are a few mm beefier
Edit: I have a random e36 rack
I had bought all the parts (inner and outer tie rods, boots, clamps, etc) to do tie rods before I went down the "change everything" path. I have heard the e36 setup is stronger but since I already have the parts I'll just run with the e30 bits.
Anyone know if the e30 locking plates work on a z3 rack? I looked on realoem and there doesn't seem to be any locking system for the inner tie rods.
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Anyone know if the e30 locking plates work on a z3 rack? I looked on realoem and there doesn't seem to be any locking system for the inner tie rods.
I ran into a similar issue using E90 stuff on an E30 rack, as no lock plate is large enough to fit the E90 end. I started looking into it and lock plates are no longer used. I went with the locktite route.
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After a month of waiting for my new steering wheel to show up, it finally arrived! It is a vintage RAID wheel freshly re-wrapped in leather. It's a 360mm so it will be an improvement over the 385mm mtech1 wheel it is replacing. I have more room for my knees and its still large enough that it doesn't cut off my view of the gauges entirely.
Got it installed in the car this afternoon, already loving how it looks. The horn button doesn't fit right (looks like it was modified, I wish the seller would've told me), so I am going to have to rig something up or get a different button.
Z3 rack also showed up today, the tie rod ends look to be in great shape (no play and the boots are all good) so I will probably just run it as is. I can always swap to the e30 ones if there are issues.
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After buying dans old wheel from him, it's amazing how much better the driving position feels. Looks good too
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Modified the momo horn button retainer to mount between the steering wheel and adapter, and then shortened the ring that holds the horn button to keep it flush with the wheel. Since the original raid horn button had already been modified I didn't feel too bad shaving down the mount points to fit into the momo retainer. Made a little harness to connect the ground of the raid button to the momo ground point. 4 hours of work later...the horn button fits and stays in place:
I cleaned all the grease and grime off the front subframe and started welding in the reinforcement plates:
Welded the motor mount plates to the top of the subframe to raise the engine and gain a tad more clearance for the bottom of the oil pan. Also welded in the lower motor mount reinforcements:
The welds aren't super pretty but the penetration is good, not bad for the first beads with the new welder. Did everything in 1/2" segments spaced around the plates with some time to cool in-between to minimize warping. The Garagistic sway bar tabs have the holes about 1/8" off from where they should be so I wasn't able to get those on unfortunately, going to have to slot the holes or something.
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Dumb question, did you try flipping them? Or changing from side to side? This probably won't make a difference...but I remember I had to mark mine with "drivers side" and "pass side" because they only seemed to fit one way. IIRC, one of the two "stems" is cut at an angle??
***will try and find what I mean, one sec off to the internets
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The internet pulled through for me, the hole looks to be not centered. I'm sure you checked, but there's just a part of me deep down inside that doesn't want to believe that garagistic would F up drilling a hole.....
Although ask John how nicely his pedal box fit that he got from them 0__0
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^ These are my plates and thats not an optical illusion...the hole on the left plate is really that far from a circle. I tried them every possible way, and I cant get the holes to line up without the plate being really offset or crooked.
Mini rant: I know these get welded on and it doesn't matter how nicely the edges are cut, but these just look awful. I have some e36 rtab pocket reinforcement plates from AKG sitting on my shelf and they are laser cut and look great. These look like they were cut out by a drunk man with a plasma torch. These are the nice sides, the backs have half-ground-off slag on half of the edges and the taper of the cuts is 10 degrees or more in some places.
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Garagistic has done nothing but annoy me lately, as well as many other people from the looks of it.
I ordered my RTAB's with new hardware, as they had it as an option. It was $35 for the hardware. I also ordered a shifter bushing.
I received my package and it didn't have the hardware in it. Cool. I needed to get the car together so I used the old hardware, not too big of a deal.
I emailed and facebook messaged them saying that I would like a refund for the hardware as I no longer needed it and they never sent it. The email came back first saying that they were sending out the hardware and gave me a tracking number. I specifically stated in my email to them that I did not wish to receive the hardware any longer as they had missed their opportunity on that. I emailed back saying that this was not okay and to issue a refund for the hardware, to which I was told it would be taken care of. That was 5 business days ago... I opened a PayPal claim this morning.
All of that ignored the fact that the metal sleeve for the RTAB had far too large of an ID, and even a full beer can shim made it a bit more loose than the OEM bushings. I guess I won't be buying from them again, which is a shame because their price is very competitive, but clearly their products are crap.I haven't been hearing good things about them lately.
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This picture makes me very sad, as those look like complete crap. Not to mention that the one on the left probably can't fit a bolt through it.
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I have been hearing bad things lately as well. Its a shame, and I wonder whats happening over there internally that they are having so many issues.
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This picture makes me very sad, as those look like complete crap. Not to mention that the one on the left probably can't fit a bolt through it.
All of the reinforcement plates I bought from them look like that, thankfully they get welded and painted black.... I can make them all work with some grinding and filing, but I spent the money to buy plates so that I didn't have to do that, as it really isn't hard to make them yourself.
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I'm glad I bought "non vital" parts from them that basically just got welded and painted. But to mess up flatsteel is a bit ridiculous....
I did buy bushings from them which were fine. I'm sure they don't manufacture them and most of the companies that sell them probably use the same Chinese supplier
I also got dicked around last winter with waiting for stuff/having some stuff show up not complete. It was a PITA.
Side note: how do you drill a hole that poorly
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