Alpine e30 progress/build thread

[m42b32]

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.

[KaiserRolls]

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

[KaiserRolls]

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

[m42b32]

KaiserRolls said:

^ 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.

[GunMetalGrey]

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.

[GunMetalGrey]

m42b32 said:

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.

[Jdesign]

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.

[m42b32]

GunMetalGrey said:

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.

[KaiserRolls]

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

[Earl]

KaiserRolls said:

Side note: how do you drill a hole that poorly

By not even using a drill to make the hole lol. Probably someones old clapped out laser or some guy 30 beers deep wielding a plasma torch...

[GunMetalGrey]

Just because I posted it in here,
Garagistic refunded my full purchase price, then called saying they refunded it all and are going to send me an invoice for the purchase less the hardware. I asked for the hardware refund, and even put that amount in my paypal claim. 
I find that they are making this all overly complicated.

[KaiserRolls]

Agree

[patsbimmer1]

All I have heard is complaints about garagistic from everyone on here who buys stuff from them.  Why does everyone continue to buy their stuff?  Serious question.

[Earl]

patsbimmer1 said:

All I have heard is complaints about garagistic from everyone on here who buys stuff from them.  Why does everyone continue to buy their stuff?  Serious question.  

Price...and they used to make good stuff=/

[m42b32]

patsbimmer1 said:

All I have heard is complaints about garagistic from everyone on here who buys stuff from them.  Why does everyone continue to buy their stuff?  Serious question.  

They are one of the least expensive for certain parts, I have purchased parts that aren't critical or one of those "how can you mess it up anyway" things... turns out I was wrong. It really is a bummer because a few years ago I bought some things that turned out to be pretty good.

[straight6pwr]

m42b32 said:

^ 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. 

ahahaha that is such crap. when you send them back you should hand write a note to them and write it super messy (like a 1st grader who is learning to write) and say 'i hired your fabricator guy to write my letter'

[m42b32]

Making progress on the car over the last week or two. Finished welding in the front subframe reinforcements and in the process of cleaning and painting (KBS rust seal) all the front suspension components. Turns out one of my front wheel bearings on the new setup is pretty noisy so I'll have to change that before I get it out on the road. I was hitting the bump-stops occasionally on the Bilsteins so I popped the bottom cover off to cut them down about an inch and here is what I found:

Looks like the rubber starts degrading over time, but I guess they're shortening themselves so I just cleaned up the loose pieces and put them back together. 

I made a trip down to Illinois last weekend and picked up a nearly perfect condition leather rear seat and a few other things. It's tan and currently a little dirty, but I am planning to use leatherique to dye it the correct indigo color. Anyone have any experience doing this? Only thing I didn't realize is that because it came out of a very early model, the seatbelt pockets are reversed, so I will have to figure something out there. 

I also picked up a very cheap driver's front fender that is in pretty terrible shape. I will eventually be repainting the whole car so I am going to use this as an opportunity to learn and practice bodywork on something else before I attempt that. I have my very damaged but rust free fender to steal metal from too, so I'll be cutting out and replacing the areas with major rust. 

[KaiserRolls]

I wonder how hard it would be to cut and weld the fender, it's quite thin

[m42b32]

KaiserRolls said:

I wonder how hard it would be to cut and weld the fender, it's quite thin

Thats what I'll be finding out, Ill most likely have to get my welder set up with gas to go that thin

[Jdesign]

Cutting and welding that fender will be more work than just looking for one that is rust free. If you are replacing it because of the damage along the back edge by the door, you have a better chance of fixing that with a dolly and hammer than fixing rust. Ask me how I know