Alpine e30 progress/build thread

[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

[m42b32]

Jdesign said:

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

I actually have a nice fender on my sedan shell that I will likely be using, and then replacing it with this on that car. This is more an opportunity to learn bodywork and rust repair on something that doesnt matter if I ruin it. The white fender would take the whole A team on overhaulin' to repair, as the front is flattened and folded over on itself from the crash and the whole thing is kinked in the middle of the wheel arch. The damage by the door was from the tow company wrenching the door open after they towed it... I got lucky in that the only two undamaged portions are where e30's typically rot, so I figured why not try and make one good part out of two pieces of trash haha, worst case scenario I still have junk

[GunMetalGrey]

KaiserRolls said:

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

Indeed they are. As is most sheet metal on the cars. 

The real trick is either having a TIG setup where you have excellent control over your settings and a pedal to adjust as you go, or to stitch weld everything together. 
I did rust repair on my car with a flux core harbor freight setup and it turned out quite well. Patience is key!

[m42b32]

Work suddenly has me traveling a lot so progress is slow but not stopped thankfully. The front end parts are cleaned, sanded, and almost done being painted. I did some more work on the front end damage, got the remainder of the core support cut out and prepped everything for the new one. I will be starting on the damage to the bumper mounting this weekend

[m42b32]

Getting more things done:

Wire wheeled all of the M3 brake calipers and carriers down to bare metal. Before and after on the fronts:

These came from a texas car so they are in great shape. The rears were a bit more crusty but eventually cleaned up just as well. Started getting them painted but then got distracted by the rear subframe. 

It looks like the subframe has never been removed on my car as the holes under the seat (where the long bolts pass through) were plugged with a giant glob of seam sealer, what a PITA to dig out. I have everything removed or disconnected and it seems that the bushings are stuck in the body. I called it quits at that point, but will be attempting the lag bolt trick for freeing them tomorrow. Hoping to have it on the ground and stripped down by the end of the day tomorrow!