Had a couple more weekends on the car. Decided to strip down the ebay wheels and give them a coat of silver:
Paint Stripper applied:
Left them for 24 hours then attacked them with the wire brush and Drexel to take the curb rash off the edges. Fully Stripped of paint and lightly sanded:
Gave them a coat of primer and then a couple of layers of Hyper silver. To be honest they pass the 10 yard test but close up they look shocking lol. I will get them professionally powder coated later on as spending hours on them i was a little disappointed at the result:
Next up was test fitting them to the car. My mate slapped some part worn 225/40/18 Contis on - which are far too stretched so will be swapping them with 255/40/18 at a later date. This may appease some who don’t like the stance look. Rear on:
Placed a spirit level down the arch and it needed a 30mm spacer which i have now got - hubcentric with studs from Direnza which look good quality. Fronts on:
Did the same and decided on full studs with a 12mm spacer on. Got the studs from Garage Midnight which supply a lot of the drift teams as i wanted to make sure they were strong. The wheel was also touching the Caliper though after test fitting again today with the spacer comfortably clears.
Dropped it down off the blocks and it sits far too high. Admittedly the car has not been driven since its suspension was rebuilt but even so it will need to be lowered significantly to look decent. No company makes lowering springs off the shelf so it is either custom lowering springs (possibly 40mm) or Coilovers. Again none are manufactured off the shelf for this car but a few people have modified E46 M3 coilovers as it is virtually the same setup. Would just need to adjust the front turrets and modify the top mounts i believe.
Next job of the weekend was starting to fix the front arch to the wing. As stated previously i did not want to have exposed screw heads so opted for some brackets off the old Sportspack Mini Cooper. Drilled holes in the wing and tightened up on a nut inside the arch:
Kept offering up the arch and then bent the brackets so that they formed to the shape so we could bond them:
Numbered each one and removed them:
Drew round the inside of the arch and then they were ready to bond and leave overnight. User tiger seal which seems to be great on first use. Next weekend I will use some 3M adhesive strips and form round the outer edge of the arch to provide a weatherproof seal:
Hopefully by next weekend i should have one side complete. Can then drive it out the garage to have a look at progress in the cold light of day and turn it round to repeat all over again on the other side. Slow progress but still remaining enjoyable.