Looks like it'll do the job for sure, but why not design it then get it bent out of one piece of tubing?

 

I didn't have access to a tubing bender this weekend or I would have probably bent one piece. I wanted it done this weekend and I'm doing all of this underneath the car at my house lol. I might make another one later but this one is functional and will allow me to continue onto the 10 million other things I gotta finish.

 

is there going to be any clearance issues with that crossmember and the ground? looks like the right side is hanging down a couple inches.

 

Actually the exhaust will be lower than that, It sits up pretty high. Its just about level with the bottom of the bellhousing. I'm not thrilled with that part of it though, I would like to see it a little higher.

Edit: I'm gonna bring it up to the shop tomorrow and fix it. It is too low, with more of the necessary tools I can get it the way I want it. It looks shitty right now lol.

 

Round 2 on the trans mount. I'm happy with this. Very rigid even with the energy suspension bushing and higher up inside the tunnel. It is now higher than the bellhousing.

 

That looks better.

 

You didn't want me to answer the phone the other day. Things were crucial.

BUT. I wish I woulda.

 

lol no worries man, i'll be working on it all day tomorrow and this weekend. Hopefully i'll have the new diff installed. Not sure how bad its going to be cutting/burning/melting out the old bushings to install the solid aluminum bushings though. We will see.

Ordered the driveshaft Tuesday from DSS, its not every day they get an order for a driveshaft that goes from a T101 to a 4 bolt BMW diff lol. They were cool though and I think it will be a nice piece. I've had good luck with them before.

 

Kinda boring but I spent a couple hours on the car today, pulled the rear subframe out and was planning on welding the reinforcement plates on and installing the M3 LSD but noticed that contrary to what I had been told the 318 axles wont fit with the M3 diff installed. Besides the axle flanges being different diameters the snap ring groove on the 318 axle flanges don't line up inside the M3 diff so I didn't feel comfortable using them. They also have 6 10mm bolts instead of 6 8mm bolts to mate the axle to the flange. I feel much more comfortable just running all M3 stuff. The 318 axles probably wouldn't have lasted 10 min. I looked on craigslist and found a guy at the beach that was selling a rear subframe out of a 95 M3. Awesome. So I called him up and he delivered it tonight. I also got the M3 front brakes and spindles from him as well. I got a lot of work to do tomorrow.

Old subframe out


New M3 brakes and other parts, you can see the difference in the diffs.

 

nice build