Wheeler dealers

brilie

brilie

Zorg Guru (IV)
Joined
Dec 5, 2011
Points
168
Location
doncaster
Model of Z
2.8 roadster
Tonight 9pm BMW Z3 coupe (bread can)
 
We’ve all been looking forward to this episode over on Z3MC Forum for a few weeks as they addressing the boot floor issue and seat bushes amongst other things. Let’s hope Ant does a good job, interesting to see it he uses a Randy Forbes floor kit or cobbles something up himself. I’m recording it on TiVo as I’ll be watching footie tonight.
👍👍
 
Is it still Ant or is it Elvis?

Tony.
 
So how does Ant's fix compare to the Randy Forbes kit?
 
from what I have seen just, he added strengthener plates either side of the channel section, plus underneath it, and then made and welded a new diff mount to that. The strengthener plates were drilled and plug welded just to the sides of the channel,
Even if he fully welded across the top of those strengthener plates, because they are only 3mm thick he will have welded them to the top web of the channel, which is the bit that comes away when the spot welds fail.


Unless I missed something, he now has made a strengthened channel, that will just pull away from the boot floor as before?
look at the swaged web at the top of the channel below:

1611614328492.png

What would his repair do to prevent the spot welds separating where the channel meets the boot floor?



.
 
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In all honesty he has made the problem worse. The Diff. and A/R bar are now bolted to a far stronger piece which cannot flex at all and will likely tear the floor more easily. I'm not sure why he removed the sound deadening inside the car either unless he welded something inside which we did not see. Also I would have had something covering the aperture into the boot space too.

Tony.
 
Yes exactly, unless he has done something with the top part, there is likely to be more pulled welds now after that track driving

To me a proper fix is this :
download.jpg
cut out a strip of the boot floor along the inside edge of the channel, and weld the full length of both edges of the channel to the boot floor .

Then weld the strip back on again: (not ideal photo but you get the message)
maxresdefault.jpg

then strengthen the channel and diff mount if needed, spot weld fails seems more common than diff bracket fail
 
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I did a hell of a lot of chassis welding (to MOT standard back when I worked for myself Pete) and although what Ant did would obviously pass the MOT test it wasn't the best structural job.

Tony.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: Lee
And what about the seat fix? Will the air bag light be on as the battery was connected during removal?
 
I bet @Lee put @swamper ’s car through a ‘more thorough’ test drive on the Basingstoke ring road than they did on that track =)) =)) =)) =)) =))
 
I agree with t-tony and gookah the floor rivets will go on the floor if not strengthened and what do you think of the fan delete kit
 
Fans were discussed on here a couple of weeks ago and I stand by what I said then. They were produced that way for a reason, also if you’re wary of the mechanical fan “exploding” due to wear and tear, fit a new one.

Tony.
 
t-tony said:
Fans were discussed on here a couple of weeks ago and I stand by what I said then. They were produced that way for a reason, also if you’re wary of the mechanical fan “exploding” due to wear and tear, fit a new one.

Tony.
Click to expand...
Yup. My viscous fan had some movement so I replaced it circa 3 years ago. Lasted 20 years so I expect this on to do so.
 
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