E86 Front Triangulation Braces Retrofit

[heinzboehmer]

Very cool! Any chance you'll offer this as a kit w/ core exchange on the strut tower plates?

Unfortunately, no. I just do not have the time to be putting these kits together. This is part of the reason why I decided to share everything

The amount of engineers that own these cars are part of the reason why I still like having both of mine.

I don't like them without the nerds behind keeping them on the road since BMW stopped caring about classics a while ago.

Thank you Heinz.

Hell yeah, happy to contribute to the community. These cars are too good to ignore!

Got excited then saw the price. I’ll add this to the long term to-do list.

I’m gonna remove the cabin filter housing to see how much of a difference its removal makes on induction noise. If it’s significant then I’ll be grabbing a carbon housing soon lol.

You should remove both the filter housing and the firewall plug for max intake noise. It's surprising how much more comes in.

And yes, this is not a cheap mod. There's a good amount of custom parts to make, but the end result is so worth it.

You can likely take off a good chunk off of the cost with some modifications to the fabrication. Cheaper welding labor (or free if you trust yourself), cheaper fasteners and a different approach to the windshield mount can knock $500+ off the price. Maybe you can convince bigjae46 to sell you his forged carbon version of the mount.

Ideally, this mount would be a spot welded (or epoxy/riveted) sheet metal bracket, like the one on the E86/E9x/E8x/etc. Unfortunately, I still do not know the typical loads that this piece sees, so I had to design it to be stronger than the weakest link in the chain: the E86 braces themselves. There's a lot of potential for price optimization here, I just decided that spending more money to get this CNC machined was worth it, as I did not want to be stuck with a failed part that is permanently bonded to my chassis.

If anyone wants to add some strain gauges to a set of E86 braces, I can throw them on my car and capture a bunch of typical load data. Then from that, an optimized sheet metal design can be designed.

[SQ13]

Got excited then saw the price. I’ll add this to the long term to-do list.

I’m gonna remove the cabin filter housing to see how much of a difference its removal makes on induction noise. If it’s significant then I’ll be grabbing a carbon housing soon lol.

[Sharocks]

The amount of engineers that own these cars are part of the reason why I still like having both of mine.

I don't like them without the nerds behind keeping them on the road since BMW stopped caring about classics a while ago.

Thank you Heinz.

[Bimmer man]

Very cool! Any chance you'll offer this as a kit w/ core exchange on the strut tower plates?

[heinzboehmer]

Awesome write up, I didn't read the doc but I'm curious how much time this project would take now, having all the info and testing done etc...

Hmm, if I were to do this again, I think I could get it all done in a weekend (excluding welding and printing time). One day for prepping the parts (machining, test fitting, assembling, bonding, etc.) and another for installing the windshield mount.

Swapping the strut tower brackets and the HVAC plastics takes 5 min.

Amazing project! Love that you've open sourced it. I might've missed it in the write up, but would 6061 be enough for the metal bits or what material would you recommend?

Edit: Nvm. I did miss it, lol.

Yep! Should be fine, just make sure it's 6061-T6, since that's what the analysis was run with.

[dHam_Slow.46M]

Amazing project! Love that you've open sourced it. I might've missed it in the write up, but would 6061 be enough for the metal bits or what material would you recommend?

Edit: Nvm. I did miss it, lol.

1. NOTE: This part is designed to be CNC machined out billet aluminum. FEA was run with 6061-T6, so it needs to be made out of something that is at least as strong as that material. I got mine machined out of 7075-T6 because the increase in cost was worth the extra peace of mind for me.

[Nate047]

Awesome write up, I didn't read the doc but I'm curious how much time this project would take now, having all the info and testing done etc...

[siamkazi]

This is the COOLEST thing i've seen in a long time, i don't want this...i NEED this

[fattycharged]

You guys always impress. Very very cool


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[WestBankM4]

Super, super cool! Been following and I will definitely be doing this in the future. Unless I spring for the Slon part, pockets be damned I'll be going this route. Amazing man, truly Heinze.

[heinzboehmer]

Thanks everyone! Very excited to see this recreated on other cars.

Also, added a cost breakdown and weight breakdown (still incomplete) at the end of the doc.

[Casa de Mesa]

Heinz FTW!! This is incredible. Will dive into this in detail once this work week is in the rearview.

[discoelk]

Hell yeah. Thanks. More stuff to distract me from my actual project car. Haha.

[Obioban]

Excellent!

Can vouch that front end triangulation was one of THE best mods I've done to this car. And, only better-- zero downside.

[bigjae46]

Hell yeah! This project will be much easier for me since my car is not a street car. I've deleted the heater core and wipers. As I've mentioned previously, I think the base mount is a great candidate for a forged carbon part. Not too difficult.

https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/main-forum/member-build-journals/6890-the-red-drift-machine?p=320337#post320337

This is a great video on compression moulding

https://youtu.be/25PmqM24HEk?si=nhcX4nBLUswcC3cl

For the strut towers, I am thinking about also compression molding the OE strut bar ends and bonding slightly longer studs so I can bolt two bars to the same plate. I am concerned with putting extra loads into a cheap cast aluminum part. Then make carbon tubes from this site below. They have rod ends that can be bonded on. I like making my own parts but they have the layup optimized which is much more important in a load bearing part.

DragonPlate | Engineered Carbon Fiber Composite Sheets, Tubes and Structural Components | Made in USA