E86 Front Triangulation Braces Retrofit

[George Hill]

Yep! Confirmed by the scans.

Touring too as far as I know, although I don't have a scan of that one.

Yes, also tourings.

I need to print and test fit to test but I'd really like to do this mod too.

[heinzboehmer]

Also, brackets are on the car for some validation:



They survived a 100mi drive today and the car feels exactly the same as it did with the sheet metal prototypes. Today's drive wasn't all that dynamic, lots of highway stuff, but I'll do some more interesting driving soon. Doing a track day at Laguna Seca (with the infamous bumpy kerbs) next weekend, so that should really torture these parts

[heinzboehmer]

They are all the same

Yep! Confirmed by the scans.

Touring too as far as I know, although I don't have a scan of that one.

[George Hill]

I'm assuming the engine bays are the same between the sedan and the coupe.

They are all the same

[liam821]

Wow, this is amazing work. How am I just now seeing this thread? I ordered up e86 braces and am 3d printing all the parts now. This will go into the k46 (my sedan) - I'm assuming the engine bays are the same between the sedan and the coupe, but I'm not totally sure, will report back once I've test fit everything.

[heinzboehmer]

Thank you sir!

No problem!

Also worth mentioning that I was unable to find an off the shelf replacement for these studs, so I just stole them off of the stock brackets.

The old style brackets will have studs that press in from the bottom, but most cars should come with the new style that has the double ended studs. I want to say the part was superseded some time in 02?

[bigjae46]

Overall length is 32mm and has an unthreaded portion that measures 2mm right in the middle. So, 15mm of threads, 2mm unthreaded, then another 15mm of threads.

Thank you sir!

[heinzboehmer]

heinzboehmer

THANK YOU SIR! I got the box, haven't opened it yet. I need to catch up on some other projects and its peak track season in TX.

One more favor - could you measure the length of the OEM stud that goes into the plates for the center bar? I want to test my forged carbon plates this weekend and the car is at the track.

Overall length is 32mm and has an unthreaded portion that measures 2mm right in the middle. So, 15mm of threads, 2mm unthreaded, then another 15mm of threads.

[bigjae46]

heinzboehmer

THANK YOU SIR! I got the box, haven't opened it yet. I need to catch up on some other projects and its peak track season in TX.

One more favor - could you measure the length of the OEM stud that goes into the plates for the center bar? I want to test my forged carbon plates this weekend and the car is at the track.

[heinzboehmer]

This looks very interesting. Unfortunately I cannot seem to download the documentation from Google drive on my tablet. I can see the index but I get error in file error.

Does this project depend on obtaining oem e85/86 strut braces or does it include cutting templates for them. Finding oem braces is almost impossible. I want one for my e85 and have been looking for two years.

Nope, this keeps the stock E46 M3 brace middle section, replaces the strut tower brackets and adds a custom mount under the windshield. The stock E86 triangulation braces are then used to tie the strut towers to the base of the windshield.

I've noticed issues with the doc on mobile as well. Maybe it's too long/picture heavy? Seems to work alright on desktop.

[Sajk]

This looks very interesting. Unfortunately I cannot seem to download the documentation from Google drive on my tablet. I can see the index but I get error in file error.

Does this project depend on obtaining oem e85/86 strut braces or does it include cutting templates for them. Finding oem braces is almost impossible. I want one for my e85 and have been looking for two years.

[karter16]

They look gorgeous

Yeah I'm super excited about these - loving that I'm going to be able to keep the original M caps as well!


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[maupineda]

They look gorgeous

[heinzboehmer]

Sneak peek from the manufacturer of the 3D printed strut tower brackets:



Should have them in my hands within a week or so.

[heinzboehmer]

Yeaaah, I lied.

More discussion in my build thread, but basically, I remembered I really hate painting. So instead of trying to make the existing sheet metal strut tower brackets pretty, I scanned the stock brackets, recreated them in CAD and then modified them to work with the E86 braces.

Here's the (almost) final design:




I also modeled a version with stock-like bosses on the underside, for compatibility with early cars. Still need to test fit these on a real car, but confident they'll work:




(bavarian3, you've got no more excuses! )

And here's an earlier plastic prototype installed on the car:



Looks sooo much better than the sheet metal version!

Plan is to get these 3D printed out of aluminum and powder coated/painted to match the stock parts. Am very excited for how these are gonna turn out.

Where's the “buy now” button?

I think the new strut tower brackets will make this as close to a real product as possible!

Basically just CNC the windshield mount, print the strut tower brackets, print the cabin air filter housing plastics, trim the E86 braces and install.

I'll report back with how the Aluminum prints turn out.