Black & Tan 332iT

[karter16]

3) I got to installing the fender brace with these awesome new rivet nuts (definitely recommend).

I wonder if there would be additional benefit to be gained by epoxy bonding these? (3M 73333, etc.) I'm not really sure if there's any risk of movement over time around the bolt holes?

[Bry5on]

I wonder if there would be additional benefit to be gained by epoxy bonding these? (3M 73333, etc.) I'm not really sure if there's any risk of movement over time around the bolt holes?

From a stiffness performance perspective, technically yes although I’d wager you’re capturing 99.9% of the value with just fasteners. I think on balance you could make an epoxy/rubber joint a little lighter though. Given that I don’t actually know the loads here, tough to say!

[enjoy_m3]

Wow, thanks for your contribution Bry5on, great read and development! I know there's a guy in europe selling a brace that bolts the shock tower and fender rail. Do you think that would add even more rigidity?

https://drifthq.com/products/tech-53-bmw-e46-bolt-on-strut-tower-reinforcement-kit?pr_prod_strat=e5_desc&pr_rec_id=64e6463eb&pr_rec_pid=8087369875643&pr_ref_pid=8006405423291&pr_seq=uniform

[Bry5on]

Wow, thanks for your contribution Bry5on, great read and development! I know there's a guy in europe selling a brace that bolts the shock tower and fender rail. Do you think that would add even more rigidity?
https://drifthq.com/products/tech-53-bmw-e46-bolt-on-strut-tower-reinforcement-kit?pr_prod_strat=e5_desc&pr_rec_id=64e6463eb&pr_r ec_pid=8087369875643&pr_ref_pid=8006405423291&pr_s eq=uniform

Funny, this is actually what I started on, which led me to the project I chose instead! I went to visit George to grab a scan of that area to design a brace just like that.

It just so happened that the car I was scanning had hit a big pothole on one side so I could see exactly how the metal deformed. Once I’d given that a good look, I was pretty convinced that the flexiness that cracks that strut tower seam sealer is actually coming from where I braced, not directly from where the cracks were forming. So we ran the experiment I posted about earlier to validate the theory. At this point, I think that the brace above would be a bit redundant. I’d bet it would provide incremental gains, but likely much smaller than the invisible ones I installed. Plus, it wouldn’t be invisible So for now I’m pretty happy with where it is.

[D-O]

Fits great! Rough math says that the 4 cabrio fasteners will see about 60% of the load of the original 8, and this brace will certainly be stiffer inherently. So an upgrade on paper. No real noticeable change, but it's definitely not less stiff. It's getting hard to do the driveway test as the car isn't making much creaking in the door sills unless it's pretty extreme.

I had to use the spacers included with my SS exhaust to get the braces to fit properly with the oversized pipes. Any idea how the convertible brace would work with the SS oversize dual pipe section two?

[Bry5on]

I had to use the spacers included with my SS exhaust to get the braces to fit properly with the oversized pipes. Any idea how the convertible brace would work with the SS oversize dual pipe section two?

I had to use spacers with my SS exhaust too, it fits very poorly. Reused the same spacers with the cabrio brace, no issues there, although I made these spacers myself, so I can’t comment on the SS specific hardware.

[D-O]

I had to use spacers with my SS exhaust too, it fits very poorly. Reused the same spacers with the cabrio brace, no issues there, although I made these spacers myself, so I can’t comment on the SS specific hardware.

Many thanks.