Cement

My certifier was interested in mine and came to my place to inspect the welding before I seam sealed / painted etc. Now complete, it's noted on my cert as "Rear subframe mounting reinforced". I'd suggest working in with your certifier of choice ... a bit like dealing with building inspectors really !! I have looked in my emails and can't see any discussion of body material, but it does ring a bell 🤔 EDIT: Maybe your guy can talk to my guy (or others ?) to form a sort of standard approach yard stick.

I'll take the cup holders 👍 Please advise payment details incl shipping to Auckland.

Not sold on the twin centre tips ... or the wing 🤣

I'd imagine it's this ?

Bloody Tina !!!

Yuuuur here is the document: https://lvvta.org.nz/documents/suplementary_information/LVVTA_LVV_Cert_Threshold.pdf You're looking for the section 'Springs and shock absorbers (Including modification of ride height)' on page 16.

One other change I made was to switch out the front pad retention pins from the OEM press fit items to these R-clip style. The OEM system required a ridiculous amount of pounding on the pin to install !! Image shows OEM top and clip based bottom.

Speechless !

I decided to go the whole hog and change out the master cylinder to better suit the new setup. The new item is from a M3 with MK60 ABS pump which has a 25.4mm front and 22.2mm rear bore. Side benefit of the later model master is the ports for pressure sensors, will integrate them into my custom electronics for monitoring at some point. The swap out will change the (calculated) front bias from 63.4% to 60.5% and should firm up the pedal feel. It's all completed now and the brakes certainly have a very solid feel so pretty happy with the result for sure and was well worth the effort, seat of the pants test suggests braking performance is improved but could be related to how solid it feels. Now for the story in pictures ... first up was the booster and master sourced from Ebay / https://mpartsworldwide.com/ at a pretty reasonable cost even with the shipping. Removal of the 318 item and a side by side comparison reveals that the M3 uses two M12x1.0 ports and the 318 item is one M12 and one M10. I sourced an adapter from Ebay (and unfortunately their international shipping program ugghhh) which is USA made and adapts M12 to M10 bubble flare directly on the master. The other issue is the reservoir from the M3 was filthy and I could not remove the filter successfully to clean it. Ordered a replacement reservoir along with fresh grommets. My alternate plan was to use the reservoir from the 318 but it turns out the retaining screw on the M3 item inserts from the other side making this not possible without machining, who would have thought !! While having both units out I also compared all of the critical dimensions, and successfully confirmed they were a like for like fitment 👍 Disassembly of the M3 master for a full clean, based on what i saw in the reservoir. Can not source replacement seals unfortunately so re-assembled. That's really about it, reassembled everything and bled the system ... happy days !!

That's some pretty pornographic carbon work for sure 🍆 I like the paint booth, about to do something similar in my kitchen 🤣 Gotta love those holiday projects hah

Got the big brake setup completed / back on the road !! Really happy with the result Check my other thread linked above if it's of interest, else here are some quick snaps of a dirty car wit the big poser yellow calipers

Got everything assembled and bled after getting the correct retaining springs ... have ordered some retrofit pins also which take a R clip instead of having to be smashed in. Hopefully they arrive soon and ahead of (re)certification. Got out for a drive to bed everything in, feels pretty good ... would like a firmer initial pedal so will likely do the M3 master cylinder swap at some point.

Just seems like such a shame to throw away !! Got to get the garage back to some form of order though, out it goes 😕

Last chance before it goes in the skip ...

You could check out DBA via Race Brakes ?

Got the front calipers painted, baked and decals applied ... only to find the Textar anti rattle spring ordered is the wrong size Located the (hopefully) correct one which is on the way from Spareto now. Just in case anybody else stumbles across this looking for the correct part, this is what I have ordered and should be correct: https://spareto.com/products/delphi-accessory-kit-disc-brake-pads/lx0469 I already hate the retention pin system, potentially as I have new pins and have put an extra layer of paint in the holes I'm trying to whack them in to ... but still, just seems pretty suck. Forgot to mention previously also I swapped the bridging pipes end for end as the Renault mounts the caliper to the front of the car and the E46 to the rear.

I had a play with my wire tying pliers ... this is just to prevent the locking nuts coming off completely in the event they loosen ... it's not the full blown lock wire style used on blind bolts. Started rubbing down the front calipers ready for paint ... not sure how the yellow will cover over red 🤔 Might be worth hitting them with some grey primer first even though i could go straight over the top hmm.

Sounds so good !!! Big part of me wishes I'd done a LS swap

Reminds me of this scene, such a funny series from back in the day 🤣

Got the rears finished up tonight and made a start on the front right corner ... the fit is absolutely bang on which I'm pretty happy about !! Nice when all of the design and validation pays off. I'll validate the front left fitment is also good then get ready to paint the front calipers yellow. First time I've actually done a side by side of the rotors ... left is the 330 size at ⌀325x25 and right is the new ⌀356x30

That is very, very quick 👍

The front caliper brackets finally arrived, look great ... definitely won't be breaking any time soon !! On the down side, fairly heavy as expected. Completed the drilling of the front rotor hat bolts ... lucky I got the drills for $1 each as I was only brave enough to use each drill for two holes. It was pretty sketchy and slow going but got there in the end with 'only' three broken drills and written off bolts.

Looks like you just need to keep going !! Possibly previous clear coat on one part and not the other giving different hardness ?

I went for the Toolshed own branded 1/2" and will be getting the 1/4" this week. Not flashy but the selling points for me were: Nice Nm only scale Legible 0-9 units around the twist barrel Comes calibrated, with certificate https://www.thetoolshed.co.nz/product/15319-toolshed-torque-wrench-1-2in-dr-30-210-nm <--- Pretty sure i didn't pay $219, would have gotten on a special 👍

So I got the aluminium hats on Friday as promised about ten minutes before having to leave for a weekend away. The brackets are still hung up with UPS locally for some obscure reason, which I need to sort on Monday. The hats look really good and fit up nicely Also had time to get one of the rear corners assembled ... the brackets did not centre the caliper spot on so I have spaced it over using some washers for now. Just need to adjust the parking brake and wire up the pad wear sensor and that corner is complete (bar bleeding). Fitted up with the too short bolts temporarily while I wait for the drills to finish up the proper fasteners.