Long weekend, wife away = plenty of time to work on the car(s).

Put the coilovers in this weekend. Probably about 15mm lower than where I was before. Really happy with the ride quality of the MTS Techniks, would happily recommend these.




Before



After. It's subtle - but always nice to be able to dial in exact ride height front/rear. It will also be important to get the right height once I get the BBS RS on.


Speaking of BBS RS - started assembly on them. Didn't get far though. The first two bolts both 'pinged' and stretched when I was trying to torque them. I thought the torque wrench must have been out, but after testing it, it was working fine. I got one of the OEM bolts and bolted it to an old lip and it torqued up fine. I put a new bolt next to it and it just snapped in half. I can only think that bolts must be faulty? Very odd.


2x stretched bolts and 1x snapped bolt. OEM one torqued up fine.


Annoyingly because it pulled so tight it has ripped the clear coat that I just put on the lips. Do it once do it right - I will have to take this back to the powder coater and have it redone.

Chinesium bolts?
Even used originals would be better than those by the looks.

The bolts are from SRR, which is very reputable. So yea not sure. Got to be a bad batch.
I've reached out to them, so will see what they say.

It's not something silly like M6 vs M7?
They will obviously have different torque specs.

It is something silly - their website has a typo and gives the wrong torque spec 
They have 22ft/lb listed, it should be 22nm (14ft/lb). They're torqueing fine at that spec.

I am having issues with this clear coat however. It's just flaking off around the bolts, these ones are just nipped up by hand and it's already flaking. Last time I built wheels was ~10 years ago, I clear powder coated those lips and don't recall having any issues like this. Talking with my powder coater (who did the wheels 10 years ago too) he thinks that long ago he probably had an OEM style wheel specific clear, which is out of production now.



I think there are three options;
1. Source another powder from overseas and try that
2. Retry this powder, and assemble with a 0.1mm washer under the bolt head to help decrease load and friction on the powder
3. Give up on the idea and commit to a life of regularly having to polish wheels

I still have half of these lips powder coated. So I think I will buy these 0.1mm washers and give them a go, there is nothing to lose. If that fails, I have found some promising powder from a US supplier that claims to be the best on the market at adhering to polished metal finishes.

I would go straight for that powder, but stripping the existing powder off these lips will mean I have to get them repolished. So I might as well try and make what I have work first.

Bit of a hassle... all part of the fun

I didn't clear coat my lips, and a few of the old boys I talked to said not to. 12 years later and they still look great. Just needs a bit of elbow grease a few times a year to polish up. All looks great Sam!

Ah - I have realised why I didn't have this problem last time. I just dug up a photo, they were front mount faces, so the bolt heads were not fastening directly onto the lip.

I think you might be right Ash, just build them 'raw' and suck it up.

Quote from: coons on April 23, 2025, 07:27:40 PMIt is something silly - their website has a typo and gives the wrong torque spec 
They have 22ft/lb listed, it should be 22nm (14ft/lb). They're torqueing fine at that spec.

I am having issues with this clear coat however. It's just flaking off around the bolts, these ones are just nipped up by hand and it's already flaking. Last time I built wheels was ~10 years ago, I clear powder coated those lips and don't recall having any issues like this. Talking with my powder coater (who did the wheels 10 years ago too) he thinks that long ago he probably had an OEM style wheel specific clear, which is out of production now.


I think there are three options;
1. Source another powder from overseas and try that
2. Retry this powder, and assemble with a 0.1mm washer under the bolt head to help decrease load and friction on the powder
3. Give up on the idea and commit to a life of regularly having to polish wheels

I still have half of these lips powder coated. So I think I will buy these 0.1mm washers and give them a go, there is nothing to lose. If that fails, I have found some promising powder from a US supplier that claims to be the best on the market at adhering to polished metal finishes.

I would go straight for that powder, but stripping the existing powder off these lips will mean I have to get them repolished. So I might as well try and make what I have work first.

Bit of a hassle... all part of the fun

Well yeah that'll do it, no wonder they broke.
Nothing is what it used to be, be that powder coat, zinc plating, chrome, paint etc etc. Thank saving the planet for that. Those chemicals that do a good job are all pretty much banned now.
You could assemble them and then clear powder. Just a thought.
The washers will be better but probably won't be 100%

Wheels built.

As mentioned above, some of the clear powder coating on the lips was cracking when tightening the bolts. I got the powder stripped off them while I contemplated my next steps. After stripping, they needed to be repolished. I took them to Brugar, and to my surprise a rag, some Autosol, and a bit of elbow grease brought them back the shine fairly easily. After seeing how easy that was I decided to just ditch the clear powder idea and run them raw. As Ash said, just need to commit to a couple of days a year to give them a polish up.

I'll stash them for now, and get them on as we come into Spring.

They look awesome.

They look great.

Get some Eagle One NEVR-DULL Wadding Polish.

When I had my RSs, I would use that 1-2 times a year and they stayed perfect.

It is cotton wool with polish soaked in. Makes it easy to polish around the bolts and curves.