Official Group Buy for STRONG-STRUT Braces!

[45ACP]

Can we keep this group buy thread on topic, please? Thanks, guys.

[Shereef_Osman]

Sorry boss.

[Z4MHawk]

Money sent!

[45ACP]

Thanks to most for submitting payment way in advance of the deadline! Since we have 18 paid orders so far, the vendor feels comfortable starting production now. They or I will be posting weekly progress updates to keep everyone apprised. Good job everyone

[inTgr8r]

^ Thank you, for organizing this!!!!!!!

[RBull]

^+1.

thanks 45acp

looking forward to getting this soon.

[XMetal]

Hey guys,
I guessed I'm the first to received these bars?

I have posted some installation tips here => http://www.zpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=433427

I will alert Paul (point him to the above thread) to some of the issues that I've ran into during my installation...hopefully, he can sort it out for the rest of you guys.

[reyebe]

Unfortunately, the year of the vehicle fails to make this uniform. You have either a hex head BOLT that threads down into the chassis or a hex NUT that is threaded on to a threaded stud that sticks up out of the chassis. If you have the hex BOLT, you cannot use our acorn nut kit. If you have the hex NUT you get the acorn kit. We have already had some confusion on this as sometimes a person uses the term "BOLT" when they really mean a NUT. We are going by the information you sent us with your order. We suggest that you go back and review what you sent us originally, give this "nut-bolt" thing some additional thought and send us an email if it needs to be corrected. We wish to avoid sending out separate packages of hardware after the original shipment and we do not want the customer to suffer any installation delays over this nomenclature on hardware. We strive to make the installation process as friendly as possible.

[reyebe]

With regard to the OEM firewall brace hardware, you have either a hex head BOLT that threads down into the chassis or a hex NUT that is threaded on to a threaded stud that sticks up out of the chassis. If you have the hex BOLT, you cannot use our acorn nut kit. If you have the hex NUT you get the acorn kit. We have already had some confusion on this as sometimes a person uses the term "BOLT" when they really mean a NUT. (or vice versa) We are going by the information you sent us with your order. We suggest that you go back and review what you sent us originally, give this "nut-bolt" thing some additional thought and send us an email if it needs to be corrected. We wish to avoid sending out separate packages of hardware after the original shipment and we do not want the customer to suffer any installation delays over this nomenclature on hardware.
In reference to the six shock tower studs and hardware, this is an updated version of the installation instructions packaged with your Strong-Strut: “Remove the three nuts on top of the passenger and driver side shock towers. The ring with the Strong-Strut name is to be installed on the driver’s side of the car. Otherwise the unit will not fit. Set the Strong-Strut rings in place on the appropriate shock tower and install the stainless steel washers and acorn nuts but leave them loose so the ring has wiggle room. BMW has blessed us with two different heights of studs on the tower domes. If you have the taller ones, you will use two washers under each acorn nut so the nut will not bottom out before it is tight. If you have the shorter threaded studs, one washer is all that is needed. Most vehicles will only require one washer. This determination is intuitive and obvious as you perform the installation.” You may be able to use the small diameter OEM shoulder nuts with the Strong-Strut rings (if you prefer this over the supplied acorn nut kit)
if you use the small shoulder OEM nuts you may not be able to get the Strong-Strut parts to align properly and if that happens, revert to our acorn nut kit, it will guarantee a proper fit of the Strong-Strut on every vehicle. If you have the large shoulder OEM tower nuts, they will not fit at all.


Plastic tower caps: The supplied caps are Z8 parts and they fit perfectly on all Z3 M chassis. In order to make them fit the Z4 towers, you must take scissors and carefully cut off the bottom 1/8 inch skirt on the cap. You will need your favorite glue to glue them in place on the towers. Our own 07 ///M Roadster has had these glued in place since the car was new and 26,000 miles and there have been no issues.

[45ACP]

The following status update was posted in the "General" forums section last night:

http://www.zpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=431621

For those of you who are participating in the group buy, we thought you would be interested in the details of the production schedule. We have 4 different subcontractors involved in the manufacturing process, the material supplier, machine shop, welding/bending shop and finally, either the powder coating or chrome plating shop. The materials have already been ordered by the machine shop and as soon as they receive them, they will commence the machining operations. FYI, it requires about 45 minutes of CNC time to cut just one of the shock tower rings from the billet material, We ordered 35 units because we need to replace our normal inventory as well as fill the 20 GB orders. Once the machining is completed, about 10 days, the parts go to the welding/bending shop. The shop has a very heavy steel fixture that replicates the Z4 chassis perefectly. After bending the main cross bar to the correct profile, The 5 parts that make up the main strut brace are secured in the welding fixture and welded. The parts are then dressed out to remove any handling dings or machining trauma and from there they go to the powder coating shop. Our welding shop is owned by a welding engineer and the shop is certified by the FAA to weld on commercial aircraft, they are experts! The welding/bending process usually takes about a week for an order this size and another 4 or 5 days in the powder coating shop. We have utilized the services of these same shops for 13 years in some cases and 8 years in others, so we have confidence when our parts are finished, they are correct and made exactly to our specifications. You can do the math and see that we expect to have the Strong-Struts ready to ship in approximately 20 to 25 days depending on the workload of our subcontractors at the time we drop off our materials. We will probably not post anything more about the production schedule unless we see there is a substantial delay in our delivery time. Please feel free to email us direct at pebeyer@cox.net and identify yourself as a GB customer for the Z4 and we will be happy to respond. We thank you for being part of the Z4 GB and we want you to know we are working on a new rear Strong-Strut for all the Z4 models. It will replace the innefective, existing OEM braces that attach to the differential and out to the rocker panels. We notice the OEM braces are made of a thin hollow tubing and lack the serious dimensions and girth to result in any rigidity.

Thank you again for being a Strong-Strut customer and welcome to the family of smiling Strong-Strut owners. Paul & the Strong-Strut Team

[45ACP]

As of Oct 6th, the parts were transferred from the machine shop to the welding/bending shop. Estimated to complete their part by Thursday Oct 14th, maybe sooner. From there, they go for powder coating which takes about 4 or 6 days depending upon their workload. Based upon this, the struts should be ready to ship approximately Oct 22 or 25.

[Finnegan]

Cool. Thanks for the updates!

[nemex12]

wow just saw this can i replace anyone backing up or something? thanks

[45ACP]

Another update from Strong Strut:

"I expect to be picking up the Strong-Struts from the machine shop by Wednesday of this week and transporting them to the powder coating shop. They will be there for about 4 days and then I’ll start shipping. These dates are approximate of course."

[inTgr8r]

[Shipkiller]

In case anyone wants to know, I recieved an email from Paul last night with my UPS tracking number. You all should be recieving the same.

[inTgr8r]

^... me too.

[Shereef_Osman]

Same here.

[Tonybest]

Same here... but tracking info unavailable still (?)

[inTgr8r]

^ got an email that he had to change shipping method to Canada = no tracking.

[RBull]

^got that one too.

[Shipkiller]

Tracking will most likely become available on Monday. The billing order was processed by UPS, but that does not mean it was picked up by UPS.

Patience grasshopper....