Shock Repair
 

So, there was a slight incident with overtightening a shock bolt on Mike's E90 (wasn't me!). Unfortunately, this was a Bilstein PSS10 damper, and Bilstein's excellent customer service response was "Fuck you, buy another set. We won't even sell you the individual shock."

While we were noodling repairing it, I pinged a friend about a couple of different approaches to solving the problem. Basically, this came down to either carefully and very slowly welding a bolt to the end, or drilling/tapping and shoving a stud in. His opinion was that the weld on option would probably work, but that it was a last resort. And also that he could knock out a "good enough" drill guide and get it done in about 15 minutes, so I should just bring it over after work.

Making the drill guide:

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...c4&oe=599AA84D

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...f7&oe=59644BAB

Chopping off the end of the shock:

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...a7&oe=5994D29E

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...29&oe=5951C124

Drill guide rigged up (if this was going to get more than a couple uses, a drill bushing would be good, but not needed here):
https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...be&oe=596438DE

Drilled:
https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...d5&oe=595E5CC6

Studded:
https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...68&oe=59979AC7

Eric:
https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...5c&oe=596A7C9E

Very nice shop he has there. That's good work

By his standard, it was hugely half assed. Way better and a lot faster than it would have been for me to do it, though. :)

That's cool.

Things are so much easier when you have the right tools - and know how. But mostly tools. :lol:

I am not sure how Eric and I are not friends. We shared circles in the 80s. We share circles today. I don't think we've ever met.

Mistakes were made?

I don't know...just one of those weird things.

My main takeaway from this thread is: Don't buy Bilstein.

Well, that and: whoa cool.

Bilstein makes really good dampers actually. I don't like their lack of adjustability but they're very high quality and durable monotubes.

That's a seriously good "there I fixed it"