Hammer's Clubbie

[Amanda]

Great looking Clubbie there Hammer!! E]

[trader]

if you think you have too much bling then this maybe an option - black would look great. That's a top car and I was interested in it but knew I would end up modifying it. At least what you have done so far can be taken off and brought back to standard - I think you have the bug though!

[Charlie Brown]

I saw Hammers “new” Clubman at Wakefield on Monday.

It is in fantastic condition and truly is a credit to the previous owner Tezzax5.

The car looks new and Hammers was swooning around it like it was a new lover, saying he wasn’t going to change a thing. We’ll see.

[Hammer]

[Hammer]

Well, after weeks of having my RSpeed (OEM) front and rear lip sitting in my garage, I've finally found time to install them on my Clubman.

They arrived nicely boxed. They were well wrapped and came with photocopy installation instructions.




I'm pretty happy with the quality, though as you can see from the pix below, there are some blemishes on the lip (it looks like something that happened during the moulding process rather than post moulding damage). Since it's not that noticeable, it didn't worry me too much, but still a little dissapointed.



Before front lip installation



First step is the usual loosening and removing of bolts and screws


*Images from RSpeed


While the lip is very OEM like, it wasn't a straight fit. Being plastic, it could be as a result of some flexing of either lip or my bumper or a combination of both. There was a fair bit of flexing and stretching involved ensuring it lined up properly. The instructions also suggest clipping the lip onto the bumper with the supplied clips.



But in mine, if I did that, the ends won't line up. And if I line up the ends, the centre of the lip will pull away from the clip. Aaarrrg!!!



In the end, I abandoned using the clips as they were totally useless. Instead I screwed in both ends to secure the lip onto the bumper bar while I mark the drill points. My left hand stretching the bumper bar to line it up with the lip which required a bit of force to pull them in together. And with my right hand, marking the holes with a texter.




After a short prayer to the automotive DIY gods, I started drilling. I had a big sigh of relief when I finished without a mistake. Phew.



After a few small heaving and hoeing, I managed to fit and tighten all the nuts and bolt. Final step is to screw the end bits of the brake duct onto the under body engine cowling. The front lip took me over 2 hrs to complete

[Hammer]

By comparison to the front lip, the rear lip installation was a breeze.

Before the lip installation. As you can see, the lip came in two pieces.



Once all the pre-requisite bolts and screws had been removed...


Images from RSpeed


...I aligned the rear lip onto the bumper bar to mark the drilling points. I was pleasantly surprised when I noticed the rear bumper had very faint (but visible) markers that perfectly aligned to the holes where the lip was to be fitted. The markers comprised of 5 dots arragned like the 5 face of a dice.


This saved me the tedious task of marking the bumper and re-checking alignment multiple times to ensure it lined up property. Sweeeet.


Here are the new bolts fitted ready for the rear lip.



In the end, the rear lip took me less than an hour to fit.







The only thing with the rear lip is the rear mudflap will not fit back on. I was told by several people that it can fit with some minor modification (mudflaps or lip spoiler?). I’ll need to do more research on this, as I would like to fit back my mudflaps.

[de Bounce]

Looking good and an excellent write up as well
Will be interested in how you overcome the mudflap issue.

Off topic, what is the tyre on Right Rear - brand/model

[Jeo]

Looks good Hammer

Are they new wheels?

[GS]

The clubbie's looking great Hammer.

Are they new wheels?

That was going to be my question as well. What are they? You mentioned you liked wheels with some dish, and those babies have definately got that.

[Hammer]

…Off topic, what is the tyre on Right Rear - brand/model

All four tyres are Maxxis MA-V1 tyres. I just wanted something cheap (but good) tyres to fit on what I call my transport wheels (something to use in-between track days). These were recommended by Spinning Wheels while I was getting my wheel alignment done. Though I think the price of the Bridgestone Adrenalins would have been the same. However, Maxxis has these under their “Performance Tyre” range, while the Adrenalins are simply part of Bridgestone’s “Passenger Tyre” range. They seem ok, but I don't drive the Clubbie much outside track days to really tell what they're like (and on track days, I revert back to the OEM wheels).

...

Are they new wheels?

That was going to be my question as well. What are they? You mentioned you liked wheels with some dish, and those babies have definately got that.

The wheels I got second hand early this year. They were originally fitted to an E30 BMW. I don’t know the brand but I did see a set for sale from MX5 Mart (NZ) that looked similar (mine are 7 spokes). The ones from MX5 Mart are called Lorber. But doing a search on them produced no concrete information. I’m keen to find some centre caps that will fit.

[Jeo]

Pics of yours?

[bruce]

Looks like a bunch of those silly rectagular plastic bolt thingos are missing from inside your rear bar? (They always pop out and become lost).

[GS]

Ive always liked the Lorbers. Nice dish and suits the NA well. I think the $3k import NA6 that came up for sale on the forum a while back had them as well (didnt Okibi snap that car up??)

[PUR157]

Yup, our friendly Forum Admins NA is the one with the lorbers, a far cry from how it looked when it just got into his hands too

I'm also keen for pics of those wheels 'coz I'm abit of a wheel nut too

Great stance there Hammer, what dimensions are the wheels?
+25 offset for a start... but rim and tyre width?

And even if my bank account regrets the purchase of the rear lip... seeing the pics I know for sure that I won't

[Hammer]

Pics of yours?

I’ll take some photos and post them up shortly

Looks like a bunch of those silly rectagular plastic bolt thingos are missing from inside your rear bar? (They always pop out and become lost).

The plastic locks were all there. I just removed them to allow some flexibility on the bumper when fitting the mounting bolts.

...Great stance there Hammer, what dimensions are the wheels?
+25 offset for a start... but rim and tyre width?...

That’s correct, +25 offset and 15x7 size. They look much wider due to the offset – me thinks.