heinzboehmer's 2002 Topaz 6MT Coupe

[heinzboehmer]

Heinz, who did you commission to machine out the brackets?

I got them manufactured through Protolabs. Chose the longest lead time they offered to get the cheapest price. Came out to around $1k.

Went with Protolabs because that was the best balance of price and lead time out of the typical big online manufactuters. There were WAY cheaper options (almost exclusively overseas), but none of them would tell me the composition of the material they would be using, so I decided against them.

Of course, someone recommended this place a few days after I placed my order with Protolabs: https://www.rapidaxis.com Local, all machining done in house and comparable prices. I would have gone with them had I known about them earlier. Oh well.

I'll likely be using them for powder coating and maybe even for 3D printing the molds for the CF cabin air filter housing and firewall plug (since they're too big for my printer and would need to be printed in sections).

Anyway, this is likely a way more detailed answer than what you were looking for, but it reminded me of some details I had yet to document. I'll also be posting a detailed cost breakdown of everything once it's all finished.

[maupineda]

Heinz, who did you commission to machine out the brackets?

[heinzboehmer]

That looks relly nice! It's ashame that it will be covered up.

Right?

At least the braces will peek out a little

[bigjae46]

That looks relly nice! It's ashame that it will be covered up.

[heinzboehmer]

Hell yeah

[heinzboehmer]

Very close indeed! You can always trim the corners of the existing duct that hide behind the bumper to buy yourself some extra clearance if you're a couple millimeters off. You planning to make it clip in 'backwards' using the slots for the foglight mount? That would be slick.

Yep! That's the plan. Think that should constrain it enough, but might add another pickup point if necessary.

[Bry5on]

Very close indeed! You can always trim the corners of the existing duct that hide behind the bumper to buy yourself some extra clearance if you're a couple millimeters off. You planning to make it clip in 'backwards' using the slots for the foglight mount? That would be slick.

[heinzboehmer]

Cool man! The first half of the strut brace mold weights 25lbs! lol...I think made it too big and wasted a lot of material. I have more casting urethane on the way. Hopefully get to finish the mold by end of next week.

Nice! Excited to see how it turns out.

It will also need to be two piece if you want to fit it in the Bambu print envelope I think. It’ll be close!

Yeah, it's definitely gonna be tight, but I might just be able to get away with it:



(overlaid picture is not taken dead on, but gives a good enough estimate of size)

[Bry5on]

Also, finally caved and bought a 3D scanner. I've been needing one more and more for recent projects and it was just time. Should help speed up development for upcoming things.

Few short term projects that will benefit from it (in no particular order):

• Strut brace bracket reinforcement plates with an extra pickup point for the E86 braces.
• Clearancing/remaking of the stock cabin air filter housing and firewall plug to accommodate the E86 braces.
• A version of Bryson's CSL duct that uses the entire bumper opening as a feed. Fog lights will get deleted and a passenger side plug will be designed for max aero gains

I like to open source everything I make for many reasons, but I don't think I'm gonna be doing that for the last bullet, unless Bryson okays it. I've been testing and printing his design and there's no way I can keep his IP from bleeding into my version. Would be a big asshole move on my part to release something that's largely based on someone else's design.

Only saving grace of my design is that it will most likely end up requiring permanent modification of the bumper (i.e. cutting the fog light mounting flange off), so I'm guessing that significantly less people will be interested in it.

It will also need to be two piece if you want to fit it in the Bambu print envelope I think. It’ll be close!

[bigjae46]

Also, finally caved and bought a 3D scanner. I've been needing one more and more for recent projects and it was just time. Should help speed up development for upcoming things.

Few short term projects that will benefit from it (in no particular order):

• Strut brace bracket reinforcement plates with an extra pickup point for the E86 braces.
• Clearancing/remaking of the stock cabin air filter housing and firewall plug to accommodate the E86 braces.
• A version of Bryson's CSL duct that uses the entire bumper opening as a feed. Fog lights will get deleted and a passenger side plug will be designed for max aero gains

I like to open source everything I make for many reasons, but I don't think I'm gonna be doing that for the last bullet, unless Bryson okays it. I've been testing and printing his design and there's no way I can keep his IP from bleeding into my version. Would be a big asshole move on my part to release something that's largely based on someone else's design.

Only saving grace of my design is that it will most likely end up requiring permanent modification of the bumper (i.e. cutting the fog light mounting flange off), so I'm guessing that significantly less people will be interested in it.

Cool man! The first half of the strut brace mold weights 25lbs! lol...I think made it too big and wasted a lot of material. I have more casting urethane on the way. Hopefully get to finish the mold by end of next week.

[heinzboehmer]

Also, finally caved and bought a 3D scanner. I've been needing one more and more for recent projects and it was just time. Should help speed up development for upcoming things.

Few short term projects that will benefit from it (in no particular order):

• Strut brace bracket reinforcement plates with an extra pickup point for the E86 braces.
• Clearancing/remaking of the stock cabin air filter housing and firewall plug to accommodate the E86 braces.
• A version of Bryson's CSL duct that uses the entire bumper opening as a feed. Fog lights will get deleted and a passenger side plug will be designed for max aero gains

I like to open source everything I make for many reasons, but I don't think I'm gonna be doing that for the last bullet, unless Bryson okays it. I've been testing and printing his design and there's no way I can keep his IP from bleeding into my version. Would be a big asshole move on my part to release something that's largely based on someone else's design.

Only saving grace of my design is that it will most likely end up requiring permanent modification of the bumper (i.e. cutting the fog light mounting flange off), so I'm guessing that significantly less people will be interested in it.

[Bry5on]

Took the airbox off today to check if the wishbone bracket was interfering with the fitment of Bryson's duct. Here's how everything fits with the bracket fully removed:


Spot on! Must be something wrong with the bracket then...


Well, there you go. Turns out my car was the issue all along.

Tried so many things when the solution was as simple as just bending that bracket back. Oh well, at least my bumper fits pretty great now!

Occam's razor strikes again. Also glad it was something so simple, as this made a lot less extra work for me

[heinzboehmer]

Took the airbox off today to check if the wishbone bracket was interfering with the fitment of Bryson's duct. Here's how everything fits with the bracket fully removed:




Spot on! Must be something wrong with the bracket then...




Well, there you go. Turns out my car was the issue all along.

Tried so many things when the solution was as simple as just bending that bracket back. Oh well, at least my bumper fits pretty great now!

[heinzboehmer]

I have a mint, last revision euro siemens CD53 if you want.
They should work fine in the US, I think?

Thanks! I was originally gonna reach out to you for a euro unit to avoid having to ship mine halfway around the world (twice). However, I was told that the euro tuner was not compatible with the US radio frequencies and just went along with that. I probably should have looked into it myself instead of just blindly trusting, but whatever, that's in the past.

I think I'm just gonna stick with what I have for now. I farmed this job out cause it was easy to just pay for the service vs doing it myself, but now I just want a functional radio back in the car.

...

Why didn't I think of that.

Final files in the CAD thread, please :P

Posted!

[Obioban]

Anyway, back to more interesting things.

(Forking this off from this post in Bryson's build journal, to avoid clutter over there: https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/m...909#post305909)

Was having trouble getting the CSL duct to fit, so I figured I would take the opportunity and fix my bumper fitment. Most of the foam on top of the carrier has been missing for as long as I can remember, so first order of business was to replace that.

I was too lazy to go out looking for a suitable material and the printer was already loaded with TPU, so I figured why not. Quickly designed some foam replacement pieces and printed them out. My recreation incorporates both the radius of the stock pieces and the draft on the top surface to butt the seal up against the rest of the front end assemblies:


First test fit:



First attempt was very close, just needed a couple tweaks to get the fit where I wanted it.

While V2 was printing, I prepped the carrier. Started by removing the old adhesive, which was as fun as it usually is. With all that mess gone, I gave the surface a quick scuff and mixed up some epoxy.

Bonding went smoothly. I even had some adhesive left over to form a bit of a fillet on the pieces. Hoping that helps make it a permanent repair:



Final touch was to add some Krytox to the surfaces that the bumper will slide over, in an attempt to avoid ripping these pieces out in the future.

Of course, I forgot to take pictures of everything reassembled, but trust me, it looks way better!

...

Why didn't I think of that.

Final files in the CAD thread, please :P