heinzboehmer's 2002 Topaz 6MT Coupe

[PipeUy]

Wow bracing and cabin air filter housing looks absolutely OEM, truly an amazing job!! I think I know what the next project will be after finishing the engine swap in the E30

[heinzboehmer]

New hood seals! Luxurious.

Right? I felt so fancy putting them on.

Speaking of fancy, my street tires have been heat cycled out for a bit now, but I was holding out to see if Michelin would finally release the PS5SSS5Super in 18", so I hadn't gotten new ones. But then I noticed this:



Fine, guess I'll swap them out for a new set of PS4Ss. Gave the mobile tire guy who's always at the track a call and he swapped tires for me in my driveway. Not having to stuff a bunch of tires into a car and then drive to the tire shop was truly the ultimate luxury, don't think I can go back.

I did notice this texture on the new tires, guessing it's to enhance contrast for aesthetics.




Fancy all around.

Also, decided to give up on road force balancing. I've always asked for it in the past, but it seems to still result in vibrations at higher speeds (80+ mph). Went with a traditional balance this time around and the car feels perfectly smooth. Good stuff.

Lastly, got a daylight pic of the final final final v3 version of the strut tower bracing. You can barely tell they're not stock. Amazing.

[Bry5on]

New hood seals! Luxurious.

[heinzboehmer]

Aaand done!




Well, not entirely done. Still waiting to receive the flat gaskets that seal against the plug and the filter cover. Oh and need to make the strut tower brackets pretty. I'll get to those details later.

Printed some retainers for the screws as well, to try and make it harder to lose them.



Not sure yet if they make it better or worse. Middle one definitely helps, but the outer two kinda get in the way. Might end up removing the retainers for those.

Also replaced all the hood seals while I was at it, as they were original to the car and kinda starting to fall apart:



I'll try to get some pictures with better lighting this weekend.

[heinzboehmer]

Ha, I have no regrets about the amount of time/money spent on this project. Learned a ton so it was 100% worth it. And like Obioban said, it's a hobby so who cares. Would rather be doing this than just sitting around.

Still pretty crazy to see that number though!

[Obioban]

Everyone stop applying logic to hobby time/money, please.

[George Hill]

Anyway, estimate came out to ~150 hours of active CAD work. Damn, that's a month of 40 hr work weeks... And that doesn't take into account any time in the garage. Woah.

Ya, don't do that, lol.

I just had to add up the costs for the touring CF doors for customs... wish I hadn't

[discoelk]

Adding up hours is like adding up receipts but worse.

[heinzboehmer]

Now imagine you’re managing a mechanical engineering team and need to estimate the time/resources it’s going to take to design a full product that doesn’t exist yet

For this exact reason my first maxim of project management is (somewhat tongue in cheek) "all project management is founded on lies"

In the thick of planning for next year at my real job. I feel the pain...

[karter16]

Now imagine you’re managing a mechanical engineering team and need to estimate the time/resources it’s going to take to design a full product that doesn’t exist yet

For this exact reason my first maxim of project management is (somewhat tongue in cheek) "all project management is founded on lies"

[Bry5on]

Now imagine you’re managing a mechanical engineering team and need to estimate the time/resources it’s going to take to design a full product that doesn’t exist yet

[heinzboehmer]

I love that PET-CF, I print every test project with that because it just looks so goooood 😂

It's amazing, isn't it? I was originally planning on painting these parts to match the stock ones, but they look so good straight out of the printer that I might not even bother.

Thanks for the info! I have a p2S but it’s in my office, so I haven’t ventured out beyond PLA yet.

Im also far behind you in terms of CAD ability! You’re next level!

Yeah fair enough. I wouldn't want to be working next to the printer when it's printing these materials.

And I still kinda suck at CAD, to be honest. I'm very stubborn though, so just spend a ton of time staring at the screen trying to figure it out


I was actually just talking to a friend about the time I've spent on this project. Realized the CAD suite stores the entire version history of a document, so I can estimate how much time I spent designing this stuff. Not a perfect representation as the version history is just a list of changes with their associated timestamps, so have to do a bit of guessing to figure out if I was working in between changes or not. Good enough though.

Anyway, estimate came out to ~150 hours of active CAD work. Damn, that's a month of 40 hr work weeks... And that doesn't take into account any time in the garage. Woah.

[Arclitgold]

Using a Bambu P1S, but I reeeally want a dual nozzle printer. That upgrade will probably be coming soon, but this one has been great for now.

And +1 to both things that Obioban said. The P1S has a filter on the chamber exhaust fan, but I still keep it in a separate room in the garage level that doesn't get much human traffic. I'll open up some doors to the outside if I'm printing stinky stuff for a long time and that seems to keep the fumes under control.

Thanks for the info! I have a p2S but it’s in my office, so I haven’t ventured out beyond PLA yet.

Im also far behind you in terms of CAD ability! You’re next level!

[fattycharged]

I love that PET-CF, I print every test project with that because it just looks so goooood 😂


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[heinzboehmer]

I really have no idea how frequently I should be changing my printer's air filter.

Can't wait to add this next year to my CoreONE: https://www.prusa3d.com/applications...h-indx_243519/

Feels like it should have most the benefits of multiple nozzles, but with up to 8 different materials.

Man, that's super cool.

Am definitely eyeing the Prusa machines as an upgrade to my current one. But I don't need to upgrade, so process has been slow.