Black & Tan 332iT

[Bry5on]

Looks awesome. Are you still running only the outer RTAB limiters on the RTABs? Any issues there? Im guessing not.

Still running them and it’s still my favorite setup!

I knew your car was coming to George's shop at some point, didn't realize you were also coming with it. If I had known sooner I would have gladly come out and helped.

I have some details to finish up on the floor pan and should be ready to ship by this weekend.

It all came together pretty fast once I found a shipping truck and coordinated coverage back home. Wish I’d had more time to pick a date way up front and then we could have done this all a little more coordinated. I’m in Austin at least a few times a year for work so there will be other chances for sure!

[bigjae46]

I knew your car was coming to George's shop at some point, didn't realize you were also coming with it. If I had known sooner I would have gladly come out and helped.

I have some details to finish up on the floor pan and should be ready to ship by this weekend.

[0-60motorsports]

Looks awesome. Are you still running only the outer RTAB limiters on the RTABs? Any issues there? Im guessing not.

[heinzboehmer]

Good stuff! Amusing seeing "Heinz" sprinkled in the notes

[karter16]

Ha, it sure was! And if you'd believe it - the plan was to finish the hatch, doors and trunk floor too! There was just too much finish work on the carbon parts to be able to pull it off with the available time. And we also threw in all four window regulators and vapor barriers for fun, plus a few other smaller things.

Oh man!! yeah good call to take the time and do it right and good as well that you've proven out the approach. Amazing work as always.

[Bry5on]

Epic work! That's a lot to get done at once!

Ha, it sure was! And if you'd believe it - the plan was to finish the hatch, doors and trunk floor too! There was just too much finish work on the carbon parts to be able to pull it off with the available time. And we also threw in all four window regulators and vapor barriers for fun, plus a few other smaller things.

[karter16]

Epic work! That's a lot to get done at once!

[Bry5on]

Days 5 and 6 were thankfully more chill. Got the factory fresh vertical chrome shadow line trim installed in everything but the front doors (carbon doors will get those). Replaced the rear rear door glass trim using the excellent @malapane trick and boy what a nice subtle improvement. Also installed the hatch and trim, plugged sunroof drain holes, got the IR comfort windshield installed, bench flashed a mullet tune and George gave me a ride back to the airport so I can make the trip home. We’ll ship the car back to SD in the coming weeks and George has agreed to shake the car out with a very critical eye for me

Jobs waiting for me at home are installing a rain sensor prism (can’t get sedan/touring comfort windshield with rain/light sense), doing the bigjae46 trunk floor and M3 muffler, then attacking carbon trimming on the door and sending doors, hatch, mirrors out for paint before assembling everything. After fitting my stock hatch, we realized that the carbon one is the exact same shape 😅 so no issues there.

So far just a cruise since the windshield is setting but the cabin is definitely quieter without the sunroof!! Super pleasant result. Can’t wait to toss it into some corners now, and to get George’s longer term thoughts.

What a great trip, thank you George!!!


*wave goodbye*

[Bry5on]

well, damn. this is awesome. so.... attila's mirror bases, then... M3 mirror bodies, and pre-facelift E9x mirror glass? slick. very very slick. what mirror motor - E9x?

very curious to hear about the end result on the lighter-duty hatch struts as well.

so.... when is Phase 2 happening?

e90 pre-LCI sport mirror glass, e46 mirror motor.

The current circuit we have wired does activate dimming but it doesn’t utilize the full range of dimming, so I’ll design something that fixes that

But the wires to the glass are
Brown: Shared Ground
Red: Mirror heating switched 12V
Purple: Mirror dimming switched 12V (switched on when dimming should be active)
Black: Mirror dimming signal 0-1.3V depending on dimness

Currently I have the mirror wired to Brown and Purple directly to the 0-1.3V signal from the central mirror itself. This will dim the unit but not full range. George and his epic collection of cars were invariable in their assistance in the end to get this down, as the ETS doesn’t have this info.

Many electrochromatic mirror glasses were harmed in the making of this post.

[Bry5on]

Day 4 at HPB:
Bonded the roof rail clips, removed the carbon door - back to steel, finished the M3 mirror install, debugged and determined how the e90 side view mirrors dim, and made them dim 😎.

We will leave the carbon doors and hatch for another time as the doors need some detail work and this way I can paint everything before install. We did determine that e93 trunk struts are a good option for the lighter hatch and are ordering something that should nail it from the stabilus catalog for the future. Also it looks like the quad exhaust has to wait, as the donor M3 floor wasn’t quite good enough, and the carbon one didn’t quite make it in time.

[Bry5on]

Body matched slicktop^2 rails going in. ‘Bonding’ retaining clips With adhesive tape:

[Bry5on]

Final tally, 59lb. Hot damn.

Sunroof roof 33.5lb
Sunroof glass 14 (Heinz)
Sunroof cassette 16.5 (Heinz)
Sunroof extra shit 4.5 (3.5 is headliner cover, 4oz wiring harness, bee stinger, roof drains, etc)
Sunroof headliner 7

Total ~75

Carbon roof 8lb
Slicktop headliner 5.7
Roof bar 2.3lb
Epoxy .3lb

Total ~16
4.7% body roll reduction

7.3% reduction with hatch, F doors, trunk floor
- Doors 1.6%
- Hatch .8%
- Trunk floor .2%

Day 3 at HPB:

[Bry5on]

Day 2 at HPB. Got a full day in today.

[Bry5on]

So I was at George Hill's shop for a week working on the car, and I updated to the beta iOS just beforehand, which as it turns out is not compatible with this forum! So here I am, catching you all up.

bigjae46 and I have been coordinating him producing a carbon trunk floor that can be bonded and riveted in for a year or so now and timing was SO close to aligning while I was in Austin to do the other carbon work. I brought along an extra section 2 and ZHP quad exhaust valance and George had an M3 muffler on hand. We even had a backup plan where George picked up a convertible M3 shell, but it turns out that floor pan was damaged! So to preface all this, you won't see me install the M3 trunk floor and EVAP hardware (that EthanolTurbo has kindly agreed to supply from HIS donor) in this series of updates, but you'll see lots of other good stuff!

On to my updates that were originally posted on e46f in real time here

Day (evening) 1 at HPB:

[bigjae46]

I am making the CF M3 trunk floor for Bry5on. I was working long hours to try and get it done on time. Two problems. First, never rush composites work because it never goes well. Second, I'm old and the weather in Houston just turned to its usual summer swelter. I didn't make it.

I could have made it if the part was smaller then I could risk using a faster cure epoxy. First time infusing on this mold which is not flat, not sure how long it would have taken. In the end, it would have been close.

Straight out of the mold! Not perfect cosmetically but looks good! I used a parts car to pull the mold and had to leave the EVAP canister mount in. The underside and ground were disgusting and there was no way I could block off the opening within the timeframe I had. I think I can make that from CF as well so that can be riveted and bonded onto the part.




So I didn't make it to Austin which is a huge bummer! I really wanted to see an epic wagon and it is always cool meeting forum members in person.