Black & Tan 332iT

[Bry5on]

Got a chance to install the driver's side bracket today, and learned everything I needed to learn. Next version will be 4mm higher, 8mm to the center of the car (same as Brey Krause), and I've figured out a better way to do the fwd/aft electric motion, so I'll delete those little mounting holes.

As measured, I'm currently sitting 18.5 (~3/4") lower than the Grey Krause mounts, which was exactly my target. I'm pretty stoked. V2 will be coming in soon

Also, I caught the car in really good light and snapped a photo of the interior front/rear seat color match. Photos always show up looking so much nicer on my phone..


edit: v2, this should do it

[heinzboehmer]

not loooking forward to bleeding that master. I think I’ll back bleed it by removing the calipers, compressing them with the pedal (filling the pistons), swap MCs, then back bleed by compressing the caliper pistons again. I’m hoping that will get most of the job done, but MCs can be a real bitch.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure mine still isn't fully bled after doing the MK60 swap. Have done multiple power bleeds and pedal still feels kinda weird in the first part of its travel.

Might try what you described next

[Casa de Mesa]

Thanks, glad to hear someone else is into mountain biking! My friends got into gravel riding recently so I’ve finally built one of those up just to be able to keep riding with my buddies. It’s pretty good too, not the same though.

Thankfully my buddies out here all are chunky dirt fiends Though, I used to road ride and can see the appeal of not being out on the open roads with people who text and drive, but still get the same kind of burn you can only get with road-bike geo and flatter terrain (i.e., not singletrack or downhill).

For the squeaks, I’m basically using five things(in order of quantity); 3/4” tesa tape, 2” tesa tape, cut to size adhesive backed felt sheets, cut to size adhesive backed 3/8” closed cell foam, and 1” x ~1/8” butyl rolls. Between those five, you can get just about everything.

Brilliant. Wish I would have known about this when my car was in a 1,000 pieces earlier this year. When I redo the interior, I'll tackle this. Appreciate the details, just dumped this into my OneNote.

Version 2, which has been going strong for several weeks now, dead simple, and I’m confident it’s good (.063” stainless)

Wow, that is MUCH simpler than I envisioned, lol.

Nice eye. The small holes are for the yet to be designed Mount for the fwd/aft seat motor switch. I haven’t really decided if that’ll be sheet metal or 3D printed yet.

Those brackets are pretty slick. Love the ingenuity.

Can't wait to follow along with these updates.

[kaiv]

This touring couldn't have gone to a better home! ☺

[Bry5on]

Nice, those look great. What did you make them out of?

Went with 11ga A36 steel. Easy to bend, not a lot of spring back, cheap and plenty strong.

This build is awesome! Absolutely everything about it - the chassis, attention to detail and thought that went into it are all amazing. Thanks for taking the time to post details about it.

I also very much like that you have something with knobbly bit tires on top of it Mountain biking is my number 2 interest behind the automotive drug, so always love it when I see people combining the two hobbies like this.

Have a few questions for you're willing.



How did you felt them? Is there a cloth tape you used (easy) or are you doing something similar to flocking a dashboard and apply adhesive + small fibers (more involved) on the hidden, overlapping areas?



Have any pics of this? Curious how you joined section 1.

This pic below - what are the small holes for? For a x-mas tree clips to secure wiring or do they have another function? Those Recaros look spot on in the car, BTW.







Especially MCs. Brakes aren't so bad, but bleeding MCs and the ABS unit... one of my least favorite things.

Thanks, glad to hear someone else is into mountain biking! My friends got into gravel riding recently so I’ve finally built one of those up just to be able to keep riding with my buddies. It’s pretty good too, not the same though.

I’ll try to hit all the questions one by one:

For the squeaks, I’m basically using five things(in order of quantity); 3/4” tesa tape, 2” tesa tape, cut to size adhesive backed felt sheets, cut to size adhesive backed 3/8” closed cell foam, and 1” x ~1/8” butyl rolls. Between those five, you can get just about everything.

Version 1 of the SSv1 bracket, which didn’t pass the fatigue test after 1 week of driving (.032 titanium):


Version 2, which has been going strong for several weeks now, dead simple, and I’m confident it’s good (.063” stainless):



Nice eye. The small holes are for the yet to be designed Mount for the fwd/aft seat motor switch. I haven’t really decided if that’ll be sheet metal or 3D printed yet.

not loooking forward to bleeding that master. I think I’ll back bleed it by removing the calipers, compressing them with the pedal (filling the pistons), swap MCs, then back bleed by compressing the caliper pistons again. I’m hoping that will get most of the job done, but MCs can be a real bitch.

[Casa de Mesa]

This build is awesome! Absolutely everything about it - the chassis, attention to detail and thought that went into it are all amazing. Thanks for taking the time to post details about it.

I also very much like that you have something with knobbly bit tires on top of it Mountain biking is my number 2 interest behind the automotive drug, so always love it when I see people combining the two hobbies like this.

Have a few questions for you're willing.

Every piece of plastic that touches something has been felted, there are no squeaks in this car

How did you felt them? Is there a cloth tape you used (easy) or are you doing something similar to flocking a dashboard and apply adhesive + small fibers (more involved) on the hidden, overlapping areas?

SS V1 headers + catted section 1 (joined both pipes together to keep the tubes from resonating/vibrating at idle)

Have any pics of this? Curious how you joined section 1.

This pic below - what are the small holes for? For a x-mas tree clips to secure wiring or do they have another function? Those Recaros look spot on in the car, BTW.

Install the M3 brake master and booster (I hate bleeding brakes)

Especially MCs. Brakes aren't so bad, but bleeding MCs and the ABS unit... one of my least favorite things.

[heinzboehmer]

Nice, those look great. What did you make them out of?

[Bry5on]

Got some time on the machines, first articles are done. Test fit to come this weekend, these will be as low as possible with the OEM sliders.

[0-60motorsports]

Awesome build!

[Bry5on]

I was feeling motivated last night, so I finally signed up for OnShape and designed up some seat mount brackets for the recaros that still use the OEM electric sliders. There are a couple really tight clearances under there so I added two different mounting options. I'm hoping that one of them clears as I'd love to sit just a little bit lower (~3/4").




One option is biased to the center of the car like stock, but my legs max out the slider travel in this position. The other trades clearance to the bottom of the recaros by bringing the seats 4mm toward the door but gives me a half inch of extra rearward travel. Hopefully I'll get some time in the shop this weekend to knock these out, otherwise it'll be a while before I have free time.

[Bry5on]

Yeah thought that might be a bit of a deal breaker. Been meaning to swap in a stock diff cover, but I don't really drive my M3 too much on the street anymore, so it's not high on the priority list.

Well come on over if you ever do get to it. I also just got a set of quick jacks, so if you ever need a little bit of working room beyond your miniature garage..

[heinzboehmer]

Yeah thought that might be a bit of a deal breaker. Been meaning to swap in a stock diff cover, but I don't really drive my M3 too much on the street anymore, so it's not high on the priority list.

[Bry5on]

Nice, the front seats came out great!



You're welcome to drive mine whenever. Decently similar to yours. Only big differences I can think of are poly diff bushings and the springs.

Thanks, yeah the seats really worked out. I ended up having to modify the EEPROM data in the switching console to get all the heat levels to be the correct temp, but it's all gravy now.

Those diff bushings really invalidate the test I remember that you have more diff whine than I do and I'm sure it is mostly due to the poly bushings. Diff whine is my main concern for this car..

[heinzboehmer]

Nice, the front seats came out great!

Install solid subframe bushings (*maybe, I need rides in cars*)

You're welcome to drive mine whenever. Decently similar to yours. Only big differences I can think of are poly diff bushings and the springs.

[Bry5on]

I've been putting off starting this thread for a long time, and each time I work on the car I wish I had a place to drop updates. I'll start off here and fill in the details as I go along.

Background: I grew up working at my father's indy BMW/Mini shop, owned many BMWs, several Porsches and one 50 year old jag that's now electric. I'm an engineer, a couple different types by degree and trade and can't seem to leave my cars alone.

I was previously driving a '21 Taycan cross turismo 4s, which is a fantastic car, but it just didn't have the spirit of something fun and playful like some of the older cars with lower limits. I'd toyed with the idea of building an s54 e46 touring for years, and finally decided to plunge in. I called an old friend (Kaiv on the forums) who has gotten pretty good at these and asked about whether he knew of a clean black chassis wagon for sale. *Fun fact, I used to program some of Kaiv's s54 swaps some ten plus years ago, when I owned an e46 M3* Kevin did me one better and hooked me up with one of his already swapped and BAR'd cars from years past! It needed a lot of work but the engine and driveline were all in great running condition, and it saved me a lot of effort.

I picked it up in May this year as a black/grey swapped touring, lowered on soft springs (mostly bump stops) and it needed a significant amount of work to make it proper. Many invested hours later, it's now black/natural brown and has been completely gone through and drives about as close to a new e46 as any I've driven since I worked on them when they were new. It's my DD, so it must be smooth and quiet.

Some details:
2002 Sapphire black/natural brown/black cube 332iT
206k miles (time of post)
s54 engine with ~160k miles - vanos, bearings, cooling system, hoses, etc all replaced
M3 driveline, MK60, subframe, diff, suspension
ZCP+996 brakes (fit under 17s)
square 17x9 et46/et40 ARC-8 wheels (et52 with spacers)
245/40/17 PS4S tires
CSL airbox conversion, with working flap, and both sets of ducting routed to the brake duct (pre- and post-flap, custom ducting)
SS V1 headers + catted section 1 (joined both pipes together to keep the tubes from resonating/vibrating at idle)
Stock section 2 with welded e36 M3 muffler
Spare* SS dual 2.5" resonated section 2 and dual 2.5" e46 non-m swap muffler
ZHP bumpers and ZHP/M3 ducting
Custom control arm mounted brake cooling air scoops, passenger factory duct blanked off

Other OEM-like retrofits:
Wavetrac diff, new CV joints
M-track mode, DSC button wired to wiper stalk "S" intensive wash button
TPMS and sport button both function correctly (all console buttons I guess)
Recaro sportster CS seats, trimmed in natural brown with OEM compatible heating and electric fore/aft + memory
Retrofitted auto headlights & wipers + quad blink turn signals
AVIN Android/CarPlay head unit
BavSound speakers
Reverse camera
Alarm siren for lock/unlock
Lighted M3 shifter/boot
M3-like sedan dead pedal
Koni shocks for the stock springs
e89 Z4 stock RTABs + outer limiters and poly subframe bushings
ECS extra-adjustable lower control arms
All other bushings everywhere are M3 and new
Low profile roof rack with two mountain bike capable bike racks [since removed]
Every piece of plastic that touches something has been felted, there are no squeaks in this car
CSL alignment specs-ish but -2.1 camber in front
Auto-dim e46 style mirror with late-model, F10 rolling code homelink buttons and short grey clown nose
Hotchkis front sway bar with CSL bushings [since swapped to M3 cabrio for more rear liveliness]
CSL rear sway bar
19lb lithium antigravity battery
Cabrio steering column Bluetooth microphone
Custom DME tune (Mullet Tune) for drivability
OEM gloss black shadowline window trim (a la 330i ZHP)
Rebuilt 712 14.5:1 steering rack
LPSR solid steering shaft
Custom 30mm steering spacer for ergonomics
Stealth vincebar RACP reinforcement
Black headliner reupholstery with OEM thickness material
Custom Stealth hitches trailer hitch mount using factory BMW hitch adapter
Factory trailer hitch wiring with PDC disable
Front and Rear Park Distance Control with e39 console button retrofit
OEM M3 washer fluid reservoir setup + check valve
Roof rack/rail delete
Slon front strut/cowl brace, new windshield cowl cover
M3 rear v-brace


I think that's the most of it, stick here for updates as they come. On to a random selection of pictures..