Black & Tan 332iT

[tlow98]

Ah, didn't realize you did the roof rails, as well, you animal. Can it be done without removing the headliner? Big weight savings!

And my back-of-the-napkin says a George Hill carbon roof might drop the same amount in weight and not quite as much CG. Sounds lovely.

[Bry5on]

And now the roof is naked. The rack setup ended up weighing 49lbs and removing it dropped the CG height by a half inch.

[tlow98]

That paint job 😋. Tasty!

[Bry5on]

So we're not done with yesterday just yet. After I was free and clear, I headed to the machine shop to knock another thing off my list, because while I was working on the vincebar, my mtech-2 bumper insert with trailer hitch cutout showed up. You can see where this is going.

We're trying to make this here: Onshape

I started with a scrap block of aluminum and cut it roughly to size:


Then migrated my way over to the Bridgeport to start taking shape. First removed a bunch of material to create a clevis:


Then flipped it over and drilled/power-tapped the hole pattern to mate to the euro tow bar (plus a test fit):


Then I flipped it on its side and drilled two 5/8" holes all the way through both sides of the clevis so that it can bolt directly to the adapter used in Stealth Hitch kits (same system we have on the Macan) like this:


After a quick deburr and clean, assembled it all together, threw it in the trunk of the jag and went home:


And that brings us to this morning, where things get exciting between coats of paint on the vincebar. I popped the bumper off, removed the standard mtech-2 bumper insert, trimmed a section of the bumper beam, removed the bumper shocks and installed the hitch. It fit like a glove with just enough room to comfortably actuate the hand lever of the Stealth Hitches adapter:


And here it is in all its glory, no additional trimming required, great placement, centered with plenty of driveway clearance:


And that's it for the hitch install! The factory setup was rated for over 4,000lb of towing capacity but only 165lb of tongue load. Not a problem for me since I'm planning to use this to hold two mountain bikes on a 1up rack, which will total about 120lbs. This 2" receiver is totally removable and can be detached and hidden in about 30 seconds.

It's worth noting that this is the factory BMW version of the hitch, made for BMW by Westfalia, and different from the Westfalia version available today because this one is aluminum and about half the weight. Of course I weighed everything, and after subtracting out the 8lb weight of the bumper shocks, I've added just 18lb to the rear of the car, vs 55+ of the roof rack setup. Once the rack comes off, I'll come in at ~3440lb and 49.4/50.6% weight distribution with a half tank, which is almost dead on for a stock e46 M3. Pleased with this outcome once again!

I'll drive the car tomorrow after a full 48 hours of epoxy curing, but for these two, no noticeable change is best.

[Bry5on]

Alright, here come even more pictures to make this thread take longer to load.

Yesterday was a big enough day that I had to drive the other car all weekend:


We had some contractors over, and I was stuck at home 'just in case' so you all know what that means. It started off with finally taking the plunge on cutting out a section of my trunk floor to install the stealth vincebar. Tourings must use the stealth version to make sure all the extra flooring clears and can still be bolted down onto the existing studs. I masked the car off and had a go with the cutoff wheel..


I'd already drilled and tapped through for the vincebar while I did the subframe previously, so once the cutting was done, I took to flattening the "T" stiffener in the floor with a combination of chisels and drifts. It flattened out fine, and where it depressed lower than the floor level, I made sure to add some extra epoxy so we're all fine. So, flattening, grinding, and drilling for rivets:


Then we bond prep for the Teroson EP 5055 structural epoxy, I bonded the full length of the bar to capitalize on as much stiffness as I can get from this thing:


And install and prep for paint:


Then after 24 hours of curing today I added a little bit of knead-epoxy underneath the studs to give the trunk floor some support and hit it with a coat of paint. BAM look at that:


Also, while I was in the garage, I replaced the damn exhaust cam sensor o-ring that'd developed a leak I could smell from inside the cabin:


And that rounds out the vincebar. Second post coming in hot.