Karter16's Silbergrau E46 M3 Journal

[karter16]

Well I haven't had many updates the last couple of months - it's mostly been a case of hurry up and wait on parts deliveries, I've now received most of the parts I ordered back in June both for the rear shock mount brace install, as well as the OE parts needed for the CSL airbox install (just waiting on the factory to do a run of CSL dipstick tubes). A few weeks ago I also ordered a set of A/B/C pillar trims. I had been planning to go down the route of covering with BM-3109, but then discovered that the plastic mounting points on my current trims are damaged, and that I was therefore going to have to fork out for a new set. I ordered those a few weeks ago and looks as though they should arrive at the end of the year or so.

Last Friday I also dropped off the RSM brace to be powder coated, and yesterday it was ready to be picked up. I opted for matte black, as it matches the OE powder coat finish on items like the front strut bar, etc. My goal with this install is to make it look as OE as possible.

[karter16]

Another piece of the RSM/RACP brace puzzle arrived today.

As part of doing the brace the rear trim and carpet needs to be cut for the brace. I'd rather not cut up my original pieces so am sourcing spares. This one though I had to buy new as finding one in New Zealand was too much of a struggle. The left hand side trim that came with my car includes the larger space for the CD stacker, etc. Given I've removed the stacker and am just running the hi-fi amp I wanted to get the left hand trim to go with it so that I have more boot space (plus it will be an easier cut for the brace.

I was fortunate to find one on eBay at a very reasonable price with $39 international shipping (which was about $250 cheaper than shipping via Schmiedmann or the like) so I jumped on it, and it arrived today.

Also apologies to anyone who is upset by me planning to cut up a brand new item. It upsets me too 🙃

BNIB

[nyc951]

I took a small, and carefully controlled amount of flame to the buttons on the front seat belt latches today.

First up - please note that this process works to remove white oxidation and restore the red colour, but it will not work if the surface of the plastic has degraded too far. do not do this if you have any breakdown of the surface of the button.

To begin with I carefully cleaned the surface of the button. If you're going to heat up the surface of the plastic you do NOT want any dirt, skin oils, grime, etc. to be on the button. To ensure that I cleaned this well I used a small piece of magic eraser (note that magic eraser is abrasive and wouldn't normally be recommended on car surfaces, however in this case because we're effectively resurfacing the button the slight abrasion doesn't matter and helps make sure that all the dirt is removed). For the cleaning step I used the magic eraser with warm water with dish soap in it and gave the button a good scrub (be careful to not let water get down into the latch), making sure I worked carefully around the raised "PRESS" letters. I then rinsed off the remaining soap with several rounds of clean water, before carefully drying the button with paper towel. I then left it a few minutes to ensure all moisture on the surface of the button had evaporated.

Next step is to carefully use aluminium foil to shield the rest of the latch. I was very careful to make sure that the foil wasn't touching the button surface as we don't want to be accidentally bonding things to other things that they shouldn't be. I then used a towel to shield the wider area.

This resulted in something that looked like this:



The next step is to apply the fire. Firstly, ensure that you take all normal precautions around the use of fire. Secondly, make sure that your fire is clean burning. I used one of these because no matter how long I had a go at a piece of tin foil I could not get it to leave any carbon residue. If your preferred fire source leaves any carbon residue (black soot) at all, do not use it.



I did not take photos of applying the fire. My advice is to go slow and carefully get closer with the flame jet until you see the surface change. I made sure to keep the jet moving the entire time and I took several breaks to ensure that I didn't get any part of the surface too hot. You do not want to end up applying too much heat in one place for too long and causing bubbling or smoking, you want just enough for as short a time as possible to get the surface to glass up. By being careful and going slow I was able to get a perfect result with no mistakes, it's a straightforward process so long as you carefully prepare and take your time.

Hopefully it goes without saying to not touch the button or the foil for some minutes until the plastic has cooled.

I'm very happy with the end result:






And the passenger side:





I don't need to do the rear seats as they already look perfect, so this job is done!

Thanks for posting. Great job

[karter16]

I took a small, and carefully controlled amount of flame to the buttons on the front seat belt latches today.

First up - please note that this process works to remove white oxidation and restore the red colour, but it will not work if the surface of the plastic has degraded too far. do not do this if you have any breakdown of the surface of the button.

To begin with I carefully cleaned the surface of the button. If you're going to heat up the surface of the plastic you do NOT want any dirt, skin oils, grime, etc. to be on the button. To ensure that I cleaned this well I used a small piece of magic eraser (note that magic eraser is abrasive and wouldn't normally be recommended on car surfaces, however in this case because we're effectively resurfacing the button the slight abrasion doesn't matter and helps make sure that all the dirt is removed). For the cleaning step I used the magic eraser with warm water with dish soap in it and gave the button a good scrub (be careful to not let water get down into the latch), making sure I worked carefully around the raised "PRESS" letters. I then rinsed off the remaining soap with several rounds of clean water, before carefully drying the button with paper towel. I then left it a few minutes to ensure all moisture on the surface of the button had evaporated.

Next step is to carefully use aluminium foil to shield the rest of the latch. I was very careful to make sure that the foil wasn't touching the button surface as we don't want to be accidentally bonding things to other things that they shouldn't be. I then used a towel to shield the wider area.

This resulted in something that looked like this:



The next step is to apply the fire. Firstly, ensure that you take all normal precautions around the use of fire. Secondly, make sure that your fire is clean burning. I used one of these because no matter how long I had a go at a piece of tin foil I could not get it to leave any carbon residue. If your preferred fire source leaves any carbon residue (black soot) at all, do not use it.



I did not take photos of applying the fire. My advice is to go slow and carefully get closer with the flame jet until you see the surface change. I made sure to keep the jet moving the entire time and I took several breaks to ensure that I didn't get any part of the surface too hot. You do not want to end up applying too much heat in one place for too long and causing bubbling or smoking, you want just enough for as short a time as possible to get the surface to glass up. By being careful and going slow I was able to get a perfect result with no mistakes, it's a straightforward process so long as you carefully prepare and take your time.

Hopefully it goes without saying to not touch the button or the foil for some minutes until the plastic has cooled.

I'm very happy with the end result:






And the passenger side:





I don't need to do the rear seats as they already look perfect, so this job is done!

[karter16]

Change those philips for some sochet head screws, or filister ones (torx) for a factory look.

Yep as I said in my post the bolts are temporary for testing fitment :-)

[maupineda]

Change those philips for some sochet head screws, or filister ones (torx) for a factory look.

[karter16]

Time for an update on the CAD projects.

CAD Project 1: SMG Expansion Tank bracket
I now have a reproduction of the OE bracket that the tank slots into. This is a simplified bracket that doesn't have mounting holes, or the stand off that the original does. That's because I will be mating this to the other part of the bracket that I'm working on. Anyway I'm happy to have this part done. I won't be able to mate the two parts of the bracket together and finalise the part until I actually have the intake in hand so I can ensure everything fits perfectly. So this project will go on ice until then.







CAD Project 2: Adapter for Bosch *101 MAP sensor
And excitingly the adapter for the Bosch 101 MAP sensor is now done! I have a final print in CF-PETG which I will now clean up and bond to the sensor.

Key differences from the last prototype I showed are:
- Return to 1.5mm stand-off. in the CF-PETG 1.5mm is more than strong enough and this allows a bit more of the nose of the sensor to fit into the rail.
- Ever so slightly widened body for better fitment.
- Slight changes to some of the fillets to match the sensor.




And here's some photos of it bolted to the rail (note that it is not bonded to the sensor in these photos). The bolt hardware is temporary just for demonstrating fitment.







I'll be using Loctite 401 to bond the bracket to the sensor. The sensor itself is PBT which can be a bit tricky to bond, however my research suggests that Loctite 401 should be suitable to bond PBT and PETG together (and be heat resistant enough for the application).

I'll post the end result when I have it all sorted.

[karter16]

Recently I picked up a matte screen protector for the headunit. I wanted to give it a go and see if it would be an improvement over the glare that you get from the glossy head-unit screen.

I wasn't able to find one exactly the right size so had to cut to size (which I got wrong slightly as you'll see in the photos). But it's good enough to try it out. If I decide I want to do this permanently I'll pull the head unit out and disassemble it so that I can get the screen protector across the entire surface of the screen so it sits perfectly behind the bezel.

It's quite a big improvement. In the photos below I intentionally didn't clean the surface protector once it was on, so it has my fingerprints all over it. With direct lighting from behind onto the screen this was the most reflection I could get:



And here's a couple of other photos (again with the same lighting conditions but photo taken slightly off-axis.





I'm very happy with this so will try it out in driving conditions over the next few weeks and if I decide I want this permanently I'll pull the unit out and do it properly :-)

[karter16]

Ah ok, technically the connector is 1928403966, just making sure you got all the parts you needed. The kit from 3way even with international shipping is ridiculously cheap, nice find. I'll be ordering from them from now on.

Thanks for double checking - yep I ordered the kit (this one: https://www.3waycomponents.co.uk/pro...it-1928403966/) so it comes with the terminals, etc.

Yeah I live in New Zealand so we get screwed over with shipping on absolutely everything - I think I spent about twice as much time finding the cheapest combination of item cost + shipping for this lot of parts as I did assembling the list of what I needed! 🙈

[George Hill]

Yep 1928403966 is indeed the one I've ordered. (From 3 Way Components in the UK). Like you for the minimal extra cost I'd rather have genuine Bosch.

Ah ok, technically the connector is 1928403966, just making sure you got all the parts you needed. The kit from 3way even with international shipping is ridiculously cheap, nice find. I'll be ordering from them from now on.

[karter16]

Also, the COVID-19 and all of the other kits I found online for the wiring look like they are using replica terminals. I've used them in the past with success but I just found the OE Bosch numbers:
1928403966
1928498056 x3
1928300599 x3

Bought from Chief Enterprises, LLC in Illinois

Yep 1928403966 is indeed the one I've ordered. (From 3 Way Components in the UK). Like you for the minimal extra cost I'd rather have genuine Bosch.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[karter16]

I just trimmed some material off the nose of the sensor and it fit ok. I did use a larger o-ring (no idea what it was from) and with the larger o-ring the slight misalignment of the mounting bolt hole doesn't really matter, it sits relatively flat. I know you are already going with this adapter and it certainly is going to look cool, just not sure its 100% needed functionally wise.

Also the BMW MAP sensor bolts are to short, you'll need something longer, I used a cam/crank sensor bolt IIRC.

Oh agreed - I think I said a few posts back that you can just trim the nose (and change o-ring) and do it that way. I'm not suggesting this is the only way to do it. I'm making up this adapter just because and because the end result should look nice and tidy.

Haha yes it occurred to me yesterday that the bolts will be too short. I hadn't paid enough attention to what the original CSL sensor looked like and missed that the mounting points were a lot shorter.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[George Hill]

There is also this version if you want the cool locking feature

My thinking was to get the Bosch terminals, the 966 connector is already hideous enough, lol. Luckily its not visible with the microfilter housing on.

[Slideways]

Also, the COVID-19 and all of the other kits I found online for the wiring look like they are using replica terminals. I've used them in the past with success but I just found the OE Bosch numbers:
1928403966
1928498056 x3
1928300599 x3

Bought from Chief Enterprises, LLC in Illinois

There is also this version if you want the cool locking feature

[George Hill]

Also, the COVID-19 and all of the other kits I found online for the wiring look like they are using replica terminals. I've used them in the past with success but I just found the OE Bosch numbers:
1928403966
1928498056 x3
1928300599 x3

Bought from Chief Enterprises, LLC in Illinois