Obioban's 2005 IR/IR Coupe

[Obioban]

Other than seats (and airbag-- waiting to make sure the steering wheel is straight to put that in), the car is finally back together. I'll be putting at least the driver seat in today or tomorrow.

This project spiraled WAY out of control. As in, I spent 100+ hours on this. I'm not going to say I'm glad I did it (sooooo much work), but I am going to say I'm super excited for the results!

In total, the project consisted of...
-remove all factory stereo modules, the stereo wiring harness, and all factory stereo mount brackets. Replace with Avin (which has all the stock module functionality built in) and make a new (tiny) wiring harness for the speakers, plugging them directly into the Avin
-do the above without altering the factory chassis harness at all. I did this entirely, 100% with the Avin only connecting to the chassis with the factory 7 pin chassis to stereo harness plug behind the dash. My goal here was to not have the chassis electronics be compromised in any way. This harness has everything you need for the Avin-- ibus, interior light dimming, ignition power, antenna power
-fuse all aftermarket electronic systems through new fuses in the factory fuse box. No vampire clips or inline fuses exist on my car any longer
-integrate aftermarket system functionality to factory buttons
-wrap all wiring bundles (OE and aftermarket) in OEM fabric tape, secure all wiring to the chassis with OE mounting hardware.
-relocate battery to the "drug bin" The idea here was that the 5.7 lithium polymer battery I'm running isn't meaningfully contributing to weight distribution, but the 8 lb battery cable that runs from the rear of the car to the front is making it heavier.
-relocate and downsize the washer tank to the drug bin. This car is no longer a DD, and never sees winter use, so I don't need anything like a full size washer tank... but I also don't want none, in a pinch. So, I have a ~1 pint tank in the drug bin now, as well. With the stock tank being in the front bumper, this should restore some of the 50/50 lost from not having a heavy battery in the trunk. It'll also make it easier to add brake ducting down the road.

And, add a ton of functionality via the Avin Avant 3, which is the first head unit that's look stock enough that I was comfortable running it in my car:
-CarPlay
-Waze
-YaV1 to add GPS filtering to the V1
-Extra gauges and code pulling on the fly via Torque

Between the seats and the electronics reduction (without functionality reduction), the car should be well over 100 lbs lighter (not including the battery).

Some pics...


New, Harmon Kardon branding free, speaker covers


Increased trunk space carpeting (no door/rack for the CD changer/nav)


What's behind that carpeting now


Vs before (not my car)


New battery location, with the washer tank visible (pump not installed yet)


And in the area where the battery used to be installed, it turns out BMW makes a deeper storage bin! Key pictured for scale.Attached Images

[Obioban]

This wiring project is taking WAY longer than I expected, and I don't recommend anyone ever do it

That said, I like it spiral a bit out of control-- the project expanding to include redoing all aftermarket wiring, including adding it to bespoke fuses in the factory fusebox. Plus the battery relocation. And I'm redoing all the wiring in factory style tape bundles with factory mounting clips. Endless.

Anyway... the end is finally starting to be in sight. Couple of pics, just for fun...

New battery location, along with my 1 pint washer tank (I rarely need it with how I use the M3 these days, but don't want to be stuck without any fluid). Battery is only 5.7 lbs, so it wasn't doing anything meaningful for weight distribution in the trunk. The battery cable that runs to the rear of the car is 8 lbs... heavier than my battery

Hopefully moving the washer fluid tank back against the firewall will undo some of the weight distribution change from the light weight battery...



And the area that used to have the stereo in it. As a reminder, I'm losing no functionality losing all this stuff, as it's all internal to the Avin:



Hoping to have it finally back completely together in a week or two.

Really hoping she'll be under the symbolic 3000 lb mark, with full interior and a quiet muffler, after this project. It's going to be close either way!Attached Images

[Obioban]

Coming soon

OE BMW seat header pads installed by Cobra, with adjustable lumbar, to be installed on factory BMW e46 sliders.

I'm excited!Attached Images

[Obioban]

This is feeling like a very 1 way road I'm going down.

Got the dash out, and an amusing pic of my new, light weight washer tank Attached Images

[Obioban]

One more project tonight— convert the gauges to black. My thought process was: I prefer black to grey on the e39 M5 (it came with both, depending on year), higher contrast makes them easy to read, and this should have less light bleed through.

I should have put the rubber bits back on the knobs before taking a pictureAttached Images