Obioban's 2005 IR/IR Coupe

[Obioban]

The clear bra that I had put on the car 12 years ago had started to really look bad.. so my wife and I spent all 3 days this weekend removing the clear bra, cleaning the adhesive left behind, claying and waxing the car. Miserable process... and would have taken twice as long I had to do it again.

The clear bra served me well for the first ~8 years, but, in retrospect... better to do resprays as the car starts to look chipped up. This was WAY too much work to remove.



On the plus side, the car looks awesome again...

... and by the time we were done tonight, it was too dark to take pictures.

Mid project, after clear bra and adhesive removed, but before clay or wax:



^and according to that picture, there's a monster living in my fender :bugeye:

[Obioban]

Life is good.

[Obioban]

Valve train continues to look awesomely clean at 144,000 miles. No valve clearances needed adjustment :roll:





Awwww yeaaah.

My new track wheels, and forth set of RACs. RS-110's in 9.5 et35 square



8000 ton forged by the Champion Motorsport factory.

[Obioban]

This is actually the second time I've had a set. I kind of wonder if they're actually the same set, since there's not that many total sets out there, and even less in gun metal.

Previous set, with 285 square mounted up:

[Obioban]

Did this garage mod last night. Should make rebuild the M5 a more pleasant experience (not that I've heard back yet if it's totaled or not).

[Obioban]

got a copy of Paffy's awesome MSSMapper software.

For those that don't know, MSSMapper lets you load up to 8 tunes on to your ECU and the switch between them on the fly using your steering wheel cruise control buttons (when cruise control is off-- when its on, cruise control functions as normal). It then indicates which tune your on by the tach needle briefly going to 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, or 7 (to indicate tune 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7).

Video of the software in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-DLseJ182Y

Screen shot of the software interface:



My tune plan is:
0: 87 octane map
1: 91 octane map
2: 93 octane with 7800 rpm rev limiter map (going to use this for drifting to lower what it's bouncing off of
3: 93 octane 8200 rpm redline map (this will be the default map the car starts up in)
4: Map 3 but with small burble/pop
5: Map 3 but with medium burble/pop
6: Map 3 but with lots of burble/pop
7: Race fuel map

I'm excited!

[Obioban]

Had the M3 professionally and abrasively polished, for the first time ever. Addressed the swirls permenantly, and addressed the clear bra line. Looks better than it's looked in a decade :roll:

[Obioban]

I had a chance to install these on my car last weekend, and I'm exceedingly pleased with them! They are completely silent, did not add any perceptible NHV, and being sealed from the bottom should keep the monoball operating freely (and silently) for a long time to come.

Here's excited for them...
Traditionally there's two types of RSMs: Bushing based or monoball based. Both have tradeoffs.

Bushing based RSMs must to be soft enough the angle of the shock to change, at various points on the suspensions travel (so that the shock doesn't bind, and/or ruin its seals-- more important on higher end shocks, but always useful). This solution meant low NHV, but the precision with which the shock could control the wheel was significantly restricted by the need for fairly soft bushings. Most of my cars life has been on these.

Traditional monoball based RSMs allow complete shock articulation and 100% precision, but transferred NHV is very significant (annoying). Over time, the monoballs themselves can get noisy as they are not sealed from dirt. Good for race cars, not great for street cars or street driven track cars. I ran these for ~10,000 miles before I got fed up with them.

ECS's new Polyurethane-isolated monoball RSMs are very much the best of both worlds. They have a bushing, but that bushing is only responsible for NHV control-- the monoball is there to allow to shock to articulate. That means they can use a much stiffer bushings, allowing the shock to be much more precise in its wheel control. They also include a gasket to seal the bearing from below, which should keep the monoball operating as new for a much longer time than traditional, unsealed monoball RSMs.

The result is just kick ass. Almost all of the precision of a full monoball RSMs, no perceptible increase in NHV. It's the perfect RSM for anything other than a dedicated race car, IMO!

Some pictures from ECS's site, because I didn't remember to take any:









I'm super pleased with them

[Obioban]

Had a snow day today, so started digging into a fairly large project on the M3-- my Avin3 project... with associated "while I'm in there" items.
Basic concept:
-replace every module in the trunk with the avin. This will mean plugging the speakers directly into the avin, using its internal amp
-since all modules are removed, remove the entire stereo wiring harness. This should save 15-20 lbs by itself (not yet clear on the weight of the nav stereo harness)
-relocate the battery under the hood, to the drug big (since my 5.7 lb battery isn't contributing to weight distribution). Eliminate the way overkill for my battery mounting brackets
-remove the 8 lb battery cable that runs from the front of the car to the rear
-remove all the US only padding behind the dashboard (the USA has a safety standard for unbelted occupants, that the dash need a certain about of squish. I wear my seatbelt, so that does not concern me
-mail my LCM to Terra for software updating, since I won't be running the intravee anymore and still want triple blink
-update my cluster to black gauge faces

The first step in this is removing... pretty much the entire interior. For various aspects of the project I need the dash out, door cards out, carpet out, trunk liner out, etc etc... so... pretty much all of it :lolhit:

Everything but the dash is now out. Still trying to figure out what securing it by the pillars, but it might just be the weather stripping. Alex is going to send me a picture of a removed dash in that area tomorrow, so I can make sure I didn't miss any fasteners.

Parts are mostly contained in my (not yet road ready) e39 530i storage locker:Attached Images

[Obioban]

Pulled the US spec padding off the steering wheel trim already:Attached Images

[Obioban]

Terra pointed out to me that the euro glove box is different (lighter, more spacious) than the US spec one, because of the lack of padding built into it... so I guess I'm going to have to order one of those upAttached 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

[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]

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 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