Cement

3000 then 8000 sand then polish and it's looking pretty good. Still some fine sanding marks remain but at this stage i think it can be bonded on and will see about some more work on it later. Top priority now is making the Mad Max caulking gun

Slow progress still, but progress none the less !! Got 4 additional coats of clear on the roof last weekend which was great, less orange peel than last time and no new fish eyes thanks to triple cleaning with wax n grease remover. However did manage to get a lot more dust and crap in it 😂 So back onto the sanding (hence the 4 coats) ... this time have gone for 800 hand then 1200, 3000 (pictured) and then 8000 machine before polish. Biggest issue at the moment is getting a hold of a dual cartridge caulking gun that can take the BMW (SikaForce 7888) adhesive ... the one I got from RA Johnston can't deal with the girth of the thing. Short of getting a gun from over seas at great expense for a one off job I will have to make something ... that's the weekend project, so I can bond the thing on finally !!

Not much to report here, got some good photos which i will use to draw up the PCB shape. Have been tooling around with EasyEDA, an online circuit designer / layout tool ... it's definitely a whole new world to learn !! Just for interest sake here is the rear side of the OEM boards. The radio PCB is actually a resistance ladder circuit which is read by the 'master' over on the cruise control side:

Awesome thanks so much!!

Rightio, have started a dedicated thread for the steering wheel controls ... tune on in if interested

The Car: For this project the relevant parts are that it's an E46 with Nissan VQ37 engine swap (running OEM ECM) and Alpine head unit. I need to interface with both of these things with the steering wheel controls, and neither of them speak BMW. The Plan: Make custom PCB's to replace the OEM units which will interface natively with the headunit and ECM respectively. Complete OEM look and feel but otherwise totally bespoke. Will likely use an Arduino for the radio controls, hopefully I can stash this some place well out of the way. It turns out the Alpine (and other brands I believe) use the same signals as the IR remote sends but simply over the wired interface. As for the Nissan cruise control settings, they are based on a resistance ladder which is documented in the service manual. So the cruise functionality (actually used for changing maps in the ECM) will be all passive and the radio will be a little more involved. So Far: Have taken the OEM items out of the wheel so I can replicate the PCB's physical layout including fixed items like switch pads + lights.

So I've discovered there are two additional pins that are plumbed into my volute / clock spring. This will be super handy when doing my custom PCB steering wheel control jiggery. However, no cable populated in my E46 steering wheel ... anybody know what this little connector is normally used for so I can obtain the cable on both sides ? Just want the plugs essentially then I'm away laughing with 5 pins total i can use 👍 For reference the green plug is the 'regular' one with the airbag, horn and 3 wires for OEM steering wheel controls.

Looking sweet, not too late to go for the Speedflow custom colour anodised fittings... Just sayin 🤣

I have a 4 stage dry sump pump so no stand alone vacuum pump as such ... tis one pressure and three scavenge stages.

I think it's fairly common to have some issues on the dyno, I guess it's a concentrator and highlighter of things that might not show on the street given the nature of it !! Also relatively low power and no power adder makes it more relaxed Bit of an update to the steering wheel control stuff, turns out the Alpine head unit doesn't use a resistance ladder for it's input ... that was just my naive assumption it seems Instead it apparently uses the same signal as the infrared remote !! There is some scattered info on the net about it at least so will get an IR receiver and transmitter for Arduino and see if I can capture from the remote then replay over the wire as a first experiment. The cruise control side of things it seems will be easier in that i will just replicate the Nissan spec on a new / custom PCB and wire it through.

Back into the main project thread with another side project, might start a dedicated thread in case its of use for folks at some point. I will have a crack at making custom PCB's / circuits for the steering wheel controls. Both sides of it for: Cruise control buttons which will go to the Nissan ECU which expects a resistance ladder. BMW has some data based solution. Radio control buttons to go to the Alpine head unit, which also expects a resistance ladder. Can't see the point in trying to use some 3rd party adapter box when I will be messing with the cruise side anyways. Early days but will get the OEM boards out of the wheel this weekend so i can model the shape and button locations. Picture is of starting to look at the cruise signals ... but making some micro controller to take these signals and then some how output a varied resistance / voltage would be somewhat silly.

Score !! Save cert money and blast it on Woodstocks, go back in 12 months 🤣 Assume the failed WoF is to weed out the cars which are just not worth the certifiers time to go over when there may be basic / fundamental things that need addressing first.

Head unit is installed, trim is back on, front speakers are wired up and cable is run for the rears which I will hopefully look at tomorrow. Glad i got the centre mount for the head unit, looks good for what it is and the modern functionality will be awesome.

Still in a bit of a holding pattern ... should be doing the clear on Thursday fingers crossed then maybe installing it on the weekend if i bake it shut in the bathroom for a half day with two heaters going 😂

Comes with the X5 ? 🤷‍♂️

Same same 👍

Finally some progress that gets things installed back in the car !! Clear coated all of the trim pieces last week and they look pretty good. Completed the front speaker wiring (in the doors at least) so could finally put the new leather door cards in. The colour came out pretty similar to the grey of the dash funnily enough, could have been a little lighter to give more contrast but I think it should look pretty clean when all done. Will get the head unit wiring taken care of next so I can complete the front cross over installs. Got the climate control module removed (surprisingly nothing broke, had to pull it SO hard !) so I can install the new centre mounted head unit frame.

Thanks @Karter16 !! Certainly looks fairly valueline

Certifier came out on Thursday and was happy so am free to bond the roof on now. Popped some epoxy primer over the bare welded areas today, and where I had ground a spot for the welders earth. As far as the roof itself, I wet sanded (400 grit) the clear coat to remove the orange peel and reduce the fish eyes. Applied additional clear to the fish eyes which i will sand back flat tomorrow ready for some more coats of clear. If we can't get it good enough straight off the gun then I will be sanding and buffing before final trim and bonding to the car.

That's rather fast !! Ever plan on taking it to the drags ?

Welcome 👋 I see you have a Mazda MPV ... my daily is the Honday Odyssey. Maybe we need a people mover sub group 🤣

Got the roof bow welded in which is a milestone task ... got very specific with the prep on the car body since this will be buried and generally speaking the weld through primer blows. Prepared the exposed side of the bow for welding ... will epoxy coat all of the welds and surrounding area. All done pending 1st inspection, then will do the epoxy and I'm free to mount the roof itself (after sanding the clear coat flat and applying a few more coats, then ... probably sanding it again and polishing)

I'm going to miss those those fuel tank posts 😂

Anybody know what flavour bumper this is on my car ? The car overall looks ok but this rear cover with the reflectors and black rib job looks a bit on the fugly side ... it's also got a bad bit of repair on the left corner. Would like to replace with a nicer m-tech 2 style and maybe after market diffuser for MAX GRIP etc

Parts from BMW arrived a little early ... not much to say really here but will leave the pics in case anyone wants to replicate. Most of the videos don't show how the bow was welded into place etc and the detail of where it actually meets the B pillar. It's all about the roof bow and getting the first cert inspection out of the way at the moment. Will make some mock ups of the plug welds I need to do, to get the settings dialled in ... that first one will be hella nerve racking !!!