Cement

Got some base coat onto the trim pieces ... has been a bit of a faff as the 3M glazing putty dissolved the primer so had to apply it a lot thicker than I would have liked. The primer also never really dried hard so presented some issues when sanding the putty. Will get some 2k clear on them at least and see how they go ... might be getting redone in the future if they turn ugly. Had them all tucked in the bathroom today with two heaters running to dry out the primer as fully as it was ever going to be. Managed to get to about 35 degrees in there. Also got the rest of the back ordered parts from BMW so once clear of the trim pieces and roof project i'll be able to progress the head unit install also with the centred mounting piece. No idea what the colour is, just lucky dipped it from the swatches at the car paint shop 😜

So after a bunch more arm chair investigation I'm going to lock in the M8R's in 18x9.5 ET38 rear and 18x8.5 ET38 fronts. Should be here in 10-20 weeks 😬

Got to confirm its for the right model car at last 😃 Hopefully the window moldings come up onto the roof slightly to hide the most noticeable pieces of deep resin, else might run a small strip of black vinyl perhaps ... will see when we get there but safe to say its going to look pretty sweet !! I can see why people might go with a plain 1x1 weave as the twill is fairly intense ... then again so is all the sh*t in the garage at the moment !! All back together with some light window tinting and it should look mean.

Got some primer onto the wood trim pieces ... looks bloody good for a rattle can I have to say !! Will do a second coat on all pieces without cracks. Think it's just the two front doors that are cracked, will fill with some glazing putty then sand ready for a second / final primer coat.

Still waiting for the roof bow (maybe another week) but some progress on the roof itself !! A little pictorial tour below ... The roof as it came out of the mold after rough trimming, 2.5kg 😍 There are a few imperfections (small air pockets on the corner ridges and resin build up where the fabric has not gotten right into the tight corner) but overall its pretty awesome !! Just a nice glamour shot during wet sanding, who doesn't like carbon !! Basic setup for spraying ready to go The setup at NZ Fibreglass in the booth. The item at the back is roof #1 from the mold; mine with the sanded finish ready to clear. 3 Coats of Upol clear coat on ... my first time spraying anything critical, and with a proper gun. Pretty happy with the result but an obvious orange peel going on. Will let it harden fully from here then sand it back flat and give it another two or three coats ... if we can't get it perfect off the gun (highly likely) we'll then safely have enough material to sand flat and buff to beauty.

Happy to help Slowly chipping away on the audio install and have worked out how I'll do the front door speakers wiring so I don't need to touch the door connector etc. It's probably a common way to go tbh but have just worked out which wires go to the OEM mid bass and tweeter (or the other small guy) and will cut them down by the passenger side front seat ... will then pull them back to under the dash some place and wire into the cross over. Both the left and right speaker wires come along by the seat as they used to head to the amp in the boot. For the rear speakers I'll likely just run new cable all the way while I have the trim off etc 👍 Got all excited about putting a door card back on but then realised I have yet to paint my wood trim and thats a blocker for the card 😩 So at least today I got all the wood trim scuffed up ready for some primer / filler ... still no idea what colour I will do the top coat.

Looking great, black intercooler maybe ?

Popped three heaters in the garage for a few hours to raise the temp a bit and applied the K1 adhesive all over the areas where metal had been exposed. Used maybe 1/3 of the tube by the looks of it ... thats only $100 worth of this ridiculous goo 🤣

So have been looking at another option that might be fun, and is cheaper than Apex ... Work's Emotion lineup !! Single piece that is ... don't get too excited Potentially some better offset options here as they are somewhat custom built to spec when ordered, to get some good concave at the rear this does mean going to a 18x9.5 ET38 ... which arguably will fit better at the guard but with reduced clearance to the damper compared to the Apex 18x9 ET30. The biggest issue I have is in the arts 'n crafts department and visualising what would suit best. Google is much happier to spit out pictures of 40 degree camber 12" wide rims or massive 3 piece options on wide bodies than the every mans E46 non-M There are some E46 images out there but nothing with a good street / flush-ish fitment from what I have seen. One was a 4 door sitting so high any wheels would look ass !! Anybody have an eye for rims, mad photoshop skills or good old fashioned random voting to add a steer ? The Work Emotion lineup worth looking at imho is as below ... and a pic of my car follows. Also torn on silver vs bronze vs white ... or something else 😕 <--- Those would be my preference order generally fyi.

I think you'd be fine providing you're not messing with the actual numbers ? Wonder if you could cut the top off without it looking too naff ?

Have got all the spot welds ground down (used little finger sander, not pictured above) and removed the remains of the sealer. Spoken to the certifier and he is happy for me to apply the K1 adhesive (as corrosion inhibitor) on the exposed metal areas ... was going to weld in the roof bow then do this and have him over to inspect but alas the bow has been delayed so I'm keen to get the metal covered asap. Spot welds all look pretty happy 🤣

Here is my setup which hangs out in the laundry. Just good to highlight the space you need which can be more than expected of you have an enclosure for heat... It's not exactly discrete. I have an Inkbird pid temperature controller to control the 700w element which is in the cage. It's made of 'twinwall' polycarbonate sheet. Once up to temp with the build plate at 110 degrees the heater is actually not needed to maintain about 45 degrees in the box.

I've got the Ender 3 V2 and found it pretty good over the last few years for my project ... certainly an invaluable tool for the modern DIY tinkerer !! If only I had a 3D scanner to go with 🤤 Some key considerations would be: What filaments are you intending on printing with ? I've made upgrades to be able to print ASA for functional parts (engine bar, car interior etc) Is speed necessity or nice to have ? For me its a nice to have, I'm not doing commercial work so it just balances off against my patience Dual or single extrusion ? Depends what you want to print, having a soluble support material say might be an advantage Will you need a heated enclosure ? Basically mandatory for me to print ASA successfully, can make easily but its a cost none the less Will you want external control / monitoring ? I got a Raspberry Pi running Octoprint with a webcam, highly recommend !! What sorts of things will you be printing ? With a $2k budget I'd seriously look at trying to get a printer and 3D scanner Even with the small build volume I have its not been as big a deal as i would have thought. Fairly easy to join multiple prints into a larger for the purposes of mockup. The above may be contingent on the software you have available to mess with the models etc

Looks awesome, I always get so jealous of the non-triangle air bag wheels !! I'm stuck in the single stage airbag dark ages hah. Keep an eye on my interior revamp thread, going to paint my trims once the roof is sorted and I've got some sort of at home spray booth contraptionised 👍

Not familiar with the E30 dampers ... assume its not possible to get onto the smaller with a 6 point socket and the larger with a spanner ? Some penetrant and an over night soak ? Hope the spring is compressed also thats always a good idea 👍

I have successfully removed the lid form the tin can Like anything new, the second side was a lot faster based on changing up the approach: Prepped all spot welds at once Started from the front and worked backward prying gently with a nail puller Using the heavier skin thats attached to the roof itself (adds strength around sunroof), pry up and over rolling towards the middle of the car Used a hardwood wedge to split a few problematic welds and lift the skin enough to grab with the vice grips. These are super useful, doing it again I'd probably make a half dozen longer ones (maybe 200mm) to use since they don't scratch and add a lot of splitting power. Waiting on my Aliexpress belts to use with the finger sander to clean everything up nicely. Can't wait to get the drop cloth out and ensure there are no filings anywhere near the car !! Picture of the tools used included for reference.

Today I did this ... just have not been able to find where the dang sunroof was leaking, pretty sure I've located it now though !! Should have it siliconed up and back on the road in no time 👍 ...

Thanks @Karter16 ... I've not really stopped to reflect on what the hell I'm doing, but with tin snips in hand just now it dawned on me 😂 What a weird thing to be doing haha. Happy to show the 'warts n all' process here, very much a case of it getting wore before it gets better through this phase !! Decided to remove the main part of the roof leaving only the strips at the edges so its more obvious when I've gone deep enough to release each spot weld. The alternative is going deeper than necessary on them so the entire piece can be lifted off in one great movement. Looks a hell of a lot worse but I reckon its the more gentle approach.

I'd say I'm fairly committed now 😁 Removed the sunroof cassette (let me know if you need one !!) and got prepped for making a mess ... don't forget to tape off around the window trims to prevent future rust nuggets getting lodged in there !! Next up it was time to start separating the many many spot welds around the perimeter. I started off using my little spot weld cutter (sprung pin in the middle, like a mini hole saw) but this proved pretty average ... pin rounded off and cuter tries to walk all over the place. In the end the ideal method for the front and rear seams was to: Use die grinder to cut a small track around the edge of the spot Generally thin out the material around the weld Split the skin using a chisel, it basically just shears at the spot weld If not fully separated use the chisel ... like a chisel It goes through the thinned sheet metal easily For the sides I might opt for a better drill, have seen some which look like a brad point wood drill which I might use. Must wait until Tuesday to get a hold of one though

Great call spacing out the stock rims to the desired offset !! Info from willtheyfit.com says i will need 18.4mm in front and 29.7mm at the rear to get a good simulation ... will have a rummage around for some washers / wood / old cans etc over the weekend

Got the glass removed today so I can start drilling out the spot welds this weekend to get the lid off.

So I might be able to pull the trigger on some new rims a lot sooner than anticipated yuuuusssssss !! Had always been set on the Apex ARC-8, it's just such a classic wheel on the E46 🤤 But in basically every image you see online they are on M3's so can have the concave profile and wider fitments and of course just look awesome with the pumped guards. The only option with concavity in the ARC-8 (for non-m) is the 18x9 ET30 but I hear mixed opinions on fitment ... I'm ok to roll the guards somewhat and ideally get 255's in the rear, happy to go with a staggered fitment and get the flatter profile in the front if needs be. Pretty sure staggered would have to be done as the ET30 would be problematic in the front, so front ends up likely a 18x8.5 ET38. Is anybody running a 18x9 ET30 who can share some personal experience ? Or better still is in Auckland so I can take a peek perhaps ? Any other options or recommendations to consider ? The Apex at the new pricing is already top of budget ... they were $2495 when I made my wish list some time ago, now I see are $3820 😭

The speakers that were in there were completely stuffed so I'll not have much of a basis for comparison tbh. The baffles on the factory items were essentially a paste, detached from the cones.

Hmm like a stripper eh, that does have a certain appeal 🤔 Happy to make some adapters no worries ... i did need to enlarge one of the holes somewhat so the design needs a bit of a tweak but i can probably do that before making some more. Assume the 4 hole layout i have used for my Kicker's is standard ? else let me know what you need and i can amend so its spot on. Comes with no refunds or guarantees naturally, tell me what you think is fair ?

So I've got a few things going on that are related, and thought I would start a new thread to capture them. Changing out the saggy cloth door cards to leather items Changing the grey interior pillars and roof liner etc to grey / black Making the rear parcel tray black again Installing a new Alpine single DIN head unit in BMW centre mounted bracket Installing new Kicker KS series speakers all around (just front and rear in stock locations) Painting the wood trims to something more fancy Maybe getting some fancy pants pedals from Pedal Haus Installing gauge cluster bezels to add a little pizazz Might make a new rev gauge backing so I get to the engines actual redline Carbon roof which replaces the steel with sunroof model (this one has its own thread) So that all being said here are some things done so far. Just getting the speakers mounted up, made some 3D printed adapters from ASA (a bit like ABS).