The Barbara Chronicles

[Vass 859]

The car had been sitting untouched in the driveway for a good few months so I felt like tinkering around for a change, also opened all the doors to air it out. Removed the automatic shifter and brake pedal. Tried my hand at fishing the clutch lines through the firewall but am struggling. It seems the RHD cars are a bit more cramped for space when it comes to the brake booster and ABS module compartments. Was made more complicated by the fact that the clutch hard line was bent out of shape for shipping purposes so I can't go off of that to figure out how it's meant to be routed. All the guides out there seem to be for LHD cars so don't have much to go off of. Think I'm going to end up removing the brake booster to gain more access and fish things through properly. If anyone happens to have a photo or schematic of the untouched hardline, would be of great help bending it back into its proper shape.

Another wee thing I can't figure out is what to do with the ignition interlock cable that used to go from the automatic shifter to the steering column. Figured it's not needed anymore so I removed it altogether but then the key gets stuck in the ignition. Hooked it back up just to get the key out but it's an annoying dangly thing that I'd rather get rid of. Haven't seen this addressed at all in any of the manual swap threads or videos either. I guess people just leave it in place unconnected on one end, which is fine I guess. I'm just left wondering how it works on factory manual cars? Is there a plug rod thing that goes into the steering column instead? Can the cable just be cut off at the steering column or will that collapse the pin and leave the key stranded in there?

 

Have put the final few parts orders in so that should be all the critical items ticked off the list, and more. Most annoying thing was the intake cam sensor that for whatever reason is not available from anywhere anymore in OE VNE brand form. Plenty of other aftermarket options out there from Hella, Meyle, NGK etc but wanting to obediently toe the line I got a genuine one instead, which was $200 on its own...

Has been great fun living like a broke ass student again, throwing a good half of almost every pay check into parts orders and machine shop bills these past few months. Luckily that's most of the expenses out the way now. Now just need to throw it all together. Lez goooo

[Eagle 1669]

Clutch line needs to be straight'ish to go thru to the passage. Guessing you have removed the glove box and pulled back the carpet? Ended up roughly bending it then attaching it to the master cylinder/pedal box and used that to hold it whilst bending it some more around the base, kinda risky but the line was very kinked.

Yeah probably easier to remove the Abs module, booster etc to get the soft line in, the grommet is fiddly otherwise.

I just set the interlock cable in unlocked position and cut in off near steering column in my E39

[Vass 859]

Ahh gotcha. So it goes through the cabin behind/under the heater core and out the firewall on the passenger side? I got confused by the grommet right next to the steering column so figured it might go out through there and then sneak across in the engine bay, next to the brake lines somehow. That makes more sense. Cheers 

[Eagle 1669]

Yeah. Hard line has grommet on around passenger floor/bulkhead for exit. Steering column one for clutch master reservoir line.

 

[Vass 859]

Rattling off what I've bashed out in the meantime.

• New shift shaft seal - thanks @Eagle, definitely needed it. Had cleaned all the leaks up so never noticed the thing being completely shot until looking at it closely. Just a $3 part too so definitely worth doing.
   
• New foam washer thingy for the selector rod joint. Very tight going on, which is no doubt a good thing.
  
   
• Cut that steering lock cable off right at the base at the steering column. Still locks the key in place with it turned but doesn't get stuck anymore so works as it should I guess.
   
• This happened. Again.
  
  Couldn't for the life of me figure out how to fit the clutch hard line through. Probably OTT but wanted to do it properly. Got the carpet out and pulled the remaining bit under the heater as far back as I could to create a bit of an opening behind/under the heater core. Even still, it's hella tight, was an absolute bastard to fish through but got there in the end. Not at all surprised that people opt for custom made flexible lines instead.
  Also realised I missed the other grommet for the hard line. I thought it was just the bit dangling on it already but there's another one that attaches to the body, part number 21521163894. I'd looked at this stupid diagram a hundred times and never noticed it mentioned in the bottom right corner... Have chucked an order in.
  
   
• Removed the brake booster and DSC module to properly get the other clutch line through. Not sure if it's even possible to seat the grommet properly without doing it. Again, OTT and will have to re-bleed the brakes afterwards but wanted to do it right. I'd also stupidly pushed out the other big grommet under the brake booster, thinking that's where the hard line was meant to go originally so wanted to rectify that too. Don't be like me.
   
  
   
• Took the pedal box apart, cleaned and re-greased the plastic bushes, installed new master cylinder. I'd gotten new pedal covers as the ones that came with the conversion were falling apart, but blindly got the ones listed on FCP without checking. Turns out, the RHD pedals are a different shape to LHD ones, for some bewildering reason. The RHD ones are smaller and pointier at the bottom so the LHD ones I got don't sit tight and slide around all over the place. Stupid.
  
   
• Dissected the throttle pedal to get rid of the kick-down clicker. Had to get a 5-point security torx bit set to get it open but was cheap enough from SCA. As was mentioned on e46fanatics, it's just a mechanical clicker on automatics and not an actual switch.
  
  
   
• Took apart the cluster to change over the fascia to switch it from km/L to L/100km. Also installed the front cover off a 330 with the silver rings to make it more legit. At some point might get that other small fascia in the bottom right corner that blocks out the window with the auto gears completely, as it does on manuals.
  
  
   
• Some more stupid OCD stuff but with the carpet out, replaced a couple of air vents with ones I'd pulled off the donor car way back when. One was cracked all the way through and taped up, the other had a patch of glue that would not come off.
  
  
   

Will finish up the clutch switch and reverse light wiring during the week, then box on with the engine.

Picked up another shitty parts car a few weeks back, will try and rip the dash out of that before putting the interior back together on this thing. Will finally get rid of that stupid footprint if that dash is in as good a shape as it looked on first glance.

Edited October 16, 2022 by Vass

[Eagle 1669]

9 hours ago, Vass said:

• Couldn't for the life of me figure out how to fit the clutch hard line through. Probably OTT but wanted to do it properly. Got the carpet out and pulled the remaining bit under the heater as far back as I could to create a bit of an opening behind/under the heater core. Even still, it's hella tight, was an absolute bastard to fish through but got there in the end. Not at all surprised that people opt for custom made flexible lines instead.
  Also realised I missed the other grommet for the hard line. I thought it was just the bit dangling on it already but there's another one that attaches to the body, part number 21521163894. I'd looked at this stupid diagram a hundred times and never noticed it mentioned in the bottom right corner... Have chucked an order in.
• Took the pedal box apart, cleaned and re-greased the plastic bushes, installed new master cylinder. I'd gotten new pedal covers as the ones that came with the conversion were falling apart, but blindly got the ones listed on FCP without checking. Turns out, the RHD pedals are a different shape to LHD ones, for some bewildering reason. The RHD ones are smaller and pointier at the bottom so the LHD ones I got don't sit tight and slide around all over the place. Stupid.

Really comes down to how the line is bent i think. Not so bad if you wanted to replace the dash anyway. Trying to think if mine had 2 grommet on it, i don't recall any holes.

Yeah you can get the RHD pedal rubbers from the dealership for a reasonable price if you don't mind waiting 2 weeks. Schmeidmann have them also.

[Vass 859]

49 minutes ago, Eagle said:

Really comes down to how the line is bent i think. Not so bad if you wanted to replace the dash anyway. Trying to think if mine had 2 grommet on it, i don't recall any holes.

Yeah you can get the RHD pedal rubbers from the dealership for a reasonable price if you don't mind waiting 2 weeks. Schmeidmann have them also.

Was flicking through a build thread on e46fanatics when I noticed that grommet, this one here.

Will try the dealership for those pedal rubbers, cheers.

[Eagle 1669]

So the two rubber pieces are basically in the same hole?

[Vass 859]

Yeah, one slots into the other. The one attached to the hard line isn't big enough to fill the whole opening and is just left dangling around. Not sure how you did it on yours. I think I actually tacked a spare onto my order so could send one your way once it arrives if you didn't have one.

[Eagle 1669]

Yeah ill have look what i did and get back to you if i need it.

[Vass 859]

As I'm not that well versed in electronics, I took my sweet time sorting the wiring. Wanted to make a tidy job of it and pretty happy with how it turned out. Started with dissecting the EGS wiring, using the donor car harness as a guide to what's safe to cull. Cut off the plugs going to the old transmission and got rid of the excess wires by pulling them through the tubing, leaving only a few that I reused for the reverse switch wiring. Crimped on a generic plug that I'd lifted off a temperature sensor and shrink wrapped it in place.

Took me a while to figure out the fuse box side of it. There seemed to be two different ways of doing it - hooking up the two reverse switch wires to Pins 2 & 6 of X6325 according to this guide OR tap into the black/brown wire (Pin 4) and ground the other as shown in ShopLifeTV's & 50skid's videos. Had to educate myself on how relays work to figure out that both ways will work. Decided to go with Pin 4 and ground, retaining the relay so as to not run the main current through the light switch. The black/brown wire was the last one remaining on a EGS plug after getting rid of all the wires going to the transmission so that got spliced together. For ground I just plugged into the one of the other abandoned EGS plugs. Will do for now, will tidy the remaining loose ends after I've gotten the car up and running.

On the inside I ended up also removing the steering column as I noticed the steering angle sensor being a bit too loose for my liking so wanted to check it out. Not sure how much play is normal but did notice the plastic bit on the column where the end of the pin is held in place was slightly cracked. Strengthened it with a bit of epoxy which seems to have solidified it a bit. Also fixed the annoying orientation of the column where the positioning slots on the end of the column and the steering wheel would end up on opposite sides. PO's attention to detail is a joy to behold.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ec2uskchmfbs6w9/2022-11-04 12.11.18.mp4?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bmg6ngv6po6y1h8/2022-11-04 13.04.49.mp4?dl=0

Clutch switch wiring was pretty straightforward. Also did the reverse light dip wiring as per this guide. Reused the discarded wires from the auto transmission looms. Had two to play with so managed to string longer runs together with matching colours. Also disconnected the previously run cruise control wire to route it more properly. Fished the wires along the factory wiring routes wherever possible, using an old wire coat hanger to route the wires through in behind the heater core.
Blue - cruise control to DME Pin 27
Green - clutch switch Pin 2 to DME Pin 23
Yellow - reverse dip X11176 Pin 7 to X428

Taped together the loose wires previously going to the auto shifter and cable tied them out of the way. Also tidied up other wiring where the tape had come loose over time with some new OEM-looking cloth electrical tape. The shift cable hole got plugged with an OEM blind plug (Part #07147140849 but and 35mm plug should do) and threaded some short bolts I found to the other shifter mounting bolt holes.

Figured out why the wiring around the steering column had looked pretty hectic previously. While digging through the newest parts car I noticed the black plastic channel bolted to the side of the steering column - on Barbara it was missing completely. Lovely.

While in there... I also took out the heater core for a thorough flush and some fresh O-rings. Getting the pipes back in is an absolute prick of a job, would recommend a second set of hands when tackling this.

Ripped out the dash from the parts car that, underneath all the filth, looked in better shape than the old one. Gave it a good thorough clean with a steam cleaner and applied 2 coats of Aerospace 303 protectant to make it look nice and crisp. No more footprint or phone holder dildo smack in the middle of it. Love it.

Dug out the armrest-less center console bit and set of cupholders I'd picked up from the wrecker's some months ago and spent a good few hours rubbing off the scratched up rubberised coating to expose the clean plastic underneath. Those also got a couple of coats of 303 to freshen them up. Cut a hole in the underside dash panel for the clutch pedal and pretty much put the interior back together. All that's missing is the shiftknob.

Three pedals at last.

[KwS 2429]

Interior is looking sharp. Big fan of the sport seats in that fabric/alcantara in that generation bmw. 

[Eagle 1669]

Least its all sorted now in one go.

[Vass 859]

I do like the alcantara but did end up picking up those X5 seats I mentioned. Do look a bit worse for wear so will need a good cleanup, a lick of paint on the rails and probably some repair before they go in. Way down the list of priorities for the minute. Did also buy the row of buttons for the centre console off eBay. A heap of wiring will need to be run to make the heating elements work so the console and all will need to come out again. Can't wait...

[Blackie 510]

2 hours ago, KwS said:

Interior is looking sharp. Big fan of the sport seats in that fabric/alcantara in that generation bmw. 

Same here. First experience with these seats in mine. The lack of sweat in the heat is a welcome change.

[M3AN 4016]

On 9/14/2022 at 10:17 PM, M3AN said:

Barbara is set to take on new significance as a name soon, perhaps more so in Tāmaki Makaurau than Ōtautahi, but it will be pretty awesome wherever you live in Aotearoa. 😉

Now at Auckland Museum...

Edited November 24, 2022 by M3AN

[Vass 859]

Ho ho ho bimmerheads. Merrily having myself some festive wrenching here. With the engine rebuild near enough finished, I'm now just tying up all the other loose ends to hopefully drop it in before the end of the year.

To start off, got a nice wee letter in the mail the other day. I'd asked on E46 Fanatics if anyone might have a spare manual cluster backing plate to block out the automatic gear screen and one fella gladly obliged. Bloody awesome community that. Came all the way from Pennsylvania and is a nice cherry on the cake.

Had a bit of a dilemma with the power steering situation. The donor car came with an LF-30 pump that I had already pulled apart, cleaned up and refreshed with all new seals. Was prepared to bite the bullet and get a new high pressure hose from BMW for something like $400+ as those are different between the LF-20 and LF-30. Got a quote from BMW a few weeks prior and was told it's available on order from Auckland. Gave them a call to get one in and was instead told it'd need to be ordered from Malaysia and would be unlikely to arrive until sometime in January at the earliest.

Looked over the current LF-20 hoses and they're actually in decent enough nick, problem is the LF-20 pump itself seemed to have some play in the shaft making an audible rattle, which left me a bit uneasy. Ended up going for another scavenger hunt to Pick-A-Part, hoping to either find a pressure hose for an LF-30 or a decent enough LF-20. Out of the 7 E46's there, the LF-20's had either been taken or they'd come with LF-30's so I ended up grabbing a pressure hose for the latter for just $16... then took it to Enzed and dropped $300 to get it refurbished. Smort.

Finally got the final stubborn low pressure power steering line removed from the coil on the car that I'd given up on previously. Annoyed the hell out of me. Would not budge at all pressing the white clip in. Tried jamming in a cut up strip from a plastic bottle to no avail. Resorted to cutting it open with a rotary tool in the end. Stupid thing. Managed without any damage to the cooling coil and have a new line to go on anyway.

The steering rack itself seems in decent nick and I found this engraved in it when wiping it down.

It seems to say "03.15 209k" so wondering if it's been refurbished in March 2015, at 209k km? Bit weird as I bought the car at 214k km's in 2021 and it's unlikely it'd only done 5k km in the 6 years, so assume the rack must have come from some other car at some point. Anyway, tangent.

Tackled the wiring looms next. Did a thorough inspection and gave everything a clean, cleaned off a few oily connectors with some contact cleaner and replaced the bits of plastic corrugate sleeving in places where it had crumbled away it. Also removed the auto transmission / O2 sensor loom from the ECU/relay box and tidied up the reverse light wiring I'd left in a bit of a dodgy state previously. Properly crimped and heat shrunk everything in place and culled or tidily tucked away the remaining automatic transmission wiring bits going into the cabin. Also found some sort of... repair someone had taken on previously?

Bolted up the new dual mass flywheel and clutch kit I'd bought off @Eagle and mated up the engine and gearbox. Finally found a good use for two old bean bags my partner's been nagging me to throw away for a good part of two years now. Make a good cushy bed for the engine to take some pressure off the crane.

There's two E14 bell housing bolts that are longer on a manual box than they are on an auto so I made sure to order those in (part no. 23001222894). Looking at it, the auto ones would probably do the job but wouldn't engage the threads fully so best to be safe.

Got pretty annoyed when I got onto bolting on the main tensioner and it started spewing oil all over the place. Frustrating as it's barely a few years old. Bought it from FCP Euro as well so would be covered by warranty but can't imagine the return shipping costs would make the exercise worthwhile. Also discovered that I'd bought the wrong type of AC tensioner so have ordered new ones of both, should be here beginning of the coming week.

Gave the exhaust manifolds a good scrub and will look to throw those on prior to the engine install. Not a fun task bolting those on in the car.

Gave the whole car and the engine bay a good clean, it'd done a great job collecting pollen, dust and bird sh*t these last few months. Getting really annoyed at the horrid state of the paint now. All going well with the mechanical side of things, I suspect a full respray is on the cards in the not too distant future.

Have rolled the car back into the garage finally, tidying up the last few bits and will start tackling the engine install.

Plan is still to get the car up and running, break the engine in properly, go for WoF and start tackling the other missions that will knock the wheel alignment out of whack. Front subframe will get all new control arms, bushes, wheel bearings and tie rods, whole rear subframe will be refurbished and will probably throw in adjustable camber arms for good measure. With the subframe out, also aiming to tick off the reinforcement plate mission. Got a full kit from CMP as well as the weld in beam that goes along the back of the rear seats. Not sure if I'll end up going all the way with it but best to have it on hand anyway. Will also try out their solid steering coupling. Currently has a poly coupler that is a squeaky little piece of sh*t so definitely getting rid of that; more on it in a future post. 330 brakes are still waiting to be rebuilt. Some might have also noticed boxes of suspension bits on the shelf in one of the photos. Got a set of Eibach Pro Kit springs and Bilstein B4's all round on a decent deal from Demon Tweeks. Big pile of plans there but should feel brand new when I'm done with her.

As far as more immediate tasks, will probably take the driveshaft to a shop to get tested/balanced. Pair extra to get the rear part of the driveshaft send over along with the manual conversion from the UK but the dude didn't mark it at all when removing so no idea how it's supposed to line up. Bit silly.

Also haven't quite settled on what to do with the exhaust. Lined the 325 & 330 ones side by side and apart from the flap at the tail pipe on the 330, they seem to be pretty much identical? Leaning towards going with the 325 one if so. Am also thinking I'd like a bit more volume out of it so keen to hear some suggestions as to the best course of action, short of dropping a few grand on a full new setup. Don't want it to be stupid loud but in stock form it seemed barely even noticeable so just after a slight increase. What sort of difference would cutting out the secondary cats / resonator make? I assume deleting the muffler is sure to make it obnoxiously stupid?  

 

Edited December 25, 2022 by Vass

[Eagle 1669]

Nice. 

Hoses look good. What steering rack you got in? Purple tag?

Ive just ordered that CMP back (and front) topside brace too, more rigidity the better, shame they weren't available until a few months ago. Going with their monoball rtabs and some solid subframe mounts also. Everyone ive talked to and everything ive read seems to point at the handling benefits being immense for minor NVH, less stress on the floor is always good.

Id recommend getting E36 M3 bump stops front and rear if you running Eibachs (are they touring specific springs?). They are about 10-15mm shorter than OE sport ones and allow for more stroke travel before contact, more compliant over big\sharp bumps especially when cornering at higher speeds. not riding on the stiffer upper section as much which can ramp the spring rate up.

I think my stock exhaust without the flap working is the perfect volume. Some idle\low down bass and hums away on highway speeds without being annoying. My car is a coupe and probably has less sound deadening than yours so it maybe a bit louder than the average example.  

[Vass 859]

Yeah purple tag.

Didn't order everything in one go but pretty much sold on CMP's solid subframe bushes as well. Apparently cause next to no decrease in ride quality and especially worth doing if the subframe's been reinforced. The RTAB's I'm still unsure on. Not on CMP ones specifically but have read of some drawbacks with going monoball on those so might stick with OEM with limiters. Really impressed with their tech articles and the lengths Cayn went to when answering all of my silly questions. Dude basically wrote out a full essay when I messaged them, explaining everything from pros and cons of the bushes to what sort of welding technique and surface treatment to use for reinforcement plates. E46's are apparently the last model where the subframe wasn't rigidly mounted to the chassis, as well as having a rubber guibo in the steering linkage. Looking forward to seeing how it feels with those points fixed.

Don't think Eibach differentiate between body types with springs, only the xi ones were different. Got the same ones that @adro has on his touring so should be good enough for me. Did read about the E36 M3 bump stops. I think I first ordered OEM ones and then ordered those in as well so have two sets both front and rear. Will just go with the shorter ones of the two.

Might stick with the 325i exhaust then since the lack of flap looks to be the only real difference. I do recall a noticeable difference in tone between the 325i and the 330i sedan I had but that's probably more down to the engine rather than the exhaust. Did read how culling the secondary cats livens it up a bit and adds a bit more grumble but more wary of it stinking up the place way more.

The annoying part are the ugly exhaust tips. I bought these ones from Schmiedmann a while back thinking they're straight slip-ons but turns out they're meant for the full exhaust setup that they offer and don't fit over the stock pipes. Might just take it to a shop later on and have them weld those in.

[Eagle 1669]

Cayn is the only person ive seen to completely document all the areas that need checking and correcting. Reddish never mentioned checking spot welds under the side of rear seat of which 2 had failed on mine. Since you getting a cert and can install camber arms the CMP raising subframe mounts are a no brainer (and cheapest available). I don't want to put his ones in because Eibachs dont really lower the rear, dont want to risk ending up with low negative camber. Found some from MK-motorsport in Germany that ill probably got with instead. Yep the E46 is certainly a flawed chassis but at least its got a large community to help remedy it. 

Yeah i can imagine deleting the secondary cats would sound ok but anything else would be obnoxious somewhere in the rev range. 

[Vass 859]

I'm thinking of these for the camber arms. I know the Hardrace ones are known to have no trouble going through cert but asked my cert guy about the Eibach ones, said they'd need to inspect the welds but overall should still be up to standard. Willing to take my chances, not really keen on introducing all sorts of silly colors. Was one of the reasons why I also opted for Eibach springs and B4's instead of the blueish H&R's and yellow B6's. Will be painting the brake calipers straight black as well so will be nice and clean.

Boxed on with tidying up the engine bay. Took off the steering rack and dropped the front subframe to get a bit more wiggle room to the engine install. Cleaned off all the grime I now had access to as well as the transmission tunnel. Installed the new heater valve with brand new heater hoses.

Gave the heat shields a good going over as well.

Freed up and reinstalled the exhaust manifold studs that had come out along with the bolts. Wanted to get onto bolting up the exhaust manifolds and then ran into trouble. Didn't think to check beforehand but of course I got the wrong gaskets/heat shields. The head gasket kit I got came with the US-spec gaskets that are a different shape. Could probably make them work but really not keen to start cutting corners at this point. So will be frantically running around tomorrow trying to locally source a pair in a hurry. Not sure how highly I rate my chances. Otherwise it's another order from overseas and another week's wait, and of course the unenviable task of installing the damn things with the engine in the car. Not a fan.

[Eagle 1669]

9 hours ago, Vass said:

I'm thinking of these for the camber arms. I know the Hardrace ones are known to have no trouble going through cert but asked my cert guy about the Eibach ones, said they'd need to inspect the welds but overall should still be up to standard. Willing to take my chances, not really keen on introducing all sorts of silly colors. Was one of the reasons why I also opted for Eibach springs and B4's instead of the blueish H&R's and yellow B6's. Will be painting the brake calipers straight black as well so will be nice and clean.

Any reason you not going with CMP ones or they too aftermarket looking? Those Eibach ones don't seem to allow much negative camber adjustment (compared to the CMP ones at least), although if that's -1 degree over stock then that's probably adequate for factory camber specs.

Yeah im following the same principle in regards to colors, parts have to be black or alloy for factory look. Will have to re-paint the CMP RTAB's as the pink is the worse thing about their parts.

If you have to do another order for the gaskets let me know. Ive got minor exhaust leak from my manifold and will likely need a set along with new studs and nuts.     

[Vass 859]

The Eibach ones are a bit cheaper, look somehow beefier and tidier as well, to me anyway. But either or really.

I wouldn't bother painting the RTAB's if I were you. They're tucked away in the pocket anyway, don't think you'll see much of them even with the car jacked up. Would probably scratch the paint off installing them anyway. I won't be bothering with the subframe mounts either.

Send me a list of what you're after, will put in an order on a set tonight. Spareto has them in so will go with them, although not sure if they're priced each or come as a set/pair.

Just spent 2 hours driving around town checking all the Euro shops. Even the ones that are supposedly meant to be open according to Google Maps, Facebook etc. are all closed up. Not even a printout of their holiday schedule taped to the front door or anything on any of them. How bloody hard is that to do? A few are supposedly open tomorrow, as well as BMW themselves so will try my luck finding something locally still, but worth having a set on the way as backup anyway.

[Vass 859]

Actually, just dropped the old set by accident and the heatshield and gasket just came apart. The gaskets themselves look identical. Will see if I can tidily separate the new gaskets and just clean up and reuse the old heatshields instead. Fingers crossed 🤞

[Eagle 1669]

They are quite hidden but all the monoballs have a flange on them so they stick out unlike the OE ones, with the pink\purple id have to re-paint at least that part for my ocd. Fortunately most subframe mounts are straight alloy or black. 

Yeah some places are a bit slack like that. I just assume most places are closed till 4th unless its clearly stated somewhere.