[feuer]

My choice would be Gold

Originally Posted by sirdaft1

[sirdaft1]

More boxes have arrived! Lots of miscellaneous goodies and one HUGELY important delivery...




MCS's have arrived!!!!!


Could not be more excited. These should be a huge improvement over the KW's.


We will be running the M3 rear lower control arm and MCS was kind enough to make a custom rear set that allows me to run the 335 damper with the lower m3 spherical bearing mount. HUGE upgrade over the crappy stock 335 rubber bushing mount.


Verifying fitment in the m3 rear lower control arm...


Spot on.


We also tested fitted location for the dash bezel...


And noticed some beautiful gusseting above the windshield that wasn't there the last time I checked...

[Mantii]

Awesome stuff!

[TROSEKREW]

:thumbsup

[Zoki]

Originally Posted by tigermack

This is sick, any idea how much the car weigh before the cage?

I weighed my car today at it was 1390kg (3064lbs) with half a tank. I still have things to remove: curtain airbags, AC, battery, smaller lightweight wheels, exhaust, windows.

I want to aim for 2900lbs before adding the cage

[sirdaft1]

These BMW oil changes are really thorough!

Having to pull the engine to properly set up the CAE shifter. Installing the CAE in the stock location without some extensive modification doesn't allow for a super stable mounting surface. The stock trans tunnel is swiss cheese with lots of holes in the sheet metal which isn't ideal.





So the proper fix is to reinforce the tunnel, which we'll then cut into for only the necessary holes to reinstall the CAE (how do you like that gold trans tunnel sample?? lol)

[HCMW Adam]

I love seeing a fullllllll build. There is so much that goes into it.

[JRocker3]

Nice build! I dig the gold... should be a good one to follow

[Rain]

Nice one. Also this specific gold color + black come up really nice. As for closing the holes just remember you are adding more weight :P

Definitely its joy to watch how proper build come together.

[sirdaft1]

Originally Posted by JRocker3

Nice build! I dig the gold... should be a good one to follow

Thanks!!!

Originally Posted by Rain

Nice one. Also this specific gold color + black come up really nice. As for closing the holes just remember you are adding more weight :P

Definitely its joy to watch how proper build come together.

Thank you!

[sirdaft1]

Here's a long update with some learning takeaways for future reference...


The mad scientist hard at work doing some small modifications to the HARD widebody rear pieces. I'm pretty impressed with how plug and play widebody is. It only requires minimal cutting/shaving to get spot on fitment. For those who have PM'd me, this is the widebody kit we're running.





Fitting the widebody on the rear...



Rivets in the body



Rear widebody panel installed



The motor is finally back in and getting put back together. You wouldn't even be able to tell that there is a full sized CSF aluminum radiator stuffed in there. Since it's so much thicker than stock, it usually pushes the fan closer to the engine, making it difficult to fit aftermarket inlets. Since we did away with the A/C condenser, the shop was able to relocate the mounting tabs on the CSF and push it forward a full inch- giving us precious room to fit the custom front inlet that wraps around the front of the engine. Zoom closely and you'll see a hard mounted, much more solid aluminum custom inlet. While we plan to go single turbo in the near future, in the meantime there is no need to worry about the inlet touching the pulleys while we run the stock twins. Little details like this take time in a build like this, but are necessary modifications to ensure added reliability on the track.



Custom aluminum front inlet bolts directly to one of the stock inlet mounting points...



Also added mounts for the filters (new filters on order, these are duuuuurty), so they aren't just bouncing around on the drivers side engine bay. Front filter mounted to alternator bracket:



Rear filter mounted to strut tower brace:



One pretty substantial issue with the CSF Radiator. Since I'm currently running a VRSF 7" FMIC, the IC connection happens to occupy the same exact space as the radiator outlet on the CSF. Fortunately when we moved the CSF further forward, it gave us the clearance. But it's worth highlighting the issue for anyone else running a VRSF FMIC who is considering a CSF. It's very odd.


After (yay, clearance!)



Difficult to tell in this photo but the CAE shifter was moved away from the front so that it's in line with the location of where I'll have the steering wheel.



M3 Steering Rack has arrived! The ratio of the M3 rack is 12.5:1 vs the stock 335's at 16:1 (22% quicker turn ratio). One note: the rack itself is plug and play HOWEVER... the inner tie rods will not fit the 335. We have to measure them, but we suspect that the inner TR are longer than the 335s as the wheels have alot of toe out even when the inners were moved all the way in. The plan is to swap the stock 335 inner and outer tie rods onto the M3 rack and call it a day.



The MOMO Mod 7 alcantara steering wheel and quick release awaiting reinstall...


HARD Motorsports eDash Tablet holder. Its a 3D printed piece designed to hold my Android so I can monitor the vitals via MHD while on track. Will it work? Sure. But I think a solid aluminum piece like this would fit the bill a bit more from a durability/motorsports application standpoint.



And still trying to convince Eric to donate the BBS FI-R's off of his 1M shop car to the #becauseracecar cause. For some reason he's not returning my texts... Regardless, it's a freaking stunning ///M

[turb0mik3]

So much good stuff!!!

[sirdaft1]

Originally Posted by turb0mik3

So much good stuff!!!

Ha, thanks brother! It now makes sense why you did your build over the course of a few years!

[sirdaft1]

Welp, this just happened...







Next step is to paint any non-rollcage with black POR-15 (after cleaning off the gold sheen from everything within a 10 foot radius! lol)

And for future reference... we did two coats of paint on the cage and used 5 1/2 cans of spray paint. Couldn't be happier with how the paint went on. We may clear coat the cage... at least the high wear areas to prevent any chipping.

[Rain]

I really like the color! Nice work. What brakes do you plan to use?

P.S.: Looking this level of work and knowing that at the same time my shop install wrong (reversed left & right) my rear EBC GD discs

[sirdaft1]

Originally Posted by Rain

I really like the color! Nice work. What brakes do you plan to use?

P.S.: Looking this level of work and knowing that at the same time my shop install wrong (reversed left & right) my rear EBC GD discs

Thanks! We have a few different pad/rotor combos that we'll be testing on the stock brake setup. But the plan is to move to a BBK by next season

[sirdaft1]

We're planning to finish the rest of the interior paint this weekend with some black POR-15 top coat. That's means any miscellaneous fabrication odds and ends on the inside need to be finished up. And since we're running without the big bulky OE dashboard, Eric is fabbing up a custom dash to fit only the necessary switches with room to expand as we need more. A few pics that he sent over tonight...

[feuer]

Originally Posted by sirdaft1

Rivets in the body

Rear widebody panel installed

Did they use blind rivet nuts do you can easily remove the panel if needed?

Originally Posted by sirdaft1

Custom aluminum front inlet bolts directly to one of the stock inlet mounting points...

Also added mounts for the filters (new filters on order, these are duuuuurty), so they aren't just bouncing around on the drivers side engine bay. Front filter mounted to alternator bracket:

Rear filter mounted to strut tower brace:

Why not just do inlet relocation? It would have been better no?

[sirdaft1]

Originally Posted by feuer

Did they use blind rivet nuts do you can easily remove the panel if needed?

Yes sir, rivnuts it is

Why not just do inlet relocation? It would have been better no?

The current twin setup is temporary until we inevitably make the change to ST in the near future. But given that the pass side is prone to much higher intake temps, we preferred to keep the OE location for now.

[feuer]

Originally Posted by sirdaft1

The current twin setup is temporary until we inevitably make the change to ST in the near future. But given that the pass side is prone to much higher intake temps, we preferred to keep the OE location for now.

Another question. Any particular reason why the cage doesn't protrude outwards into the door section to allow easier access considering is 4 door and opening isn't as wide. See attached photos:

[sirdaft1]

Originally Posted by feuer

Another question. Any particular reason why the cage doesn't protrude outwards into the door section to allow easier access considering is 4 door and opening isn't as wide. See attached photos:

First of all... I'm impressed with your MS Paint skills!

Great question about the cage. If you notice, we do have the protruding door bars on the drivers side, which absolutely helps with egress (esp for a 6'2" tall dude like me). That said, a simple non-protruding X brace is much easier to fabricate (read: less time/labor/$$$) than the protruding version. Since this car is being designed to primarily run solo with the occasional passenger; the optional extended door bars are a bit unnecessary. That said, if this were a rally car build where you would expect to frequently have a driver + co-driver needing to get in and out... you would go with a design that allows easier egress on both sides.

Drivers side:

[feuer]

Originally Posted by sirdaft1

First of all... I'm impressed with your MS Paint skills!

Amazing I know!

Originally Posted by sirdaft1

Great question about the cage. If you notice, we do have the protruding door bars on the drivers side, which absolutely helps with egress (esp for a 6'2" tall dude like me). That said, a simple non-protruding X brace is much easier to fabricate (read: less time/labor/$$$) than the protruding version. Since this car is being designed to primarily run solo with the occasional passenger; the optional extended door bars are a bit unnecessary.

Very well explained. I went back and re-read and see great photos in post#91 from the driver side.