A purists nightmare - E46 drift build

patsbimmer1

Hear me out. Fire orange or Inka orange.

Tkuhn

patsbimmer1 said:

Hear me out. Fire orange or Inka orange.

Been thinking about more like an Imola red. But it wouldn't be Imola exactly, the color i found is carmine red. Red coupes have given me a real hard on latley...

Like this one here.

Tkuhn

UPDATE

Was a pretty productive weekend. Absolutely loving having the car home again.

Picked up some M rear quarter and door trim, a passenger M fender (to finally complete my set) a M gas door and the inner door sill trim.

Painted the door still trim and then installed it.

Looks so much better with the carpet not just hanging out.

Then I got started on trimming the resr seat delete to fit the cage now.

Stared at it for awhile... cut out some cardboard and tested ideas... here's what I came up with.

Cut out the corners and used a hole saw to notch them and riveted on some tabs I made with spare ABS.

Then I riveted in the other sides of the tabs once the panels were all screwed in.

Happy with the outcome for sure!

Then I sprayed some silver on the damaged area from last season. Not perfect but its fine because it's getting wrapped over.

I moved on to some more interior stuff then, extended the wires for my window stitches.

Sanded and painted the center console insert.

And after i taped up the wiring i installed the piece to the console.

I decided to not make flat ABS door panels for the rear and instead cut up and fit the factory ones. And it worked pretty well!

Even got the front sections to clip in on both sides!

And made, installed nutserts and installed the trim I made to hold down the carpet in the rear.

Installed the sunroof delete, pretty happy with the way it fits.

I timmed away the wrap so I can peel it off later without pulling the sunroof back out so it looks like there's big gaps.

I also started on shaving the center shift bezel. This one is an auto one still though so I'd Ike to find a manual one at some point. I plastic welded in some abs blocks then layed some filler on it. Only have a pic of the pieces welded in.

Also got my handbrake bled so next up is finishing installing the center and dash pieces!

Rekpoint

Is Earl slacking? he still needs to get those hood shocks I got to you.

Tkuhn

Rekpoint said:

Is Earl slacking? he still needs to get those hood shocks I got to you.

No i got them haha just been too lazy to want to realign the hood lmao

Tkuhn

UPDATE

Finished up the shaved shifter trim by trimming around the handbrake and then painting. I used some paint that is pretty close to the dash trim color but its not perfect.

Next I finally found something to do with the hole in my dash that had a battery cut out in it (that was from the sedan).

Got this really nice usb charging port on Amazon. I chose this once since it has a power button feature, I wired it to the original power outlet wires so I didn't want it to always be on like the factory one.

Before

installed

Turned on

Next I did some repairs from damage.

Last season I ripped off the underglow and never got around to fixing it lol. So since I had to respray some undercoating where the cage bases are welded in it was a good time to fix the underglow.

Replaced 2 of the strips and resecured everything.

Next I decided to try and shave the M fenders.. luckily I only tried on the passenger one. Even though I went slow and tried to disperse the heat I still warped it . I tried to fix it with filler and its better, but still not good.

Here's the only 2 photos I took since I got really discouraged.

Thats it for now.

patsbimmer1

Love the lights!

Tkuhn

Picked up a M bumper this past week locally for a really good deal. It even came with the diffuser and crash bar, although I don't need the crash bar and its an aluminum one rather than carbon kevlar since it was off a 2001.

Here's a photo of it somewhat mounted. I have to do some work with the exhaust, and would really like to have the openings in the diffuser shaved. I definitely don't want a dual exhaust and would rather shave the openings and make a new opening farther to the left for the exhaust in the future.

I really like how it looks especially since I was between finding a M bumper or finding a lip for my non-m bumper (which is very difficult to do)

B C

Any chance you could share a picture of the inside of the M bumper? I’ve always been curious to see how the diffuser is mounted.

How’s the power on the M54 for drifting? Is there any need/want for more?

Tkuhn

B C said:

Any chance you could share a picture of the inside of the M bumper? I’ve always been curious to see how the diffuser is mounted.

How’s the power on the M54 for drifting? Is there any need/want for more?

I can shoot you one once its off again. It clips in on the top and push pins on the bottom.

And its gets the job done haha but there's always a want for more but I'm not sure the direction I want to spend money to go.

Tkuhn

Update.

So here is my solution to there not being an exhaust exit on the M bumper (that I currently can make work and that I like).

Not super proud of it but it will work for now.

You can't see it from looking at the car at all so thats cool with me, and it will do until its time to make a real exhaust.

Next i tackled fitting the gas door.

I drilled some new holes that would work with the M door layout. And trimmed up the standoffs I bought to make the door fit the overs correctly.

I also found a spacer that I had laying around that I trimmed down until it was the right size to sit against the original non-M push button thing. I need to decide how I want to attach it yet. Most likely some sort of epoxy.

And here is the fit when closed!

My girlfriend deep cleaned the dash and interior which was VERY NEEDED! I'm so glad she has the patience for that because I dont.

I also started on shaving the driver side fender. I chose to use 3M scotch-weld to "weld" in the piece of metal to shave the vent.

Here is the patch panel held in on the outside with hot glue. I then put painters tape over it to keep it in place for sure. I used the hot glue because its easily removeable.

And here is from the inside.

And here it is with the scotch-weld mixed up and applied.

Honestly I think this is going to work out really well. After 12 hours we will see!

Finally got the windows cleaned on the inside as well then installed the rear quarter glass.

Still alot more little stuff to do so hoping to keep picking away at it.

B C

What are you threading the standoffs into on the quarter panel side? Did you epoxy some nuts inside the panel? Looks great

Tkuhn

B C said:

What are you threading the standoffs into on the quarter panel side? Did you epoxy some nuts inside the panel? Looks great

The standoffs are threaded onto the gas door hinge because the hinge has studs. And the studs have nuts that go inside the quarter panel. That's how it is factory i just had to space it out for obvious reasons haha

HipMF

I was going to say that the standoffs will break, but I'm going going to revise that and just say that they might break.

Anyway, it could be worse.

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Tkuhn

HipMF said:

I was going to say that the standoffs will break, but I'm going going to revise that and just say that they might break.

Anyway, it could be worse.

I dont believe it will be a problem. Its the same way a friend did his and that was over a year ago.

Jdesign

Is that scotch-weld stuff the same as panel bond?

SteelBlue

Tkuhn said:

I don’t know why, but I kind of like how it looks as is.

Tkuhn

Jdesign said:

Is that scotch-weld stuff the same as panel bond?

I wouldnt say the same, it has metallic pieces in it and im not sure if panel bond does. It does come up down the list when you search panel bond, but panel bond and scotch weld are both 3M products. I believe panel bond is more for gluing 2 surfaces together like a quarter panel. Or if you were trying to mold a over to a car? I'm no body guy lmao

Definitely do NOT have the patience for that stuff thats for sure.

Tkuhn

SteelBlue said:

I don’t know why, but I kind of like how it looks as is.

it looks like a drift car thats for sure lol. I can't wait to be able to get some wrap ordered!

Tkuhn

Finally got around to putting the clear vinyl on the cage to protect it. Obviously can't see much in the photo but its nice to have the cage fully exposed and not covered.