Z3 Coupe content

[Bassboy3313]

Job is done and very well worth it! Didn't get a whole lot of pics, but got a few. First drive home makes me not want to put it in garage for winter yet. Lol. Revs like a son of a bitch and shifting is very smooth with new detents. 

I did screw up and bought the wrong DSSR. The one I got was for the e36, thinking it was the same. Well, the Z3 shift arm is almost twice as long as the e36. Had to reuse the stock arm for now and will be ordering the correct one to swap in over winter. 

All-in-all I'm very happy with the result and will be tough to take it easy next spring to break-in the clutch correctly.

[KaiserRolls]

So uh, do you have a spare ZF now? And are you planning on selling it to me lol

[Bassboy3313]

KaiserRolls said:

So uh, do you have a spare ZF now? And are you planning on selling it to me lol

It's already accounted for, lol. @wasnt m3 was nice enough to lend me his spare ZF to rebuild before I did the clutch job. So now my old one gets rebuilt and given back.

[KaiserRolls]

Bassboy3313 said:

It's already accounted for, lol. @wasnt m3 was nice enough to lend me his spare ZF to rebuild before I did the clutch job. So now my old one gets rebuilt and given back.

What a nice guy 

@wasnt m3 are you planning on selling it lol

[Bassboy3313]

Test fitting the new shift knob for next year. Joined the motorsport golf ball shifter club!

[Bassboy3313]

Figured I would get the car on the lift and prepped for work this winter. Had to do some multiple up-downs with the jack and lift in order to get the tallest lift feet under it. These are needed for when I install the dssr since they give the most clearance between the lift surface and underside of car for exhaust removal and such. 

Also decided to take the wheels off and throw the Motorsport Hardware 78mm stud kit on too. The studs are too long to reuse the oem BBS screw-on center caps, but that's not a problem.

I have something planned for different center caps that involves the 3d printer for mock up and test fitting. Stay tuned!

[Bassboy3313]

Took some measurements of the OEM center caps and drew something up in TinkerCAD. 

Getting the threads correct was the hardest part. Nice thing about McMaster-Carr is that they have the CAD files for every part they sell. Once I figured out the thread pitch I found a bolt on McMaster that matched and pulled it into TinkerCAD. 

Worked like a charm and fits perfectly!

Now I'll be able to run these wheels with the Motorsport Hardware stud kit installed.

Gotta figure out if I want to get these wheels refinished this winter too

[Bassboy3313]

And just like that, goes from 3D printed plastic to machined aluminum.

I was about to call up some machine shops, but ended up finding a company called Bimmertune out of Lithuania. They already sold the custom centercaps for BBS RC wheels at a very nice price. Free shipping was incredibly fast as well. Some new domed BBS center cap stickers are on their way as well.

I also picked up a throttle body adapter plate from them while I was at it.

It's to mount the M52TUB28 throttle body to an M54B30 manifold. I have the B30 manifold on the shelf already and hear it's great gains up top without affecting the low end torque for the TUB engines. That will be a project for when I feel very confident, lol.

[YoungCR]

very cool! what's the purpose of the hex on the inside?

[Bassboy3313]

YoungCR said:

very cool! what's the purpose of the hex on the inside?

From what I can think, its to assist with removing/installing it onto the wheel if there is any corrosion. Since it threads onto the wheel and doesn't clip on like usual. You would use a socket from back side.

[Bassboy3313]

Figured I'd start with more interior work.

Firstly started with installing the Never Done glove box sag fix.

I then moved on to removing the seats and center console. This is to prep for the dash replacement and to install the restored Z3M center console pieces.

Center console painted and assembled with Z3M center pieces and new VDO classic gauges. 

[YoungCR]

Man that looks great! That glove box kit is a cool product.

[Bassboy3313]

Really got after it with the warm weather today. Dashboard and front half carpet removed. Dashboard was fairly straight forward and simple. The carpet removal would not have been purist approved. Had to cut it back behind center console otherwise the heater core and many other things would have to have been removed in order to get carpet out whole. Wasn't going to get that involved. Plus where I cut will never be seen when new carpet goes in. 

Dashboard was disassembled and the "pods" were prepped for paint. Along with the kick panels too. New black dashboard didn't come with the "pods" and are near impossible/expensive to find.

LVP paint applied to all pieces. Need to get another can for final coats. 

Once new front half carpet arrives in mail things can start getting reassembled again.

[Bassboy3313]

So the douchebag on ebay I purchased the black carpet set from cancelled my order for no reason. Decided to try my hand at dying my existing carpet. Non of the purists will want it anyways after I strategically cut it to remove. So here goes nothing...

I am terrible at taking pics while I'm in the zone, so these are all I have.

After a vacuuming and cleaning

And done. Was hard to get the color to show in the pics due to the lighting in garage. Trust me when I say it actually turned out pretty well with consistent dark black color. And still feels relatively soft.

I will be giving it one last light mist coat in the morning and throwing it back in the car. Then I can get the remainder of the interior back together as well.

[Bassboy3313]

And back in...

[Bassboy3313]

Dash starting to look complete once again

[YoungCR]

All looks great in pictures

[Jdesign]

Looks good from this side of the monitor!

[Rekpoint]

I am excited to see the whole interior put together!

[Bassboy3313]

Thanks guys! I am happy with how it's turning out for sure.