Materials to Maintain Your ZHP IIIII Hand Protection IIIII Tools to Maintain Your ZHP
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  1. #121

    Tim's Mystic Blue ZHP Coupe

    Quote Originally Posted by t.er View Post
    Who else likes silver trim over black ?


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  2. #122
    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Location
    Portland, OR
    Posts
    10,243
    Quote Originally Posted by d-rod View Post
    Who else likes silver trim over black ?


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    Everyone. I'm dying for a Silver Cube set for a coupe

  3. #123
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Location
    SF Bay, CA
    Posts
    1,266
    With the car in storage, there’s not a whole lot going on… so I decided to work on some stuff I could do without it. Since I’m back at school, and all undergrad classes are online, the machine shop is pretty much dead. So why not take advantage of the quietness to make some tools!

    First up are the spring seat wrenches. The previous owner of my coilovers couldn’t find them anywhere, so instead of buying new ones I decided to make my own. $2 of 3/16” steel plate, a few minutes on the waterjet, and a quick spraybomb later I had this:



    (I know, I know… the bends don’t match up because I stupidly bent both the same way the first time, when they should be mirrored parts. It’ll still work.)

    Next up are the toe jigs. I took some measurements on my car before putting it away, and decided to mount into the two hood latch holes in the front, and the two hooks on the inside of the trunk sill.

    Once again, sticking with the theme of making everything on the cheap – all I had to pay was a few bucks for fasteners and a short piece of ¾” round aluminium stock. The extrusions themselves were all being recycled so I snagged a bunch.

    Started off with a CAD model:



    WIP:





    Done! Crossing my fingers they’ll fit.



    These are the pins that go into the hood latch holes:



    A few days later, I was helping my friend diagnose a small coolant leak, so it was the perfect opportunity to test fit the jigs! They fit nice, but snug – so much so that you have to lightly push it against the bumper for it to go on. I was planning on wrapping some pool noodle or MF towel around the areas that rub on paint, I’m hoping there’s enough leeway to allow for that. Worst-case, I’ll just remake the horizontal front-to-back pieces a little longer. I’ll re-assess in April when I’m able to test it on my car:



    Next was the steering rack alignment tool which is sold by Turner Motorsports. This tool sandwiches between the inner tie rod nut and a shoulder on the rack housing, which ensures the steering is locked straight when doing alignments. This is much more effective than a steering wheel lock, as the guibo on the steering column still allows for torsional flex. I haven’t had the greatest of luck with keeping a centred steering wheel with my previous DIY alignments so I’m hoping I can dial it in much better with this tool, along with the toe jigs.

    Thanks to a couple people on a couple forums, I was able to gather dimensions to machine my own:





    I also acquired a set of scales and will be making leveling pads but as that’s likely not until next year, I’ll leave that for the next post.
    2004 BMW 330CI ZHP (well, technically ZAM)


  4. #124
    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Location
    Portland, OR
    Posts
    10,243
    Cool! I wish I had access to a nice shop like that while I was in undergrad.

  5. #125
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Location
    SF Bay, CA
    Posts
    1,266
    Quote Originally Posted by BMWCurves View Post
    Cool! I wish I had access to a nice shop like that while I was in undergrad.
    Yeah, it's definitely handy. I'm making the most of it before I graduate next summer!
    2004 BMW 330CI ZHP (well, technically ZAM)


  6. #126
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Southern California
    Posts
    18,064
    Those are awesome.

    Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
    Randeaux/Rando/John/jr - '06 Cic ZHP; Southern California
    "ZHP or not, I still like you"


    ZHP Performance Package, Cold Weather Package, Leather, Jet Black/Black/BlackCube, NAV, Anthracite Black "my individual" interior trim
    ESS Stage 1 Twin Screw Supercharger, Sprint Booster, BMW Perf Intake, Magnaflow Exhaust, Dinan TB & STEP S/W, UCC Sway Bars, Apex EC-7 18x8.5 ET38
    Suspension: AST 44100 dampers, Bimmerworld front adjustable end links, Swift springs (8K front, 10K rear), Vorshlag camber plates
    Dynavin D99+, Hardwire V1 (w/V1 Connection), BSW Stage 1 Speakers, Kicker Amp/Subwoofer
    BMW Performance Strut Brace, Orion V2 Angel Eyes, No-holes License Plate, SMG Paddle Shift Mod, Besian VANOS, Gold DISA, Fan Delete, M3 Side Mirrors
    Note: Actual car no longer resembles signature picture

  7. #127
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    Toronto
    Posts
    732
    damn tim, nice work! I need to hear over to you garage to check in. my e46 probably has a lot of problems lol

    -Daniel
    OEM BMW Performance (Missing cams and seats)
    LEVEL ONE // Euro Techniks
    Auto -> 6 Speed complete

  8. #128
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Location
    SF Bay, CA
    Posts
    1,266
    Quote Originally Posted by johnrando View Post
    Those are awesome.

    Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
    Thanks JR!
    Quote Originally Posted by kakashi169 View Post
    damn tim, nice work! I need to hear over to you garage to check in. my e46 probably has a lot of problems lol
    Lol no way... I watched that video you posted of your car, it's a very clean build. And for sure Daniel, hopefully once COVID blows over!
    2004 BMW 330CI ZHP (well, technically ZAM)


  9. #129
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Location
    SF Bay, CA
    Posts
    1,266
    Now that my car is out of storage, time for another update!

    From all of the track days last year something I’d been noticing was that I was all over the place on the stock seats, which have pitiful bolstering compared to some of the newer cars I’ve driven (late-model GTI & Golf R, BRZ). Another thing I’d never really liked about our cars is how high the seating position is, and I’m not even a tall guy (~5’6”). What really stuck out to me was how nice the ergonomics is in the FRS/86/BRZ – the moment you sit in that seat, it feels like the car just shrink-wraps around you, and that was something I wanted to achieve in the E46. After doing much research and considering how much I’m likely going to be tracking in the future, I decided to invest in a fixed-back bucket seat.

    At first, I decided to make my own seat mount:



    But the free waterjetting I had access to could not cut the plates in one piece. And getting quotes online for waterjettting/lasercutting even for mild steel showed that it was worth it to just buy the mount. In doing more research I came across Brey Krause, which seem to be one of the cleanest mounts out there, as you don’t have to fuss about with billet aluminium nut plates and generic side mounts. I was actually watching this video from Speed Academy (who are local to me) about their mounts which reuse factory sliders:



    At this point I’d already committed to buying BK mounts, just had to decide whether I wanted fixed or on sliders. But you guys know me and my successful streak of getting deals on used performance parts – I hopped on the usual channels to check and low and behold, Peter from Speed Academy actually had the exact mount from that video for sale! So we met, and it was a win-win situation: I saved quite a bit of cash over importing a new mount, and it was really cool to meet Peter, we had a pretty deep discussion on a cars and their channel for a half-hour. Really nice guy!

    The setup came complete with the mount, optional lap-belt receivers, and E30 window switch, all assembled to a sedan power slider:



    I wanted this to be a fully plug-n-play solution, since I plan on swapping back the stock seats for road trips (~2-3+ hours). Since you are required to splice power from the yellow seat connector to the window switch, I’d have to snip off the power connector from my old seat and find some way to swap this pigtail between the two setups. My original plan was to use an intermediate connector between them, but I wanted this swap to be as clean as possible, so I was keeping an eye out for another connector, perhaps from a junkyard or a broken seat. I have to credit Archbid on this one, as he found one and shipped it to me gratis (and yes I insisted on paying). Such a great member to have within the E46 community!



    Just whipped up a harness from scrap wire I had laying around, and some spade crimps I bought to connect to the switch:



    All nicely wrapped up in Fabric Tesa Tape:



    The rails were quite dirty and rusty so I took them apart and gave them a nice coat of POR15:







    Next, it was time for the seat itself. I was initially looking to go with the Corbeau FX1 Pro since it seems to be a pretty good bang for buck, and I don’t need FIA rating for just lapping. However what I really wanted was a Sparco, so I was keeping my eyes peeled for a used one that had expired. I actually found a Pro 2000 that I was planning to pick up on the weekend (as I’m out of town) but it sold before I could scoop it up.

    I was pretty pissed about this, and once again kept my eyes peeled. In doing more snooping I’d realized that there’s quite a disparity in price between seats sold in North America versus Europe. Not sure why this is, but even with shipping some of the seats were still cheaper to import, than to buy local. Even so, these prices were still out of my budget.

    I decided to dig even deeper. Just using ebay.ca only showed vendors who were willing to ship to Canada, and their prices combined with shipping weren’t that cheap, I suppose because they are targeting North America and know the prices we have to deal with. But what if I used ebay.de or ebay.it? Scouring those sites with the power of google translate revealed a shop in Italy that had a Sparco Rev for sale for a really good price. I went on their website, and it turns out they had a 2019 Sparco Pro 2000 discounted quite a bit. I sent them an email, and it turns out it was their last display model and yes, they were willing to ship to Canada for only 60 Euros, which is super impressive given the size of the package and that it was air freighted. So, I paypal’d them the money and waited.

    3 weeks later this showed up at my door (well, not quite, since Canada Post apparently just leaves “we missed you!” notices without actually attempting delivery, grrrr):



    I considered flipping the seat or trading it for an older model locally but ultimately decided to just put this in my car as intended, since it’s super-clean and has never been in a car. Well-worth it for no butt-stink!



    After cleaning and sitting in it a bit, the first thing I did was to wrap some fabric tape around the cover retaining spring, after seeing chrisfix’s video on bucket seats:





    Before assembling the seat to the newly painted rails I decided to remake the inboard seat belt mount. Not sure why, but it looks like the OE mount was removed at some point and replaced with a bracket that was clearly made by someone in a garage with hand tools. Once again, machine shop to the rescue. 2 minutes of waterjetting, 5 minutes fiddling with the sheet metal brake, and a lick of POR15 later I came out with this:





    After reading forum posts and seeing how stiff the pre-tensioner is I decided to use the E36 rear belt buckle, which is just a buckle on a bit of seat belt strap looped around a lug:



    Coded it out and installed the seat:





    Initial reactions: mixed, but I knew what I signed up for. Ingress/egress is a bit of a PITA, but once you’re in there, you’re snug – taking any sort of curve at speed is intoxicating now because it’s just you needing to man the wheel, no need to use it to hang on tight. And you can feel so much more of the car, the sensitivity of my ass-sensor has been dialed up to 11. Seating position is much lower, which felt weird initially, and isn’t as practical when you’re parking or getting near curbs. I also wished the steering wheel went lower to match, but the gearstick is now higher up relative to me, and comes to the hand easier.

    After my 1.5 hour drive to school I was fully settled in and loving it – I could definitely do a much longer stint in the seat with no problem, and the higher steering wasn’t as much of a bother.

    Now I’m a bit out of chronological order but right before I put the seat in, I took my car out of winter storage and did my usual routine of an oil change on the spot. I went to remove the drain plug and saw a small spirally chip of aluminium come with it.



    Fuuuuuuuuuq the drain plug would not torque up, the oil pan was stripped. Partially my fault for not using a torque wrench since I owned the car, and have definitely been exceeding the 25 Nm torque rating. But also, the threads in the pan seemed suspect ever since I got the car. When I was working at a shop back in high school usually you just have to break the plug loose, then it threads out by hand. Not the case with my car, the threads were never smooth and I always had to use a ratchet to back it out all the way.

    I did some research and found that the threads in the pan are apparently much deeper than the length of the plug. So I went out and bought a 30 mm long bolt, almost double the length of the 16 mm long OE drain plug. Threw the crush washer on and prayed to god… it torqued up! Being afraid of wearing out the threads with more use, I counted my blessings and decided to just use an extractor for future oil changes.
    2004 BMW 330CI ZHP (well, technically ZAM)


  10. #130
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Location
    SF Bay, CA
    Posts
    1,266
    Let’s go back to right before Christmas break of last year – I was able to fabricate the corner scale pads nearly to completion at that time. I acquired a set of Proform scales that are quite small and light (~14” x 9”). As such they’re a bit harder to work with than a standard 15” x 15” scale, but I can’t complain.

    These pads integrate grease plates that use 9 ball transfers. The plates lock in place with bolts when you want to roll the car back and forth when corner balancing, or when adjusting camber. Then when setting toe, you can simply take the bolts out, and the plates are free to move. This setup, along with my toe jig and steering rack tool should allow me to be fairly accurate and precise with alignments at home.









    The ball transfers are rated to 225 kg each, way overkill but hey the bearings were available. Before the actual plates were made I tested them with a piece of scrap and could barely stand on them without falling off, any miniscule amount of side force resulted in the plate effortlessly gliding in-plane.



    All I had to do left was to make the actual grease plates, but I didn’t actually get around to doing that until end of May. A combination of just being too busy with school, and not needing them until then since Ontario was on lockdown and tracks were closed.

    Time-travel back to yesterday afternoon and this was the progress:





    The grease plates themselves have pieces of angle iron welded to them, which are the stops to prevent the plate (and, subsequently car) from sliding off the pad:



    Next on the list were the front ARB reinforcement plates, which is much needed since I have a 30 mm front bar going in, and I’d hate for the studs to pull out like others have experienced. Once again, having access to a full machine shop is so great, quite a simple CAD model using some measurements found online and from other forum members (thanks guys!), a few minutes on the waterjet and bam here they are:



    Of course, not having access to my car at the time brought some small teething issues – nothing huge and after a bit of filing they were usable:



    Permanent installation to come later.

    Next was the positive jump post relocation – as it is situated right by the right strut tower, it blocks the rebound damping adjustment knob at high camber/caster angles. Following the procedures similar to that of the BMW Performance Strut Bar, along with the details from ZHPizza meant it was a cinch to do.

    Before:



    After:





    Next was the power steering catch can – I was spewing fluid out of the breather on track, and it seems to be somewhat of a common mod for our cars when that happens. Got a cheap plastic motorcycle brake reservoir off eBay and removed the gasket, so I didn’t have to drill a venting hole in the cover.



    Decided to mount it to an unused stud on the left strut tower – however the reservoir can only be mounted one way or it’d interfere with the airbox. Doing so would angle the outlet away from the PS reservoir, so I made a small bracket to get the outlet in the right direction, and a small spacer to offset it from the bracket. Once again, took advantage of waterjetting (don’t worry this was done with a bunch of other parts) for perfect geometry, and sanded to look nice.





    I know, I know… soft PVC tubing isn’t great. If the tube starts to sweat then I’ll swap it out, but this was just what I had available:



    Next I replaced the trans fluid (Redline MTL) and replaced both fill & drain plugs with new OEM. Thanks again FCP!

    Lastly, a bunch of small bits and bobs – some mounting points of the heat shields were starting to tear, so I put some fender washers to spread the load to a larger area. Also when I was doing the trans fluid I noticed the insulation of a harness going to a sensor on the trans was cracked so I put some Tesa Tape:



    2004 BMW 330CI ZHP (well, technically ZAM)


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