Well….yes….it has been unfortunately. I do want to get back to posting more about my BMW project car and cars in general. I did change the look of the website as well to keep it fresh. I hope you like it.
I will post more when I get a chance, which I hope is soon.
The day, October 18th….two days before putting it into storage for the season. Although, I think I could have pushed it another 3 weeks or so, but it was the last chance I could get the car cleaned before it got a little too cold for an outdoor wash. It also puts the DIY season to a close since the car is at a friends place and in their garage. The friend doesn’t drive and doesn’t have a car, yet has a two car garage, so was able to store it there along side her son’s MG convertible, which was not there yet.
Car will look spectucular next season when I put a fresh coat of paint on the car along with a new M3 front and rear bumper + nose panel….
Just had a limited slip rear differential installed on my car from an M3. It was purchased used from an M3 of known origin. Although I don’t have any pictures of my own, it is similar to the one pictured below (credit: fiveightandten on photobucket) : It is similar to the one pictured below.
It was rebored to accept a 12mm socket/screw since the OEM size seems to break (common problem). After picking up the car, I figured I would take it out for a bit of a spin, since it was new mod to me. The difference is very, very noticeable on the corners and with straight-line acceleration. The throttle is definitely more responsive. The only negative is that the engine idles a little higher, but it is hardly noticeable. I will likely be sacrificing a little bit of fuel economy in the long run, but considering that it is not my daily driver, I won’t be too heart-broken about the increased fuel consumption in return for more power for tracking purposes.
On another note, the plan moving forward for this car is still the following:
Yes….I likely could have gotten most of these items if I were to have though of buying an M3 instead, but I learn so much more by just doin’ these budget oriented swaps one at a time……the chassis was in great shape when I bought it…..and still is, so it is worth it for me. 
I will try to get to post my DIY’s that I had done in the summer soon….
That is it for now.
Well, it appears the DIY on fixing the sagging blog box actually worked for me. A picture is worth a thousand words I say, but basically, I drilled two holes and tightened the front plastic to the fabric in the back.
and as you can see, it has reduced the gap:
Well….I finally took the initiative to improve the ride quality of the E36 car by purchasing the E36 Motorsport X-brace and the Racing Dynamics Strut-bar from TurnerMotorsport through my trusted mechanic @ Autovation (see Derek). The shop did the install as I don’t quite have the tools yet to perform an install of this caliber, well, mainly the X-brace, since it is installed from underneath the chassis. This item is attaches the front-subframe to the body which reduces flex throughout cornering. It definitely improves turning accuracy, which is an important fundamental for enhanced driving days.
Here are some pictures of the two installed items. Yep, I am behind on some of my blog posts, but I will catch up with pics of the Short Shifter install and the work I did to reduce the rattles in the door panels. Enjoy…
Well…finally got around to getting the iPOD integration with the stereo system in the e90. It is quite a slick install as well when coupled with the spec.dock system from 2point5.com. I looked around to see what options are available for the BMW iPOD integration and after investigation, nothing matched the kit available via BMW themselves and this custom docking system that integrates with the OEM component.
Pictures are worth a thousand words for sure. Once you close the lid, you don’t even know its there….must tell you, the audio quality is quite rich too….
Take a peak now….
Well, it took a nice weekend to get both cars out for a nice handwash and well, pictures are worth more than a thousand words. The E36 still has some work to undergo, but I am headin’ to the track for a BMW Advanced driving school on May
11th. I will report back once the day is over and hopefully, there will be some pictures I can purchase that will coincide with the event as well.
However, let’s get on with the pictures….and more are to come of the Hartge shifter install as well….
The interior of my car required replacement. The default color scheme was grey and most of it was slightly stained and the rear parcel shelf was pretty ugly. Prior to this long weekend, I had decided to take Thursday and Monday off to give myself a 5-day break from work, which I felt was much deserved and needed. It also gave me the opportunity and time to embark on this particular project of replacing the interior. This blog will be a little long (80 pictures or so). Credit must be given to two threads in BimmerForums.com:
and
DIY: Removing the fabric shuttle sunroof
This blog combines the two of them into one and at points it strays a little from what was mentioned in them based on findings in my particular car. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at: paul.brun(at)gmail.com
To begin, although you can do this without removing the front seats, I highly suggest you do, as it will allow better mobility in the car and you just won’t feel as cramped. Please note that the battery has to be disconnected for this entire process.
So, to remove the seats
Step 1: Take a 5/8″ socket from your toolkit.
Step 2: Slide the seat forward to reveal the rear bolts and remove them.
Step 3: Slide the seat back to reveal the front bolts, take a small flat-head screw to remove the black cap and then remove the bolts.
Step 4: Slide the seat back forward and tilt the seat to give you access to the cables below in the back. There are four connections on the driver side and 5 in the passenger. Disconnect them remembering where everything was connected.
This is what the cabin looks like when the seats are removed. I took advantage of cleaning the carpet prior to proceeding to keep things as clean as possible.
This is a better view of the passenger side:
The first item component of the headliner that has to be removed are the C-pillars,
so this is the installed C-pillar:
To begin, I carefully popped the light out of the C-pillar. You will notice that the rear-window is open.
You have to also loosen the window seal and since I was replacing it w/ black ones, I removed it all as you can see below:
Now, you also have to remove the side bolster as well. Technically, it is possible to not have to do this, but it is so much easier to have more items out of the car then not. To remove just lower the seat back first, then take a hold of the side-bolster and lift out and towards the front of the car. Once you get the top free, you will see a small hole in the leather which slots into the hinge of the seat-back.
This is a picture of the side bolster removed:
The original BimmerForums thread highlights that you should remove the side-panels, I didn’t have to do this. Back to my car though, once the side bolster is removed, take the C-pillar and using the hole as leverage, carefully pull the C-pillar towards the inside of the car to release the plastic tabs from the metal spring clips in the body.
With the C-panel removed, you can see the three holes where the spring clips hold the side-panel in place, two at the top and one towards the lower left of the picture. This is where you will notice the connection points for the rear defroster and the window-based radio antenna. Oddly enough, I noticed a cut wire poking its head from the headliner in the roof, which got me curious. I figured I will find out soon enough where it was leading too, but more on that later.
Now, to remove the rest of the window seal, you have to take an 8-mm socket and the remove the bolts that keep the hinge secure to the side of the car….
Repeat the same thing for the other side of the car, for the other C-pillar:
Now that the C-pillars are removed, I figure since I was already in the back, I might as well remove the rear parcel shelf. Damn, it was an ugly mess once I removed it as there were chards of glass from when the rear window was replaced due to some teenage idiot throwing a rock through the window. You can see some chards of glass in the next picture, but back on topic, I removed the speaker grills from both sides:
Next, you actually have to remove these black tabs, as this is what secures the rear-parcel shelf to the body. They are a pain to remove and you do damage them, so make sure you have replacements for them ahead of time. They are BMW part number: 51468110359
If you are curious as to what tool I used to remove it, it was a standard trim panel removal tool, which is used to remove panels from the body, etc….very efficient and convenient.
With the rear cross member cover removed, you can remove the rear-parcel shelf quite easily….sort of get one side un-hinged before you remove the other…
This is what is located under the rear-parcel shelf, some support material and foam and as you can see, more chards of glass to have to clean up…..
Since I was going to install an M3 bumper (with the brake light in the spoiler, I figure I might as well remove the brake-light from the window itself.
And 8mm bolt accessible from the trunk keeps it secure:
Then all you have to do is unplug and remove the light:
This is the rear-parcel shelf out of the car, quite nasty lookin’. Not really sure what the original color was on this car….
Picture of the rear area through the window…..
Since I already have more then a few things out of the car, I figured I might as well remove the rear-bench to allow me to clean up whatever the previous owner and/or his passengers had left in the car. Removal revealed some coins, a pen, and other interesting items. To remove, just left the front end of each side and the bench will release quite easily.
My shop-vac proved to be quite useful in cleaning up a lot of garage from the car….
Now, next on the removal list are the three handles. Just remove the screw covers, being careful now to damage them and using a philips, unscrew the handle. You will have to do this three times as there are three handles.
I left the screws in roof pillars just to prevent myself from losing them in the garage:
Sun-visor removal is pretty simple, using a philips:
When removed, you will see that there is cable which is used as the signal to turn the vanity light on when the mirror is opened.
You then remove the vanity light, and unplug the power:
Then you remove the visor catch, you simply slide the tabs out, remove the screws and the connection:
I repeated the same thing on the driver’s side, so no need to be repetitive. Next on the removal list is the sunroof motor cover and the light panel.
The A-panels have to now be removed:
and look at all the material headliner supporting material I have collected so far:
Part of the headliner swap also included the removal of the grey-based door seal as well, so I removed it. The inner door sill keeps it in place, so I left it intact for the time being until I read up on how to remove it, turns out, it is a pain to removal without breaking anything, and the cost is to cheap to replace, so I simply just broke it off knowing this fact.
Moving on, there are two pins that are secured my metal springs in the A-pillars, towards the top, so all you have to do is firmly and carefully, pull the panel away from A-pillar itself. Sorry for the lack of light on the second picture….
Both sides are how removed:
Next task was to remove the B-pillars….so to remove, just remove the black cover on the you see on the moveable heat-adjustment piece:
Once removed, it will reveal a 17mm bolt (I believe), make sure you get the right one and then you remove…..
To remove the panel, pull the top end towards the inside of the car as there is a pin help by a metal spring clip towards to top, then pull on the button that used to adjust the height as that has to be removed. Once this is done, the panel is released and it will reveal an empty B-pillar and its components:
The final piece of the puzzle is to remove the sunroof rubber/felt gasket seal that goes around the perimeter of the sunroof. It is easier to do this when it is open:
In theory, when all these items are removed, the headliner just falls out…..however, there may be some windshield, or rear-window glue that may be keeping the headliner up, so carefully, pry it away from those points of resistence and then the headliner should literally fall out:
This is why it is easier for the seats to be removed from the car to allow for easier removal and it helps to have two people to remove it, however, if you are clever enough, you can do it on your own. Having side this, I figure it was good timing to inspect the roof and other parts for possible rust locations and leaks.
All good to go:
The hardest part of the interior replacement is the roof panel. This took time to figure out along with re-reading the BimmerForums DIY thread over and over again because something just didn’t make sense. This is where my car was a little different from the thread, along with the order of operation. Having said this, lets move on, as the battery is disconnected, you have to use an allen key to move the sunroof. The first step is to lower the sunroof, by 1/8 of an inch, as this will allow the free movement of the fabric shuttle along its track:
Pushing the fabric back reveals three bolts along this black support rail. Remove those to release the rear of the sunroof:
Once this is done, there is a screw that has to be removed from the front and a pin that has to be pushed out as well.
The right side is the front of the car….
This is the right side where the sunroof connects to in the front. Notice the screw pin and the pin location:
This is the sunroof removed from the car:
Once the sunroof is removed, you can move the fabric shuttle to the front which reveals 5 screws on each side:
use a T25 torx screw to remove the fabric shuttle:
Fabric shuttle is now removed:
Now, the donor sunroof fabric shuttle came from this donor sunroof assembly:
This is the new fabric shuttle fitted to my car:
Make sure you attach it to the fabric shuttle to the properly to the white latch on the driver side as that is used to move the fabric shuttle along with the sunroof motor:
Screw in the T25 screws to secure the fabric shuttle to the shuttle tray:
Move the fabric shuttle to the back again to reinstall the sunroof again:
Insert the pin into the proper location and secure via the screw which was removed earlier:
Now it is time to install the new fabric headliner. Again, it is helpful to have a helper to assist in placing it inside the vehicle, but it can be done on your own, just be careful to not bend the fiberglass panel….
along with the various other components that compromise the black interior swap:
Now, in this next photograph, the edge of the headliner had to hook in behind the metal edge in the rear, just follow the arrow’s:
Now, this was the tricky part, since I was on my own, I had to figure out a way to keep the headliner up, and without assistance since I was on my own. This were it helps to have a assistance helper to keep the front up, but I managed by getting under the fabric shuttle with the grab handles beside me and once I properly installed the rear-panel, I held the front up with my feet and then I installed the left and right grab handles. Helps to be fit to do this and my steel core workout I do on a weekly basis paid itself off:
As you see in the previous picture, I secure the left and right rear grab handles and quickly installed the felt rubber sunroof seal. This allowed me to work on the rest of the installation without having the headliner fall on me.
Moving onwards, I installed the left and right sun visors:
I installed the rear-parcel shelf, rear window seal and the c-pillars using the reverse of the steps mentioned earlier:
The new rear lights were not an exact connector match:
So, I used the old lights instead, which doesn’t look that bad.
Don’t worry, I will take a fabric cleaner to clean up the roof, as the camera picks up quite a bit of dirt, even in black. This is the front of the car with the front all installed:
and you will notice the door seal still missing, so that was the last part of the install and this picture shows the seats back in there proper place as well.
Yet another vantage point of the black headliner install:
Now, for those that are curious about the mysterious cable in the headliner, if you even remembered that part of the blog, well, this was it:
Not sure yet on what “it” is or what it “was”…..but it was some kind of a coaxial cable.
This completes my interior replacement DIY. Please feel free to ask me anything or through the use of the comments field. Or email me at: paul.brun(at)gmail.com
I finally got around to replacing the deteriorating mirrors and replaced them with OEM mirrors off an M3. I have sourced most of my parts through Tom Kozak in Toronto who parts out wrecked M3′s, for the most part. However, as you can see, the original’s that came with the car don’t look to great:
The actual removal and installation are pretty straightforward and got them from the following thread on BimmerForums.com. Again, I will not take photographs of my DIY’s if there exists one already on another site as it is easier to reference in that fashion. It is so much better just showing the results of the update.
My new mirrors are now the M3 E36 style mirrors:
And before, I assembled my dash….I didn’t get a chance to clean the interior, so it looks spotted. Mind you, flash picks up every bit of dirt. I will clean,condition and polish up the interior after I replace the grey interior with the M3 one that is sitting in my basement. It just doesn’t make sense to do it now when it will be dusty…..
Here is the reassembled interior along with the stock M3 radio unit.
This beast is finally complete. The last part of the upgrade was implementing the “CODE” functionality. I followed all of the instructions from a BimmerForums DIY thanks to a user known as delmarco. The one item remaining piece that seemed to have eluded him was the “CODE” connection which required tapping into PIN 15 on the ZKE IV module behind the glove box. As there were no markings to identify the module , I decided to follow an online reference that directed DIY’ers to tap into a black/green wire.
Most of the work involved wire splicing since 80% of the wiring for the new OBC was in the vehicle. This was time consuming as I had to cut off the old connector and splice the wires to the two new connectors required for the 18-button OBC. I have since fine tuned that technique by not having to cut wires. Instead, I remove the pins from the connector with my nifty small flat-head screw and insert them into the proper slots on the new connector which saves a lot of time. This technique was used on my friends car and another car which I did for payment. It worked like a charm. In the end, to support the additional functionality in the OBC upgrade, four new cables were pulled to the rear of the main instrument cluster and one cable to behind the glove box location. Obviously, the cluster, steering wheel and glovebox have to be removed as per the instructions on the BimmerForums thread.
Proper wire splicing requires the use of a soldering iron, heat shrink, good ventilation and a steady hand.
Without duplicating details that are available in Delmarco’s DIY, I will provide you with the remaining steps to get the CODE connection properly working.
With all wires spliced and/or tapped, I am left with one remaining wire (PIN 1) from the white connector:
As mentioned earlier, I looked for a black/green wire and rather easily, found one that goes to the Red connector in behind the glove box, right here.
Coincidentally, it is Pin 15. Next step, cut the wire to form a TAP.
I know I can always re-solder it if it doesn’t work, but before soldering the three wires together, I wanted to test it, so I left the three-way tap unsoldered for the moment. See below:
Viola, after turning the car on, I get this the proper final result:
