Wicks' E46 M3 Build. Hertz 3-Way Set from Tony D!

[Wicks]

WHY YOU DIRTY!!!!!!!!!!!!! I thought about that but I figured, nahhhh that's too easy! Damn me!

So what's the specs on that one?

Good for you man! Good for you!

I guess sometimes simple is the way to go.

No worries though, I have plenty of complicated shit yet to go.....

It's the same stroke, 12" but only 16.5" long when fully contracted. Old one was 20.5".

35lbs of force, the old one was 40lbs.

I wouldn't want more then that since my rear seat isn't that heavy so extra force would just rip my brackets off.

[scooter99]

Yes that's true. On all accounts!

[Wicks]

More fiberglassing around my baffle trim piece.

I really wasn't happy with the woven fiberglass cloth that I'd been using so I found this on eBay.

SOO much better.

Its THICK so if I need a thinner piece, I just separate a few layers.

I seems to wet so much better then the cloth which would seem to saturate itself with the resin and not let any through to the material I was applying it to.

Plus the cloth tended to bend in only one direction so you had to keep that straight as you applied pieces to curved areas.

...more 'glassing.

Looks a little messy but it'll get cleaned up soon.

Test fitting the new shorter actuator.

BTW, I LOVE this little impact driver that I got a while ago. Just want to reiterate that again.

It's been so handy to get into small areas and its got some TORQUE for such a little guy.

Actuator finally mounted after a lot of test fitting and tweaking my old mounting bracket.

Excuse the mess of wires.......

Trim panel (3rd attempt) is cured up and ready.

Still needs some finishing touches that I can do on the bench to keep everything flat and level.

Time to attack the rear deck lid.

Measuring out the required hole.

Initial hole is cut.

I made some rectangular wooden spacers to build the port opening up to the rear deck lid.

Here's a bottom view.

Top view.

Close up view.

I need some room around the spacers to secure everything sooo the hole needed to be enlarged.

Another close up view bare with the deck lid off to show more detail.

The inside of the spacers will get smoothed out and probly coated with Rage filler to get a smooth slightly horn shaped opening that will blend right into the rear deck lid.

The port extension will probly be broken into two pieces, one that secures to the sub-box and one that secures to the bottom of the deck lid.

Then when I install the deck lid, the two port extension pieces come together (hopefully evenly) and fit together to make a good air tight seal into the cabin.

[OrzechNJ]

nice work man.. no words

[Eturnulrs704]

This is a QUALITY build.. Beautiful car..

Thanks!

I spy a Bimmer in your avatar. Details?

Always nice having other BMW's around.

Yeah, i actually have 2 E39 540i's one (black) im doing a wall with 4 DC lvl 5 15's, 1 prv audio 8in 1 beyma 8in and eminence delta 10in in the front doors. and the other (green) i have 2 13w7 jl's ported to the cab.. with jl c2 and c5's in the doors, and a custom pc running roadrunner front end, with 2TB HDD and OBll bluetooth interface, with bmw diagnostic software, and coding running in real time. with RF 3sixty processor. currently redoing the bottom door pods for the green one with the 13w6's to hold more drivers.. I think i have a few pick of the build here but not many. I will sit in a BMW til the end..lol (y)

[FieroGrande]

Was it hard to cut the deck? Im waiting to see how you finish the port and the fg.

[scooter99]

Damn, doin work my friend! Looks like it's coming together nicely. Giving me ideas for mine too. Thanks as always. Keep it up!

[Wicks]

This is a QUALITY build.. Beautiful car..

Thanks!

I spy a Bimmer in your avatar. Details?

Always nice having other BMW's around.

Yeah, i actually have 2 E39 540i's one (black) im doing a wall with 4 DC lvl 5 15's, 1 prv audio 8in 1 beyma 8in and eminence delta 10in in the front doors. and the other (green) i have 2 13w7 jl's ported to the cab.. with jl c2 and c5's in the doors, and a custom pc running roadrunner front end, with 2TB HDD and OBll bluetooth interface, with bmw diagnostic software, and coding running in real time. with RF 3sixty processor. currently redoing the bottom door pods for the green one with the 13w6's to hold more drivers.. I think i have a few pick of the build here but not many. I will sit in a BMW til the end..lol (y)

Damn........You're not messing around

I'd love to see some pics of all this equipment.....those doors sound impressive!

Was it hard to cut the deck? Im waiting to see how you finish the port and the fg.

Not really, just need the right tool.

I wasn't sure if my tiny little air compressor would support constantly running my Ridgid air saw so I went with a Dremel and a round metal cutting blade.

It was tricky getting the small round Dremel blade in the right places with all the curvy rear deck metal, but it mostly worked.

When I realized I needed to enlarge the hole I pulled out the air saw and gave it a try. You have to hold it against the metal just right so it doesn't vibrate like crazy, but once is starts cutting it goes like butter.

And of course I ran out of air a few times and had to let my compressor catch up.

The hardest part is gathering the balls to slice into your rear deck

Once you do that its not bad, although I don't have any thick structural beams going through my rear deck so you'd want to watch out for that.

Yeah my biggest challenge now is how I interconnect the rear deck lid, port extension and sub-box all together seamlessly.

I'm sure I'll have to take it all apart again in the near future (as always) so I need to make it removable rather then just glue everything together which would be much easier.

[Wicks]

It's been a while, we need an update.

Here's a test fit of the fiberglass trim panel mid-way in the body filler smoothing process:

Needs a bit more work:

OK, now for a question for the fabricators out there:

I have my fiberglassed rear deck lid and my wooden spacers I'm using as a port extension.

The lower wooden spacer will be bonded to the sub box itself.

The upper wooden spacer(s) will be bonded together and then to the rear deck lid.

I'll then create a press-fit connection between the two so the "system" fits together.

I can't bond the whole thing together as I'm sure I'll have this rear deck lid off in the future.

Sooo, the question: I'd like to fiberglass the rear deck lid to the upper wooden spacers........from the underside, since I may need the top to be nice and smooth so I don't have a rough transition between the two.

The problem being, how do I remove the rear deck lid and wooden spacer together as a single piece and keep them together perfectly in order to glass the bottom?

Tape isn't going to do it...

So I thought of this:

Modeling clay

I'll squish it in between the two pieces to hold them together. Remove both from the car as a single unit, flip it over and then be able to glass them.

Then once the fiberglass is cured, remove the clay and then smooth the top surface. Its never-dry clay so it should remove easy.

Thoughts, opinions, comments, ridicule?

[Colin - STAPUFT]

That's some work son! I dig it.

I once thought of putting modeling clay inside of my enclosures for my mids- thinking it would help on resonances. Looks like you've come up with a real good use for it too though. That sounds like a real good idea. Much cleaner and more precise way to work.