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

[hdorre]

Mmm.. I love E46 M3s.. yours is clean as hell.. inside and out.. LITERALLY haha

The build looks really clean. Nice job.

[CJ18]

This has turned out awesome! And i do agree that you did something about the XLs wanting more than the 2k!

Thanks Cody!

Appreciate the comment.

Yep the XL's should be pretty happy in a few weeks..........

Muhahahaha

How'd you get some of those sweet custom parts from Toolmaker? Email, CACO...?

I have an idea bouncing around my head that I don't have the means to accomplish correctly.

Could he make something from a custom drawing or does it have to be something that he's already making?

Dude, your door panels are ridiculous!

I may need some advice for some custom pods for my doors in the future.

Nothing as extreme as yours but I want them looking really good so I'm willing to do what it takes.

[email protected] or look him up on facebook

[scooter99]

I have another question on this sick ass build! Do you drive around with your seats down all the time or do you have them up? What's the difference in sound on both? Debating what I want to do on my build, but I have kids and car seats are always in my car, which was why I was wondering. Was going to port through the rear deck on mine. Thanks

[Wicks]

Mmm.. I love E46 M3s.. yours is clean as hell.. inside and out.. LITERALLY haha

The build looks really clean. Nice job.

Thanks

Yeah, the white hasn't been too bad to keep clean.

Sawdust on the interior has become my latest enemy.....man that stuff gets everywhere!

[Wicks]

I have another question on this sick ass build! Do you drive around with your seats down all the time or do you have them up? What's the difference in sound on both? Debating what I want to do on my build, but I have kids and car seats are always in my car, which was why I was wondering. Was going to port through the rear deck on mine. Thanks

Good question

Understood on the car seats. Then yeah, you probably want to make the most of the ski-hole (if you have one) and the rear deck.

I'm really hoping mine doesn't rattle too much but we'll see. Not too bad yet but I have some tweaks to do.

Have you seen Rogue's E46 Bimmer build yet? He built a custom rear deck mounted 12" with two kerfed ports on either side......SIKK!

Very elaborate but the best rear-deck implementation I've seen.

I do drive around mostly with the rear seats down, but I do have a ski-hole if they are up (not latched).

I have a 60-40 rear seat which is a PAIN to always lower when I get in the car.

When I park the car overnight, I usually just raise the seats up to cover the subs but I don't latch them closed. If they are locked, I need to go into the trunk and release two levers to unlock the seats.....then run around to the cabin and reach back to lower them...each. Kind of a hassle.

If I need to carry something in the back I'll sometimes just leave the seats up but still not latched and the sound isn't too much different.

Honestly I haven't locked the rear seats and given it a good comparison yet. Plus my subs are still breaking in and they're a little underpowered so I'm not yet at the system's full potential.

Part of the reason for not testing the system with the rear seats locked is that I have plans for the rear seat which will eliminate those locks...

[scooter99]

Wow, thanks for the info. I vaguely remember his build. I'll go look it up. Anxious to see what you have in store!

[Wicks]

I went the cheaper route when I was gathering all the power related items and got some fuses and fuse blocks from eBay which I really dislike.

The fuse block was a cheap brittle plastic and the bolts to secure the wire and fuse were actually exposed to whatever you mount it to.

My under the hood fuse is directly mounted to a metal peice of the firewall.

The bolts on the fuseblock have a tendancy to come loose and therefore have the potential to touch the metal. Something that I didn't want to deal with.

That and the fact that the crappy covers never latch onto the base plate AT ALL....I could never get the covers to stay on and I don't really want those bolts exposed under the hood.

I needed to upgrade some fuses anyway so I decided to change them all out.

I HIGHLY recommend BlueSea products. Marine-grade equipment that's pricey but very durable and well made.

Here's a crappy pic of the two fuse blocks side by side (cheap on the left, Bluesea on right):

Here's the bottoms, notice how the bolts are exposed on the cheap one....not good:

Here it is installed

The Bluesea cover piece is flexible and really latches into the base plate. It also has larger holes in the side to fit larger wire diameters if needed.

Here's a random pic of a sample rivet that I shot into a piece of aluminum and some scrap sheet metal (my old battery tray)

Trying to come up with a good fabrication method for something I want to install in the Bimmer........more on that later.

Picked up a nice block of 1/2" aluminum on eBay (it is good for some things ) and started laying out an idea for a buss bar / fuse distribution plate.

If I was going to do this buss bar properly then holding a drill at "about" 90 degrees wasn't going to cut it...

I had a Lowes Gift Card and decided to make another tool investment:

MAN, I wish I had this earlier. Much cleaner holes. I noticed that the table on this press isn't quite perfectly 90 degrees with the drill bit but its MUCH closer than free-handing.

[scooter99]

Oh so nice! I need to get one of those for when I do mine! 100% agree on Bluesea products! Very nice, very durable!

[Mike Whitenton]

Great build. Nice work. Love how you thought out the details.

Just passing along a couple of things I've tried that others may not have thought about.

There are 2 different types of solder on cable ends. The part that surrounds the cable can be the open end or closed end. I see you used the closed end as I did. But I won't do that in the future. When soldering them I found the solder wicks up into the cable and makes it not flexible for a bit too far for my tastes. The reason is the way I held the end. I clamped the end with vise grips with the cup pointing upward and stuck the wire in from the top. The problem is the metal vise grips draw away too much heat and as a result the wire ends up getting too hot. The way to stop this is drill out the end of the cap and turn the whole thing upside down. Clamp the wire and set the connector over the wire. With the drilled hole in the end you can fill the end with solder properly and the wire is in the clamp so no wicking heat problem. Likewise you can by the other type solder connectors that are the open end type.

Next is the surface of MDF. MDF is fairly absorbent and can suck quite a lot of primer or paint into it requiring many coats to get a good sealed and smooth finish.

2 choices depending on what you want as a finish.

1. Apply a skin coat of body filler to the entire surface so it can be sanded very smooth.

2. Take a cup and mix some water based wood glue like Elmers so it is really thin. Paint it on like wood sealer. It is very very cheap and makes a pretty good seal to the surface that can be sanded. It will be very thin and will likely have brush strokes so keep that in mind. If you find it too thin to sand, try some fine steel wool or a green kitchen scruby.

Using either of these tips can save quite a lot of paint that would normally soak into the MDF.

Try the Elmers tip on a scrap and give it a quick sand when dry. Spray on a coat of paint to see what kind of results you get. It worked pretty good for me. Results may depend on the type and quality of MDF.

For those looking for inexpensive mirroring. Walmart carries those cheap door mirrors that are something like 16"x48". Don't remember. Anyway the plastic frame comes off easily with a putty knife and a small hammer. Next lay it face down on a flat surface. The paper backing can be scrubbed off with a bit of water and some green kitchen scouring pads. It is really thin but you can cut it easily using the usual glass cutting methods. Glue it onto your MDF with regular silicone mirror adhesive. I found that Walmart puts the mirrors on sale every so often. I picked up 6 of them for under $4 each.

Hope this helps someone with their next build.

[Kyblack76]

Now your getting some love WICKs

Perfect NOM....

Grats buddy.....

Lookin forward to a vid or 9....