BMW BTCC Inspired Track car

[smallspeed]

Matt - me too!
Thanks for the comments guys - I know its not really a classic and its definitely not a porsche, but glad people are enjoying reading about my little project in my even littler garage!

So for today, a couple of bits of bodywork tidy-up..

Firstly fire/electrical cut-off, and I wanted to replicate a similar set-up to the original race cars, but not really a fully hidden/recessed system as I think that might ultimately be a bit fiddly to operate! They had a rectangular cut-out on the front wing with a carrier piece welded to the body-frame and the push-buttons mounted inside it, so they were completely inside the body work
I wanted to replicate the style and location but not necessarily the recess, so created two dimples on the top of the front wing and then plated them over with some carbon fibre. The push button for my solid-state battery isolator was mounted on one, the other (for now) is a spare if I ever get an electrical extinguisher
For the extinguisher, I created a small formed area in the same location and mounted the pull handle..



I also wanted to confirm the door handles would fit - this sounds stupid, but I had the opportunity to purchase some genuine "MOTORSPORT" handles early on and being a tart jumped on it! Only then I heard the handles change from pre/post facelift.. So I figured I'd check they actually work
They fitted pretty well actually, however the lock barrel section is a bit different and this is where the issue lies!



Fortunately BMW do a kit to replace the lock barrel - it consists about 100 "leaves", some oil and the barrel itself, so I purchased one for a pre-facelift car (to suit the handles), swapped the leaves and springs over from the post-facelift handles that came with the car (so I could retain the keys) and rebuilt it all
Net result - I have fully working pre-facelift handles that are matched to my post facelift car and keys
I don't really have any pictures of this - so you understand why, the springs are about 2mm diameter and 3-4mm long, and there's about 10 of them. Also they fit in two different directions (up/down) and not in the way you think - they're fitted in pairs, but the leaves in each pair go in opposite directions rather than in the same direction.. Unfortunately I only have two hands, and they look like a butchers selection pack - this was an activity I never want to do again!
The second lock went much better - Amie did it using her lady-fingers while I watched!

Couple of other bits and bobs..

Rear subframe replaced with the "proper one"



Rear arms and everything installed, plus rear driveshafts - this time around with the diff actually in there too! The fuel tank went back in aswell - this was a lot easier than taking it out, as when I removed it I was under the impression it was pretty much empty. The look on my face must have been pretty interesting as it dropped onto my chest with 40 litres in it



"proper" suspension installed



More on suspension choice another time, because there's a lot to say and to understand!

Brakes were installed - Someone mentioned brakes before, this is the first snippet (and it will probably disappoint most of you)
Front brakes are pretty much universal on e36's, and are interchangable across most models. The M3 calipers/discs are not directly interchangable, and are not a huge upgrade vs. stock - as someone already mentioned the standard m3 brakes are nothing really to write home about in terms of specification - sliding single piston calipers, 320mm cross drilled/vented discs
Luckilly the e46 330ci has pretty big discs and pretty cheap ones too! They're 325mm/vented, not quite as thick as the M3 discs (although only about 2mm in it) and large single piston sliding calipers. They bolt straight on with the 330 caliper carrier brackets
This gives you an idea of the change in disc size (330ci on the left, 328i on the right)



And fitted..



They just (really-just! ) fit inside a 17" wheel!



Rear brakes on my car are pretty good really so not much point in upgrading unless you go crazy on the fronts - vented, 285mm fairly thick discs, and again a single piston caliper

To improve feel (a lot) the standard rubber bushes which fit over the slider bolts were replaced with bronze guides - these give a huge improvement over brake response and feel, however need a bit of care and maintenance which isn't really a problem
Believe it or not I actually brought these! I got them from Hack Engineering who are based in the UK, mostly because its a ball-ache machining this stuff and they were a reasonable price
I also upgraded with braided hoses front and rear, and will use Dot4 high-temp fluid. I've previosuly used ATE Super Blue or Super Gold, which will probably continue to do the business for the time being and with this set-up
I have Carbon Loraine RC6 pads front and rear - this combination of parts gives a pretty huge amount of stopping power, and anyone in the market for pads I can highly recommend them. They seem able to strike the balance between cold bite, hot outright power, low wear and reasonably low noise

The only way brakes wise from here really, is either porsche calipers (which require e46 M3 or CSL discs at £200+ a piece) or something bespoke such as AP calipers/discs..
For the time being this is a sensibly priced solution that gives more than enough performance, especially when paired up with what I have coming up in a few posts - when you see it you will understand

Bodywork was all sanded down



another week of evenings - about 2-3hrs per night for 5 days, plus a saturday morning.. I should have taken the opportunities to "do some crimes" as I had NO finger prints by the end!
And then, having been let down by the damn truck rental place around the corner at the final hour, Chris from GCR Central stepped in and helped me out..



..back off to "trade pete's" for phase 2!

I ought to take this opportunity to say a big thanks to Chris and Chez at GCR - I've got a lot of love for those guys who have helped me out with a loan of their press from time to time, big hammers, vices, etc that I don't have at home. Its not necessarily big things, but it means a huge amount when you're loosing the will to live trying to get by on your own without the proper tools.
They run a great business in S.Leicestershire and are truly passionate about their cars and the ones placed into their care - I love dropping in there to drool over their BMW's!
I owe them BIG TIME - I hope I get the chance to repay them some day

[smallspeed]

Been a few days, in actual fact this was a few weeks as I was away with work and Pete had a bunch of stuff to get done ahead of my car
Similar comments ensued about the colour, but when I went to see it half way through the paint process I knew it was spot on what I wanted!



A few days later I dropped back in and picked it all up - I had pete paint the bottom 1/2 of the car black, as it would save me a lot of stickering - I think the black with the green really works well

Doors installed in the spare room:







Car back in the garage:







Next day I cracked on with putting things back together again - I don't have much room as I stated previously, and Amie was NOT going to stand having car parts all over the house

Cross member back in (now powder coated)



Swiss cheese'd bumper beam (this is an early one made from alu vs. the later steel one)



Front bumper / grill panel back in - I will do a bit of a write up about the headlights another time because quite a bit of work went into them



Other headlight in, bumper mounted up, and starting to look a bit more like a car again!
Couple of little details here for the sad-o's like me -
This is a post facelift car, but its had a pre-facelift nose installed (same as the "real cars")
Pre-facelift indicators and grills
Post facelift (and heavily modified) lights
Pre-facelift saloon bumper - it took a while for me to figure this out, but they seem to have used the saloon bumpers on these cars rather than the coupe or sport bumpers - not sure why, but there it is
Also, foglight blanks painted and fitted



Few more detail pics as things started to go together..

Front wing detail





Oil cooler in, and "the right way up", you can also see the big check valve here aswell



Rear bumper taped in-place, boot and rear lights mounted up



And a moody shot to finish

[964RS]

It still amazes me you've done all this in that tiny garage....!

[smallspeed]

it still pisses "our mate" off who lives next door too although she's become more tolerant of driveway noise since she homed the three yappiest dogs on the planet

[smallspeed]

So, I said I'd do a bit more about suspension..
The e36 was the first of the 3-series to move away from the A-arm trailing arm set-up - you can see on nicks thread, this was used right from the 2002 through e21, e30, and even the e36 compact, and z3
For the full-size e36's they changed to a semi-trailing set-up, and this really benefits from some stiffer bushes in the trailing arm mounting portion
For this car I have gone with the powerflex black bushes - these are about 90 Shore and really help with turn-in by reducing "steer" in roll. They're mounted between two brackets which are probably hard to make-out in the photo, but these effectively bolt solidly the middle steel sleeve of the bush and don't contact around the outside. This allows the mounting of the arm to move slightly left/right along the axis of the bush
Several companies in the US make a pillow-ball bush for here, but they're not allowed in some classes of racing, AND they're a bit high maintenance and harsh! As a mid-house some companies sell "limiters" which effectively mimic the chamfer of the mounting bracket on the outside, and the flat bush on the inside. This gives full contact across the entire side of the bush preventing movement
Rather than spend money buying some of these and shipping from the US, I set to with the lathe!
Can't see them in this photo unfortunately because I had them hard annodized black

Rear suspension arrangement shown below:
The trailing arm mounting is furthest away (x2) this mounting provides toe adjustment
The trailing arm itself incorporates the "hub" and the wheel bearing
Rear subframe in the middle is mounted directly into the bottom of the shell, and picked-up at the two front (furthest away) mounts by the cage
One upper and lower arm per side, the bottom ones adjust camber, the top one includes the spring perch - the rear springs are considerably inboard from the hub hence usually the rear springs are quite high rated



rear damper and spring



At the front, its a fairly common set-up across most BMW's - a large L-Shaped arm which mounts to the body using "lollypops" at the rear, to the front subframe with a ball joint, and then 90-degrees (or thereabouts) outwards to the hub with another ball joint
The hub then has a bolt on strut which goes upwards to the strut tower above
The steering tie rods effect toe, strut adjusts camber and castor
Some additional camber and castor can also be achieved with eccentric lollypop bushes - effectively moving the rear mounting point in/out up/down by about 10mm from the centre line within the bush mounting

One issue with this front suspension set-up is loss of camber during cornering. On a standard car the arms point down (static). During roll, the outer arm moves towards horizontal (4-oclock to 3-oclock for the horologists ). This increases camber on the outer wheel, assisting cornering grip
On a lowered car, you're moving the static position towards the horizontal, and so any compression during cornering moves you further around the clock. Its very easy (even just using lowering springs) to get the arms horizontal (static) and this then causes the arms to move from 3o-clock to 2o-clock during cornering. Because of this camber is actually reduced on the outer wheel during cornering leading to understeer.
This can be quite severe, and you often hear of BMW people who misunderstand the cause making radical modifications to try and fix it with little gain
The actual fix is HUGE front roll stiffness! To give you an idea of HOW stiff - standard springs are around 1.8kg / mm on the sport model, the BTCC e36's were running around 18-20kg/mm in period They also had massive blade adjustable anti rollbars
For me, I went to coil-overs with big springs and a massive "standard" front bar! I also fitted a ground control roll-centre and bump steer correction kit - don't have the photos downloaded yet, but will get some up soon.. This basically moves the steering arm connection point down vs. the hub to eliminate bump-steer, and the wishbone ball joint "up" vs. the arm (ie moves the arm down vs. the hub) to give around 10mm improvement. This helps move the arm back down below horizontal

Front strut



Anti roll bar - this is an H&R "Cup" bar, which I got on clearance for just over £100 delivered from Germany - I think these cup bars were for a specific race series in Europe and are 1mm larger than the largest off the shelf bar I've seen
They came with natty purple (and very hard) polyurethane bushes, which are actually about 5mm oversize and have a wound fillament type bearing between the bar and the bush - pretty impressive stuff





Another advantage for the front ARB - standard cars had the ARB mounted to the front wishbones, about 12" from the front wheel centreline (1/2 way between CL and ball joint). On the M3, much smaller bars were used (about 16mm from memory vs. 19 or 20mm) but these attached directly to the front struts. This positions them about 6" from the front wheel centreline resulting in a stiffer overall set-up. Moving to this ARB and coil-over set-up has allowed me to mount the ARB to the struts which results in a compounded improvement in front end stiffness
At the rear, I'm running the standard (318is I think, or 325i convertible, i forget) anti roll bar, which seems to be the biggest standard bar offered. I may upgrade this at another time, but for the time being this should be enough to get going

In terms of spring/damper choice, I went with HSD coilovers. These are an "far-east" coilover, however having driven a bunch of different cars in the time leading up to this I was very impressed. I've driven a couple of e90's with Intrax and Moton set-ups.. they were mindblowing, but so was the price! I've driven an e46 on black magic coilovers which seem borderline unobtainable and too expensive for me, an e36 on gaz gold (which seems to be the go to choice for a lot of people) an e46 on Nitron dampers (which was pretty awesome, but again a bit expensive for me) and then an e36 on HSD's. This car had the Monopro set-up (monotube dambers, lots of adjustment) and the standard springs - 10kg/mm front and 8kg/mm rear. I then found another guy who had a similar set-up but with the "nurburgring" spring option, which is 10mm/kg front and rear. This was a lot better balanced, especially on a square wheel and tyre set-up. The car was also reallly nicely aligned, corner weighted, etc - I was impressed!
Cost wise, the HSD's come in around £700 vs. about £1100 for the Gaz set-up. I felt the HSD's were way better than the Gaz dampers. Nitrons were a touch better than the HSD's however there wasn't a lot in it and nothing that justified 2-3x the price for the standard set-up and 3-4x for the custom valved option...
I started looking around at buying some, however before I placed an order I found a set available 2nd hand - these had been fitted to a car that was used mostly for shows and then taken off again, and were literally like brand new (less than 500 miles on them, and looked like it). I spoke with a couple of the guys at driftworks who are a UK importer, and purchased some e46 springs - they're basically the same dampers, and are more than capable of the higher e46 spring rates, so I'm now running 12kg/mm springs front and rear! Rear springs needed some adjustment, but everything in and down, and ready to go - this is a very stiff set-up, however the damping is SPOT ON in my opinion - you can live with it on the road, and its awesome on the track, so I'm very happy

Car is currently set-up roughly but will be aligned with the following settings:

Front camber: -3.5deg
Front toe: 0mm (total)
Front caster: 6deg
Rear camber: -2.5deg
Rear toe: 2mm toe-in (total)

This is a pretty tried and tested set-up for this and other similar e36's
An alternative set-up is to switch the toe's around so you're running zero on the rear, and 2mm (total) toe-out on the front
For an agressive set-up, 2mm out (front) / 2mm in (rear)

Apologies this has been a really wordy post, but hopefully the different suspension arrangement and details are interesting to someone

[smallspeed]

You know you had too much to drink last night when...

..you realise you booked a track day at 10:40pm
March 25th - stake in the ground
I have visions of me wearing ski goggles and a poncho driving around with no doors and no windscreen

[KS]

Breathtaking work!

[smallspeed]

Thanks KS
Not sure its up to the standard of some of the other cars here, but its certainly been a fun project and learning experience!

Bit of an update of other random goings on..

Headlights - as standard these are candle powered Halogen bulbs, dipped / sidelight on the outside, full beam on the inside. I've done a few HID retrofits (including a double-bi-xenon retrofit to an e46 24hr car) and always had lots of success using the FX-R Bi Xenon Projectors from thereotrofitsource - I highly recommend them for anything you need headlight related
I purchased another set of FX-R's and some Morimoto 55w bulbs and balasts, and set-about fitting them
The outer "bulb" is now combined high/low beam, and I have a small bulb shoved in the inner space that works as a "sidelight" - lens removed and painted yellow for retro effect!
These projectors are right up there, and even behind the glass outers give similar output to the very best OEM projectors (S2000, etc)
This isn't a flashy show installation so I've not fitted any covers or bezels, however the projectors are still fairly well hidden in the mirrored standard housings



I purchased a fancy battery disconnect - this was a cheapie because the stud was damaged so I repaired it by drilling out the end of the thread, welding in a new one, and then turning down a piece of aluminium to thread over the whole lot.. Effectively repairing the thread, and extending the terminal which helped with routing the battery cables (will follow-up with an "installed" picture when I get the photos off my camera)
Works a treat, and a very neat (and small) install



Fuel pumps - the e36 has two holes, one under each rear seat (left/right)
The tank is a saddle tank which sits over the prop-shaft. On the right side there is a pump which picks-up from like an ashtray in the bottom of the tank. This is submerged under the fuel in that half of the tank, and also fed by a tube which passes over the top of the saddle into the left side. On the left side there is a "return" and the fuel level sender. This return passes through some weird venturi thing which "pumps" fuel from the left 1/2 of the tank to the right, maintaining an even level both sides
This works fine on the road, not so well on track - under hard cornering, and with less than 1/4 tank its quite common to get starvation issues!
Fortunately both the pump and the return/sender are identical at the top, and so an early pump (which combined supply, return, and a sender) can be fitted BOTH sides and connected together to achieve a twin pump set-up!
This is easy to do, and a power supply can be carried across the top of the tank to suit
£25 later, no more fuel starvation! (more on the resulting embarassment from this mod another time )



Telemetry aerial - this is from an LMP2 car! The label on it has earned it (the aerial) the nickname "dave"
Anyway, more about telemetry another time - i think that subject requires a post of its own...



I purchased a GRP bonnet, ordered in Black Gel Coat to avoid stone-chips (and painting) which was subsequently polished..



...then semi-stickered (I couldn't help myself)



Bonnet on for a trial fit!



Front catches installed - I went for 4 catches on the front to keep the leading edge down, and 3 on the rear to ensure it maintains shape and clears the wiper



Passenger door assembled and on..



..i've retained the electric windows for the time being for a couple of reasons: the windows are frameless, and so perspex ones have a habit of flapping about at speed. The solution is either an aluminium frame or a few struts on the inside to hold the top in. As this will be road/track for the forseable future, I've opted to retain the electric glass windows which gets around ventilation and sealing issues, plus saves me a few hundred quid until I'm ready to make this track only

Fancy CF door card on (which undid the saving of retaining the glass windows! )







..they're so pretty

And, having done the bonnet, I couldn't resist adding a couple more stickers on the rear end!



I knocked up some side-mount brackets as a temporary measure so I could figure out where I wanted the seat to fit in relation to pedals, so I'll finish on a pic of the rear part of the cage, the seat, and a view of "the office" including THAT rear view mirror

[cubist]

Is that a multi panel Wink mirror? If so, I've still got one in my barn from the 80s that I had in a truly rank, rusty and rubbish fastback. Loved that car - too low, too loud, too fast - I eventually killed it on the M11 one night...

Really enjoying this thread about a properly put together car with its cylinders all in a line.

[smallspeed]

yeah its not actually a wink one as all the kids seem to want them and they're £50, its one from a golf buggy which I purchased online from a driving range in Essex somewhere for about £15!

does the same job pretty much, but I'm not sure if its going to flap about a bit too much, so it may be replaced with one of the more normal curved cage-mount ones from demon tweeks or something.. A lot of these things are an experiment really - i'm kind of excited to get through the putting back together stage and start tweaking and adjusting

[smallspeed]

So, I mentioned some embarassment, and here it is..
I started the car, and it ran really well for about 10 seconds then died! I was happy, it started, and probably had a dead temp sensor or something
Couple of days later I went back, car wouldn't start - it was trying, but just wouldn't catch..

Checked fuel - removed the cap on the end of the fuel rail, and I had fuel pressure
Checked spark - good on all cylinders
Checked crank sensor signal - appeared to be good, and correctly timed
Checked ignition pulses - getting pulses everywhere
Replaced the fuel filter
Replaced the cam sensor (used for injector firing, and can't be "traditionally" tested)
Added 20 litres of fuel!

Lots of headscratching, still no starting or running

After a while I had pretty much lost the will to live (or at least continue with this issue), and my wife once more stepped in to help..
She asked a bunch of questions I'd already answered for myself, but the upshot was, we decided to spend a few hours going over everything again just incase.
Brought a can of "easy start" - squirted a bunch of it into the manifold while amie cranked the engine, and BINGO it caught, ran then died immediately the "easy start" was consumed!
So spark was fine, everything appeared to be working, just fuel causing problems..
Re-confirmed (using noid lamps) the injectors were firing as expected, so this time, rather than checking the fuel pressure at the rail, i decided to pull the fuel pump covers and make sure the pumps were priming / pumping as expected on key-on, and run, incase there was some air in the fuel line or whatever..
Lifted the first cover, everything working well. At this point the mother in law phoned, and the wife disappeared indoors.. I figured I'd carry on, lifted the second pump cover.. ..power plug disconnected
Basically the way I linked the pumps together, one pump was running, the other was not - fuel was being pumped to the engine but also past the other pump and back to tank, so while i saw pressure in the fuel rail, it was low!
Serves me right for testing the fuel pressure by pushing the valve stem in and assuming 1) having petrol spray all over me meant there WAS pressure (which in fairness was correct) and that 2) the pressure was right.. ..big mistake! Did I mention I was a hydraulic systems engineer in a previous life?!

Anyway, pump plugged in, engine started ON THE BUTTON!
Lots of smoke thanks to no exhaust (just headers), lots of interested kids appearing on the driveway, lots of coughing/smiling/laughing from me, and lots of persuasion from the wife to fit the exhaust next!

First PROPER start video

Couple of notes:

Yes its that tight in the garage
Yes its that loud and angry sounding with no exhaust
Yes I was operating the throttle with a piece of string
Yes I probably need a new MAF now

I think it died because of air from changing the fuel filter, because a couple of times starting like that and now it will start and idle for about 30-sec, before it gets really lumpy and then dies.. Everything appeared to be working OK but I then found I had a dead O2 sensor on one of the banks (from what I could see on the laptop). I think once everything got running it tries to go closed loop and craps-out.. This has since been replaced, and it doesn't die but its still very very lumpy - I think either the ICV needs cleaning again (properly) or the temp sensor is dead and needs replacing, hence its having trouble fueling based on coolant temperature reading.. Will get to the bottom of that when the exhaust is on Either that or the MAF is TOAST!!

[911hillclimber]

Such a good 'real' thread!
Sounded very tame/ quiet to me considering no silencers?

Was your lady next door out at the time, or are you past worrying about it?
Brings back single car garage working, killer days.

[smallspeed]

I think it helped the microphone on my phone was pointing into a lathe at the time! My wife was two floors up at the front of the house, on the phone, and it was "loud"

I've never been bothered about the woman next door because she's never actually complained to me - she's very passive-aggressive, slamming upstairs windows only to re-open them 2min later and then slam them again! I find her amusing and strange in equal measure.. I don't work after 7pm, no one else ever moans, I fix 1/2 the neighbours cars and their kids bikes. I figure until someone actually moans about it continue being considerate (within reason) and carry on doing what im doing

[hot66]

Happy days

[smallspeed]

Few more bits and bobs..

Engine "fully installed"



Made a temporary bracket for the air cleaner - this will probably be replaced once other things are sorted but will do for the time being - I used a couple of holes that were already in the wing, just pulled in some thread inserts so can use this again moving forward







Battery mounted properly in the boot - the original battery is a MONSTER, moving to this oddessey (sp? ) battery has reduced capacity quite a bit BUT removed 27kg from the rear of the car



Wiring for the battery and isolator is since tidied up a bit from this, however the basics are as shown
Thoughtfully BMW run a battery cable AND a thin ECU power cable as standard, so its dead easy to install this correctly - it effectively kills the earth, and the ECU power supply

Pi research system 2 dash wired in.. Initially I couldn't get the RPM to read, as there's limited number of choices for input type on this dash (due to the age)
In the end I figured out the type for the car was pulse/12v, however the voltage range option for pulse was only 5v.. I made a little circuit board of bits I don't understand which takes the +12v pulse signal and turns it into a 5v pulse.. BINGO!



This scared me a little as the rpm on tick over was bouncing about a bit - at least +/-10rpm not a level of accuracy I'm used to seeing on a rev counter..
Unfortunately this is a single seater dash, and so wasn't specified with a back-light, which I really needed.. I toyed with the idea of putting a lamp on the dash shining on it, but figured that was going to be c**p
Fortunately there's a guy called Tony who is still doing a sterling job servicing and supporting these dashes, and this unit had just been serviced by him, plus had the battery and the buttons replaced. I phoned him and asked if the backlight option could be retrofitted
Unfortunately it couldn't - apparently it was a different LCD pannel with the back light built in adn they're just not available any more
Anyway, a couple of weeks later I got fed-up with thinking about using an LED or something shining on the surface, and so took a punt and ordered a weird pannel thing from ebay-China! These are like a thin film that emits light, with a 12v input. They're flexible, thin, and can be cut with scissors on 3 of the 4 edges
Lots of fiddling and soldering later, and I had a proper back light
This probably took me 5hrs total to get it all working and wired in - I could have done it in about 20mins, however I wanted the 12v regulator thing, and the wiring inside the dash case, AND the power connection to work through the correct pins on the rear connector.. maybe i am a little OCD/anal about the stuff that doesn't really matter, but its all part of the challenge



Next bit of weird wiring - Brakes!
So ABS needs to see ground all the time UNLESS the pedal is pressed
Lights need to see ground WHEN the pedal is pressed
ABS also has a "plausibility" thing whereby the pedal must be seen to be pressed BEFORE the brake line pressures reach 5bar
Solution - pressure switch for the brake lights rather than a mechanical switch. The only issue with these seems to be when people run the lights directly off the switch, so I created a little circuit which uses a relay (and some other stuff I don't understand) to switch one of the pins to ground normally, but open when the brake is depressed. Then using the other pin on the relay, another pin is switched to ground when the pedal is pressed.
First pin goes to the ABS, the other pin goes to the lights



I even went all fancy and potted this contraption
This will be mounted next to the pedals in the drivers footwell, and forms part of the larger ABS installation which I'll get into more in another post

Drivers seat position fixed up, I started work on laying out brake pedals and things - I decided on a seat position before the cage was built so all the mounting points for harnesses relative to the seat are in the correct position, and made this about 4" rearward of where the seat was originally, to cope with pedals, access with a "winged seat", etc however it took a little tweaking to make some temporary seat brackets to hold the seat in this place ready for the next stages
I'll cover pedals, ABS, etc next time



Perspex windows - As mentioned before I stuck with glass for the fronts, however went perspex for the rear and rear side windows. I'm never impressed by the ones that are bonded and screwed in place using god knows what (self tappers, button head bolts, etc., etc)
Initially I thought about fitting them with black countersunk bolts, but in the end figured I'd try transferring the hardware from the standard windows whcih are pop-outs. I figured this would also help with ventilation in the car without the need for drilling big holes in the rear windows, etc
The standard windows are mounted with 2 bolts through the B Post, which attach to a metal strip. This is bonded to the window glass, and the flexibility of the bonding forms the "hinge" believe it or not!
Are the rear there's a little lever thing which secures the rear end and gives the pop-out function
I cut the front strip off and bonded it onto the window which was easier said than done! They're PROPPER stuck on Probably took me as long to cut this 10" strip off the glass side window as it did to remove front and rear screens!
Used the standard glass as a template and drilled the rear hole out, and fitted the lever, then re-bonded the metal strip to the window



This worked a treat, and as there's quite a bit of adjustment within the mounting bolts I was able to get the alignment spot-on! I was also able to get plenty of compression on the bubble seal around the window apperture which is confirmed water tight when closed! It doesn't even whistle or leak when blasted with air using the blow-off tool on the compressor
Shameless plug for "plastics4performance" who provide a great product in my opinion - fully formed, "ground" edges, black fritting per OEM glass, fully stamped, marked, etc., etc.. Very happy





Left the protective film in place for the time being
Time will tell if the bonded strip holds up, but if not I think I'll re-bond it and then bolt through the strip in 2 or 3 places with some black countersunk bolts - there's enough flexibility in the side window itself to cope with the opening angle (only about 5 or 10 degrees anyway) should this bonded only set-up fail

That'll do for now!