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I wish I had taken the seats out before trying to do the dash rebuild. So much more room and so easy to do.
Seat fully back and up.
Remove 2x13mm front nuts.
Seat fully forward and up.
Remove 2x17mm rear bolts.
Tilt seat and remove 16mm seat belt bolt.
Unclip the eletrical connectors under the seat (3 on my car)
Lift seat out.
Collect £3.27 and a plastic ball that was stopping the passenger seat dropping down properly. This was why Chris felt so wind battered during the drive to the station, his seat was 3 inches hugher than mine so his head was above the windscreen
I think he's refering to the airbag, or SRS that should be in your seat....
One of the plugs may have been orange, the airbag one....
The battery should always be disconnected when playing with these systems, or there may be an unfortunate accident....! You may also trigger a warning light too, but not always. Another tip when playing with SRS plugs....if, like me, you tend to hold 'static', (i get shocks off everything..) i always wear rubber gloves...
Are you sure there are airbag related stuff in the seat of a 1999 Z3 2.8?
If you look on the previous page at the centre console when I have stripped it you will see a white sticker and a yellow sticker. The white one says something like Baur USA and the yellow one says something about SRS and danger. I smacked it with a spanner (by mistake) and nothing happened.
I think the three wires under the seat are seat belt warning, heating and seat motors. I could be wrong but nothing went bang.
I will disconnect the negative on the battery when putting stuff back together.
Ollie - I too suffer with electricity. At school the science teacher made us hold electric contacts and then measured each pupils electrical conductivity. We plotted this on a chart. I was described as a statistical outlier even after three or four retests.
Nick from personal experience! of a 1999 2.8i Z3 , there is a sensor in the passenger seat that tells the air bag system if there are any passengers and if not , in an accident the the passenger air bag is not deployed , saves on accident repair costs , i took my seats out without disconnecting the battery and the system threw a dash air bag warning light , easily reset if you have the right unit , Geoff .
WCA, err, no, i'm not sure... Perhaps those seats dont have bags, i'm speaking more generically, but Geoff is right, there is a sensor in the seats. Better safe than sorry... (and if you've ever seen a bag go off at close quarters, or, ahem, set one off on purpose...its quite something and thats for sure...!)
I spent my lunch hour planning the flap that will cover the modern instruments. This will sit on top of the wooden construction that you have seen to date and be very visible so I have to get this right.
I thought I would try a bit of prototyping while waiting for the latest coat of varnish to dry so grabbed a scrap off cut.
The problem is that the panel has a very distinct bend about half way along and a smaller bend near the gear stick end. This does not make for a flush fitting flap.
What you need is a former to try and bend the ply against to get it in the right shape. Look what I made.
The ply wasn't as flexible as I had hoped so I cut the back with a chisel and panel pinned it place. Actually that isn't a panel pin but this is a prototype.
The end result looks like a much better fit
I think for the real thing I will make the 'former' out of a strip of metal so that it is less bulky. I just need to work out how to bond metal to wood.
Do you think I can get away with mixing some of the glass fibre resin only or should I stick a layer of fibre as well to hold the metal strip in place??
if you have a steam wallpaper stripper you could try and make the ply more erm....pliable. what you need is a box that you can put a lid on that isn't going to melt put you bit of ply in it along with the hose from the steamer and leave for ages (keep an eye on the water levels so it doesn't boil dry) test after a while to see if it is bendable. This not only softens the wood fibres to make them less likely to snap but also melts the glue that holds the ply together just enough for it to slide over each layer.
have a look on YouTube I'm sure there will be 'How to's'
Looking on YouTube most of the bending ply videos say "Start with several sheets of 3 mm play that you want to glue together. I only have one sheet of 3mm ply. :-(
I am now thinking of cutting out a piece bigger than I need, making a couple of formers for the edges outside of the area I need, soaking the back of the wood and then gradually forcing the ply against the formers while tickling the wood with a heat gun to loosen the glue. I might still stick a metal strip to the back of the piece I will use to stop it relaxing back to flat over time.
I put all of the stained and varnished framework together ready to take the 'pretty' cover panels. Gear box and ASC buttons easily reacheable by my left knee.
I then decided I didn't really like the wood effect so dug out the metal sheet I bought after seeing the e-type panelling. It was too shiney and proper machining was too expensive so look in awe at the WCA metal satin surface creator.
Shiney metal
Satin finish
Lots of careful marking out
I then realised I have never really worked with metal sheet before and had no idea how to cut and shape it!
A hacksaw worked well until the frame of the hacksaw hit the metal and prevented the saw going any further. How to proceed?
Well, I had an old wood chisel that was knackered anyway so might as well see if we can punch that through the metal sheet...
Forgot to take many pictures but you can guess most of it.
Metal cut out along the lines marked.
Four screws around the gear leaver to hold the gaitor in place.
Four switches below the hole to clamp the hinge in place.
Hinge lying backwards in the hole and also pulled forward as it will be to access the switches
And now with the gaitor in place and the clock panel in place. A small magnetic catch hold the flap shut.
Just need to vacuum the carpet again and refit the seats. After that it is just a full body respray and powder coating the wheels (neither of which I will try) and the car is finished...
...for the moment...
...except for the steering wheel...
...and a decent interior trim job...
...and upgraded rear springs...
...and new shocks all round...
...and possibly bigger tyres...
...I don't like lists. Of the the bath with a car magazine and a bottle of wine. Have a good weekend all!
Hi Nick, Whilst picking up the 250 SWB wooden buck this morning I had a tour of the workshop it was previously used in, an amazing place. Thought you might be interested in this little beauty....
I wonder if they will part ex that for a completed one. I reckon I could make a few quid...
You may also trigger a warning light too
Guess what, I have a pretty orange airbag warning light. Grrr.
I also have an OBD plug in and phone app to reset warning lights. Hooray.
BMW Z3s do not have the standard OBD plug sockets but a BMW 'special' port. Grrr.
Off to find a friendly BMW garage at some point soon I guess
I decided I didn't like the brake vent holes in the front just being holes so decided to add some vent piping.
The ducting
The hole. Notice the bumper bar directly behind it:
This is the space that the ducting will go into
The end result
Well, not quite the end. I have to decide where to direct the ducting from this point on. Remember that the bonnet lifts at the front so the 40cm of ducting I have fitted lifts with it. I will need to fit another piece of ducting to the engine bay to direct the air somewhere useful...
...or just leave it there I suppose
On another note, I never updated the thread with the end of the centre console saga. The reason was that it never really finished. I completed the original idea
But I didn't like it and the hinge didn't really work properly. I sucked my teeth a bit, swore a bit had a couple of beers and then decided to try a vinyl version which I think looks a lot better
The hinge is now provided by the vinyl itself so the flap opens a whole lot better.
Notice the inside of the flap has red vinyl instead of black. This is because I only had red vinyl but fortunately had some black vinyl paint.
Has anyone else used vinyl paint?
I was thinking it might be a cheap way to re-colour some of my other interior trim but am not sure lighter colours will cover the black. Any advice welcome.
[edit] I have just spotted the Sports switch and ASC button wiring hasn't been connected. Must remember to do that tomorrow
