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Decided to use the BMW header tank using Robin's car as a model!
AFM bracket part 1 - this fixing is not yet strong enough - the metal flexs too much to hold it safely. We'll need to add a more solid metal bracket up from the bottom. Other end of the bracket - holds the carbon airbox and the bottom of the header tank. The carbon airbox can be moved further forward by shortening the blue silicon hose making more room at the back for an intake pipe.
This bracket used to hold the diagnostic port in addition to the two sensor plugs - theres not much room here anymore so were going to move the diagnostic connector else where. The bracket has been cut and attached at a different angle to normal.
No but I've use rubber round the back and the whole pump is covered in spongy stuff the dampens the vibration. However something I will look into thanks
We've spent quite a lot of time on the engine wiring loom this weekend, routing elements of the loom and placing key bits of kit like the ECU. Decided to put the ECU on the passenger side - there's plenty of room there. Also the whole engine loom will enter the car through the bulk head with the rest of the element routed around that. The coil pack as moved over to the other side of the engine bay - with a bit of cable rerouting there is no need to lengthen the cables to this. The motronic diagnostic port has a home on the top of the bulkhead where its easy to access. We've also painted up verious brackets and created a panel to cover the hole in the bulkhead that the engine wiring loom is passing through.
Today we worked on the doors installing the latches and trimming out the door pockets so that the latches are usable and there are no square or sharp edges. Had to cut the opening for the latch about 1 cm bigger at the top over the marked line so that they would unlatch the striker pin.
We've decided to use the stock 4 stud alloys to start with, but with larger tyres that we've got from and E36. The alloys have seen better days after a good 15 years on the car! So today we've had the old rubber taken off the rim and started the refurb process. None of the pro restores I called would touch the plastics caps and most wanted £55 per wheel. So as these are only until we've worn through the tyres we decided to try the Halford wheel restoration kit. The results are pretty good consider its DIY - only finished one of the three so far, it take a long, long time with lots and lots of sanding to get anywhere!
Also a small job in the engine bay, mounting the coil and arranging the pipes. The Car Builder Solution pipe that I had custom made instead of the 3rd radiator cap is install with the pipe over to the header tank:
Sanding, sanding, sanding, sanding.... after find there is not enough paint in a halford repair kit to do a proper job it turns out you can't buy the paint seprately?!?! Ok plan B filler primer, sanding, primer, Honda Noble silver, lacquer! That should yield much better results than the paint in the kit. The stuff for filling the holes was good though.
Coil overs have arrived from Gaz - first test fit. Its tight and the chassis might need a bit of modification to get everything running nicely! Finish quality is excellent with ball joints at the top are welded into the E46 top mounts I sent to them.
Had a very good look around underneath with weight on the car. It really it down to 2mm clearance, especially on the left side. However when you bounce the suspension nothing rubs - I just wonder how much they will move around while under load. What we're probably going to do it pull the strut tower out a tiny bit and move the mounting hole at the top by a few mm to increase the clearances. Very happy with these, the spring seems a bit hard but we'll see once the car has its full weight in. The nice thing it replacing the spings is a very easy job - and not too expensive either!
Fuel system sorted! Two new fuel filters from Sytec (BTC spec - maybe a little over the top!!) one with 12mm unions and the other with 8mm. The pump sits in the middle on two short pipes. The hose clips are not too tight so that the pump can move a little.
It took 1 halfords referb kit (minus paint as there was not enough), 6 - 1200 grit wet and dry sheets (after filler primer), 2 cans of primer, 3 cans of Honda Nobel Silver and 2 cans of laquer + hours and hours and hours and hours of sanding!! But the alloys are finally ready to have some tyres added. A set of Bridgestone RE720 in 205/65/R15 are ready to go on these 15x7J rims.
I had a visit from Paul with Millie Marlin this weekend, what a stunning car! I've put some photo's up. Paul was kind enough to take everyone in the family out for drive - thank you
I've just realised, all the mechanical stuff bar the rear shock towers is done. That and going through and tightening up all the bolts!
The mechanical stuff is essentially done appart from tightening up all the bolts and maching sure everything is secured. Did some final tweaks over the weekend to the rear coil over installation and engine bay brackets.
The rear shock towers needed widening due to the installation of coil overs. With the modification the coil over has 1.5-2cm of sideways movement which should be more than enough to allow for movement under heavy cornering. If not it can always be widened further.
The AFM bracket required some modification to give the IVC (idle control valve) a little more space when the engine is running.
On reflection buying the "Marlin" loom may not have been the best option - we were told this is custom made for the car, which it's not. It is infact it's a generic Lucas loom, its nicely laid out but is missing several connections needed for the car. The other more worring thing is that it does not use any relays for turning things on as its laid out - not ideal when running high currently through the switches.
Using the BMW loom and striping out the bits that are not needed might be the better option. It may seem more daunting at first but the cables are still good in 15 - 20 year old BMW. In the end you get all the well thought out circuts laid out as BMW designed them with lots of built in protection for the car - you dont want things going up in smoke!
Easy wires to replace that were rotten on our loom - In the car audio world it's know as TB3 - the big three. Alternator to starter, started to battery and ground straps. These were not in the best of condition and will be replaced with new 4AWG cable - thicker that standard which allows it to handle more current with less voltage drop - not so important unless your running high current amplifiers! However new good earths can't hurt to get everything running nicely.
We will be using the Lucas loom as we have it and wire in the BMW fuse box, this will provide all of the required relays. We will also add extra cables as required to the loom. These modifications will hopefully improve the safety and reliability of the electric system over the standard Lucas loom.
Not much to see this weekend, which is probably good as my hosting seems to be down
Anyway! My brothers car needed a little attention so Thursday, Friday & Saturday we were busy with that! It's got new front lower wishbone bushes (polyflex), an H&R ARB set (didnt have a rear bar from the factory), new engine mounts - both of them had torn!!! not really BMW quality the cars only got 60k on the clock, new gear box mounts (may as well change those too), new diff oil and gearbox oil (Silkolene Syn 5 - the box is sooo smooth again now). All the work we did is thanks to having taken on building the Sportster. We can save ourselves a pile of mechanics bills for this sort of thing now! eace:
On to the Sportster! Richard's done a lot of work on the wiring. The iginition works, the starter runs, battery light comes on, handbrake light works and the horns work! He's do an excellent job of combining the E30 fuse box with the lucas loom.
Also fitted the termostat adjuster. Found a nice little place to hide underneath the crank sensor / spark lead sensor wiring connectors - needed a bit of machining on the lathe but everything fits fine now
Richard will post at somepoint and let you know about the wires. Issues at the moment are a small leak in the tank and the fuel hoses at the back not being quite tight enough. Need an exhaust on there though before we can run the engine for any length without going completely deaf!!
Well done Patrick & Richard.
I bet there was a big grin on your face when it started up I certainly had one when mine first ran.
Dash does look a bit strange especially with all the gauges working backwards!
Well done Patrick & Richard.
I bet there was a big grin on your face when it started up I certainly had one when mine first ran.
Dash does look a bit strange especially with all the gauges working backwards!
Us ->
For some reason my phone flipped and mirror the image when I shifted it round there, once we've got an exhaust built (booked in on the 7th July) I'll shoot a proper video on the DV camera
Should have just done it like this in the first place - I'm very pleased with the results now 
eace: 
yeah, final dash - wonder if its SVA compliant 
