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Today I collected the dashboard from Tribute, and after I have done a little tarting up, will post a picture. It works well for me.
Chris had done some quick and dirty work putting together the front end and we were able to discuss some options regarding angle of the nose (to get the right amount of droop), treatment of the front side wing panels, vents etc, and how close to the front edge the grill should be. The bonnet may yet be hinged at the front. It already looks good with the Mondeo grill in place, not "Ford" at all. Sorry, no pics yet, it wouldn't be fair, so I didn't take any.
The revised roof on Welsh Kiwi's 275 looks really good "in the flesh" and is going to work really well with Zagato type styling. Where the 275 has a recessed blank to the rear of stock z3 windows, I will not have the recess, so the door/window will fit with the roof/side flowing into the rear quarter lights.
Chris is thinking of adapting shortened Scimitar rear quarter lights for this but we will see.
We had been thinking of an Alfa GT rear window, but the new 275 roof, being wider means a re-think - possibly an inverted Scimitar windscreen.
Apart from me twiddling with the dash, nothing much will happen until Welsh Kiwi's 275 is shipped at the end of the month. Can't wait.
Saturday was the first day for weeks where it looked OK to work outside without rain cover. After a leisurely late breakfast that stretched into early afternoon, I gathered all the bits required from around the house and garage, then found I had parked the IQ a little too close to the Z3 driver door, so thought I would get in the passenger side of the Z3 and scoot across so I could move it as I couldn't be bothered to walk the 10 metres to get the IQ key. Wrong choice.
For those that have not tried it, DON'T. Strained my thigh, pulled a muscle in my back and very nearly kicked off the indicator stalk, twice (once for the thigh strain, then for the back tweak). Apart from bashing my head on the side window when I spasmed with the back. Then discovered that the car would not start because the battery was nearly flat again. Yesterday was lost to re-charging the battery, again. We are off to visit friends near Rugby for a few days, so should be back home again in time for the next wave of rainy weather. Hopefully the solar trickle charger will work well enough to keep the battery charged.
SWMBO has suggested that I take the car to someone who knows what they are doing. She may be right.
SWMBO has suggested that I take the car to someone who knows what they are doing. She may be right.
Sometimes it is better to do that than spend days trying to find something that they can find in minutes. Frustration and pain can also lead to a 'Swan Vesta' moment of madness.
SWMBO has suggested that I take the car to someone who knows what they are doing. She may be right.
Sometimes it is better to do that than spend days trying to find something that they can find in minutes. Frustration and pain can also lead to a 'Swan Vesta' moment of madness.
You are probably right. Now that I have got the actuator, I will probably fit it. As it is a relatively simple process (if you have the space and decent weather). But now the ABS and brake fluid warning lights have come on again. No problem with fluid level, and the front brakes were done a couple of months ago. The back ones should be good for several thousand miles yet.
There is a good BMW indy nearby, so I may get him to plug it in to do the diagnostic testing and any rectification if the parked and locked draw remains high.
... good BMW indy nearby, so I may get him to plug it in to do the diagnostic testing and any rectification if the parked and locked draw remains high.
Z3s don't offer much info to OBD scanners so unless your indy has some very sophisticated gear, it's likely he will do what you could and pull fuses one by one until he finds the one that stops the current draw.
So after all the bad weather delays, today was the day. Followed the instructions for removal from a blog and it went like a dream, up to a point. getting the actuator fitted actually.
Getting the lock back in was a nightmare, and after 2 hours frying (my hands almost literally off the hot door) I decided to have a rest, and came back for round two after a cup of tea. Eventually got the lock in, re-connected the battery and tested, and found it was useless as some functions did not activate. So much for ebay bargains. So took it all out and re-fitted the old one, that was nearly as difficult as the first time, tested, checked the draw at the fuse (back to .26A - it was up to .6A last time), but now I couldn't get the window guide back in. 2 more hours of failure. Most of the blogs just say "reverse the removal procedure to re-assemble".
I went back to the notes I had printed off the blog, and found that I had missed the last paragraph, about removing the window rubber seals to make an impossible job only very difficult. Job for tomorrow.
However, I got filthy greasy as well as hot and sweaty, and avoided any household tasks, so all in all a proper boys day.
A bit unlucky there Barber, but all in all we know days like this happen. Difficult to not get a bit testy about them tho! Sounds like a slightly stronger cups required at the end of the day? ��
I am currently researching my own “nightmare in waiting”. I need to speak to the guy who will doing the testing for my low volume cert, as I don’t think the fuel filler attachment options to the original tank neck I have seen on the forum will pass over here. I am thinking the tank may have to come out of the car to completely seal off the cut and the breather pipe areas. I could have a few of your yesterdays to come! Best of luck.....
The fixing of the tank filler isn't ideal but when the rear clam is fitted you can't see it. I would keep quiet about it. Maybe put a jubilee clip around the pipe. It won't do anything but you can put your hand on your heart and say it has been fitted with a jubilee clip and bonded in as well.
Devious......... moi?........ never
That side exhaust on the c type looks so wrong, needs to be matt black with some rust showing through!
The fixing of the tank filler isn't ideal but when the rear clam is fitted you can't see it. I would keep quiet about it. Maybe put a jubilee clip around the pipe. It won't do anything but you can put your hand on your heart and say it has been fitted with a jubilee clip and bonded in as well.
Devious......... moi?........ never
That side exhaust on the c type looks so wrong, needs to be matt black with some rust showing through!
Thanks Jag, will have a think. It is the sealing issue I am more worried about than the pass for the cert as if issues in the future a nightmare to sort. A bit more pain during the build might be the way to go. Anyway without trying to hijack Barbers thread if anyone has any fuel tank removal experience or fantastic ideas for extending/attaching the Z3 fuel tank neck then happy for them to placed on my 275GTB thread in the old No 7 section. Cheers!
I got back to the window guide this morning. Dropping the window down and removing the rubbers at the door trailing edge certainly improves visibility. You have to shove the window forwards, and as you manouver the guide back in, raise the door handle so as to make the lock mechanism clear the void where the guide needs to pass.
It took a while to realise that it just takes brute force to get the door card to seat correctly .... very satisfying after all the frustrations. So now I just have to see if the fiddling has improved the old actuator from draining the battery. I am 7 hours out of pocket, along with the £26 for the ebay actuator that didn't work and £5 for the interior trim pry tool set. But I am getting back into amateur car repairer mode (ie Bodger 3rd class). Ready to start playing with the Scimitar eyeball dash vents that Chris supplied with the new dashboard. I'll do another post for that, with pics.
The Scimitar vents, kindly included with the dashboard by Chris were very stiff to move about, and had the original mounting collar still attached, which meant that the collar had to be removed.
The vent with collar attached:
Once removed, the vent would be suitable for mounting in the Z3gato dashboard.
However, before that, the vents had to be split apart and the eyeball movement freed up. My son's Dremel came in very useful for removing the collar and encouraging the separation of the top ring and bottom cup.
Both the top ring and bottom cup have conical profiles inside, lined with strips of black felt to mount the eyeball part. In both cases, the felt at the bottom had become partially detached and misshapen causing the jamming.
My solution was to remove the bottom felt, and cut it half depth along the length and re-stick one half back into the cup. Both vents operate fine with no looseness (we don't want rattly vents when in use).
The dashboard with vents and storage recess loosely in place. I will be using the Z3 glovebox, it works with the dash.
The dash is currently fitted to a rough cut Z3 dash supplied by Chris. I need to use it as a template to cut my own dashboard bought from ebay. I intend to cut the small quarterlight vents in the top when I start putting the thing together ready for fitting into the car.
I wouldn't bother with the quarterlight vents. If you block them under the dash you will force more air up on the windscreen which is what you want for efficient demisting. Will also keep the dash more retro looking.
Also saves you some work which is soon going to be adding up!
I have taken the Chris's dash apart. It is built up on an old scrap Z3 dash. Whist most of the dash is hidden by the new moulded piece, the internal part of the binnacle is visible. It is a beige one, whereas the replacement I bought on ebay is black. Plenty of surgery required to provide a new base. I am going slowly and carefully with the cutter. Hopefully, tomorrow I will have finished the cutting and test the assembly, so will post pics of the canibalised bits together with the mould.
Here is the template base dashboard from Chris that the moulded dash attaches to.
First of all, let me say that in the picture below, at the top is Rudolf, a reindeer skin on an Ikea bench. DO NOT infer any peculiar bestial purposes.
Don't be fooled by the phone pic perspective, it all fits together.
Underneath Rudolf, we have the moulded dashboard overlay from Chris. It tapers down snugly to the windscreen end of the base just before the vents, so the original vent cover can be retained.
Underneath that is the re-worked dashboard base from my ebay purchase. Last is the Z3 binnacle inner, that simple screws back onto the base dash.
The re-modelling took about 6 hours, most of which is thinking and checking before cutting. Even with the template, it is easy to make mistakes still, so I found myself triple checking, and split the operation over two days.
I just need some fine days so that I can paint the dash (black matt with a sage green infill along the instrument band). Then start stripping the Z3 dash so that I can fit this one.
It was too cold and windy today so I could not start painting my M3 wing mirrors. Instead, I started to tart up the black door cards that Chris threw in with the dashboard (along with the glovebox).
The driver side door handle has been glued on, and the 2 part glue had dribbled down the ostrich leather panel. I have cleaned both cards with various concoctions, then spent a considerable amount of time picking off the glue trail with the point of a Stanley knife blade. I think it will work out OK when I use the leather re-conditioning treatment - but I could do with some recommendations for this. It could do with re-colouring the leather rather than dying it.
A bit too much talking and not enough car, but it really is a beauty.
Paul, no I had not seen it before. Always nice to see the cars in action though. Pity that they focussed so much on a dull presentation instead of getting a true sense of what it was like to see the cars racing past.(Not as good as the ones that Gary posts in other threads). The VEV cars are icons but were presented like they were Ford Kas. Oh well....
I think I may have discovered part of the problem.
The standard Z3 for a 3.0 is 80ah with 800a cold crank. The previous owner put in what he described as a "beefy" (well, it says "Premium" on the label), 72ah with 650a cold crank.
I have no idea what all that lot means, except it looks like the battery is not powerful enough. Am I on to something?
I've got some warning lights come up again and suspect something amiss with the brake system, so have it booked into an indy for the end of the month. I'll get them to check the alternator and investigate any error codes at the same time. Electrickery does my head in.
