updated roll cage

Updating the blog with some work from last year at Cantrell Motorsports.

We modularized the roll bar to make it easier to get in and out.  Also, now all of the bolt-in points have pads welded into the frame.  The whole thing is powdercoated silver.

These are the legs that extend rearwards.

Harness guides welded to the cross bar and the sleeve where the two legs (above) bolt on.

All 4 mounting points for the roll bar have pads welded to the frame like this.

Back seat harnesses!

4 person race car?  Occasional kid hauler?  You decide!

I needed shoulder belts in the backseat for my kids.  Instead of mucking about with any of the different retractor schemes that others have tried, I thought why not a harness bar?  Obvious, right?

Harness bar.  The lower belt connections go into the stock locations with eye-bolts and clip-on belt hardware.

 Added bonus - massively rigid rear bracing (not that it needed it with the shock tower brace and battery tray welded in place).

Hard to see in this light, but the two upright portions of the harness bar are visible and you can also see the belts attached to the horizontal portion through the window.  The key to the right of the battery is a master kill switch.

Epoxy products are a PITA

Given the fugly color of the kevlar plus plywood, I decided to paint the door panels.  I'm using an epoxy based paint, and have started with a sealing coat to level out the panels and fill the weave where the epoxy left it a little exposed.  Easier said than done plus this stuff really stinks until it has fully cured!  I think I need one more fill coat and a light sand before putting on the final coat(s) of black.  Sigh.  Still lighter and better looking than the vinyl.

The right way to seal your doors

I wish I had read the posts on the 2002 FAQ first...  I tried to use a single sheet of plastic, and attach it to the inside of the door with caulk - underwhelming results to say the least.  I followed the FAQ suggestions, more or less, but I really like using individual pieces of plastic to cover all of the holes since you can go slowly and focus on one thing at a time.  I think the individual pieces are also probably easier to keep from sticking where they're not supposed to stick than if you're working with a whole-door sized sheet of plastic.  Also, I went with a 4 mil thick plastic since I think it'll last longer.

First, remove old rust and make sure it won't come back!  The brown is a rust-stop primer, not rust.  :) Oh, right, after you scrape off all of the caulk from the failed attempt to recreate the factory sealing.  Grrrr.

Never mind what it says about spraying it onto both surfaces - what a huge mess.  I found it very easy to spray it onto a brush and spread it onto the metal.  I waited less than a minute before putting on the plastic.  Getting the plastic on while the glue is still a little wet will let you push it into the contours before it sticks so much that you can't move it. It doesn't like paint, so be careful about dripping.

Finally, nice results!  I'll trim off the excess plastic after the glue is really dry (overnight, probably).  The red tint is from dissolving a bit of the paint.  I tested it on another spot and saw that it doesn't go all the way to the metal.  Either way is probably OK since the glue will seal it when it dries.

Here's what it looks like when you spray it on to both surfaces.  The process is really tricky since the glue bonds immediately when you touch the plastic to the door - no second chances.  I also think working the plastic into the curves while the glue is a bit wet might also give a better seal - more conforming to the nooks and crannies.  That said, these pieces of plastic are NOT coming off easily and they've stood up to the water I sprayed onto the window (and therefore into the door).

Sealing the doors... what was BMW thinking?

THIS IS WHAT YOU DON'T WANT TO DO WITH YOUR DOORS!

Pictures of the right way to do it will follow.  :)

OK, I've done this before on a previous 2002... just put some caulk on the raised parts of the door interior, slap on some thick plastic, and away you go.  This time, I was curious about where the water actually comes from and where it goes when you do that.  Huh.  What I learned is that it is very easy to create pockets of water inside your door!  Handy if you like the taste of rusty, plasticky water, but not so nice if you're trying to make a dry car.  The second try has me using spray adhesive and plastic patches that are cut to size with much better results.  I've also learned that spraying the adhesive onto the door is just plain messy.  I experimented with spraying the adhesive onto a brush and brushing the goo into place.  Much better!

yellow kevlar plus wood = funky yellow green doors

So the wood color and the kevlar just don't get along - it ended up somewhere between yellow and green, and not very attractive...

Talking to a neighbor today, I decided to tint the skim coat black.  I thought It'd be cool to see the weave of the kevlar, but that color just has to go.  Oh smell.

New door panels

Insanity or genius?  Long ago, I bought a set of those laser cut plywood panels from Aardvarc.  They're really nice!  I thought I'd clad them in thin aluminum sheet, but when the sheet got thick enough to feel like you wouldn't dent it, it was really heavy.  So, why not kevlar?

My current plan is to kevlar the inside, give it a nice skim coat, epoxy seal the outside, and leave them like that.  I'll take the tops to the powdercoater and give them the same silver color as the roll bar since they'll be exposed.  Hopefully, it'll be a cool look.  If not, it'll be one hell of a door card to paint or cover with new material!

30 year old vinyl is ugly.

Light sand for prep.

Bulletproof!

First coat of system 3 epoxy.  Each door got about 200 mL.

Not the greatest lighting, but some pics of the exterior...

Finished instrument cluster!

I may never use it, but it makes me very happy that I could remove the whole cluster in 30 seconds by disconnecting one (crazy sexy) connector.  Maybe I'm late to the party, but I found these Deutsch connectors on Ebay and now must use them for everything.  Wonder how to get one into the dining room table...

MegaSquirt box in glove compartment

Now when you want to adjust the tuning, open the glove box...

Some of the wiring work from Cantrell Motorsports

These guys did some awesome work!  I relocated the fuses to the original location and found an OEM fuse cover - looks pretty nice with the repainted engine bay.

Broke down and bought a new Tach

I didn't want to fuss with hacking the original one into the dash, so I bought one that matches the speedo on Ebay.

Latest Wiring work

Setting up the pins for the single connector for all of the dashboard instruments.

New instrument layout

Since the tach will go into the small panel, there won't be as much room for the little gauges as there used to be...

The cluster will have the tach, speedo, oil pressure, water temp, low oil lamp, and a low oil pressure lamp.  I'll fab a little panel for under the center of the dash to hold the fuel and battery gauges.

The tach bezel is huge and doesn't look right next to the other gauges, so I'll make a new one before finalizing it.  It'll all end up looking something like this...

New instrument cluster

Long on my list of things to do is to clean up the instrument cluster.  I never liked the tach on the stalk to the side of the dash and I wanted to get things a little more polished.  The first picture is what it used to look like...

Day 1:  Pulled old cluster (I will make a single connector for the wiring so that nobody ever has to deal with all the spade connectors again), removed instruments, cut unnecessary plastic away from the dash piece.

Here's a BEFORE shot of the (soon to be sanitized) rats nest behind the instruments. It isn't too bad, I suppose, but I hate this kind of stuff.

Here's the slimmed down surround and the throw-away pieces.