biggerbigben

Was a bit bored the other night so I decided to do a little photo 'chopping' ;-) of the C from No Rice last month. What does people think of the look? I did slam it as well, but it would be rude not too :lol: 8)

Ha.. hardly ;-) I've used gf alot so its the easiest solution for me.. never thought about using plastic. Coxy lets have a vid of the engine running.. I want to hear the beast big time..!

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Thanks for the comments chaps... I haven't been able to get outside this week due to finishing work late and the lovely weather we seem to be having this summer! :( Bally, thank you for that very descriptive message of yours.. as always a pleasure to read ;-) :lol: Updates over the weekend with any luck. B

Thanks guys.. yeah I did think that selling the TVR interior was a bad move but its nice to work on something new for a change. Cheers Ben

Thanks for all the comments guys... apreciate it. Neil - shut it... :lol: They are recessed a little to allow for the curve in the dash, but I might add another 2-3mm. Undecided. MOT is booked at the Phirm next week so I have 10 days to finish the dash and I'm working half of the w/e :( Ben

Thanks Darren ;-) Very true, but I bet the dox box gear set is an easy £3k !! Never the less you are right, its still a sensible priced sequential shifter ;-)

Hardly chap.. making the TVR dash was just good training ;-) Hows yours coming? Is the 4wd in yet?

The shifter is a fully mechanical sequential shifter. Mine is for a 6spd 02M box. It has an LCD display to tell you what gear you're in and its as simple as pulling back to go up and pushing forward to come back down again. They are a direct replacement for the OEM shifters, but they are a bit of a nightmare to set up if I'm totally honest. Took me about 10-15 attemps to get it right! You can get them for the 5spd 02a/c/j I think. I actually bought mine unused, but 2nd hand with the 5spd plate in it, so I dismantled the entire thing (clever how it works!) to run with the 6spd box - I bought a new 6spd plate from SQS for £30 and just swapped the plates over. Basically the cables are operated by a channel in a circular steel plate. When you go up a gear the channel changes direction, which in turn operates the direction of the cables.. Its hard to explain and I didn't take any pics when pulling it apart. Off the shelf, new, I think they are £1k+, so not cheap, but sequential shifting never is ;-) With their dog engagement gearset they are very capable. With an OEM gearbox, they are no quicker than a good short shifter setup but in fairness the OEM gearbox itself is the limitting factor. Its to do with the syncros in the g'box. I've posted a video clip of the shifter in action with a dog gearbox on 'you tube'. Link - Thats about all I can think off re the shifter... hope thats enough info Junkie.. ?

Wow.. that looks a neat job - looking good!

Thanks mate.. The shifter is a bought item. Came from SQS in the CZECH REPUBLIC of all places. Make some neat kit for the 02M setup including proper DOG gear kits, unlike the pretend stuff Quaife does... ;-) Check their site out.. http://www.sqsracing.com/ The shifter misses the dash thankfully :)

Thanks for the comments guys! Cole, Thats a nice dash mate, would suit your car really well I reckon. Hows your project coming along anyway? As promised another update. Didn't get alot done really, but its coming along. Will work on it all this week after work and hopefully it will be finished bar trimming by Friday, ready for a potential MOT at the weekend / next week. Stage 10.. Finished dilling the holes for the x4 Greddy gauges. I drilled the 60mm holes then carefully over drilled them, but only about 3-4mm down to allow for the gauges to sit flush as they are mounted on a curve. So in theory the tops will sit flush against the dash. I might need to do this a little more to allow for the material thickness when its trimmed. Trial fitted the dash to see where all the switches, 4-motion controller, gear LCD display should go. Stage 11.. After working out where everything needed to go, I measured up and marked out the holes etc. A dremel to hand and 30 mins later the holes were cut! Trial fitted everything and managed to crack the front panel in 2 places.. need some more glass fibre behind the panel to keep it strong. I still need to finish off the imperfections all over the dash but its pretty much there. Next stage is to make a start on mounting it to the car. I shall have a go at this tomorrow.

Got everything minus the radio and dials (but just won a set of dials on ebay for 99p !! lol, going to utilize the cluster and mod it for the stack) I'm going to try and wire in the BMW headlight switch but they have a module attached to the switch that stores all the mileage etc, so I need to find a way of discarding all that and just tap into the headlight wiring.

Hey Cole.. I looked at everything chap, Audi, other VW dashes (was thinking a Mk4 Golf dash would be cool), Merc, Bentley even an SLR dash! (I work at MB World so could have got the measurments) I couldn't be arsed to fabricate something again from scratch like the TVR dash, so opted for something that would house the Stack and dials with miminal effort. The E46 dash has really only taken about 6 hrs so far to get it where it is. Hoping to get it fitted this afternoon with all the dials etc in place.. (fat chance! lol)

Update, just for you Coxy ;-) - New dash.... I need to get an MOT on the C urgently before Edition 38 so the dash needs to be fitted and secure in the car with all the required switches etc fixed into position. As a result I've done a small step by step write up of my efforts from yesterday. Really the very first stage was the purchase of a complete E46 dash off ebay a few weeks ago for the grand total of £30 !!! I suppose I should answer the question of ‘why a BMw dash?’ Well I'm going down the lightweight route and wanted a dash that I could cut off the bottom section and use just the top. Not only that I wanted it to look good, be light and functional. I looked at many options but the E46 BMW dash just fitted the look so well as I could cut the lower end of the dash off on a natural swage line. After I’d ripped all the ducting, vents and switches off it was incredibly light. Pick it up with your little finger light. My plan was to smooth it out using as little filler and glass fibre as possible and then ultimately trim it. Stage 1.. After getting the dash home I fitted it pretty much straight away to see how much work was involved to make it fit. I measured it and 40mm needed removing from the passenger’s side. So what I did was pretty unspectacular, I got a saw and just removed 40mm from the far left hand side about 50mm in and then just glassed the end back on.. vola, fitted perfectly. Another added bonus was that the dash fitted the contours of the corrado screen perfectly, so no modding was required there!! ;-) I also smoothed and fixed the passengers airbag cover into position. Stage 2.. Time to put it on the bench and cut the underside off and glass the vent holes. Using a neat trick I picked up doing the TVR dash, I used cling film to cover over the original vents so I could make a quick mould. Then once the fibre glass is dry, simply remove the vent and cling film (which stops anything sticking) and place the mould back in the position, thus filling the hole. I repeated this process for all the holes in the dash. Stage 3.. Reinforcing all the front smoothing I glassed up the rear so it will be very strong, but also light.. Stage 4.. Time to get the filler out. Used plenty initially just to get everything covered, but once you sand it back, hardly any of it remains. Again, I’m being especially conscious about weight! Stage 5.. It was just a case of sanding it all back. Stage 6.. Another trick I picked up doing the TVR dash etc was when you think your almost there with the finish, spray the area in question with some undercoat. By doing this you can spot the imperfections almost instantly and thus repair sections to obtain a good finish. Stage 7.. Repairing the imperfections. Stage 8.. A 95% complete dash. Resprayed it with undercoat. Because I am indeed going to cover the dash it doesn’t have to be perfect. For example if you were painting it or taking a mould then it would have to be. It does however have to be pretty damn good as leather or material will not cover up imperfections! The odd small hole here and there, fine, but its best to get it as good as one can! I also have allowed for at least 3mm worth of trimming material to go around the dash. Learnt that one, again, while doing the TVR interior.. Stage 9.. Now its time to start measuring and cutting the holes for the dials and switches. And that’s where I’m at after a day of solid graft. I’ll do another update once I make some more progress, still shaking off a hangover so I can’t see today being that productive! lol Ben

Look cool dude! Good work!

Absolutely quality!! But put the original wheels back on it and raise the suspension.... lol You've got to try and hide that oil cooler as well.. its a total giveaway! Loving it! Ben

Agreed! Is the rest of the car pretty much finished apart from the interior?

I'm lucky enough to have a company car so its just going to be used as a fun / weekend car. There's no doubt in my mind I could use it daily but I don't need too. I've decided to go lightweight or at least thats the theme. My main focus it to make sure it gets too and from Worthersee in May 2008. All focus is getting it ready for that really. I hope to fit the cage inside a week (week off work) and perhaps if there is time re-spray the inside of the car although I doubt I will get that far. This winter I'm going to finally tackle the rear camber problem, which I've been putting off for over a year. I have all the parts, I just need to sit down and design the new wishbones. I have a few other mods up my sleeve also ;-) I always thought you said you were going down the full interior route, but times change.

Cool.. well get outside and hurry up will you.. I do know how you feel though as I can't really be bothered these days tbh. Shifter is a sequential manual shifter for the 02M. Some friends of mine in the 'all smiles' camp found these pupies and I had to get one.. Works better with a dog box mind but never the less a worthy bit of kit. :) When I get a sec I'll post a few pics.. hoping to get the cage in soon.

Hey Coxy.. I'm using a 4-motion controller I bought from the guys on vortex. I have a couple of mates making them but they were taking their sweet time so decided to just buy one. The haldex setup is superb, can't fault it. Was enjoying the car but the MOT ran out last week and I have a car full of wires with no dash so trying to get the replacment in so I can at least get an MOT and get it back on the road again asap. How's yours coming along?

Hi chap. I'm using a bog standard S3/TT 6spd 02M 4wd gearbox with a matching transfer box and rear diff. I haven't played with the ratios.. yet.. I'm running a fully electronically automated rear diff controller that can be set at FWD only, a chosen % or torque bias from 0-50% rear or 0-100% front or race setup which enables a 50/50 split or off altogeather for fwd rolling roads etc. The haldex AWD is a massive improvment over the old syncro system, very pleased with it thus far although I've not done much mileage with it yet. Grip on the road both in the wet and try is brilliant and there is very little wheel spin on full chat (350bhp) in any gear inc 1st... The shifter I'm still testing and playing with as it needs a little adjustment but basically its a fully mechanical sequential shifter for the 6spd 02M gearbox. Its a fun bit of kit but I haven't quite mastered it yet, i.e shifting is still no faster than with an OEM shifter.. It has a LCD display to tell you what gear you're in and its as simple as pulling back to go up and pushing forward to come back down again. Thats about it really. I have a pipe bender sitting in the living room waiting to mounted in the garage and used and some carbon fibre waiting to be sunk into a mould or two ;-) Thats all I'm saying at the moment.... :D 8)

The replacment is a little more purposful tbh than the creative TVR dash. I hope it works all the same, I'm sure it will ;-) 8)

Excellent ! Glad you like it mate.. Will catch you at the weekend.. B

Its a sad day, the interior has just been SOLD. I hope the new owner enjoys it as much as I did. Oh well time to move on and do something different. :?