MasterC17 - 2002 M3 SMG Street Legal Track Car Project

I would recommend painting the rollbar white. It makes it easier to see cracks. WRC cars have white cages, but also go thru a lot more stress.

Originally Posted by Tarmac_E46_M3

Wow, a lot more than I thought. I might end up pulling the A/C.... we'll see how the summer goes. I did it an entire summer with the STI I had, no A/C and all. But i also didn't really go beyond the SD and OC areas here in Ca.

That's what I was getting at, if you used any resistors. I don't have the seat or door airbags, so I need to figure what I need to do to fix that light. I think I found a thread on M3F about it, I just need to get resistors and start playing with it.

I guess I'm more concerned about sound for when I slap on a 3.5" exhaust... lol. That's going to be loud! right now it's not too bad, but I don't know what it's like without the carpet, I'm sure louder than my car (I still have the stock exhaust).

Ok, I looked it up on my spreadsheet and the A/C delete saved 29.7lbs. From my research, it appears you need 1/2 watt 3 ohm resistors. I'm planning on deleting the side curtain, side, and passenger airbag and just leaving the driver airbag - assuming it works.

Good point, once you put the BW exhaust on, it's probably going to be really loud. Not to mention, I was speaking in terms of leaving the radio on. With the radio on, you just turn it up and the sound isn't bad, with the radio off it gets annoying quick. You didn't delete the radio - did you?

Originally Posted by fastjasonbmw

I would recommend painting the rollbar white. It makes it easier to see cracks. WRC cars have white cages, but also go thru a lot more stress.

I contemplated white, but the silver is pretty close to white and will match the interior/exterior of the car which I think is going to look pretty good. Not to mention it's going to be a lot easier to paint because it matches the interior already; otherwise I would have to go even more crazy taping.

Originally Posted by MasterC17

Ok, I looked it up on my spreadsheet and the A/C delete saved 29.7lbs. From my research, it appears you need 1/2 watt 3 ohm resistors. I'm planning on deleting the side curtain, side, and passenger airbag and just leaving the driver airbag - assuming it works.

Good point, once you put the BW exhaust on, it's probably going to be really loud. Not to mention, I was speaking in terms of leaving the radio on. With the radio on, you just turn it up and the sound isn't bad, with the radio off it gets annoying quick. You didn't delete the radio - did you?

Nice chunk of weight, but that will definitely have to wait till next year, lol. I found about the same too, anywhere from 2.2 ohm to 3 ohm. I'm going to keep the side curtain for now.... although 15 years ago there were no side curtain.

I did delete the radio, dropped a good amount of weight, I think it was around 30-35 lbs with the wire harness.

I forgot the memory card for my camera, so you're going to have to deal with the poor pictures.

Basically, I removed all the rear portions of the sound deadening (up to the front bracket for the seats). This time I used a heat gun - it worked 1,000,000x better. It was SOOO much easier. DO NOT USE DRY ICE. Just needed to use some laquer thinner to clean up the residue, but still, way easier and no dents in the metal. I also painted the small rear-most portion where the sound deadening was. The paint (color) is nearly perfect, although it's a tad bit more "flaky"/metallic looking. Oh well, as long as it's close I don't particuarly care.

Heat Gun Much Better:



Heat Gun (Closer) vs. Dry Ice (Farther):



Laquer Thinner Before & After:



Painted:

Nice work and paint job; I used the heat gun method too. definitely a lot cleaner, just gets hot after a while, haha.

Primed the roll bar tonight! Came out good, not perfect, not a big deal.

Nice. I like that cage a lot, not too much, but just enough. How much weight did the cage add? More or less.

Originally Posted by Tarmac_E46_M3

Nice. I like that cage a lot, not too much, but just enough. How much weight did the cage add? More or less.

Not entirely sure but I'm guessing around 50lbs.

Not bad. That's a good 50 lbs, that's for sure. Not just for safety, but in the rear where the car becomes lighter, easier.

Originally Posted by Tarmac_E46_M3

Not bad. That's a good 50 lbs, that's for sure. Not just for safety, but in the rear where the car becomes lighter, easier.

That's for sure. According to my spreadsheet (which isn't 100% accurate, but close), I had lost 185lbs in the front and 248lbs in the rear. Add in 50lbs for the roll bar, and it becomes 185 and 198. So, we have almost achieved 50/50 weight loss distribution. I can't wait until I actually weigh it!

Tonight I painted the roll bar and the floors where the sound deadening used to be. The roll bar itself appears like it came out pretty good, the rear-most floors came out decent, but the floors down where the seats mount and behind there didn't come out all that great. I'll have pictures tomorrow after everything dries and I can touch it up and pull out all of the tape/wrapping.

Originally Posted by MasterC17

That's for sure. According to my spreadsheet (which isn't 100% accurate, but close), I had lost 185lbs in the front and 248lbs in the rear. Add in 50lbs for the roll bar, and it becomes 185 and 198. So, we have almost achieved 50/50 weight loss distribution. I can't wait until I actually weigh it!

Nice! That's perfect. I think out of the 400 lbs I've dropped, like 65-70 lbs is from the engine bay. :/ not quite as much as I'd like out of there.

Originally Posted by MasterC17

Tonight I painted the roll bar and the floors where the sound deadening used to be. The roll bar itself appears like it came out pretty good, the rear-most floors came out decent, but the floors down where the seats mount and behind there didn't come out all that great. I'll have pictures tomorrow after everything dries and I can touch it up and pull out all of the tape/wrapping.

Looking forward to some pictures.


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Sorry for the delay with the pictures, been very busy and kept forgetting memory cards or to charge the battery, etc. So, I finished painting the roll bar, made a floor pan out of lexan due to lack of carpet, fixed the dead space in the dead pedal, mounted camera mount, and finally almost got the passenger seat installed - almost (still some drilling and mounting to do). I ended up doing lots of touch up and re-doing and adding so the paint actually came out pretty good except for a few small spots. Onto the pictures!!

Very very nice. I like that floor panel, custom is always cooler. Lol.

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Finished drilling for the passenger seat and got that all mounted up and done with. Otherwise, just fixed a few other small issues. I'll have some pictures tomorrow probably, I'm going to give it a wash - after being worked on for two months straight it's accumulated some dust

Cool! Let's sew those pics.

You should try to do a side exit dual 2.5" exhaust with like 4 resonators... Since its a half track half street car.

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Originally Posted by Tarmac_E46_M3

Cool! Let's sew those pics.

You should try to do a side exit dual 2.5" exhaust with like 4 resonators... Since its a half track half street car.

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Interesting idea, we'll see! It would look cool...do I have enough room to fit four resonators

I'm planning on getting the new tires mounted on the new wheels tomorrow . I don't think they'll fit without camber plates however.

I think 4 could. 2 in the section 1, turn 90 degrees out board, slap 2 more on before it exits out the side.

Fyi: I saw an interesting, but old, thread on m3f in the e46 m3 section. It's like a rear trunk floor/ strut reinforcement brace, welded in. Pretty neat, even with a cage it seems like it makes sense.

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I installed the wheels on Sunday, below are a few pictures. Also ordered rotors for the pads, BW studs, BW solid brake caliper guides, and GC RSM's. For the moment, I'm going to be a loser and just run the "Madrussian Mod" to get about -2.5 degrees of camber up front, use GC RSM's, with an Eibach Pro-Kit and still use the stock shocks. I'll be using this setup until I can afford a real suspension and do it all at once. That means AST's w/ 700lb springs, front control arms, all the bushings, subframe mounts, engine mounts, tranny mounts, diff mounts, sway bars, etc. etc. as opposed to half-arsing it. It's better for learning too .

Looks good. Drive it around much, yet? How does the car feel with the 700 springs?


What offset are your wheels? I haven't mounted my Apex wheels yet, they are 18x9.5 ET22.