Finally got my car back after a couple months being in the shop, and I was in the processes of turing it into a DE car with just the necessities to drive to the track and park over night if need be. (need to keep windows)
I don't know what to do with all the wiring in the car though, and racecars posted on the forums always look so clean inside (free of wires and exploded panels)
So I'm wondering if there is a place near by that can cleanly strip my car and make some panels, or if there are any DIYs?
TIA
Take a glance at the Track Car Build section of the forum.....
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...play.php?f=249
04M3 TiAg 69k slick-top 3 pedal
99M3 Cosmos 61k S50B32 euro 6Spd
88M3 AW 43k miles Project FS
WTB: 3.5" Eurosport/Conforti CAI
Stripping the car is pretty easy, a great DIY because its dumb labor intensive. You pay the same per hour for "smart" work at a shop as you do this type. Aluminum door panels are easy, but you could have those made. Removing the carpet requires some force and a good razor knife (if you plan on keeping any portions). I took my car down tot eh metal in a very short time and the wife and I made a trip to the dump with carpet, speaker, seats, etc. I have basically all of the wiring left in my car except for the easy stuff from the rear defrosters and speakers that I traced back from the devices. I would recommend removing from the device back up to the front of the car so you know you have the correct wire. There's just not as much gain as there is potential for screwing something up in the wiring.
removing sound deadening is a good one, there are many threads about the best way. The dry-ice way sounds cool but not necessary. A heat gun and paint scraper work well.
whatchu got
Yes, it's labor-intensive and dumb work, and labor costs are really high. So unless you're Warren Buffett or a state of Wisconsin employee it makes sense to DIY.
Whoever built my car didn't bother picking through the factory wiring harness. They just ripped out the entire thing apart from the engine harness, then rewired the bits the car actually needs. Which is surprisingly little.
Stripping is fairly easy, you don't even have to remember how to put it back together.... That's the hard part!
When ever you disconnect a wire, label it with tape and a sharpie. After stripping the panels and whatever else you want, figure out what you want to keep, and trace the wires you don't back to the fuse box, and get rid of them. You don't even need a wiring diagram.
Your garage or driveway
Check with Valley Motorworks. They're in the Supporting Vendor list (button at top of page). Tell Walter I gave you a nudge.
Jay
From wannabe to has been in a few short years..... the older I get, the faster I was
Stripping a car down is ridiculously easy until you start looking for that last 10lbs of weight removal. Carpets are ridiculously heavy and just take brute force to remove. You'll probably want to put floor pans in after removal (vacmotorsports.com). The tar paper (sound deadening) comes out with a paint scraper and a heat gun. You'll need a small scraper for finessing it and a wide scraper and be sure not to heat the paper too much or it will liquify.
You can remove some tar paper and insulation materials from the door panel but the door panel itself looks decent and is quite light. Remove the radio and speakers and associated wiring. I would leave the dash and center console pieces since they are light and conceal wiring. Remove the pass. airbag, it's heavy. I would not touch the wiring harness because there's too much that can go wrong and fixing it will be VERY expensive. This is an area where I would go to a race car builder when you're ready...they ripped out wiring from other cars so they know what needs to go.
Is divorce in the air? Get the list and follow it!
http://forum.dadsdivorce.com/viewtopic.php?t=13374
Is divorce in the air? Get the list and follow it!
http://forum.dadsdivorce.com/viewtopic.php?t=13374
i used dry ice when I stripped my last m3. You just put a bunch of dry ice on the sound deadening and hit it with a hammer.
The problem with the last car I stripped was it didn't look pretty, and the tar left a residue and there was all the clips/mounts for the rear seats. In hindsight I should have kept the panels and console for this car, but I posted a feeler thread on 6speed and had people at my house the next morning making outrageous offers that I couldn't refuse.
So I figure now it's time to make it look like the 996 cup car inside.
found a race shop here in sacramento called evil genius racing, and dropped my car off today!
They're going to make some door panels for me, the cage, seat mounts, weld the sunroof in, remove all the brackets and stuff I don't need smooth it out and paint it!
I'm excited!
you found the "checkbook" solution. not always the worst way to go, but the most expensive. i've had a lot of fun tearing up my perfectly good car.
I just spent a bunch of time cutting wires on a Mustang. The first thing is to know what all the connectors are for -- either because they are plugged in or because they were labeled when the car was stripped. I had to do some scary guessing.
If a wire goes to a single pin of a connector, and you (definitely, 100% for sure) don't need that item, you can cut that wire back as far as you can trace it -- to the fire wall if possible, cutting the wire on both sides of any connector it goes through. If the wire attaches to another, it is probably either a common ground or common power. You can't cut it without being sure that all the other things it attaches to aren't needed. Sometimes you can eliminate a big loop of wire and unused connectors by connecting two ends together under the dash.
All this will require cutting the harness bundles open. I soldered all the connections I made for reliability. I taped them, but heatshrink would be neater (but more time consuming).
I left small 1" tails at connectors so that I could reattach the wire if needed. All cut wires should be insulated with tape, crimps, or heatshrink to avoid shorting power to chassis ground.
Be very careful about removing modules and sensors that you don't understand; they may be important. Especially if the car has an anti-theft immobilizer.
Having said this, this Mustang does not have much in terms of accessories, lights, or a functioning dash or instrument cluster. Because of this, there was a lot to cut, and it neatened up the dash area a lot.
For a DE car, I'm not sure the weight and neatness would be worth it.
Dan Chadwick
Boston Chapter BMW CCA Instructor Development.
Near-Orbital Space Monkeys, E30 M50-ish
Driving Evals on-line evaluations for Driving Schools. Paper forms are just wrong.
Isn't the rule of thumb for automotive harnesses to crimp and *not* solder? Flexibility of the connection is required due to vibration, harsh environment, etc, and soldered joints are more brittle.
AFAIK crimping is the standard method for custom and aftermarket harnesses.
"Torque is like cowbell... you can never have too much." - Michael Cervi
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