1997 840 Build Thread

[toomanyparts]

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Happy Holidays to everyone above.

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Finally got the seat in today and very happy with the results. Please ignore the orange shifter (it's going away). Steering wheel had to be redone, but came out exceptionally well.

[72tpik5]

Seat and steering wheel look great. I think that wheel looks right at home. Nice job to get the buttons working.

[SteveCT]

Looks really nice! Is there a post somewhere that explains how to wire up an E46 steering wheel so that the controls work?

[toomanyparts]

Seat and steering wheel look great. I think that wheel looks right at home. Nice job to get the buttons working.

Thank you. Still have not wired up the phone stuff (don't really care/use it).

Looks really nice! Is there a post somewhere that explains how to wire up an E46 steering wheel so that the controls work?

Thank you as well. http://www.frankies-bmw.com/8series/...s_mf_wheel.php

[toomanyparts]

Side project - Always wanted an armrest but the E36/46 retrofit looks too ghetto for my tastes with the exposed hinges.

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Used an old Volvo center console lid and will epoxy resin some magnetic latches to the phone insert. I won't have a hinged armrest as I planned, but I can easily remove the top just by pulling away. I use the center ashtray cutout for holding drinks most of the time, but drinking and driving is WRONG.

[toomanyparts]

Since I had the other seat out, figured I would repair/reinforce the foam in the trouble spots and add some polyfill to make the seat more uniform. Of course, cleaned and greased the entire assembly and replaced some small visible bits.
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Interior is finished for now and everything matches and did not cost an arm and a leg, just my arms and legs for a large portion of a few weeks.

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Waiting on a present from Germany for the final touch (door card inserts).

[dragon850]

WOW!!! Amazing work, cant wait to see it in person!

[toomanyparts]

Few updates:

Thanks to Alex840 for some door trim and dash parts, I was able to get these in the car:

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[toomanyparts]

Thanks to Bluesman for having the biggest heart of any member here. Trunk mat finally showed up from Germany back in late December, so the trunk delete he so kindly gave me has a purpose:

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Also, need my very busy machinist buddy to sort me out with the backend of this before it can replace my current wheel. It actually matches the shifter and handbrake quite well:

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[toomanyparts]

Having removed all the seat trim to fix some of the broken fasteners and remove all the nasty tar like coating that had taken over, I decided perhaps I could get away with testing out some panel wrapping with some of the leather I have collected over the last few years. Normal "napa" leather I imported from a German seller works pretty well for the large side pieces, but the belt covering and seat belt feeder trim will need something much thinner to work properly without fitment issues. I finally found some 1oz napa as I don't trust my skiving (I have none) enough to ruin what is getting to be a very expensive stash of materials. I'll see how this turns out, but I have studied every photo I could find on 8er of the full leather cars (i.e., "stage 2/3")


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[Timm]

Excellent work and a great score of csi door panels!

[dragon850]

Wow, just wow! The CSI door panels, where did you ever dig those up from???

[toomanyparts]

Ran across them and could not resist.

[TedBobo]

Few updates:

Thanks to Alex840 for some door trim and dash parts, I was able to get these in the car:

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Nice choice! I've always wanted to do that.

[toomanyparts]

Finally got the seat trim back on a few weeks back. Some photos. Looks factory. Couldn't chip it off if I tried.

SEM adhesion promoter
SEM Colorcoat spray
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