Thanks! I removed the rear wiper in MM2urbo, so I know it's not that big of a deal to not have it. It's worth the 3 pounds. :devil: The headliner is in the garbage! UPDATES! Things are going smoothly; as smoothly as this sorta stuff can go. :mad2: The wiring harness is complete and the interior is painted! I still have to apply the headliner cardboard fabric, rear seat fabric, trim the main carpet for the rollbar and battery to clear and then I can start installing things. Locating the battery underneath the driver seat. I'm retaining the lower air vent to keep good cabin circulation. Welding up the new battery box. I used 9/16" zinc coated steel and created a 4 sided rectangle. 2 sides will be used as leverage to hold down the battery in the z-axis with industrial 3M velcro [you'll see that later!] After the battery box was welded up I painted it for anti-rust. A shot of the seat rails before they were painted. I started with Sparco universal steel seat rails and welded 1/8" thick angle steel with 1.25" legs that is used as anchor points for the anti-submarine belt eye-hooks. This should be plenty strong. Sparco Evo waiting in the perimeter ;D Paint! I'm painting all exposed interior sheet metal "Black Night Metallic" which turned out to be a rockin' choice. Here is the roof so far. I plan on covering the cardboard with a cool fabric, tbd. Cheers, Ryan
oh yes...and the battery box painted. The battery cables have been tidied up too. I still have to glue down a square of felt to go between the battery and the chassis.
Just a thought, Ryan - rubber instead of felt - doesn't hold moisture, though it can trap moisture. Maybe a few rubber strips? Nice build-up. Don't know if I'd want to take it on a 1000 mile trip, unless 900 of that was racetracks! :grin:
Looks great so far!!! I hope to do some interior mods this fall. For the battery, how about a piece of the underlay used for floors covering concrete. Stuff is thin, has some cushioning, and breaths very well. Mark
Thanks for the suggestions, they're very good. --->DixonL2: I bet 1k mile trips will be even nicer than with the stock seats, as the Sparco's are super supportive for me! With the stock leatherette seats I'd get all sweaty in the summertime. The only thing is I use earplugs on the Interstate because my exhaust is loud and I have very little sound damping. Actually, I'm keeping the rear hatch panel in place mainly because it's such an effective sound isolator!
good lawd. Anyone considering lightening their car should view this thread. Bonkers project. What are the plans for the sunroof opening? Carbon? I figure at some point I'll have my roof re-skinned with a non-sunroof panel.
No knocks on the Sparcos, was only talking about the noise level (which you've controlled) and potentially less-than-cushy ride quality - which I generally appreciate, though it's not, well, "relaxing"!!
I can't have any car I'm driving be too relaxing, otherwise I risk falling asleep at the wheel. :sleep: This means no Lexus-esque silence, no automatic transmissions [not even flappy paddles], and definitely no land-yacht ride flotation!
"less-than-cushy ride quality"?? Ryan this is the same car you are running the Swift springs right? Gotta grab me a set of those for my BC's this summer. Anyways this build is absolutely killer man. :cornut: Hope you did a baseline weight reading before all this wonderful craftsmanship. Looking forward to more pics and of that color coded roll bar installed. That looks sweet. Electric blue is really my favorite blue but I wont tell my car that.....:lol::lol: Steve BTW: some more off-topic stuff....big let down in Hockeytown. Its tough enough living in NY and being a Red Wings fan but it hurts more to lose in game 7 at home!!! Can't wait for this season and hopefully they'll play the Islanders so I can go see them FOR THE FIRST TIME :eek6:
Exactly your R53 is a toy:lol: I rather have the loud exhaust and tight finely tuned suspension it really helps in long road trips because sleeping is the last thing you need to think about over the super duper delicious exhaust tone.
--->Vernon; definitely go score yourself a set of Swift springs; they bring the BC's from "meh" to a good quality setup. Here's more updates! In removing the rear wiper assembly, the harness had to be rebuilt to wire up the license plate light. For some reason my wiring had a longer ground cable! The RKE finally in its final resting spot with the wiring tidied up. Carpet reinstalled! I had to cut out room for the battery and rollbar. Here's a shot of the battery installed. The roll-bar installed! YAY! Close-up of the front hoop mounting plate. I'll paint the bolt heads electric blue to match shortly. Close-up of the roll-bar rear mounting point. I installed the bolts "backward" because on the passenger side it was required to clear the charcoal canister assembly. A shot of the underbody coating used to rust-proof the roll-bar backing plates. This picture shows the rear mounting point backing plates. The same treatment was done to the front mounting point backing plates on the bottom side of the floorpan. The seats and harnesses are next, then I'm done! Cheers, Ryan
The whole project has resulted in a weight loss. I've been real careful to weigh all things that have come out and gone into the car. The only thing I've had to guess on is the paint. *headliner -2.5lbs *rear wiper motor & blade -2lbs *roll-bar with hardware +55lbs *stock seats and seatbelt buckle -89lbs *head curtains, headliner hardware [clock, visors, etc], front seatbelts, all unused hardware -17lbs *A, B, and C pillar trim and oh$*!t handles -2.5lbs *Old battery [stock-ish size] -32lbs *Braille battery with new welded box +17lbs *Sparco Evo seats with rails and hardware +45lbs *Schroth 6-point harnesses and hardware +10lbs *removed wiring -5lbs *spray paint +3lbs Total delta = -20lbs! Most of the rollbar is negated with the new light seats. Most of the weight savings is from removing the headliner, pillar trim, head curtain airbags, and light battery swap. One negative is my airbag light is on :cryin: I thought I accounted for all known signals and loads [all 6 airbags, side impact sensors, battery pyro, seatbelt buckles], however I may not have properly grounded the hall sensors for the seatbelt buckles, and I may have too much tolerance for the side impact sensors [79ohm measured, 82ohm load inserted]. I'll have to plug in a factory airbag tool to see which exact codes I have to narrow down the problem. For what it's worth, my seatbelt light is off, so I got my voltage divider right!
It will be interesting to see if there is a weight shift when you corner weight the car. My initial thoughts are that the L-R is a little better balanced with the battery move but the F-R is going to shift forward. I'd imagine the roll center has been lowered some as well.
Regarding the SRS light... I spoke to a BMW FSE that told me that if the SRS light is on and the car is in an impact, it's not that the airbags won't fire... It's that they will fire them all, no matter if people are in the seats or not. He said it was a liability issue. Have not confirmed this, but I have seen a BMW with all bags blown with only one person in the car. Sidenote: Interested in helping a fellow EB/W-owning alliance member with this operation? minus the underseat batt'ry? :devil:
woah.. I've been meaning to weigh my stock seats to see if race seats would be worth it. I had no idea they weight that much though. Guess it's time to start saving up again..
Very interesting! I hope that is true, because I really want to maintain the use of the front airbags until I buy myself a Safety Solutions Hybrid Pro. I can certainly help as much as I can make time for! I'll shoot ya a PM. Yes, the stock seats are boat anchors indeed! The real weight killer with my setup is adding the roll bar, however I find it's worth the weight in added anti-roof-crush safety. If I was driving my MINI strictly on-road [and that probably means no Dragon either], then a roll-bar really wouldn't be necessary.
Last major update...cuz it's done! ;D This is what 5 pounds of wire looks like! Using a microfiber in the vice, I bent the lap belt anchors per Schroth's instructions for ideal alignment This is my solution for locating the shoulder belts laterally on the harness bar, with a 3-zip-tie per belt setup. Kinda ghetto, but seems effective. Notice I painted the mirror mount metallic black to match the rest of the interior Shot of the roof and a-pillar. You can also see the grille cloth applied to the headliner cardboard Shot of the passenger outboard lap belt anchor point Shot of the seats and belts Shot of the roll-bar The rear wiper delete with plug installed I'm wiped out! I'm so glad it's finished. I'm going to pass out in bed now. :crazy: :yesnod: