Street Build Starting

[Grover]

This is a fantastic build, congrats. I've seen a couple of your cars at Sonoma and Laguna and they are done to a stunning level. With all due respect, those seats still don't feel up to the level of the rest of this build, the one on the right looks like it just got over-stuffed with foam to try to take up the wrinkles, and the seams up at the top don't match between the two. Again, said with the greatest of respect for the beautiful cars you have built. With any luck, once they are in the car, they will look fantastic and those little details will melt away.

[Vicleonardo1]

I am wondering if auto upholstery is becoming a lost art. Sent/shipped my Recaros and door cards out to be re-done.

Came back with less than spectacular results. Not having a hard time with the vendor at all, very concerned, cool and earnest. (please don't ask who-I will not answer)

I just haven't had time to deal with it and not really excited about disassembly and shipping again. 

Cheers! 

[NeueKlasseGuy]

The car came back from having the carpets installed. I am very pleased with how it came out. I am especially pleased with how the carpet matches the leather. It doesn't show well in the pictures, but in person it looks great.

 

Still waiting for the wheels to come from England. Besides that all that's left is installing the seats and door panels, some front brake work, and a final test and tune!!!

 

Shouldn't be too long.

 

 

 

[Grover]

Congrats, looks great. I've done German Square weave in my last two cars and absolutely love the stuff. 

[NeueKlasseGuy]

The interior is beginning to take shape with the installation of the door panels and rear seat.

 

 

[HarryPR]

On 3/18/2020 at 12:59 PM, NeueKlasseGuy said:

It's been a long while since I posted anything on this build. If you saw the video I posted a few weeks ago you will know that the engine is now running in the car. That process turned out to be more complicated than we thought it would. Travis and Jim stayed at it and finally worked out all the wiring issues.

 

The next issue has been wheel and tire fitment. It took a while but Jim finally has the proper tire and wheel size all sorted out to fit on the car. The problem we're still up against is that the retro Hardy and Beck centers I bought for the car just will not work unless we add about 1"+ thick spacer. This is because they are so flat on the back side (see photo below).

 

 

We have discovered these particular H&B wheels were meant to fit a late 70's 320i which of course have much different brakes and hub offsets. In the photo with the 2 centers next to each other you can see the H&B center on the left and a more typical 2002 center on the right. You can see the center on the right has that offset machined into it creating about 1" of room for brake calipers and inner wheel half clearance to the rotor. Even if we were to switch the car back to stock brakes the H&B centers still don't fit.

 

Jim even tried switching the car to the rotors and calipers that we run on the race cars and they still are not close to fitting. Running a little bit of spacer, maybe up to about say a 1/4" thick might not be horrible but a full inch is just not in line with the quality of the rest of the car. Then the other more disqualifying issue is that it will end up with so much offset it will look like a front wheel drive car once we get the wheel halves fit. 

 

The wheels show below are some Jim had on hand for another 2002 project he is working on. They are 15" with the correct off-set for our brake and suspension set-up and they look good on the car, filling the wheel arches properly:

 

 

 

We have found a maker of bespoke wheels in England and will be ordering up a set of their BBS basket wheel look-a-likes in black for the car:

 

 

 Our plan is still to have the car ready for Legends in August. Keep your fingers crossed!

 

 

Saw this comment and had to run out to check the H&Bs I have stashed away. Mine were also originally for E21s, but do have a raised center portion, although it is closer to 1/2". Hopefully it will be enough for them to fit my '74 2002.

 

 

[NeueKlasseGuy]

The new wheels finally showed up. Jim mounted the Continental Extreme Contact Sport tires we decided on for the car and here is how things look:

 

 

 

What do y'all think?

 

[irdave]

1 hour ago, NeueKlasseGuy said:

The new wheels finally showed up. Jim mounted the Continental Extreme Contact Sport tires we decided on for the car and here is how things look:

What do y'all think?

 

Put it on the road!  It looks great in the pictures, I bet it looks awesome in person.

[Lorin]

Those look good and the fitment looks great but... 

 

they don't get my heart racing like the H&B or Jongbloeds.

[NeueKlasseGuy]

It's been quite a while since I updated this thread. There really hasn't been much happening with the car. With racing season just ending Jim has had time to turn his attention to the car again. The FI tuner was at the shop last week and dialed everything in to about 90%. Jim will put a few miles on the car and have the tuner come back to dial in the last bit.

 

The biggest issue has been the interior. The guy that did everything has not been willing to make the final tweeks necessary to have it look and fit like I would like. Jim has found another shop that is willing to step in and finish the job. 

 

So, it is heading off to the upholstery shop. I tried to attach the video of it loading but kept getting an error. I did save a screen shot so you can get a sense of the finished product:

 

 

 

 

Edited November 10, 2020 by NeueKlasseGuy

[NeueKlasseGuy]

One more quick screen shot:

 

[NickVyse]

I think Steve said something about videos not working yet on the updated site.

 

Car's looking great and I'm glad you're having the upholstery details sorted - there were a few things not quite up to the standard of this great build. What are you doing with the front spoiler? Was it a late addition? Are you leaving the front bumper off?

[NeueKlasseGuy]

7 hours ago, NickVyse said:

I think Steve said something about videos not working yet on the updated site.

 

Car's looking great and I'm glad you're having the upholstery details sorted - there were a few things not quite up to the standard of this great build. What are you doing with the front spoiler? Was it a late addition? Are you leaving the front bumper off?

It would have been nice to have the video so folks could hear the exhaust.

 

I'm leaving the front spoiler brushed flat silver metal. I think it complements the chrome in the grill etc. It was planned from the beginning but was going to be painted body color. After we test mounted it I decided it looked pretty good as it was.

 

No front bumper.

[steve k.]

16 hours ago, NickVyse said:

I think Steve said something about videos not working yet on the updated site.

 

Car's looking great and I'm glad you're having the upholstery details sorted - there were a few things not quite up to the standard of this great build. What are you doing with the front spoiler? Was it a late addition? Are you leaving the front bumper off?

the videos can be added to posts, but the video gallery is not available yet. 

 

Steve K 

[NeueKlasseGuy]

I tried again to upload the mp4 video and this is the result:

 

 

 

Edited November 12, 2020 by NeueKlasseGuy