After a year of searching, an Alpineweiß story

[iwantspeed]

Black interior conversion.... as compared to this other pic ^ just posted above.

Looks like Euro grills too...

you win
black e30 m3 leather sport seats with horizontal stitching
black e30 m3 leather 2 person rear seat
black speaker covers
euro grills
alpina caps back on
new dash
radar hardwire
will upload pictures soon.
you win a bmw cookie

[iwantspeed]

new dash

Thanks to my buddy warren who came by to help several times.

So the dash I put in last December 2009 developed a small crack in it.
I drove it like this for about a month, I was at a shop when a friend of mine was checking out my car.
He then mentioned it looks great besides the crack in the dash, I was like ya I know its annoying.
He mentioned that he had 2 extra dashes that he was going to have wrapped in alcantera and that if I wanted I could have one and just give him mine with the crack in it once I was done with it.

I was stoaked!
Thanks Mr. Chander!
He has 2 e30m3’s
Nice guy.

The crack


So I started taking everything out.
It was a lot easier this time since I have done it before already.
I used this website as a reference just case I missed something.
http://home.comcast.net/~cdeegan9/dashboard/dashboard_1.html



All of HVAC and headunit stuff out


Dash out!
Cup over the shift knob to keep it from getting scuffed.


I did a project with a company to prototype a piggy back ecu for the m20 and we tapped in the ecu wiring harness. We were rushing when we put it back together and wrapped it in electrical tape which looked shitty.

Old tape off

Wrapped in harness tape

All buttoned up


When did the dash last time I didn’t replace the HVAC bulbs
So I ordered a bunch of those.



Got the wiring all laid out


And started wrapping it




If you move the far left vent down, its way easier to stuff the wiring harness up over the vent and behind the cluster.

its much easier to remove the vin while the dash is out.
i took the vin off the old dash and my current vin with a razor blade and a credit card.
it came out pretty easily with the proper technique. you can't buy the rivets anymore so be careful.

[iwantspeed]

radar hardwire, maplight wiring

next installment

bmw runs wiring for the sunroof,maplight, check panel all up the a pillar in a channel molded in the a pillar so the wiring sits recessed into it and then is held in place by clips.



I wanted to copy this method.
I found the part number on realoem. ordered a packet of 10.
Part number 61131370742
part number 2
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...=61&fg=15&hl=5



A few months ago at the junkyard I was trying to source the wiring harness for the maplight mirror so it could retrofitted properly. with little success i got a check panel wiring harness in full length and cut it near the fuse block under the dash. My original plan was to route it in the driver side a pillar trim but there ended up being not enough room. So it chose to route it on the passenger side a pillar trim. Now the wiring harness was not long enough so I had to extend it. from the check panel area all the way down the a pillar, across the dash, and down near the steering column to the fuse block.

here is the wiring harness slimmed down to 6 wires routed from the fuse block across the dash and up the a pillar and its not long enough to reach up to the check panel area.


I didnt have same colored wiring so it made a little chart so i wouldn't add 12v to the wrong wire.



then extended the harness
red heatshrink wrapped is postive switched 12v
black heatshrink wapped is ground

now its definitively long enough.
and wrapped it in harness tape.


harness routed up the a pillar

and out the check panel area.


the factory uses the block as a ground point for a multiple of things underneath the dash.


I chose the unused bolt to ground my accessories.
local electronic shop had these ring terminals that were the right size to fit over the bolt but not be too loose.


inner diameter at 0.330


perfect fit.


hardwired the Valentine 1 and a added a female splitter to the telephone wire.
and mounted the splitter next to the rear view mirror.
i bought the splitter at radio shack and painted it black


here is the old setup of the splitter
and me driving to vegas



I mocked up where I wanted a kill switch for the radar and the garage door opener. far left and 2nd to the left spots on the hvac panel
ill be using an early model window breaker to fit into each slot.
and it will sit flush and they are rated up to 15amps, more than enough.


Final locations
i have one early model window breaker switch.
just need another one.
:p

Bought new a pillar clips

clips out


clip installed x2


this is really the only picture of the interior put back together.
ill get a better one and edit this thread later on.

[iwantspeed]

m3 black leather horizontal stitching sport seats

First of all thanks ARCHIE!!!
One of the criteria I was looking for in my e30 was a 325is.alpinweib II. black leather interior.

I had to give up on the is and the black leather interior, i just couldn't find one that was in good shape.
Ever since i bought the car over a year ago i have been trying to source a mint black interior.
as you may have seen i found the door panels and put them in before getting the seats.

I have searched ebay, craiglist, junkyards, car forums, spread the word out at several shops. anyone i met that had an e30 i would ask them if they knew anyone selling black seats.

A member on this forum knew that I was looking for a very specific seat and would be very picky on what i would spend my money on.
He was on the lookout.
Archie came through!
I got a call from archie saying that he may have found a set of seats.
A person bought an e30 m3 from Washington State and was having the car shipped to Long Beach Ca.
I gave him a call and he told me what his plans where.
the plans for the car where to get it smogged,registered and insured in the state of CA. and I would have to wait till all of that got done before being able to purchase the seats.
but this particular m3 had metric mechanic engine built to 2.5l
2500 HiFlo ST Rally Engine

http://www.metricmechanic.com/prices/pricing-engines.php

and it was having a hard time passing smog,
it finally passed smog and I was able to drive up to long beach and pick up the goodies!
i removed my passenger seat and back seat and headed up to long beach.



Part of this m3's soul will live on in my e30


metric mechanic engine



then installed the new seats


still need to come up with something for the rear seat belt buckles


I recommended to this guy to join r3v and he did
username vladyp

the seats are getting a docbaileys leather treatment in the next week or so.

[ck_taft325is]

Wow, very nice work with that harness! And fantastic pick up on that interior. Looks amazing, man!

[iwantspeed]

seat repair

Once i installed the seats I noticed that i could move the seat back on the passenger seat sideways and rock it side to side, something was not right with that.
I only noticed after i had purchased them.

i took the side trim off


back panel off


and i noticed that there are 2 screws that keep the seat back on seat frame
on the right

and on the left,
it was missing the screw.
junkyard run and I got the screw from some other sport seat


new screw and problem solved


I still need to replace the seat shocks as the back falls down but I was expecting that already.

[iwantspeed]

I bought a bav auto shift boot a year ago and it was tearing from having a my z3 1.9 shift lever hit the center console when going into reverse. and the ziptie holding from falling down was poking through the pleather they used.
it was in sorry shape.
in my previous e30 I used a stock e30 m3 leather ebrake boot and a e30 plastic e brake handle.

i wanted to use a e34 leather ebrake handle and a leather ebrake boot. the e30 m3 one is too short to use with the e34 handle and it leaves the metal part of the e brake exposed when its in the down position.

Top gaitors an ebay.uk seller offers shift boots and ebrake boots.
High quality black Italian Leather
I emailed him and explained what i wanted.
a shift boot that didn't have a bunch of extra material up top and that it was a certain diameter for the shift lever so i wouldn't have to use a ziptie to keep it in place.

and for the ebrake-- enough material so that the metal ebrake mechanism would get exposed in the up or down position and that the stitching would match that of the e34 handle. stitch down both sides of the handle.
e30m3 leather e brake boots have stitching only down the center.

I read some reviews here

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=199113

and was surprised to find a review in a bmw magazine i read.




old shift boot notice the chaffing



ziptie also digging into the pleather and now the ziptie is poking through
I really didnt like having to resort to using a ziptie to keep in place.


both boots removed, you need to reuse the bases.


new shift boot

new ebrake boot mocked up on the ebrake frame


I removed the old shift boot from the frame



very happy with the fit and finish this far.


used contant cement and attached the ebrake boot to the frame


shift boot result


I need to take an after picture of the ebrake.

will update ;)

[iwantspeed]

I found out that there are 2 different e36 window switch top sections
one allows more light than the other.
i had one that allowed more light and the passenger was kinda dim
got the correct one and problem solved

notice the top switch cover vs the bottom the top has more lines

[iwantspeed]

I got a new mirror switch
old vs new

old vs new, vacuum sealed in package.

installed

[iwantspeed]

update

[iwantspeed]

save

[iwantspeed]

Wow, very nice work with that harness! And fantastic pick up on that interior. Looks amazing, man!

thanks man

[GDA]

Quality post.

Top shelf work on the harness and I hope you don't mind but I am going to copy that approach on the wiring of my lighted mirror. Great idea and again, great work.

[Mtriple]

Nice work. Now go back and put some black heat shrink on those RED ground terminals... ;)

[iwantspeed]

Quality post.

Top shelf work on the harness and I hope you don't mind but I am going to copy that approach on the wiring of my lighted mirror. Great idea and again, great work.

thanks go right ahead
i don't plan on posting idea's on here and getting upset if people use it themselves.

Nice work. Now go back and put some black heat shrink on those RED ground terminals... ;)

thanks
i should have done that.