Unevolved's M42 Build Thread

[unevolved]

Yeah, I'd love to drop these seats like a bad habit, but I need SOMETHING in the car right now, and I can't afford to drop too much money on some replacements. I'll keep my eye out for some non-fucked stock replacements.

[Massimo]

Nice, what is the plan for her?

[unevolved]

Mostly DD and project. I'm a huge gearhead, I need something to work on or I'll go crazy. Lately that's been satisfied by Formula SAE and other stuff like that, but I'm graduating in a few weeks and moving across the country, so I need something to play with.

[spiDmang]

Yeah, I'd love to drop these seats like a bad habit, but I need SOMETHING in the car right now, and I can't afford to drop too much money on some replacements. I'll keep my eye out for some non-fucked stock replacements.

You can reach the rear bolts by pushing down on the seat adjustment lever. That should give you the ability to "raise or lower" the seat cushion. By raising it up, you'll have about an extra 2in or so to get a 17mm socket on there.

The lean is due to the mechanism screws either being loose, or the mounting tab/s are broken!

[lambo]

I had the same problem with my seats. It turned out they were jamming into a tab that was part of where the seatbelt screws into the seat (iirc). You might want to check there.

[TimKninja]

The M42 is a good choice. At first i hated it. Nowhere near as powerful as my m50 car was. But after awhile it grew on me. A very good amount of power and great gas mileage. Fun to throw around.

Welcome!

[unevolved]

I thought I had some pictures, but apparently my phone decided to be a dick and not save them.

But I figured out what was wrong with the seat, the two large phillips-head bolts that hold the seat back to the base had snapped off their mounts. Over time, the previous-previous owner (I guess) hadn't bothered to fix it, so the seat back is actually twisted about 15 degrees around its vertical axis. I swapped it with the passenger side, so I'm comfortable when I'm driving. It's actually not that bad for the passengers, either.

The door locks are, well, a bitch. I need to just replace the whole door, but I doubt I could find one.

[unevolved]

Replaced the nonfunctional power antenna with a fixed whip-style one from Napa. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of this ground-breaking event.

[absolutdog]

Yeah, sorry, I wasn't very clear. I know which 4 bolts hold the seat down, but I can't get a tool on the rear two. Is there a trick, or is my seat just fucked up?

Seat must need some love
I just took mine out the other day 17mm on my 1/2" drive no problems

You turning this into a DD or a track car???

[unevolved]

Yeah, it got some lovin' with a mini-sledge and punch to loosen things up a bit, and I was able to get a box-end wrench on there no problem.

It's going to be 90% DD, with some potential for track use, depending on where I wind up.

[nokincy]

I'll be following this as I too have a m42 car, also I'm pretty sure I saw that nismospeed miata over on Clubroadster.

[unevolved]

So I haven't updated (or even worked on this car) in a while, because I was doing this:



But now I'm done doing that, so I can work on this car. First thing to deal with was the lack of high beams. They worked when I got the car, but they both blew out shortly after I bought it. I did some research and learned that if the high beams are replaced with slightly higher draw (and therefore brighter) bulbs, they'll blow the 7.5A fuses BMW supplied. If they're replaced with 10A fuses and don't blow, there's probably no other problems. So I got me some 10A fuses from Autozone, and dropped them in. Bam. Lights restored. They were the two top-left fuses in this picture (#1 and #2):



From there, I finally got around to installing the Husco armrest I bought off here a while back. I'll go ahead and show some quick pictures of how I installed mine, as I couldn't find any pictures beforehand.

First off, I removed the console and cut away a small bit of carpet around the E-brake handle:



Then I added the left bracket and a washer for good measure:



I bolted up the top plate and the right bracket, and aligned them using a level and eyeballing for straightness:



I marked the holes on the side of the console, drilled them out, and bolted up the right bracket:



I threw it all back in the car and bolted everything up nice and tight:



And there we go. Armrest.



It's really comfortable, especially for someone like me that's used to having an armrest, but it does highlight how squeaky my interior is. I really need to add something between the two parts of the console.

Now that I'm done with college (and more importantly, done with Formula SAE) and have a real job, I should have time and money to actually work on this thing. It needs wheels and tires, paint and bodywork, new seats, some suspension work, a roof rack for bikes, and more power in some fashion. I have no idea what order I'm going to do any of that, and I imagine it'll just happen as I happen to find good deals on things.

I keep going back and forth between wanting a 24V swap or turboing the M42. I need to see some awesome turbo'd M42s to make me decide that's a good idea.

[unevolved]

Not a huge update on the car, but a huge update for me. I relocated to H-town for a new job after graduation, and I FINALLY got the garage sorted out. This may be the first night in a decade this car has slept in a garage, given all the signs of neglect.

[unevolved]

Found this bad boy in the glove box when I was fixing the broken hinge.

[Court M3]

Nice find! Wonder how many people still have these? Mine was in my car's glove compartment as well.