325ic Calypso Euro Conversion - Houndstooth & dbilas now, MT1 & MM 3.2 stroker coming

[e30rapidic]

Been chasing electrical gremlins today.

BRAKE LIGHT CHECK PANEL LIGHT WAS STAYING ON. intermittently stays on. assume it's related to the 3rd brake light which I'm getting rid of. Will try a resistor across the terminals.

easier fix is to jump across the two green/black wires at the 3rd brake light wiring harness. You can disconnect the plug behind the trunk side carpet, up by the antenna. This bypasses/tricks the active check system into thinking the 3rd brake light is working as intended. That's how mine is set up.

Good luck with the other bits, hope they're all easy fixes!

[bradnic]

Been chasing electrical gremlins today.

DRIVER LOW BEAM HEADLIGHT
Has been refusing to turn on intermittently, ever since before last year's vintage. Cool thing is the check panel low beam warning light reliably tells you if the lamp isn't on. On the way back from the Vintage it turned off permanently. Checked bulb and HID ballast by swapping with right side. both were fine. Swapped out the K4 relay. No change.

Finally went back to check fuse 13 (LH low beam) and sure enough fuse was dead. Replaced and working now, but this can't be the root cause. Will check euro smiliey wiring mods and grounds again but I don't think I'll find anything. Will just have to wait for it to start failing intermittently again I suppose.

Other issues I'e been experiencing:
WASHER SYSTEM WAS NOT PUMPING FLUID. was working perfectly then stopped working.

BRAKE LIGHT CHECK PANEL LIGHT WAS STAYING ON. intermittently stays on. assume it's related to the 3rd brake light which I'm getting rid of. Will try a resistor across the terminals.

TURN SIGNAL CHECK PANEL WARNING WHEN LIGHTS WERE ON. If I used the right turn signal when the headlights were on this warning light would come on.

NONE OF THESE PROBLEMS PRESENT NOW! afaik I haven't done anything other that swap the K4 relay and disassemble the driver side headlight assy.

Most of this be some related ground or power distro issue in the engine bay. The brake light warning issue is likely separate, and like I've written before I'm swapping the deck lid out anyway so I'll deal with it later.

[bradnic]

You need this:

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-febi-par...211108634~feb/

Quantity: Two (2)

ha cool to see that.. actually have already replaced my clutch and brake pedal rubber with new bits. go pedal looks a bit dated..

Very cool, looking forward to watching your progress on this.

thanks for stopping by! been following your 02/M20 build for a long time. looking forward to your help with the stroker bits too.

She's a cruiser, heavy and comfortable. but:
- I def want more torque, and am def going 3.1.

- the dbilas ITBs are staying despite their definitely killing midrange torque over the stock manifold, cam and displacement. I can't even drop the clutch and smoke the tires anymore. HP seems to be up though. She pulls well above 4500.

- Want to keep her civilized, especially smooth idle. I'll def xbrace and strut tower brace the front end, put some bigger brakes on her. I'm never gonna track her though.

I have NEVER seen a hardtop storage rack.

me neither! was genuinely shocked seeing it when it came with @MPoser's new vert. It was also cool to verify it was OEM through the accessories catalog. even more shocking - there were TWO storage racks in the pile, the 2nd a wall mounted version.

[SkiFree]

Very cool, looking forward to watching your progress on this. I have NEVER seen a hardtop storage rack.

[c0rbin9]

You need this:

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-febi-par...211108634~feb/

Quantity: Two (2)

[bradnic]

Here's a preview of the hardtop bonus. It certainly looks legit - it even has the same OEM convertible top clamp brackets from the car built in to it. But I can't find a record of that part number anywhere. I don't have my e30 accessories catalog to look through, and I can't remember where I've seen OEM versions of these racks before. Besides there are a couple of decent aftermarket carts out there readily available for < $150 shipped, or even better just setup an overhead lift for the top. Cool novelty factor though

UPDATE: Turns out there are TWO rack systems in this pile, one of them a 7 piece stand stand pictured in the catalog below, the other a 2 piece wall mount setup that looks like a bed frame. MANY thanks to @jeffnhiscars for helping me figure it out :-). Of course my hardtop storage cover won't work with the storage rack, and the storage cover you need is NLA. You win some...

So yes as @jeffnhiscars said, it's definitely OEM. Found this in a 1991 US accessories catalog. The part number matches the label.


[url=https://flic.kr/p/WbTna4]

EDIT: Note there's a different number for the hardtop cover listed in the US catalog. It's in fact a different cover than that shown on realoem and in the German hardtop winch post earlier.

[robrez]

^^ very cool. So the winch and roof racks use the same attachment. I'll get mine out of storage and take a pic. I'd like to mimic the oem winch, thanks for the pics.

[bradnic]

Hi Patrick

I believe that rack is for both E30 and E36, only sold in Europe. Everything is NLA now, but once I found the part numbers I finally turned up some real pics of it on a German E30 site

In German: http://e30-talk.com/topic/107815-har...ung-abdeckung/

Hi!
Who can help me.
I bought a hardtop and there is at the top of the bar a 4-way mount for the lifter attached. Unfortunately only three plastic covers have been included.
In the parts catalog I do not come to the desired part, is not shown.
Who can help me, either with the part number or maybe one has such a part left.

Thanks in advance, Tom

In the ETK at the top of universal accessories, then at Hardtoplift, the cover is shown,
No: 82129401043 There is however: Part no longer available.

Greetings Matthias

NS: For the lifter, you only need the rear two holders. The front you only need for the carrier system (skis, roof box, surfboards etc.) screw the front eifach off.

and this vert looks like it's completely stock and straight out of the euro accessories catalog. gorgeous, but no mtech1 side skirts. just love how only the trim piece on the mtech1 spoiler gets painted


EDIT: If you look closely in the roof winch pic you'll see that the hardtop is covered with the same OEM cover "case" I posted a pic of earlier. That's not the case with the rack stand in post 496 of this thread - the cover for that rack stand is actually different.

[phenryiv1]

Could the hard top rack be for the e36 rather than an e30 part? I can't imagine them being too terribly different in concept.

[bradnic]

No Mtech1 for the Vintage. Should get it finished this summer though. Looking great, but still a large amount of tedious, detailed front spoiler work to do on the slots. Body shop had zero interest in doing it, and I really trust those guys so don't want any issues :-) so I brought the part back and will 3d print a sanding tool to clean up the notches. Will post pics later.

Didn't mention the other mtech1 bits:
-- rear is in final primer and looks perfect
-- side skirts were painted but need some channel touch up and wet sanding
-- rear spoiler painted panel is waiting for the front and rears to be done to paint everything at once.

All the parts were stripped to bare material - no previous paint left on anything. Here's what the front piece looks like right now. It's the furthest from ready.


A particularly difficult area to repair. was worse not grinding out the paint layers from the channels, but the Dremel bit unfortunately dug into the sides too.


No real ground lost though - we'd still be in the same situation trying to prep the channels with the paint layers still in place. A 3d printed tool seems to be the only practical way to get this repaired.

Nice job on the fog light hole cutout


And all the mounting points except one they missed have been repaired


They tried to preserve the part number area

[bradnic]

I wonder if the oem winch uses the same mounting adapters as the oem roof racks? The adapters are basically metal hooks that the roof rack bases attach and lock onto.

pics?

[bradnic]

yes the OEM cloth cover. You could wrap the hardtop in the OEM cloth cover (case) and winch it after. No question the hardtop roof rack mounting points are being used. Here's a close up of the mount area on that pic, best I could get


RealOEM for the OEM hardtop lift from the pic above, with part numbers. Also shown in thread below.

Or you and I could get sane and just do this (from this thread)

[robrez]

Found my 89 E30 Accessories Katalog. No record of the hardtop stand, but a pretty sweet pic of an OEM manual hardtop winch. Note use of the hardtop roof rack mounts. So you could use the OEM cover with this.

What does it mean "you could use the OEM cover with this"? Do you mean the the OEM cloth cover has cut-outs for the mounting points?

I really need a winch as I don't have the garage floor space to store a top. I have the OEM vert roof racks and I've thought about using them as attachment points. I wonder if the oem winch uses the same mounting adapters as the oem roof racks? The adapters are basically metal hooks that the roof rack bases attach and lock onto.

[bradnic]

Found my 89 E30 Accessories Katalog. No record of the hardtop stand, but a pretty sweet pic of an OEM manual hardtop winch. Note use of the hardtop roof rack mounts. So you could use the OEM cover with this.

dang, you were in Raleigh! Where in town was it?

Between Raleigh and Durham. It was Scott Barnes's car (long term co-organizer of The Vintage, not Scott Sturdy). I think it was in NC for several years with the PO. 2 long term owners and Scott.

I had the pleasure of inspecting all the electric top bits yesterday. The top motor was replaced in 2003 or 2005 with a new OEM unit. Everything looks brand new, even the damn cloth tape. I've never seen an E30 like this before.



New electric top lid arrived.



No Mtech1 for the Vintage. Should get it finished this summer though. Looking great, but still a large amount of tedious, detailed front spoiler work to do on the slots. Body shop had zero interest in doing it, and I really trust those guys so don't want any issues :-) so I brought the part back and will 3d print a sanding tool to clean up the notches. Will post pics later.

[e30rapidic]

dang, you were in Raleigh! Where in town was it?