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Post by zoona on Jun 5, 2023 21:31:27 GMT
Project number two is recovering my elise seats. Two reason for this. 1. they are a bit tired. 2. I have bought a new car in germany. When it gets here I'm going to redo the entire interior. More on that later. I do quite a lot of sewing already, but clothes for my wife. It's a hobby i picked up a while ago and really enjoy it. So i thoguth I'd give car interiors a go. I found this site that has some amazing fabrics: relicate.com/And I am going to do a combination of this: relicate.com/collections/porsche-plaid-fabric/products/porsche-studio-check-seat-fabric-red?variant=43897005900010and dark grey alcantara for bolsters. I've taken the existing seat apart to be abel to make pattern, and I have made a mock up in purple vinyl. to make sure I am not completely out of my depth, and it looks like it will fit nicely. Some of the foam in the seats is in a bad way. Not that they have much - but they were made by lotus... I've got a really nice Bernina machine, and overlocker for clothing (and our 3d printer int he background)  But a little while ago I bought a heavy duty machine for this purpose. It's not a full on industrial machine, but just a heavy duty home gamer - and it is more than enough for what I am doing. It bascally just does a straight stitch but very well, through some very thick fabrics, and very fast if you need to.  This is the seat taken apart:  Adn this is my lovely purple mock up:  I think (hope?) it will look pretty good when it's done. |
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Post by zoona on Jun 5, 2023 21:37:43 GMT
...and my new car is:  It is a 318 with not a lot of gadgets (no leccy windows, no ac etc) but the interesting part is the engine:  It has an M52B28 swap (the 2.8 from teh e36 and z3 era) It is a little bit chavvy/stancy at the moment. It has bucket seats and a roll cage... but i have had that taken out and a full interior put back in. I plan to fit AC and redo the interior to start off with and it will become my daily (assuming it actually works...) SO expect more info on this eventually as well. |
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Post by zoona on Jun 8, 2023 20:11:53 GMT
I have absolutely no room for air ducting becuase of my intercooler...
Not quite sure what I am going to do now.
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Post by scottydugg on Jun 9, 2023 9:41:27 GMT
Love the seat work and the new purchase, how longs it going to take to ship across?
Air ducting for the brakes? or the undertray?
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Post by zoona on Jun 9, 2023 11:26:00 GMT
Love the seat work and the new purchase, how longs it going to take to ship across? Air ducting for the brakes? or the undertray? fabric is on the way. I’m looking forward to doing it. I just hope or doesn’t look shit… planning for mid July for it to be here. ducting is for the brakes. I’ve angled the duct to far towards the outside of the car, and even if I’d put it in a better place there is no room for a 3” pipe past the inter cooler piping. Not sure what I was thinking. i may have to go down to a smaller pipe, but not sure what the effect of that will be. |
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Post by howardb66 on Jun 9, 2023 12:48:39 GMT
The E30 tourer is great, especially with the M52B28, I’m a bit of a 3 series touring habitual offender have had 330, 335, D3 & 330d XD.I had a couple of E30 M3s & they were just gutless. A friend had an Alpina C2 & that was so much quicker- I guess yours should go really well.
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Post by zoona on Jun 9, 2023 13:23:44 GMT
I’ve had an e46 330 which I think is the m54. But not completely sure.
And I had the f20 m135i in Switzerland with an n55. I would have liked that engine in it, but looked a bit too complicated for a daily.
Other than that I’ve not really had much exposure to BMWs. So I’m learning all the engine codes, and what cars they came in.
There were quite a few available in Europe, if anybody is interested…
I’m looking forward to it, but a bit scared of what o will find in a car somebody else has done an by engine swap on…
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Post by scottydugg on Jun 9, 2023 13:34:12 GMT
Love the seat work and the new purchase, how longs it going to take to ship across? Air ducting for the brakes? or the undertray? fabric is on the way. I’m looking forward to doing it. I just hope or doesn’t look shit… planning for mid July for it to be here. ducting is for the brakes. I’ve angled the duct to far towards the outside of the car, and even if I’d put it in a better place there is no room for a 3” pipe past the inter cooler piping. Not sure what I was thinking. i may have to go down to a smaller pipe, but not sure what the effect of that will be. Sure it'll look good, the shade of purple looks a good balance of subtle/wild, especially with the grey. Had a look back at the duct problem, I've not useful solution, stepping diameter down surely wouldn't have a hugely negative effect would it? I was going to suggest fender vents but maybe a step too far. |
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Post by niklas on Jun 9, 2023 13:58:03 GMT
Box the rad/ic in, get air for ducts from the sides of the box in front of the rad
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Post by zoona on Jun 9, 2023 15:05:17 GMT
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Post by niklas on Jun 10, 2023 9:22:36 GMT
Well then, time to make awesome plugs and make flat fibreglass megaducts following the inner fender and such  I too have holes in the bumper, I do run hoses there strapped to the arb. The over rad ic piping makes this easier. If i did it again I'd go the box side route. |
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Post by zoona on Jun 19, 2023 2:14:22 GMT
I've ditched the brake cooling for the moment, and got back to the seats... Got the head and sides cut and sewn together, along with some of the edging in the synthetic leather stuff. THis is really just to have something sturdy to attach to the seats.  In true lotus style, the covers are just glued on to the seat... And then with the centre panel piece cut out and mocked up. I am going to be putting a littel bit more padding in this section. THe old stuff had just fallen apart, so replacing it with something a tiny bit thicker. Not much, but it means adjusting the size of the pattern piece to cover it.  Old foam (you can see the yellow stuff that is what's left of it) was attached to the white backing:  |
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Post by zoona on Jun 25, 2023 20:44:17 GMT
Seat back in. A few tidying up things to do, but now on to the driver's side. Even if I do say so myself, i think it looks fu cking brilliant...     I managed to spray contact adhesive over the front of the seat. I am extremely pi ssed off with myself, but I think I can get most of it off. The backs are still very messy - but I may just leave them as is. It is going to clash horribly with the red belts on the driver's side though. I fee prepared to attempt the full interior of my new car now, which was the purpose of doing this. I have ordered some ali door cards, and top sections as well, so i will do something with those to match the seats for a bit of hard surface practice. |
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Post by scottydugg on Jun 27, 2023 13:26:19 GMT
Seats look great, they've come out really well - I think that material might just be better than the purple vinyl.
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Post by zoona on Jul 1, 2023 2:13:45 GMT
Seats look great, they've come out really well - I think that material might just be better than the purple vinyl. A tiny bit. |
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le sigh