ROBolop 323ci

A little word of me...
I was always interesting in car audio.It Is my biggest hobby , every time i got i spend it on the car.12 year ago i had a fiat 500.I whurk 3 years one the car for restoration it and building a stereo in it..I did some competition wit it and from the 19 games i did I when 17 first ..My second contest was at the european final in PARIS en i was second afther THOMAS (swipe) WESTMAN from sweden.The next year I was in BIRMINGHAM ( IASCA FINAL).I was first in my class and the first place BEST OF INSTAL.Then i make a decision to stop white contest.I was one my highest level .
In the years i was competing i was always working on the car for making it better and better.Evry minit I got I spend on the car..
there was always the presure of performing beter . When i began on this project i make the decision ,to make something beautiful en having fun and now presure.I NOT going to compete whit this car..Not whit the speakers on the A pillar, and not with the plexy sub box.
Writing this is not so simple for me.I understand, and speak english but that's everything.i can't write englisch i am translating my words with the help off a translation program.It's not so simple for me to tell everthing in detail. But i hope you will understand.I realy hope to get some comments good or bad.everybody had his opinion about car stereo.
This is the car.








Have fun.

 

After surfing all through the net, finally I found the frontbumper I liked, and decided to go for a CSL model.

There will be likers and hater, but I likes it, that's the main thing...

Like everyone already knows, the bumper is only for the E46 M3, since this is a coupé, it'll has to be a "CSL look-a-like model".

To be sure that the bumper, at delivery, will fitt 100%, I emailed all across the globe...

Finally I decided to order the bumper (company name not added here)

I order a plastic, pvc bumper and not a polyester one.. He will be made of the same material as the original bmw bumpers..

The fitment would be 100%... so why wait... ORDER !!!

After 2 weeks of waiting, the bumper was delivered at home.

After unwrapping, I inmediately saw that the bumper was polyester

Cause the 2 carbon splitters at the bottom were only a surpluss of 100***8364;, so I had ordered those as well..

well, they were not in the package

Phoned the company and they said they had a fire, and those splitters will be delivered later on...

When I said that the bumper was made out of fiberglass, and not of the plastic I asked...they asured me it was plastic.

left it there, and put the phone down.

Looked at that thing for a couple minutes, and it turned out to be a real nightmare.

You can see what material it's made of... djee, could that be fiberglass?.





let's do the test







the holes.

 

the bumps







Little lip where the original m3, broken.





But we have to admit, the little lid where the tow-hook comes, fitted 100%

If it's good, we have to say it too .

 

fitted that piece of sh* on the car

How it fitted, well, you guess can guess. I was rollin' on my belly from laughing

When I tightened it with the screws, it was only 2cm sticking forward.

Already pulled the inside fenders to make it longer, but that didn't work that well lol

Then you have 2 options:

1) trow that thing in the bin or go back to the manufacturer

2) leave it at that, and look again the next day

I chose the last option.

Cause it was a fiberglass bumper, it could be my luck, cause that's something I familiar with

So, the next day, took my favorite tool of all: "THE DISC"

those screws I put 2cm more to the front, so the bumper nicely touched the fenders.



Don't be mistaken, this took a few hours to get it that good.







Here you see the slots where the plated is hooked with 2 descent screws.



Once this was done, I tightened it all together with fiberglass.



As you can see, I also cleaned out the tow hook didn"t match at all...

 

This is how it sits on the car, and matches the fenders pretty nice.









Next thing to do is to flatten the top of the bumper, cause now you can surf on the waves...

First making a little plate of 3mm thick against the hood and the 2 pieces the come under the lights.

So we will have 3mm of difference everywhere at the top

And when this is done, I get it back off and flatten it with the sanding block.

 

The next day... with some metallica on the background, but the sanding block with a grain 80 and rubbed some bumper.

First thing that came to light is that there's a big layer of gelcoat on there, witch is good in this case.

After a couple of hours with the block, most of the unevennesses are already gone, and it all looked so much better.

Then I started with connecting it all nicely on the car.

this was easy. Sawed 3 little MDF-plates of 4mm thick.

2 for L & R under the headlights, and one for under the hood.

Just taped it on with doublelayer tape





Cause the hood has a bit of a rounding, I disced the plate a little, so it goes nice with the flow.



After that, mounted the bumper, and put some filler on there.







Now, I have to maintain this height, and work towards the front of the bumper. EASY

O yeah, I also reinforced some pieces at the back of that thing, much better if you have to rubb it all.

Also did a phonecall to the people who delivered me this piece of crap.

Friendly asked to put my money for those carbon splitters back on my account, I'll make those myself...Then we're sure it'll fit..

About all the rest, better to shut up before I get the rest of my euro's back on my account. Then it's time for some puppetshow

 

The connection on the top of the bumper is OK, this fits now how I wanted it.

Then I started to make a notch on top of the bumper, where the hood falls into.

That something you have to put some extra time in, to make this perfect.

So, mounted back the bumper, and where that notch has to come, we taped it all with tape.

Mesured it all correctly and penciled it on the car. After that, pulled the tape and cut it out.

Now this is my model.



made another plate MDF of 4mm thick



Taped this on the bumper with doublesided tape.





Once this was done, I put some filler towards it.



Rubbed it all down till it fitted to the plate nicely.



Pulled the plate from it, and this was the result.





then it was childsplay to connect the sideds perfectly.

 

Cause on the inside, I now had a right upside,I rounded this like it is done on the original bumper

For this, I used white filler instead of black one, so I could see much better if it was all straight in line with everything.





Then I also discovered.......the bottom of the bumper was also tilt and crom. aaaaaarg

Anyway, to make this perfect, you have to have a 100% straight table (wich hI had.

Put the bumper on there, and drew it over.

After that, taped the table.

Now you can see how miserable it looked.







Also put a pile of filler on the side, and put the bumper nicely on the table.







Here you can see the result of the trick of the table



A perfectly STRAIGHT bumper

life can be beautiful

 

Everything that should have fitted when it was delivered, ... finally fits now !





here the connections with hood and headlights...









Have to rubb it down twice or so, one with 240 wet, and then with a 360

ready for primer after that.

 

These are going to be the 2 CF splitters.

Thought about making them in 1 piece, but stepped away from that idea.

The splitters I going to make, will look a bit different then the original. On the inside, there going to flow out a bit further. You'll see what we mean further on.

This is what he uses as base.

The aim is now that we put some layers of fiberglass polyester at the bottom.





The reason why I made this twice, is because I were afraid that he couldn't get to the inside that good.



One of the main problems of this big bumper project was the license plate.

What I didn't want for sure is a big plate would come before the middle whole of the bumper.

The plate we're going to make for the license plate will be 28*8cm

This plate of fiberglass of 4mm thick, will be my plate. You can see that this plate has the same rounding then the bumper. So lets cut 28*8 out of it.

Once I has this, I puts the piece back on the bumper and pull with some filler the edges nice around the plate. So we will get an original and fine finish of the license plate

What the cops will say... I DON'T CARE !!

 

Used some more fiberglass clothing for the bottom of the carbon splitters.

Made them big enough, so I could get the disc into that and see what will be a nice splitter.





You see here I got much more material on the inside, so I going to let the splitters flow much more further then they are originally.



This will be the license plate holder eventually.



Put some little screws on the back, so I can secure it from behind, and I doesn't have visible screws at the front.



Where the plate will be, I painted the bumper in black.



If I puts the grey plate on there, it's more obvious to see if the plate is hanging leveled.

I hate it if a license plate is hanging tilt.

Here you can see how I planted the plateholder onto the bumper.

 

Worked some more on the splitters.

The model will stay like this, but there's a little more difference, tomorrow we sort that out.













As you can see, I made them a bit longer, towards the middle.

 

This oilcooler is going into the center piece of the bumper.

When I bought the car 2 years ago, this was one thing (of the many) I had to have for sure.

That there will be lovers & haters, works just fine for me.





Here you see that I spread the fabric nicely, to get a nice connection.



Added a layer of polyester/fiberglass



Once removed, I edited the upside immediately with the disc.

I grinded the top from in between.

Then I put in between, a piece of aluminium 2mm thick. Now it’s all strong enough.



Here it’s all grinded properly.





These 2 pieces of MDF I made First.

They will be the front of the hole.

In the lower hole, will be the oilcooler, and the slot if just an airslot.







Then I started to rubb the fiberglass piece so it fitted nicely into the bumper.

That’s not so hard. You just pull a line with a pen on tape, then you push the piece into it, and once it’s dry, you have the same line on your filler.

Then it all comes to rubbing it just towards the line. SIMPLE





This is the result of the fiberglass piece, and it will be covered in carbon





Then I bought a piece of aluminum of 15mm thick

 

O yeah, almost forgot, had a large block of aluminum lying aroud the place, 15mm thick.

First I covered it with my mold I, that is made of MDF wood, and drew out what to remove.

I sawed it out with the line saw. I’ve done a lot in my live, but there are many cooler things to do then this, pfff



Once this was done, it was time for precision work.

Here you can see 2 fine rubber O-rings laying next to the copy-cutter.

First I put on the thick ring, so I couldn’t cut too much out.



Here you can see better what I mean with that O-ring.

You can see clearly there’s about 1.5mm of material away from the mold.

Also you see that the cutter had here best time, time for a new one…look at those slaches.

You also see that in the lines of the aluminum.



This done, put on the smaller, finer O-ring, and did it all again.

Now it was till 0.5mm perfect.

Mounted a new cutter, who attend to tidy it all, and by using lots of WD40 I got a nice finish and result.



At this picture, you really can see the difference.



Here, the piece still with the MDF mold taped on it.



Then, I rounded the outer sides.

Harnessed the cutter, and did all that had to be done





Once this was done, the “dangereous” work turned out well, and I thank jesus fort hat

 

In the meanwhile, I rubbed the aluminum piece firmly with the block. Again, it took a lot of time, cause aluminum is a bit harder then MDF.

Then I was lucky it doesn’t need to get polished, I’m going to brush it.

Here the result





One this was done, I threaded the backside. This I was sure I wanted, but I couldn’t chose with size of windows, so I took 2 sizes at home with me, to see what would be the best. This is the largest of the two…









This thread is then again, a bit smaller









Personally I fin dit better with the big holes, cause you see the oil-cooler more.

But I think it would be best to decide when it’s all painted…

 

The two splitters who will be mounted on the underside of the bumper I covered with a layer of CF.

Then I rubbed it firmly







To be sure, I went and tried them on again.Here you can see that the bumper is set with a layer of epoxy basecoat.This basecoat will stay on a week or so, before being abdraded.So I’m sure it’ll harden enough.Then I’ll a spray another layer on top.







The Carbon piece that’ll go in the middle, I’m not making It now.With all the basecoat, and paint on top, I’m much to scared it won’t fit 100% anymore.So this piece I’m going to carbonize the lastest.