Z4MC Rebuild after Track Incident, Work in Progress

Shipkiller · 12-09-2011, 02:48 PM

Almost two weeks ago, I had an on-track incident with a tire-wall at VIR and damaged the Zed Coupe’.
I am not going to get into what happened or attempt to analyze the incident.

This thread is just to document the rebuild/repair process. Maybe someone will find this useful.
Most of the major work will be completed by January 1 and all that will be left are small nits to pick. Then I have to travel to Connecticut for six weeks so I will not be able to finish the car until late Feb or early March.

After the incident, the old timers, racers and instructors all told me the same thing: “There are two kinds of drivers on the track, those who have balled it up and those who will. It is just a question of when…………”
In fact, after I had the car in my garage, and the wife finally saw it, it was she who said that “I think it is time for a dedicated track car….” Major hurdle now gone…..

The only official documentation I have used are the official BMW TIS and WDS DVD’s, although I should not need the WDS for any this work unless I find some electrical issues. RealOEM is a very, very helpful for exploded views that the TIS does not provide. I also used some threads on Zpost and Bimmerforms for some of the weirder stuff. Google search is your friend. Every topic I search for, I found in less than five minutes.
As far as I am concerned, these are all of the documentation resources you need.

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At the moment of impact on the left front corner of the car, the car rotated clockwise and I saw the entire front bumper-cover w/ splitter flying through the air. It was actually pretty cool. I say this because in the paddock pictures I had already put the bumper fascia back on the car.

Here are the pictures after I came off the track and after some basic repairs back in the paddock. Randy’s car is next to mine.

After some extensive inspections and doing the basic paddock repair work, using tie-wraps and bungee cords, I drove the car 200 miles home. Nothing mechanically wrong with the car. In fact the alignment was not off, or not off enough that I could tell. I was running at 70Mph, took my hands off the wheel and the car ran straight as an arrow. Yes, the car will have to be re-aligned when all is said and done…

On the way home, I called an acquaintance that owns a German Car only body/repair shop. I asked if this chassis alignment machine was free and explained what had happened. It was free and he told me come on over, so I drove straight there, even before I drove home. We put it on the jig and verified that the chassis is straight and true. So far so good. This was my biggest concern.

After you get passed the emotional aspect, and get your head on straight, this is a straight-up, bolt on repair job. Nothing more.

You also must disregard all of the black tire marks. Just put those out of your head or it will put you in the wrong frame of mind again. The tire marks come right off. Use a clay bar or some 3M General Purpose Adhesive Cleaner.

First off, you need all the tools or access to them. I have 99% of all the tools I need. 90% of all the bolts are Torx. If you don’t have a good Torx set, you are screwed. I mean this. Do not attempt to use Allen wrenches. You will just damage the bolts. I did have to go out and buy a large metric tap and die set. I already had an SAE set and wanted a metric set. This was just the excuse I needed....

You also need a couple of rolls of blue painters tape, some sharpies and a lot of zip lock bags. The bags are for parts segregation and labeling upon disassembly. You really don’t want to get parts, screws etc. all mixed up. Labeling zip lock bags make parts re-installation easy.

Another thing that will help you out. If you need to remove or move long wiring harnesses out of the way because they/it are interference, use colored tie-wraps in the holes where the harness mounting hardware was located or place a tie-wrap at the point 'on the cable' where it would attach to the chassis. This makes things much easier when you have to re-run the harness’s in their original locations. I don’t really need to do this except on the door harness but it may come in handy later down the line for someone else.

Also, take LOTS of pictures while you are disassembling the car... This will help later on.

Now we have the disassembly pictures so we can figure out what is broken and what can be salvaged. I took the front bumper fascia off before I started to take pictures.

In the next picture, I have removed the lower rocker panel. This was in good shape. I attribute this to the “ClearBra”. After pulling off the ClearBra, the rocker had no marks or damage. The ClearBra saved this panel. You can tell that I have already removed most of the tire marks from the damaged side of the car when the picture was taken.

Now time to remove the front fender. The front fender did not come into contact with the hood (bonnet). Another weird thing, the side turn signal assembly was undamaged and unmarked. How the hell does that happen….
Note: The brown streaks on the chassis are from the manufacturing process at the factory and is sealant. It is NOT rust or any other potentially bad things…

Next I remove the fender liner and the remnants of the plastic air ducts and air diverters. As suspected, these are trashed.
I had a bent left oil cooler mount. That is what the blue bungee cord is for. This took all of 10minutes to fix.

As you can see from the picture below, any servicing to the ABS unit should be performed with the fender liner removed. This is the same for the TPMS antenna and each wheel has its own TPMS antenna. There are approx. 10 screws that hold the fender liner in place and you can have it off in 5 minutes, wheel removed of course.

Now I removed the rear bumper fascia and left rear fender. With the exception of the damaged fender and scraped rear bumper fascia, no plastic parts except the left ‘side marker light’ is damaged or broken. Removing the fender took over an hour because I could not figure out why the fender would not come off the car. I removed the left rear light assembly to determine if I missed a fastener. No missing screws, but it is safer for the light assembly if you take it off the car.

The read fender caused me to scratch my head. I had all the bolts/screws out but the fender would not come off. Ok, time to visit the TIS…
Looking at the picture, you can also see a line of weather sealant. This keeps the water out of the hole, as you can see in this shot. The hole is for the fender antenna and this hole leads into the rear trunk area has an additional rubber weather seal. To get the fender off, you have to go in through the trunk to access one of the “diversity amplifiers” that the antenna base is mounted to. Using a small torx bit, reach in, blind and unscrew the amplifier from the antenna base. The fender comes right off now……

Now that all the major parts except the door are off the car, time to do a little clean up.

Here is a shot of the front bumper fascia, before and after I removed the ClearBra. Very impressive just how much damage the ClearBra kept off of the bumper fascia, and I have not completely cleaned up the bumper yet though. Removing the ClearBra was not very hard. I used a head gun (a hair dryer will work also) to heat it up and it pulled right off. It does take some pulling…..
Another odd occurrence. Except for a scrape that I should be able to buff out, the splitter was undamaged.

My first parts order came in two days ago. Front plastic pieces (numerous), front fender and front bumper. I mistakenly ordered the front bumper fascia. Since the new bumper fascia cost me $411.00 and there is a 20% restocking fee, I decided that I will use the new one and not fix the old one.

Disregard what the smaller box says, this is the front fender shipping box. The old bumper is sitting on the new bumper box.

Starting to mount the new pieces.

Notice how clean the hood looks now with the ClearBra removed and the tire marks gone although you can still see some of the residue glue from the ClearBra I have not removed yet.

Next I did a test fitment of the new fender. This test proved to me that when I get the fender back from the painters I will remove the finder liner first, install the fender and then reinstall the fender liner.

I then removed the fender, wrapped it back up and put it back into the box. No sense risking damage at this point.

My original plan was to work/fix from the front of the car to the rear. After some lengthy discussions with the body shop, they want to paint everything at the same time, from the same paint and clear batch's. I am also taking one of the old fenders over with me so they can color match properly. Taking the parts over and not having them painted on the car saves a TON of money and gives me the same or better results. It also keeps any possible over-spray on the car to zero.
So with a new plan, today (Dec 8th) I ordered a new door and rear fender. They should be here next week.

Now, I start to disassemble the door. This was going to be the hardest job. EVERYTHING had to come off and be transferred to the new door after it is painted. My plan is to get some of the easier stuff removed now, then hang the new door and transfer the internal components/assemblies one at a time. This way I don’t scratch or mar the finish of the newly painted new door and I don’t forget how the internals came out or go back in. This process is going to really suck. I can feel it..

First step is to remove then inner door panel. I’m not going to go into that here. There are several threads on this subject that are very good, and I used them.

Once the inner door panel was off, I needed to remove the mirror and its housing. From the previous pictures, you can see it looks pretty bad.
Ron Stygers thread on the mirror removal is very good, but the one single picture from Palantirion, of the mirror lock and everything fell into place. I had the entire mirror housing off the car in 10 minutes.

I removed the ClearBra film from the mirror housing and cleaned it up, I only have one very light abrasion that I should be able to buff out. If not, it will get painted with the other pieces.

Next I started the upper window weather seal removal, also called ‘Window Cavity Cover Strip’ in the TIS.
First pull the inner strip up from the retainers. These retainers also are the clips for the inner door panel. (Weather seal already removed for clarity)

Here I am holding the inner side of the weather strip. Tape it off so it does not hang and potentially rip the rubber.

Now pull the outside weather strip up and out of its internal channel. It’s not hard, but it is not easy either.

Now you can remove the clips. The two tabs rest in the indentations of the door. This keeps the clips from working loose or coming off. You will have to pry the two tabs up a tiny amount to get the clip off the door.

One other helpful thing I figured out. I took the picture after I had the headlight washers out of the bumper fascia.
To remove the headlight washer covers, the TIS have you pull the covers up to attempt to extend the washer arm. You must be very careful doing this or you will break the washer cover mounts. Then you have to attempt to hold the washer arm and remove the cover.
If the bumper fascia is off the car, push the washer arm up from the inside of the bumper to extend them. This keeps the stress off of the washer covers.
To make things easier, once you have the washer arm up and fully extended, take a spring clamp and clamp the arm so the arm will not retract back into the housing. Now you can easily remove the washer covers.

With the exception of some small minor things to do, I am finished until the new parts come in next week. Then it’s off to the painters.
Having a respite from Jan to Feb (as mentioned above) actually works in my favor. This will give the newly painted parts time to cure so I can finish up anything else that needs to be done or things I have forgotten and have the new CleaBra installed. I was a believer of the ClearBra before, I am doubly now.

12/14/2011 Update 1:

I received a call today from my independent shop where I ordered the door, rear fender and other assorted small parts, that they were in. So I went over to pick them up.

Unpacked both large pieces to check for any major damage. None.
The door:

The rear fender:

All the main parts grouped together:

Performed a test fit of the rear fender on the car. This is a little problematic.
I may have to remove the rear side window to get the fender on properly. I will do more investigation this weekend.
Here is the reason for the heavy brain power. The rear fender must fit UNDER the lower window trim rubber.

Update- I talked to my local BMW collision center and in their procedures, they don't remove the rear window. So, I have to figure out how I am going to keep the weather stripping held up to slip the fender under. It is going to be a two person job.

Backing up a little:
Removing the ClearBra from the hood of the car left some very thick glue residue. The hood was the only area where this happened.
Using the spray cans of 3M General Purpose Adhesive Cleaner to remove this heavy glue was a non-starter for the very heavy residue. It evaporates way too fast for the heavy stuff. On the other areas, it worked flawlessly. Here, not so much.

I called the installer of the ClearBra. We talked. He said if he would have known, he would have driven out to remove the film himself. After some more discussions, he stated that the internet forums are wrong when they say to use a heat gun or hair dryer to loosen the glue. Doing this might give you the issues I have on the hood. He told me to get some blue shop towels and a quart can of the 3M General Purpose Adhesive Cleaner (this was hard to find in town) and saturate the towel. Then lay the towel over the area to soften the glue. This approach worked better. Much better.

I found if you have a saturated towel laying on the area, then use a dry towel to remove the softened glue, this was the ticket. The dry towel had enough tension to remove the glue. Change the dry towel often as the glue sticks to the towel and after a while, you start spreading the glue around.

After some more prep work, it's off to the painters.

12/29/2011 Update 2:

Yesterday, I went over to the painters to see just what was up and get a status.

One of the guys took me back to the paint booth and when I looked in the window, all of the parts have been painted and the are getting ready to for the coats of clear....

SOOONNNN.....

12/30/2011 Update 3:

Knowing that my newly painted parts should be here sometime this week, I took the door off the car in preparation. Talk about easy.
Remove the one bolt that holds the electrical connector to the chassis. Standard BMW Sliding connector. Slide apart.
Remove the one bolt for the door hold mechanism, on the chassis side.
Remove the two door hinge nuts.
Pull door off...

The heavy duty portions of the hinges stay on the car.

Now I pulled the air bag and harness off the door.

Now I want to remove the window. I keep looking at it, and looking at it but something is not right. Then I remember I forgot to do something. Back to the TIS.
The window must be raised approx. 110mm (4") so the window release bolts line up with there respective access holes. Ah crap. This sucks..
I then put the wiring harness and air bag back in the door, and re-hung the door on the car. I did not put it all back together, just enough to get the window up.... but MAKE SURE you reconnect the air bag or you will get a SRS error and need to go to the dealer to clear.

Reinstalled the battery did one more check of the wiring harness to make sure everything I needed was hooked up. I then put the key into position ONE. I did not want to go to position TWO since the on-board diagnostics start-up in pos 2, I think. Raise the window four inches and then check to see if I can access all the torx bolts. Good, turn off the key and remove the battery.
Remove door again.

The red markings on the door are where the access holes are.

The glass is now out.

Although I would love to keep working, I must wait for the new door before proceeding any further.

1/4/2010 Update 4:

Yesterday, the car fairy called and told me my parts are ready for pickup....
When I got there, they had forgotten to do the rear bumper. No big deal.
The actual guy doing the work said he had to paint/redo the rear fender three times. It just was not right in his eyes... I knew I picked the right shop...

The new door.

Pulled the front fender well off and did another test fitment of the front fender. I almost cried... tears of joy...

Then I put on the door. Just to look...

Now both for show....

Now lets get down to business. Time to transfer the components from the old door to the new one. I will not show each and every piece I removed/transferred, just the overall flow.
Common sense tell me that the window internals must be removed to make room to get the lock mechanism out of the door..
Pulled the window hoist assembly out, laid it out on the ground and put it aside. This took all of about 20 minutes. Five (5) nuts and the assembly was out.

Now I pulled out the door side air bag crash sensor....

Now to remove the door handle. This I had to go about a little differently than what the TIS wants you to do since I did not have the special tools (ST), but after I figured it out, no special tools are needed. The ST is used to push a sliding lock to allow the hand to lift out of the door. Since I did not have this ST I came at it from the inside of the door. I used an awl to slide the lock to the front. I already had to handle out for clarity...

The first picture is from the inside of the door.

Unlock and remove the handle from the door.

Here is a close up of the lock with the assembly out of the car. The first picture is the lock in the locked position and the second picture is is unlocked. From the side access hole in the door, you only see the thin side (side angle) of the lock so you don't really understand what they are trying to do and the TIS does a piss poor job of explaining it. From the side of the door at the small access hole, all you really have to do is push the lock to unlock and to lock it back up is use something (the awl worked fine) to get into the hole and pull the lock to the locked position.

The next thing is to remove the key cylinder. I had to look at the TIS for this. You must use your car key to assist in rotating the lock cylinder to get it to unlock from the latch assembly. I did not take any pictures of this. It took me over an hour to figure this out and perform. I just forgot to take pictures here... I was focused.... very focused.

Transferred the latch, lock and handle to the new door. Reinstalled the window lifting mechanism and the window. Reinstalled the cable harness, air bag, sensors and hooked everything back up. Now I put the battery back into the car and test operated the window and locks. SAT... Pulled the battery back out...

Now I have to drill out the pop rivets from the arm support on the old door and re-pop rivet it on to the new door.

Put all the molding and rubber trim back on the new door. Then I got PISSED....
I went to get my mirror so I could install it. No mirror.. Now I am pulling my two workbenches apart looking for the mirror.... no mirror..
Yep, my mirror is gone. Not sure where it went. So now I need a new mirror internals... Just dumb luck....

So I started to put all the little do dads on the new door. There was one square cable harness attachment you would destroy it getting it out unless you had the door apart and can see the other side and how it attaches. This plastic piece must be rotated. Very quick and easy but unless you know....

The door and front fender is on the car and all aligned. Looks damn good. More pictures and info tomorrow..

1/5/2010 Update 5:

Ok, did not do too much. Attempted to put the lower grill on the front bumper fascia. It's a bitch.....
Did a test fitment.

Saturday, my buddy comes over and we will put the rear fender on.

1/7/2010 Update 6:

Installed the rear fender. After much thought, the simplest way to get the rear window trim out of the way was to take a long piece of blue painters tape, attached to the underside of the rubber and tape the rubber trim up against the window. Works.... No plastic shims or such to keep it out of the way or potentially scratch the fender. Putting the fender on took about 10 minutes. Then another 20 minutes in getting it aligned properly with all the proper gaps and angles.

Now with the rear fender in place, reattached the antenna, rear sound dampening, and fender liner. The rear sound dampening is a piece of waterproof material that lays/fits over the fender liner. Sorta like a sandwich between the liner and the fender.

Installed the rear brake light and it's outer trim. The outer trim is not normally taken off. The brake light is removed by three nuts and just falls out of the car.

Installed the rocker panel plastic clips on both the front and rear fenders, then put the rocker panel on.

I left the front bumper fascia attached but not permanently mounted. I still have things to do to it, like painting the reflectors and such.
Plus, I still have to take the car over to the paint shop so they can buff the painted parts. The paint shop did not call to say the rear bumper fascia was finished so I guess they get to keep it until Feb....
Also while over there, they have to look at the hood and determine if it the two deep scratches can be spot fixed or the entire hood must be repainted. If it must be repainted I will take it off the car and transport over to them. The discussions I have already had say that if this is the case, they would take the hood off to paint it, so I would rather do this so it is done properly.

Here is some pictures with the car finished as far as I can go until I get back from CT in Feb. It's off the jack-stands and on the wheels. The wheel look like crap since I have not done anything to them at the moment. I have already talked to the wheel refurbishers... when they get done with them, they will look pristine..

Since the basic structure of the car was not damaged, all of the body panels fit perfectly. Very little adjustment of the panels (1/16th at the most) was required to get everything lined up to my satisfaction. Even the door was within a 1/16" and I only had to adjust the striker plate down that much so the door was smooth opening. It was not hard to open (unlatch) but just not the same as the passenger door. One quick adjustment of the striker plate and it is smooth as butter. I actually think I only moved it a 1/32" down but it was hard to tell. Even with the starting point marks I made.

At least the paint should be fully cured by the time I get home.

2/26/2012 Update 7:
It's been almost two months and here we are again. My job got in the way for almost a month so no work was performed.

While I was away on travel, the painters called and told me they did not like the way my rear bumper looked so they recommended that I replace the rear bumper. They don't have a dog in the fight for parts so I accept what they have to say. I ordered a new bumper. Bumper came in and was waiting for me in the garage when I arrived back off travel. Took the rear bumper over and let the painters do their magic. While this was going on, I was attempting to paint my front/rear bumper reflectors/lights. After some help from the forums, I figured it out. Also, I found my left side wing mirror. It was just where I put it. I must have looked directly at it 20 times and did not see it. Even my wife and best friend looked for it and did not see it. It was up but out of the way and in your site line... So now I have a spare left side mirror.....

Picked up the newly painted rear bumper.
The painters wanted me to bring the car over so they can smooth and polish all the work they have done. This is the final step. Every piece they painted is now on the car. Any extras that attach to those painted pieces (eg. reflectors, emblems etc) that would make the painters job more difficult were not installed. Then I put the drivers door back together minus the mirror. Just together enough to drive the car over to the painters. This is the first time the car has been driven since I drove it into my garage for this work in Nov.

Four days later I have the car back from the painters. Put the wing mirror on and finished putting the door back together completely.
This look 100% better than it did in Nov.

The same day, the last big/expensive material issue has arrived. This box was delivered and man, is it expensive:

$875.00 of head light assembly.

Old and new. Old on left.

This headlight assembly does not have any of the Xenon parts installed. It DOES have all other non-Xenon bulbs installed.

There are only three pieces that need to be transferred from the old light to the new light.

First, the Control unit underneath. I wiped a small amount of silicon grease on the rubber gasket before insertion into the new light.

Second, remove the lock wire from over the ignition assembly and then remove the HV wire (thick black wire) from the ignition assembly connector on the top of the assembly.
Third, now rotate the ignition assembly left remove. Place on your table.
Fourth, remove the Xenon bulb and transfer it over to the new headlight. DO NOT TOUCH THE GLASS OF THE BULB WITH YOUR FINGERS.

With the bulb transferred, it is time to put the ignition assembly back on. DO NOT attempt to connect the HV wire before mounting the ignition assembly. There is a tiny interlock inside the ignition assembly connector that keeps the HV cable connector from being inserted before the ignition assembly is installed. Once the ignition assembly is installed the interlock is retracted and the HV cable can be connected.

So, with the ignition assembly in the same left rotation posistion you used to remove the ignition assembly, place it back over the bulb and gently rotate to the right until it clicks into place and is vertical with the light assembly. Connect the HV cable. Now reinstall the locking wire over the ignition assembly. There is a formed cutout in this wire so the HV wire is held in place with the locking wire.

Now that this is done, I put the light on the car for a test. Damn, it all works. The 'Bulb Out' indicator is now gone. The only error on the dash is 'washer fluid low'.

I now scavenged the old light for parts. All the bulbs, stepper motor, angle eye bulb and some connectors..... just in case....

Now I wanted to mount the front bumper in a more permanent fashion. This did not go well. The new left headlight is not aligned properly. The bumper will not fit.
I had dodged too may bullets. Something is bent...
The main issue is that the inside angle line of the fender should be in line with the inside of the headlight. One continuous line from the door all the way to the bumper. My headlight was 1/4" towards the center-line of the car.
Spent 30 minutes just looking at the headlight and the structure to figure out what is bend or not aligned properly.

Since everything in the front of the car is bolt on, I started to unbolt the structure. Saw the issues, fix them, re-bolted everything and installed the light. I did this four complete times until I had it right. This took about three hours. Time well spent.

Now the bumper goes on like it should. Then I discovered another issue I did not see before.
The right side lower air plate has the side screw hole missing. The break is so clean that I did not notice it before. So I need a new one. Plus the right hand bumper support (the plastic piece that attaches the bumper to the fender) is broken.
So I have to order them on Monday.

With that part of the restoration on hold until parts arrive, I decided to mount the splitter.

3/2/2012 Update 8:

The car is now back together.

The new parts came in today. Put the front bumper w/splitter on and fastened everything down. The only issue I have is the lower plastic engine shroud will have to be replaced. My buddy attempted to repair it but it just does not fit well. This is not critical but I will have to order a new one next week or so.
After getting everything on and fastened down, I pulled the car out to look at the headlight alignment. Its dark so this is pretty easy. As expected the left headlight needs some adjustment. It is projecting too high. A few turns of the X-axis adjustment screw and it is now in spec. Then took a short drive to look at the dynamic lighting of the road. Everything looks good.

Now for tomorrow, a good wash, clay, polish with the PC, then seal the car with Wolfgane DGPS. Let that sit and cure overnight then on Sunday two good coats of Dodo Juice Diamond White Hard wax.

I also have to make an appointment next week to have the suspension aligned.

I have signed up for the three day full course VIR HPDE with the Porsche group in May. Three days for only $399.00 What a deal..

Just to back up a bit, the painters told me that there are THREE different Alpine White (paint code 300) shades. My car uses the standard shade. They had to test shoot all three shades to get an exact match.

3/2/2012 Update 9: The final update

Using my crappy camera, here are some pictures of the finished product after a wash, clay, polish, seal and final wax.

NOTE: Even after the painters did all there magic, the new pieces did not feel as smooth as the existing parts. To fix this, you must clay them to make sure the surface is clean, so while you are at it, do the entire car...
Now you need to polish the new pieces. I used Pinnacle Advanced Swirl Remover on my PC Dual Action Polisher. You might as well do the entire car.
Now seal everything and then wax.

Here are the before:

Here is the after:

Unless something unexpected crops up this will be the final update to the main thread.

.........

ZStig · 12-09-2011, 03:20 PM

Cool thread. I LOVE the fact that the rear fenders are removable. I crunched into one on my old 3.0, and it was a relatively quick swap job. Most cars you'd have to cut and weld, and it would never be the same...

Caddyshk · 12-09-2011, 03:51 PM

While you have it apart; may just as well throw in Coilovers and a BBK

Z4-VILLA · 12-09-2011, 05:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Caddyshk

While you have it apart; may just as well throw in Coilovers and a BBK

i SAY USE ALL THE BAH FOR THIS LOL

MFGJR · 12-09-2011, 05:42 PM

Had this been me, I wouldn't have sobered up yet. Jay, on the other hand, is fixing the car on the drive home from the track.

Lots of great info in this. Thanks for putting it all together, and good luck with the rest of the work.

I think I'll clear bra my whole car, then I'll be indestructible!

Skelekitty · 12-09-2011, 06:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MFGJR

Had this been me, I wouldn't have sobered up yet. Jay, on the other hand, is fixing the car on the drive home from the track.

Lots of great info in this. Thanks for putting it all together, and good luck with the rest of the work.

I think I'll clear bra my whole car, then I'll be indestructible!

Someone here needs to fabricate a "forcefield" clear bra. Can one of you big, strong boys get right on that? *bats lashes*

Seriously though, Ship. You're dealing exceptionally well - I too, would still be drunk and crying.

Shipkiller · 12-09-2011, 07:05 PM

When you take your car to the track, this is one of the risks you take. It is a manageable risk but sometimes things just come out and bite you... This happened to me.

My wife calls the car "My other woman"... The next day she had a comment:
"I want to put those eyelashes on the car and say I beat the crap out your other woman"..... I fell off the chair laughing...

MFGJR · 12-09-2011, 07:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shipkiller

When you take your car to the track, this is one of the risks you take. It is a manageable risk but sometimes things just come out and bite you... This happened to me.

My wife calls the car "My other woman"... The next day she had a comment:
"I want to put those eyelashes on the car and say I beat the crap out your other woman"..... I fell off the chair laughing...

Wife = Keeper

Skelekitty · 12-09-2011, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shipkiller

When you take your car to the track, this is one of the risks you take. It is a manageable risk but sometimes things just come out and bite you... This happened to me.

My wife calls the car "My other woman"... The next day she had a comment:
"I want to put those eyelashes on the car and say I beat the crap out your other woman"..... I fell off the chair laughing...

I love the stories about your wife. She is truly awesome.

Shipkiller · 12-09-2011, 07:19 PM

Yea, especially since it is HER idea to get a dedicated track car sometime next year..

Caddyshk · 12-09-2011, 07:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MFGJR

Wife = Keeper

inTgr8r · 12-09-2011, 08:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skelekitty

I love the stories about your wife. She is truly awesome.

+1
lol.... she really knows how to handle other women

Aries326 · 12-09-2011, 10:36 PM

I wish I were this handy. If it had happened to me, I surely would end up taking the car to the shop and dishing out a lot of money. How much would it have all cost if you had it fixed in the shop?

007MCoupe · 12-10-2011, 03:49 AM

So much win coming from a track accident. Glad to see you're dealing well with it. Like the others, I'd still be bitching and moaning and crying and drinking...

+1 to the "Use all the BAH" haha!!!

Aries: The shop would probably 'fix' most of the things he discovered didn't need fixin', just bolted back on. New oil cooler for sure, which I'm sure isn't cheap!!!!

Beedub · 12-10-2011, 04:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shipkiller

When you take your car to the track, this is one of the risks you take. It is a manageable risk but sometimes things just come out and bite you... This happened to me.

My wife calls the car "My other woman"... The next day she had a comment:
"I want to put those eyelashes on the car and say I beat the crap out your other woman"..... I fell off the chair laughing...

absolutly... very good attitude imo..... i had a very scary moment recently at my local sprint track...... 70mph corner, lost control, but luckily kept it completely on the tarmac, no so much as a wheel on the grass, but that could have EASILY been a written off car..... i think that particular incident made me decide to cool things alittle....... Strangely i was back on track after 30 mins doing EXACTLY the same speeds again......

its a decision i make when i take the car on track!!

Shipkiller · 12-10-2011, 06:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Z4-Villalona

i SAY USE ALL THE BAH FOR THIS LOL

Since I'm not hip, I do not understand what that means...

Truly, I don't.

Z4-VILLA · 12-10-2011, 06:47 AM

my accident was way worse... I rebuilt my M too.
I just never posted it. but trust me you get over it

Z4-VILLA · 12-10-2011, 06:50 AM

BAH is short for Basic Allowance for Housing.....its a monthly stipend all us military types get to live off base. Basically, I'm saying fuck everything and get this car back on the road...lol

Shipkiller · 12-10-2011, 06:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Caddyshk

While you have it apart; may just as well throw in Coilovers and a BBK

You know, I was contemplating this for next year, but now I am putting this off for good.

Since I am now going to get a dedicated track car, Coilovers and BBK's are a waist of money on a street only driven car.

The thing is, I have several candidate models to use for a track car but not sure what I want. This research will take several months after I get the MC repaired.

Shipkiller · 12-10-2011, 06:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Z4-Villalona

BAH is short for Basic Allowance for Housing.....its a monthly stipend all us military types get to live off base. Basically, I'm saying fuck everything and get this car back on the road...lol

Oh,

As a retired military person, I did 24 years in uniform, I never would have thought of that.

XMetal · 12-10-2011, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roffle Waffle

Cool thread. I LOVE the fact that the rear fenders are removable. I crunched into one on my old 3.0, and it was a relatively quick swap job. Most cars you'd have to cut and weld, and it would never be the same...

That is one of the things I've noticed when I picked up the MC...almost all the panels are swappable...similar to the original VW bug

Should be "relatively" inexpensive body repairs. If it were not for this feature, I'm not sure this DIY can be done.

OP - Excellent work! I too, would want to DYI whenever possible since you'll know that things are done right without corner cutting. But not sure I have your skills to accomplish such a large task.

ajw45 · 12-10-2011, 12:50 PM

This is awesome! I used to track an e28 M5 since e28 body panels and parts were dirt cheap and black is easy to match. This is making me feel a lot better about taking my new z4m to the track. Can't wait to see how the car turns out when it's done!

Out of curiosity, how much does the front and rear fenders weigh? Wondering if a carbon fiber set would be worth doing....

12-09-2011, 02:48 PM	#1
Shipkiller Colonel 187 Rep 2,138 Posts Drives: Me Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Virginia Beach iTrader: (3) Garage List 2008 BMW Z4M Coupe [8.50] 2003 BMW Z4 Roadster [8.33]	Z4MC Rebuild after Track Incident, Work in Progress Almost two weeks ago, I had an on-track incident with a tire-wall at VIR and damaged the Zed Coupe’. I am not going to get into what happened or attempt to analyze the incident. This thread is just to document the rebuild/repair process. Maybe someone will find this useful. Most of the major work will be completed by January 1 and all that will be left are small nits to pick. Then I have to travel to Connecticut for six weeks so I will not be able to finish the car until late Feb or early March. After the incident, the old timers, racers and instructors all told me the same thing: “There are two kinds of drivers on the track, those who have balled it up and those who will. It is just a question of when…………” In fact, after I had the car in my garage, and the wife finally saw it, it was she who said that “I think it is time for a dedicated track car….” Major hurdle now gone….. The only official documentation I have used are the official BMW TIS and WDS DVD’s, although I should not need the WDS for any this work unless I find some electrical issues. RealOEM is a *very, very helpful* for exploded views that the TIS does not provide. I also used some threads on Zpost and Bimmerforms for some of the weirder stuff. Google search is your friend. *Every topic I search for, I found in less than five minutes.* As far as I am concerned, these are all of the documentation resources you need. -------------------------------------------------------------------- At the moment of impact on the left front corner of the car, the car rotated clockwise and I saw the entire front bumper-cover w/ splitter flying through the air. It was actually pretty cool. I say this because in the paddock pictures I had already put the bumper fascia back on the car. Here are the pictures after I came off the track and after some basic repairs back in the paddock. Randy’s car is next to mine. After some extensive inspections and doing the basic paddock repair work, using tie-wraps and bungee cords, I drove the car 200 miles home. Nothing mechanically wrong with the car. In fact the alignment was not off, or not off enough that I could tell. I was running at 70Mph, took my hands off the wheel and the car ran straight as an arrow. Yes, the car will have to be re-aligned when all is said and done… On the way home, I called an acquaintance that owns a German Car only body/repair shop. I asked if this chassis alignment machine was free and explained what had happened. It was free and he told me come on over, so I drove straight there, even before I drove home. We put it on the jig and verified that the chassis is straight and true. So far so good. This was my biggest concern. After you get passed the emotional aspect, and get your head on straight, this is a straight-up, bolt on repair job. Nothing more. You also must disregard all of the black tire marks. Just put those out of your head or it will put you in the wrong frame of mind again. The tire marks come right off. Use a clay bar or some 3M General Purpose Adhesive Cleaner. First off, you need all the tools or access to them. I have 99% of all the tools I need. 90% of all the bolts are Torx. If you don’t have a good Torx set, you are screwed. I mean this. Do not attempt to use Allen wrenches. You will just damage the bolts. I did have to go out and buy a large metric tap and die set. I already had an SAE set and wanted a metric set. This was just the excuse I needed.... You also need a couple of rolls of blue painters tape, some sharpies and a lot of zip lock bags. The bags are for parts segregation and labeling upon disassembly. You really don’t want to get parts, screws etc. all mixed up. Labeling zip lock bags make parts re-installation easy. Another thing that will help you out. If you need to remove or move long wiring harnesses out of the way because they/it are interference, use colored tie-wraps in the holes where the harness mounting hardware was located or place a tie-wrap at the point 'on the cable' where it would attach to the chassis. This makes things much easier when you have to re-run the harness’s in their original locations. I don’t really need to do this except on the door harness but it may come in handy later down the line for someone else. *Also, take LOTS of pictures while you are disassembling the car... This will help later on.* Now we have the disassembly pictures so we can figure out what is broken and what can be salvaged. I took the front bumper fascia off before I started to take pictures. In the next picture, I have removed the lower rocker panel. This was in good shape. I attribute this to the “ClearBra”. After pulling off the ClearBra, the rocker had no marks or damage. The ClearBra saved this panel. You can tell that I have already removed most of the tire marks from the damaged side of the car when the picture was taken. Now time to remove the front fender. The front fender did not come into contact with the hood (bonnet). Another weird thing, the side turn signal assembly was undamaged and unmarked. How the hell does that happen…. Note: The brown streaks on the chassis are from the manufacturing process at the factory and is sealant. It is NOT rust or any other potentially bad things… Next I remove the fender liner and the remnants of the plastic air ducts and air diverters. As suspected, these are trashed. I had a bent left oil cooler mount. That is what the blue bungee cord is for. This took all of 10minutes to fix. As you can see from the picture below, any servicing to the ABS unit should be performed with the fender liner removed. This is the same for the TPMS antenna and each wheel has its own TPMS antenna. There are approx. 10 screws that hold the fender liner in place and you can have it off in 5 minutes, wheel removed of course. Now I removed the rear bumper fascia and left rear fender. With the exception of the damaged fender and scraped rear bumper fascia, no plastic parts except the left ‘side marker light’ is damaged or broken. Removing the fender took over an hour because I could not figure out why the fender would not come off the car. I removed the left rear light assembly to determine if I missed a fastener. No missing screws, but it is safer for the light assembly if you take it off the car. The read fender caused me to scratch my head. I had all the bolts/screws out but the fender would not come off. Ok, time to visit the TIS… Looking at the picture, you can also see a line of weather sealant. This keeps the water out of the hole, as you can see in this shot. The hole is for the fender antenna and this hole leads into the rear trunk area has an additional rubber weather seal. To get the fender off, you have to go in through the trunk to access one of the “diversity amplifiers” that the antenna base is mounted to. Using a small torx bit, reach in, blind and unscrew the amplifier from the antenna base. The fender comes right off now…… Now that all the major parts except the door are off the car, time to do a little clean up. Here is a shot of the front bumper fascia, before and after I removed the ClearBra. Very impressive just how much damage the ClearBra kept off of the bumper fascia, and I have not completely cleaned up the bumper yet though. Removing the ClearBra was not very hard. I used a head gun (a hair dryer will work also) to heat it up and it pulled right off. It does take some pulling….. Another odd occurrence. Except for a scrape that I should be able to buff out, the splitter was undamaged. My first parts order came in two days ago. Front plastic pieces (numerous), front fender and front bumper. I mistakenly ordered the front bumper fascia. Since the new bumper fascia cost me $411.00 and there is a 20% restocking fee, I decided that I will use the new one and not fix the old one. Disregard what the smaller box says, this is the front fender shipping box. The old bumper is sitting on the new bumper box. Starting to mount the new pieces. Notice how clean the hood looks now with the ClearBra removed and the tire marks gone although you can still see some of the residue glue from the ClearBra I have not removed yet. Next I did a test fitment of the new fender. This test proved to me that when I get the fender back from the painters I will remove the finder liner first, install the fender and then reinstall the fender liner. I then removed the fender, wrapped it back up and put it back into the box. No sense risking damage at this point. My original plan was to work/fix from the front of the car to the rear. After some lengthy discussions with the body shop, they want to paint everything at the same time, from the same paint and clear batch's. I am also taking one of the old fenders over with me so they can color match properly. Taking the parts over and not having them painted on the car saves a TON of money and gives me the same or better results. It also keeps any possible over-spray on the car to zero. So with a new plan, today (Dec 8th) I ordered a new door and rear fender. They should be here next week. Now, I start to disassemble the door. This was going to be the hardest job. EVERYTHING had to come off and be transferred to the new door after it is painted. My plan is to get some of the easier stuff removed now, then hang the new door and transfer the internal components/assemblies one at a time. This way I don’t scratch or mar the finish of the newly painted new door and I don’t forget how the internals came out or go back in. This process is going to really suck. I can feel it.. First step is to remove then inner door panel. I’m not going to go into that here. There are several threads on this subject that are very good, and I used them. Once the inner door panel was off, I needed to remove the mirror and its housing. From the previous pictures, you can see it looks pretty bad. Ron Stygers thread on the mirror removal is very good, but the one single picture from Palantirion, of the mirror lock and everything fell into place. I had the entire mirror housing off the car in 10 minutes. I removed the ClearBra film from the mirror housing and cleaned it up, I only have one very light abrasion that I should be able to buff out. If not, it will get painted with the other pieces. Next I started the upper window weather seal removal, also called ‘Window Cavity Cover Strip’ in the TIS. First pull the inner strip up from the retainers. These retainers also are the clips for the inner door panel. (Weather seal already removed for clarity) Here I am holding the inner side of the weather strip. Tape it off so it does not hang and potentially rip the rubber. Now pull the outside weather strip up and out of its internal channel. It’s not hard, but it is not easy either. Now you can remove the clips. The two tabs rest in the indentations of the door. This keeps the clips from working loose or coming off. You will have to pry the two tabs up a tiny amount to get the clip off the door. One other helpful thing I figured out. I took the picture after I had the headlight washers out of the bumper fascia. To remove the headlight washer covers, the TIS have you pull the covers up to attempt to extend the washer arm. You must be very careful doing this or you will break the washer cover mounts. Then you have to attempt to hold the washer arm and remove the cover. If the bumper fascia is off the car, push the washer arm up from the inside of the bumper to extend them. This keeps the stress off of the washer covers. To make things easier, once you have the washer arm up and fully extended, take a spring clamp and clamp the arm so the arm will not retract back into the housing. Now you can easily remove the washer covers. With the exception of some small minor things to do, I am finished until the new parts come in next week. Then it’s off to the painters. Having a respite from Jan to Feb (as mentioned above) actually works in my favor. This will give the newly painted parts time to cure so I can finish up anything else that needs to be done or things I have forgotten and have the new CleaBra installed. I was a believer of the ClearBra before, I am doubly now. *12/14/2011 Update 1:* I received a call today from my independent shop where I ordered the door, rear fender and other assorted small parts, that they were in. So I went over to pick them up. Unpacked both large pieces to check for any major damage. None. The door: The rear fender: All the main parts grouped together: Performed a test fit of the rear fender on the car. This is a little problematic. I may have to remove the rear side window to get the fender on properly. I will do more investigation this weekend. Here is the reason for the heavy brain power. The rear fender must fit UNDER the lower window trim rubber. Update- I talked to my local BMW collision center and in their procedures, they don't remove the rear window. So, I have to figure out how I am going to keep the weather stripping held up to slip the fender under. It is going to be a two person job. Backing up a little: Removing the ClearBra from the hood of the car left some very thick glue residue. The hood was the only area where this happened. Using the spray cans of 3M General Purpose Adhesive Cleaner to remove this heavy glue was a non-starter for the very heavy residue. It evaporates way too fast for the heavy stuff. On the other areas, it worked flawlessly. Here, not so much. I called the installer of the ClearBra. We talked. He said if he would have known, he would have driven out to remove the film himself. After some more discussions, he stated that the internet forums are wrong when they say to use a heat gun or hair dryer to loosen the glue. Doing this might give you the issues I have on the hood. He told me to get some blue shop towels and a quart can of the 3M General Purpose Adhesive Cleaner (this was hard to find in town) and saturate the towel. Then lay the towel over the area to soften the glue. This approach worked better. Much better. I found if you have a saturated towel laying on the area, then use a dry towel to remove the softened glue, this was the ticket. The dry towel had enough tension to remove the glue. Change the dry towel often as the glue sticks to the towel and after a while, you start spreading the glue around. After some more prep work, it's off to the painters. *12/29/2011 Update 2:* Yesterday, I went over to the painters to see just what was up and get a status. One of the guys took me back to the paint booth and when I looked in the window, all of the parts have been painted and the are getting ready to for the coats of clear.... SOOONNNN..... *12/30/2011 Update 3:* Knowing that my newly painted parts should be here sometime this week, I took the door off the car in preparation. Talk about easy. Remove the one bolt that holds the electrical connector to the chassis. Standard BMW Sliding connector. Slide apart. Remove the one bolt for the door hold mechanism, on the chassis side. Remove the two door hinge nuts. Pull door off... The heavy duty portions of the hinges stay on the car. Now I pulled the air bag and harness off the door. Now I want to remove the window. I keep looking at it, and looking at it but something is not right. Then I remember I forgot to do something. Back to the TIS. The window must be raised approx. 110mm (4") so the window release bolts line up with there respective access holes. Ah crap. This sucks.. I then put the wiring harness and air bag back in the door, and re-hung the door on the car. I did not put it all back together, just enough to get the window up.... but MAKE SURE you reconnect the air bag or you will get a SRS error and need to go to the dealer to clear. Reinstalled the battery did one more check of the wiring harness to make sure everything I needed was hooked up. I then put the key into position ONE. I did not want to go to position TWO since the on-board diagnostics start-up in pos 2, I think. Raise the window four inches and then check to see if I can access all the torx bolts. Good, turn off the key and remove the battery. Remove door again. The red markings on the door are where the access holes are. The glass is now out. Although I would love to keep working, I must wait for the new door before proceeding any further. *1/4/2010 Update 4:* Yesterday, the car fairy called and told me my parts are ready for pickup.... When I got there, they had forgotten to do the rear bumper. No big deal. The actual guy doing the work said he had to paint/redo the rear fender three times. It just was not right in his eyes... I knew I picked the right shop... The new door. Pulled the front fender well off and did another test fitment of the front fender. I almost cried... tears of joy... Then I put on the door. Just to look... Now both for show.... Now lets get down to business. Time to transfer the components from the old door to the new one. I will not show each and every piece I removed/transferred, just the overall flow. Common sense tell me that the window internals must be removed to make room to get the lock mechanism out of the door.. Pulled the window hoist assembly out, laid it out on the ground and put it aside. This took all of about 20 minutes. Five (5) nuts and the assembly was out. Now I pulled out the door side air bag crash sensor.... Now to remove the door handle. This I had to go about a little differently than what the TIS wants you to do since I did not have the special tools (ST), but after I figured it out, no special tools are needed. The ST is used to push a sliding lock to allow the hand to lift out of the door. Since I did not have this ST I came at it from the inside of the door. I used an awl to slide the lock to the front. I already had to handle out for clarity... The first picture is from the inside of the door. Unlock and remove the handle from the door. Here is a close up of the lock with the assembly out of the car. The first picture is the lock in the locked position and the second picture is is unlocked. From the side access hole in the door, you only see the thin side (side angle) of the lock so you don't really understand what they are trying to do and the TIS does a piss poor job of explaining it. From the side of the door at the small access hole, all you really have to do is push the lock to unlock and to lock it back up is use something (the awl worked fine) to get into the hole and pull the lock to the locked position. The next thing is to remove the key cylinder. I had to look at the TIS for this. You must use your car key to assist in rotating the lock cylinder to get it to unlock from the latch assembly. I did not take any pictures of this. It took me over an hour to figure this out and perform. I just forgot to take pictures here... I was focused.... very focused. Transferred the latch, lock and handle to the new door. Reinstalled the window lifting mechanism and the window. Reinstalled the cable harness, air bag, sensors and hooked everything back up. Now I put the battery back into the car and test operated the window and locks. SAT... Pulled the battery back out... Now I have to drill out the pop rivets from the arm support on the old door and re-pop rivet it on to the new door. Put all the molding and rubber trim back on the new door. Then I got PISSED.... I went to get my mirror so I could install it. No mirror.. Now I am pulling my two workbenches apart looking for the mirror.... no mirror.. Yep, my mirror is gone. Not sure where it went. So now I need a new mirror internals... Just dumb luck.... So I started to put all the little do dads on the new door. There was one square cable harness attachment you would destroy it getting it out unless you had the door apart and can see the other side and how it attaches. This plastic piece must be rotated. Very quick and easy but unless you know.... The door and front fender is on the car and all aligned. Looks damn good. More pictures and info tomorrow.. *1/5/2010 Update 5:* Ok, did not do too much. Attempted to put the lower grill on the front bumper fascia. It's a bitch..... Did a test fitment. Saturday, my buddy comes over and we will put the rear fender on. *1/7/2010 Update 6:* Installed the rear fender. After much thought, the simplest way to get the rear window trim out of the way was to take a long piece of blue painters tape, attached to the underside of the rubber and tape the rubber trim up against the window. Works.... No plastic shims or such to keep it out of the way or potentially scratch the fender. Putting the fender on took about 10 minutes. Then another 20 minutes in getting it aligned properly with all the proper gaps and angles. Now with the rear fender in place, reattached the antenna, rear sound dampening, and fender liner. The rear sound dampening is a piece of waterproof material that lays/fits over the fender liner. Sorta like a sandwich between the liner and the fender. Installed the rear brake light and it's outer trim. The outer trim is not normally taken off. The brake light is removed by three nuts and just falls out of the car. Installed the rocker panel plastic clips on both the front and rear fenders, then put the rocker panel on. I left the front bumper fascia attached but not permanently mounted. I still have things to do to it, like painting the reflectors and such. Plus, I still have to take the car over to the paint shop so they can buff the painted parts. The paint shop did not call to say the rear bumper fascia was finished so I guess they get to keep it until Feb.... Also while over there, they have to look at the hood and determine if it the two deep scratches can be spot fixed or the entire hood must be repainted. If it must be repainted I will take it off the car and transport over to them. The discussions I have already had say that if this is the case, they would take the hood off to paint it, so I would rather do this so it is done properly. Here is some pictures with the car finished as far as I can go until I get back from CT in Feb. It's off the jack-stands and on the wheels. The wheel look like crap since I have not done anything to them at the moment. I have already talked to the wheel refurbishers... when they get done with them, they will look pristine.. Since the basic structure of the car was not damaged, all of the body panels fit perfectly. Very little adjustment of the panels (1/16th at the most) was required to get everything lined up to my satisfaction. Even the door was within a 1/16" and I only had to adjust the striker plate down that much so the door was smooth opening. It was not hard to open (unlatch) but just not the same as the passenger door. One quick adjustment of the striker plate and it is smooth as butter. I actually think I only moved it a 1/32" down but it was hard to tell. Even with the starting point marks I made. At least the paint should be fully cured by the time I get home. *2/26/2012 Update 7:* It's been almost two months and here we are again. My job got in the way for almost a month so no work was performed. While I was away on travel, the painters called and told me they did not like the way my rear bumper looked so they recommended that I replace the rear bumper. They don't have a dog in the fight for parts so I accept what they have to say. I ordered a new bumper. Bumper came in and was waiting for me in the garage when I arrived back off travel. Took the rear bumper over and let the painters do their magic. While this was going on, I was attempting to paint my front/rear bumper reflectors/lights. After some help from the forums, I figured it out. Also, I found my left side wing mirror. It was just where I put it. I must have looked directly at it 20 times and did not see it. Even my wife and best friend looked for it and did not see it. It was up but out of the way and in your site line... So now I have a spare left side mirror..... Picked up the newly painted rear bumper. The painters wanted me to bring the car over so they can smooth and polish all the work they have done. This is the final step. Every piece they painted is now on the car. Any extras that attach to those painted pieces (eg. reflectors, emblems etc) that would make the painters job more difficult were not installed. Then I put the drivers door back together minus the mirror. Just together enough to drive the car over to the painters. This is the first time the car has been driven since I drove it into my garage for this work in Nov. Four days later I have the car back from the painters. Put the wing mirror on and finished putting the door back together completely. This look 100% better than it did in Nov. The same day, the last big/expensive material issue has arrived. This box was delivered and man, is it expensive: $875.00 of head light assembly. Old and new. Old on left. This headlight assembly does not have any of the Xenon parts installed. It DOES have all other non-Xenon bulbs installed. There are only three pieces that need to be transferred from the old light to the new light. First, the Control unit underneath. I wiped a small amount of silicon grease on the rubber gasket before insertion into the new light. Second, remove the lock wire from over the ignition assembly and then remove the HV wire (thick black wire) from the ignition assembly connector on the top of the assembly. Third, now rotate the ignition assembly left remove. Place on your table. Fourth, remove the Xenon bulb and transfer it over to the new headlight. DO NOT TOUCH THE GLASS OF THE BULB WITH YOUR FINGERS. With the bulb transferred, it is time to put the ignition assembly back on. DO NOT attempt to connect the HV wire before mounting the ignition assembly. There is a tiny interlock inside the ignition assembly connector that keeps the HV cable connector from being inserted before the ignition assembly is installed. Once the ignition assembly is installed the interlock is retracted and the HV cable can be connected. So, with the ignition assembly in the same left rotation posistion you used to remove the ignition assembly, place it back over the bulb and gently rotate to the right until it clicks into place and is vertical with the light assembly. Connect the HV cable. Now reinstall the locking wire over the ignition assembly. There is a formed cutout in this wire so the HV wire is held in place with the locking wire. Now that this is done, I put the light on the car for a test. Damn, it all works. The 'Bulb Out' indicator is now gone. The only error on the dash is 'washer fluid low'. I now scavenged the old light for parts. All the bulbs, stepper motor, angle eye bulb and some connectors..... just in case.... Now I wanted to mount the front bumper in a more permanent fashion. This did not go well. The new left headlight is not aligned properly. The bumper will not fit. I had dodged too may bullets. Something is bent... The main issue is that the inside angle line of the fender should be in line with the inside of the headlight. One continuous line from the door all the way to the bumper. My headlight was 1/4" towards the center-line of the car. Spent 30 minutes just looking at the headlight and the structure to figure out what is bend or not aligned properly. Since everything in the front of the car is bolt on, I started to unbolt the structure. Saw the issues, fix them, re-bolted everything and installed the light. I did this four complete times until I had it right. This took about three hours. Time well spent. Now the bumper goes on like it should. Then I discovered another issue I did not see before. The right side lower air plate has the side screw hole missing. The break is so clean that I did not notice it before. So I need a new one. Plus the right hand bumper support (the plastic piece that attaches the bumper to the fender) is broken. So I have to order them on Monday. With that part of the restoration on hold until parts arrive, I decided to mount the splitter. *3/2/2012 Update 8:* The car is now back together. The new parts came in today. Put the front bumper w/splitter on and fastened everything down. The only issue I have is the lower plastic engine shroud will have to be replaced. My buddy attempted to repair it but it just does not fit well. This is not critical but I will have to order a new one next week or so. After getting everything on and fastened down, I pulled the car out to look at the headlight alignment. Its dark so this is pretty easy. As expected the left headlight needs some adjustment. It is projecting too high. A few turns of the X-axis adjustment screw and it is now in spec. Then took a short drive to look at the dynamic lighting of the road. Everything looks good. Now for tomorrow, a good wash, clay, polish with the PC, then seal the car with Wolfgane DGPS. Let that sit and cure overnight then on Sunday two good coats of Dodo Juice Diamond White Hard wax. I also have to make an appointment next week to have the suspension aligned. I have signed up for the three day full course VIR HPDE with the Porsche group in May. Three days for only $399.00 What a deal.. Just to back up a bit, the painters told me that there are THREE different Alpine White (paint code 300) shades. My car uses the standard shade. They had to test shoot all three shades to get an exact match. *3/2/2012 Update 9:* The final update Using my crappy camera, here are some pictures of the finished product after a wash, clay, polish, seal and final wax. NOTE: Even after the painters did all there magic, the new pieces did not feel as smooth as the existing parts. To fix this, you must clay them to make sure the surface is clean, so while you are at it, do the entire car... Now you need to polish the new pieces. I used Pinnacle Advanced Swirl Remover on my PC Dual Action Polisher. You might as well do the entire car. Now seal everything and then wax. Here are the before: Here is the after: Unless something unexpected crops up this will be the final update to the main thread. ......... Last edited by Shipkiller; 07-24-2012 at 07:52 PM..
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12-09-2011, 03:20 PM	#2
ZStig instagram 997turbotom 279 Rep 7,377 Posts Drives: Interlagos Z4MR Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Delray Beach, FL iTrader: (4)	Cool thread. I LOVE the fact that the rear fenders are removable. I crunched into one on my old 3.0, and it was a relatively quick swap job. Most cars you'd have to cut and weld, and it would never be the same... __________________
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12-09-2011, 03:51 PM	#3
Caddyshk M = Midlife Crisis 65 Rep 2,006 Posts Drives: 2006 Z4MC Interlagos Join Date: May 2007 Location: Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada iTrader: (0)	While you have it apart; may just as well throw in Coilovers and a BBK __________________ 2006 Z4MC - #LL93158 SS Race Cans, RE X Pipe, DKF Sec 1, Fabspeed Headers, OE STB, AS Shifter, Dave Z CDV, GC Coil Overs, Stoptech lines, Hawk DTC Pads, RE Clutch Stop, RE Transmission Mounts, Vibra-Technics Engine Mounts, Poly FCAB & RTAB, LeatherZ M Shift Boot, Tekarbon Rear Spoiler, CF Grills, Advan RS DGM
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12-09-2011, 05:42 PM	#5
MFGJR First Lieutenant 27 Rep 341 Posts Drives: 2007 Z4 M Coupe Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Richmond, VA iTrader: (0)	Had this been me, I wouldn't have sobered up yet. Jay, on the other hand, is fixing the car on the drive home from the track. Lots of great info in this. Thanks for putting it all together, and good luck with the rest of the work. I think I'll clear bra my whole car, then I'll be indestructible! __________________
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12-09-2011, 07:05 PM	#7
Shipkiller Colonel 187 Rep 2,138 Posts Drives: Me Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Virginia Beach iTrader: (3) Garage List 2008 BMW Z4M Coupe [8.50] 2003 BMW Z4 Roadster [8.33]	When you take your car to the track, this is one of the risks you take. It is a manageable risk but sometimes things just come out and bite you... This happened to me. My wife calls the car "My other woman"... The next day she had a comment: "I want to put those eyelashes on the car and say I beat the crap out your other woman"..... I fell off the chair laughing...
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12-09-2011, 07:19 PM	#10
Shipkiller Colonel 187 Rep 2,138 Posts Drives: Me Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Virginia Beach iTrader: (3) Garage List 2008 BMW Z4M Coupe [8.50] 2003 BMW Z4 Roadster [8.33]	Yea, especially since it is HER idea to get a dedicated track car sometime next year..
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12-09-2011, 10:36 PM	#13
Aries326 Lieutenant Colonel 195 Rep 1,530 Posts Drives: 2008 Z4 3.0si, 2013 E92 M3 ZCP Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: NC iTrader: (2) Garage List 2013 E92 M3 [0.00] 2008 BMW Z4 3.0si [9.00]	I wish I were this handy. If it had happened to me, I surely would end up taking the car to the shop and dishing out a lot of money. How much would it have all cost if you had it fixed in the shop?
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12-10-2011, 03:49 AM	#14
007MCoupe Lieutenant Colonel 94 Rep 1,546 Posts Drives: '18 Sakhir M3 ZCP Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: ( ///// ) iTrader: (5)	So much win coming from a track accident. Glad to see you're dealing well with it. Like the others, I'd still be bitching and moaning and crying and drinking... +1 to the "Use all the BAH" haha!!! Aries: The shop would probably 'fix' most of the things he discovered didn't need fixin', just bolted back on. New oil cooler for sure, which I'm sure isn't cheap!!!! __________________ Become a ///Member!
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12-10-2011, 06:47 AM	#17
Z4-VILLA Banned 111 Rep 2,460 Posts Drives: Z4M Hardtop Roadster Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Classified iTrader: (0)	my accident was way worse... I rebuilt my M too. I just never posted it. but trust me you get over it
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12-10-2011, 06:50 AM	#18
Z4-VILLA Banned 111 Rep 2,460 Posts Drives: Z4M Hardtop Roadster Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Classified iTrader: (0)	BAH is short for Basic Allowance for Housing.....its a monthly stipend all us military types get to live off base. Basically, I'm saying fuck everything and get this car back on the road...lol
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12-10-2011, 12:50 PM	#22
ajw45 Private First Class 32 Rep 149 Posts Drives: Z4M Coupe Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Boston iTrader: (0)	This is awesome! I used to track an e28 M5 since e28 body panels and parts were dirt cheap and black is easy to match. This is making me feel a lot better about taking my new z4m to the track. Can't wait to see how the car turns out when it's done! Out of curiosity, how much does the front and rear fenders weigh? Wondering if a carbon fiber set would be worth doing....
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