Thread: 1997 BMW M3 in progress.....

So where'd you get the Transformers shift knob emblem? Buy it? Make it?

I want one! That's my avatar on every board I'm on.

Originally Posted by John M

So where'd you get the Transformers shift knob emblem? Buy it? Make it?

I want one! That's my avatar on every board I'm on.

Can you transform?

Originally Posted by John M

So where'd you get the Transformers shift knob emblem? Buy it? Make it?

I want one! That's my avatar on every board I'm on.

I made it.

Originally Posted by Enforcer

Would you be just as curious to see pics of an old girlfriend in another mans bed?

I really don't know about that... But a pc is different don;t you think?

Originally Posted by BoyNextDoor

I really don't know about that... But a pc is different don;t you think?

I'd venture to say FAR too many people, mostly living in mom's basement, don't see a difference. So sad.

I swear I'll get pics of this setup up today. It's been a busy weekend.

yokudekima****a!

(Great work!)

Well I finally got more pics, but now Photobucket's broken. haha...
Oh well, maybe in an hour or so.

The best part about the pics I have is that they don't show much. It was s uprisinly simply install and easy to conceal.

The only thing I'm going to change, besides adding the touchpad device next to the parking brake, is to redo the way I secured the CPU. Right now it's simply velcroed to the rear trunk mat. It's a solid install suprisingly. The thing does NOT move. (Velcro is amazing stuff). But I decided I'd like to add alittle bit of shock absorbtion. So I'm going to fix a 2 inch thick peice of foam rubber to the bottom of the computer and then have the foam rubber velcroed to the trunk mat. That should keep it just as securing in place but give me a little added shock protection. Plus it should compensate for the uneven trunk floor which now requires me to have the system sitting in the middle of the trunk. When I re-do it (we're talking about 10 whole minutes of work to redo this) I'll be able to re-orient the CPU to face the rear seat so in the event I need to access it from in the car I can just fold the seat down and have it there!

My other modifications that I'm going to do (amazing how your plans seem good on paper but once you impliment them you always realize a slightly better way) ar eto rewire the screen and add a switch to the switched power source (I'm sure that's no confusing...haha)

I'm going to move the hot wire of the screen from the cig lighter feeds to the switched power line so the screen is only powered when the car is on. I've realized in the few days I've had the computer going that I'm incapable of remembering to turn on the monitor when I get out of the car. Also, I'm going to add a switch to that same power line AFTER the monitor. That way in the event the computer hangs up on startup or anything else goes wrong with the automatic start up controller or Windows freezes or something, I can still cut power to the system manually without having to stop, get out and go to the trunk.

Those two wiring modifications should take me probably about an hour tops with the dash fabrication. That switch will be easy to put into the dash because the console in front of the screen where the fan and video inputs are have 1 blank opening waiting for me to put a switch in. It's just a matter of cutting a hole in that plastic peice and glusing a switch into it.

So that's the project status thus far. Hopefully I can get pictures up tonight.

if you need space, i have it... i can host the pics for you darn it, just have them up... sendme pm...
cheers

Allright, Photobucket is back in action...here we go...

This one is the whole user interface section as seen before.


The wires from the screen, the usb touchscreen, and the switched power wire all run under the center console and come out to the side of it behind the passenger seat. While it's kinda ugly, you can't see it at all when the seat is back. So the only time you'll see it is when someone's getting in the back seat. once they are in, the wires go back to hidden.



Those wires run under the floor mat in the back to the corner where the seatbelt it secured to the car. They go up to the crease in the seat from there....it worked out that the monitor cable connector to teh extention cable came to that exact spot and those connectors wedge in behind that metal bar perfectly. No other fasteners needed.