[M3] Evo wing and new steering wheel

[note: this post, like an air-cooled 911, is back-dated to when these events occurred] 

Today I picked up the wing (and car) from the paint shop. The wing was not fitted to the car when I retrieved it, so it wasn't until I got home that I could check the paint match and how it all came together.

I started by assembling the flap and the wing off the car.



In addition to finishing and painting the wing, they re-cleared the top of the carbon flap and buffed it to remove some swirls and crazing marks it had picked up from years of getting moved around.



The awkward no-wing M3 look... been there, done that.



Before:



After:



Before:



After:



It's hard to see in the photos, but the stock wing had been refinished before and the paint match was not quite right. The stock wing had a bit larger/more pronounced flake, and a bit of a blue tint to the silver compared to the decklid, which seems to have a little bit less luster in the clear coat and a bit more of a yellow tint. The new Evo wing matches the decklid very very well. I was holding my breath as I bolted it up, and when I stepped back I was extremely pleased!



There is a bit of dried up wax and stuff I need to clean up at the base of the new wing.



The fit of the wing to the decklid is very good. They also cleaned up the wing base very well. There are still a couple little nicks, but compared to what they started with it's transformed.





One thing I am not super keen on is the exposed fasteners. They are more noticeable than I expected them to be. I am going to order a different style of fastener, in black, and see if I can make them "disappear" a bit more when seen rear-on.



With the car back home, I was also able to fit something very special that I'd ordered from eBay Germany a couple months ago.

Before:



After:



It's a new-in-box (well, not anymore) 1985 Italvolanti Indianapolis in red, 365mm. It replaces a 1983 Italvolanti Formel in 360mm. It's so over-the-top and I absolutely love it.





The color match to the original interior is uncanny! Fitment was not quite plug-and-play. The black wheel uses the Momo-style mounting system, with 6 smaller bolts; the red wheel uses a 3-bolt system. The former type of hub is readily available for E30s, the latter is not. The solution was an adapter piece, purchased here. The +5mm increase in wheel diameter, plus the small offset of the adapter, bring the red wheel a bit closer to the driver than the black one, and have fixed the issue where the black wheel obscured the top of the instrument cluster. Due to the orientation of the fasteners through the adapter, I had to offset the Momo hub 30 degrees on the spline to have the new wheel aligned correctly. As a result my left turn signal does not cancel. Annoying.



Next up will be some clean-up items, and I'd really love to get my 16" wheels refinished one of these days...

[M3] Aiming headlamps, 3d printing

[note: this post, like an air-cooled 911, is back-dated to when these events occurred] 

[also note: I have condensed multiple forum posts into this entry, please forgive awkward transitions]

Got around to aiming my headlamps last night. I only did a short stint of night driving on the new lights and I could tell things were... off. I used the guide from Daniel Stern's lighting website to guide the task:

https://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/aim/aim.html



The little dot of orange tape on either side of the top line is the center point of the physical headlamps, as determined by driving my car right up against the wall. The lower line is 3" below that. The car is set back 25 feet.



Before... sorry oncoming traffic



After. Much better. Even with brand new adjusters it chewed up my fingers making the adjustments, ouch!

I reached back into the shed-o-parts and re-fitted my 360mm Italvolanti Formel steering wheel. I ran this on my old car, so coming to this Lachs car with the original 385mm steering wheel I was caught off-guard by the slow rack speed and light feel. The steering character is one of the best parts of the car but I find it just a little too light to the touch with that big wheel.

After I removed the Formel from my old car, one of the horn buttons had broken. I grabbed some calipers and drew up a model in CAD, then asked a friend with a 3d printer to make a replacement. The resolution of the printer was a little bit too big to nail the fine texture lines on the face of the button, but in situ it blends in really well and functions as it should.







Of course it's essential to test out any new parts you install so I did a big loop with a coworker. The only drawback with a 360mm wheel is that it starts to block your view of the tops of your instruments.



Here's a look at my front end with the euro grilles, euro ellipsoids, and Evo splitter.