Bloody hell do you ever sleep
oh niece car
oh niece car
Monkey Machine
- Thread starter machine monkey
- Start date
I tried it once and now we have a baby on the wayBloody hell do you ever sleep
This project has been 4 years in the making. I didn't do it all last week
I am able to make ones like this still but not the round ones at the moment. I lost accesses to the CNC lathe.
I can get these ones engraved and i do matching radio knobs also.
Roam wasn't built in a day. And you have to except that not everything in life goes as planed.
I wont lie the car has made me stressed and angry at times. But all love affairs are like that i guess.
Well it seems like my hard work and car are going down well hear I am glad 
I am glad 
Yep, we are an easy bunch on hereWell it seems like my hard work and car are going down well hear
Gear knob on its own? Engraved £35 not engraved £30
No problem
Thanks very much David. They are very kind words and i appreciate them.
Ok i will bring this up to date then. Just to prove i dont just take my car apart this next post is about a great trip to France me and a few guys from the z4 forum did last year. Andy Mr Wilks a few of you might know. There where 2 Z3s with his wheels on at zed fest. He ran a side line buying and refurbishing wheels. Well he has a very nice holiday home in Normandy and invited a few of us over to enjoy the food wine and roads. Not all at the same time though.
So five of went over and had a long weekend driving around. I cant remember the millage but i think it was around 1k miles. And the roads in that part of France and like heaven to us Brits. Smooth flowing no traffic. And it means you can get a bit of a move on and not be reckless and drive briskly safely. I loved it and i am very upset i cant go again this year.
So on paper mine was the slowest being a 3.0l there where 3 Z4M roadsters and an Alpina. I Think my car held its own and i didn't feel like i was struggling to keep up any of the time. The only problem i had was with a drivers side front caliper sticking on after a bit of heavy braking. And not having tools or parts to fix it so i had to improvise..... And modify my driving style by reading the road better hanging back a bit and using the engine to slow myself down where i could. I actually enjoyed the challenge and i am now a dab hand (foot) And heal and toe.
I did swap cars with Andy. And his negative comments about how bad my brakes where after driving mine. Made me do my next and last big modification. So what did i think about the ///M????? Well i had always thought i would get one. And they are a fantastic machine. But i didn't feel the engine gave me the big performance jump i was expecting. The handling is great as standard and is better than a standard z4 the brakes are that bit better. The sum of the parts make it a better all round driving car. The best part was the steering feel the weight and confidence in what the wheels are doing. The z4 just dose not have that with its electric steering (mine has the sticky steering problem so may be worse than others??) But lets be fair to the z4 it was BMWs first ever electric steering system.
But after the work i have done to mine i would not swap it for an M. I just wouldn't get the feeling of everything being better. I prefer my handling the sound mine makes. The only thing i needed to change where the seats!! And the brakes. More on both points next time.
Some pictures.
So five of went over and had a long weekend driving around. I cant remember the millage but i think it was around 1k miles. And the roads in that part of France and like heaven to us Brits. Smooth flowing no traffic. And it means you can get a bit of a move on and not be reckless and drive briskly safely. I loved it and i am very upset i cant go again this year.
So on paper mine was the slowest being a 3.0l there where 3 Z4M roadsters and an Alpina. I Think my car held its own and i didn't feel like i was struggling to keep up any of the time. The only problem i had was with a drivers side front caliper sticking on after a bit of heavy braking. And not having tools or parts to fix it so i had to improvise..... And modify my driving style by reading the road better hanging back a bit and using the engine to slow myself down where i could. I actually enjoyed the challenge and i am now a dab hand (foot) And heal and toe.
I did swap cars with Andy. And his negative comments about how bad my brakes where after driving mine. Made me do my next and last big modification. So what did i think about the ///M????? Well i had always thought i would get one. And they are a fantastic machine. But i didn't feel the engine gave me the big performance jump i was expecting. The handling is great as standard and is better than a standard z4 the brakes are that bit better. The sum of the parts make it a better all round driving car. The best part was the steering feel the weight and confidence in what the wheels are doing. The z4 just dose not have that with its electric steering (mine has the sticky steering problem so may be worse than others??) But lets be fair to the z4 it was BMWs first ever electric steering system.
But after the work i have done to mine i would not swap it for an M. I just wouldn't get the feeling of everything being better. I prefer my handling the sound mine makes. The only thing i needed to change where the seats!! And the brakes. More on both points next time.
Some pictures.
So after driving the M the thing I wanted more where brakes that worked and better seats. I had the standard seats and they just didn't hold you in place as well as the M ones. I had a project on the go where i was trying to make a set but it didn't go well and sometimes you have to except you dont have the skills needed or a job is just to much work effort for it to work.
Now i am on a tight tight budget with the car. And the M seats are notoriously expensive. So after looking on line i found a set of non heated manually adjustable black leather M seats. The guy had brought a 2.0l z4 to brake and had these for a long time. They where not in the best condition. So i made a cheeky offer. He said no!! And i raised my offer to the maximum i felt comfortable paying and told him to think about it. He said no again.............. And i said call me if you change your mine. I was not expecting him to call back. Well he did with a counter offer. A deal was done and i had a set. I was going to swap my electric bases over. But after feeling the weight difference. I didn't bother and i am very glad i didn't. I am over the moon with the seats after some TLC they look great and have made the car feel like sports car.
Brakes.
I had a set of Alfa Brembo calipers that i was looking into fitting to a z4 for another guy. But it turned out to be much harder than making a simple bracket to fit them and it was never going to be a bolt on replacement. The calipers are a 4 pot design and are bloody massive. They have been used on a lot of sporty cars. And even as a rear caliper on a 459. After looking at them and discussing it with a design engineer haer at work and my boss a codded welder with 30 years experience. We hatched a plan.
I brought some new hubs and set about cutting welding and strengthening them to fit the caliper. The problem was that the hub lugs that a BMW caliper bot to and the bolt holes on the caliper just didn't line up., They where half a hole out top and bottom and different size holes. Any way after much work i have managed to get them on the car and working perfectly. I upgraded to 330mm disc as well. Lots of people said it would be to front biased as i didnt do anything to the rear. And it isnt. Its funny they dont feel that much better most of the time. It is only heavy braking that they come into there own. And i have not had any brake fade from them yet and i have been trying to get it!! I am still using standard fluid lines and just normal road pads. I will upgrade them all when funds allow. But for now i am very happy with them.
And i cant believe they still look small behind the wheels.
Now i am on a tight tight budget with the car. And the M seats are notoriously expensive. So after looking on line i found a set of non heated manually adjustable black leather M seats. The guy had brought a 2.0l z4 to brake and had these for a long time. They where not in the best condition. So i made a cheeky offer. He said no!! And i raised my offer to the maximum i felt comfortable paying and told him to think about it. He said no again.............. And i said call me if you change your mine. I was not expecting him to call back. Well he did with a counter offer. A deal was done and i had a set. I was going to swap my electric bases over. But after feeling the weight difference. I didn't bother and i am very glad i didn't. I am over the moon with the seats after some TLC they look great and have made the car feel like sports car.
Brakes.
I had a set of Alfa Brembo calipers that i was looking into fitting to a z4 for another guy. But it turned out to be much harder than making a simple bracket to fit them and it was never going to be a bolt on replacement. The calipers are a 4 pot design and are bloody massive. They have been used on a lot of sporty cars. And even as a rear caliper on a 459. After looking at them and discussing it with a design engineer haer at work and my boss a codded welder with 30 years experience. We hatched a plan.
I brought some new hubs and set about cutting welding and strengthening them to fit the caliper. The problem was that the hub lugs that a BMW caliper bot to and the bolt holes on the caliper just didn't line up., They where half a hole out top and bottom and different size holes. Any way after much work i have managed to get them on the car and working perfectly. I upgraded to 330mm disc as well. Lots of people said it would be to front biased as i didnt do anything to the rear. And it isnt. Its funny they dont feel that much better most of the time. It is only heavy braking that they come into there own. And i have not had any brake fade from them yet and i have been trying to get it!! I am still using standard fluid lines and just normal road pads. I will upgrade them all when funds allow. But for now i am very happy with them.
And i cant believe they still look small behind the wheels.
So thats me up to date with work done. I have some parts in the workshop waiting. The plan was to take the car off the road in October and do all the jobs. I had a bad habit of starting things in the summer and not getting to enjoy the car. The only problem with my plan is that we are now expecting our first child early October. So i am thinking the car may have to wait a while!!
So I have ready waiting when i get time. A new clutch and lightweight fly wheel. I will probably be doing the rear main bearing and new gearbox mounts at the same time Possibly engine mounts too. I really fancy having a look at some Vibra tech mounts and seeing how they are made.
I got a cracking deal on the clutch.
And i also have a purple rack and all the bits i hope to convert my car from electric to hydraulic steering.
I have had problems at drift days with the car running a bit hot. So i have an oil cooler to fit too. But i am having problems figuring how to fit it. The easy way is to buy an s54 filter housing. But if anyone else has any other suggestions please say. I am thinking about making a blanking plate and using a remote filter???
So I have ready waiting when i get time. A new clutch and lightweight fly wheel. I will probably be doing the rear main bearing and new gearbox mounts at the same time Possibly engine mounts too. I really fancy having a look at some Vibra tech mounts and seeing how they are made.
And i also have a purple rack and all the bits i hope to convert my car from electric to hydraulic steering.
I have had problems at drift days with the car running a bit hot. So i have an oil cooler to fit too. But i am having problems figuring how to fit it. The easy way is to buy an s54 filter housing. But if anyone else has any other suggestions please say. I am thinking about making a blanking plate and using a remote filter???
I also had a bit of Fun Fun Fun in May this year. My brother in law booked us on to a thing called the Pure Rally. After briefly talking about it at Christmas me and my father in Law where shocked when he said its booked you owe me £300!! We where not massively looking forward to it. But it exceed ore expectations and we had a good time with some nice people and cars.
I had a great time chasing this through North Wales. And my car did very well indeed... To the point he couldn't believe it was not an M and a standard engine
The Aston was having a S/C fitted the week after!!
Dirty cars in Newcastle
So when i got home i had to clean her off. Witch means i had to clean the wife's car. And then the sister in law showed up!!! Still we had the makings of a union jack on the driveway.
![IMG_1218[1].JPG](https://zroadster.org/attachments/img_1218-1-jpg.39658/)
I had a great time chasing this through North Wales. And my car did very well indeed... To the point he couldn't believe it was not an M and a standard engine
Dirty cars in Newcastle
So when i got home i had to clean her off. Witch means i had to clean the wife's car. And then the sister in law showed up!!! Still we had the makings of a union jack on the driveway.
Yeah i have an m54. I will find out some info for you and post it on hear. I brought it from a guy who had one in his car. Liked it and brought one for his wife's car. Unfortunately someone drove in tio her car before he could fit it.
From what i can remember its a hybrid of bits that have been assembled to make the kit for the m54. I think its a e36 m3 clutch and then there own custom made fly wheel. I will find out a link for you.