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Installed My Race Harness

3K views 19 replies 11 participants last post by  thekid 
#1 ·
Just thought I'd share some pics of my interior. I just installed my harness last night.
 

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#2 ·
Hi everybody :)
 

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#8 ·
Cool, with those colors now you're a real ricer!
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:confused How does that make me a ricer? I race on the track, I don't install seat belt harnesses to look cool. I get pissed when people say this and that about things being rice. Rice means any mod that is non functional. Everything on my car was installed for a functional reason, so there's really nothing "rice" about it. This belt system improves your cornering speeds believe it or not. You aren't limited by the side to side roll you feel when you corner hard and are forced to hold on to the wheel for support. When that happens, you lose some control of the car. Instead you can corner as hard as you want and the belt holds you in place. I can already corner much faster, best money I've ever spent. I admit the blue seats are a bit tacky, but I had no choice. Seats are expensive and buying used is the way to go. I have the exact same seat/belt/colour setup as my friend's Alfa GTV race car, so I guess that makes him rice too?

If you were joking, sorry to be so tight about it. If you spent as much time and money as I did, you wouldn't want someone making comments like that either. I've done a lot of research before I install anything on my car. I'm not ignorant when it comes to modifications like a lot of people are.

Did you have to install a new SRS system, or did the old ones work?
nope, SRS is completley disabled. With a race harness airbags are useless anyhow.

how did you anchor the seat belt harnesses?
sides mounted to my seat bracket, rear shoulder straps I modified the belt clips with a stock E36 clips and popped them into the rear seat belt holsters. I can remove them when I want with ease.

Auto, where'd you get the M42 badge? I'm looking for an M50 badge for my car...
Made it myself, "M" from M3 badge, "4" from 740 badge, "2" from 325 badge.

Bry
 
#10 ·
Looks great Auto, I didn't notice it until Lori mentioned it. Is it one of those grey ///M badges? Of course they came out with those a few weeks after I added the other :banghead .

Curious, are those seats and harnesses pretty comfortable? I realize why you bought them, but could you take a road trip of 2 hours and still be comfortable? You may have another car for a daily driver, I don't, so I'm curious.
 
#11 ·
Originally posted by Deloriant@Nov 21 2004, 03:11 PM
Buy the badges from a dealership?
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If you want, but that would be pretty expensive. I got them used from old cars and I suggest you do the same. Find a shop that works on BMW's and see if they have any old badges laying around they could sell to you cheap.



Looks great Auto, I didn't notice it until Lori mentioned it. Is it one of those grey ///M badges? Of course they came out with those a few weeks after I added the other  .

Curious, are those seats and harnesses pretty comfortable? I realize why you bought them, but could you take a road trip of 2 hours and still be comfortable? You may have another car for a daily driver, I don't, so I'm curious.

Thanks. Actually, I chopped the stripes off so it just says "M42" and not "///M42", I didn't want to look like a poser, just wanted to be original. Then again, I got a lot of attention from Honda driving street racers. They ask me if I have a 4.2L LOL.

I find the seats comfy and it seems to fit me perfectly. When I drive to the track it takes me about 2 hours to get there. I don't have any complaints, but my passengers always compain about having back pains. The driving position is perfect, I find when I sat in stock seats I always slouched which actually in turn gave me back pains. The race seat is just what I needed.

I don't have another car, I really wish I did though. I have to drive my car in the winter again and I really don't want to :( That aluminum undertray is going to take a beating from the road salt.

Bry
 
#13 ·
nice, i bet you like driving that car at the track much more now that you have seat belts that actually hold you in place
 
#14 ·
Originally posted by buuhh99@Nov 21 2004, 05:26 PM
nice how hard was it to install the new sterring wheel
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very easy, took me about 5 min.
 
#16 ·
Not related to interior mods, but I checked out the link in your sig for mods, you are still useing stock rear rotors? Do they, with the better pads, balance the car? Or did you want signifcantly stronger front brakes? I know what stronger front brakes do, I was just wondering if that is what you were going for, or if it is actually balanced.
 
#17 ·
Not related to interior mods, but I checked out the link in your sig for mods, you are still useing stock rear rotors? Do they, with the better pads, balance the car? Or did you want signifcantly stronger front brakes? I know what stronger front brakes do, I was just wondering if that is what you were going for, or if it is actually balanced.
Brake balance is like 70% front and 30% rear, so the front brakes do most of the stopping anyways. I actually got my stock sized brembo rotors used, the rear set were vented which only fits 328 convertables so I'm still looking for a replacement. I'm either going to upgrade to the larger 328 vert calipers or just get a pair of solid rear cross-drilled rotors. I can see burn marks on the rear rotors, they are probably shot. I'm going to use Hawk HPS in the rear too, right now they are some crappy pagid or PBR junk, can't remember.

What kind of wheel is that?.. Just curious bro...

Les
Italvolante. It's Italian made and it's made of Polyurethane. I've read somewhere that it's the same company that makes Ferrari's steering wheels, yummy :)

Bry
 
#19 ·
Originally posted by bigred318@Nov 22 2004, 12:34 AM
how did you get the wheel off? like isnt there somehting you have to do to make sure the air bag dont go off>? a write up wouldb e tight!

David
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Here you go.. a writeup made by me :)

* the airbag will not go off unless you somehow short out the system.

step 1.

There are 4 either allen key or star like screws on the 4 corners right behind the steering wheel. Remove those and the front airbag/center peice will fall right out. Unplug the airbag. I believe it's an orange plug.

step 2.

Remove the lower plastic cover behind the steering wheel hub, it's just clipped in so carefully pop it out with your fingers. Disconnect the horn.

step 3.

With the center airbag removed, you should now be able to see either the 16mm/17mm bolt (can't remember exactly) right in the middle of the steering wheel. Make sure the wheel is locked, otherwise you won't be able to remove the bolt.

step 4.

I suggest using a short pole to fit over a socket wrench for leverage, the bolts can be stuck on quite tightly. Once the bolt is removed, make the steering wheel as close to the center as possible and make sure the front wheels are straight. Remove the steering wheel simply by pulling it towards you. Becareful not to change the position of the wheel.

step 5.

Push new steering wheel into place making sure it's centered. The little notch at the back of the steering wheel should be positioned exactly to the left. Loosely hand tighen the bolt into place so the steering wheel doesn't fly out.

step 6.

Drive around the block and make sure the car drives straight, if it doesn't, remove the bolt and steering wheel and recenter as necessary.

step 7.

Once that's done, make sure you tighten the bolt the hardest you can without stripping the stocket. The steering wheel bolt should be very tight. The washer uses a locking washer, so it should be very tight indeed.

step 8.

Plug the horn back in and reassemble everything.

step 9. (aftermarket wheels only)

At this point, if you have installed an aftermarket wheel, your airbag warning light will be on. There is a very complicated way to bypass the light or to make sure the passenger side one still works. I skipped this step and so has many other people. So before you buy an aftermarket wheel, decide whether or not you want to lose the airbag. To disable that annoying light, simply remove the screws and remove the dash. If you can't, you will have to remove the steering wheel again. Remove the bulb which lights up the airbag warning light. Put a peice of electrical tape in it's place. The light from the other warning lights will illuminate the airbag light, so use the tape to block off any light.

Well that's it, enjoy!

Bry
 
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