What did you do to / for your E53 today??

[andrewwynn]

Originally Posted by Maruzo

I used the metal zip tie on a new DHC for the Drivers door. Worked pretty good for over 3 years. Hasn’t needed replacement yet.

I always tie wrap new hinges. If/when the hinge breaks the door will still operate.

[andrewwynn]

Originally Posted by Overboost

You haven't used it yet? Both my cars were up in minutes once I had it all setup. Life changing.

I wish my latest distraction had the ability to go up on the QJ. I have stepped back 52 years now to a floor jack and jack stands again.

Damn that's a pretty car [mention]Overboost [/mention] !

I think I would have to make a mod to the QJ to lift it. A couple pieces of 2" square with a couple holes in the right place I think would do the trick. Maybe 1.5" square in the middle on the ends.

(We once replaced an axle on a trailer with an off the shelf boat trailer axle and the frame rails were so far inboard, the axle was bent like a boomerang).

We added 1.5" square tube below the axle and with some spacers and some u-bolts made the axle nearly twice as strong and laser straight.

[crystalworks]

Went to the local PnP on Friday. They had 5 E53's. 4 3.0 M54s and 1 4.4 N62. To my surprise 3/5 had rear window shades (2 complete unpicked) and 4/5 had complete shadow line trim. Anyway, I went there with a purpose. Needed sacrificial lambs for my speaker install. Got all 6 speakers I needed plus a whack ton of harnesses so I can make plug and play the new speakers. Everything you see below for $41. I'll call that a win considering I priced out the plugs and pins and was over that with just those let alone used speakers on Ebay.



And a fun lineup comparison shot of the different door woofers. Not sure what I'll do with the BSW setup as it is stupid rare now and I might keep it should I get another 4.8is as this is designed as a drop in for the DSP equipped E53's. Previous owner sprung for the full front stage tweeters, dash mids, and door woofers. I'm curious if he also did the rear doors. Guess I'll find out when I get there.

[Henn28]

Great speaker upgrade updates, thank you...keep 'em coming!

I spend the morning finally running my back-up camera from the bottom of the trunk spoiler through the right hand rubber cable channel to the roof, and down to the right cubby hole with the fuse box in it. I thought that I might put in on the tailgate, but after pulling the plastic panels I decided that this was going to be way too hard. I was familiar with the spoiler lip process after running the Sirius radio antenna (under the cheap-o ebay shark fin).

There is significantly more room in the right rubber cable channel than the left, as that one has the tubing for the window wash. The right only has wires and a little WD40 goes a long way. Fortunately the camera manufacturer thought to put a plug in the middle of the wire and and a narrow circular one at that.

I've got my wiring harness all soldered up and wrapped, and now that the antenna and camera are in all I need to do is to run the antenna and camera wires from the back cubbies up to the dash...thats "all". I have no illusions that this will be easy. I also need to find out where to tap into power and reverse signals for the camera and receiver.

The housing I chose is soft rubber with a double sided sticky foam tape. The camera friction fits inside of the housing and can be adjusted by force. I also tried to seal the hole I drilled for the wire with silicone caulk, from the top. I don't expect too much water to get in from the bottom. I do want to get some thicker double sided gasket foam for the shark fin...cheap ebay part didn't come with thick enough gasket in my opinion.

[Fifty150hs]

Fixed some cracks in my wood trim on the doors using glu boost. Started with those to see how it works before pulling the center console that is full of cracks to repair it. Stuff works great. Learned a couple tricks with it which is why I did the door trims before taking on the center console.

[crystalworks]

Originally Posted by Henn28

Great speaker upgrade updates, thank you...keep 'em coming!

Will do. Actually it's a 3 year install. There's an install thread but I'm going to start a new one when it's nearing completion as searching through pages for updates is a pain. Why 3 years you ask? Kids, old house, 5 BMWs, both our parents need our help more, etc, etc. Time, is not a luxury we have anymore.

Added a rear shot of the 3 woofers to that last post. Forgot I took one. Interesting idea on that rear camera too. Haven't seen that. Post some better pics. The one in the post above looks like it was taken with a flip phone from 2004.

Originally Posted by Fifty150hs

Fixed some cracks in my wood trim on the doors using glu boost. Started with those to see how it works before pulling the center console that is full of cracks to repair it. Stuff works great. Learned a couple tricks with it which is why I did the door trims before taking on the center console.

Details and pics forthcoming I assume? One of my aesthetic irritations on Red is the condition of the wood trim. Much appreciated.

[Fifty150hs]

Originally Posted by crystalworks

Will do. Actually it's a 3 year install. There's an install thread but I'm going to start a new one when it's nearing completion as searching through pages for updates is a pain. Why 3 years you ask? Kids, old house, 5 BMWs, both our parents need our help more, etc, etc. Time, is not a luxury we have anymore.

Added a rear shot of the 3 woofers to that last post. Forgot I took one. Interesting idea on that rear camera too. Haven't seen that. Post some better pics. The one in the post above looks like it was taken with a flip phone from 2004.



Details and pics forthcoming I assume? One of my aesthetic irritations on Red is the condition of the wood trim. Much appreciated.

I didn't take any of the work on the door trims. The cracks were pretty hard to see. I will definitely do photos and a write up when I do the center console. I hope to be able to do that this coming weekend. It's going to take awhile as the console has to be pulled and the wood pulled off the console. Not looking forward to that. How much plastic will I break?

[zener]

Third PS pump and finally silent one.

[Fifty150hs]

Originally Posted by zener

Third PS pump and finally silent one.

[andrewwynn]

It always sucks when you get a defective part and the suck factor rises exponentially if it happens more than once in a row.

Last year my replacement alternator lasted 1 or 2 drive cycles