Pete's already digging into Fastback, Ashley's rolling on the body kit for F10, I saw the latest version in 3D, looks mega cool. And my E46 has been sitting this whole time.

Design's been ready for a while. Can't show it in full yet, part of it is still in paperwork. Sad footnote of doing design today: everything needs patents filed, it eats time and money, but that's the reality.

Small printers freed up, Pete and Felix are on the big one, 2 by 2 by 2. Plenty of filament. So it's time to print my E46.

Starting with the front fenders. They drop into the design easiest, nothing to fuss over there. And more importantly, it immediately tells me what wheel width I need up front.

Sliced, printed, glued. Glue here is just a base, fiberglass goes over it anyway. Been doing this 8 years, the pipeline is dialed.

Grab the power tool and a sheet metal screw, set the extension on the fender. Driver's side, quick.

Set it. And a few things surface right away.

Molding has to go. Where the extension and the molding meet, there's a swell. I'm not touching the extension, that line is the whole flavor. The molding I can hit, not the whole thing, just where they cross.

Lots of space between the fender and the extension. Needs a skeleton out of rod, one eighth inch, welded into a mesh under the extension. It sits on 10 bolts, and even sealed up it'll move under load. The skeleton has to go in, and that's not bad, the strength will be way up.

Wheels. TE37-themed 19s went on great, offset 35, 10.5 wide front and rear. They're already on thick spacers and still need to come out further, about an inch.

The panels don't get fused to the body, everything goes on bolts, like Nakai. My changes here aren't as radical as Pete's or Ashley's, they're precise, they'd fit any E46 in principle. Not a production version, a prototype, but a whole line can be rolled out of it later if I want. The E46 is such a smooth car that it needs a little aggression. Like any 911, except maybe the latest ones, they've gone angular, sharp lines, none of the classic flow left.

Now the rotors. Not keeping the natives, I'll order custom, 6 piston front, 4 rear. The problem is big rotors float deep inside the wheel and it doesn't look great. I'm running deep dish and the offset is deep, so the rotors carry a lot. I don't like a rotor sitting more than a finger, finger and a half from the wheel lip.

The plan sounds insane: the spacer goes under the rotor. Not behind, under. The rotor sits on top of it and gets pushed out.

Logic's simple. When the car brakes there's no strong centrifugal load on the disc, it just clamps together. Push it out a bit and there's no drama, especially since I'll reinforce it. Needs a custom caliper bracket, but that's a small thing: scan it, design it, cut it on the CNC, we've got one here. People run this all the time under a Big Brake Kit on any car. Ashley's is exactly that setup: 420mm rotors, 6 piston, two big bolts and a bracket. Works great.

Tomorrow, the other side and fiberglass, so the plastic doesn't move. The guys are already printing PPS, I'm still on PETG, plenty of it left here and I've got a feel for it, I know what works.

Also bought myself a small present, new steering wheel. Aftermarket, adapting the stock one probably isn't happening. Just waiting on the airbag, both are two stage, so a stock one will do.

This weekend I'm moving to the rear, starting on the quarter panel extensions. The front bumper is ready for slicing, but a bumper is a delicate thing and takes a lot of time. Anyone who's built one knows. Quarter extensions and front fenders are absolutely trivial next to it.