The Project X Story: Chapters II and III

18 Nov The Project X Story: Chapters II and III

In the interest of giving you one big post to end the week on, we’ve consolidated the next two chapters of the Project X build into one post.

Chapter II: Start Swaggin’

Alright, this will be a smaller post before we get into the big 3, otherwise known as the three major parts of Project X’s custom fabrication. For now, let’s zoom in a bit and focus on some of the smaller things.

If you remember, we received this X5 as a heap of metal waiting to be reborn into something that isn’t waiting for a junkyard. Given its rough-and-tumble looks upon arriving at our shop, we needed a few new body parts to make the car whole again. Just about everything on the front needed replacing, so we sought out some new headlights and kidney grilles, along with a hood and whatever else needed replacing from the front end.

We also made mention of the wheels and tires in the last post. While the lift kit helped eliminate most issues with the wheels/tires fitting in the wheel wheels, it didn’t solve all of them. The last issues can be remedied with a set of spacers. So we made some. We weren’t going for extreme poke, so they’re not 55 mm or anything, just enough to get the wheels/tires to play nicely with the wheel wells.

Finally, we knew that even though it’s very focused on being rough around the edges, the final build of the X5 needed some creature comforts. We had an extra set of E39 M5 seats sitting around the shop, so we spent some time getting them to fit in the X5’s interior. Thankfully it’s not a very cramped area, so this job didn’t take too long.

Alright, first part of the Big Three is up next!

Chapter III: Diving In

Time for the first of the Big Three exterior modifications on the X5. We hadn’t planned for this car to be going underwater, but we knew that we needed some over-the-top fabrication to really get this car to where our minds imagined it. As a result, we figured a snorkel was a good way to go. Not only is it functional (it does flow into a sealed box in the motor), but also having the intake noise directly above your head is a great feeling that’s awfully tough to duplicate with any other intake setup.

First, we plotted out the location for the snorkel piping, making sure not to cause issue with door contact or windshield wiper functionality, as both tend to be important in operating a motor vehicle. After that came some fender cutting and some aluminum welding to bring everything together. Designing the box was a little trickier, as we had to ensure that the filter would be receiving plenty of air without sucking up plenty of water during rainstorms; furthermore, we had to design it to accommodate an already-established filter size. No matter the constraints, FMU is on the task! After a bit more elbow grease, our final pre-powdercoated product emerges:

Now that the smallest of the Big Three is complete, look forward to our next piece, the custom front bumper! Have a great weekend, everybody!