spent the last couple of weeks waiting for the roof bow to show up (actually two, the one i found as available first still hasn't arrived, but then a rando ebay seller got one to me in under a week).
but now that it's here (and after talking with
DRLane ), i'm having second thoughts about it. i think i'm going to with his suggestion and drill the 4 holes for the roof and secure it that way for the time being (no glue yet), then ship it off to the cage builder that way so he can do his measurements and take the roof off. he can also then decide if he wants to install the roof bow (and ostensibly he could just spot weld it in then instead of me messing around with rivnuts), or have the main hoop perform the same function.
i used the wait time to press on stripping the interior. the dash came out today!
i'm going to ship the car off without a dash, and then stick a single hump one in when it comes back. wouldn't have messed with it but the cage guy wanted it out so i might as well use this opportunity to do the conversion and also yank the heater core.
lastly, i've been fortunate enough to help
amg6975 do some beta testing on his GWS replacement and so wired that up and dropped it in just before yanking the dash
it fits very solidly, was straightforward to wire up (i've always been impressed with how easy BMW connectors are to depin) and worked on the first try. since the dash came out, I took that opportunity to take out the AiM ECU connector that I had wired in at the fusebox connector and will now be able to move it over here as well.
I've got about a month left before it needs to ship out, and while the interior work is about done for now, I still want to delete the heater core, AC and SAP in that time. Feels like it *should* be enough, but who knows.
My buddy and I are trying to get out to COTA for the Chin day in April, we'll see if that can happen.