E30 Ute / Pick-up / Off-roader!!

Another ‘Ute’ pick up conversion of a BMW, in keeping with the 1600 Ute from THIS POST, but this time it’s an E30…

Bit more rough and rugged this one though and not so much of a show pony, but I still love it. 

Tall suspension and a heavy front bull-bar suggest that this does have some off-road capabilities. Shame X-Drive wasn’t around back then because this thing deserves it! 

Amazing custom BMW 1600 Ute / Pickup Truck!

Well, I have seen some custom BMWs in my time, but this one has to be one of, if not THE best yet... a 1600 chopped into a 'Ute' or pickup-truck to the layman. Whoever built this deserves a trophy of some sort, though I am in no doubt it has won at a won at a show or two so it probably already has.

Not only is the job seamless, which you don't often see with cut-up open-back car conversions, but it also features colour-coded rollover / grab bars (to re-stiffen the shell up I would imagine) and wooden-strip work around the deck like an Italian slipper-launch boat! Absolutely stunning... is all I can say.

Awesome off-road E30 Ute / Pickup HERE!

E60 530d: Swirl-Flap Blanking Plates

If you have a BMW with swirl-flaps, get them out ASAP. We all hear horror stories about swirl-flap failure and just how bad they are, but I had no idea they can wreck your engine so quickly and overlooked the advice. This I have lived to regret, as have a thousand others. Just one flap breaking loose, as in my case, and being sucked into the engine does all that damage. Do yourself a favour if you have 100k on the clock and fit blanking plates. Some say the engine won't run properly without the flaps, but I am assured it will and for a lot longer. All the swirl-flap is designed to do is to dump air into the engine when the inlet-pressure is reduced and soot would normally be dominant. In other words, it reduces the little puffs of black smoke on harsh gear changes. The car will still pass MOT and won't use any extra fuel.

I got some aluminium ones off eBay, they were £20.99 delivered for a set of 6, sets of 4 are even less.

My late-2003 M57N 530d has the earlier 22mm swirl-flaps and so should most 4 and 6 cylinder diesels up to about 2006. Revised M57N should have the beefier 33mm flaps, but after 2010 the swirl-flaps are removed from the inlet and redesigned entirely. Hmm, I'm amazed it took them so long. The actual specific size of swirl-flaps in BMW diesels from 2003-2010 varies wildly it would seem, so the only way to know for sure which ones you have before buying is to remove the inlet-manifold and measure them.

SIZE refers to the diameter of the hole that the swirl-flap fits into, not the length of the flap in the inlet port!


FITMENT:

1. Remove inlet-manifold.
2. Remove the two screws holding the swirl-flap diaphragm on the underside of the manifold using a T20 Torx socket.
3. Slide the metal-rod clear of the swirl-flap levers and remove it with the diaphragm.
4. Remove the two screws holding each swirl-flap in place using a T20 Torx socket.
5. Remove the swirl-flaps by prising either side evenly with a flat-screwdriver until it pops from the seal and can be lifted out.
6. Fit the swirl flap blanks into the holes and pop them down into the seal - they should self-align.
7. Replace the twelve T20 Torx screws to the blanking-plates.
8. Unfasten the extended part of the lever-arm that joins the swirl-flap diaphragm to the metal rod and remove it along with the rod.
9. Refit the diaphragm to the inlet-manifold with the two T20 Torx screws.
10. Replace inlet-manifold.

New trim pieces for M-Sport bumper + painting!

As my bumper didn't come with the cover-caps or hinges, I had to source them separately. I got the headlight-washer hinges directly from BMW Parts [Williams, Liverpool] and they were only £2.70 each inc. VAT. BMW are good for clips and random bits, but trim pieces are a bit more expensive, especially if you have them painted in your colour-code.

I turned to eBay, but was surprised to find used pieces are thin on the ground and no silver ones coming up. New, the headlight-washer caps start at £16 each and go up, plus delivery, so a pair of genuine ones for £30 delivered actually seemed reasonable. These came from MM Autos [eBay ID: adrian5882745], the same place in Wrexham I got the bumper, but I checked and the silver caps from mine are long sold! The tow-hook caps start at £25 for a new one and again no used ones in silver, so I recommend buying from a seller on eBay Germany called bmdoubleyou24. A new genuine one in primer is £18 delivered and only took 5 days to arrive so was worth the saving.

£70 worth of plastic. Headlight-washer caps, hinges and tow-hook cap, only the essentials.

Finally, I bought a can of Titansilver (or Titanium Silver, same paint-code) spray from Halfords, along with a fresh can of clear-lacquer, £6.49 each. After giving the caps about six coats of both, I gave them a good rub with T-cut so they look OE, though I have a feeling they will look a lot shinier than the bumper. I will have to get polishing and sort those scratches...

M-Sport Bumper Total Cost:
Bumper - £200
Hinges - £5.40
Washer-caps - £30
Tow-hook Cap - £18.11
Paint/lacquer - £12.98
TOTAL - £266.49

Pre-primed ABS-plastic is a piece of cake to paint and was going great...

...until it rained and spotted the lacquer...

...so needed a bit of flatting back...

...and repainting, followed by a quick blast with rubbing-compound.

New 'M-Paket' hinges do indeed need the corner of the bumper pulling out to fit, they can't be done from outside.

E60: Fitting M-Sport Front Bumper

1. Bumper Removal:

1.1 Remove the bolt holding either corner of the bumper, just inside the wheel-arch, using a 10mm wrench. The edges of the bumper inside the wing should be free to pull out of join.

1.2 Remove the screws holding the wheel-arch liner to the front bumper using an 8mm socket. *If you are replacing your arch-liners then remove them entirely.

1.3 Remove the two screws from the lower centre of the bumper, using a T25-Torx socket, located just under the lip below each corner of the licence-plate.

1.4 Remove the two screws from the lower centre of the bumper using a T25-Torx socket, located inside each spotlight-grille recess.

1.5 Remove the five screws holding the upper-centre of the bumper along the top edge of the grille/slam panel using a T30-Torx socket.

1.6 The bumper should be free to move, so wiggle it forward and gently rest the front-centre on the ground.

1.7 Unplug the wiring to the spotlights and four parking-sensors (PDC).

1.8 Unfasten the wiring from the hooks along the inside edge of the bumper.

2. Preparing M-Sport Bumper:

2.1 Swap over the spotlight bulb-holders. They are removed by rotating a quarter-turn anti-clockwise.

2.2 Swap over the four parking-sensors (PDC). Remove them by pulling them out from the back while gently pressing from the outer side. They should fit the lugs on all E60 bumpers, regardless of year.

2.3 Ensure the grilles, headlight-washer hinges and springs are fitted to the bumper as they cannot be fitted once it is on.

2.4 On the car, remove the wiring from the foam-polystyrene blocks and remove the blocks from the car.

2.5 Fit the 'M-Paket' foam-polystyrene blocks to the car and re-insert the wiring to them, or if you do not have compatible foam blocks and are leaving them off, find a suitable route for the wiring over the top of the grille / air-ducts.

2.6 If you do not have 'M-Paket' brake-air-ducts on your bumper, then swap the existing ones left to right and flip them upside down to clear the M-Sport grille-recesses. 

3. Fitting M-Sport Bumper:

3.1 Place the M-Sport bumper in front of the car and reinsert the PDC/spotlight wiring to the hooks along the inside edge of the bumper.

3.2 Reconnect the wiring-plugs to each parking-sensor (PDC) and spotlight.

3.3 Lift the bumper up to the car, so the front-undertray slides above the deeper M-Sport lip and put one screw loosely into the centre hole on the top of the grille.

3.4 Hook each corner of the bumper round into the slot in the wheel-arch and replace the 10mm screws, but not tighten fully.

3.5 Find a suitable placement for the bumper, where the shut lines at either side of the headlight are as equal as possible. Do this one side at a time and fully tighten the 10mm screws.

3.6 *If you have the adapter-brackets on your bumper then fasten these to the two centre screw-holes from step 1.3.

3.7 Loosely replace the remaining four screws along the top of the grille / slam-panel, find a suitable placement for the grille panel where it does not disturb the shut-lines at the headlight corners and fully tighten the top screws using a T30-Torx socket.

3.8 Fit the M-Paket wheel-arch liners and fasten them to the bumper using the 8mm screws, or if you are keeping the SE ones, measure where the outer edge of the liner fouls the M-Sport bumper and cut a sliver off. One of the 8mm screw holes should still line up and hold the cut liner in place.

3.9 Replace the weather-strip trim to the top grille-panel.

3.10 Check the headlight-washers are clearing their apertures and refit the cover-caps.

E60 M-Sport Bumper Retrofit: '08 LCI to '04 SE

I have mentioned hankering after an M-Sport or M5 style front-bumper for my 530d, but they are expensive. A new spurious one will cost about £230, the same price as a damaged genuine one and either of these require painting. A mint one already painted in Titansilver, complete with grilles, parking-sensors and trim will run £400. I've been looking for a few months and this week spotted an undamaged '08 front bumper for £250 with new spot-lamps and grilles, but no sensors or trim. Best of all it was in Wrexham, less than 30 miles away, so when I emailed the seller offering £200 cash on collection and he accepted, I realised that I was now bound to the idea. I got the bumper on in 2 hours, but a lot of bits had to be removed to do it and before I start modifying them to fit I'm sat on a fence between bothering at all, or just going back to stock - I can still get £200 for this M-bumper all day long.

Before you consider doing the retrofit to an SE, I must mention that even if the M-Sport bumper is fully-loaded with trim and bits, you will still need to buy a heap of extra parts to make it fit properly. If you don't, stock parts that get in the way will either have to be binned or modified to fit...

Things that DO fit:

• Wing and top-grille mounting points.
• Spot-lamp bulb-holders.
• Parking-sensors (PDC).
• Grille-top weather-strip.

Things that do NOT fit:

• Headlight-washer caps.
• Headlight-washer cap hinges.
• Tow-eye cover cap.
• All 4 lower-grille mounting points.
• Left + right brake air-duct.
• Under-tray left + right corners.
• Front wheel-arch liners.
• Bumper shock-absorbers (foam-polystyrene blocks).

Assuming your bumper comes bare, you will need these essentials:

H/Light Washer Hinge (Lever) Left [51117896601] (22 in below pic)

H/Light Washer Hinge (Lever) Right [51117896602]

H/Light Washer Cap Left [51117897211] (21 in below pic)

H/Light Washer Cap Right [51117897212]

Tow-eye Cover Cap [51117897210] (9 in below pic)

You can get away with leaving the bumper unbolted in the lower-centre, or easily fab-up some custom brackets, but if you want to buy them then you will need:

Holding Strap [51111973721] (10 in below pic)

2x Adapter Bracket [51117896611] (33 in below pic)

The foam-polystyrene bumper 'shock-absorbers' can be cut to fit or just left off, but if you want them they are:

Shock-absorber Left [51117896589]

Shock-absorber Right [51117896590]

The plastic wheel-arch liners only need a sliver cutting off to make them fit, but if you really want to replace them:

Front Wheel-arch Liner/Cover Left [51717896605]
Front Wheel-arch Liner/Cover Right [51717896606]

The diagram above with all parts can be seen on this page of RealOEM.com.

E21/E30: Crude Rear Seat Repair.

When the seats arrived the rear one had a noticeably big tear on the top of the back-rest. By the time I'd finished cleaning them however, there were now 3 tears along the same strip. I was being super-careful with the scrubbing brush, but after 25 years under the back-window the glue is coming away and the strands of twill fabric separate very easily indeed. An attempt to repair one of the splits only made it worse as the material is stretched by the glue and can't wait to rip.

I considered throwing the stock beige seats back in, but then had a moment of er, inspiration, and found a strip of spare material wedged into the frame behind. I cut it into patches and stuck them down with fabric spray-adhesive, £7.99 but it's strong stuff.

It's not the prettiest of repairs, despite matching the lines up, but looks better than threadbare, won't get any worse now and the interior of the car looks a lot fresher with them in I must say. If they're going to stay though, a permanent cover-up will be needed - probably in the form of a parcel-shelf re-trim. The beige carpet could do with a refresh, so I may extend the fabric past the shelf and have it cascade over the back-rest slightly. We will see.

E21 316: Fitting E30 rear sport-seats - or having a go anyway.

Stock fit works, but leaves big gaps.

As with the front seats I used HSVTurbos build [here] as a rough guide. His rear bench-seat is the all-sponge kind, whereas mine have the sponge base, but a sprung back-rest, possibly due to the folding arm-rest or model year difference. This means I have a metal frame to work with on the back-rest, so it can be pressed flat to greatly reduce the proud fit at either corner, but also means more needs to be cut away than just blobs of sponge. The E30 coupe's rear seat-pan, the body-tub and front doors are almost identical dimensions to the E21, so the rear seat-base just slots in. There are no brackets along the bottom-edge to clamp the squab down, but with it seated flat and wedged under the back-rest these may not be necessary, although fabbing some up might be worthwhile to stop the carpet sagging down in the footwells.

The general shape of the back-rest is more or less the same as the E21 and the hooks fit into the existing brackets, though the E30's parcel-shelf is curvier, causing the back-rest to stick out slightly at the top corners. The back-rest also sits slightly higher, leaving an inch gap at the bottom between it and the squab. If these gaps don't bother you then the seat works fine like this and will only need a little chopping off each upper corner to achieve a pretty good looking fit. If they do, then a little more work is required to seat the back-rest flush and minimise the corner gaps.

The main problem here are the seat-belt reels, which protrude from the bulkhead and fill up where the upper corners of the back-rest want to be. The back-rest bolsters are also slightly too broad, though the centre of the rear frame is more or less a perfect fit to the E21 bulkhead.

Modifying the Back-rest:

1. Bend up the small hooks holding the cover material in place over each side edge of the back-rest and pull the fabric clear of the metal frame.

2. Cut away the side-support on each side of the frame, leaving just the edge of the 'mattress' frame that holds the springs, as in the photo below. The brackets at each bottom corner should come away here too.

3. Cut in half the metal bar that runs between the centre and bolsters, the one attached to the top spring in each corner, and trim away the top spring as close to the frame as possible.

4. Cut the metal bar running along the top of the frame about 4" in from either top corner

5. Cut away the boar-hair matting along each side of the back-rest to reduce its depth by about half.

6. Cut a 2" square from each top corner of the boar-hair matting to give a recess where the seat-belt can run freely back into its reel.

7. Replace the fabric cover, hooking it to points on the mattress-frame and tucking it under the springs. At each top corner, I pierced a hole and ran a cable-tie through to hold the folded fabric clear of the seat-belt reel.

Fitting to the E21:

To get the back-rest sitting flush to the seat-base the original mounting-brackets may have to be abandoned in favour of slotting the hooks on the bulkhead directly into the top of the back-rest frame. The original lower brackets are attached to the frame here and may need cutting off for a tight fit.

1. Hook the top lip of the back-rest frame over the metal hooks on the bulkhead. Press hard to make sure the metal bar gets over the hooks and not just the boar-hair and fabric. Give each side a good knock down onto the hooks. The top of the back-rest should be about 5mm lower than the parcel shelf.

2. Fit the centre arm-rest and lock the clips into place. The back-rest should sit a bit proud of the bulkhead and need pushing flat. Drill two holes through the back plate of the arm-rest and bulkhead. Fasten it together with two bolts or pop-rivets. Not only will this hold the seat in place, it will also stop it moving when the arm-rest is lowered.

E21 316: E30 Sports Seats - fitted.

MJNewbs from eBay got back in touch and we finally negotiated a low enough price for the seats. The fronts are in great nick, only a slight fray to the driver's back-rest, but the rear seat back-rest has a few tear that I'll address in a later post.

Thankfully, the E30 seat bases fit onto the inner stock mount, next to the trans. tunnel, on the E21 so they are already sited neatly in the centre and only require the outer mount to be lowered. Here's how I finally got them to an equal height.

The outer seat-mount was cut away about 1.5 inches height from the lowest point of the floor-pan and the top half completely removed from the sill. This leaves a large flat T-piece section onto which a length of '2by4' style wood-beam was placed that sits at the same height as the inner seat-mount, give or take 2mm.

To strengthen the edge of the wood where the seat sits a piece of 2mm-thick angle-steel was screwed in place, clamping the wood to the remaining edge of the cut seat-mount. The M10 seat bolts run through the wood and are bolted to the floor-pan, so the wood only acts as a riser, not an anchor and the angle-steel helps to distribute any downward force on the wood, or twisting motion as the seat is adjusted.

I chose to bolt my seats directly through the floor-pan for strength and this leaves a gap under the base of the wood at the inside corners, which I stacked out with a nut and large washers. This gives the added benefit of the seats being bolted first to the wood, then through the floor-pan with the same bolt. The downside is the sealed floor-pan nuts will need removing should the seat need to come out in future. The alternative method, used by HSVTurbo in his build here, is to bolt the seats to a thicker metal bracket, then bolt the bracket through the wood and floor-pan. This way the seat can be removed from inside the car leaving the wood fixed in place, but I just don't feel this setup will be strong enough, even with the thicker metal bracket.

I used M10 nyloc-nuts with a dab of stud-lock inside and large-diameter [40mm] 'bumper' washers. A good blob of silicone-sealant was put between the washer and body, then round the outside of the seated nut. Finally, I coated them in a thick layer of Finnegan's WAXOYL Underbody Sealant, for protection obviously, but also to blend the shiny nuts and washers into the car's underside.

I still have the rear-seats, including the folding arm-rest, along with the door-cards/handles and rear trim-panels, so we'll have to see how much will fit after the MOT.

E21 316: E30 Sports Seats vs. Re-covering the Recaros

Saw these absolutely divine Recaro sports-seats from an early E30 Baur cabriolet on eBay. They're all but identical to the Recaro/sports-seats from the E21, but have different subframes for the E30, not that it would make any difference now I've started cutting out the stock mounts and the inner side of the E30 base fits perfectly to the inner-mount anyway, so would be a bit neater/stronger than my all-custom base. Only snag is, the price is a little more than I'm willing to pay as the rear seat and door-cards are included. I've got them down a bit, but I'm sticking to my upper limit and they're having none of it. 

It got me thinking, the shape isn't too different from the RS Turbo Recaros I have, it's just the colourful Ford fabric that doesn't suit, but there may be a way to create some ultra-cheap 'replicas'. I figure the stock E21 seats aren't worth much at all, so there may be enough decent fabric left on the two to re-cover the centre-sections of the Recaros in beige cloth. This leaves the bolsters/head-rest grey alcantara, which is where fabric spray-paint comes in, about a tenner a can off eBay, to make them dark-brown. I whipped the cover off one of my E21 seat to weigh it up and it does look possible. On the other hand it has the potential to mess up a great pair of Recaros that are worth quite a lot more still than I previously thought, as well as condemn a tatty but useable pair of E21 comfort-seats, which I could at the very least donate to someone. At the risk of the end product looking naff, I don't think it's worth the sacrifice.

** UPDATE - Another pair came up on eBay yesterday and guess what, the guy emailed back about the original set accepting my offer. The second pair are a bit dirtier and the back seat is wrecked, but the seller will come to about half the other offer, only thing is he wants collection and they're in Cardiff. It will cost me the difference to drive down there, plus a day spent sat in the car. To be worthwhile I'd have to get this second set for buttons, so I called up the original guy and bought the set above - they'll come Monday and I can use the rear bench. I'm glad this seat problem is finally put to bed as the MOT is a week on Saturday and I need perma-fixed seats!

E21 Retrofit Angel Eyes! [Single headlight models 315, 316, 318]

I fitted CCFL [cold-cathode fluorescent tube] angel-eye rings to my E39 5-series a while back and it was pretty straight-forward, so I thought I'd have a go at a real retrofit and stick some in the E21... because all Beemers should have angel-eyes right? I know it's not a stance thing, but it is a style thing nonetheless and you don't see many E21s with angel-eyes. Twin headlight models share lamps with the E30, so the aftermarket world is your oyster, but there are no kits available for the single headlight E21 so I bought the bits separately. I bought two 145mm CCFL-rings and inverter-ballasts from car-mod-shop-ltd on eBay, which worked out about the same price as a kit @ £10 for each ring and £5 for each ballast. 

The difference of course between retro and modern cars is the headlights nowadays are usually multiple lamps fitted into a cluster, which can be easily popped open and clipped back together, making it easy to fit the CCFL-rings inside them. Classic cars, say pre 1990, tend to have separate single lamps that have fully sealed lenses and cracking these babies open without busting the glass is what gave me the most trouble on this job, so bear this is mind before undertaking it yourself and be careful, it's not something I would want to do again anytime soon! 

1. Headlight Stripping:

Exploded headlight diagram on RealOEM.com to reference parts and construct: [http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=1712&mospid=47166&btnr=63_0023&hg=63&fg=05]

1a. Remove the front grilles and headlights - see this guide if you need help doing that - [http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3344522564318790310#editor/target=post;postID=2422546919882957928]

1b. Free the spring-clip arms from the wiring-connector and rotate them back, then pull off the wiring-connector / covering-cap and remove the bulb / sidelight-bulb + holder.

1c. Remove the tensioning spring from the headlight chassis.

1d. Use a flat screwdriver to carefully pop the legs of the adjusting-screws out of their collars on the front of the headlight chassis.

1e. Carefully tilt the rear chassis away from the lens against the plastic mounting-clip, being careful not to snap it, until the chassis is clear of the spring-clip/lens and can be rotated a quarter-turn and removed from its mount.

1f. If the headlight has one, gently prize off the thin metal cowl from around the rim of the lens. [One of mine had it, one didn't.]

2. Opening the Lens:

2a. Leave the glass lens in a very low-heat oven for 10-15 minutes to soften the sealant between the glass and reflector.

2b. Score away as much of the sealant from around the rim of the glass as possible using a square-cut razor-blade and pick it out using a small flat screwdriver.

2c. Gently push a small flat screwdriver into the gap between the glass and the metal rim. Gently rotate the screwdriver to carefully prize the metal rim away from the glass and completely crack the seal, repeating around the entire circumference of the lens.

**Make sure you take time to pick away as much sealant as possible and can see or hear it crack away from the edge when prizing with the screwdriver before trying to lift the lens - it won't take much to crack the glass!**

2d. Place the end of the screwdriver beneath the edge of the glass and gently prize it up out of the metal lens. This will likely need doing in a few different spots before the glass becomes free enough to lift out of the lens.

3. Angel-Eye Fitting:

3a. Clean the lens and inside surface of the glass.

3b. Locate a suitable position for the CCFL angel-eye ring just inside the bowl of the lens. The larger 145mm rings I'm using have a flat section along the top that meets the bonnet shut-line on E46 etc. and I thought it would make too big a gap in my round lenses, so I mounted mine with the flat spot offset 45  degrees inwards on either side, giving it a sort of badboy-bonnet look, or that's the idea anyway.

3c. Push the socket and wires from the CCFL ring trough the sidelight hole in the lens [the socket may need one of the lugs cutting off the side to fit through], locate a suitable position for the two wires in the lens with the shortest path from the ring and attach them along the flat plastic side of the ring and to each other using clear-tape.

3d. Attach the CCFL angel-eye ring just inside the bowl of the lens using clear-sealant or the sticking-pads supplied with most CCFL-rings.

4. Resealing and Fitting:

4a. Apply clear-sealant [I just used multi-purpose silicone stuff] around the metal rim of the lens and replace the glass. If you haven't marked the position of the glass, the two hooks that fasten the spring-clip down is the top of the lens.

4b. Gently prize the edge of the metal rim back toward the glass and run another bead of sealant around the outside of the rim and leave it to set.

4c. Replace the headlight bulb and holder.

4d. Drill a hole of about 8-9mm in the covering cap, just to the right of the curved contact from the original sidelight. Pop the socket and wires from the CCFL-ring through the hole and replace the covering-cap.

4e. Use a bit more sealant on the hole where the CCFL-ring wires come through the cap.

4f. Replace the metal cowl [if it has one] and prize it back tight around the edge of the glass and lens.

4g. Reassemble the remaining headlight chassis by first inserting the plastic-lug and rotating the chassis back into place. Then drop it flat enough against the lens to easily get the spring back into place and stretch the chassis back until you can pop the ends of the adjusting-screws back into their collars.

4h. Refit the headlights and grilles to the car.

5. Wiring Up:

5a. Find a suitable place to mount the CCFL-ballast where there is plenty of room for the wires to reach and affix it with the provided sticking-pads. [If you're only running a single headlight it's worth heavily insulating the unused CCFL socket and tape it out of the way - they carry a high current and can short out very easily, I've burnt out a few inverters before just by them contacting the body for a second or two!]

5b. Chop the lower of the 4 wires on the headlight wiring-connector. This is the one that sticks out further away from the other 3 terminals on the connector and should be Gy/Wt for O/S and Yl/Bk for N/S on European single-headlight model E21s.

5c. Connect the cut wire to the terminal on the CCFL-ballast's red wire using solder or crimp-connectors and insulate with heat-shrink ideally, or tape.

5d. Connect the black wire from the CCFL-ballast to the headlight earth-wire - the brown wire on both sides. You could do this by soldering or with a multi-crimp connector, but I found the easiest way was to bend the metal terminal of the black wire 90 degrees and slide it into the brown wire socket on the headlight connector. The connector then holds the wire tight when it's pushed into place. A bit slapdash, but it does the trick!

5e. Plug the wiring connector back into the headlight and connect up the CCFL-ring to the inverter-ballast.

Enjoy your new angle eyes!