The 5 Year Restoration - E30 M3 Reborn

[CurrusDei]

I'm woefully behind on this thread. I'll do my best to get some more content up soon (harness resto detail, leather reconditioning, etc, but for now...the M3 is back home. 8 months in the body shop did her well...






















First piece back on...





I was joking earlier about needing white gloves for reassembly...but now I'm thinking that might be true. Very excited. More to come!


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[0-60Motorsports]

beautiful! wish i could lend a hand reassembling this beauty

[jhaurimn]

Man, thats gotta be an amazing feeling getting that back into your own garage.

[CurrusDei]

It does. I almost don't know where to start! Waiting on a hood shock to keep the hood up before I start work in there. Working on cleaning up the gaskets that go under the roof bar, new clips and rivets already ordered







I think these gaskets are NLA, and I'm worried paint thinner will make them swell up, so I'm using alcohol and a razor blade to scrape off the overspray and years of crust






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[jhaurimn]

I love the third reply to the first post in this topic

Nice score!
Don't rush things, that's all I have to say.

Archie had NO IDEA you would take his comment to heart this much :giggle:

Also, stop teasing us :hitler:

[CurrusDei]

2.5 Years In... M3 Build Thread...PAINT COMPLETE!

Yeh, this went from casual rolling resto, nothing fancy...to bare frame concours restoration...



I'll make significant progress as soon as I have a free weekend. Also looking like I'll need a rock tumbler or cement mixer with media to clean up the hardware.

Prepping to paint my trim myself. Wurth primer and satin black currently inbound and got all my abrasives from Grainger. I was worried about overspray and contamination...until my wife got a spray tan before her HS reunion and the girl who did it set up this pop up paint booth literally in our kitchen. Bingo. Amazon had a much larger version...



Also inbound

- Hood strut
- OEM E30 floor mats, anthracite (new, may dye carpet to match if it has faded significantly)
- New hardware to reattach roof strip thingy
- Driver lower outer seat bolster leather (mine was far gone, and I messed it up when fixing)

[CurrusDei]

Small update, a few goodies in and a couple other parts back on...









Cleaned up floor vents and reinstalled. Here one in left has been cleaned, right hasn't.



Now both in...



New floormats definitely are darker than the carpet, but looking at pictures it seems this is the case most of the time.



Take the bubble car for instance. Similar contrast...


Was it like this from the factory? I can't imagine it fading that badly, and uniformly, even in areas with no sun exposure. So my guess is that is how it was stock - any input?


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[bradnic]

Black definitely fades heavily, especially the tunnel area in front of the rear seat. Check the carpet color near the heater box

[jhaurimn]

Way back, you could get anthracite mats that matched the lighter shade of the carpet. Havent seen a set pop up for sale in a long time.

[CurrusDei]

2.5 Years In... M3 Build Thread...PAINT COMPLETE!

Interesting. ECS has these labeled as Anthracite, but they are clearly darker if the carpet is anthracite as well (it may not be, I always thought anthracite was closer to what the mats look like). Are those e30 mats? Look like a later model (the car on the label looks like an e46)


That said, my carpet is a uniform color throughout, even under the air box, so I don't think it has faded. See old pic below...




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[jhaurimn]

Yup, they are e30. Heres another picture

[bradnic]

yeah that carpet looks pretty darn good. anthracite floor mats would be great with it!

[CurrusDei]

Hmmm. I may need to start a floor mat collection.


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[BMG]

Epic rebuild ! Thanks so much for documenting it as it will help hugely with my own M3 rebuild.

[jhaurimn]

How I browse r3v lately:

Step 1. Open r3v
Step 2. Go to m3 discussion forum
Step 3. Check this thread for updates
Step 4. Close r3v