The 5 Year Restoration - E30 M3 Reborn

[M-technik-3]

Who is the company care to share so others can use the service.

[CurrusDei]

Who is the company care to share so others can use the service.

http://www.ecsvin.com/

There ya go!

[M-technik-3]

Thank you. This will help when mine is completed.

[CurrusDei]

I got my first round of labels and had some corrections. Sending them back my edits and some original stickers so hopefully they'll get it perfect and be set up for future orders


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[Court M3]

Your dedication to this project is awesome, can't wait to see it completed.

[golde30]

There is more than one company that can do bmw vin tags. I am in the autobody industry, and have dealt with a couple companies. Key is to take very high resolution pictures of the labels and a ruler.

Also $8k is pretty good price for this work. The shop im at would charge almost double...

[CurrusDei]

There is more than one company that can do bmw vin tags. I am in the autobody industry, and have dealt with a couple companies. Key is to take very high resolution pictures of the labels and a ruler.

Also $8k is pretty good price for this work. The shop im at would charge almost double...

Good to hear both! How has your experience been with ECS VIN? I'm getting ready to send them my original stickers so they can nail the new ones.

My first quote from magnum was nearly double (~$14K), but doing the teardown my self saved me a ton.

Your dedication to this project is awesome, can't wait to see it completed.

Thanks. Me neither!

[golde30]

Never used ECSvin, i use a local company. Ecsvin website looks pretty legit. I have had hit or miss exp with my local company, but i think its my fault as the pictures i took may not have been clear enough.

[CurrusDei]

Some birthday presents for me/M3. Staying stock.



more to come there.

New garage is working out nicely







Been doing some work on my wiring harness overhaul-it's been a learning experience. Finally found some very good heat shrink tubing from McMaster Carr that retains very good flexibility post shrink and can withstand 350 degree heat without softening - helpful for stuff near the engine as a lot of the factory wire conduit was hardened and cracking. I'll do a full write up when finished.


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[bradnic]

Dream garage. sweet part porn too!

[CurrusDei]

More from the body shop...






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[SteveJ]

Twin sons of different mothers

I've been off the boards for a couple of years since my jobs changed, but I just stumbled upon your thread.

First off, I am impressed with what you have attempted. You should have a lot of pride in your abilities (and your skills in documenting this).

Second, thank you for the detailed documentation. I have been on the fence about how far down to gut the car prior to paint. Since reading here, I do think a dash and heater box pull is on the menu.

I'm doing about the same things to my M3 but on the West coast, and over the span of...oh...a decade or so. Then again, I bought my Henna red car in 1990 with only 28k on the clock. I then racked up 200k more VERY fun miles. (Smiles during a commute? Yes, in an M3.) It's been paid for for many years and I have been amassing parts for an eventual rebuild.

I didn't photo document as well as you, however I did tag, bag, & label the Sheet out of all the parts I removed from the car. It's funny, you call it a rabbit hole you keep going deeper into. I call it a slippery slope, and I'm wearing teflon shorts, and my friends keep spraying it down with silicone lube. When the hell am I going to hit bottom?

My updates/recent progress:
The seats are finally at the trimmer having the new leather kit installed. BMW sure does use some abrasive leather. Part of my deal was the seats had to be comfy for my wife. It might not be totally original, but Nappa leather sure feels A LOT better.

The 5 wheels came back from the wheel shop. Powder coat in a -correct- Wurth-looking silver. I disassembled the center caps and had the metal portion done at the same time so they would all match. The plastic center was lightly sanded and sprayed w/ Wurth silver and clear. New roundel stickers added another ring to the tree that are the center caps.

Valve cover and intake are back from powder coat. Black krinkle is -slightly- more coarse than the original, but it looks WAY better than the peeling, discolored mess it was before. I don't think I will polish the lettering at all. It cleaned up from the bead blasting and looks good. I think the polished letters would just be too much flash when I am going for a bone-stock look.

The big problem is what stopped me dead in my tracks a few years ago. The heater core or the cowl leaked and ended up pooling in the passenger footwell. As I pulled the heatsheild/insulation from underneath, I could see the carpet up above. There was no metal floor...at least at that spot. Strip everything out, wire wheel the area, and have a 9 inch by 3 inch highway speed inspection hole. Or Flintstone brakes, if you will. I have a clean donor panel out of a surprisingly clean e30 cabrio. Hopefully,someone with more skill than I can fix this...correctly.

Thanks again for the great thread. I'll be re-reading and amassing more parts now.

[CurrusDei]

Thanks Steve! I love the Henna. Great color. If I did another one I'd love a Henna.

Electrical system is coming along. In the meantime I'm gathering suspension and other components. It's annoying that the front OEM shock inserts are NLA. Might see if mine are ok to keep using (I have new rears already)...

Anyways here's a fun minor mod in keeping with my focus on details.

The key.



It's ok as keys go, but I felt it was a little dull for such a great car. OEM parts fortunately have a nice solution.

I had to buy two key light inserts...





But on the other side they look like this...




To pieces...




And back together, merging the cool sides into one





I'll get a new key cut eventually. This guys just going to be sitting on a shelf for a while anyways. But I'm very happy with the look.


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[greyis89]

Insane! Such a good build and recorded nicely! Wish I had done the same for my car with swap and turbo build, oh well :/

You said it was going to be a long read the other day at the shop, so I've been catching up slowly in between calls and stuff the past couple of days haha! Can't wait to see this done, and I'm sure the project has been fun. Glad to have been able to help just in the little ways with some parts :)

When it's done, mandatory photos at the new MMW shop! - Phil

[SteveJ]

Insane! Such a good build and recorded nicely! Wish I had done the same for my car... - Phil

I plan on just photoshopping all the pics to my car color and VIN. Nobody will be the wiser.

Gotta love that '80s technology on that "hi tech " key light option. But hey, that's what we did in he days of phonograph records and before LED technology.