The 5 Year Restoration - E30 M3 Reborn

[bradnic]

Dream garage. sweet part porn too!

[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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[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]

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]

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...

[Court M3]

Your dedication to this project is awesome, can't wait to see it 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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[M-technik-3]

Thank you. This will help when mine is completed.

[CurrusDei]

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

http://www.ecsvin.com/

There ya go!

[M-technik-3]

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

[CurrusDei]

Two Years In... M3 Build Thread...Now in Paint!

given the amount of work you're putting in to this, why end up with a non-numbers-matching hood?

speaking of the amount of work you're putting into this, awesome awesome job. this is a fantastic thread.

Thanks!

To correctly paint the car, all the vin tags have to come off. Otherwise the paint will peel up around where the old tags were even if you carefully mask them off.

Fortunately, there is a company (one company) that is authorized to make replacement VIN tags for BMW in the US. I have taken pains to document the originality of each panel by taking photographs of the original VIN tags in place-so that I can establish it is a true numbers matching, accident free car even though the vin tags are new, licensed reproductions. I'll even have the original hood if I ever want to sell someday.

Also, the hoods are really hard to refinish. Any dents or other damage that needs to be repaired is really hard to sand on because the metal is thin. Know how if you've ever seen someone sit on a hood and it makes that sickening metallic popping sound? That's what happens with the sander - very very hard to avoid having defects in the final paintwork. Since the hood is the biggest flat surface on the car, replacement is the best option. Even though the old hood was in pretty good shape for its age - that's a long way from perfect.

[kronus]

given the amount of work you're putting in to this, why end up with a non-numbers-matching hood?

speaking of the amount of work you're putting into this, awesome awesome job. this is a fantastic thread.

[CurrusDei]

How much?

Trying to get an idea of such an endeavor. Locally, I'm getting the 4000 dollar mark is the going rate for a respray...

Including all body work (various dents and dings), new hood, new undercoating, paint and primer, wetsanding, etc I'm looking at about $8K.

This is for it to be perfect and have a lifetime guarantee on the paint.

I got a few quotes around $4-5k for a mask & spray, but heard so many horror stories about resprays gone wrong from "hey i know a guy" referrals or run of the mill collision shops that I went with a premium shop for a bare chassis full workup. Not saying your guys quoting you are bad (I dont know them obviously), but the stories i heard involved having to re-respray, work not holding up after re-assembly, clear mismatches from stock, ridiculous paint thicknesses, etc. The paint is so key to the result and i did so much work tearing it down that I went with gross overkill.

[TimeMachinE30]

How much?

Trying to get an idea of such an endeavor. Locally, I'm getting the 4000 dollar mark is the going rate for a respray...

[CurrusDei]

Two years.

Happy second anniversary r3v. I've moved twice since buying this car, but the project goes on. Visited the car in the shop yesterday and snapped a few more pics. Nearly done with the first coat of primer - then block sand again - then second coat of primer - then paint!

You can see the new hood here as well.