The 5 Year Restoration - E30 M3 Reborn

[alistairolsen]

Those look fantastic, very nice work!

[CurrusDei]

Lights

I found some NLA, new old stock Hella Euro Smiley Elipsoids. Wired them up here in place of the U.S. Elipsoids. The primary differences are the bulbs, the euro "smiley" cutout, the city lights, and the connectors. Had to cut off the U.S. connectors and got new pigtails from BMW that match up to the Euro connectors (also available new). The pigtails from BMW all come green, so i used my colored bands and clear shrink wrap method to keep the wiring distinguishable for future reference.

Left to right - Hi Beam, Lo Beam, City Light



US Removed




Euro On




Since my front bumper is a Euro version, i dont need the wiring for the front reflectors. Repurposed them as the city light connections (gray one at the top)




In place




City




Low




High




Euro Grille (R) with AC sticker



Euro Grille (L)




From font (Condensor fan on now)





Front Grille in place











New Horns













New Speakers






Got a Bosch sticker for the Alternator




Ground by ABS tightened down




Rear seatbelt finished







The compessor fan was a real, real pain. I tried to buy the ECS replacement one, but it was not anything like the factory one, tried ordering the 4 Seasons version, wrong size, so i finally got o factory one off ebay. Hoping to not have to replace this anytime soon.



Brakes.

These things came out GREAT. I used Korman to do the plating, they glass peened them and had their plater run them through several times. I cant imagine them looking better coming from the factory - these things are like jewelry.














on and torqued and marked




Rear Caliper







Caliper boot kits




This is the grease Korman suggested. I think Russian beluga caviar is cheaper per oz.




Inner seal in. I've read stories of some people receiving these with a chisel shape profile instead of a rectangle profile. THis wasnt the case with mine, both sides were flat on all four caliper seals. Coated with the super expensive grease and installed.



Easiest way to put the dust boots on is to grease them, install them on the caliper first, then press them into the caliper (gently, i had to rock them back and forth very slightly to align them, and then they went in with minmal resistance). From there it was easy to work the outer edges around the caliper lip. The rears have a retaining ring, the fronts do not.






Front Caliper







The rear caliper pistons were cleaned up, but i was able to source brand new stainless steel calipers for the fronts.









Front caliper boot goes inside a lip on the caliper, vs the rear where it goes over a retaining lip. THis makes it a little bit more complex, but not if you use good grease on the rubber areas and take your time.






I seated the outer retainer lip into the seat before pressing in the caliper to avoid a "pinch" situation after pressing in the piston







New bleed nipples




Slide pin boots and brake line on





























Brakes bled. Very happy with how these turned out. Also, they work very well

[TimeMachinE30]

I was scanning photos for a piece of dust or crumb. Did not find.


Well done.

[CurrusDei]

Is that the intended way to vent the battery? I always just routed the hose out that black plastic piece that goes out to the rear bumper area.

yep.

[jhaurimn]

Is that the intended way to vent the battery? I always just routed the hose out that black plastic piece that goes out to the rear bumper area.

[CurrusDei]

Header is factory, ceramic coated (Calico Coatings) inside and out
Mid Section is VSR, stainless, ceramic coated by VSR outside only (inside would mess with cats)
Muffler is OEM (Evo III) no coatings

[LateFan]

Nice welds, wow.

Second on the battery venting.

SO much shiny aluminum in here! Is it painted or vapor blasted?

[0-60Motorsports]

Coming along great. That exhaust is going to sound great.

[CurrusDei]

Ok here goes. This is a lot to update. I'll put it up piece by piece and descriptions may not be as detailed, but ask if you have questions. Also this isnt going to be in any strict order - just semi-coherent area by area

Got a new cap. So i got that going for me, which is nice



Filling time







MTL for Trans





MT-90 for Diff



Speaking of the diff. This took a while, but I was able to find a reasonable match for the cable tie that keeps on the speedo sensor. Turnsout the best fit is a tamper-resistant seal that is used for cargo shipments. The things you learn doing this stuff...

Old one



New one




Belting



Oh and, i had installed my fan backwards - so i fixed that




Cowl Covers:



This little guy hooks to the check valve on the charcoal canister. I didnt like how it wasnt very waterproof with the connectors exposed. You know, because waterproofing is key in a car that will never see rain. Anyways...



Fixed




This is the housing for the clutch pedal sensor. The housing looks like garbage and the metal has that Statue of Liberty patina thing going on - which isnt great for conductivity



The brake pedal uses a black housing which is the mirror image of this one. It was used in the E39s so it is easy to find. The white one seems to be NLA. I couldnt even find it in RealOEM or after a lot of digging online, soooo

Found a connector with the same interface, modified the back end to make it accept the connectors, which i cleaned up with Wurth Contact Cleaner and some wire brushes







My fix. only thing is the plugs can back out when you're plugging it in if you dont watch them Might put some putty or something in there eventually but wanted to keep it easy to service






My battery from years ago was way, way dead. So I got a Bosch one that exactly fits the M3, factory tie downs, vent provision and everything. Surprisingly this was available at PepBoys - rare that i can source anything from the chains



Oh AND. Letting that old non-vented battery sit in my trunk for a while made me wonder if it was starting to hurt the battery tray. My paranoia paid off. When i took up the tray i found that there was already yellow residue gathering on the paint, which fortunately was not yet damaged.
If anyone ever tells you that you dont need to vent your E30 battery - dont listen.
As for me i broke out the baking soda, short brush, and steam cleaner and went to town



All better with the battery vent box installed. These used to be a lot bigger, but now they're tiny. The plug going down isnt long enough to completely clear the rubber grommet, so i added some extra line onto it to make sure the vapors vent far enough away that they dont back up in to the tray.








Exhaust. I looked through my old exhaust and determined that it is too roached out (tech term) to bother restoring. Whoever welded on this thing must not have had opposable thumbs. Anyone else spot the stick weld element still attached in one of the pics below?












So here's the replacement.

VSR high flow cat factory style stainless steel, dual 2" with ceramic exterior coating

BMW OEM EVO III Muffler



Those little rocks are from the pre-coating tumbling process. I got them out after this pic. May have the flange to pipe transition welded smooth.







I also cleaned off that yellowish stuff in the pic below










Excuse the pollen on the pipes in this last one. That stuff is everywhere now, including in garages




I'm going to have it all welded to gether by Origin Fab. Here's a small sample of their work:

[CurrusDei]

UUUGH I just checked and from my last update photo to today i have 770 pics.
This. Might. Take. A bit.

[CurrusDei]

Dropped her off to get glass (front/rear) today. Then its exhaust, then AC, then maybe ceramic/film

[AirDoc]

Awesome build...looking forward to seeing it at the Vintage!!

[bradnic]

Car is registered for the Vintage. It starts on my birthday this year, so that had to be my finish line..

That settles it. Picking up my airhead in Greenville and heading to Hot Springs!

[CurrusDei]

Lot going on. Working on the car whenever i have a free minute so no time to post updates. Pics will follow once i have the car off to the glass, exhaust, ac, other guys, but quickly:

Car is registered for the Vintage. It starts on my birthday this year, so that had to be my finish line.

All AC hardware installed (specialty shop will have to charge and make the connections at the compressor work, may require some hose customization). Everything is new except one line that was NLA, and I had it cleaned by a specialty AC shop

Dash in
Radio/controls in
All electricals work - everything. no shorts or other gremlins to chase
New signal stalk, refreshed cruise control and wiper stalk
New sunroof motor in (works)
Gauges restored by BavRest and installed
center console in
Shifter cover in
Door vapor barrier in
Door cards in
///M Door sill covers in
B pillar covers in
engine wiring covers in
New fuse box cover in
Euro elipsoid smileys in with new euro connectors(4 bulb high beams function, city lights wired)
Front grilles (all 3) in
Front sway bar in
New Bosch battery with OEM vent in
New drive shaft center support bearing installed
New drive shaft guide bushing installed (this was a pain)



To do

Rear reflectors: should arrive tonight, putting in this evening hopefully

Rear sway bar: in this evening hopefully

Drive shaft: rear half is in. I bought the wrong size guibo, new one gets here tomorrow. Drive shaft should be done tomorrow night, then bolt up the front control arm lollipops and it should spend its first night on its own tires in about half a decade.

Glass: Have all the glass and found an expert shop to do it (they have done several E30 M3 restorations). The big glass guys all didn't want to touch it, and most hemmed and hawed about how the glass doesnt need to be glued in, they've done 5,000 of them so they know...blah blah. My only response was that there arent even 5k of these in the U.S. Anyways I'm hoping to get it to the glass shop late this week - open header, no windshield drive should be interesting

Underbody shields: I did some work with degreaser and a pressure sprayer to clean up the underside. Looking better. Will install heat shields tomorrow probably.

Hubs: Torque to spec when on ground, install lock nuts, center caps

Exhaust: Evo III muffler and VSR center in hand - going to have a really great welder put them on. I'll post some of his work once he confirms his availability, its weldporn level work. Contrast that to my old exhaust's welds, one of which has about a 1cm long stick weld section standing up out of it. Good metaphor for this whole process

Spare: Extra spare wheel should be here by tomorrow, getting it refurbished and putting on a new tire

Sunroof: waiting on two little rivets from Germany, then it will all go together. the rivets my upholstery shop used were too tall and wouldn't fit in the track. Putting the rivets in myself by hand, then it should all go together

Bumper: put it on

Body: Fine tune adjustment of hood/trunk/rear window to get even gaps. Install Evo hood gaskets

Ceramic/Film: Still considering here. There are some seriously talented ceramic coating and paint protection film guys in the area that I'm thinking about having do their "armored car" package on the car to protect it. Still undecided

My fingernails are pretty much always dirty these days. Also, fewer boxes of parts on the shelves. On the home stretch.

[jhaurimn]

I'm not on much anymore...but had to check in here to see how things were going.

Vintage eh? Maybe I'll see ya there. :)