The 5 Year Restoration - E30 M3 Reborn

[0-60Motorsports]

Awesome update once again my friend. Coming along beautifully.

[CurrusDei]

Last night was one of those "ill just tighten a few bolts" nights that went quickly out of hand.....

Torqued and marked



That retaining plate is probably my favorite piece of zinc on the car. It came out extremely pretty. Gotta clean up that connector on the left once its topside in the car.




New floor jack. Old one was super tired. Here's three full pumps on each for comparison...





And it can do this...




I always thought 3 ton jackstands were fairly beefy. Nnnot anymore...
Also the car isnt on the stands at this point, just sizing up the distances (the jackstand point is further back, didnt want to crush the pinch welds)




Sorry for the uneven lighting. The lighting in my garage at night isnt great - I'd put in more lights, but that would slow down parts purchases ;D




Fully off the chassis dolly! I had to raise the chassis bars 32 inches off the ground to get clearance.




Now, you.




This was my workout for the night. Reminds me of that hungry-hungry hippos game growing up. Chomp.












There's a gap in the pics here, but basically i lowered the big jack stands one notch at a time on alternating sides, checking for clearance all over between each and watching during the lowering itself. When i got low enough i switched back to the 3 ton jack stands. There's ok clearance coming up from the bottom even with the evap canister on. If you didnt have that on you'd have 2 inches on either side at least. Maybe 3. It was a slow but steady process. I used two floor jacks, 6 jack stands, and an engine hoist in various combinations to raise the car, lower the car, and raise the engine. No room for error. No errors made :up:

Nose down.




Hello there







i know the underside is still a little dirty - i'll get that steam cleaner on it soon, but the factory finish on these was a strange mixture of tan undercoating and red (overspray)



In.



One thing that really helped was having extra long bolts left over from the chassis dolly (they went through the 4x4 boards and into the factory subframe mounting holes). I used these to align the subframe before raising it all the way up. Then replaced it with the factory subframe bolts. I'll go back and loctite/torque to spec later.

The next day... more space in the garage.

[bradnic]

Jack stands, toy truck...

... and a fully restored basically brand new S14 + tranny

[CurrusDei]

@CurrusDei I noticed you were looking for the xworks "E30 Minor Rust Repair" archive... I made the original one and just re-posted it last night.

enjoy XWorksM3.zip on Mediafire

by the way the last pic you posted above still doesn't display. all the other ones do though so thanks!


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thanks!


Oh and big moment....

[bradnic]

@CurrusDei I noticed you were looking for the xworks "E30 Minor Rust Repair" archive... I made the original one and just re-posted it last night.

enjoy XWorksM3.zip on Mediafire

by the way the last pic you posted above still doesn't display. all the other ones do though so thanks!


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[CurrusDei]

Way to hit 100k views guys! Pretty sure I'm only like 1k of them

[CurrusDei]

Fixt

[saucers]

yeah photos are down

[bradnic]

Same here

[jhaurimn]

Maybe its just me, but I cant see those pics.

[CurrusDei]

Thanks. Waiting on some spacers for the pressure plate bolts before I can mate up the transmission and the engine. Then i'll be installing the whole thing from underneath (lifting up the nose and lowering it onto the engine)

Here's the Evolution Lightweight Flywheel







Clutch




Pressure plate needs spacers though. It didnt have spacers when i took it off because PO used incorrect pressure plate bolts. The smaller ones work, but apparently the spacers and larger bolts (called for by OEM specs) can maintain bolt load more consistently over time. I ordered the correct bolts, but without the spacers (and it didnt work, as you can see below). Spacers are on order. hope to get them this week.




OEM spec diagram, with the sleeves in the wrong spot. Should be between bolt head and outside of pressure plate




In the meantime, rear brake lines went on...



And i got a new sensor holdy thingy

[jhaurimn]

Not on r3v much these days... but what a satisfying update. I remember when this thread started and I would of never imagined it would become what it has. You are doing what I wish I had the time and money to do on mine, and I'm glad to be apart of the ride. I feel blue-balled that you teased the engine on the hoist without putting it in, though. (hehe)

This thing will be a piece of art when finished.

[kid8]

Well shit he asked for an update and by god he got an UPDATE.

That's an understatement! Thanks for the update and great work as always!!

Sorry if I made you spend too much time updating us, I just love this restoration.:coolphoto:

[0-60Motorsports]

Good thought. Not that this car will ever see salt, or rain, or anything that could cause rust. The camera flash also makes the underside look way dirtier than it is.



I'm actually thinking about fabbing up a full underbody shield a-la the M1 to keep everything clean. I'd have to have a way for the exhaust and transmission to vent since its a front-engined car, but i could keep things from getting dirty and improve the aerodynamics. Maybe i could use some roles of pre-preg carbon fiber...ok lets get the car done first before we start down that rabbit hole.

I don’t think you need a full underbody shield but that’s up to you. It looks great the way that it is. It looks amazing. Keep up the good work.

[parkerbink]

Very, very nice!