The 5 Year Restoration - E30 M3 Reborn

[CurrusDei]

And seats are out








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[reelizmpro]

$1000 for the bumper cover, $2-4k for a decent Dupont/PPG two stage respray with some bodywork, prep and paint. Plus a few hundred for the misc stuff. $5-6k depending on how far you want to go.

[CurrusDei]

New M3 Owner... The Build Thread

The carpet looks pretty good after a vacuum, think I'll leave it in and just have it steamed





Wrapped my stereo wire in Tesa tape, and did some cleaning behind the dash. I figure this will help keep the car from being musty



Now while the dash is out....

I guess I need to run my heater to see if it leaks? The car has 179k miles on it and still has it's original heater core. But it's been in CA its whole life so not sure if the heater saw much use.

I looked closely and it seems to be leaking something right where the two lines enter the heater core mount





Any thoughts on this? Also, there are some less expensive heater cores on eBay that have black end tanks vs white. Anyone have experience with these?




And since I started chasing the Climate Control rabbit...

Off comes the bumper. I've been curious about how bad this was going to be for a while now. Thankfully the damage was limited to the bumper, but Mr Zipties must have considered this his masterpiece. I must have pulled 10 Zipties that we're holding the cracked part of the bumper up and holding the light wires bunched together.

Other than that it was just dirty from running without a lower cover.







And a stacked washer kicker...




Found my passenger side reflector!



Fogs are cracked but the housings are good. Anyone know if non-M foglights fit the M?




Might be new coil cooler time too...

[jhaurimn]

Carpet looks like its in great shape, definitely leave it as is.

Unfortunately, the fog lights are specific to the m3 I believe.

Here's some info on refinishing seats if you are interested. http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=286673

The oil cooler is not m3 specific, however there are two versions of it, so make sure you get the right one. The mounting brackets are different, so that's what you check for.

[nauqneyugn]

I believe you can also use the euro spec e28 M5 fogs.

[CurrusDei]

Thanks for the info/thoughts. I realize my last post was rambling, so here's a distillation of my questions

1) Seems like my heater valve has been leaking (see crusty gunk on it) and I'm suspicious of my heater core. Guess i should just run the car and crank the heat to see what happens?

2) I can't think of any reason that running the car with all this stuff disconnected would do any harm. Might reattach the gauges, any reason not to do this if its just outside the garage?

3) Has anyone used this heater core? Any reason to buy the more expensive model with white ends?



Thanks for the answers on the foglights. I'll be looking for a chance to pick some up.

[reelizmpro]

The Euro and US E28 535iS/M5 also used the same zkw fogs. There's a Hella version as well for about $50 each. Just buy them new. I would advise against using a cheap aftermarket heater core. It's not easy to change out, can literally burn you if it fails and risk overheating your S14. Those reasons should be enough to go OEM Behr. Looks like you'll need both the valve and core. Don't forget the o rings.

[bradnic]

Wow that thread is a treasure trove of info. I've been reading it since you posted that. I may just screenshot the whole thing into a manual to keep into the garage.

I have the whole thread archived with enlarged pics and improved formatting.

Xworks M3 restoration thread archived

Congrats.. take your time, no shortcuts, OEM bits.

[CurrusDei]

Definitely taking my time. I just realized I didn't have a good shot of the car as a whole since the auction photos. Here it is pre-bumper removal



Quick question, are the undersides of the dash supposed to be insulated? This is the one that came on the car



But the one I got off eBay has no padding

[jhaurimn]

With a new front bumper, and center caps, this car will be looking a LOT better.

Not sure on the insulation. If its easy enough to transfer over, Id do it.

[bradnic]

Def transfer the insulation. You're lucky there. Doesn't weight much and will quiet the interior down a bit. Only potential downside is less engine noise in the cabin. I doubt it will be noticeable.

[jhaurimn]

Only potential downside is less engine noise in the cabin.

Dont worry, youll have plenty of s14 engine noise still :p

[reelizmpro]

M3's dashes are insulated.

[CurrusDei]

Dash makes a big difference in engine noise. I had to pull the car out of the garage to clean the front last night. The engine was a lot louder. The chairs were out so I had to sit on a bucket backing out.

[CurrusDei]

$1000 for the bumper cover, $2-4k for a decent Dupont/PPG two stage respray with some bodywork, prep and paint. Plus a few hundred for the misc stuff. $5-6k depending on how far you want to go.

Just got the quote. $12,887.92 :crazy: Thats $700 shy of what i paid for the car.

BUT, thats for everything, drop it off, have them disassemble, buy everything from the dealer, refinish all four wheels, etc. I'm thinking I can almost cut that in half if i do a lot of the work in my garage and source the parts myself.