It has box flares

[hasa]

Head opened minute before total disaster.

[kronus]

I think it was driven like this for a while, actually, just with a progressively worse misfire. No obvious damage to piston or bore. I talked to the machine shop guy for a while and he explained that this kind of failure starts as a narrow crack that then widens as hot oxygen moving through it acts similarly to an oxy-acetylene torch. So, there's no big piece of valve that was ejected, as I understand.

[AWDBOB]

Door cards look great- I did a very similar thing to the pulls & pockets on mine so they matched the vinyl on the cards.

[dillon7]

Man, AC Schnitzer wheels compliment M3's perfectly.

[kronus]

small update - I got the car with a mismatched silver rear seat. After a long search, I found someone in Germany with a stashed natur rear seat cover takeoff, and he kindly brought it with him on a business trip to the states and mailed it to me. Some hog-ringing later, most of the M3's interior is finally of a similar color and patina.

before:


freshly recovered:


installed:


While waiting for these covers in the mail, the car got 96+ E36 control arms, an S3.46, and a dogleg I had stashed.



Next up - PDR, chasing clunks, and opening the pandora's box behind the head unit.

[downforce22]

nice updates, keep em coming

[AWDBOB]

Juicy

What dogleg did you use? I have been hoarding one from a euro 635 for my car that I'll never get around to installing

This update makes me wonder what mr greer did with my orignal back seat leather that he recovered.... if it's in the trunk of my car I'll be sad to know that i failed to help you

[IronJoe]

Excellent thread, I love seeing an E30 M3 brought back up to snuff!


How do you like the 96+ E36M3 control arms? Did it make that much of a difference for you in centering the front wheels? They are on my long-term list.

[kronus]

Juicy

What dogleg did you use? I have been hoarding one from a euro 635 for my car that I'll never get around to installing

This update makes me wonder what mr greer did with my orignal back seat leather that he recovered.... if it's in the trunk of my car I'll be sad to know that i failed to help you

That would be pretty funny! no worries, though, I was lucky to find this set. I think with a bit of sun and heat it'll sit on my foam a little better. Fix your car tho.

I used a dogleg I had stashed out of a euro 528e shell I picked up many years ago. It had had a whole m535i rebuilt into it at some point. That shell ended up donating all of its euro bits to my old E28 M5, the motor went into a 535iS, transmission ended up in this car. Miraculously, the shell itself ended up getting saved and rebuilt into this car - https://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=139703



Overall really pleased it ended up helping so many other cars and got saved itself in the end.

Anyway, uh, it should be the same dogleg as a euro 6 gets.

How do you like the 96+ E36M3 control arms? Did it make that much of a difference for you in centering the front wheels? They are on my long-term list.

The wheels are fully centered now. Unfortunately, it moved my rubbing from the back of the wheel well to the front.

[2mAn]

We need a 2025 update... I'll bug you about 2026 in ~9 months

[kronus]

oh yeah! i did stuff!

took it apart in november:


(featuring non-ping-yoga-pants belgian)

brought it to a paint guy



paint guy did paint guy things


got it back from the paint guy, assembled it enough to drive it back home


haven't finished putting it back together. waiting for parts to get delivered. maybe for the 2026 update :)


they were able to save both the front and rear glass, and fixed a lot of problems along the way. It was a decent 15-footer before , but had a lot of little issues if you look (faded and cracked bumpers, no clear on the spoiler, clearcoat issues and patchwork paint elsewhere, little bit of rust in the front window corners, dents in the roof, etc etc). now it's quite nice.

[DEV0 E30]

Wow, nice work!

[JasonWilson48]

By god... That paint is beautiful. The reflection in that last photo is so straight. Also, respect to that paint shop for saving the glass and wrapping all of those parts in bubble wrap for you to take home.