My m3: timeline, commentary, resurrection

[ZoomZoomBoom]

Your M3 is looking nice! Hope to see it someday.

[e30shmobberr]

those bbs rc's or arc-8's?

[fronton]

Does the new carpet have the different material where your heel sits when driving or is it one huge chunk of fabric?

This, and is there foam added to the places where the OEM one is so that it maintains the stock shape in the footwells?

[OldDrunkenSailor]

Does the new carpet have the different material where your heel sits when driving or is it one huge chunk of fabric?

[fronton]

My understanding is the factory black carpet is NLA. I got this from stock interiors.com and is just OK for fitment but the color is spot on. Can't argue with it for $190 shipped to my door.

Ah, thanks. no, black carpet is not NLA but stock gray is. I think it is north of $500 though.

[archie]

Love what you're doing. Thank you for the photos and step by step on how your car is coming along. Going to be awesome when finished.

Hey one question, what wheels are those? Arc8's (concave)? They look great.

[uofom3]

Did you order new carpet from blunt? How much $?

My understanding is the factory black carpet is NLA. I got this from stock interiors.com and is just OK for fitment but the color is spot on. Can't argue with it for $190 shipped to my door.

[uofom3]

More progress.

Cleaned up the footwell on the drivers side:



No rust at all which is huge - very excited to see that.

While it was sunny I sprayed the kick panels and the center console:



Before:


After:


Took a break - I really want to test fit these on the m3 for fun - 20in ch-r's. don't think it would fit:


And I couldn't help myself - took two quick pics of the m5:



Ok back to the e30:

I have always loved this kind of picture - e30 m3's look awesome when they are getting worked on - almost like they were made for it.




I then test fit the carpet:



It fits just ok out of the box - a lot of trimming to do. I stopped working on that aspect if things not long after to pic as I am still waiting on more parts for the interior and this thing is not going back together until I they all arrive.

I did put the rear parcel shelf back together - was getting dark and pics are a bit fuzzy but it turned out great:




Finally - a grainy pic of how she was left:


To prove my e30 loyalty - the big guy gets to sleep outside until this portion of the project is done:



More to come soon... Hope to have the interior all set by this time next month - then it's on to the motor/mechanical refreshing. Still want to have It done by the picnic and making good progress so far.

[fronton]

Did you order new carpet from blunt? How much $?

[uofom3]

More progress this morning:

Got the other seat out and vacuumed around the area to make it a it cleaner to work around:



After some work I got the old carpet set out - this stuff was bad. It has had moisture trapped in it for some time.



You don't realize how bad ths stuff is until you finally get it out in terms of being stained or dirty.

Interior basically out:




Footwell needs to be cleaned up:



Hopefully this afternoon I will get the floor boards all cleaned up and prepped to put the new carpet in. Have some dash parts on order from Blunt to get the odds and ends finished and then I can put it all back together.

[e30m3s54turbo]

I love red e30. Sweet car.

[uofom3]

These are the ridges that have to be contended with. The dead pedal is about 4.25 inches wide and the space on the e30 might be just slightly wider but my flattened carpet is probably bunched up and making it had to get an exact measurement. Should be easier oneces the new carpet is here. Pics of the ridges:



Did a test grind with the Dremel and as expected it chews right through it. This can be flushed out to look great with some other bits on the tool:

[uofom3]

Here it is against the e60 m5 pedal - if the e46 is too narrow once installed the e60 might be a better choice as its quite a bit wider:

[uofom3]

So in the process of going through the interior I realized that I never picked up a sport evo dead pedal - which I always wanted - an now those things are a bitch to come by and FU expensive. So I thought about what other models might look good in there and I wa reminded of my e46 dead pedal - love the way it looks and always thought I could graft one into an e30. Got on CL and found one is great shape today for 40 bucks:




I test fit it in the car - length is good but this will take some time with the Dremmel to get right but after looking at how it's constructed I think it's doable.



It should be damn close once it's trimmed up. I have always been a fan of taking pats from newer BMW's and putting them on the older ones (e36 switches for instance) so I'm pretty stoked. If I get it right, I'll post up a DIY in case someone else wants to try it but I want to get it to fit first.

[uofom3]

Finished parcel shelf: