88' Zinno M3 (Progress Thread)

[jhaurimn]

You had a highly intelligent PO by the sound of things.

Love what you've done so far, mad jealous - I've never seen an e30 M3 in person before.

Thank you! Yes, I have no idea what the PO was thinking. Its funny I never saw an e30 m3 myself until this summer. When I did, I knew I had to ditch my e46 m43 for a e30 m3.

Your sport seats, did they got reupholstered or are they still in mint (factory) condition?

The black ones? They are original leather, they were reconditioned.

I want E30 M3 so badly... I think after I am done with S50 swap on my 325 I will start looking for M3.

Beautiful color you have there. My favorite.

Thank you! Go for it :)

[vitiokas95]

I want E30 M3 so badly... I think after I am done with S50 swap on my 325 I will start looking for M3.

Beautiful color you have there. My favorite.

[Das_Uber_E30]

Your sport seats, did they got reupholstered or are they still in mint (factory) condition?

[e30Brah]

You had a highly intelligent PO by the sound of things.

Love what you've done so far, mad jealous - I've never seen an e30 M3 in person before.

[jhaurimn]

Small update. It got up to 45 today so I had to go open up the garage. Just a tease of spring.





So some things I have noticed recently:

-The front grilles were screwed on using random hardware screws that were way too long. Instead of buying the $.40 clamps used to secure the top portion, the PO again decided to use random screws and just drill them in. The pass side grille was also bent up.

-I have a leak coming from a fuel line near the fuel filter. I plan to replace the hoses and filter soon. Any tips on doing this with a full tank of gas without making a mess?

-Cold start with no issues. Wanted to run the car for awhile but thats when I noticed the leaking fuel line.

Waiting on some goodies from blunttech...wait and see :)

[jhaurimn]

Ive been getting really antsy lately to bring the car back home. Im trying my best to stay patient. So I try and do what I can while the car is stored.

I found some tan e30 mats. These seem to be tricky to find. I tried to clean them up a bit but I didnt make much of a difference. Anyone know a really good way to clean carpetted floor mats? I am going to try my best not to make these any dirtier.



I got my refurbished AFM and si board back from greg. The afm is looking 999x better then it did before, not to mention functioning much better as well.


So now I have a problem...my afm looks great. But theres no way I can put it back in with the air filter housing looking like this.


I tried restoring this already by cleaning it and applying engine bay dressing. That did nothing. So after scraping off some of the paint layer that was on there, I used the 50/50 boiled linseed oil/paint thinner method. I was pretty surprised by the results.


Everything looks so much better than before now, and is up to par with how I want the rest of my engine bay to look when completed.

[bradnic]

well you're swapping the dash anyway right? it's an M3 brah. do it once, do it completely.

[jhaurimn]

pretty sure you can still get anthracite carpet. only color left I think

Getting a carpet isnt a problem, but actually putting it in is what im not looking forward to.

[bradnic]

pretty sure you can still get anthracite carpet. only color left I think

[jhaurimn]

Got some nice big packages yesterday.

Came with these seats


Which is nice because I've had all this sitting around for months now...




The rear seat needs some work towards the top. Also in this picture is the crackless dash waiting to be put in.


The jack also arrived, so I finally have a fully complete trunk of tools! :D


As I get ready to tackle some more work on the car I noticed a large lack of DIY's for the s14 compared to m20s/m42s etc. Well, I found a service manual online, nice. But I didnt want the site to go down one day and be screwed so I saved every single page indiviudally and printed everything out. Took awhile but it was worth it. Covers pretty much everything.


So now I need to decide what to do with the blank interior. The m3 has tan carpet and a tan rear pacel shelf, and I dont know if I want to dye those black or not yet. I want to be able to go back to stock, but the car isnt exactly a show car so I'm torn. I dont really want to rip the carpet out either. I might try and recondition my tan front seats first. That way I can throw the black interior into my 325i daily. Decisions...

Still working on some engine bay stuff, but next big purchase will be a complete cooling system overhaul. (hoses, thermostat, water pump, radiator, expansion tank)

[jhaurimn]

The connector you asked about is a factory/dealer diagnostic plug. For common DIYer it goes no where since we have no interface for it. It's a FAQ.

The jack looks like a common Bilstein manufactured one that VW and Audi also used during this time phase. Looks very much like the jack for my old B3 VR6 Passat had.

Yeah I noticed that while browsing jacks on ecstuning. I doubt any of them are identical though which is important for tieing it down correctly, so it doesnt make a lot of racket in the back. And thanks for the info on the plug!

Is it possible to buy just the jack handle? I have the jack, but nothing to turn it with other than a set of vice grips. I'd kill to have the rest of the handle should I need to change a tire on the road.

Will

They are still available. PM'd

[BlackbirdM3]

Is it possible to buy just the jack handle? I have the jack, but nothing to turn it with other than a set of vice grips. I'd kill to have the rest of the handle should I need to change a tire on the road.

Will

[M-technik-3]

The connector you asked about is a factory/dealer diagnostic plug. For common DIYer it goes no where since we have no interface for it. It's a FAQ.

The jack looks like a common Bilstein manufactured one that VW and Audi also used during this time phase. Looks very much like the jack for my old B3 VR6 Passat had.

[jhaurimn]

Fender liners with hardware

Tesa harness tape, will wait until its warm to put on though.

Decent looking buttons to replace worn ones

[jhaurimn]

Time for another update. Things have been slow going as we are lucky when temps get above zero.

I pulled the wiper fluid container. It's quite easy when the wiper fluid is frozen....silly texas car. The difference between old and new is very noticeable.


Replaced the fuse box cover. The old one was pretty trashed


New


So this is what my barometric sensor looked like...


So I bought a used one from my good friend mr Berger


Pass brake light had a piece broken off that I'm sure would let water inside.


I got hooked up by bmwextremeguy with this like new taillight with gasket. Thank you man!


I replaced the missing wheel choke. However the wingnut I bought for it doesn't seem to fit. What part is supposed to hold it down? (Also, yes it bugs the hell out of me that it's too cold to clean areas like this :( )


Also, does anyone know where this connector goes? Located near the air filer/AFM



Now, I haven't received these parts yet, but I can't wait for them to arrive to show them. Thank you so much Dan c for the seats and the jack! I am currently trying to wait patiently for them to arrive :)

So first, an e30 m3 jack. I haven't even see a picture of one ever before this one. I was very fortunate to find one after my first one didn't show up.


And...some drool worthy m3 front seats


I am leaning towards putting the black seats with the black m3 rear seat I've had in my 325i until I find a black rear parcel shelf for the m3. Then ill have everything to swap interiors over if I decide I want to rip out two carpets.

Also waiting to get back my refurbished AFM and si board from Greg.

Thanks for looking.