Hey All,
So I've fallen onto an E30 with 100k original miles. After owing an E36 M3 Sedan and my F80 ZCP Competition, I've always loved the idea of the never-built E30 M3 Sedan.
There are only two pictures that I've ever found of this car, and zero information pertaining to. I'm shooting in the dark with this project, but I've finally made the time and financial commitment to see it complete.
I've ordered the front fenders, and rear quarter panels, however because these are factory new (I didn't want to cut up a perfectly good M3 roller), It's on a 3-4 week delivery wait.
I've have the factory trunk lid, and rear evo spoiler coming from Austria, so that is waiting too.
The S14, associated electronics/hardware, transmission/driveline are coming from a rear-end collision Henna and should be here tomorrow.
Haven't decided on a color yet to paint it, but am probably going with either Henna or possibly a factory silver color? I'm open to suggestions. Like I said, this is a full build thread, and will update periodically. Still trying to source a factory rear bumper if anyone knows a contact :)
Here is the car after picking it up:
---Update 9NOV16---
I finally have both the trunk lid and the front fenders :)
---Update 2FEB17---
I've gathered all the parts needed for the cosmetic work. The bodyshop is working on the rear fenders now, but I stopped by to snap a pic of the fronts. BMW phoned me and said that the North American rear quarters are NLA and that they are unable to import european ones. May end up either shipping some in from a dealership, or hiring a metal fab shop to make replicas. I just really really don't want to do fiberglass, and won't. Stay tuned.
---Update 3MAR17---
Here's a small update. After much searching, I haven't found a decent set of front and rear bumpers so I ended up getting replicas from DTM Fiberwerkz. Holy crap these things are horrible quality. I've probably spent about 40-50 hours making them decent and fabricating a factory-like mounting bracket. Big shout-out to Kevin at ModBargains for dealing with all my bitching over these bumpers. ModBargains really helped out a lot, but DTM Fiberwerkz really has a quality control issue.
I'm in the process of fabricating the rear quarters and waiting on the rear C pillar to arrive before I start ripping up the back. I've been studying the E30 M3 Touring creations to figure out the best way to make a factory-looking rear quarter as I can't seem to accurately source brand new ones. The fronts I've ordered from BMW no problem, but the rears are tricky. The trunk-lid has been all cleaned up and is being installed next week.
I'm going to be doing an Evo interior with leather and cloth inserts, so that will be starting next week. Here are some progress pictures so far. Keep in mind, this is still early in the build.
---Update 14OCT17---
So not a whole lot of progress has been made. I ended up pulling it from the body shop it has been at and sending it to another because of quality issues. The current shop it's at now is much closer to me also and the owner actually has an E30 M3. We're in the process of either trying to make a bracket to make the trunk work, or to source a set of M3 trunk hinges and torsion bar (so if anyone wants to sell me some and save me the trouble of making a bracket, let me know :) )
Test fitting the trunk just to see what it would look like. It looks dumb.
Once the trunk is in, the rear decklid and C pillars will be built up so everything looks flush.
---Update 24OCT17---
Got the trunk parts all situated by a kind person over at S14.net. I ran into an issue with the C-Pillar in that my contact from overseas basically took my money and ran, I've decided to extend the trunk and match the body lines around the trunk to meet the lid itself, instead of replace the rear C-Pillar and glass area. I'm not happy at all about the decission, but without an E30 M3 C-Pillars (that I can find) in the states, it's really my only option. Again, it's one more thing that will be "off" but it doesn't seem like I have another choice.
Trunk installed:
---Update 01MAR19---
Okay, so I've seriously been lacking and have made little progress. I've switched jobs, moved, etc etc etc. My "car money" has all been going into modding my F80, and on top of that, I picked up another E30 that is turning into an Alpina C2 replica. With all that, the E30 M3 Sedan has been getting very little love. Ive been so bummed out due to lack of plastic bumpers, I've decided to modify the fiberglass ones I already had to get as close as I can to M3 look-alike ones. I've given up trying to find rear quarter panels, so again...fiberglass. If I find metal ones later, I'll tear it all apart, but I'm moving forward at this point. Here are a few mock-up pics:
So I've fallen onto an E30 with 100k original miles. After owing an E36 M3 Sedan and my F80 ZCP Competition, I've always loved the idea of the never-built E30 M3 Sedan.
There are only two pictures that I've ever found of this car, and zero information pertaining to. I'm shooting in the dark with this project, but I've finally made the time and financial commitment to see it complete.
I've ordered the front fenders, and rear quarter panels, however because these are factory new (I didn't want to cut up a perfectly good M3 roller), It's on a 3-4 week delivery wait.
I've have the factory trunk lid, and rear evo spoiler coming from Austria, so that is waiting too.
The S14, associated electronics/hardware, transmission/driveline are coming from a rear-end collision Henna and should be here tomorrow.
Haven't decided on a color yet to paint it, but am probably going with either Henna or possibly a factory silver color? I'm open to suggestions. Like I said, this is a full build thread, and will update periodically. Still trying to source a factory rear bumper if anyone knows a contact :)
Here is the car after picking it up:
---Update 9NOV16---
I finally have both the trunk lid and the front fenders :)
---Update 2FEB17---
I've gathered all the parts needed for the cosmetic work. The bodyshop is working on the rear fenders now, but I stopped by to snap a pic of the fronts. BMW phoned me and said that the North American rear quarters are NLA and that they are unable to import european ones. May end up either shipping some in from a dealership, or hiring a metal fab shop to make replicas. I just really really don't want to do fiberglass, and won't. Stay tuned.
---Update 3MAR17---
Here's a small update. After much searching, I haven't found a decent set of front and rear bumpers so I ended up getting replicas from DTM Fiberwerkz. Holy crap these things are horrible quality. I've probably spent about 40-50 hours making them decent and fabricating a factory-like mounting bracket. Big shout-out to Kevin at ModBargains for dealing with all my bitching over these bumpers. ModBargains really helped out a lot, but DTM Fiberwerkz really has a quality control issue.
I'm in the process of fabricating the rear quarters and waiting on the rear C pillar to arrive before I start ripping up the back. I've been studying the E30 M3 Touring creations to figure out the best way to make a factory-looking rear quarter as I can't seem to accurately source brand new ones. The fronts I've ordered from BMW no problem, but the rears are tricky. The trunk-lid has been all cleaned up and is being installed next week.
I'm going to be doing an Evo interior with leather and cloth inserts, so that will be starting next week. Here are some progress pictures so far. Keep in mind, this is still early in the build.
---Update 14OCT17---
So not a whole lot of progress has been made. I ended up pulling it from the body shop it has been at and sending it to another because of quality issues. The current shop it's at now is much closer to me also and the owner actually has an E30 M3. We're in the process of either trying to make a bracket to make the trunk work, or to source a set of M3 trunk hinges and torsion bar (so if anyone wants to sell me some and save me the trouble of making a bracket, let me know :) )
Test fitting the trunk just to see what it would look like. It looks dumb.
Once the trunk is in, the rear decklid and C pillars will be built up so everything looks flush.
---Update 24OCT17---
Got the trunk parts all situated by a kind person over at S14.net. I ran into an issue with the C-Pillar in that my contact from overseas basically took my money and ran, I've decided to extend the trunk and match the body lines around the trunk to meet the lid itself, instead of replace the rear C-Pillar and glass area. I'm not happy at all about the decission, but without an E30 M3 C-Pillars (that I can find) in the states, it's really my only option. Again, it's one more thing that will be "off" but it doesn't seem like I have another choice.
Trunk installed:
---Update 01MAR19---
Okay, so I've seriously been lacking and have made little progress. I've switched jobs, moved, etc etc etc. My "car money" has all been going into modding my F80, and on top of that, I picked up another E30 that is turning into an Alpina C2 replica. With all that, the E30 M3 Sedan has been getting very little love. Ive been so bummed out due to lack of plastic bumpers, I've decided to modify the fiberglass ones I already had to get as close as I can to M3 look-alike ones. I've given up trying to find rear quarter panels, so again...fiberglass. If I find metal ones later, I'll tear it all apart, but I'm moving forward at this point. Here are a few mock-up pics:
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