E30 M3 Vert

[968Reckless]

Awesome project, sub'd

thanks! lot to come, lot of pics to go though lol

[CorvallisBMW]

Awesome project, sub'd

[968Reckless]

Over all the car was in good condition. It was clearly been in a rear accident as you can still see damage in the trunk but it drove straight. I had to cut out a few small rust holes in the floor but that was about it besides some surface rust. Any areas that i removed rust were covered with POR15, love that stuff.





Covered a majority of the trunk with 50 mil sound deadener so i used a few extra pieces for under the front seats. Might do more in the cabin and doors but not sure yet. At this time i also ran all new speaker wire, RCA cables and relocated the battery to the trunk. I read the OEM battery cable needed to be extended a few inches but that wasn't the case for me, we'll see if that changes after the rear bench is installed.

[968Reckless]

Gas tank was replaced with an aftermarket unit i bought on eBay. Happy with the quality, fit as it should but it doesn't have a drain. Vape tank was also refreshed with new lines and fittings. Everything was scrubbed clean and painted. Will most likely be chopping up the filler neck to account for the wider body, still brainstorming on this....







Every line in the car was basically replaced. You can see how much of this dry rots after 30 years.

[968Reckless]

Rear sub-frame was complete stripped down, painted and rebuilt with new parts. Went with street quality bushing to keep the ride smooth, POR15'd the diff case and powder coated the cover. New sensors, hardware and gaskets throughout.


Ended up going with a 3.25lsd out of an e28. Had to swap the cover and output flanges.











Not pictured but i went with GKN Drivetech shafts.

[968Reckless]

under side of the car was power washed in preparation for some fresh paint. Not a fun time, wouldn't recommend. I decided to paint over the OEM undercoating but found out the hard way some of the aftermarket stuff doesn't react well with whats on our cars. Both the Eastwood brand and Hud Bright didn't want to cure. I had to go over the entire car with SEM trim black in order to seal everything. If i had to guess its something to do with the rubberized compounds of them. Everything worked out well in the end, just a lot of extra work.


At this point everything had been removed from the underside.

[968Reckless]

Right around this time a buddy of mine was parting out a e46 m3 so naturally I bought the motor. Car was running and driving with around 90k on the clock. Picked it up and started to strip it down, it didn't have any service records so I wanted to bulletproof it while it was on the stand. We did the rod bearing (kings from Jim @ Kassel), vanos rebuild, guide replacement and swapped out the solenoid coil pack for a refurbished one. Most of the vanos stuff came from Beisans Systems, I used them for my s52 swap car and liked the product. When we went to pulled the guide out the bottom plastic section decided to fall off and fall down into the motor. I was never able to find it from the top or bottom, we even tilted the motor upside down and hit it with air. Spent a good 4 hours looking for it with no success. At this point the only thing I can think of it to remove the lower timing chain case but that wold require me to torque bolts to 300lb. Not sure I'm interested in doing that and might just run it. A few other hoses and fitting were upgraded, planning on going with he z3m s54 harness and every bolt on Kassel has to offer.













Gotta love these plastic water pumps.

[968Reckless]

Carpet was power washer, scrubbed with carpet cleaner and dyed black. I've done this about 5 times now and it works out good. Think I went through around 6 cans of VHT satin black.

[968Reckless]

Took a few more pics of the interior. Map pockets, interior pulls and door cards were dyed using a custom blended paint. I sent SEM a color sample and in return they made me a code. I took that code to a local shop and had the dye made. This worked out great and I'm happy with the results however I don't think SEM offers this service anymore.








Everything is a little dirty from being in storage. You can see where the seats have some loose material, this is part of the reason I gave them a 7/10...no it couldn't be pulled tight.

[325isman]

Great job . That's a beautiful car, keep up the great work.

[mike.bmw]

Looking forward to seeing the assembly!

[968Reckless]

keep us updated!

Lots to come, car is out of paint and assembly has started. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[2mAn]

keep us updated!

[968Reckless]

I guess i didn't take a lot of pics during the upholstery fun but i can take some later. Went with a red vinyl called "cardinal red" but its nothing close to OEM. I had the skins for the seats made by zoom zoom zooming, quality is a 7/10. This is the second e30 interior I've reupholstered and the first set was much better. Design was thought out more and the fit/finished was on point. These aren't bad but you can tell they're mass produced by someone who isn't familiar with the cars. Steering wheel and boots were made by John at ninestich. I like the way rear headrest look so i grabbed a set of brackets off ebay. Will probably add these in my coupe as well, completes the look of the interior IMO. Some lifting on the seat back in the pic below, ive since re-glued them.

[968Reckless]

Motor came out next, this was a milestone because the bay had a lot of work to be done.





In between the strip down i worked on some interior stuff. Rebuilt the cluster with new gears, rings and paint. Polished the lens, matched the miles to the motor and went with a 9k tach centered.