Welcome back to another MR E30 build thread. The time has finally come to partake in another car-based adventure. Though this time it will be the documentation of an E36 M3, not a 1991 318is like before. To make up for that fact I promise to work diligently to keep this one interesting.
This car, this build, this experience, this journey is to memorialize the life of my father, an avid car guy, who unfortunately did not have the time or finances to pursue his hobby before his sudden passing earlier this year. What is so cool about this car in relationship to this adventure, is that for the couple of years that my father and I lived near each other in San Diego, CA, this is the exact year, body style, and colors that I previously owned and that we would cruise around in together every chance we got. Road trips up to Julian from the I-15 were frequent, and we always had a blast in the car. It is incredibly fitting that I was able to find another 1997 Estoril on Dove M3 Coupe to restore.
Unfortunately, he is gone, but I am here, with this car, and this inner desire that requires attention. So, let us begin.
What do we have here?
- 1997 M3
- Estoril on Dove
- ~220,000 miles (the car came with no battery, so assuming this mileage for now until I verify it.
- I am the seventh owner. The first two owners owned it until 2011, and it traded hands frequently until it ended up with me. This car has been registered in Maricopa County (Phx, AZ) since the day it was purchased. I will be the first person to register it in another county (Coconino County, still in AZ). So, what does that mean? While it is severely sun damaged, it has zero traces of rust. Which is a huge win for me.
- European Delivery by the first owner.
- Service records from day one. Huge folder full of hundreds of pieces of paper, painting a very detailed picture of the cars history. It even includes all but one set of title transfers, so I know the exact date that it was sold. It even has old Autotrader ads printed in it!
- Original Owner’s Manual and associated paraphernalia.
- Very straight body with all original panels.
- Limited modifications apart from drilled brakes, front coilovers, and aftermarket steering wheel
- A very recently (past few years) neglected machine. It is interesting to see such intensity in documentation, and high dollars spent on maintaining it back when it was newer (through 2013 basically) and then a serious lack of care until today. The guy I bought it from bought it from someone else to take the S54 out of it, and then let it wither away in his backyard. I won’t ever understand this.
So, what is the idea here? What am I going to do with this thing?
To be honest, at the time I am typing this, I don’t really know. All I do know is that I really, really want to enjoy the journey, not the destination, with this thing. My last build was very rushed, as the car was my DD, so little attention could be paid to making things oh so right. They just had to get done. But I am grown now, and don’t face that constraint, so I am going to focus on doing things the right way. The attention to details that I have not previously valued will be at the top of the list.
I am not sure of the order of events at this time. I’m going to start by organizing and cleaning things up for now. I just know that I want to save this thing from wasting away. And I want to use this project and its rough state as an excuse to get creative with some things.
Other than that, I am thinking OEM+, with a turboed V8 for the time being. Though I do want to retain the ability to go back to a more OEM setup if the inner need ever arises, so I won’t be making any extreme changes to the structure of the car without serious thought beforehand.
Now, with that out of the way, let’s get to the good stuff. The pictures and the story!
It all started with the posting of a WTB ad on a local Facebook E36 page. Immediately after posting I was surprised to find someone with something very close to what I desired. I thought about it for a while and then made plans to grab the trailer and pick it up from Phoenix, roughly three hours away.
Spent a couple days with my brother while I was down there. The car was loaded onto the trailer at 9:30 PM on Monday, July 27th, 2020. Three guys and a couple of come-alongs got the job done without any fanfare. Though the car did not come with a steering rack, so keeping the wheels straight as it was being loaded was fun.
With it loaded I bid Ryan and Brenden ado, and left.
A couple of days later I headed back up the long and steep hill to the much more pleasant mountain town where I live. 130.6 miles at 13.3 mpg went off without a hitch, the first time pulling a load this heavy and at these speeds with my new truck.
M3 Trailered Home by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr
I was warned by the seller that he has a spider infestation in his backyard, so I took the opportunity to pressure wash off the underside while the car was raised on the trailer. Lots of spider webs down there.
Pressure Washing Underside by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr
Pressure Washing Underside by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr
A couple of buddies came over during lunch and we pushed the car up into the driveway, its resting place for the time being. Damn Covid has closed all of the gyms in AZ, so my garage is currently a gym until this crap gets resolved.
After that, it was time to go through all of the paperwork. I found the original window sticker amongst the paperwork, which is super cool to me. Recent receipts (4 years ago) show some decent money spent on hard to do tasks, like the front wheel bearings. Older paperwork shows a doctor who did a ton of driving in the first few years he owned the car. Like 70,000 miles in three and a half years. Always serviced at the dealer, until the second owner had it serviced at Bo’s Motorwerks in Phoenix.
I set up an Excel sheet of all of the maintenance history, documenting dates, mileage, and price, as well as all of the ownership, emissions, and registration history that was available (almost all of it). The second owner even had a vanity plate in the guise of ‘TIMMAAH’ mounted to the car during his ownership. I of course will be continuing with my own nomenclature, MR E36, a plate that has been on every E36 M3 that I have owned.
This car, this build, this experience, this journey is to memorialize the life of my father, an avid car guy, who unfortunately did not have the time or finances to pursue his hobby before his sudden passing earlier this year. What is so cool about this car in relationship to this adventure, is that for the couple of years that my father and I lived near each other in San Diego, CA, this is the exact year, body style, and colors that I previously owned and that we would cruise around in together every chance we got. Road trips up to Julian from the I-15 were frequent, and we always had a blast in the car. It is incredibly fitting that I was able to find another 1997 Estoril on Dove M3 Coupe to restore.
Unfortunately, he is gone, but I am here, with this car, and this inner desire that requires attention. So, let us begin.
What do we have here?
- 1997 M3
- Estoril on Dove
- ~220,000 miles (the car came with no battery, so assuming this mileage for now until I verify it.
- I am the seventh owner. The first two owners owned it until 2011, and it traded hands frequently until it ended up with me. This car has been registered in Maricopa County (Phx, AZ) since the day it was purchased. I will be the first person to register it in another county (Coconino County, still in AZ). So, what does that mean? While it is severely sun damaged, it has zero traces of rust. Which is a huge win for me.
- European Delivery by the first owner.
- Service records from day one. Huge folder full of hundreds of pieces of paper, painting a very detailed picture of the cars history. It even includes all but one set of title transfers, so I know the exact date that it was sold. It even has old Autotrader ads printed in it!
- Original Owner’s Manual and associated paraphernalia.
- Very straight body with all original panels.
- Limited modifications apart from drilled brakes, front coilovers, and aftermarket steering wheel
- A very recently (past few years) neglected machine. It is interesting to see such intensity in documentation, and high dollars spent on maintaining it back when it was newer (through 2013 basically) and then a serious lack of care until today. The guy I bought it from bought it from someone else to take the S54 out of it, and then let it wither away in his backyard. I won’t ever understand this.
So, what is the idea here? What am I going to do with this thing?
To be honest, at the time I am typing this, I don’t really know. All I do know is that I really, really want to enjoy the journey, not the destination, with this thing. My last build was very rushed, as the car was my DD, so little attention could be paid to making things oh so right. They just had to get done. But I am grown now, and don’t face that constraint, so I am going to focus on doing things the right way. The attention to details that I have not previously valued will be at the top of the list.
I am not sure of the order of events at this time. I’m going to start by organizing and cleaning things up for now. I just know that I want to save this thing from wasting away. And I want to use this project and its rough state as an excuse to get creative with some things.
Other than that, I am thinking OEM+, with a turboed V8 for the time being. Though I do want to retain the ability to go back to a more OEM setup if the inner need ever arises, so I won’t be making any extreme changes to the structure of the car without serious thought beforehand.
Now, with that out of the way, let’s get to the good stuff. The pictures and the story!
It all started with the posting of a WTB ad on a local Facebook E36 page. Immediately after posting I was surprised to find someone with something very close to what I desired. I thought about it for a while and then made plans to grab the trailer and pick it up from Phoenix, roughly three hours away.
Spent a couple days with my brother while I was down there. The car was loaded onto the trailer at 9:30 PM on Monday, July 27th, 2020. Three guys and a couple of come-alongs got the job done without any fanfare. Though the car did not come with a steering rack, so keeping the wheels straight as it was being loaded was fun.
With it loaded I bid Ryan and Brenden ado, and left.
A couple of days later I headed back up the long and steep hill to the much more pleasant mountain town where I live. 130.6 miles at 13.3 mpg went off without a hitch, the first time pulling a load this heavy and at these speeds with my new truck.
M3 Trailered Home by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr
I was warned by the seller that he has a spider infestation in his backyard, so I took the opportunity to pressure wash off the underside while the car was raised on the trailer. Lots of spider webs down there.
Pressure Washing Underside by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr
Pressure Washing Underside by Michael Rickerd, on Flickr
A couple of buddies came over during lunch and we pushed the car up into the driveway, its resting place for the time being. Damn Covid has closed all of the gyms in AZ, so my garage is currently a gym until this crap gets resolved.
After that, it was time to go through all of the paperwork. I found the original window sticker amongst the paperwork, which is super cool to me. Recent receipts (4 years ago) show some decent money spent on hard to do tasks, like the front wheel bearings. Older paperwork shows a doctor who did a ton of driving in the first few years he owned the car. Like 70,000 miles in three and a half years. Always serviced at the dealer, until the second owner had it serviced at Bo’s Motorwerks in Phoenix.
I set up an Excel sheet of all of the maintenance history, documenting dates, mileage, and price, as well as all of the ownership, emissions, and registration history that was available (almost all of it). The second owner even had a vanity plate in the guise of ‘TIMMAAH’ mounted to the car during his ownership. I of course will be continuing with my own nomenclature, MR E36, a plate that has been on every E36 M3 that I have owned.
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