My 1999 E36 M3 Coupe Restomod Project

[Ryan86]

About 6 years ago, I bought a semi-rough E36 M3 off of my next door neighbor for $3500. It had 150k miles, ran well, the interior was in decent shape, but overall it was a little rough around the edges. The car had some mods done (some decent, some ghetto). It was his son's car, and with his son leaving for college, they bought him a Honda Fit. The plan, along with a buddy of mine, was to just patch it up and flip the car to make a few dollars. We did the bodywork (my buddy is an exceptional painter), wrapped the car in matte black vinyl, replaced some worn suspension components and stopped.

The car proceeded to sit in the back bay of his shop since then. It was always one of those "when we get around to it" things but we never did.

I recently sold my car, a 2015 R35 GTR (just never drove it - too much traffic around here) and was at his shop picking up my wife's SUV after he fixed a little accident damage from her being dumb and merging into another car. There sat the E36 and he planted the seed telling me that I should just take it home. The M3 had been driven up and down his driveway every 4-5 months or so until it stopped running over the winter. Somehow, a little water had gotten in the car and while he had it sitting in the shop, the carpet got all mildewed and nasty. Covered in dust, missing some pieces, the thing just looked rough...

I thought about it... I love turning wrenches and my daughter is 14. What better first car than one we've rebuilt ourselves?

A couple days later, I rented a car trailer, loaded up the M3 and brought it home.

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[Ryan86]

The first thing to do was throw a battery in it. I was pretty sure it wouldn't run as the fuel was circa 2012, but at least it cranked and the rest of the systems seemed to work. I ordered a new fuel pump, fuel level sending unit, fuel filter, coils and plugs - not sure when the coils or plugs were done, but they looked rough.

That weekend, we started gutting the car - I wanted to get the carpet out to clean it, plus to see if there was any rust or damage from the water. The wife and kid both pitched in...

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[Mklock]

Worlds coolest dad reward winner here. Looks pretty clean! Good luck with the restore.

My OCD getting the best of me here, your driver side sideskirt is totally on the wrong side and with that being said, I'm assuming your passenger one may be too! Unless this was intentional.

[Gene V]

Restomod...so S54 or LS1 transplant?...

[blckstrm]

Very nice!

I'm about a year behind you. Just watched a decent (high miles) one go for less than $4k - my oldest just isn't close enough yet. Another year and I'll start shopping.

This is absolutely the way to go. This gives your kids a very precise idea what it takes to fix the damage from whatever stupid mistake they're contemplating.

Good luck!

[TostitoBandito]

This is absolutely the way to go. This gives your kids a very precise idea what it takes to fix the damage from whatever stupid mistake they're contemplating.

Also, when someone has however many hours of hard labor and some untold amount of money into a car they tend to take better care of it and tend to try to avoid any sort of mishaps. Funny how after doing a bunch of work on a car you start to wash it more often, notice and fix every tiny little issue, etc...

[Gene V]

Also, when someone has however many hours of hard labor and some untold amount of money into a car they tend to take better care of it and tend to try to avoid any sort of mishaps. Funny how after doing a bunch of work on a car you start to wash it more often, notice and fix every tiny little issue, etc...

What TB said...

[propcar]

Nice project and plan to follow the outcome. I know you haven't driven it yet, but once you have it on the road I'd like to see your opinion on driving experience compared to your GTR. Not caring about numbers or overall speed, but how fun and engaging each car makes you feel.

[Ryan86]

After gutting the car, the next task was to pull the old wrap off. For being 6 years old, the 3M matte black held up really well - the textured 3M carbon on the roof not so much. Wifey, kiddo and her friends all got in on the action. We took the time to strip the bumpers and lights as well - tearing it all the way down would let me see what we had to work with. The body is in excellent shape - the block-sanded primer was my buddy's phenomenal work to remove all the dings, dents, scratches, etc. The vinyl goes right over it and adheres fine.

Some unfortunate surprises:

1. The kidney grills were held in with silicone as the mounting tabs for them were mangled. Ordered a new OEM one.

2. The rear bumper and diffuser were cut with a hacksaw to fit the DTM style exhaust. Sourced a used one, ordered a new Corsa exhaust with black tips.

3. The front bumper was chewed up, cut up, bottomed out and missing 80% of it's hardware and held on with 4 nuts. Ordered a new cover and associated hardware.

4. The rear spoiler was cracked - I suspect heat and age. Made the call to shave the spoiler and install a standard coupe third brake light, deck lid and window glass.

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[Ryan86]

With the interior gutted and the car stripped, it was time to get it running. First order of business was to drain all 6 gallons of old fuel. The pump wouldn't fire up and I had no pressure at the fuel rail, so my solution was just to replace most of the stuff.

I kid you not - the fuel was brown. The fuel pump was corroded and falling apart, as was the sending unit. I siphoned the fuel out from both sides and used shop rags to clean the bottom of the fuel tank to ensure there was nothing left in there.

I installed a new fuel pump, fuel level sending unit, fuel pump relay and fuel filter. While I was at it, I put the new plugs and coils on... turned the key and ... still nothing. Plenty of pressure at the rail, but nothing was getting through the injectors - plugs were bone dry. A quick squirt of starting fluid into the MAF and the car stumbled, so I pulled the trigger on a new set of injectors.

When they showed up a week later, I popped the injectors in and the car fired right up. Success!

[Ryan86]

Most of the exterior weatherstrips were dry-rotted, so they came off and new ones were ordered. The advantage to not having them on the car was that it made it easier to wrap the car. Panel by panel, we dove in. I did it solo, for the most part, only grabbing an extra set of hands for tricky pieces like the hood and fenders.

I'm no expert in wrapping cars - I took a one-day class about 7 years ago, wrapped my face bikes when I was into that, wrapped an employee's car to cover crappy paint and that's been it. While I'd love to wrap in the jams, I lack the skill. I'm using adhesion primer on the edges and body lines, so the end result is turning out nice. If you look in the inside corners of the panels, you can tell it's a wrap - but I'll have maybe $600 in materials, versus $4k to have it done.

The 3M satin ghost flip pearl is tricky - it's a directional wrap, so you have to apply in a uniform direction, or the subtle iridescent pearl effect will be inverted between panels. I'm going clockwise around the car, but still trying to minimize waste... this stuff has a long shelf life, so if the kid bangs a fender or bumper up, we patch/replace and rewrap.

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[propcar]

I like the wrap! Looking good and good progress!

[pDubs]

Awesome stuff. Looking forward to the progress!

[CblockM3]

Great thread so far!

[Ryan86]

I'd wanted to swap the wheels, mostly because they were rashed up 17s and I wanted a staggered 18" setup. It's a tight fit with the current H&R Race springs, but I've got H&R Sport springs to go on along with Bilstein B8s all around. Mocked up the new headlamps; they're HIDs with LED angel eyes. Not 100% correct, but I wanted the angel eyes as daytime running lamps to increase visibility for the kiddo. New gloss black kidney grills installed with coordinating M colors (thanks, eBay) as well as new side moldings.

To keep space open in the garage, I put the new wheels on as soon as they arrived and gave the old ones to my buddy for his 95 M3. He owns a local Meineke and offered free labor for some of the stuff I'd rather not mess with at home (like flushing all the old brake fluid, doing a coolant flush, alignment, etc). Everybody wins.

Yes, those are new trim panels sitting below the car in the front. There was so much missing on the front of the car; I'm trying to put it together 100% stock and correct - thanks OCD!

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[Ryan86]

While the seats were ok, the interior was rough. After a thorough drying, repeated shampooing and more drying, I reinstalled the factory carpet so that I wasn't killing my knees working on the inside.

The old dash had a hole in the center, so I replaced with with a mint used one. The cheap Panasonic head unit came out and I installed a Continental VDO head unit with period-correct aesthetics, streaming Bluetooth for audio and phone calls. The stock speakers were pulled and replaced with ones from a BavSound kit.

I serviced the window regulators, replaced the handles and sound insulation on both doors. While I was working on the 18-button OBC upgrade (complete with turn signal stalk), I added satin silver trim rings to the gauge cluster. Shift and emergency brake boots were replaced with ones with contrast colors to match the seats. The steering wheel was swapped with a flat-bottom one complete with M contrast stitching. Corroded silver pedal covers were replaced with new anodized black ones.

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[blckstrm]

Man, that really looks fantastic!

[BMWManiac]

Love the work...its the little things like new shift knobs, boots, etc that make the interior really feel fresh! Also, under the hood, replace things like the windshield washer bottle...I'd say brake fluid reservoir, but I have yet to do it myself because it costs so damn expensive!

[Ryan86]

Love the work...its the little things like new shift knobs, boots, etc that make the interior really feel fresh! Also, under the hood, replace things like the windshield washer bottle...I'd say brake fluid reservoir, but I have yet to do it myself because it costs so damn expensive!

Agree 100%! I need to take some pics from under the hood. I replaced all of the latching hardware, resprayed the radiator support, replaced all of the under-hood insulation and weatherstripping... looking cleaner every time I give it attention.

The interior is fun - I'm so bad that I bought a new glove box door (after getting 2 sagging ones used), and even got the little plastic screw covers that were missing. 😂

Sorry for the glare in the pics - sun was coming in the garage.

Ryan


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[mwhis936]

Man... this makes me so happy. Good on you and your daughter. Car is looking great!

I rebuilt an M3 when I was 15 with my girlfriend at the time. 14 years later; we're married with two kids and another on the way. Nothing builds a relationship like building a car. Congrats and we'll done,

[blckstrm]

Yeah, those little things just make all the difference.

I love those gauge rings - such a subtle thing that makes so much of a difference.

I've found some on ebay - mind if I ask where you got yours?

[Ryan86]

Yeah, those little things just make all the difference.

I love those gauge rings - such a subtle thing that makes so much of a difference.

I've found some on ebay - mind if I ask where you got yours?

I got them on eBay as well - item # 300626079491. Make sure the smaller rings are seated properly and that you don’t overtighten the sides of the cluster during reassembly or they’ll pop loose. Twice. 🤣

[fsteve]

This is coming along very nicely! This car is going to clean up great when its all done

[Ryan86]

The sunroof assembly was glitchy; I’d been troubleshooting it for a while. Core problem turned out to be a broken mounting tab where the motor mounts to the cable guide. Was cheaper to source a used assembly than it was to repair.

We pulled the weatherstrip to make it easier to wrap and pre-wrapped the new sunroof panel in gloss 3M carbon fiber before installing. Wifey was not amused that I snagged a photo of her removing the old adhesive.

[VLT]

Nice work!