ressurecting an unloved m3

[///Mthusiast]

I'm New-ish to this forum but a long time member of bimmerpost. I've owned over 20 BMW's, the large majority of them being M cars except for a few SUV's for my wife. I love a fixer upper project, and after owning over 6 E46 M3's alone, always had the desire to pick one up at price point that would allow me to do a full "resto mod" of exactly what I wanted. I had the opportunity recently to pick up a very unloved M3 that I couldn't pass on. I saw this car several years ago when the owner was getting in and noticed the unloved example. I walked up and gave him my information and said if he ever wanted to sell it, to give me a shout. He mentioned that he might want to in the next few months, and off he went. Over two years passed when he contacted me saying he was ready to sell.

The car is an '04 in Alpine white over Dove, SMG, nav, sunroof. It was likely left outside for the last few years and parked under a tree. It was absolutely filthy and the majority of the rubber on the car was cracked and falling apart. There is massive amounts of grime in every crevice you can think of. The front bumper is cracked and broken, the driver's door and rocker has damage, the lights are awful all around the car. Inside, the carpets are stained, the dove interior and the pillars are coming apart a bit, and a gigantic aftermarket display has been added. The dash had lights as well with CEL, traction, etc. It's going to be quite the project.

My plans for the car are to touch just about everything. I'm going back and forth on what my actual "goal" for the car is, so I decided the first steps would be to just get it drivable and not looking like a pile of poo. I'll start this off with the pics from when I purchased the car, and will update as it goes!

[karter16]

I love seeing people rescuing these cars - it's certainly a challenge (more so as parts availability becomes harder) but always so satisfying seeing people take unloved examples and restoring them.

I have a soft spot for Alpine White - white is normally viewed as a “boring” colour, but I think on a well restored example it contrasts with the black trim etc so well and is a really complementary colour for the shape of the E46.

Looking forward to following along!


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[siamkazi]

Love this, best of luck!

[Cronenberged]

Def needs to be saved into the member build journals for history. Looking forward to seeing where this goes.

[PSUEng]

Wow, that could be quite the project! Looking forward to seeing how this one ends up.

[Bent_Remy]

That's dope. I get sad when I see these cars being parted out daily so seeing some one save one from the scrap heap puts a smile on my face. You make we want to do start a journal of my old ass M3 find as well. Good luck with the build. Looking forward to the updates.

[///Mthusiast]

Thanks for all the comments. I quite enjoy a restoration and modification project even more so than a very sorted car. It's allowed me to make something "mine" which I've always liked as well as rescuing something that should be much more loved and appreciated than the current state. I'm still not exactly sure what I want to do to the car for end goal, but wanted to go ahead and get a few things addressed. The first couple of items were pretty easy to decide on as I want to get the car to the point where I can drive it reliably. I also wanted to address the "tired" exterior first and figured I'd come back around to the interior and more mods down the road. Here's the order list so far:

ACL rod bearings with APR bolts
Stoptech slotted rotors and street pads all around
Steel lines, 600 fluid
Apex EC7 (laying around from my e90 m3)
OEM euro front bumper (no side markers)
OEM Amber tail lights (inner and outer)
OEM Amber side markers
OEM front lens kit
OEM Guibo
OEM supporting gaskets for bottom end rebuild
OEM titan interior trim
OEM front bumper support
OEM Fog lights
OEM window gaskets/rubber/trim
OEM windshield cowling
OEM hood venting
OEM lower bumper grills
Bimmerworld track front control arm bushings
Powerflex urethan rear diff bushings
Bimmerworld rear subframe reinforcement kit, expanded version
Red Line 15w50 high performance engine oil
Rogue engineering power pulley's
Autotechnik gloss black front and side grills
IND gloss black rear M3 emblem

I'm sure I missed some stuff, but essentially on new rubber/plastic on the whole exterior of the car. Addressing the first bit of damage on the front of the car as well as replacing anything else that looked tired. With 110k on the car, I also wanted to go ahead and address tired bushings and go ahead and address 2 of the big 3.

The car is a bit torn down at the moment, but it might start looking the part again soon.

[///Mthusiast]

I love seeing people rescuing these cars - it's certainly a challenge (more so as parts availability becomes harder) but always so satisfying seeing people take unloved examples and restoring them.

I have a soft spot for Alpine White - white is normally viewed as a “boring” colour, but I think on a well restored example it contrasts with the black trim etc so well and is a really complementary colour for the shape of the E46.

Looking forward to following along!


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Parts availability has been interesting... there were several things I wanted to order right from the beginning that are now NLA. I also love alpine white. My previous track e92 and road e90) were alpine white and I also loved the "boring" exterior with some pops of color elsewhere. One of my favorite mods on a carbon black, Jet black, or alpine white car has always been the amber lights all the way around. I no joke got the last set of rear amber tail lights in the world. Not sure if they are now NLA after that, but there was one in jacksonville and one in germany to make the set. I also (forgot above) ordered new A pillars for the inside as mine were pealing really bad. I was going to get A, B, and C, but you could only get the right side of B and C. I Also checked into a full new interior in every color but grey and each set had a door panel, seat, etc in NLA. Having built several of these over the years, I can say I've never had any NLA issues before now, but it will unfortunately only get worse.

Here's my last 3 BMW builds:

[ChapterM3]

Wow this car is certainly in rough shape, but good on you to see the opportunity those years ago - this is going to be one fullfilling project once you're done, and I'm sure that previous owner will be happy to see that you brought it back to life. You certainly have your work cut out for you! Looking forward to seeing your updates as it comes along!

[maw1124]

This will certainly show the current state of NLA parts. You should document what’s NLA as you go along.

maw

[JudahJD904]

You’re obviously mechanically inclined. This project will certainly call on all of those skills to restore it to its former glory. That and a lot of time. I’m here for the content. God speed.

[oceansize]

This will certainly show the current state of NLA parts. You should document what’s NLA as you go along.

maw

Why my current project is not an aged BMW or Mercedes (the state of AMG parts is atrocious). I'm done with stuff going NLA and fighting parts battles, not to mention the ridiculous cost of these platforms currently. My current project is a manual coupe NA V8 where there are tons of parts, many suppliers, and realistic pricing for said parts due to competition. Honestly its been a joy. Is the chassis as good? Nope, but its close enough for my purposes. This M3 is probably the last older German car I own unless I go Porsche (which is totally different animal). On my C63 AMG which was a 2009 they quit making the darn intake manifold which is magnesium alloy and simply rots over time (aftermarket options don't exist). Car was last made in 2014 and early 2015. Get real, so dumb. I was really looking for an M3 coupe but I've parked those plans indefinitely.

[Nate047]

You're a madman lol but I get it. I'm just gonna ask straight up, how much did you pay for it?

[oceansize]

You're a madman lol but I get it. I'm just gonna ask straight up, how much did you pay for it?

Too much even if five dollars.

I'm kidding OP, enjoy.

[maw1124]

Why my current project is not an aged BMW or Mercedes (the state of AMG parts is atrocious)... I'm done with stuff going NLA and fighting parts battles... On my C63 AMG which was a 2009 they quit making the darn intake manifold which is magnesium alloy and simply rots over time...

Never heard this one before. I guess I should be glad I didn't buy a M156 car. I see they're $1000 in the used market, which is quite the gamble for something that "simply rots over time."

Luckily, so far the NLA bug has only bitten me on the Allroad 4.2, so I bought another whole car for $500, with fewer miles and no rust. I'll either get it up and running or harvest it for parts, or do an engine swap, or whatever, but for $500 it was worth the time I spent looking for the parts that went bad on mine. Coolant pipes rusted through -- found one on eBay, the other one new in Germany. I was certain I wasn't going to find them, and almost didn't.

Literally everything is available for my AMG because back then it's just a W220 SClass (they made millions of them), with a different drivetrain and suspension (which are bomb proof).

We'll see how it goes with this car. So far I'm only out the Imola Extended Leather center console, which went NLA literally while it was in my FCPEuro shopping cart.

When I can no longer source the necessary German parts I'll just lease.

maw