Luckily for me, my "build" thread on M3Forum was pretty minimal, so I won't have much to replicate over here. That said, I can't really remember my intro, so I'll get right to the chase, cliff notes style:
Before I get into the story of my M3, let me quickly catch you up on my automotive timeline. I'm a longtime BMW enthusiast, having owned 2 E30's, an E36 and an E90 335i (N54). I had bought my most recent BMW (E90) in September of 2011, looking like this:
After 6+ years of modifying, and expecting our second son in February 2018, I decided I wanted something bigger and more rugged that could take all the abuse that two young boys could throw at it. And so I sold it January of 2018 looking like this:
Just before selling the E90, however, I had purchased the vehicle that I decided on and spent months searching and obsessing over. I found it in Delaware (I'm in Massachusetts), so the week after Thanksiving 2017, I boarded a one-way flight from PVD and was picked up at the Philly airport by the salesman I had been dealing with for weeks. After a LONG drive home (with a few pit stops), the truck I had been OBSESSING over was finally mine:
That said, (again, we're going high-level, cliff notes style), after nearly a year ownership, I decided daily driving a truck wasn't really my thing and that I really missed being behind the wheel of a BMW and driving stick. After hanging out in my neighbors garage (he's a car guy, through and through) one night, we got to talking and I started thinking about what car I'd want if I were to sell my Raptor. I initially threw around a few ideas, from an E28 535i to an E36 M3. But then realized one of my dream cars from my college days ('05 graduate) was now a realistic possibility for me. So my search for an E46 M3 began.
However, knowing I wouldn't be daily driving the M3 (2 kids and all, and I live in New England...so snow and salt), I needed to settle on a daily driver. Not knowing what I wanted long-term, I decided to look into leasing for the first time ever. Wanting something relatively affordable (leaving me more money to spend on the M3), I wound up with a 2018 Honda Accord Sport 1.5T:
Now that I had a new daily driver on hand, I got to selling the Raptor, which ended up selling fairly quickly looking like this:
OK, so this is more or less about the time where the story of my M3 begins, so I'll try and be a bit more detailed here. To reiterate from earlier, I'd fallen in love with the E46 M3 when I first laid my eyes on it. I even had a poster of it on my college dorm room wall! Even while selling the Raptor and looking for a daily, I had been perusing cargurus.com, autotrader.com, cars.com, Facebook Marketplace, craigslist, and just about every BMW forum known to man looking for my ideal car. I ruled a few items out from the get go, namely the following:
That interior and those comp wheels really had me drooling over this car! The seller ended up being a very nice guy who did a great job of responding in a timely manner to my myriad of questions. He sent me tons and tons of photos and videos of the car, including specific shots/videos I had requested (cold start, walk around video, etc.). He even sent me the PPI he had done prior to him purchasing the car a few years prior, showing no major issues with the car, including the normal items (rear subframe, vanos, etc.).
After a few days of back and forth texting/phone calls/emails, etc., we agreed on a price, pending a PPI. As you can see from the listing photos, he had two sets of wheels for the car. The car wasn't a competition model, but I much prefer the look of the ZCP wheels, so the price we agreed on was including the ZCP wheels. I could have purchased the car for $1k less if I took the other wheels, but the ZCP wheels had just been freshly powder-coated and I wanted them!
Being a BMW CCA member, I reached out to a few resources in the Chicago/IL area to help point me to a reputable indy shop to get the PPI performed at. Eric Kaul (some of you may know the name, as he's very active in the BMW/autocross scene) reached out to some of his connections in the area, and they ended up pointing me to German Auto Werks. Oddly enough, as the seller was waiting for the PPI to finish up, he texted me 2 hours or so in and said that with the PPI he had done elsewhere, the car was in and out in under an hour. So clearly this one was much more thorough (more on that shortly). Which makes sense, because I had the option of having the shop drop the subframe to properly inspect for cracks (for more $, obviously), which I agreed to. Rather be safe than sorry.
Well, as luck would have it, the PPI came back with a decent amount of findings. Much of these items were either things I was already aware of, or items that I could prioritize and slowly address/tackle myself. However, there were cracks present, as well as stored Vanos faults. I was pretty bummed once I received the report, but so was the seller. He was upset that the shop that performed his PPI when he bought the car clearly didn't do enough investigative work, because many of these items would probably have been discovered earlier. So with my high hopes of buying a car now deflated, I told the seller that unless he was willing to accept a much lower price, I was going to have no choice but to continue my search elsewhere.
About a month went by and I was still having no luck finding the right car. Tons of convertibles, tons of SMGs, but nothing I really wanted or could afford. Throughout this time, the seller had been periodically reaching out, keeping me up to date on the progress of the car. He told me that after initially "sulking" about it, he turned this opportunity into a positive. He had always planned to address those big ticket items as preventative maintenance, but never had the time. But he decided he would make time and perform those repairs himself. Told me that he had been working on cars for 30+ years, including engine/transmission swaps and some engine rebuilds. Again, I was all but set on another car, but I could never quite get this one out of my head.
He sent me an album containing photos of all the work he had done and documented and man, he was thorough. He ended up doing the following work:
Feb 9, 2019
The trailer arrived in Winnebago,IL on 2/9/19 to pick up the car for delivery. The seller took this video of the car being loaded and texted it to me:
Feb 16, 2019
As luck would have it, the car arrived one week later, on my youngest son's 1st birthday. With how my face lit up that day, you'd think it was my birthday!:
More to come as I get my ish together...
Before I get into the story of my M3, let me quickly catch you up on my automotive timeline. I'm a longtime BMW enthusiast, having owned 2 E30's, an E36 and an E90 335i (N54). I had bought my most recent BMW (E90) in September of 2011, looking like this:
After 6+ years of modifying, and expecting our second son in February 2018, I decided I wanted something bigger and more rugged that could take all the abuse that two young boys could throw at it. And so I sold it January of 2018 looking like this:
Just before selling the E90, however, I had purchased the vehicle that I decided on and spent months searching and obsessing over. I found it in Delaware (I'm in Massachusetts), so the week after Thanksiving 2017, I boarded a one-way flight from PVD and was picked up at the Philly airport by the salesman I had been dealing with for weeks. After a LONG drive home (with a few pit stops), the truck I had been OBSESSING over was finally mine:
That said, (again, we're going high-level, cliff notes style), after nearly a year ownership, I decided daily driving a truck wasn't really my thing and that I really missed being behind the wheel of a BMW and driving stick. After hanging out in my neighbors garage (he's a car guy, through and through) one night, we got to talking and I started thinking about what car I'd want if I were to sell my Raptor. I initially threw around a few ideas, from an E28 535i to an E36 M3. But then realized one of my dream cars from my college days ('05 graduate) was now a realistic possibility for me. So my search for an E46 M3 began.
However, knowing I wouldn't be daily driving the M3 (2 kids and all, and I live in New England...so snow and salt), I needed to settle on a daily driver. Not knowing what I wanted long-term, I decided to look into leasing for the first time ever. Wanting something relatively affordable (leaving me more money to spend on the M3), I wound up with a 2018 Honda Accord Sport 1.5T:
Now that I had a new daily driver on hand, I got to selling the Raptor, which ended up selling fairly quickly looking like this:
OK, so this is more or less about the time where the story of my M3 begins, so I'll try and be a bit more detailed here. To reiterate from earlier, I'd fallen in love with the E46 M3 when I first laid my eyes on it. I even had a poster of it on my college dorm room wall! Even while selling the Raptor and looking for a daily, I had been perusing cargurus.com, autotrader.com, cars.com, Facebook Marketplace, craigslist, and just about every BMW forum known to man looking for my ideal car. I ruled a few items out from the get go, namely the following:
- No SMG
- No convertibles
- No black
- No TiAG
That interior and those comp wheels really had me drooling over this car! The seller ended up being a very nice guy who did a great job of responding in a timely manner to my myriad of questions. He sent me tons and tons of photos and videos of the car, including specific shots/videos I had requested (cold start, walk around video, etc.). He even sent me the PPI he had done prior to him purchasing the car a few years prior, showing no major issues with the car, including the normal items (rear subframe, vanos, etc.).
After a few days of back and forth texting/phone calls/emails, etc., we agreed on a price, pending a PPI. As you can see from the listing photos, he had two sets of wheels for the car. The car wasn't a competition model, but I much prefer the look of the ZCP wheels, so the price we agreed on was including the ZCP wheels. I could have purchased the car for $1k less if I took the other wheels, but the ZCP wheels had just been freshly powder-coated and I wanted them!
Being a BMW CCA member, I reached out to a few resources in the Chicago/IL area to help point me to a reputable indy shop to get the PPI performed at. Eric Kaul (some of you may know the name, as he's very active in the BMW/autocross scene) reached out to some of his connections in the area, and they ended up pointing me to German Auto Werks. Oddly enough, as the seller was waiting for the PPI to finish up, he texted me 2 hours or so in and said that with the PPI he had done elsewhere, the car was in and out in under an hour. So clearly this one was much more thorough (more on that shortly). Which makes sense, because I had the option of having the shop drop the subframe to properly inspect for cracks (for more $, obviously), which I agreed to. Rather be safe than sorry.
Well, as luck would have it, the PPI came back with a decent amount of findings. Much of these items were either things I was already aware of, or items that I could prioritize and slowly address/tackle myself. However, there were cracks present, as well as stored Vanos faults. I was pretty bummed once I received the report, but so was the seller. He was upset that the shop that performed his PPI when he bought the car clearly didn't do enough investigative work, because many of these items would probably have been discovered earlier. So with my high hopes of buying a car now deflated, I told the seller that unless he was willing to accept a much lower price, I was going to have no choice but to continue my search elsewhere.
About a month went by and I was still having no luck finding the right car. Tons of convertibles, tons of SMGs, but nothing I really wanted or could afford. Throughout this time, the seller had been periodically reaching out, keeping me up to date on the progress of the car. He told me that after initially "sulking" about it, he turned this opportunity into a positive. He had always planned to address those big ticket items as preventative maintenance, but never had the time. But he decided he would make time and perform those repairs himself. Told me that he had been working on cars for 30+ years, including engine/transmission swaps and some engine rebuilds. Again, I was all but set on another car, but I could never quite get this one out of my head.
He sent me an album containing photos of all the work he had done and documented and man, he was thorough. He ended up doing the following work:
- Vanos rebuild, w/ all new seals & anti-rattle kit
- Valves adjusted
- A/C belt replaced
- Power steering hose bolt replaced
- Reinforced sub-frame
- New sub-frame bushings
- Valve cover gasket
Feb 9, 2019
The trailer arrived in Winnebago,IL on 2/9/19 to pick up the car for delivery. The seller took this video of the car being loaded and texted it to me:
Feb 16, 2019
As luck would have it, the car arrived one week later, on my youngest son's 1st birthday. With how my face lit up that day, you'd think it was my birthday!:
More to come as I get my ish together...
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