Slavik's 2002 Carbon Schwarz M3 6 Speed Build

[slavik1988]

A bit more progress during the week...


Sound Deadening:



Headliner In:



Tuesday, the glass guy came in:




... and a new Evolve filter:

[slavik1988]

The last few evenings were busy. I made the last push to finish it up. Installed dash and complete interior, bled clutch and brakes, installed the splash shields and applied seam sealer to the sides of the carbon roof.







Will be doing alignment over the weekend and will need to book an appointment to charge the A/C. Also, will need to book a dyno appointment for Hassan to tune it.

[RoyalFlushness]

Such a nice clean high end build.

[slavik1988]

Such a nice clean high end build.

Thank you!


Alignment was done over the weekend.



While it was on the alignment rack, I put her on the scales. This is the end result with about 2/3rds tank of fuel. I have to say, I am very happy considering it was 3204 lbs with sunroof and in its old form (corner weight was not yet done):

[Sharocks]

Yo what.

It's 3095 lbs?

Spits drink out.

[fullyflaredd]

Awesome build!! Love the attention to detail

[slavik1988]

Did a 800 mile drive a couple of weeks ago and happy to report that I did not have any issues after the big project. I forgot how much fun the M3 is to drive and it performed flawlessly. I was nursing a overheating issue last year and I am happy to say that I no longer have that issue. I cannot pinpoint exactly what I did but my gut feeling is that I had the wrong spark plugs in the car. I replaced those and went with Hassan's CSL tune. Enough with rant, enjoy the pics...











Map of the drive that we did:



Got a chance to see the 2022 VW Golf R. Definitely better in person than in pictures but it is still not as good as the Mk7.

[chalaka]

amazing work~
thanks for sharing, and enjoy the read a lot!

[akshon]

One of the best builds.

[slavik1988]

After a while of just enjoying the M3, there are some small updates...

For aesthitic reasons, I opted to get yet another Status Gruppe carbon fiber front lip. On top of that I participated in a Apex forged SM-10RS group buy to acquire some lighter forged wheels for the M3.






Same wheels, different color and weight reduction. I will be re-weighing the car in a bit after a few more mods....

[slavik1988]

After months of deliberation, I went for a carbon driveshaft. For me, there was enough testing done to prove that it is the real deal and won't vibrate the hell out of my bones. Upon receiving the driveshaft, I could see that it oozes quality. Everything was meticulously designed and every bit of it looked like it belonged in a production vehicle.

Installation; however, was for from easy. First issue that I ran into was that the bolt needed to be threaded into from the reverse side of the shaft. On top of that, the driveshaft requires a longer bolt than I anticipated per the group buy page. I purchased a 58mm bolt which did not work for our application. I, in turn went for a 71mm guibo bolt from the F82 M4 which fixed the issue. Because it being a single piece, installing it requires you to drop the rear subframe along with differential to align the shaft properly. This is understandable considering the one piece design.

Now onto the important stuff. The driveshaft itself shed 6lbs off of the vehicle. Yes, it is down towards the ground but the difference was felt. The difference was felt not in way of weight savings, it was felt in terms of direct drive/positive traction. The shaft picked up all of the slop from the OE drive shaft with its center support bearing. Mind you, my M3 has only 64k miles and bushings have already been replaced once. The carbon driveshaft goes to shop how more engaging you can be on road with our chassis. Once you select a gear, it puts all of the power directly to the ground with delay.







The cherry on top was the weight savings. I weighed the OE driveshaft versus the carbon counterpart to find a 6 lbs weight savings.




Versus:

[Loopyspec]

Did you experience any back pain from the Pole Position seat during the long drive?

[slavik1988]

Did you experience any back pain from the Pole Position seat during the long drive?

Recently returned from another 200 mile drive. Call it young (35) or whatever but I haven't had any discomfort from the pole position seats. Theses are one of the older stock and the cushions are quite soft.

[Thoglan]

Did you experience any back pain from the Pole Position seat during the long drive?

I find my pole position ABEs significantly more comfortable than the OEM seat. Only downside to them getting in and out is harder and rear seat access is more limited.

[slavik1988]

I finally got around to installing my Slon Workshop carbon fiber reinforcement wall. It has to be said that it was quite a time consuming installation. All of the rear end trim and carpets had to be removed in preparation of the grinding.





The quality overall was quite impressive; however, there was two corners where I would have liked the gaps to have been smaller. A lot of panel bond was necessary in order to have no gaps during installation.




I opted to again go with SEM multi-purpose panel adhesive. I have had good experience with it during my installation of the carbon roof and I already had the applicator gun at my disposal. As per their instructions, the adhesive was applied to both panels. I did a bead on the carbon wall to insure that it was have contact on all points of the reinforcement.