Hi all,
After finishing an F81 build last Summer, I've been looking casually for an E46 M3 coupe project. The E46 M3 was the first new car I bought back in 2004. I only ended up having it for a couple years, but have always loved them and that has only grown more over the years. I knew at some point I wanted to get another for a future project.
I was ideally looking for a competition package car, but finding one that is a good project candidate (ie needs work, but not completely trashed) is not easy. I try to keep my project cars in a spot where I am into them for less than what I had to put into them (not counting my time).
A few weeks ago I stumbled on an 05 SMG coupe with 140k miles that was listed as needing rod bearings. Checking VIN history showed that it was a local California car, it had been with the same owner from 2006 until early 2025 and it had been serviced regularly throughout. I took a look in person and although it had sat outside for a while recently underneath it seemed to be in pretty good shape overall. All records were available with the car going back to 2006 (a stack of paper about 5" think). The car also had quite a few Dinan parts (including intake, exhaust, suspension, tune, diff, wheels) including a Dinan serial numbered plaque. There are varying opinions on Dinan and I wasn't specifically looking for one, but it is kinda cool to have a lot of their parts are together. There are $20k in receipts just for the dinan parts, which I could never have imagined paying for back then.
The next day we settled on a price and I had the car towed home. I decided not to even start it as I didn't want to cause any further damage to the motor. Either way I knew I would be taking the engine apart, so not much point. The price was at a point where even if I needed to do a full rebuild I should be ok.
Anyway, just getting things started and will add more details on the plan and progress as things go.
Here are a few pics of the day I first looked at it.
After finishing an F81 build last Summer, I've been looking casually for an E46 M3 coupe project. The E46 M3 was the first new car I bought back in 2004. I only ended up having it for a couple years, but have always loved them and that has only grown more over the years. I knew at some point I wanted to get another for a future project.
I was ideally looking for a competition package car, but finding one that is a good project candidate (ie needs work, but not completely trashed) is not easy. I try to keep my project cars in a spot where I am into them for less than what I had to put into them (not counting my time).
A few weeks ago I stumbled on an 05 SMG coupe with 140k miles that was listed as needing rod bearings. Checking VIN history showed that it was a local California car, it had been with the same owner from 2006 until early 2025 and it had been serviced regularly throughout. I took a look in person and although it had sat outside for a while recently underneath it seemed to be in pretty good shape overall. All records were available with the car going back to 2006 (a stack of paper about 5" think). The car also had quite a few Dinan parts (including intake, exhaust, suspension, tune, diff, wheels) including a Dinan serial numbered plaque. There are varying opinions on Dinan and I wasn't specifically looking for one, but it is kinda cool to have a lot of their parts are together. There are $20k in receipts just for the dinan parts, which I could never have imagined paying for back then.
The next day we settled on a price and I had the car towed home. I decided not to even start it as I didn't want to cause any further damage to the motor. Either way I knew I would be taking the engine apart, so not much point. The price was at a point where even if I needed to do a full rebuild I should be ok.
Anyway, just getting things started and will add more details on the plan and progress as things go.
Here are a few pics of the day I first looked at it.
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