My BMW M3 Evolution Imola Individual GT2 Journal

[Vincefox]

mboon said:

The brake fluid is blue. Cannot remember the name of it now but it's decent stuff that went in. Braided brake lines on the front too.

Iridium as in Southampton? Not sold of them personally.

I think the cover cost £30 and about 30 minutes to fit.

He did a couple of jobs pretty well a while back for me. I've also had good work done by Kartechnic in Pole. Their diagnostics are excellent.

How much was the wiper panel cover? Mine's looking a bit tired.

[mboon]

My coil cover was a mess and letting the engine bay down so I purchased these two



This was the cover before




Painted



First sanding



Completed





Fitted





Gave her a clean





Then went to the PH Breakfast Club meet at Haynes





Thanks

[RickBristol]

Stunning example of a very rare car! Hope you still have it and are still enjoying it too. Looks better than the Aston in that pic IMO.

[mboon]

RickBristol said:

Stunning example of a very rare car! Hope you still have it and are still enjoying it too. Looks better than the Aston in that pic IMO.

Thanks. I still have the car and have been working on her, just not posted the info up. I will start with some updates on her

[mboon]

It's been a long time since I updated these, I have been working on the car and taking photos as I went a long but lost interest in updating these. So I will go through and try to put all the information up since my last update.

So first things first, I had to change my garage. I ended up realy lucky with this as the new garage is right next door to my house, its huge and has a pit. It was however full of crap so moved it all about and got the car in



First job in her new home was to replace the new fog light which was broken (Its hardly been on the car)





Got her out and cleaned her down, a couple shots in her new home





The windscreen has been replaced with a green sunstrip due to chips



While cleaning I noticed a scratch on the bonnet whih was annoying, so a friend helped me polish this back and remove



This then ended in me machine polishing the car. I spent weeks doing this on and off. Not perfect but certainly 80% improvement

WARNING PHOTO OVERLOAD









Before









During

























After









I did the whole car but not going to bore you with that. Next up was to remove the tape etc





And then the task of removing all the white residue



Gently





Long day finished



After unwrapping I could start the old girl, been a few weeks at this point



I keep hearing good stuff about APC so bought some of this



Started with the rubbers etc















Next up was the fuel cap etc













And I found this, so back to the paintshop for the 9th time



Gave her a good clean and nice layer of wax after all of that





And out for the first time in a while









I will have a break now and continue later

Thanks

[mboon]

Next up was the expensive part.

The car was nearly due a service and it was the Inspection 2. I had a few other bits I wanted sorting at the same time to booked her in to my local BMW Specialist. This guy is known locally and is very very good.

So dropped the car off



And then got the bill a week later.

List of work I had completed

Inspection 2
Valve Clearance checked and adjusted
New BMW thermostat
New seals/gaskets and bolts on the vanos including new filter etc

Ready to collect











And then back in her cave



While the car was there, he was bored waiting for someone on Saturday and decided to re-gass the aircon and investigate why that was not working and then removed the door car and freed up the window motor so that now works all free of charge.

I have taken it for a couple runs recently and given her the beans, picks up and pulls really well and no more oil leaks from the vanos.

I am sure there was more but I do not have that much time anymore to update these so will do it in one big hit every now and then.

Thanks

[ColdoRS]

Lovely.

I've got the feelers out for a new toy and reading your progress certainly makes me feel some love for the e36 M3!

Great work.

[e21Mark]

As E36 M3's go, that's about as good as they get for me. Admittedly I'm not a fan of Vadar seats and would much prefer something like a classic Recaro, but it doesn't detract from the overall look too much.

[mboon]

ColdoRS said:

Lovely.

I've got the feelers out for a new toy and reading your progress certainly makes me feel some love for the e36 M3!

Great work.

They are great cars and very tough, but you have to remember they are old cars now. The M3s are never an easy car to drive, notchy gearbox, heavy clutch, engines sound like a tractor from cold but they are rewarding.

[mboon]

e21Mark said:

As E36 M3's go, that's about as good as they get for me. Admittedly I'm not a fan of Vadar seats and would much prefer something like a classic Recaro, but it doesn't detract from the overall look too much.

Thank you. I like the seats, hug you enough but not too much. But overall I think they look really good, much better than the E46 and unique to the M3. I must admit though, I miss the recaros from my old Escort Cosworth. They held you in place and you was not moving lol

[roystinho]

Absolutely love this. Always liked the E36 M3 as they were out just as I was really getting into cars. Off to the classifieds...

[Drew986]

Like what you've done with your plug cover, My one could certainly do with a make over, although not quite as bad as yours it's spoiling what is otherwise, a very tidy engine bay.

I assume you did not remove the rubber gasket on the underside of the cover when you bake cured the paint?

I guess this is made to withstand relatively high engine bay temps so can cope with the temps used to sure the paint?.

[mwstewart]

Credit to you it's kept in fantastic condition.

[mboon]

Drew986 said:

Like what you've done with your plug cover, My one could certainly do with a make over, although not quite as bad as yours it's spoiling what is otherwise, a very tidy engine bay.

I assume you did not remove the rubber gasket on the underside of the cover when you bake cured the paint?

I guess this is made to withstand relatively high engine bay temps so can cope with the temps used to sure the paint?.

No, did not remove the gasket and fitted abck to the car and took for a spirited drive which cured it. Very easy to do and makes a big difference

[Mansells Tash]

I feel a bit mixed up about this, its a great car and you're doing wonderful things by slowly bringing it almost as good as new, however does the amount of time you have spent getting it to the way it looks now mess with your head when you feel like going for a drive but decide not to as it'll get dirty etc?

[mboon]

I actually sold an M3 once because of that very reason.

With this car it does not bother me. I avoid rain purely because I don't want to get it completely caked in crap but mainly because it's tail happy and the rain just makes it drift about which is not for me.

I get as much pleasure from tinkering and cleaning than I do driving her. You cannot drive hard on the roads anymore and I would never track it. I take her to shows and give her a blast when the weather is good. I have another car I used daily which does 90% of what the M3 can do but with less hassle and more comfort and toys. So I only use this when I really want to show it off or warm her up. Yeah it's a waste and some will curse me for it but it's what I like to do. Will be great for the next owner ha

[Mansells Tash]

mboon said:

Will be great for the next owner ha

I was thinking this.

You should consider track days, you don't have to go balls to the wall to enjoy it, you could track it, go spend the day revving it out and enjoying the chassis through corners without coming close to shredding the tires!...give it some thought, I bet you come away from it very happy!

[mboon]

I couldnt do it to this car, it is 1 of 50 so would be gutted if something happened to it, it is also a matching numbers car which makes a difference to the price and I have had one E36 M3 engine go on me before so wouldnt push my luck with this one.

However, nothing stopping me from picking up a cheaper car for track use, plenty around that will do the trick

[epom]

Smashing car. I'd blame whoever put the cardboard box on the bonnet for that scratch

[mboon]

It was a bit of grit in my wash mitts. I was not happy ha