3rd Time Lucky; E36 M3 Evolution Saloon
Discussion
Well spent the first hour working on the M3 in months this aft. 
Had the grinder on the cavity above the rear subframe again, doing more decrusting. Next task will be to get into the corners with the drill and wire brush bit then give that whole area a sand by hand and then primer it.
Some of the small plastic clips under there are going to be a bit of a nightmare to replace. I'll probably forget most of them existed!
Had the grinder on the cavity above the rear subframe again, doing more decrusting. Next task will be to get into the corners with the drill and wire brush bit then give that whole area a sand by hand and then primer it.
Some of the small plastic clips under there are going to be a bit of a nightmare to replace. I'll probably forget most of them existed!
Thanks to the Subaru I just haven't had time/money for this despite my hopes I could get back into the project again. But now I am pretty much full steam ahead.
Unfortunately, I am still finding more and more issues the deeper I dig. Last weekend I took the boot seals off and found this:
In addition, I also found this:
Which became this:
Had I known how long this would all take, the car would have gone straight under a cover. I wish I'd bought one sooner. It can't have helped it, being sat for over 18 months now. I also wavered, and decided that I wouldn't try the welding myself. After these recent discoveries, that has all changed. I am going to have to just get on with it.
I need to find out how thick the steel is where the hole is, so that I can then cut it out and weld in the right sort of fresh stuff. Not entirely sure how to get the bit of curvature at the top of where the hole is as yet.
I'm also going to remove the black stonechip stuff in its entirety. It's hiding things. It needs removing and everything checking.
I've discovered that the entire rear panel can be bought from BMW for £180 and will have to drill out a series of spot welds and then grind away the metal at the edges of the panel as it is brazed from the factory. This will be quite difficult I think. I will also have to get that part painted once done.
One of the main issues I have had is space. The garage is so full of boxes of crap, an old washing machine, sets of wheels etc. that I just can't move in there. The front bumper sits in there, on the floor, and is now scraped and needs repainting. Enough's enough. At the start of April I plan to hire a storage unit and move everything I can to it until I have finished this car. I need space to work. I might even try to get the car into the garage, although that may be impossible due to a steep little sloped bit of concrete just in front of it, no way of getting the car off the stands currently and no possibility of it moving under its own power anytime soon!
I'm currently trying to find out what to do about underseal. I don't want the expense of buying a compressor really, so I am looking into aerosol vs spray gun options....
Expect updates to start getting a bit more regular again going forward.
Unfortunately, I am still finding more and more issues the deeper I dig. Last weekend I took the boot seals off and found this:
In addition, I also found this:
Which became this:
Had I known how long this would all take, the car would have gone straight under a cover. I wish I'd bought one sooner. It can't have helped it, being sat for over 18 months now. I also wavered, and decided that I wouldn't try the welding myself. After these recent discoveries, that has all changed. I am going to have to just get on with it.
I need to find out how thick the steel is where the hole is, so that I can then cut it out and weld in the right sort of fresh stuff. Not entirely sure how to get the bit of curvature at the top of where the hole is as yet.
I'm also going to remove the black stonechip stuff in its entirety. It's hiding things. It needs removing and everything checking.
I've discovered that the entire rear panel can be bought from BMW for £180 and will have to drill out a series of spot welds and then grind away the metal at the edges of the panel as it is brazed from the factory. This will be quite difficult I think. I will also have to get that part painted once done.
One of the main issues I have had is space. The garage is so full of boxes of crap, an old washing machine, sets of wheels etc. that I just can't move in there. The front bumper sits in there, on the floor, and is now scraped and needs repainting. Enough's enough. At the start of April I plan to hire a storage unit and move everything I can to it until I have finished this car. I need space to work. I might even try to get the car into the garage, although that may be impossible due to a steep little sloped bit of concrete just in front of it, no way of getting the car off the stands currently and no possibility of it moving under its own power anytime soon!
I'm currently trying to find out what to do about underseal. I don't want the expense of buying a compressor really, so I am looking into aerosol vs spray gun options....
Expect updates to start getting a bit more regular again going forward.
Cheers guys.
No real progress yet on phase two but the old girl had a nice bath yesterday. It was nice to see the colour shine again and remove the bits of green s
t that was building up on the rubbers.
The door handle seals are shot. They'll have to be replaced. That seems very minor right now though!
Hoping to get some welding bits and pieces I need and some 1mm cutting discs, more primer, stone chip etc. in a week or two. Then I can start to make some headway.
A few wash pics:
No real progress yet on phase two but the old girl had a nice bath yesterday. It was nice to see the colour shine again and remove the bits of green s
t that was building up on the rubbers. The door handle seals are shot. They'll have to be replaced. That seems very minor right now though!
Hoping to get some welding bits and pieces I need and some 1mm cutting discs, more primer, stone chip etc. in a week or two. Then I can start to make some headway.
A few wash pics:
Edited by TroubledSoul on Wednesday 12th April 12:16
No real progress as such on the M3 but some exciting developments this week 
Finally, after what seems like an eternity, I have found a workshop! I'll be sharing with a guy who isn't going to be there much as he's a boat enthusiast and has just bought a 35ft yacht or some such to renovate so he wanted to offset some rent with a share.
The car will finally be going inside and the work will properly commence in the next month or so. All indoors for winter
There's a compressor and some air tools on site that I can use and it's a nice location out of the way. I'm so pleased to finally find some premises because a lot of the stuff that needs doing would have been massively difficult outside over the winter. Now I can strip the remaining bits that need stripping and not have to worry about it.
Finally feels like I can actually do this....
Oh and last night I bagged an ebay bargain; a set of ARP bolts that have never been used for £55
I have to admit I am umming and ahhing again about whether to restore or build a track monster. Restoration seems best with it being a rare saloon but the high miles lean me back towards track car...... A club sport style car with a half cage might be a nice halfway house but I am miles away from having to make such a decision yet.
Thanks to Photobucket I will need to go back over this thread and reupload and replace all the bloody photos. Cheers for that!
Finally, after what seems like an eternity, I have found a workshop! I'll be sharing with a guy who isn't going to be there much as he's a boat enthusiast and has just bought a 35ft yacht or some such to renovate so he wanted to offset some rent with a share.
The car will finally be going inside and the work will properly commence in the next month or so. All indoors for winter
There's a compressor and some air tools on site that I can use and it's a nice location out of the way. I'm so pleased to finally find some premises because a lot of the stuff that needs doing would have been massively difficult outside over the winter. Now I can strip the remaining bits that need stripping and not have to worry about it. Finally feels like I can actually do this....
Oh and last night I bagged an ebay bargain; a set of ARP bolts that have never been used for £55
I have to admit I am umming and ahhing again about whether to restore or build a track monster. Restoration seems best with it being a rare saloon but the high miles lean me back towards track car...... A club sport style car with a half cage might be a nice halfway house but I am miles away from having to make such a decision yet.
Thanks to Photobucket I will need to go back over this thread and reupload and replace all the bloody photos. Cheers for that!
Not sure if this is still a live project or not, but for what its worth Ive done pretty much the same (with some variations) on an e36 328 sport coupe. With the proper planning both the front and rear axles reconditioning/replacements went pretty smoothly considering they are 20+ yrs old. In our case its a track car, so whilst things were done properly from a mechanical aspect, the cosmetic area only focused on protection due to limited ramp time.
Imo, I would keep the car original. You would at least add value to it that way, arp and other focused bits are overkill in that case, better focus on finish and enjoy a modern classic on the road. If you want a track car, knowing what you know, you would do better to buy one already prepared and save yourself half the hassle and cost. Plenty of e36 based examples for sale on ebay and the likes. If I was to start again, I wouod definately go that route, even if the car is a bit ropey it will still be more tyan half the way there.
Hum
Imo, I would keep the car original. You would at least add value to it that way, arp and other focused bits are overkill in that case, better focus on finish and enjoy a modern classic on the road. If you want a track car, knowing what you know, you would do better to buy one already prepared and save yourself half the hassle and cost. Plenty of e36 based examples for sale on ebay and the likes. If I was to start again, I wouod definately go that route, even if the car is a bit ropey it will still be more tyan half the way there.
Hum
It still exists and the intention is still there, I just keep being taken away from it by other cars! It does pain me to see it sitting there every day though. I did recently purchase a few more bits, including the seam sealer, epoxy mastic rust buster stuff and some new bushes for the rear axle. So it is still ongoing, just very slowly and with a marriage break up now thrown in for good measure 
Hi all, it's a long overdue update. Life took a turn in the New Year and the Mrs told me she wanted to separate. Fast forward to now and I am trying to get everything sorted for selling the house etc. So, I gave up on the M3. 
I decided the right thing to do was just to sell up and let someone else finish it. But then people began showing interest in it and I got a bit protective and realised I can't let it go. At least not without a last concerted effort to get it back on the road. So here we are. This weekend I went back underneath it:
The corrosion is quite bad in places. I've been at the underside above the rear axle and above the fuel tank area with a grinder and a wire wheel, but the rubbery underseal stuff is quite stubborn. I've decided that this car will indeed by the track tool it was always intended to be. With the amount of stuff that needs sorting and the mileage etc. it doesn't make sense to be anything else in my mind, and the new urgency to get the car moving again means I can't go as deep as I'd have liked originally with any sort of restoration.
I may have to epoxy mastic over some of the remaining rubbery stuff as it doesn't seem viable trying to fully remove it on my back on the drive... Any idea if that's a bad move? Obviously any flaky or rusty bits will have been removed and cleaned up first.
A complete ball ache also occurred when the grinder nicked a fuel vapour hose:
That's going to be a real pain to remove and replace. Much fun was also had when I tried to remove the brake lines... The right and left nuts wouldn't budge, so I decided to remove the bottom one that runs in from the front of the car. This one did start to turn. Excellent, I thought! Then I realised that the nut was seized on the hard pipe and was twisting it as it loosened. I had to just let it twist and snap off and will now have to fix that too.
I got the subframe out and finally removed the remaining two bushes. I absolutely hate that job! It's a real pig:
This is where the cables run through to the underside from the very back of the boot area:
And here's the bloody underside. Plan now is to get as much off as I can, treat with Bilt Hamber Deox gel and then seam sealer and rust buster, followed by Upol Gravitex brushed on.
Not a great deal of progress but it's now my main focus, not the other cars. Hopefully I'll finally get this thing sorted.
I decided the right thing to do was just to sell up and let someone else finish it. But then people began showing interest in it and I got a bit protective and realised I can't let it go. At least not without a last concerted effort to get it back on the road. So here we are. This weekend I went back underneath it:
The corrosion is quite bad in places. I've been at the underside above the rear axle and above the fuel tank area with a grinder and a wire wheel, but the rubbery underseal stuff is quite stubborn. I've decided that this car will indeed by the track tool it was always intended to be. With the amount of stuff that needs sorting and the mileage etc. it doesn't make sense to be anything else in my mind, and the new urgency to get the car moving again means I can't go as deep as I'd have liked originally with any sort of restoration.
I may have to epoxy mastic over some of the remaining rubbery stuff as it doesn't seem viable trying to fully remove it on my back on the drive... Any idea if that's a bad move? Obviously any flaky or rusty bits will have been removed and cleaned up first.
A complete ball ache also occurred when the grinder nicked a fuel vapour hose:
That's going to be a real pain to remove and replace. Much fun was also had when I tried to remove the brake lines... The right and left nuts wouldn't budge, so I decided to remove the bottom one that runs in from the front of the car. This one did start to turn. Excellent, I thought! Then I realised that the nut was seized on the hard pipe and was twisting it as it loosened. I had to just let it twist and snap off and will now have to fix that too.
I got the subframe out and finally removed the remaining two bushes. I absolutely hate that job! It's a real pig:
This is where the cables run through to the underside from the very back of the boot area:
And here's the bloody underside. Plan now is to get as much off as I can, treat with Bilt Hamber Deox gel and then seam sealer and rust buster, followed by Upol Gravitex brushed on.
Not a great deal of progress but it's now my main focus, not the other cars. Hopefully I'll finally get this thing sorted.
Well it's bad news I'm afraid. I was poking around in the boot now that I've removed everything, and manage to put a hole through part of the floor near the outermost exhaust hanger. I also discovered move rust on the passenger side near the rear arch and hidden under some seam sealer on the inside.
I'm having a bit of a battle with myself right now over what to do with the car. It's just one thing after another and if I were to fully repair this this is the list of welding to do:
The new boot floor hole
The existing hole in the driver side rear arch
The front driver side inner arch front section replacement
Rear tail panel replacement
Cut out bodged jacking points and re-repair
Also the fuel tank access holes on the rear bench aren't in great nick
Cut off and weld on repair panels to bottoms of front wings
And then because all of the underside is covered in thick black underseal that's gone on on top of any rust, god knows whether there's any rust to the floorpan.
Right now my heart says keep going, my head says reshell it into a solid E36 shell and build a really good track car and finally enjoy it. It obviously won't be a real M3 Evo anymore though because the only shells around for sale are verts and one stripped and caged Evo shell that would be perfect but 1. I don't have the time for a bare shell rebuild with a house to sell and 2. It's £2.5k which I don't suppose is that bad but it is when you haven't got it.
So that's the latest. And if I do reshell, do I go the touring car route with a saloon shell or go for a coupe and wait for a set of alloy M3 doors to come up if ever?
I paid £4.5k for the Evo. On the one hand it's not going to gain much value in a non M shell. On the other, a decent M3 Evo powered track car is never going to be worth less than £4.5k, nor would I feel like I couldn't risk using it in a race series for fear of damage.
It's something I need to figure out and figure out quickly.
I'm having a bit of a battle with myself right now over what to do with the car. It's just one thing after another and if I were to fully repair this this is the list of welding to do:
The new boot floor hole
The existing hole in the driver side rear arch
The front driver side inner arch front section replacement
Rear tail panel replacement
Cut out bodged jacking points and re-repair
Also the fuel tank access holes on the rear bench aren't in great nick
Cut off and weld on repair panels to bottoms of front wings
And then because all of the underside is covered in thick black underseal that's gone on on top of any rust, god knows whether there's any rust to the floorpan.
Right now my heart says keep going, my head says reshell it into a solid E36 shell and build a really good track car and finally enjoy it. It obviously won't be a real M3 Evo anymore though because the only shells around for sale are verts and one stripped and caged Evo shell that would be perfect but 1. I don't have the time for a bare shell rebuild with a house to sell and 2. It's £2.5k which I don't suppose is that bad but it is when you haven't got it.
So that's the latest. And if I do reshell, do I go the touring car route with a saloon shell or go for a coupe and wait for a set of alloy M3 doors to come up if ever?
I paid £4.5k for the Evo. On the one hand it's not going to gain much value in a non M shell. On the other, a decent M3 Evo powered track car is never going to be worth less than £4.5k, nor would I feel like I couldn't risk using it in a race series for fear of damage.
It's something I need to figure out and figure out quickly.
AdamTDSC said:
Good work so far! E36 saloons are such cool cars and deserve to be saved!
Yeah, definitely. Just a shame this one might be too far gone. So, latest is that I have found a 328i coupe, non sunroof, knackered engine but only done 40k miles and I might be reshelling into this. I need this car useable and moving. I want to enjoy it. I'm fed up now.
Problem is, I'll lose all the value of the M3. So, I need to decide whether to sell the shell and let someone with more welding skills have a go at it or whether to make it rolling with the 328i running gear and put it away until I can work on it in little bits once my house situation is sorted.
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