BMW E36 M3 - Reckless Restoration

[Mr Scruff]

Great thread. E36 M3 in techno violet is one on my wish list but sadly another car that's financially out of my reach now.

[-01SQ-]

That under body work looks fantastic, as if new! Really clean.

There is an S reg one of these sat by my mini on the south coast, hasnt been touched for years but the guy wont sell it! getting to ap oint now where it'll be in the ground before he has a chance to make anything of it i think

[T-bagger]

Evening PH collective, i’ve Just realised that I haven’t updated this thread since December! There has been some progress though - in fact I drove it out of the garage last Sunday
Next job is MOT, wheel alignment and a full repaint. The first two can be going on whilst I collect and compare quotes from a few trusted body shops.
In the meantime, this is what’s been happening on the restoration.

A few minor jobs, such as stripping, cleaning and rebuilding the seized boot lock barrel.






Having the rear brake callipers refurbished and zinc plated followed by refitting and bleeding the entire brake and clutch system.





I also laid my hands on a very good condition used exhaust system. This was cleaned back to bare metal (just can’t put that angle grinder down!) and painted with VHT paint. Strictly the rear silencer should be dark grey, but I couldn’t get the stuff I wanted in this colour - so it ended up silver.

Before



During






After


And a nice coat of paint later...



Then it was time to cajole, swear and lug these heavy and not-fully-cured pipes into place. Image a turtle on its back balancing an exhaust under a car and you’ll get some idea!
It probably goes without saying, £150 was “invested” in new mountings, fixings and gaskets.







Gratuitous tail pipe shot



Then, I found something missing from my garage...





It lives!!!




At this point my neighbour came out to shake my hand and ask me how it felt to have invested all of this time and money and then drive the car out under its own power. My answer of:
“It’s just nice to give the garage a proper sweep”
Wasn’t quite what he was expecting. But I guess he’s realised i’ve got a (probably very shiny) screw loose by now.

Thanks for reading and until next time...

[bolidemichael]

Bloody brilliantly bedtime story!

[Felix79]

While the E36 M3 does get the redheaded stepchild treatment a lot from M3 fans, this thread and the fact it's a M3 Evo Coupe that makes it cool in it's own way.

Also, I've alway been a sucker for BMW's painted in a nice deep blue. Seems like you'll have the car ready for the road in time for the summer show season, so you can enjoy the car and not worry about the roads being covered in grit for a good amount of time to come.

Good job all round chap!

[DOHDUBMAN]

Brilliant thread! I miss my Estoril M3 Evo hugely

[KelvinatorNZ]

Felix79 said:

While the E36 M3 does get the redheaded stepchild treatment a lot from M3 fans

Hugely underrated cars, even in the early 3.0 form. People are starting to realise this now and the prices are heading north.

Love reading this thread, and its a gorgeous car. Respect to the work you have done, OP.

[J4CKO]

That is serious dedication and attention to detail, well done !

[T-bagger]

Thanks for the support guys! Really looking forward to using it this summer.

[MX6]

Just catching up with the thread, some great work that's gone in there. I know from my own projects how much time and of course no little money would have gone into getting the car to this standard. And credit for doing it all in a compact domestic garage as well.

[Felix79]

KelvinatorNZ said:

Hugely underrated cars, even in the early 3.0 form. People are starting to realise this now and the prices are heading north.

Love reading this thread, and its a gorgeous car. Respect to the work you have done, OP.

I got myself a Z4MR late last year, as it too is another hidden gem from the M-Devision.

[Pea123bmw]

T-bagger said:

Hi all, I can confirm I am still alive! My landings are bumpy but not quite fatal! The usual squeezes on my time have kept me away from the garage and the M3 but Sunday’s terrible weather cancelled plans and so found me with a few hours to spare (thanks rain).
To that end, and having collected an exciting bubble wrapped bundle of shiny goodness from the powdercoaters last week, I got on with refitting the fuel tank. Closely followed by rebuilding the drive shafts - what a frustrating and fiddly job! I thought I had patience, I don’t. I thought I had decent mechanical ability, I don’t. I thought I had a lightness of touch, I don’t have that either. In fact i was left very much questioning my species.....
But persistence (and calming music) paid off. Ball bearings? Ball bds more like.

Enough rambling; some photos.



Tank thoroughly cleaned and installed with powder coated straps and new breather, feed and return lines where appropriate.



The bits




Inner drive shaft joint rebuild with new boot and Redline CV2 grease.











Balls in (!) and packed with grease.


Boot and cap in place - inner joint complete.

Outer joints



How they came off


Cleaned up and masked up (not too much paint in those sensor rings now!!)


Ready for the last coat


That’s better. Ready for the rebuild now.














Until next time folks.

Edited by T-bagger on Thursday 30th August 00:13

Hi matey nice detailed read on your restoration, could I ask where you got your cv joint kits from along with the outer cv joint metal dust cover that goes into the outer boot then in place sleeves over the top of the cv joint? And what is it known as?

[T-bagger]

Pea123bmw said:

T-bagger said:

Hi all, I can confirm I am still alive! My landings are bumpy but not quite fatal! The usual squeezes on my time have kept me away from the garage and the M3 but Sunday’s terrible weather cancelled plans and so found me with a few hours to spare (thanks rain).
To that end, and having collected an exciting bubble wrapped bundle of shiny goodness from the powdercoaters last week, I got on with refitting the fuel tank. Closely followed by rebuilding the drive shafts - what a frustrating and fiddly job! I thought I had patience, I don’t. I thought I had decent mechanical ability, I don’t. I thought I had a lightness of touch, I don’t have that either. In fact i was left very much questioning my species.....
But persistence (and calming music) paid off. Ball bearings? Ball bds more like.

Enough rambling; some photos.



Tank thoroughly cleaned and installed with powder coated straps and new breather, feed and return lines where appropriate.



The bits




Inner drive shaft joint rebuild with new boot and Redline CV2 grease.











Balls in (!) and packed with grease.


Boot and cap in place - inner joint complete.

Outer joints



How they came off


Cleaned up and masked up (not too much paint in those sensor rings now!!)


Ready for the last coat


That’s better. Ready for the rebuild now.














Until next time folks.

Edited by T-bagger on Thursday 30th August 00:13

Hi matey nice detailed read on your restoration, could I ask where you got your cv joint kits from along with the outer cv joint metal dust cover that goes into the outer boot then in place sleeves over the top of the cv joint? And what is it known as?

Hi there

The CV boot kits are from BMW. As for the actual joints and outer metal caps, these are recycled items. Parts of the internals on were in a bit of a mess so I Bought a job lot of used driveshafts and disassembled for parts, to make 2 good ones. Unfortunately the internal parts inc the metal plates are not available new, if you are careful with the outer metal plates, you can reuse them - but they are easy to split.
Gimme a shout via PM if you need more info on how to strip and rebuild.

[Court_S]

Top work. The car looks brilliant.

I always enjoy these type of threads and marvel at peoples technical ability, rebuilding diffs etc at home.

I like the E36 M3, not as pretty as the E46 but I think they look good especially in Estoril Blue.

[Julian Thompson]

Great work and a lovely result. Outstanding.

It was doing stuff like this that made me finally bite the bullet and install ramps in the garage.

I fully understand the scale of the miserable-ness of the job trying to pull that off on axle stands. You did great!

[T-bagger]

With the lazy old hector finally on her wheels it was time to bolt a few bits back on and swap out a few dead bulbs in order to make her MOT ready. My logic being; MOT and wheel alignment first, then off to the body shop for new paint. I’m not quite ready to hand over my freshly painted baby to anyone else for at least 12 months! Besides, I wouldn’t want me standing there, eagle eyed if I had to work on a freshly painted car! So off I trundled to my local MOT testing station, full of hope and nerves.
Well I needn’t have worried about the M3’s undercarriage bring manhandled, the tester was both gentle and full of praise for all of the work that’s gone in underneath. All was well.

Until the gas test. For those who don’t know, the co (carbon monoxide) limit at idle is 0.5%. My car however preferred 5.3%...
As much as he tried recalibrating the equipment and even running the longer test, the co reading would not drop. So I did what any good man should do in this situation: took the car home, shut the garage and went down the pub to sulk.
Next day, I did a bunch of testing on the engine - including running DIS diagnostics, despite no fault codes present in the DME. I came to the conclusion that the oxygen sensors were not switching away from their nominal, open loop 0.45v values despite the car being hot and with varying loads. 2x new sensors were ordered and fitted. Removal of the old ones highlighted the hard life they’d had and my stupidity for not removing them for inspection prior to fitting the exhaust.


Actually had a hole in the one on the right if you look carefully.

So back to the MOT centre, twice as nervous as before, gas tester fired up and anxiety building....

co = 0.07% - We had a pass!!

So wheel alignment then paint? Oh no. Not so fast.
Whilst under the car changing (wrestling & swearing at) the oxygen sensors, I was greeted by a new and very unwelcome engine oil leak. It’s not the CPV, cam cover gasket, VANOS solenoid or any of the other usual suspects either. To be continued...
This thing’s turning into Trigger’s Broom.
Sorry for the lack of photos and thanks for reading the ramble if you made it this far!

Edited by T-bagger on Wednesday 5th June 00:08

[Cliff J]

Oh man, the E36 M3 Evolution in Estoril blue, the car I longed for when I was too poor to own one. I always thought I would buy one, but it never happened. The closest I got was a Techno violet E36 328i convertible, and then after that I headed off to an E46 M3.

Looking at your project makes me realise I never fulfilled that dream and a little part of me is quite sad about it.
The problem is, once you have newer cars, newer BMWs, it’s not easy to go back to what my wife would call retro.
Without looking at prices, I imagine I can’t afford one again even if I wanted to lol

[bolidemichael]

I was under the impression that you had closed the chapter on this thread. It's like an unexpected sequel! So, woo hoo!

[T-bagger]

bolidemichael said:

I was under the impression that you had closed the chapter on this thread. It's like an unexpected sequel! So, woo hoo!

Oh no it’s not over! (much to my wife and son’s disgust). Off to Le Mans this weekend but when i’m back i’m going to sort that oil leak and crack on with her.

Thanks for all the encouragement and kind comments everyone.

[Dylan318Ti]

Amazing work, looks like new. I'm just about to rebuild my E30 medium case diff that's in my E36 318Ti. What pinion drag torque did you use? Yours is a large case, however, would be useful to compare. Did you use liquid gasket on the diff cover or a paper one? Think I'm going with liquid gasket. Finally, what did you use to hold the pinion still whilst measuring the backlash? Is it enough to hold it still with one hand and wobble the output shaft with the other? I'm just replacing the clutch plates (maybe going for a 3 plate setup) and the bearings, so hopefully the gear mesh won't have changed.