E46 M3 Racecar
Discussion
(the first half is just copied and pasted over from m3 cutters, but never done a thread on here so thought people would enjoy the ground up m3 racecar)
Greetings all,
I've been on here for a couple of months recently moving over from the French hot hatch side.
like most of my builds I've done a build thread for so I thought it was about time to start one for my M3.
as said above about 4 years ago after I passed my test I decided to get a little clio 182, I had no experience with cars before then and as its French it broke down a lot, it was either spent a lot of money on paying other people, or start learning yourself... and it just spiralled out of control from there...
This was my second clio 182. I had the intention to race it in the tricolore series, but something else took my fancy..
converting a 172 cup standard f4r engine to a f4rt out of a Megane 225.
This was such a good car, gripper diff, 270bhp sub 900kgs, full multipoint cage, fiberglass doors and with me being as late on the brakes as you like it certainly went well. This lasted one trackday at Snetterton when a change in heart and basically me trying to focus on earning money rather than spending it saw me break it for parts, so 4 months on from me saying "no more projects" focus on a business idea etc etc...
here I am, stuck with an e46 m3 shell hehe
I decided to go for a shell as this project is not my usual build it in 3 months use it and sell it. I'm going to take my time with this one... he says... the normal would be to buy a road car and strip it back, sell parts etc - but I hate selling parts and hate having stuff lying around haha the only problem with this is... I've never worked on an m3 before nor do I have bucket load of spare bolts when its starts coming together... so its going to be a lot of trips down to the local hardware shop - should be reeet!
anyway IMGUR is currently overloaded so cannot post more photos, but will grab a load of photo of the shell and when I got her to where she is now... currently roofless
oh here we go...
picking her up...
getting her off the trailer the next morning... mission
first things first, shes a sunroof model... nevermind nothing that a good spotweld drill wont sort out...
tadaaaaaaa
Right on the inside... Looooooooom
MESS
slightly less mess
The amount of loom that's in this thing! about 3 times the weight of a clio loom, no surprise there though really...
So the plan is the run the s54 ecu standalone with a motorsport spec loom for engine bay, interior wise I will use a power distribution module and membrane switch panel to power the aux items, headlights, fans etc etc
Right sooo onto some more reducing weight..
rear parcel shelf is currently being removed... but no photos unfortunately, what a b
h of a job. takes the spot weld count up to about 100 though lol
Glass out, another **** job... was a first for me..
diff and rear running gear out
yeah well sorry about this first update, little bit of a catch up! nexts post will hopefully be more detailed etc...
Next plans, get it on a spit - UNDERSEAL! whooooop......
Just a quick update while I'm "in-between some jobs" at work...
The latest recent purchases... I wont be installing these at least until next year but I didn't want to buy them brand new and they don't come up that....
Annoyingly something I only noticed when I got them back home was one of the threads in the calliper bracket was pretty destroyed, looks like the bolt has been damaged and been forcefully removed, hey ho I'm just awaiting delivery on a m12x1.75 thread chaser to hopefully save it... but anyway, a new set of rotors are needed and I will be stripping them back and loading them with a new seal kit and itll be reeet!
The rears seam in good condition but will also get a refurb before use.
Tonight I plan on getting the remaining sound deadening out, along with stripping the seam sealer back inside and removing the rest of the parcel shelf, and if I don't feel to much like death after that drop the fuel tank...
what I really hate is when tar is layered over seam sealer, that **** sticks!
Last night was spent fannying around...
totally forgot the e92 needed a service so dropped the oil and filter and did that.
After that I started on the rear parcel shelf again, after nearly loosing the will to live with the hard to reach spot welds we finally started making progress...
first off remove seam sealer hiding spot welds...
Then a bit of trimming to access welds better...
and skip a couple of stages and we're at this stage...
Going to have a quick look at removing the flat panel under the bottom of the rear windscreen, as I have already started drilling the spot welds out, but I'll have a more detailed look later on.
Anyway moving onto cage plans, just getting a couple of quotes from people, which seems to be around the 3k mark with t45...
example above is what Id be looking for, above is priced at £1900 without fitting...
Yet another evening getting covered in melting seam sealer, all good fun isn't it...
not sure where the tar remover/thinners has gone, so gonna leave the patches of residue for another time...
anyway started removing the bulk of the sealer...
turns out I'm really not very good at taking photos while getting work done...
Didn't manage to get all of it, as I thought id give the grinder a rest (will buy some ear defenders tomorrow, ears are ringing now)
next job was to remove the seat rails, what another **** job haha the passeneger side will be done tomorrow but ill attack that a different way and probably grind the spot welds out, as the floors so thin the drill just went through for fun! holes mean a lighter car though...
after that the rear axle needed splittle down to get the parts ready to get sandblasted...
not bad for 200,000 miles haha... tried removing the wheel bearings with a 10tonne press, this is not man enough - so gonna get the welder out tomorrow and run a bead round the race, and with a bit of science hopefully they should come out a bit easier...
bearings them selves felt good, but no point putting old ones back in.
Gave the inside a quick hoover and that's it for tonight! cheers
P.S in the need of 2 x 18" m3 rear wheels (9j) preferable tyres can be budgets...
Greetings all,
I've been on here for a couple of months recently moving over from the French hot hatch side.
like most of my builds I've done a build thread for so I thought it was about time to start one for my M3.
as said above about 4 years ago after I passed my test I decided to get a little clio 182, I had no experience with cars before then and as its French it broke down a lot, it was either spent a lot of money on paying other people, or start learning yourself... and it just spiralled out of control from there...
This was my second clio 182. I had the intention to race it in the tricolore series, but something else took my fancy..
converting a 172 cup standard f4r engine to a f4rt out of a Megane 225.
This was such a good car, gripper diff, 270bhp sub 900kgs, full multipoint cage, fiberglass doors and with me being as late on the brakes as you like it certainly went well. This lasted one trackday at Snetterton when a change in heart and basically me trying to focus on earning money rather than spending it saw me break it for parts, so 4 months on from me saying "no more projects" focus on a business idea etc etc...
here I am, stuck with an e46 m3 shell hehe
I decided to go for a shell as this project is not my usual build it in 3 months use it and sell it. I'm going to take my time with this one... he says... the normal would be to buy a road car and strip it back, sell parts etc - but I hate selling parts and hate having stuff lying around haha the only problem with this is... I've never worked on an m3 before nor do I have bucket load of spare bolts when its starts coming together... so its going to be a lot of trips down to the local hardware shop - should be reeet!
anyway IMGUR is currently overloaded so cannot post more photos, but will grab a load of photo of the shell and when I got her to where she is now... currently roofless
oh here we go...picking her up...
getting her off the trailer the next morning... mission
first things first, shes a sunroof model... nevermind nothing that a good spotweld drill wont sort out...
tadaaaaaaa
Right on the inside... Looooooooom
MESS
slightly less mess
The amount of loom that's in this thing! about 3 times the weight of a clio loom, no surprise there though really...
So the plan is the run the s54 ecu standalone with a motorsport spec loom for engine bay, interior wise I will use a power distribution module and membrane switch panel to power the aux items, headlights, fans etc etc
Right sooo onto some more reducing weight..
rear parcel shelf is currently being removed... but no photos unfortunately, what a b
h of a job. takes the spot weld count up to about 100 though lolGlass out, another **** job... was a first for me..
diff and rear running gear out
yeah well sorry about this first update, little bit of a catch up! nexts post will hopefully be more detailed etc...
Next plans, get it on a spit - UNDERSEAL! whooooop......
Just a quick update while I'm "in-between some jobs" at work...
The latest recent purchases... I wont be installing these at least until next year but I didn't want to buy them brand new and they don't come up that....
Annoyingly something I only noticed when I got them back home was one of the threads in the calliper bracket was pretty destroyed, looks like the bolt has been damaged and been forcefully removed, hey ho I'm just awaiting delivery on a m12x1.75 thread chaser to hopefully save it... but anyway, a new set of rotors are needed and I will be stripping them back and loading them with a new seal kit and itll be reeet!
The rears seam in good condition but will also get a refurb before use.
Tonight I plan on getting the remaining sound deadening out, along with stripping the seam sealer back inside and removing the rest of the parcel shelf, and if I don't feel to much like death after that drop the fuel tank...
what I really hate is when tar is layered over seam sealer, that **** sticks!
Last night was spent fannying around...
totally forgot the e92 needed a service so dropped the oil and filter and did that.
After that I started on the rear parcel shelf again, after nearly loosing the will to live with the hard to reach spot welds we finally started making progress...
first off remove seam sealer hiding spot welds...
Then a bit of trimming to access welds better...
and skip a couple of stages and we're at this stage...
Going to have a quick look at removing the flat panel under the bottom of the rear windscreen, as I have already started drilling the spot welds out, but I'll have a more detailed look later on.
Anyway moving onto cage plans, just getting a couple of quotes from people, which seems to be around the 3k mark with t45...
example above is what Id be looking for, above is priced at £1900 without fitting...
Yet another evening getting covered in melting seam sealer, all good fun isn't it...
not sure where the tar remover/thinners has gone, so gonna leave the patches of residue for another time...
anyway started removing the bulk of the sealer...
turns out I'm really not very good at taking photos while getting work done...
Didn't manage to get all of it, as I thought id give the grinder a rest (will buy some ear defenders tomorrow, ears are ringing now)
next job was to remove the seat rails, what another **** job haha the passeneger side will be done tomorrow but ill attack that a different way and probably grind the spot welds out, as the floors so thin the drill just went through for fun! holes mean a lighter car though...
after that the rear axle needed splittle down to get the parts ready to get sandblasted...
not bad for 200,000 miles haha... tried removing the wheel bearings with a 10tonne press, this is not man enough - so gonna get the welder out tomorrow and run a bead round the race, and with a bit of science hopefully they should come out a bit easier...
bearings them selves felt good, but no point putting old ones back in.
Gave the inside a quick hoover and that's it for tonight! cheers
P.S in the need of 2 x 18" m3 rear wheels (9j) preferable tyres can be budgets...
HI mate,
Engine will be a standard s54, will be running standalone ecu, I will make a motorsport loom for it, Cartek Power distribution module to control interior electronics - should be nice and tidy!
Should achieve sub 1200kg happily. underseal will be coming off next week hopefully once i've made a jig for the rotisserie
Matt
Engine will be a standard s54, will be running standalone ecu, I will make a motorsport loom for it, Cartek Power distribution module to control interior electronics - should be nice and tidy!
Should achieve sub 1200kg happily. underseal will be coming off next week hopefully once i've made a jig for the rotisserie
Matt
Rick101 said:
Love these cars. An E46 M3 was my first 'special' car.
How does the rear floor hold up to motorsport use? Is it wise to strengthen it from the outset?
The boot floor has had the reddish motorsport treatment before I bought the shell, and as you can see from the cage drawings the cage incorporates the diff pick ups so will be reet! How does the rear floor hold up to motorsport use? Is it wise to strengthen it from the outset?
HybridAero said:
Excellent that's a huge weight saving, it's gonna surprise a few. Apparently a CSL airbox is a good mod.
I have seen, I will need to read up on power to weight with regards to classes etc.But at the end of the day the main focus is to build a car I'm happy with and see what series it falls into when its done
HybridAero said:
Excellent that's a huge weight saving, it's gonna surprise a few. Apparently a CSL airbox is a good mod.
I have seen, I will need to read up on power to weight with regards to classes etc.But at the end of the day the main focus is to build a car I'm happy with and see what series it falls into when its done
Thanks for the kind comments above guys, always makes a long day spent up the unit a little less ste when see some positive comments haha
Anyway!
Last night was spent removing the tar and some more seam sealer I missed, as-well as removing the small studs that I've spent the last week getting penetrated by...
much much cleaner inside, much nicer environment to work in now...
and started smoothing back some of the spot welds that didn't go straight through...
The tank got dropped also, just now trying to understand what pipes are needed and what I'm missing etc etc I guess the thing underneath the boot floor is a carbon canister or something like that? also what's the reservoir in the rear right arch, believe its joined into the filler neck maybe some kinda overflow? didn't get a great look!
Anyway nothing done today, as spent the day at Castle Combe as had some old Clio bits to drop off locally...
Tomorrows plan is to dig a bit deeper with the seam sealer, and try and get every last bit out of the seams I will be welding, as any residue left on it can be the difference between a tidy weld or a ****e one! Then go over any bare metal with some weld through primer, the unit is pretty well ventilated and dry, but not sure how long it'll be before it gets caged/stiched and then painted, so better be safe...
thanks for reading
te when see some positive comments haha Anyway!
Last night was spent removing the tar and some more seam sealer I missed, as-well as removing the small studs that I've spent the last week getting penetrated by...
much much cleaner inside, much nicer environment to work in now...
and started smoothing back some of the spot welds that didn't go straight through...
The tank got dropped also, just now trying to understand what pipes are needed and what I'm missing etc etc I guess the thing underneath the boot floor is a carbon canister or something like that? also what's the reservoir in the rear right arch, believe its joined into the filler neck maybe some kinda overflow? didn't get a great look!
Anyway nothing done today, as spent the day at Castle Combe as had some old Clio bits to drop off locally...
Tomorrows plan is to dig a bit deeper with the seam sealer, and try and get every last bit out of the seams I will be welding, as any residue left on it can be the difference between a tidy weld or a ****e one! Then go over any bare metal with some weld through primer, the unit is pretty well ventilated and dry, but not sure how long it'll be before it gets caged/stiched and then painted, so better be safe...
thanks for reading
Sunday was a full day spent on the car, so got down to business putting it up on the spit. So originally the spit was designed for a Porsche so a jig was made to attached the m3 to the jig...
not the prettiest of things but didn't have much 3mm steel in stock so had to do the best I could with what was available...
Not bad for my forth time welding if I do say so myself
Right so now the jigs were made it was time to get the car up in the air...
up with the rear
forgot a few photos.. but up with the front blah blah
and jobs a gooden
unfortunately the middle of the unit needs to be kept accessible so I could mount the spit at the front on the outside meaning I was limited about 80 degrees rotation, but that's fine better than on my back!
Reddish motorsport plates holding up after 5 years...
The shell is on 200,000 miles but is in great condition, so big thanks to again Russel at DMworx as its exactly as described there is a spec of rust where the rear passengers feet would go (underneath the grommet) but other than that so far so good!
the rear screen isn't laminated btw...
not the prettiest of things but didn't have much 3mm steel in stock so had to do the best I could with what was available...
Not bad for my forth time welding if I do say so myself
Right so now the jigs were made it was time to get the car up in the air...
up with the rear
forgot a few photos.. but up with the front blah blah
and jobs a gooden
unfortunately the middle of the unit needs to be kept accessible so I could mount the spit at the front on the outside meaning I was limited about 80 degrees rotation, but that's fine better than on my back!
Reddish motorsport plates holding up after 5 years...
The shell is on 200,000 miles but is in great condition, so big thanks to again Russel at DMworx as its exactly as described there is a spec of rust where the rear passengers feet would go (underneath the grommet) but other than that so far so good!
the rear screen isn't laminated btw...
Nothing done on the m3 for the passed couple of evenings, got a mates clio 197 in the unti for a megane conversion, which has just been taking up space currently so thought Id get on with it.
first it need balljoints, and lower arm bushes doing...
special tool was made to remove the lower ball joint, as they are a bhh
Sorting out some heat shielding for turboooo
and then put the engine in,
its not fully in currently as I was really struggling to get the engine mounts to sit properly and trying to find thread on the chassis was very tricky, so gave up for that evening... but there we are
On other news bought some gloves, pretty pimp if I do say so haha
and just a random shot of the Mrs daily...
first it need balljoints, and lower arm bushes doing...
special tool was made to remove the lower ball joint, as they are a b
hhSorting out some heat shielding for turboooo
and then put the engine in,
its not fully in currently as I was really struggling to get the engine mounts to sit properly and trying to find thread on the chassis was very tricky, so gave up for that evening... but there we are
On other news bought some gloves, pretty pimp if I do say so haha
and just a random shot of the Mrs daily...
So there I was having the time of my life stripping the underseal and seam sealer off, moved onto the arches and yep low and behold we have a rusty e46 shock!
the amount of time it takes to strip this **** off is mind boggling...
may have to look into some anti vibration gloves as my phone felt like it had the vibration constantly on afterwards, and I don't think that's to good...
so yeah I really hate rust and have never done anything like this before so here goes...
started wire wheeling it all down to uncover the extent of it. Luckily it had only reached the inner arch and the outer arch was untouched.
so yeah decided to chop the spot welds out considering the arch will be rolled anyway afterwards it'll give a bit extra clearance..
out came the cutting disc!
Then there was removing the bit that was still left inside the lip, although harder to remove there no point leaving that **** in there, so one small dent that showed up on the outside of the arch later (oops)
Right so that's hopefully all cut out now, it was dressed back
and some weld through primer was added afterwards...
the amount of time it takes to strip this **** off is mind boggling...
may have to look into some anti vibration gloves as my phone felt like it had the vibration constantly on afterwards, and I don't think that's to good...
so yeah I really hate rust and have never done anything like this before so here goes...
started wire wheeling it all down to uncover the extent of it. Luckily it had only reached the inner arch and the outer arch was untouched.
so yeah decided to chop the spot welds out considering the arch will be rolled anyway afterwards it'll give a bit extra clearance..
out came the cutting disc!
Then there was removing the bit that was still left inside the lip, although harder to remove there no point leaving that **** in there, so one small dent that showed up on the outside of the arch later (oops)
Right so that's hopefully all cut out now, it was dressed back
and some weld through primer was added afterwards...
So another update on the proj for anyone who cares haha
The underseal is certainly putting up a fight and the thought in the back of my mind "why didn't I just get the shell dipped" repeats.
The arches are so far turning out to be the worst, the underseal comes of quite nicely whereas the seam sealer just takes forever, bmw sure know how to layer the stuff on!
Arch complete, moving on to boot floor etc...
Reddish motorsport have been here before me
And then to finish the day off, pick out all the strands of wire that have been flung from the grinder...
Certainly a pain in the arse to do, but I cant wait to get it all primed and painted. I need to buy some por-15 metal prep to go over the rust areas and then tackle that, will probably wait till its all striped first so then I can give the underside a wipe down, otherwise I will just be creating more mess
And because obviously being this close to completion on the proj this is a must.......
Could not resist its billet loveliness
The underseal is certainly putting up a fight and the thought in the back of my mind "why didn't I just get the shell dipped" repeats.
The arches are so far turning out to be the worst, the underseal comes of quite nicely whereas the seam sealer just takes forever, bmw sure know how to layer the stuff on!
Arch complete, moving on to boot floor etc...
Reddish motorsport have been here before me
And then to finish the day off, pick out all the strands of wire that have been flung from the grinder...
Certainly a pain in the arse to do, but I cant wait to get it all primed and painted. I need to buy some por-15 metal prep to go over the rust areas and then tackle that, will probably wait till its all striped first so then I can give the underside a wipe down, otherwise I will just be creating more mess
And because obviously being this close to completion on the proj this is a must.......
Could not resist its billet loveliness
Well that's one side of the underseal removed....
Flip her over, and now onto the other side
Lets start with the arches shall we... pried the lip back as they're going to be rolled anyway so I could view it better... and yeah we got rust, but not as bad as the other side that's for sure... we might even get away without cutting it out.. but I'm not sure yet...
Flip her over, and now onto the other side
Lets start with the arches shall we... pried the lip back as they're going to be rolled anyway so I could view it better... and yeah we got rust, but not as bad as the other side that's for sure... we might even get away without cutting it out.. but I'm not sure yet...
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