E46 M3 Convertible project

[355spiderguy]

I actually made these posts back in December and promptly forgot about it.

Car was finished long time ago, but even though its the young lads motor, everytime i see it, i love the old school shape even more and its a real shame so many of these are being used and left to slowly get into such poor condition they end up as spares or repair.

Not a long thread, just to show how a tired car with a bit of cash and effort can become an absolute peach again...

[355spiderguy]

Started our M3 adventure today!

Bought an '03 E46 M3 manual convertible today for my young lad as he likes old school cars.

Good bits:

Carbon black, cream leather interior with no tares to bolsters etc, runs smooth, no warning lights, hood in great shape and working as it should.

89k miles, full service history, all mots check out mileage wise with service history and with usual failure here and there for daft stuff then immediate retest and pass. 

Was registered new at local BMW dealer and stayed local all its time.

Local classic car auction £5860 inc fees which gobsmacked me.

Bad bits:

19" original alloys looking exactly their age as never refurbed, both front wings very small bubbles, scratches here and there but otherwise nice and straight; paint is tired but looks original. It seems like a daily that has been used but definitely never been a garage queen!

[355spiderguy]

So first phase of project starts today.
Full service at local garage where owner is a friend and conviently was previously a BMW MTech technician for the full service.

It will go back to BMW for servicing next year but as we are doing the full monty its going to be far cheaper doing this huge service with someone whom is very experienced with BMWs and happens to be a E46 M3 geek, fan and owner of both car and garage...i know he will treat it differently than main dealer.

Car has a faulty ABS sensor on nearside rear, so thats also being addressed.

Turns out the car has a set of Eibach pro lowering springs fitted (going by ride height and receipt) which will be removed in due course and also 10mm spacers all round which are being removed during service.

Car going in 2nd week Jan for a strip down and full paint bumper to bumper. As mentioned front wings slightly bubbled so purchased new genuine BMW wings.. ( ouch ). Rear arches have very slight start to bubbling where bumper meets arch. Paint looks original and no parking dings, dents or heavy scratches anywhere...very surprised at that. 

Also surprised at the Carbon black colour...i thought it would be a very 'black' black...its actually really nice!

Whilst in being painted, we have decided to keep it original and instead of CSL wheels we are going to get the original upgraded 19'' wheels diamond cut.

I have never owned a BMW, for the last 20 years its been AMG mercs but have have to say, you dont get tired of looking at the rear end of a E46 M3...can see why my young lad has went to the dark side..these cars have a huge following for a reason.

When i called about the wings, the local BMW dealer whom supplied it new sent me the data sheet of the original spec...his comment was 'wow...looks like the original owner ticked every box'. It has, it seems, almost every extra that could be fitted at the time.

Glad we are going to bring a slightly tired 89k miles manual E46 M3 back into rude health.

For the price paid, someone could easily of spent very little on it, ran it like this for another 18months then sold it at probably a profit...now that would of been a shame.

[355spiderguy]

I think that was as far as i got.

Before any bodywork, we needed to get ABS lights issue investigated and a full service replacing everything that may of been skimped on in the past with gen BMW parts.

So, we discovered that the ABS issues were actually all part of the driveshafts problem, so we decided to replace the crap looking and soon to fail driveshafts with new stock items from BMW.

We needed to establish a good contact at a BMW main dealer and through pistonheads we contacted Harry Fairbairn in Kirkcaldy whom seem to offer the best discounts in the UK for parts.

It started with the genuine wings which no-one would go anywhere near the £660 for both delivered to the door....everyone else was around the £900+ mark.

We then bought 2 driveshafts that turned into around £450 each with trade in of old rear 'shafts.

While we were in there, we decided to remove the rear diff, have it stripped and inspected and then filled with the correct diff oil from BMW that needs 1.5ltrs @ £52+ vat per 500ml that we kindly got discounted to £89.

Thankfully we did as it turns out the oil in there was thick black gloopy crap that was causing friction and sooner rather than later failure..everything else in there was in great condition with no requirement to replace or refurb...





Whilst that was also out, we decided to check the rear subframe for any of the cracks they are known for and strengthen if required.

Edited by 355spiderguy on Sunday 21st July 18:59

Edited by 355spiderguy on Sunday 21st July 19:02

[355spiderguy]

We then replaced the rear pads as the discs were fine.

All new suspension bushes etc were all replaced while we were in about everything.

The eibach springs were in great shape as were the struts so they were cleaned up and left.

The car had 10mm spacers all round which made it look purposeful but ultimately rub the rear arches so they were binned.

Moving to the front of the car, the front pads were shot, discs were tired and as it turns out the pistons were barely functioning on the calipers, so back onto the ever helpful Harry Fairbairn and spending a few more pennies on genuine pads discs and calipers

...

[355spiderguy]

After getting all the mechanicals sorted out and fully serviced, we then booked the car into our good friends bodyshop in Perth.

He is OCD about paintwork and he always goes the extra mile.

[355spiderguy]

[355spiderguy]

[355spiderguy]

[355spiderguy]

The car was in surprisingly very good shape.

All panels original and only a small dent had been repaired well a long time ago on the nearside rear quarter.

[355spiderguy]

[355spiderguy]

[355spiderguy]

[355spiderguy]

[355spiderguy]

We decided to keep the car as original spec
( apart from springs ), so sent the 19'' wheels away to be diamond cut to 'we restore alloys' in Kirkcaldy whom did as per normal a 1st class job.

They actually do all the Ferrari, Lambo, Bentley and McLaren wheels...ask for the main dealer to refurb them, this is where they send them.



Maybe somewhat controversially, we decided to fit uniroyal rainsport 3 tyres all round as in my opinion they are the best performing rain tyre for grip and my young lad was going to be cutting about in a 300+ bhp rear whel drive car and every little helps...they are actually very good in the dry also and do seem to work really well on the E46 M3.

We fitted these tyres to his previous car also.

[355spiderguy]

Last pic of car as it was being polished.

[355spiderguy]

End result

[355spiderguy]

[355spiderguy]

[355spiderguy]

What a fantastic rear on E46 M3s...