Roundel Weekly: My Turn

I should have known better. When an E36 M3 Lightweight sits in a barn for a while, it usually means it's at a point in its life where the time and money to fix it is just not in the cards. And a poor sap like myself, is the one who has to deal with the next surprise as I dig deeper and deeper into bringing this car back to life.

For the sake of time and word count, I'll have to just brief you on the things I found on this car. Mechanically it was mostly good—I mean it just drove across the country! But it still needed a lot of attention.

When it came time to put the car under the knife, I started from the back and worked my way forward. Ripping out the complete rear suspension was step one.

With a car in this kind of shape, I had to make frequent trips to Autobahn Dismantling to find replacement parts. My first trip over was to replace the rust cracked subframe and bent right rear trailing arm! I knew this would not be the first emergency phone call Autobahn would get from me.

Have you ever had to remove suspension bushings?

If so, you probably used a special tool. But if you are like most members and DIY, then you probably did not have access to fancy BMW special tools. Well, in this particular case, I turned to the DIYers as to what their technique of choice was for extracting suspension bushings when the tool was not available. Not to mention, the tool for this particular job was not that fun to setup and use.

Who would have thought a propane torch and a good prying tool would be so useful? It's oddly satisfying to be able to hold a torch and watch something start to change form while extracting it from a pressed in component. But when it came time to get the differential 'nose' bushing out. Well, that was a small challenge.

Now I may be a BMW professional technician but I did not expect this. As you can see from the picture, this bushing is hardly even intact. In fact, it's somewhat supported by three metal screws about 2.5 inches long. Apparently they’re there to help take up the slack from the worn out bushing. I spent twice as long trying to get this particular bushing out since it was probably the original part with 184k miles!

Once I got the rear all back together, we moved to the driveshaft center support bearing and pinion flange. Then we replaced all four brake rotor backing plates due to rust plus fresh wheel bearings and control arms with bushings. Combine that with a completely new cooling system and a few miscellaneous loose ends, and this car was ready for another cross-country drive!

Now, no half restoration would be complete without the interior needing some TLC. If you own or have owned an E36, you would know that after a certain amount of time, the interior pieces tend to just biodegrade. This M3 was no different.

The car was handed off to me with an incorrect passenger door panel and all four door panels completely falling apart. The carbon-fiber center console trim was no longer attached, the headliner was sagging, and the drivers seat frame was physically bent from years of track use due to a 4-point harness. Good thing the BMW community is resourceful as I was able to find a pair of new front seats! But first, let's remove the interior that needs to be repaired.

Removing an interior is easy. You just start taking it apart and placing it outside the car. I started with the pillar covers and worked my way back to the rear parcel shelf. You know, that part under the rear windshield that turns purple no matter what? Let just say that will no longer be the case on this car.

Next, the headliner.

Oh is that a rat nest? Well, yes it is. Very fitting since this car has made a barn its home over the last few years. Hopefully that's the only surprise in store for me.

Since the carbon fiber center console trim won't reattach and cannot be sourced from BMW. I suggested we just replace the center console piece with a black one.

Of course I'm going to find another rat nest when I go under the passenger side dash!

But that's not all folks. We still have the body to address.

If you ever saw this car in person, you would notice the right front fender, bumper, hood, and nose panel, did not fit very well. The hood was crooked enough to allow the hood hinge to touch the windshield, which caused a massive crack.

Knowing this car has had a right side impact, we did not know the extent of the damage and repairs performed on this car in the past. Luckily, this is where my friend Rami, from California Motorsports, comes in. While I was repairing other parts of this M3 at my dealership, Rami was making routine visits to the service department as a sublet vendor for body work on our CPO cars. Best part, his shop was not far from the dealership.

I asked Rami if he could look over this M3 project I was working on and he gladly obliged. We spent some time talking it over and ended up on a reasonable estimate to remove, refit, and refinish the complete front end. A few weeks later, I dropped the car off and we took the front end apart to see what we are working with.

Good news, the right front fender fits with a little massaging.

Bad news, the new hood doesn't fit.

We found the right side frame to be bent. From passenger side to driver’s side we were okay, but from driver’s side to passenger side, we were off. Good news though is that we were able to fix it and properly fit the front end components.

As the car sits now, we are painting the front. She will have new Motorsports flags with a new and authentic Lightweight front splitter. But by the time you read this the car will be done and shown at the Legends of the Autobahn. If you saw me and this car there, then you will know everything was able to come together in time. I'm looking forward to her debut at Legends and I know that her owner, Matt Russell, will be there to enjoy her debut as well!—Nick Owen

If you have some interesting content you'd like to submit for consideration in My Turn, such as a story, pictures, or video, please e-mail Nate Risch, Roundel Weekly editor, at nrisch@bmwcca.org.