Larry's '89 Zinno E30 M3 build

[anth]

This is all kinds of amazing, a real credit to you and your tastes.

[jbginger]

Car is NOT immaculate.

[double_oh_9]

Car is immaculate. not a fan of the steering wheel or the seats, but i guess i just liked the originals. Regardless, I love those wheels i saw Paul's wheels in person and was blown away, Bravo.

[f50nut]

Been a while since my last update here. Over the weekend I installed the new interior. It's been a work in progress getting all the pieces together. Had a few trips back to the upholsterer trying to get everything right. I have a feeling I'll be redoing this at some point since I'm not 100% happy with the upholstery work, but it's good for now.

The fronts are genuine Recaro SRD and the rears are e30 M3 seats. Door cards are MTech front and rear and the seats are recovered to match. Side bolsters are black leather. It's essentially a Sport Evolution replica interior. From what I'm told, most Sport Evolutions had MTech centers with gray sides, or all black leather. Just a few of them were special ordered with MTech centers and leather sides, and that's what this is emulating.

I'll run this for a while, which will give me some time to restore the original black leather interior.

Here's the interior on its way out. Yes I vacuumed the carpet before installing the new seats



The front leather needs some love. There are no tears, but you can see how the finish cracked over the years.



US sticker on the right side of the lower rear seat.



Another shot of the lower rear in surprisingly good shape.



And the Evo seats and cards went in. Upper rear seat is straight forward. Slide into the two slots at the top and bolt in two tabs at the bottom.



Then the bottom basically drops in. It presses into those two tabs in the photo above.



This was the trickiest part really...removing the front cards without damaging anything. When I say tricky I mean it really wasn't a big deal. This interior install was very simple.



All new clips for the door cards. I only broke a few while removing the original stuff but it's good to just replace everything anyway.



Did you know the tweeters were made by Nokia? I had no idea.



Front cards snapped into place.



And the seats waiting to be installed.



New plastics for the SRDs, and Massive Brakes adapters bolt up to the original sport seat rails.



And here's everything installed.





Pretty happy with the result. The SRDs are VERY narrow. You really don't move around at all i these things. The Massive Brakes adapters are a little too low for me and I'm around 6 foot.



Just for fun, here's a shot of the car up on the lift with some Helix wheels in the foreground. I'll have some better photos of the whole car up soon.

[gestanzed]

Wow, the s/w forums really contain some surprises. I've literally never saw M1 (style) wheels on M3 E30. In my personal opinion they do not suit the style of the E30, but I **** the look of the wheels on an M1, too. Besides that, your car looks great. RS is still state of the art, even if many many people ride 'em.

[Drop Forge]

A wonderful thread and car. It goes to show, if you start with a nice canvas you can have a nice product. I talked to Amis about some Livery Wheels. I really enjoy talking with ppl who share a similar passion.


Cheers,

Drop Forge

[DeltaAlpha9]

My god, that is bloody beautiful... I want one.

[Chasen88]

Beautiful !

[xXp_ExoTiic_qXx]

Yeah, great work again!

[uvebeenrobd]

Nicely done

[f50nut]

Can't say I do. Will probably be really obvious when you explain it though lol.

[LukeyBabes]

I have to say they are even better in person. You get the reference right?

Can't say I do. Will probably be really obvious when you explain it though lol.

[slow old man]

Very interesting wheel choice. I like them. I think.

I seriously can't decide whether I like them or not...

[f50nut]

How have I not seen this before. After reading through this entire thread I can say without a doubt this is my favorite E30 M3 I have ever seen. Incredible job.

That's high praise. Thank you.

Very interesting wheel choice. I like them. I think.

I have to say they are even better in person. You get the reference right?

[LukeyBabes]

Very interesting wheel choice. I like them. I think.