Cardoza's E36 M3 Build

[cardoza]

Been around here for awhile, after I moved out of Atlanta I got rid of my G37, got a truck and a Porsche and didn't give much thought to wheel fitment. Then the bug started to bite me again. Decided I wanted to get into an E36 M3, found one local a few weeks ago and now it's time to start doing work! The E36 needs some work, it's not perfect, but the interior is in great shape, mechanically it's very sound, and I know that the body can get taken care of. Here are some shots of how the car currently sits:

Right after purchase, dirty, ugly, yuck.



Cleaned up, still has ugly wheels.



Mmmmm dat interior.



Here's the list that I initially setup:

1.) Getting the rust on the QP and a spot on the frame rail taken care. Going to go ahead and do my best to bring the paint back to life after this too.
2.) Getting the suspension tightened up with the necessary bushings and mounts (might as well do coilovers here too).
3.) Figuring out a squeal that just started from the motor, it's just a belt but I'd still rather get it taken care of.
4.) WHEELS.

But then I found wheels a little earlier than I expected... CCWs in 17x10.5 et44 (5x120.65, Corvette fitment)





Shot with flash.



So that's where things sit two weeks after purchase. This week I'll start tackling that QP, then getting some coilovers (thinking BC racing, had them on my G37 and loved them), and overall getting the car cleaned up for Spring!

[dillon7]

I like where this is going

[DakarDario]

im in for the build

[motocaddy]

sweet! I remember you from the mkv days, so interested to see what you do with this platform. You're going to have some issues with those wheels up front. I have 17x10et15 on front with -3* camber and it is 1mm from strut and pokes a lot even with a ton of fender work.

[cardoza]

sweet! I remember you from the mkv days, so interested to see what you do with this platform. You're going to have some issues with those wheels up front. I have 17x10et15 on front with -3* camber and it is 1mm from strut and pokes a lot even with a ton of fender work.

Yeah I know that the fronts are going to be a pain in the ass to get fitted. I figure I'm going to have to space them out about 30mm from how they would currently sit, and try to dial in enough camber and get a pretty good pull on the fenders to get them to fit properly. I've alerted my bodywork guy already haha.

Worst case I'll just get some smaller barrels for the wheels going on the front and run them as 9.5s.

[Nico]

damn, cant gonna wrong.

[cardoza]

Well, started to tackle the "small" rust issue I described in my initial post... Started to get it down to bare metal, but I think I'm going to need some different tools in order to get it properly addressed. In all it's glory:

[YEG_E46]

wow, much rust, no good

[cardoza]

wow, much rust, no good

To be honest, the rust issue is worse than I thought. With the price I paid for the car, I factored in what it would cost to get the QP replaced and determined that even in the worst case scenario I would still feel like I got a proper deal. That said, this is a lot bigger pain in the ass than I anticipated.

[Queef|Chief]

Gotta love rust, NOT. Ruins everything, but don't let that ruin a badass build! I wanna see this on those wheels ASAP

[cardoza]

Gotta love rust, NOT. Ruins everything, but don't let that ruin a badass build! I wanna see this on those wheels ASAP

Haha me too man. I knew this was going to be a project, and I plan on tackling it as best I can. Seeing the CCWs in the corner is definitely a major motivating factor!

[meech]

This is going to be like a really ugly baby that grows into a beautiful woman lol. Can wait to see some test fit pictures. Good luck man. Glad to see other e36 around. Such a great chassis to work with/drive.

[xXp_ExoTiic_qXx]

Uuuh yeah I'm excited how this is going to turn out.
Good luck.

[cardoza]

Now that it's not balls cold anymore I finally had a chance to get out and do a little bit more work on the E36. After a good bit of work I was able to get the QP down to metal and lay some primer down to see where it would need to be filled. All of the imperfections that you can see in this picture are pitting as a result of the previous rust. This should be able to be filled with some light bondo work and then I should be back to a smooth QP! As I've said before, I don't consider this to be a permanent or perfect fix, but until I decide how involved I'm going to get with the car it will suffice.

[Zic]

If i was you, i would strip of that primer. And buy some acid rust primer. Not even sure it's called that in US of A.
But It's acid primer, that you smear on. It will eat into the metal and any tiny rust that is there, and actually convert it. So it will not rust again. After that I would use some quality primer, Don't know what you guys got over there. But Some 3M is good stuff. Then go to town with the bondo, some strong aluminium bondo is nice to use on the fenders. Just a heads up.
Anyways I would love to own an us spec M3. You guys have it great over there with the cheap ones.