Simple M3

[bwwaaaa]

Low is a Lifestyle

Alright, so now that we have the forums again I can finally post about my coilovers. I got my Fortune Auto 500s in, and decided to get them on the car right away. A couple notes on these coilovers. First, they are built extremely well, and that's just from a parts quality standpoint. I've had a lot of coilovers brands in the past, these were definitely made nicely. Even little things like locking collars, or fine threads on the shock body all make for a much nicer install. I'm impressed, 10/10 would buy again.

In retrospect I wish I opted to upgrade to Swift springs right out the gate, just because I know I probably will sometime in the future. But for now this will do. This is all stock rates as recommended by FA. I believe 8k/10k.

Another thing I opted to do was order the Garagistic front and rear reinforcement plates. The fronts are particularly useful as they are the "High Adjustability" plates. When I pulled off my stock suspension, it had the OEM reinforcement plates, which are fine but do slightly limit camber adjustment. So you can see up front now I have full range of motion, and in the rear a little extra support.

Full droop on the new suspension, vs the old. Funny at this ride height, the left is actually higher than the right between the two. It was hilarious raising the car off the ground before, because the stock suspenion drooped so much, you had to lift the car very high to take off the wheels.

After installing at my garage, I took it over to my friend's house to make use of his Quick Jacks. I spent an afternoon dialing in the ride height to how I wanted. I put in about 2 degrees of camber in the front, and tried to make sure that it would not rub under heavy load at full lock. It still does a hair, however I believe just turning the stiffness up a few clicks is all it needs. Currently it's set to dead middle (12 clicks) all the way around. I also think I'll need a 5-10mm spacer in the front to clear the big brakes, so that may require further adjusting.

I also finally got my front calipers. 996 non-turbo brembo's for the front. My adapter brackets came in, and brake lines and pads shortly after. They are significantly larger than the stock M3 stuff, which I am stoked about. My hand for scale, and I have big-ass hands haha. I actually won't be running these specific calipers. I'm trading a friend of mine for his shaved 996 calipers, which takes 12mm off the mounting surface to allow you to clear 17" wheels. Yes, I am running 18s, however if you don't modify the calipers you have to run E46 M3 CSL rotors. Those are $250 a piece, vs the normal E46 M3 rotors at $100 a piece. Saves me $300 in front rotors alone, and still gets me a bigger brake. Plus, I don't want to rule out stepping down to a 17 if I ever find cool wheels I want to swap out to. As soon as I have those other calipers in hand, I will be sending them to get cleaned up and refinished, simply because I don't want them to say Porsche. If they didn't have that on the side, I'd leave them as is.

Other than that, random bits continue to trickle in. While doing the coilovers I discovered the balljoints on my control arms were shot. So I ordered a new set of those. Because I was doing the steering rack soon, I also opted to order the Garagistic X brace. I wanted to add some structure up front, and this just bolts in. So bit by bit, I'm getting there.

[hinrichs]

Might have to order some of that paint for my deletes since I never knew what to do with the black, hell might even spray my headlight deletes as well. That looks very good.

[bwwaaaa]

Broken Glass

So the inevitable happened, one of my fog lights got shattered. Arizona freeways are notorious for being covered in rocks, and sure enough it finally got one of my lights. I thought about just ordering another, but the reality is it will happen over and over. Now I can put some clear film to protect them, and I will do this for the headlights, but since I’m going for a Super Touring look I figured why not just delete them.

I bought some delete covers from a guy locally. $10 well spent. I ordered some color matched paint in spray cans from Automotive Touchup, and some clear coat and went to town.

I’ve found the key is to do a whole bunch of really light coats. Then bury it in clear coat. It seemed to work out pretty well, the color match was spot on and since these will just be taking more rocks to the face I wasn’t too stressed with perfecting it for now.

And that’s that. I’m still waiting for my coilovers, steering rack and bushings to arrive. Oh also... I booked the car for paint this April. More on that later.

[shortair44]

Love your car!!! A clean, classic M3

[bwwaaaa]

I think those tips will look better once you get more things sorted out. Personally I would leave them since its a real throwback to when these cars were new. I remember always wanting them but never had an exhaust where it was an option. Just looks so period and dtm to me.

It’s slowly growing on me, a few others have mentioned this as well it is painfully period correct for the car haha.

Still Simple I Swear

I’ve emphasized how I don’t want to over complicate this car for now, and I promise this isn’t going over board. But I started collecting big brake parts. After some research, I’ve decided to start collecting Porsche 996 parts to fit considerably larger brakes to my M3. I’ve found the stock braking capacity to be a little lacking, and this seemed like a good budget solution. On a whim I checked Craigslist, and there just so happened to be a pair of rear calipers for sale. I got a screaming deal on them, so I scooped them up. I was advised by a friend that the 996 brake setup does change the bias a little bit, and not for the better. So I’m keeping that in mind moving forward, and if I don’t like how it feels I will be swapping this out for something else.

My main motivation for continuing with the 996 setup, despite this warning, is because of two things. First, this uses OEM parts so if I need replacements it should be a little easier to source. I also know the durability of a 996 Brembo is going to be pretty high. For a street driven M3, that’s pretty important for me. But the second big factor is cost, as the Simple M3 is an exercise in restraint for me. I won’t be powder coating these calipers or over doing the setup. I wanted big brakes on the car so I could drive it hard, that was always part of the plan. But I didn’t want to go down the same scope creep that lead me to doing a total restoration on my 2002.

If anyone has a line on a front set of 996 (non-turbo), Boxster S, or Cayman S front calipers let me know. My goal is to get this all sorted in the upcoming months with the substantial refresh. Coilovers, steering rack, brakes, bushings, etc. Might as well do it all at once.

[hinrichs]

I think those tips will look better once you get more things sorted out. Personally I would leave them since its a real throwback to when these cars were new. I remember always wanting them but never had an exhaust where it was an option. Just looks so period and dtm to me.

[bwwaaaa]

Loud Noises, Big Tips

So I finally got around to installing the exhaust. Not because that's what I specifically set out to do this last weekend, but rather because I think I need a new driveshaft. The long and short of it is, on power in first or second, I'm getting a lot of loud knocking from the transmission tunnel. I thought that my CSB has failing and that was causing the noise. But when I dropped the exhaust, it looked pretty much in tact. So my leading theory now is bad u-joints in the driveshaft. I figured since I had the cat-back down anyways, might as well put the new one on.

Pros: It sounds pretty good, and isn't horribly obnoxious. On idle it's mellow, and it only really screams at you when you go full throttle. It does have a drone around 2,000 RPM, but cruising speed seems to be just fine. It's also SIGNIFICANTLY lighter than the stock exhaust. So that's a win too.

Cons: As Fruttolo point out to me on Instagram, these tips are kind of rice. Well... German Rice, so I guess that's sauerkraut? The point is, I really don't know how I feel about these exhaust tips still. Part of me thinks that once I source an LTW wing, dial in the ride height and get the car looking how I want, the exhaust will tie in better. But it's a lot to look at right now. I'm debating having different tips just welded on in the mean time, because I like this exhaust otherwise.

So up next I have to figure out the driveshaft situation, I really need to get the oil pan gasket done, and I'd like to sort out the steering rack. I've yet to start daily driving the car as I still have so much to overhaul first.

[Fruttolo]

Yay on daily driving this, big upgrade in my opinion

[bwwaaaa]

Nice looking m3!

Thanks!

Oops

Small update, but a bummer all the same for me. I've talked a lot about taking the car to Radwood. I had purchased a ticket and all. Well just before it was time to go, I gave the car a once over. I noticed the rear tires had a substantial amount of camber wear, so I took them to go get flipped. Two shops later, no one would touch them. Fair enough, that's on me they did get pretty bad.

I figured it wasn't a problem, I'll just put the new wheels and tires on. Not a super big fan of driving them out with some goofy stance, but at the same time I just wanted to take the car. So I swapped them out the evening before I was supposed to leave, packed the car and went to drive to a friends house to verify I had no rubbing issues.

About 15 seconds after getting on the freeway, the whole front end felt like it was falling apart. It seems as though the tire shop somehow balanced my wheels incorrectly. It was now too late to get the wheels rebalanced, and I had to leave at 4am the next morning. So that was that, complete failure. I suppose the most frustrating bit of all that was this was a simple mistake, that was made by someone else, but kind of ruined my plans.

However, on a more interesting note, it looks like the M3 is going to be my new daily driver soon. I've been wanting to ditch my Fiesta ST for quite some time, but have held on to it as it's a much better commuter. It looks like I won't have a commute here soon, so I have the added benefit of being able to daily drive the M3 as I please. This does mean I need to take some extra time to refresh a few things sooner rather than later. So, next few updates will likely be more boring maintenance.

[Nick325is]

Nice looking m3!

[bwwaaaa]

Second pic looks like you have a roof spoiler on

Oddly enough those tyres look smaller on your car than the one we discussed on IG, maybe it's the color. I don't think at stock power level they'll be that undersized, stock 235/40/17 is 10mm wider but what you lose in width you gain back in contact patch lenght cause of the added diameter.

Ha I just now noticed that. Good old ML320 roof spoiler

I think they look smaller mainly because of my ride height. The other car is so much lower than mine that the wheel/tire doesn't look awkwardly small in the wheel well. Once the car is lowered some more I think it'll look at home.

[Fruttolo]

Second pic looks like you have a roof spoiler on

Oddly enough those tyres look smaller on your car than the one we discussed on IG, maybe it's the color. I don't think at stock power level they'll be that undersized, stock 235/40/17 is 10mm wider but what you lose in width you gain back in contact patch lenght cause of the added diameter.

[bwwaaaa]

Needs More Low STAT

Tires arrived, tires mounted, wheels test fit. For those wondering (because specs aren’t precious) 18x8.5 et35, 225/40r18, Hankook Ventura V12 Evo2 tires, square setup. These tires were my second choice, I wanted Falken RT615k tires but they weren’t carried by the vendor I was ordering through. Also, realistically, these are a little more street friendly. The Bridgestone’s I have on right now grip fantastically, but are absurdly noisy and a little sketch on the rain. Though I do plan to take this car to the track, for the street these tires are more than sufficient. I hope...

I was concerned that visually this would have more stretch, but that wasn’t the case.

So you don’t have to say it, I know. Needs more low, very desperately. Fortunately my fenders are rolled, so I don’t need to tackle that job. But if you’re looking to run the same setup, yes you need to roll your fenders for sure. I took the wheels back off and I’m rolling on the stock wheels to radwood. Going to get the rear tires flipped to survive the drive out and back, then it’ll finally time to overhaul the car. I guess I should also preemptively say, I’m totally aware that these tires are pretty narrow for an M3. I’m playing it by ear right now, I’m happy with the aesthetics of this setup, but it does have to preform well too. 235s may be possible as well, but I will wait until after I do a thorough shakedown on my favorite road to determine that. Tortilla Flat reveals all.

[Graphitemk6]

Love those tips, **** how they put carbon all over your bumper though. As for the wing rep or not it would definately look dope.

[bwwaaaa]

LTW wings is a touchy subject for me LOL I'm looking for an OEM one since I bought the car but the only one that popped up for sale in 2 years is that infamous $10000 NOS ebay one

Nice job on the polishing, curious to hear it

I would love an OEM one, but the reality is I don't think I'll ever be able to find it. It puts me in a weird place, because I've always been really big on authentic everything, wheels to headlights. But given the rarity of the OEM piece, I'm not sure I have any other option than a replica piece for the wing. I still haven't made any decisions, but I do love the look of that wing on a sedan. Plus with my wheels and exhaust, I feel like it will tie everything together that much more.

Exhaust looks great after polishing it. I think that style DTM tip will really set the car off perfectly once you get the wheels on.

Thanks! I was surprised it shined up as much as it did. I agree, I'm hoping that it all works together as a complete package. Part of why I decided to put off installing it until I could do it all at once.