cheap M3, whats the worst..

i think i just experienced the mythical ///M-Tax

i decided to take my wishbones to a garage near where i work. i took it there with the new ball joints and asked them to press out the old ones and press in the new ones.

there were a lot of questions about why, and why i didnt just get new ones, gave them the reg and got the instant *sucking through teeth* haha

they called me back with a quote for the 20 minutes changing the joints and the cost of new arms

apparntly you can get "unipart" m arms for £190 lol or £220 to change my joints

i can take the arms to my mates house, 20 miles away and use his press whilst we drink beer, and not have to pay a bean...
 
he lives 20 miles away, he has also just bought a house which is also robbing him of all his time. i was going to see him on saturday, but his decorating plans over ran etc etc so if a garage could do it for me for a reasonable sum, id have happily paid it.

i have very little time during the week sadly for car stuff, this weeks mission is finish the hall way, but £200, even though it would have saved me time, is just insulting.

i thought i was being robbed when i had to pay a plasterer £300 ish for a day, but £200 for 20 minutes on a press, no, just no, not even in a month of sundays and all that
 
today was d day, all the bits were supposed to be put together and bolted up tonight

i had a nagging voice in my mind about the wishbones not being the right ones.

internet myths say e36 and e36 m3 arms are the same, but part numbers are different due to the ball joints. ive got new ball joints to go in my existing arms, but i dont want the disappointment of finding out the arms are wrong

so ive bought a pair of new lemforder EVO arms, which will match the EVO top mounts ive got and evo rear bushes

no pressing ball joints, i just have to refit them.

no reason it wont be on the road tonight
 
Matt82 said:
i think i just experienced the mythical ///M-Tax

i decided to take my wishbones to a garage near where i work. i took it there with the new ball joints and asked them to press out the old ones and press in the new ones.

there were a lot of questions about why, and why i didnt just get new ones, gave them the reg and got the instant *sucking through teeth* haha

they called me back with a quote for the 20 minutes changing the joints and the cost of new arms

apparntly you can get "unipart" m arms for £190 lol or £220 to change my joints

i can take the arms to my mates house, 20 miles away and use his press whilst we drink beer, and not have to pay a bean...
Click to expand...

You could buy a press that would be prefectly capable of doing that job for 100 quid. :D
 
Well just got back from euros. £££ later and euros don't do evo arms or bushes. Identical to my current ones. So tomorrow my old ones are getting new ball joints.

Wouldn't mind a press of my own but I don't have storage until my proper garage is built
 
took the car on a testdrive lastnight.

the front end has been reassembled, new bushes, ball joints and top mounts. evo top mounts were used and with the correct orientation, the car now actually steers properly and feels infinitely better

on the test drive it felt down on power (6 week old v power, 6 month old can of petrol from the shed chucked in for good measure)

so with my focus taken away from the front, i had a chance to realise the rear end didnt feel so hot. when loaded up in a corner, a mid corner bump tends to create a shimmy.

i was told the car had poly rear bushes, so i had a look to find out.

turns out there are poly rear arm bushes and poly subframe bushes

this leaves me to update upper and lower arm bushes... plus the all important spring damper kit

when i get a chance ill get the rear dampers off and see whats what. if the rear dampers are bad then the bilstein kit jumps to the top of the priority list
 
So I guess "what's the worst" = "you have to change a lot (all?) of the suspension parts".

At least you went into it knowing what you were letting yourself in for and should end up with a pretty decent car.
 
i call it a restoration to anyone i speak to about it.

four more bushes and thats all the bushes

then the springs and dampers

ive got the parts lined up to restore then shift linkages

final part on the list will be the paint. even though its still on the old wheels, i still get a small spark of excitement when i pull up to the house and see it, knowing that eventually itll be a stormer
 
stat
fan coupling
belts
water pump
a water flange
front wishbone bushes
front top mounts
front ball joints
set of evo sunflower wheels, more dish..

thats all i can remmeber at the minute

ive also got gear linkage parts waiting to go on

yesterday was only the 2-3rd time ive driven it. since i got it home, it has sat there in various states of disassembly waiting for bits to be put on
 
Matt82 said:
i recon itll be in that region depending how far from standard i go with suspension and how much is painted

the criteria was at least 6 cyl and rwd.

a normal 3 series would be cheaper, but youd always want the emfree, what else is there?
Click to expand...

I'd be really interested to see how my modified 328 would perform in a drag race against a stock M3 - the figures put me a couple of bhp/tonne down and I have less inertia, but a less torquey engine.

Personally I don't think I'd finish all that far behind you - would be interesting to see nonetheless. Where do you live?
 
strip out = no no.

my previous gti was very compromised, the ride was terrible etc all in the name of fun. the old fart in me says im moving on from there, so i want "nice" within reason.

fastestlaps.com says my 3.0 does the 1/4 in about 13.8. im not sure what the 328 does but with weight reduction i doubt you would be far behind. have you done the m50 manifold change too?

my main turn off against the 328 was max power being at 5400rpm ish, too early for the sort of car i wanted to create.

sadly i have been away nearly every weekend for the last eight weekends, ive hardly worked on it at all. im currently stuck on rear camber arm bolts that are seized. they will be cut out and adjustable ones fitted.

im based in south east essex, if youre local it would be great to get the cars out for a run. suspension wise, mine is going on Bilstein B12.
 
Aye, i'm running it with the M50B25 manifold on - i don't know about power drop off though - take a look at this from the last OCUK RR meet at powerstation:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14/benlawton/Dynowithmanifold.jpg

** Please resize image to no more than 1024px wide before replacing image tags - thanks ***

With this being my toy car I'm not too worried about ride and comfort. I'm running on £175 ebay JOM suspension - cheep and cheerful but suits my needs fine. Have a look at the video in my other thread - I don't think it handles too badly at all, very stable for sure.

Sadly I'm not even remotely local - I'm a few miles outside of Stoke on Trent - perhaps one day we will meet at a meet and can go for a drag race.
 
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Whats the worse that can happen ....my brothers 2004 m3 blew up on the 1st day.
It was purchased privately and he wouldnt admit he bought a shed. New engine ... And it was still **** because the gearbox went (smg) lol. He learnt the hard way.
 
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i cant see the photobucket image, its blcoked at work.

as for the worst, he lump in mine was rebuilt by a company called HRD i think, they race prep cars for the bmwrdc something or other. i called them to verify it and they knew the guy and the car, enginewise it does seem pretty nice
 
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