Dar-Dar's 1995 Avus Blue E36 M3 Project Car

[Dar-Dar]

I helped my brother get this 99' E36 328i M-Sport. It's no M3, but my brother doesnt need a higher performance car. It will be more of his cruise car for the summer.


This car has the x-brace that my M3 doesn't have. And my brother is willing to swap it with the M3's cross brace.

 

[bauer311]

That's a nice looking car

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[ron v]

Your gonna sell it and regret it. But isn't that how it always is about cars u put time into. I see my old hatch around town beaten and mistreated and it breaks my heart.

 

[Dar-Dar]

That's a good point. I did put so many hours on this car already.

 

[Dar-Dar]

So these used newly powder coated oem springs from a 95 M3 came in today and I was planning on putting them on.

I started by removing the front struts. Then I saw some rust under the strut mounts. So I decided to prevent it from spreading.

I sprayed the surface with OSPHO (rust converter) and used a steel brush to clean off the rust.

Then I prepped it for paint.

I cleaned the area with dish soap and water. Then degreaser and grease/wax remover.

I used VHT Engine Primer.

Then sprayed thick coats of Rustoleum black paint.

The paint I used were used from old paint jobs that needed to be emptied out.

I will also be spraying undercoating in the wheel well area.

So I wasn't able to put the stock springs on the front struts since the spring plates were too small. The springs were not sitting properly on the spring plates.

What I didn't realize was that the 95 M3 has a different spring design compared to the 96+ M3s. The top of the 95 spring has a wider seat perch, while the 96+ has a smaller one. So a 95 needs a 96+ M3 spring plate in order to run aftermarket lowering springs, which my car has since it is running H&R race springs.

I ordered the correct spring plates as well as new spring isolators (since I might as well replace them). And the car will be sitting on front jack stands for a while.

I suppose one of the things I can do while the front is suspended is install the SS clutch line and rebuild the front calipers.

 

[Dar-Dar]

Got a nice sticker for the steering wheel.

 

[Dar-Dar]

Brake rebuild:

While the car is suspended on the front, I started this rebuild.

Removing the pistons was pretty simple. All I did was run pressurized air through the brake line. I made sure that I put padding (a sponge worked very well) in between the piston so that it wouldn't launch into the caliper. Lol.

You can see that this dust seal is shot and pretty much useless.
I replaced the pistons and the seals. This is how the new piston looks with the new seal (inner seal was also replaced as well as bleeder valves, but not pictured).
These are the brake pads that came with the car. They still look very new. They are Centric Position Quiets.
So the story about the driver side is not as good as the passenger.

First, if you look as the brake pipe, you notice that it isn't run through the bracket that should be holding it. Meaning that one of the previous owners already changed the brake line and decided to not fix his/her mistake and rather anchor the line using safety wire (that I removed and not pictured). Lol. It held up, but it was still a stupid job.

Second, I ended up rounding out the hex on that flare nut. As mentioned, one of the previous owners already changed the brake line. Meaning that the hex was rounded a little. I did use a flare wrench that was held on by a vice grip for a really tight grip. But the flare nut was screwed on so much and my method didn't do anything so the hex completely got rounded. Using a Dremel, I ended up cutting through the threads of the brake line and the flare nut to break them loose.

The SS brake lines are installed as well.

And now we're here.

So im going to order a brake pipe from the abs module to the front driver brakes. This brake pipe is getting all rusty anyway so I might as well replace the whole thing. The passenger side is okay and not as bad.

I won't be able to drive the car until I get all the parts necessary (as well as the suspension parts I ordered a while back).
Bleeder valve covers are so useful.


...to be continued.

 

[Nomar06]

Might as well replace both hard lines while you at it, right?

 

[Dar-Dar]

Passenger side brakes is fully installed and the brake pipe looks fine. So no point spending the money. Lol. Plus routing that won't be as easy as the driver side since the ABS module is closest to the front driver corner.

 

[Dar-Dar]

....And while the front is still up and I'm still waiting for the brake/suspension parts to arrive, I decided to coat the front wheel well.

I started by grinding the areas with rusty spots. Then I removed the plastic expanding nuts (mounting points for the fender liner) and drilled larger holes for a fender clip conversion. I'm not a fan of the expanding nuts/screw combo because I'm not a fan of corrosion. The thin fender screws can get pretty corroded and the hex can easily get rounded out. And finally I cleaned the area with degreaser. Purple Power is awesome.

From grinding, I exposed alot of bare metal where some are a bit rusty. So I covered them with POR15 (I love POR15).
I then masked the area and sprayed this Dupli-Color Truck Bed coating.
Two coats were applied and I'm impressed with the texture of it. It evens out better than the 3M undercoating that I used on the trunk.
I still have to do the other side, which I'll do tomorrow.

 

[Dar-Dar]

Oh, and this. Overnight part from Lithuania.

 

[webby]

the guys from wheeler dealers tend to love that truck bed coating type stuff for under the car. It usually seems to turn out really well from when I've seen them use it.

 

[Dar-Dar]

the guys from wheeler dealers tend to love that truck bed coating type stuff for under the car. It usually seems to turn out really well from when I've seen them use it.

Yeah, truck bed coating is more rigid than undercoating. Hopefully, this one lasts a long time and prevents any future rust on new areas.

One good benefit of the rubber undercoating, in comparison to the truck bed liner, is it acts as an insulation and can deaden road noise. That's the reason why I coated the trunk area with 3M undercoating.

p.s. I love that show. Makes me want to flip cars as a side job. Lol.

 

[webby]

I've learned a ton just watching some of their episodes. It's awesome seeing what they're able to do.

 

[Dar-Dar]

I've learned a ton just watching some of their episodes. It's awesome seeing what they're able to do.

Definitely, it is one of the few shows that talk about the technical aspects of what they work on and how they can fix an issue.

 

[Nomar06]

I like Wheeler Dealer but sometimes I get annoyed that they fix just the problem areas but sometimes skip making the car look better on small detail stuff.

Hey, look! we replaced the headlights but we used the old rusty screws to hold it on to the car! Yay!!!!

 

[Dar-Dar]

Continued.

I changed the springs from H&R back to stock. The stock springs were powdercoated by the previous owner.

Front stock (left) vs H&R

Rear stock (bottom) vs H&R

ESC Tuning gave me 5 too many front spring lower isolators. The two on the left are upper isolators.

Here is a comparison between the 96+ and 92-95 spring plates. The 96+ is much smaller.

I also bought a couple of reinforcement plates.

Front full assembly. I forgot to order the sleeves.

Here is the brake pipe fix. I got a flaring tool from Autozone. They have the loa-a-tool program that is literally a life saver. And it's free.

Dat flare tho.


Don't judge my brake piping skills.

 

[Dar-Dar]

This here is a win. So I went to check the DME to see if there's a chip tune installed. Then I saw that there is!!! It is a Eurosport High Performance chip for a stock tune. It supports an intake, header, exhaust. No wonder I was able to hit 7000rpm before.

 

[Dar-Dar]

And here is a sneak peek.

 

[bauer311]

Dar-dar with the upgrades! Looking good man. Can't wait to see those wheels on it though.

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