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KING_POM

e30 318i/2 m3 body conversion

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Hi guys this has been my project for the past 18 months and ive been taking pictures but not started a build thread so here it is..

Haters and purists gonna hate but please take into account the rarity and cost of an actual m3 shell and appreciate the time and effort i have put into this build before you go commenting :) cheers.

So the build started when i bought the old girl as a cheap daily driver to replace my turbo s15 silvia.

it started as a restoration and i spend a fair few $$ getting it back to almost showroom condition. Then the worst possible scenario happened... an altercation with a holden captiva left it in a rather bad way.

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This is what the old girl looked like after cleaning, polishing and replacing various missing parts followed by a post crash (approx 2 months later) after straightened chassis rails, new radiator support panel, replaced front grilles, headlights, radiator, front wiring loom and fint fibreglass guards and bonnet courtesy of Mike Shaw Fibreglass.

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Then the fun began...

the car was stripped, dash, wiring loom, engine, gearbox and sunfoor panel removed.

severe rust was found in the channels and under the roof skin so roof was also removed.

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Edited by BADassE30

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Engine bay was stripped and painted. Rear guards trimmed and re welded to accomodate larger wheels, and test fit the m3 kit with loads of tape and screws.

and finally i started removing surface rust that had begun to appear after rain caught me off guard and flooded the car one weekend.

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Well so far including all the 5 stud swap brake upgrade (e36 328 rotors and callipers hawk pads) rollcage and bodywork the car owes me approx $7k in parts. And i havnt started on engine yet as ive not 100% decided if i will go m62b44 or m54b30 so all told also allowing 3k for paint it will be prob around $25k parts. All labour apart from welding the cage was done by me and all thats left minus paint will be me too :)

Here is the roll cage and the interior was painted matte black to reduce glare a little.

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Wiring loom behind dash was tidied and dash re installed. Painted dash bezel blue to match wheel and cage and painted the headlight rings with what i had left.

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Edited by BADassE30

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I dropped the steering colum down about 25mm, made a fibreglass fill in panel for the centre consol and installed ignition switch wilwood bias adjuster and kill switch. Wilwood pedal box and master cylinders installed.

new solid brake hoses made up to accomodate the new pedal box and hydraulic handbrake.

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Brakes all finished and consol completed for now.

installed jump start post and battery cable from e36 to move the battery to the boot and make jumpstarting/ charging easier.

Started fibreglassing rear guards on. pics arnt in order as i had to re glass the left rear guard as it was slightly crooked :s

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And finally where im at today is installing fuel hoses and surge tank using teflon braided hoses and two bosch 044 fuel pumps. 8AN supply and 6AN return which should be enough to support about 400hp from a v8 with ease if i take that route. Battery wont be staying there either its going to be a gell/dry cell and laying down/flat mounted to the rear seat base to keep the weight low.

also to reduce centre of gravity i am installing cryolon (same as lexan but half the price) windows. Possibly fibreglass doors later on too.

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Good work! Did you sort out something to fill the extra large sun-roof hole?

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No not yet still looking into cost effectivness of buying a 'roof cap' from us or uk for approx 1000 landed or moulding a roof anaking a carbonfibre plug. I spose i could the sell a few plugs to make some $$ back. Though its just the hassle of getting it done and no guarentee of quality if i do it myself..

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Cool project mate, I thought of doing something similar when I built my e 30 ...didn't have it long enough. lol but this is definitely cool.

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Thanks frederic its been a long time getting to this stage and the pics dont really do it justice of excactly how many hours have been poured into it.. will definately be worth it when its finished esp now i have finally chosen an engine to replace the m10 with. But for now that will remain a secret ;)

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This looks good, I'm looking forward to see more progress.

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Great project.

Keep it up.

Have you thought about body colour yet?

Black would be badass.

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An S14B25 would go well in there, might blow the budget though! I would be interested to know what this ends up weighing as it should end up nice and light.

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Lol yeh an S14 would go very well in here but wayy over budget!

Here is todays progress so far..

almost finished fibreglassing on the last rear guard.

and while th fg was drying i installed vtec rocker cover for that extra 15Hp ;)

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Great project.

Keep it up.

Have you thought about body colour yet?

Black would be badass.

Yeh was playing with colours and was thinking either satin black, alpine white or estoril blue from the e90 m3.. could still go either way though...

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ITB + Turbo + Cam + Remap the M10 thats in it.

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ITB + Turbo + Cam + Remap the M10 thats in it.

No point flogging a dead horse. M10 is too old technology and performance parts are becoming too pricey. I did look at that option but decided against it.

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So last post for today i have sanded the top surface of the rear guard and glued on the rear window surround ready for fibreglassing on tomorrow.

alot more sanding and tidying up then sideskirts will go on. :D

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Awesome work dude... I looked at doing the same thing to my e30 7-8 years a go but it was gonna be about 25k to just do the body work. I stopped at the engineering bits.

I noticed you got evo3 front guards .... nice.

PS do a nice bright colour ... black is played out.

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