E30 Zone

after searching all over i've found an m3 kit but its in fibre glass , just wondered if anyones fitted an m3 kit? i'm trying to find out how much the metal rear arches are?

are the kits hard to fit? do they need allot of work on the inner arches and in and around the fuel cap?

does anybody have any pics of step by step fitting the kit

cheers

i do believe c3bmw sell original rear arches for about 360 each side plus vat

Ahhh, finally! (sorry for the delay mnmbm325). i'll wack a few photo's up here, and ask away. I've put the full metal kit on with no previous experience, so can give you a first hand account if you need it.

here's a few picks to get you started.

Before i started


arches brought back from london


arch getting ready to rough trim it


trimmings from arch


one arch trimmed back


one arch dry fitted


cut back original arch


weld up original arch, and take back where it will be welded on


tack on with gas mig, 0.8mm wire, over flow on gas, and lowest amper you can get a bead at (this all help to prevent panel distortion).


loads and loads of this


and this


ends up like this


and this (for rough)


let me know if there's anyting else you need to see/ know, and sorry for how long it took to reply![/img]

cool that helps allot, how did you sort out around the fuel cap? is there any welding to be done there? also inner arches, can you buy them or are they part of the arch.

this is a great help. have you got a pic of the final projest?

cheers,
martin

exactly what i'm doing. any more pics of how you went around the rear lights?

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o6/B ... ort918.jpg

How did you manage to get the panels flush, without a hump, if ou jus welded on without cutting off the original quarter panel

Hey guys. sorry i've been away.

I have two othe threads, but they are on the bimmerforum. Not sure if i'm allowed to post a link?

To get the wing flush, i did the stitch weldin with a really low amperage welder, thinnest wire (0.8 mm i think?), and about twice as much gas on the mig as you would usually have.

THis was because i was warned by multiple people who said icouldnt do it, that even if i could i would deform the panels from the heat.

So i stitch welded it as you can see here.



To get the wing flush presented its own problems.

I pepped the inner wing like this?: -


By running angle grinde with a big stainless steel wire brush on it, to get a clean 1+ inch clean bit of metal.

I kept trimming the wing up with 1mm cutting discs off ebay (be aware these will spit and embed grit in your forehead!!!!!)



and once i had a good dry fit



i then had to knife edge most of the edges. THis was the difficult part. As i sharpened each edge to make it blend to the wing (basically i ground the back edge from each joining face on the m3 wing),
i made the metal thinner, which naturaly made it even harder to weld.

oh, i forgot. cut the original wing high, and weld the skins back together. Have a friend in the boot ready to blow out the insulatin that keeps catchign fire (its not serious).



When you cut the outer arch do not do it exactly as i did it above. I should have cut just the outer face, and left it almsot like this: -



because i could have then welded the existing inner arch to the innder of the new m3 arch. As it is now, i ended up putting cuts into my welded inner arch, and be nding the tabs out to fit my m3 inner, but i will have to add additional metal in now.

The m3 front arch is rather simple.

I fitted the saloon arch to the m3. Its the same except for the bottom.

clean the original arch up.



dry fit the m3 arch


it will fot something like this.



cut the bottom off of both arches, and tac the normal bottom of the wing ontothe m3 wing whilst on the car like this.



then take it off, and weld together like this.



and then



done! Hopefully your welding is better than mine!!!

Fuel flap i have no pics of uploaded at the mo.

But what i will be doing is buying the m3 filler neck, so it fits to the original wing. The only thing you have to do is cut a nice hole in your original wing so that you can re-locate the central locking solenoid for the filler.

I intend to make up my inner arches below, and then bond a section on around the inner fuel flap (on the original wing). after that i will pump in expanding foam to help stop any vibration, and minor dents, it will also make the whole rear end better possibly, and not weigh anythign compared to the extra wings.!? besides its cheap stuff!

I'm actually glad i did it this way, as the e30 doesnt have enough weight at the rear, considerign the weight of the m30 up front!

hope this helps you guys.

Here's a few recent pics to show i am still doing it!!!






and im still looking for a front m3 bumper re-enforcer/ support if anyone has one!!!!!??????

thanks for that, it was great help. cheers

cant the e36 m3 bumper re-enforcer be modified to fit the m3 bumper?

Lol.

Thats exactly what i'm looking at. The standard e36 front bumper carrier on my other halfs, looks like a strong plastic, perfect for fitting it etc. So i jsut needto source one.

i might just get her he m3 front bumper then pinch hers!

Did loads of cleanup today, fitting seals, door trims, rear lights etc, jsut toclear some space. Found all the front grills etc lol!

the re-enforce for standard e36 bumpers can be grabbed for around £20 on ebay. loads of breakers on there as well.

what mig welder did you use? is it that little blue one?

Yep, i'll probably see what i can find on there this evening.

Yep, i used the b lue one, el-cheapo from machine mart. The only real thing i wanted was a low amperage mode. I can't remember it all now, as that part of the project was 2+ years ago, but it had to be a gas mig, low amperage.

I forgot to mention. Once i had stitched the wing with weld, i then filled in the gaps, so it is fully seam welded. Took a reasonable amount of grinding and re-welding to get it right, but its almost perfect now.

a bodyworker i know, claimed that these little mig welders are useless. i think you can get one of these for around £100-£150. which i was looking to do until he had put me off.

so now that i see you done your with that, i think, i'l go and grab one this weekend. but i'm actually thinking of cutting the existing quarter panels off, and joint welding. cos i dont want a bump, by stitch welding. i'm jus surprised how you managed to avoid that

you don't get a bump if you blend the wing properly and grind back. Even around the rear light its not too difficult.

I've had people ever since the start of the rpoject, and even now tell me how it can't be done, or how i can't do it. I listen to them always, and only once or twice throughout the whole project have they ever been right.

If yur not a great welder like me i would recommend a few good stainless steel wire brushes, and some extra angle grinder discs.

That way, you can put stitch on, wire brush it back clean for the next weld, and build up if need be. I did all the welding on the wire reel it had with it!

I rarely got it to weld on minimum amperage with no spitting at all, but on very clean parts, where the existing wing, and the new were held together well it went perfectly pushing into the existing metal nicely.

I was going to cut off the original panels, but thats structural, and your really getting into stuff that i had no understanding of. This way, i can only strengthn the car in the event of an accident etc, and was also concerned as these wings are spot welded and braised in parts.

but isnt there more chances of the filler cracking on stitch welding, due to the vibration between the panels, as they're on top of each other.

he welded in the gaps between the stitches.

i was goin to pay £300 to get my old ones cut off and the m3 ones welded. but now, i'v picked up a 25-130 variable amp mig/gas welder for £40. lol.. so just going to weld the skins.

however, BristolBulldog, are the rear bumper mounts the same. or will they need to be modified. i mean, as the arches are wider, the bumper is obviously a slightly wider. but is the considered in the mountings, or will there be need for modifications?

thanks

Maj-power any update with your M3 cab rep????

i left it to the side, was busy with my both my e36's. work on the e30 will start anytime soon. will post a new thread as soon as i touch it

Maj, this is funny. I've been working loads on the missus's e36 as well! 8 computer faults alone lol.

The rear bumper i'm unsure of. I know it kinda fits with masking tape, and that with welding the wings on the outside, it makes your car about 1.5" wider than a normal m3, and that the flex in the rear bumper works fine with this.

If i remember correctly the pre-facelift rear mounts could be bent. My friend who i have lsot contact with was doing a 4 litre baur m3! and he jsut bought the right parts and they bolted on. Never did manage to get the part number though!

just needs m3 boot fitting now

not sure it would look right on a convertible?

BristolBulldog wrote:not sure it would look right on a convertible?

the genuine m3 cabbys have them dont they

no they dont

just plain backs.

i'm keeping the mtec spoiler on the back, for the 3rd brake light, and i'm not amazingly keen on just the plain rear end.

doesnt the bumper look a bit in, in this pic. i think the arches have come slightly far out. or does it fit better when bolted etc.

The bumper in this pic is held there by the concrete blocks, and there are no brackets on the rear side panels yetso thats why it doesn't line up.

Also, the rear arches are a little wider than a standard m3, and there is plently of flex in there to accommodate this.

m3 convertibles had m-tech 1 rear spoilers from the factory

just going by this lol.
http://www.bmwmregistry.com/images/11_e ... rtible.jpg

A4-AHV wrote:m3 convertibles had m-tech 1 rear spoilers from the factory

no they didnt.

from the factory they all had a bog standard, plain (no spoiler at all) boot.