Convertible arches

[Bladerider]

Hello !!

My names James and I have been browsing the forum for a while, and need some guidance on a couple of things.

I have already done a couple of searches but cant find the answer, so does anyone know if original M3 arches and skirts from the coupe fit and line up correctly on a convertible ??

Same with the bumpers, although I suspect these are universal I did wonder about the rear as the sides of the bumper look slightly longer on a droptop.

Thanks alot.

J.

[mrLEE30]

what you do not say is what convertable you have, is it an M3 or standard cab?

the tin top and cab front wings are different on the normal car as the cab has additional strengthening to make up for the loss of the roof, so i would suspect the M3's are no different.

secondly the front M3 bunpers do not fit on the non-M3 cars without modification.

finally you will have noticed the flared arches of an M3 are not the same as a standard car and tuhs the rear bumper will not fit correctly, in fact even the early and later normal E30's had different reare wheel arch profiles, but All cabs have the later rear wheel arch profile, this means that even fitting a standard kit on a cab can require modifications.

i have written a guide on fitting bumpers on the later cab, irt can be found here..

http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/inde ... ar_bumpers

hope that helps you, and for what its worth many enthusiasts tend to dislike fitting a M3 kit on a non M3 car, originality seems to be the order of the day at the moment, but its your car!!

mrlee

[Bladerider]

Thanks for your help, thats great.

I know what you mean about the originality thing, but seeing as this will end up with a V8 in it, it will never be "original" so I may as well go for the look I like aesthetically as well !! Im probably different from alot of people who are looking to put M3 arches on non M3 cars as I have no interest in trying to make the car an M3clone in any way, I just like the Audi Quattro style of arch and think it shows off nice paint well and gives you a few more options when it comes to what wheels to run, and with the grunt the V8 will give me (I might even suprecharge it for a little extra pep) I think grip - especially at the rear - will be something in short supply !!

This is just meant as a little fun car rather than something properly "fast" but its got to have a bit of poke otherwise theres no point.

Thanks again,

J.

[mrLEE30]

if your abilites stretch to fitting a V8 into the engine bay then i doubt the minor differences in the panels should prove much of an issue. the rears may prove harder as they are part of the shell, personally i would have them custom fabricated rather then replace the panels.

what lump are you looking at putting in there? nice article in PBMW with an E30 with 4.4 supercharged in there.

[Bladerider]

Several options engine wise, but some of them are more ballache than they're worth in my opinion.

S62 E39 M5 engine seemed like a good idea, but you need the box to go with it as well as some of the DSC or whatever gubbins for g sensors, fly by wire throttle and such as its got the extra oil scavengers etc

N62 4.8 is almost as powerful and actually has more torque, but this is even more of a pain for ecu's controllers and secondary kit as its the latest engine and I'd probably end up locking out the double vanos and hence theres no point in all the money and headscratching which would also eat up time I could be out using the car

So I guess Im back at the good old M62 4.4 and perhaps expanding it to 5.0litres using some M5 internals which a company I have spoken to have done in the past. But if Im supercharging it then I might just stick with a stock M62 and a lowish amount of boost to see it past 400bhp without the need for too many expensive bits. This is all meant to be a quick conversion with the emphasis on fun and using it without spending any real money !! It would be nice for the guys at my bodyshop if it got a feature but I have had more than enough exposure in magazines over the years myself so Im not really that bothered !! Would be nice if it was all done and dusted in time to do the Santa Pod BMW show as I have only ever done the drift demos in Japanese cars !!

J.

[mrLEE30]

sounds good mate, get some pics up and if you have a look there is one lad who did sucessfully get the S62 in the E30...link

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... hlight=s62

[Bladerider]

Ive read some of that thread, and I know we could do the same, but its a cost/time/hassle thing !! This is meant to be a bit of fun for me to recouperate from spending the last 6 months in hospital and not with my mrs, and rather than go out on my bike and risk killing myself I thought it would be better to have a little fun car to cruise about in on the odd summers day. I have lots of other cars for normal use or trackdays or whatever, this is just a simple thing I fancy doing.

I will deffo put pics up as we progress.

J.