My 1997 M3 (That I'm not going to part out anymore)
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Out of curiosity how heavy are those seats? I'm wondering how manual seats compare to power seats for weight.
Just weighed one, 58.6lbs
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Kinda boring post but, I took a trip to Gibson's in Neenah today and picked up some parts
It's pretty crazy, they have at least 20 E36's and tons of E34's, E39's and E46's
95% of the E36's have been picked over hard or rained/snowed in for a year so it's always kinda hard to find decent stuff
I managed to find:
- OEM gas cap with sticker still on it (to replace my junk steel Autozone one)
- Blinker harness plugs
- Seat nut covers
- Seat belt nut covers (couldn't believe it)
- Really nice genuine floor mats out of a '94 318i with anchors to replace my universal floor mats
- A super nice genuine leather E-brake boot that looks new (broken rear tab on the one in my M3)
- A not blown hood strut so my hood doesn't fall and smash me in the skull again
- Tow hook
- Wiper nut covers
- Sport seat rear net (Turns out neither of my vaders are missing the net and I'm delusional)
- A 1997 Concours calendar card (oddly enough my M3 was sold new at Concours in 1997)
Everything listed only cost me $21!
Really all I did today was the junkyard run and wash the floor mats
Also saw a E34 touring and Supra Turbo in the yard
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Off topic, but did you happen to spot any e30s or z3s up there?
They had a 4 door e30 right next to a e28! I didn't really look at them, but some guy was pulling stuff off the e28. They looked pretty complete from the outside.
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The e30 or two that is there is pretty picked over depending on what you're looking for.
Source : It's 7 min from my shop, I get there frequentish -
That Concours calendar is pretty neat! I need to check out Gibson's myself, always hear about the good deals up there.
Don't know the BMW selection there currently, but it's always been good when I've gone.
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The e30 or two that is there is pretty picked over depending on what you're looking for.
Source : It's 7 min from my shop, I get there frequentishI can vouch for that, I get over there quite a bit as well and the e30's that are out there are pretty much just shells now. All though, the e36/e34 selection is very good indeed and I have seen a few fresh ones sitting out there (from auctions) with a tag dating from only a couple weeks ago hardly touched.
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Got a decent amount done today
Took my vaders out and vacuumed the carpet/deep cleaned interior
New E-brake boot in
The little things
Unfortunately I came across some rust under the rear seat and a mouse nest behind the outer rear seat cushion
On the underside of the car, this is where the brake line bracket is mounted up by the gas tank, looks like a small crack was coming off the rusted area as well.
filled the hole and crack with welds
Mouse nest:
I cant find any signs of mice anywhere else in the car, and none of the nest was made of wire insulation.
Cleaned up:
Took the mouse piss insulation out and the rest under the rear seat
about 10 lbs worth in weight savings
Took the headliner and rear parcel shelf out. The rear shelf I re-wrapped a few years ago in black alcantara, and from the pictures you can see what it's become. The headliner has been sagging forever and when I had my windows down the airflow would make headliner glue blow all over the back of my interior. I cleaned up all of that glue/foam today too. Headliner and rear deck re-wrap later this week
Put the LTW seats in. I love them way more then my vaders already
And now I'm about to go out to the garage to deal with this from the previous owner:
I wanted to throw in a OEM radio, but I remembered I have my brothers new JVC radio that I pulled from his car before he scrapped it. It has Bluetooth and stuff, and doesn't look outrageous. It also weighs like 2 lbs less then the ugly pioneer super tuner that's been in the car since I got it.
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Those new seats look stellar!
Sucks finding mouse nests in various places, I'm surprised they made it inside the cabin lol. -
I love that fabric!
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Took another trip down to Milwaukee today, the same guy I bought the LTW seats from offered to sell me a set of his rather rare wheels so I bought em
3 piece 17x8.5/17x9 +37 Fikse Mach V with 245/40r17 Bridgestone G-Force tires
Rear needs to come up a bit
The front wheels require spacers to not rub on my coilovers, and all I had laying around was a 20mm set. I'm thinking 5-8mm will be perfect up front when I'm actually going to drive the car.
The car already looks way different and is about 2 1/2 inches higher in the front! I'm starting to like this look way more then being slammed on stretched tires... Might drop down to a 235/40 because these tires are really beefy
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Nice. Dan Frodl had those on his Alpine E36 M3, I'm guessing that's who you got them from.
How'd his M5 look? Lol.
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Nice. Dan Frodl had those on his Alpine E36 M3, I'm guessing that's who you got them from.
How'd his M5 look? Lol.
I did get them from Dan haha.
He has a very nice collection of cars
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This happened today trying to put the helper springs back in my coilovers...
Basically the top hat nut would always loosen itself after a few hundred miles of driving even with Loctite Blue.
I put Loctite Red on last fall and it is some strong stuff. I got the passenger side loose but I should have heated the drivers side

Now just the front driver side of my car is slammed and I have a broken lower strut mount bolt and a coilover that I'm gonna have to take a cutoff wheel to so I can reuse my camber plates. Not too big of a deal, they were blown Raceland coilovers that never should have made it onto a M3
I have to park the car all lopsided and broken for the next month and a half now, new coilovers and entire rear end next. Back to school on Sunday so this thread wont be updated until mid May.
I'm not going to use the Vaico pads in the pic above also haha
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