2002 E46 M3 // Build Thread
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Where might a great condition cinnamon interior be hiding? In a rebuilt title, dumpster of an M3 of course! Bought this 110k Imola on cinnamon E46 M3 yesterday to be a donor car. I'm swapping the cinnamon interior into my Steel Gray M3, then selling the car for a break even price to another for the motor/trans. Free cinnamon interior
Also found the car has a sweet Eismann exhaust setup. I'm donating it to @Rekpoint for all his help dismantling the interior and helping with the swap, everybody wins!
Let it be known we were able to install everything besides the front door panels in just about an hour. Pretty fast...
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Well that's pretty awesome
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The seats were REAL shiny. I tried hitting them with some Lexol leather cleaner and a microfiber and it didn't put a dent in it. I know it's a sin, but I VERY carefully used a magic eraser (with zero pressure applied) and Adam's interior detail as lubricant. I was careful to only buff off the oils/grease and not damage the protective "clear coat" layer. Hard to tell from photos, but they look night and day different.
edit: still need to swap the front door cards, just haven't had time yet
Before:
After:
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Looks great, its amusing that shiny seats look bad, but yet here we are!
The car you got them from was a sweet color combo! -
Looks great, its amusing that shiny seats look bad, but yet here we are!
The car you got them from was a sweet color combo!Haha right? We want everything else shiny, except for those!
Definitely agree the donor was a sweet spec. Unfortunately it has rear trunk floor and major quarter panel damage from the wreck so it’s just not worth saving. Although it was “rebuilt”, and you can’t tell from the outside, the quarter panel has major bondo and the trunk floor has signs it’s folded in before. Might make a cool drift car or something!
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Saved the door cards for last since they were going to be the most involved. The previous owner cut the door cards for some janky ass aftermarket speakers, and used what looks like wood glue and Joann Fabrics clearance shelf felt to put it back together. So it wasn't going to be as simple as swapping door cards. The good news is the damage was exclusively the door card, and not the cinnamon insert. I was able to use a 1/2" drill to drill out the 25 or so plastic welds holding the pieces together and get the cinnamon off in perfect shape. Now I just have to do this a few more times and swap all the panels, then use some very short self tappers/glue to re-secure them in my good condition door cards.
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did you get rid of the donor car yet?
If not, do you think the person buying it would be ok if I took a couple bits? My imola M3 needs a new passenger rocker panel and side mirror caps.
2011 E92 M3 6MT ZCP - ESS 625 supercharged
2007 Z4MR
2003 E39 M5
2002 E46 M3
2021 X5 40i -
did you get rid of the donor car yet?
If not, do you think the person buying it would be ok if I took a couple bits? My imola M3 needs a new passenger rocker panel and side mirror caps.
I didn’t get rid of it yet, but I’ll have to check the condition of those in the morning when it’s light out. I honestly can’t remember if those are in good shape or not
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Finished drilling out like a million plastic rivet heads and reassembled the inserts into my door cards! Probably not the best solution but I resecured them using short self tappers (3/4”) and fender washers (20mm). Fit and finish is perfect, super jazzed how the swap turned out.
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Finished drilling out like a million plastic rivet heads and reassembled the inserts into my door cards! Probably not the best solution but I resecured them using short self tappers (3/4”) and fender washers (20mm). Fit and finish is perfect, super jazzed how the swap turned out.
Orgasmic
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That's gorgeous
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Finally sucked it up and committed to getting the rod bearings done. This car had them done as part of the recall way back in ‘06 at 66k miles (car is at 135k now), but black stone tests had me a bit nervous. Once they were pulled they honestly didn’t seem that bad. Seems like cylinder 6 was the main culprit to the test results.
Went with WPC treated OE bearings and ARP bolts. Also replaced the oil pan gasket, oil pump seals, motor mounts and a leaking power steering line while it was apart.
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Just remembered I also had the oil pump nut tack welded on. Was reading it was rare, but possible for the nut to back off and then boom. I know I should have used a safety wire nut, but since this component will never need to be removed (if I upgrade, I’ll get the VAC kit with sprocket included), I didn’t care as long as it was a permanent fix.
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Decided to give the UUC EVO 3 SSK + DSSR kit a go today. Kind of a pain to get to everything. Needed to drop the section 1 exhaust to access the trans brace, tilt the transmission down a couple inches just to reach the top clip on the shift carrier. Figured I might as well swap out the trans mounts with some new UUC ones too while I was at it. Managed to get everything removed (aside from the rear shift carrier bushing, that thing was FUSED to the car. If anyone says they removed it they're lying). Once I had all the shifter components out though, I realized I ordered the wrong front carrier bushing and need the oval one. Damn it, to be continued...
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Finally got my new Rogue Engineering Delrin oval carrier bushings and continued on with the install. I would say the rest of the job was like fighting a grizzly bear on meth. My hands are raw, there is zero room to work, most of the job is by feel with no line of sight and there was no part of this job that didn't fight me until I just about gave up. Here's a list of things that went wrong:
- Ordered the wrong carrier bushings, circle rather than the correct oval ones
- I installed the carrier upside down while not paying attention, and sadly I snapped the "bitch clip" down, the one notoriously nicknamed for being nearly impossible to remove
- Bimmerworld sent me a "bitch clip" thats backwards, causing the part you need to pry against to be inaccessible
- The UUC selector rod wouldn't fit on the shift rod joint, the built in bushings were preventing it from sliding on by about 1-2mm.
- I had to remove the carrier a 3rd time, because it needs to be off to take the shift rod joint out, so I could modify it to fit the DSSR
Lots of swearing and some perseverance I got it done. I ended up removing the selector rod joint and actually sanding down the plastic bushings so they are nearly flush. I'm not sure if this will have consequences down the road, but it articulates freely and I added some grease. Worst case I'm pretty well versed in removing it by now.
I can't actually test it out since it's winter and the salt trucks have already been out here in Minneapolis, but I did row through the gears in the garage and it feels AWESOME. Virtually zero slop and feels like bolting a rifle or rowing a gated manual. I'm sure most would consider this a relatively easy job, but man this kicked my ass. Proud to have done it myself though, since my local shop quoted me at $550 for labor.
Edit: If you notice the random paint on the rear of the carrier, that's because I scratched the hell out of the sheet metal trying to remove that rear carrier bushing. Added some automotive paint I had laying around to prevent corrosion with the exposed metal. Whoopsie.
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I ended up buying some TC Kline coilovers from a forum member on nam3forum. They were advertised as a 3000 mile set and they looked pretty solid in the sellers photos. Upon getting them I realized he might have forgotten a 0 or two on the mileage. The two fronts are blown and the rears have a pretty old build date. This set is nearly $3200 new, so I hoped I could save a few bucks buying used. NOPE no chance. Bought two new front replacements that are on their way from TCK. Going to rock the rears until they wear out, might have another season or two in them.
On the bright side, I did get Ground Control camber plates included. They were a bit dirty and beat up, so I did my best to clean and re-grease the bearings. Think they'll work just fine.
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Will the replacement shocks need to be revalved for the spring rates? Or are they an off the shelf setup
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