OEM+

25 Jul OEM+

Not everybody that enters Fluid MotorUnion’s doors are looking for a trick build that’s over the top of everything else. Some customers happen to be fans of the status quo.

This is the case with Chris’ M3. He purchased this car much closer to its model year of 2001, and it’s now been entrusted to us for a slew of restorative upgrades, along with some additional go-fast bits. The work order for this car is less a short story and more of a novel, as he’s replacing everything from belts and bushings, to springs and shocks. There’s also a couple mounts in there, a window regulator, a clutch and flywheel combo, and a totally new paint job. On top of that, he’ll be upgrading his headers and exhaust for a more performance-appropriate tone befitting of such a vehicle. To tie everything together, both new and old, he’ll be receiving a custom ECU tune at the end of it all. Until then, though, there’s plenty of work and rebuilding to do. Let’s start with the suspension. First, it had to arrive. And boy, did it arrive, in like 15 different boxes:

So the service side set about putting together and installing all the suspension components. Before the new ones go in, though, the old ones must come out:

You can tell how much better everything with both look and feel when comparing these brand new shocks to their ten-year-old counterparts:

Everything’s looking much cleaner with all the new parts installed. Granted, one won’t be able to see many (if any) of the parts we’re replacing on Chris’ car, but he’ll essentially have a brand new E46 M3 once all this work is done, and there’s no substitute for a quality ride.

After the suspension came the drivetrain. As always, there’s a few more parts scattered about during a clutch installation, as the entire trans needs to be dropped:

Even though plenty of work has been completed as of right now, there’s still plenty more to do! As time goes on, we will bring Chris’ pride and joy back to the FMU front page; you know we just can’t let good pictures of good cars go to waste!