Broken Down

29 Nov Broken Down

No, don’t worry, our E90 M3 isn’t broken down. It’s BEING broken down, as we are selling it this winter to make room for 2012’s FMU projects.

You may remember an earlier post from this month, where we showed Stefan’s dad’s E92 M3 receiving our bespoke Rotora big brake kit. That was just the beginning of a long part-swapping fest that encompassed two cars, a bit of fabrication, a fair amount of lifting and, you guessed it, a heaping spoonful of nostalgia. The sounds and feelings coming from the E90 as it tore down Chicagoland roadways will not be replicated easily. Your humble narrator remembers starting it in his garage in Elk Grove; the cold start and subsequent idle shook not only the garage, but the exterior walls of both his house and that of his neighbors. This was not a car that enjoyed aural subtlety. Which is why it’ll be a shame to see this removed from the car:

Once the exhaust was removed, we set about replacing it with stock. We had to re-weld a couple flanges, but on the whole, the job went quickly and effortlessly. With the underbody done receiving its OEM pieces, we set about removing the parts of the interior we wanted to keep — namely, the Stätus custom-embroidered seats, FMU custom harness bar and the power button for the Aquamist/Howerton Engineering HFS-3 water-methanol system. Since we had cut a hole in the center console for the power switch, we couldn’t just put a piece of electrical tape over it. Instead, we one-upped BMW and added a bespoke ///M piece in place of the power button. Adds a little extra aluminum classiness to the interior, don’t you think? Finally, the OEM M3 seats were hanging out in Ashley’s 335i, so we plopped those back into their rightful places in the M3.

We also had to remove the velocity stacks and water-methanol injection system. The stacks themselves were easy, but all the wiring associated with the HFS-3 water-meth setup was a bit trickier. After a bit of elbow grease was applied, though, we replaced the trunk floor (where the water-meth was stored in a custom tank) and the OEM airbox. It’s not as exciting under the hood anymore, but the S65’s valve covers are still powdercoated black, which is infinitely better than that sandy-beige color that came from the factory.

Next was the body. The front bumper has a Vorsteiner lip molded into it; while we plan on keeping that for the sale, there was a good amount of clearcoat spiderwebbing around the lip. Because the front bumper had been subjected to a couple years of Chicago highways, we felt it warranted a do-over. So we set about sanding down the bumper and making it beautiful again. The underside of the hood featured a few nicks from the old carbon fiber “Medusa” velocity stacks, so we figured we’d repaint the whole hood at the same time.

A little bit of paint and a little bit of time later, and we have a nicely rebuilt stock E90 M3 getting very close to being ready to sell.

And don’t worry, the Dymags are nice and safe upstairs in fabrication.

If you or anybody you know is in the market for a slightly modified E90 M3 (H&R Coilovers, Vorsteiner molded front lip, FMU Custom ECU Tune), shoot us an e-mail at [email protected] for any information you require!