Hello everyone,
I just saw this wonderful online community yesterday and spent almost 4 hours going through some of the popular threads.
I also enjoy restoring my cars but of course, I am nowhere near some of yours talent here.
I like to start with two of my finished restorations. This first one is my Henna E30 M3 ! After this resto, the car had a bit of modding and such. I will post current pictures later on. I will also present my '99 M Coupé Resto I I completed later on and finally my current M Coupé II resto which still keeps going. M coupe's are certainly not retro rides yet but I thought some of you could appreciate all the hard work and time went into them.
Henna M3 Restoration ;
In April 2007, I became the proud owner of my dream car, '87 Henna E30 M3 ! Although she was in very good condition, she wasn't as perfect as in my dreams ! So after driving her around for a little bit, I decided to take care of some of its problems and failures here and there. Which started as a minor tune-up, rust repair turned into a small restoration project including a full engine rebuilt... I knew it all along even before I bought the car that, this process would be inevitable. To tell you the truth, it was part of the appeal for me ! The works we started out on may 2007 ended in jan. 2008
Next year I plan to take care of the body with a full strip down respray and new trims all around the bodywork (grills, window surrounds, etc... )
but for now the result are satisfying for me...
I I would also like to thanks to the great S14.net community which have been to greatest inspiration to my efforts and dreams...Thank you all !
So without further ado, I leave you with the pics of the project...Enjoy !!
This is the day I bought her,
First thing first, we started out with rust repairs which were crucial,
After the welding works, painting the welded parts..
I wanted to replace and repair some parts which were worn and disformed during the years such as yellowed water expantion tank, peeled out engine cover, fuel line cover, etc...
Then we freshened up the interior with new steering wheel, gearknob and handbrake leather..
So far, all the minor work I've done was to prevent future problems and to get a cleaner car with newer parts BUT, a couple days later some sounds coming from the engine and the oil check light that lit up once alerted me ! So we wanted to take a look inside the engine before it would be too late to prevent a future breakdown.
Unfortunately, we were too late, the view we came across sent shockwaves to my brain. The crank was terribly worn along with pistons,rods and many other internals. This meant one thing, engine rebuilt ! At this second, dolar bills started to flash in my eyes. as I knew those old M parts would cost an arm and a leg but, what you gonno do ? I decided to do everything properly with the best parts out there to take care of this problem once and for all !
Then we took the engine apart and started the damage control,
I even tried to change the car to a rear engine one but, that didn't work out either..
After we came up with a list of parts and ordered them at once !
After that, when the engine was taken out, we noticed rusting and peeling on various parts of the engine bay so we decided to paint the engine bay..
While waiting for the parts, I sent all the screws, bolts and various other little parts that came out of the engine to be galvanized. I find this process very usefull for any classic restoration as galvanized metal lasts much longer and brings back the freshness of the parts !
After three long months, my parts have finally arrived ; ( You all know how hard some parts are to find )
Using OEM parts is a very important thing for me but for the rods and pistons, I went with CR Forged parts not to experience anything like this again, EVER ! The rest of the parts were strictly OEM !
Bolts and screws came back from galvanization process...
Now that we had everything ready, my mechanic was ready to start his magic,
Block polished and exterior repainted to the factory colour !!
Brand new crank and rods mounted,
Pistons and some of the galvanized small parts mounted,
Every single bolt was galvanized even the ones under the block on the oil pan...
Gasket going in,
And after the repainted engine cover and plenum returns, our S14 is REBORN !!! Tried to bring it back to as factory new looking as possible.. Not a bad work, I presume...
Now it was time to put this beauty inside the car... (Camera phone quality, sorry ! )
Now that the hardest part was over, we took the car to the electrician to replace all the worn cables and fuses and etc...
Finally, we fixed this huge rust on the exhaust
and while at it, we painted the entire exhaust system flat black to keep a clean look...
After the exhaust was mounted back, my mechanic went through his final checks and delivered my Henna back to me after 6 LOOOONG months...
As soon as I got her back, I took her straight to my detailer friend to freshen her up since she was living in a dusty workshop for the last 6 months.. and here is what she looked like after the detailing...
And my proud and joy ;
Later on, before I take her out for a spin....
I wanted to share this rather flattering and exhausting process with you all, I hope you all liked it, thanks for reading...
I just saw this wonderful online community yesterday and spent almost 4 hours going through some of the popular threads.
I also enjoy restoring my cars but of course, I am nowhere near some of yours talent here.
I like to start with two of my finished restorations. This first one is my Henna E30 M3 ! After this resto, the car had a bit of modding and such. I will post current pictures later on. I will also present my '99 M Coupé Resto I I completed later on and finally my current M Coupé II resto which still keeps going. M coupe's are certainly not retro rides yet but I thought some of you could appreciate all the hard work and time went into them.
Henna M3 Restoration ;
In April 2007, I became the proud owner of my dream car, '87 Henna E30 M3 ! Although she was in very good condition, she wasn't as perfect as in my dreams ! So after driving her around for a little bit, I decided to take care of some of its problems and failures here and there. Which started as a minor tune-up, rust repair turned into a small restoration project including a full engine rebuilt... I knew it all along even before I bought the car that, this process would be inevitable. To tell you the truth, it was part of the appeal for me ! The works we started out on may 2007 ended in jan. 2008
Next year I plan to take care of the body with a full strip down respray and new trims all around the bodywork (grills, window surrounds, etc... )
but for now the result are satisfying for me...
I I would also like to thanks to the great S14.net community which have been to greatest inspiration to my efforts and dreams...Thank you all !
So without further ado, I leave you with the pics of the project...Enjoy !!
This is the day I bought her,
First thing first, we started out with rust repairs which were crucial,
After the welding works, painting the welded parts..
I wanted to replace and repair some parts which were worn and disformed during the years such as yellowed water expantion tank, peeled out engine cover, fuel line cover, etc...
Then we freshened up the interior with new steering wheel, gearknob and handbrake leather..
So far, all the minor work I've done was to prevent future problems and to get a cleaner car with newer parts BUT, a couple days later some sounds coming from the engine and the oil check light that lit up once alerted me ! So we wanted to take a look inside the engine before it would be too late to prevent a future breakdown.
Unfortunately, we were too late, the view we came across sent shockwaves to my brain. The crank was terribly worn along with pistons,rods and many other internals. This meant one thing, engine rebuilt ! At this second, dolar bills started to flash in my eyes. as I knew those old M parts would cost an arm and a leg but, what you gonno do ? I decided to do everything properly with the best parts out there to take care of this problem once and for all !
Then we took the engine apart and started the damage control,
I even tried to change the car to a rear engine one but, that didn't work out either..
After we came up with a list of parts and ordered them at once !
After that, when the engine was taken out, we noticed rusting and peeling on various parts of the engine bay so we decided to paint the engine bay..
While waiting for the parts, I sent all the screws, bolts and various other little parts that came out of the engine to be galvanized. I find this process very usefull for any classic restoration as galvanized metal lasts much longer and brings back the freshness of the parts !
After three long months, my parts have finally arrived ; ( You all know how hard some parts are to find )
Using OEM parts is a very important thing for me but for the rods and pistons, I went with CR Forged parts not to experience anything like this again, EVER ! The rest of the parts were strictly OEM !
Bolts and screws came back from galvanization process...
Now that we had everything ready, my mechanic was ready to start his magic,
Block polished and exterior repainted to the factory colour !!
Brand new crank and rods mounted,
Pistons and some of the galvanized small parts mounted,
Every single bolt was galvanized even the ones under the block on the oil pan...
Gasket going in,
And after the repainted engine cover and plenum returns, our S14 is REBORN !!! Tried to bring it back to as factory new looking as possible.. Not a bad work, I presume...
Now it was time to put this beauty inside the car... (Camera phone quality, sorry ! )
Now that the hardest part was over, we took the car to the electrician to replace all the worn cables and fuses and etc...
Finally, we fixed this huge rust on the exhaust
and while at it, we painted the entire exhaust system flat black to keep a clean look...
After the exhaust was mounted back, my mechanic went through his final checks and delivered my Henna back to me after 6 LOOOONG months...
As soon as I got her back, I took her straight to my detailer friend to freshen her up since she was living in a dusty workshop for the last 6 months.. and here is what she looked like after the detailing...
And my proud and joy ;
Later on, before I take her out for a spin....
I wanted to share this rather flattering and exhausting process with you all, I hope you all liked it, thanks for reading...