Full conversion M3 e91 LCI manual S65 build: BlueM3Wagon

I'm going to be piecing together a build thread for the e91 M3 conversion that was just completed. Any questions feel free to ask. Note: I did not do the work myself. This was done by the incredible mad1stgen so any really technical questions he might field, unless he deems them trade secrets

Backstory:

My wife and I were expecting twins in February of 2017, we got an suv for the family car and I was looking for something fun, yet practical for my car. I sure as shit wasn't doing a van so started looking at wagons. I've always had an eye on the e91. I think the e91 has the most incredible lines of any wagon currently out there.

I had hunted for a manual M sport for about 6 months. Anyone who's been in this boat knows it's extremely frustrating, as there in short supply and high demand. I stumbled above an ad for a Deep Sea Blue 2012 with 31k miles. Had every option besides adaptive cruise and front PDC. It wasn't an M sport and an automatic but literally half the cost of anything else I was seeing out there. I started crunching numbers and it would be far less to convert the car to M Sport than try and actually find one in the specs I wanted. I had a PPI done and the car was in great shape. Garage kept it's entire life, second owner. Seller accepted my offer Ans the shop who did the PPI agreed to start the M sport conversion for me before I flew out to pick the car up.

This was the car pre purchase and then after first round of upgrades

Awesome!!! Looking forward to the build details

I muddled around with the M Sport conversion for the better part of a year but it wasn't enough, I needed more especially in the power department. I had seen a few conversions done around the forum, most notably NYBulldog and 63np. I couldn't shake the thought of converting the car into a full fledge M3, so I reached out, made my list and planned accordingly. My initial thought was to get an e90 M3 donor in the full spec sheet I wanted for all the parts I needed. After a year of searching, deals falling though and shady people I knew that was going to be virtually impossible. So my plan was to convert as much as I could interior and exterior while keeping an eye open for a good drivetrain/driveline donor. After about a year I was 90% converted interior and 75% exterior. Next I'll run down the interior list of items followed by the exterior list of items.

Interior:

Interior is super easy to plug n play on your own, many deals can be had if your patient, observant and timely.

M parts for interior are as followed

Front seats - Direct PnP swap

Rear seats
Bottom seat direct PnP
Rear upper seat needs to be reskinned with M3 Novillo leather on the frame of the e91. The latch mechanism is in a different spot. Leather needs cut here. The side bolster are shorter in the e91. Both of these cuts have coverings on them. I had an upholstery shop do everything for 200.

Door cards - PnP. I did have to switch the rear shades from the e91 to e90 cards.

Steering wheel - PnP but without the proper wiring harness the M button is radio source.

Arm rest - PnP

Door sills

Dead pedal is the same as M sport

ABCD pillars - AB are e90 M3, CD are M Sport e91 pillars.

Center console trim - PnP but needs manual shifter or DCT shifter modified to work with steptronics shifter. A lot of work for a short term need lol

headliner was reupholstered at the same shop who did my rear seat. Cost was 80 only providing the headliner out of the vehicle. Sunshades come out from the top after removing moonroof glass.

Headliner Hardware e60 M5 hardware has all the brackets for the e91 besides rear cargo roof covers.

Sunvisors - PnP

Odometer - can work with N52 if coded and virginized. I swapped out the manual cluster with my donor we can discuss later.

Black moon roof unit had to be e84 as it shares same pano moon roof and alarm module that's located I side the unit

Black tailgate trim and rear boot trim sourced e91 M sport bits from Europe.

Exterior:

This is where the real fun begins. Let's talk through what is needed to change the exterior over.

Pretty much the only thing that directly bolts up is the hood and side mirrors. Front clip has to be changed over including

Headlights
Rebar
Core support
Fenders

There are dozens of brackets that need to be changed.

In the charts below you can see the following charts. These are the body brackets you need to weld in.

Body side frame: 11, 12, 13
Front body bracket left and right: 22
Front side panel mounting parts: 9,16

All other bracket and bolts ment to secure rad support, core support, rebar, fender, Headlights, horn bracket for low and HI, all need to be used as well.

Windshield washer reservoir. Note that mine had three pumps, headlight washer, windshield and rear window. If you change that to e90 M3, you'll need a custom solution to plumb and wire for these all to work.

Side skirts, these are well don't match up. I found that Jeep body panel retainers secure to the side skirts and fit in the body holes to secure them to the chassis. Then the normal push retainers can be used form the bottom.

The windshield side trim is different on the M3, I used body paint matched ones.

Fender lines will fit right up to front bumper.

The rear is going to be a whole bother post in this thread

God i want this thing so bad. So. BAD.
Im extremely curious of the cost to do this. My wife and i are going to be trying for kids soon, and i cant think of a better way to bring a child into this world, than through a v8 wagon.

Donor car:

2008 e92 Manual

I had been actively looking for donor for over a year. Right when I was about to completely give up, this one popped up 3 miles from my house on copart. No mileage and listed as non running. I pulled immaculate service records and Carfax and see single owner, last logged 76k miles about 7 months prior. One accident that didn't seem so bad. Front passenger side was damaged, nothing major but body was twisted up in the roofline. I think because it was listed as non running, I got the steal I did. Turned out blown BST cable, all fluids, belts intact and fired right up with 78k miles showing. What luck!

I just did the same thing to an E82. Lovely project! Contemplated an E91 until I settled on a 1M Conversion.

Donor tear down

SOOO FRIGGIN EPIC! Can't wait to do a video on this!

Wagon tear down

Wagon tear down front and rear sub frames

M subframe fitting

More M fitting

New valve cover and gaskets

New M4 brakes powder coated Phoenix Yellow to match Valve covers (//M stickers added later)

what an amazing build !

Beautiful build. Thank you for documenting it!

I want your car to touch me in places my mommy told me not to.

First fire up and test drive, no CELs tracked perfectly straight and no issues.

Car is currently getting rear quarters, bumper and paint! Will post more with those updates as I get them

Tut4u2 wrote

I just did the same thing to an E82. Lovely project! Contemplated an E91 until I settled on a 1M Conversion.

Those are amazing! Here's a side by side you'll love!