UPDATE #64: Did Your Car Live In The Ocean?
Hey everyone and welcome back to my journal!
For once, I’m actually
scared to share with you all this update…trust me on that.
This is not your typical update, as its taken place since
March 07, 2008 when the vehicle was made. I’ve been trying to address this update's matter since October 2019, when the car went to
Total Motor Werkes for the full restoration and transformation.
The Dentist Who Forgot To Give Sky A Cleaning
This car was formerly owned by a dentist who lived in Newmarket (a suburb outside of Toronto). Every Canadian winter, the car was thoroughly enjoyed. I even winter drove this car in 2018 and what a blast these cars are to drive in the snow, especially with good winter tires. The only challenge with winter driving here in most parts of Canada is that lots of salt and salt brine are used on the roads, which really eats away at cars. So as much as I’m happy the previous owner enjoyed the car, I really wish I bought a better condition one, because the underside of this car on certain components is
BAD…like
REALLY BAD!
I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves:
A Costly Seven Letter Word
RESTORE…the seven letter word that at times brings me so much joy, but haunts me knowing I’ve spent
A LOT of money on this car. See, I wish I was born a few years earlier so I could’ve bought the E9X M3 brand new; but then again, the restoration journey to greatness is arguably almost as much fun.
The rear subframe is an easy candidate for rust, as it’s made of steel. On the contrary, the front subframe is made of aluminum (and would just oxidize). I decided to buy both the Front and Rear Subframes new from BMW, and give them a little
extra love.
The OEM rear subframe is painted black from the factory, and of course had several imperfections, namely the overspray bubbling that dried and left the finish bumpy. Since we’re going for perfection, I wanted
Usic@Total Motor Werkes to sand and smooth out all the imperfections, and then send it to
Mike@Brightside Coatings to get powder-coated in silver with a blue flake given the uniqueness of Silverstone’s silver but blue appearance in certain lighting.
Enjoy the photos:
We noticed also that the
MK-RennsportTechnik Bushings would not fit inside the subframe after being powder-coated, as it was too thick in the bushing areas. Usic had to clean the inside of the bushing retainers so that the bushings would press in. Usic mentioned that the smaller bushings for the rear arms are of extreme tolerance, so if he tried to press them in, it would split the paint. He decided it’d be best to freeze the bushings overnight, and then press them in the following morning. That worked perfectly and everything is nestled into the rear subframe.
Enjoy the pictures of the MK-RennsportTechnik Bushings pressed into the Rear Subframe:
Finally, I wanted Usic to test fit a few of my parts. We started off test-fitting the
KMP Drivetrain Axles to the
Driftflo Drexler GT Race Light Differential. I was a bit nervous, because you never know if parts from two different manufacturers will fit perfectly.
You may also recall the note I shared on Post 124 (
Click Here For The Post of The KMP Drivetrain Axles ) from when I first bought the KMP Drivetrain Axles from
Pascal@KMP:
“Our axles have 6xM10 bolts on a 94mm bolt circle. The E92 originally has 6xM12 on a 102 circle.
You need to use E46 flanges with the differential from Florian. We did this to make it lighter.”
I made sure Florian (M3Post Member: “
driftflo”
driftflo) knew of this and built the Rear Diff to have E46 M3 Side Flanges. Thankfully, when Usic performed the test-fit, everything buttoned up as expected!
The last part to test fit was the
VAC Motorsports Billet Differential Cover and my restored
DEFIV Titanium Rear Differential Brace. We anticipated these to not fit together, and that’s exactly what happened. The VAC Diff Cover is too big to accommodate the DEFIV Brace, so Usic will need to mark the areas to be cut at the bottom of the titanium diff brace, and then
Matt@FusionMotorFab (formerly GT Customs) will shorten and weld it back together.
Concluding Thoughts
Hope you all enjoyed this update! Lots more progress is happening with Project Sky, and I’m excited for you all to accompany me on this long journey.
Stay tuned for next update where the build gets
rotated.
