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Clioless - E46 M3 Racecar



Greetings all,

like most of my builds I've done a build thread for so I thought it was about time to start one for my M3.

This was my second clio 182. I had the intention to race it in the tricolore series, but something else took my fancy..
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converting a 172 cup standard f4r engine to a f4rt out of a Megane 225.
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This was such a good car, gripper diff, 270bhp sub 900kgs, full multipoint cage, fiberglass doors and with me being as late on the brakes as you like it certainly went well. This lasted one trackday at Snetterton when a change in heart and basically me trying to focus on earning money rather than spending it saw me break it for parts, so 4 months on from me saying "no more projects" focus on a business idea etc etc...
here I am, stuck with an e46 m3 shell hehe
I decided to go for a shell as this project is not my usual build it in 3 months use it and sell it. I'm going to take my time with this one... he says... the normal would be to buy a road car and strip it back, sell parts etc - but I hate selling parts and hate having stuff lying around haha the only problem with this is... I've never worked on an m3 before nor do I have bucket load of spare bolts when its starts coming together... so its going to be a lot of trips down to the local hardware shop - should be reeet!
anyway IMGUR is currently overloaded so cannot post more photos, but will grab a load of photo of the shell and when I got her to where she is now... currently roofless ;) oh here we go...
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picking her up...
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getting her off the trailer the next morning... mission
first things first, shes a sunroof model... nevermind nothing that a good spotweld drill wont sort out...
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tadaaaaaaa
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Right on the inside... Looooooooom
MESS
slightly less mess
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The amount of loom that's in this thing! about 3 times the weight of a clio loom, no surprise there though really...
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So the plan is the run the s54 ecu standalone with a motorsport spec loom for engine bay, interior wise I will use a power distribution module and membrane switch panel to power the aux items, headlights, fans etc etc
Right sooo onto some more reducing weight..
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rear parcel shelf is currently being removed... but no photos unfortunately, what a b**ch of a job. takes the spot weld count up to about 100 though lol
Glass out, another **** job... wasa first for me..
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diff and rear running gear out
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yeah well sorry about this first update, little bit of a catch up! nexts psot will hopefully be more detailed etc...
Next plans, get it on a spit - UNDERSEAL! whooooop......



Just a quick update while I'm "in-between some jobs" at work...
The latest recent purchases... I wont be installing these at least until next year but I didn't want to buy them brand new and they don't come up that....
Annoyingly something I only noticed when I got them back home was one of the threads in the calliper bracket was pretty destroyed, looks like the bolt has been damaged and been forcefully removed, hey ho I'm just awaiting delivery on a m12x1.75 thread chaser to hopefully save it... but anyway, a new set of rotors are needed and I will be stripping them back and loading them with a new seal kit and itll be reeet!
The rears seam in good condition but will also get a refurb before use.
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Tonight I plan on getting the remaining sound deadening out, along with stripping the seam sealer back inside and removing the rest of the parcel shelf, and if I don't feel to much like death after that drop the fuel tank...
what I really hate is when tar is layered over seam sealer, that **** sticks!
P.S in the need of 2 x 18" m3 rear wheels (9j) preferable tyres can be budgets...


Last night was spent fannying around...
totally forgot the e92 needed a service so dropped the oil and filter and did that.
After that I started on the rear parcel shelf again, after nearly loosing the will to live with the hard to reach spot welds we finally started making progress...
first off remove seam sealer hiding spot welds...
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Then a bit of trimming to access welds better...
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and skip a couple of stages and we're at this stage...
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Going to have a quick look at removing the flat panel under the bottom of the rear windscreen, as I have already started drilling the spot welds out, but I'll have a more detailed look later on.
Anyway moving onto cage plans, just getting a couple of quotes from people, which seems to be around the 3k mark with t45...
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example above is what Id be looking for, above is priced at £1900 without fitting...

Yet another evening getting covered in melting seam sealer, all good fun isn't it...
not sure where the tar remover/thinners has gone, so gonna leave the patches of residue for another time...
anyway started removing the bulk of the sealer...
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turns out I'm really not very good at taking photos while getting work done...
Didn't manage to get all of it, as I thought id give the grinder a rest (will buy some ear defenders tomorrow, ears are ringing now)
next job was to remove the seat rails, what another **** job haha the passeneger side will be done tomorrow but ill attack that a different way and probably grind the spot welds out, as the floors so thin the drill just went through for fun! holes mean a lighter car though... ;)
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after that the rear axle needed splittle down to get the parts ready to get sandblasted...
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not bad for 200,000 miles haha... tried removing the wheel bearings with a 10tonne press, this is not man enough - so gonna get the welder out tomorrow and run a bead round the race, and with a bit of science hopefully they should come out a bit easier...
bearings them selves felt good, but no point putting old ones back in.
Gave the inside a quick hoover and that's it for tonight! cheers
 
Last night was spent removing the tar and some more seam sealer I missed, as-well as removing the small studs that I've spent the last week getting penetrated by...

much much cleaner inside, much nicer environment to work in now...

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and started smoothing back some of the spot welds that didn't go straight through...

The tank got dropped also, just now trying to understand what pipes are needed and what I'm missing etc etc I guess the thing underneath the boot floor is a carbon canister or something like that? also what's the reservoir in the rear right arch, believe its joined into the filler neck maybe some kinda overflow? didn't get a great look!

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Anyway nothing done today, as spent the day at Castle Combe as had some old Clio bits to drop off locally...

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Tomorrows plan is to dig a bit deeper with the seam sealer, and try and get every last bit out of the seams I will be welding, as any residue left on it can be the difference between a tidy weld or a ****e one! Then go over any bare metal with some weld through primer, the unit is pretty well ventilated and dry, but not sure how long it'll be before it gets caged/stiched and then painted, so better be safe...

thanks for reading :)

Sunday was a full day spent on the car, so got down to business putting it up on the spit. So originally the spit was designed for a Porsche so a jig was made to attached the m3 to the jig...

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not the prettiest of things but didn't have much 3mm steel in stock so had to do the best I could with what was available...

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Not bad for my forth time welding if I do say so myself :D

Right so now the jigs were made it was time to get the car up in the air...

up with the rear

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forgot a few photos.. but up with the front blah blah

and jobs a gooden

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unfortunately the middle of the unit needs to be kept accessible so I could mount the spit at the front on the outside meaning I was limited about 80 degrees rotation, but that's fine better than on my back!

Reddish motorsport plates holding up after 5 years...

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The shell is on 200,000 miles but is in great condition, so big thanks to again Russel at DMworx as its exactly as described there is a spec of rust where the rear passengers feet would go (underneath the grommet) but other than that so far so good!

the rear screen isn't laminated btw...

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Sunday was a full day spent on the car, so got down to business putting it up on the spit. So originally the spit was designed for a Porsche so a jig was made to attached the m3 to the jig...

JewRmbyh.jpg


not the prettiest of things but didn't have much 3mm steel in stock so had to do the best I could with what was available...

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Not bad for my forth time welding if I do say so myself :D

Right so now the jigs were made it was time to get the car up in the air...

up with the rear

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forgot a few photos.. but up with the front blah blah

and jobs a gooden

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unfortunately the middle of the unit needs to be kept accessible so I could mount the spit at the front on the outside meaning I was limited about 80 degrees rotation, but that's fine better than on my back!


The shell is on 200,000 miles but is in great condition, so big thanks to again Russel at DMworx as its exactly as described there is a spec of rust where the rear passengers feet would go (underneath the grommet) but other than that so far so good!

the rear screen isn't laminated btw...

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Nothing done on the m3 for the passed couple of evenings, got a mates clio 197 in the unti for a megane conversion, which has just been taking up space currently so thought Id get on with it.

first it need balljoints, and lower arm bushes doing...

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special tool was made to remove the lower ball joint, as they are a bitchh

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Sorting out some heat shielding for turboooo

and then put the engine in,

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its not fully in currently as I was really struggling to get the engine mounts to sit properly and trying to find thread on the chassis was very tricky, so gave up for that evening... but there we are

On other news bought some gloves, pretty pimp if I do say so haha

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and just a random shot of the Mrs daily...

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So there I was having the time of my life stripping the underseal and seam sealer off, moved onto the arches and yep low and behold we have a rusty e46 shock!

the amount of time it takes to strip this **** off is mind boggling...
may have to look into some anti vibration gloves as my phone felt like it had the vibration constantly on afterwards, and I don't think that's to good... :p

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so yeah I really hate rust and have never done anything like this before so here goes...

started wire wheeling it all down to uncover the extent of it. Luckily it had only reached the inner arch and the outer arch was untouched.

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so yeah decided to chop the spot welds out considering the arch will be rolled anyway afterwards it'll give a bit extra clearance..

out came the cutting disc!

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Then there was removing the bit that was still left inside the lip, although harder to remove there no point leaving that **** in there, so one small dent that showed up on the outside of the arch later (oops)

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Right so that's hopefully all cut out now, it was dressed back

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and some weld through primer was added afterwards...
 
The underseal is certainly putting up a fight and the thought in the back of my mind "why didn't I just get the shell dipped" repeats.

The arches are so far turning out to be the worst, the underseal comes of quite nicely whereas the seam sealer just takes forever, bmw sure know how to layer the stuff on!

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Arch complete, moving on to boot floor etc...

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Reddish motorsport have been here before me ;)

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And then to finish the day off, pick out all the strands of wire that have been flung from the grinder...

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Certainly a pain in the arse to do, but I cant wait to get it all primed and painted. I need to buy some por-15 metal prep to go over the rust areas and then tackle that, will probably wait till its all striped first so then I can give the underside a wipe down, otherwise I will just be creating more mess

And because obviously being this close to completion on the proj this is a must.......

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Could not resist its billet loveliness :)

haha thanks Graham, no its bladdy awful but at the same time good to see the progression.

Any way.. onwards was a bit unsure how long I'm gonna leave the metal bare so just sprayed some weld through primer over to keep the surface rust at bay...

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Got pretty much one side complete today, top needs a little work as its a bit patchy so needs another run over... but we're certainly getting there! big thanks to Ben and Paul (couple of mates who I share the unit with) who put in the shift on the angle grinder..

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Whilst they were doing that I spent half the day sorting out callipers -

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Well that's one side of the underseal removed....

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Flip her over, and now onto the other side

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Lets start with the arches shall we... pried the lip back as they're going to be rolled anyway so I could view it better... and yeah we got rust, but not as bad as the other side that's for sure... we might even get away without cutting it out.. but I'm not sure yet...

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Been a few weeks since I've updated last but other things have got in the way... holiday/work etc etc

So had a push last night on got on with a few bits...

the underside is pretty much stripped now, just awaiting delivery of some tulip head wire brush's so I can get in the gaps/crevasses. I have also started the process of stich welding the shell...

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looks quite dull due to the zinc residue...

in addition to this ive also started trying to patch the inner rear arch, I bought some replacement outer arches and with a bit of fettling they have seem to go in quite nicely

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still not welded in yet, but still playing with settings first as new welder and all and have very little experience welding body panels thickness...

but yeah quite happy that they kinda fit, well much better than me making patches to fit anyway.

Its seam welding time! Bit of a learning curve, especially with a new welder and very little experience on panel thickness metal, but its not looking to bad at all!

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Been struggling quite a bit to find the sweet spot between blowing holes and finding the right penetration... giggedy

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Not all of the welds look like that, unfortunately I spent a lot of time practicing on just 0.9mm sheet but not a lot of actually body panel which was totally different, nothing that a grinder can sort though ey..

and one from the weekend at Silvetone BritishGT,

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lol

Anyway, over half way there now with the seam welding, next job is to finish that off, cut the boot floor out then give the car a light dusting of etch primer before it can be raptured!

never ending these e46 seems.....

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no problems with penetration... well in some parts I did tbf haha

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Hopefully have all the underside seems done tonight, think its just the arches to go, and probably a few bits I've missed in the boot floor.

Speaking of boot floor, I'm yet to cut that out anyway, some more photos tonight I'm sure in the sweat box! :(

Anyway, that's my catch up till now, just posting it on here to see if theres any interest :)
 
Thanks guys!

I already cant wait to drive the thing, but that's next year easily (budget)

I've actually never taken apart an e46 m3 before let alone driven one, so kinda in the deep end with this one, but end of the day cars a car...

Plans are to build it to be competitive in the BMW kumho challenge/cscc new millennium which both work on a bhp/tonne - the engine will be standard for the first year so I can learn the car etc and hopefully budget dependant for the build a few longer 2 hour plus duration races as I like the idea of getting a team together to partake.

Target weight is sub 1150kg which is very light for one of these, but that's the goal, and its reasonable as its been done before :)
 
bit of a sweat box tonight! I say bit, must of lost weight lol
Finished the underneath seam welding tonight, wasn't to happy with quite a lot of the appearance of the welds but going to put that down to seam sealer between panels and experience...
last arch that was needed doing...
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this with the main chassis rail on one side meant job done...
Next job was to work on the engine bay, since the car will run full motorsport loom the original fuse box area and metal work wasn't needed and will make a handy space for a catch tank or similar...
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anddd she's gone...
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unfortunately didn't take many other photos as just wanted to get job done and outa there, but that's kinda the progress for this week.
I'm at Thurxton tomorrow, then have gotta prep a mates 205gti Friday for Castle Combe on Saturday - if anyones doing that on here?
more progress ont weekend!
 
Time to flip the shell over again to work on the other side of the engine bay, to remove all the panels that hide the servo.
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Some pretty poor photos, but hey you get the idea...
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Loads of room for activities in there now! few small bits to cut of still, as I left them as you have to get creative with the drill and angle grinder to reach them...
Tonights job,
- finish of the engine bay spot welds, clean it up, stich weld it, light dusting of etch primer
- Finish interior spot welds """"""""""" light dusting of etch primer
- Start making some patches for all the small original holes and holes I've made, plus all bulkhead holes that aren't going to be used.
Cheers all
 
Another good amount of progress on the shell last night:
Finished removing all the spot welds for the panels that cover brake servo/relays/fuses etc
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Quite hard to get good photos at this angle lol tilt your head...
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Now on with the fun bit! remaining seams to be welded...
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Throughout the build I've been making a lot of holes with the spot weld drill bit (mostly by accident) so it was about time I started filling them in..
Holes filled with the use of a copper hammer behind the panel
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halfway through grinding them down
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oooo rrrr
Light coat of etch, looking much tidier now!
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Certainly starting to see some real progress which is nice! anyone who's undertaken this kinda project will know there's just a lot of work and no real sign of progress...
Stupidly excited to get the cage in now!!!!!
Anyway, jobs for tonight:
-Finish off engine bay..
-Start fine cleaning out the seams in the cabin
-Weld seams
-Fill holes inside cabin, make metal patches for where rubber grommet holes were.
-Sleep
 
More updates on the scrapper tonight...
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First job - Weld holes I made
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Simple case of filling them in and grinding them down, pretty time consuming especially when you canney get grinder in flat on the welds..
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Didn't actually get any photos of them ground down, but just imagine shiny metal, few bumps..
anyway other side to do, not so many holes
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Moving on, try not to bore you to much -
So made a few bigger holes also when removing the seat brackets the floor is so thin, as I pulled up the bracket to remove it one spot weld was still half attached and peeled it up like an orange peel...
hence this hole...
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Template made
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Cut to shape, ishhh
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weld her in, not the prettiest but itll be ground down!
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Send it!!!
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Not sure why I kept it shape it was, but hey
Moving on - waiting for my new holesaw set to arrive to patch grommet holes (well to cut metal to patch the grommets)
More seam welding!!
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Pretty damn happy with these seams, trying my best to remove seam sealer to get prettier welds for the inside, I'm not tooo fussy about it but its good to know I'm getting the hand with these welder settings/panel thickness etc
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Stop ittttt
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So that's one front side, and I cant wait to get back there tomorrow night to finish the other side off... suppose I better fit seeing the mrs in aswell! lol
Anyway big question on my mind right now is: LEFT or RIGHT hand drive.
I know what will corner weight better (L) and whats better for a clockwise circuit (L) but I also know I've only driven Lhd H pattern in a hire car, so am not that comfortable with it...
 
A power file is the ideal tool for grinding down welds in tight spaces. It's also handy when you can;t get at a full spot weld although it's a bit late for that now.
I barely use my grinder for grinding anymore
Yep I have heard that before, gotta fix the units compressor then hopefully will be able to run some air tools! Nah still got plenty of time to grind stuff downbefore any paint goes on it, but yeah your right about spot welds most of them are done now

Thanks!

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
 
  330i
This is a great project, looking forward to watching it develop. I'm a BMW lover myself and have an E30 project on the slow burn (well at a stand still!). Great car to start with. Are you upgrading suspension geo etc, at all?
 
This is a great project, looking forward to watching it develop. I'm a BMW lover myself and have an E30 project on the slow burn (well at a stand still!). Great car to start with. Are you upgrading suspension geo etc, at all?
I need to check regs but I will make some spacers and uniballs up on a lathe to correct roll centre, and similar for bump steer to fit into the standard lower arms... or I may even make some tubular lower arms but thats a bit fancy! Haha

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
 
  330i
Nice! I started trying to replicate the DTM rear set-up for mine. Ended up with a hybrid of DTM and Group A. Now after reading the Race and Rally car source book, really starting to think again an look at going for a spaceframe design. Need to finish the house build... and then the workshop :confused: then i'll be able to crack on!
 
The weekend is here! and gone...
and so is my boot floor!
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The space will now be taken up by an ATL 60 litre tank... which brings the total fuel capacity up to 120 litre... you can kinda see where I'm going with this... along with a set of air jacks.. it will a sick track car... nah Endurance car, I really like the format of the Club endure and hopefully with a bit of funding that's where I want to see the car!
But moving on I need to build it first!
Few more brackets/spot welds removed, not sure what this does but pretty sure it houses the dash bar or something (have to bare in mind, ive never taken one of these aparts)
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Been putting off removing the seam sealer in this area as it looked like a right c**t to do!
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but we got there with a bit of blow torching and scraping
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Seams, seams, and more seams Cool filter for viewing pleasure
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Patching grommet holes
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Who let the pigeons in ;)
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Getting better
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Anyway, hopefully get some more progress in in the first half of the week, then I'll be off to Zandervort! which I'm mucho excited about!
Wooop, as always thanks for Reading - If your bored and on your phone give me a follow on insta!
@mathewashmore
@MTAmotorsport
 
Another week gone, not much progress on my own car this week as other s**t gets in the way of course...
Wasn't happy with the thickness of metal I used on the repair, so I re did it...
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Started with filling the other grommet holes, as you can see this hole doesn't really resemble any type of grommet anymore, rust has got at it, so removed as much of the shite metal and start work on a patch...
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Not to complex of a shape to make but first try on getting something remotely aesthetically pleasing so was happy with that...
Tack
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Forgot to take a load of photos, as you do when you've got gloves on half the time doing s**t
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But yeah few more holes to fill in under the rear passenger bench and then a few more welds to grind down and we're nearly about ready...
Next job was moved onto sorting out the winch I bought for my BJ agggeeeessss ago
So start with something like thisss
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add a bracket to hold the winch to the frame
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Annddd space it up a bit as you've under-estimated how low it would sit and were good
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Sort out electrics... Since I tow with a BMW and the battery is in the boot I have 2 Anderson plugs on order one for the trailer end so I can use an external battery just incase someone else uses it... and one that will live in the boot of the bimmer, so it will be a simple plug and play...
And just about the last job of the day
Meet Ben's 205 gti, we seized the engine up last month at castle combe due to oil surge (pretty common) so we set about sorting that out..
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Nice car to work on tbh, eveyrthings nice and easy to get to, loads of space, apart from some odd sized driveshaft nuts we got there in the end...
actually nice is an overstatement, it was built for rally although never used and the underneath looks like it has just come off a stage! I don't like working on dirty cars!

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Engine out, lets hope the replacement engine I got for cost is a 1.9... as I forgot to ask lol...
 
Yeah sorry guys, has been ages - other cars have literally taken over! I don't think I have touched the m3 since the last update!

So the engine turns out to be a 1.6 balllsssss + my trusty angle grinder has broken!

We got the pug engine stripped down, bearing didn't want to be bearing any more!

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So if anyone has a spare gti 1.9 rods and crank, let me know!

but yeah haven't even planned to get on with anything with m3 yet, got a meg engine 197 to finish off! as its pissing me off being sat around!
 
Afternoon all

First of all, looked what arrived!!! hmmm
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anyway... finally a bit more work done on the shell... Although nothing fancy
Started removing some of the standard pedal brackets
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Following this, had more fun filling in holes in the floor and bulkhead...
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Unfortunately this shell was on 200,000 miles so its certainly seen its far share of **** off the road, and on the surface its very clean but there's a few area of rust, especially around grommet holes etc, which is quite annoying especially as there patches in most place... but hey something that paint can cover, and I'm probably being quite pedantic especially as its a bare as can be so can see everything, with paint and seats etc in you wont see it much of it
After that had to change the slave cylinder in a mates meg'd 197 (still not finish) getting there....
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external slave cylinders are the future lol
Tracking bars proto is getting there... bit of a copy of the b&g designs but allows extra variation on angles of the bars and cheaper...
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We've had a good few days on the M3 again, and everything went to plan!
So firstly, I've been waiting to sort the rear arches out for a while now, you may remember the inner arch had been attacked by rust pretty badly so I chopped it out, and that left me with a problem of either patching together some panel, or buying new from bmw... I found an alternative, on ebay they sell readily e46 rear outer arches, which with a bit of fettling (of course) fit quite nicely into the arch...
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These were then promptly cut up to something like this...
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Finalizing fitment
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really takes time this, checking fit, removing, trimming a little bit but being worried that one wrong cut is a new panel... (been there)
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and hey we are all welded in... the access for welding in the inner seam is truly awful! yep this comes down to me not removing the rusty inner arch properly in the firstly place so it is self-inflicted (I chopped it out along with part of the flat surface of the outer arch... rather than drilling the spot welds out, stupid mistake... I know) but hey the arches will be rolled anyway, so it will tuck the uneven flat lip up and no one will be any of the wiser... apart from everyone reading this that it...
and a little spray of etch primer...
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not a bad job if I do say so myself!
Welding made a bit of a mess with the paint like...
nothing a grinder couldn't sort..
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Few jobs that have been bugging me ticked off... engine bay bits I don't need.
Spot weld drill bit out again...
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Moving on - more holes
With the intention of making this racer as light as possible I was looking at more things to cut out... Then the lump of steel sticking out like a sore thumb took my eye...
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That quickly turned to this...
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Which then got me thinking, s**t how am I going to fill it...
Completely by chance I took a step back and stood on the box that I had just cut off and it flipped up and clipped my ankle, sparking the idea that I needed to sit down and have a biscuit.

ill shut door on the way out.. cheesy
After a bit of thinking I decided that I would reuse the old bottom half of the box I cut out...
got it on the bench...
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removed whatever this is...
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marked out how much I wanted to cut...
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and voila...
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test fit...
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nah not happy with that, so decided to remove another 10mm out of that...
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Aswell as neating up the chassis side...
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Ey up much better!!
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Many clamps later...
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We got a couple of tacks in
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Looking good, so out with the welder... continued battle with finding the sweet spot welding this thickness steel... getting there
Job jobbed
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Happy with that!! and a coat of etch to finish!
Oh sheeeet, what monstrocity lies on the other side?
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oh
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Not bad at all! sorry bad quality photos at the end, but yeah few taps of the hammer an we got the inside flange sitting right up right against the outer... so I think ill get away without welding the top.. especially as theres going to be no dirt or water getting through from that side.
And to end, a comparison at what it looks like now without the battery tray!
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Happy days, as always thanks for reading through
 
Ey up all
Not much is been happening recently as I've been on the mad unit hunt, so far been nearly arrested for trespassing, nearly had dogs set on me and been locked in by 2 electric gates... Unfortunately looking online for the commercial type units was no good, so ended up google earthing it, and going round knocking on farm yard doors etc...
Well it worked... say hello to the new unit!
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Hopefully the lease will be signed this week, and we'll be looking to move in early September! Cant wait, its an ideal location.
Plans for the unit are to put down a light grey epoxy resin, ramp, mezzanine floor, hydrovane, lathe and just make it into a awesome little toybox.
We've got the current unit till the end of September so got a little time to get the shell a roller, so made a start on that last night!
Picked up some cheap genuine 19" wheels
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trickle bought all the lower arms and stuff about 5 months ago and packed them away, no idea how I managed to find all the bolts for them!
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Diff cradle and lower arms and all that jaz bolted on!
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Steering rack bolted up along with column and the uj's
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Just waiting for a mate to upgrade him to some Intrax I've supplied him, and he's gonna give me his old coilovers to get me rolling!
More updates to follow in a couple of days I'm sure.
 
  330i. E30 Touring.
BTW, in all the spare time you probably have, wanna do a bit of welding on my E30? xx
 


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