BMW E46 M3 Restoration

A special one to us here at Autoprofile Ltd as this was our first 'project' we restored for ourselves. We were looking to source something that we could take on as a full restoration, to bring a modern classic back to life with a breath of fresh air, and after toying with a few other ideas we landed on the iconic BMW E46 M3.

The E46 M3 just has a certain presence, a certain swagger that is missing from the modern day BMW's... with its wide stance, big bulging arches, and the loud bark screaming out of the exhaust from this 3.2L straight six... the E46 M3 just let everyone know it was an "M" car, clearly setting itself apart from standard variants.

We shopped around for some time to find a good spec car, in need of some TLC, but with wonderful potential. Eventually we stumbled upon this cabriolet version on the borders of Scotland which pretty much ticked all of our boxes! It came with extensive history and just needed some love to bring it up to scratch.. so this is where our journey begins.

THE CHASSIS

The first task for this vehicle was to remove the complete rear axle and subframe from the car to add in strengthening plates – unfortunately these vehicles suffer with the chassis splitting… and although our one was in good condition we were taking no chances! We have have welded in upgraded chassis strengthening plates and braces, sealed it all, and re-coated everything in protective underseal. We have future proofed this vehicle further by tackling another common problem with these E46’s – Arch rot. Water and dirt collects in the lip of the wheel arches on both the front and rear, eventually leading to them rotting from the inside out, so we have gone through, dug them out, and used this same method of treatment to seal and protect them.

THE MECHANICAL

Whilst we had the rear axle, subframe and exhaust removed we could see that the car would benefit from a little mechanical refresh whilst we had such good access. So the bushes have been upgraded to polybushes or replaced with genuine BMW parts, the prop-shaft bungs replaced, and the braking system has had a complete overhaul - with new discs, pads, handbrake shoes and hardware, backing plates, and a full rebuild of the calipers. We then refinished the calipers in the factory silver, painted the hubs in gloss black, and had the iconic alloy wheels refurbed in the original diamondcut face with grey inserts.

THE BODYWORK

Once the underside and mechanical was all in order we then moved our attention on to the exterior bodywork. First things first we completely stripped all of the bolt-on panels and exterior trim before taking care of all of the necessary repairs. The car was actually in fairly good condition however we wanted to take it that step further and make it perfection! We have bodyworked every panel and every trim, we even sourced a hard top roof which when it arrived needed extensive repairs and now looks fantastic.

PREP AND PAINT

Once the bodywork had been completed we were then ready to lay down some lovely coats of high-build primer. The high build primer then gives us plenty of material to work with to block the panels down & fine tune everything to get it ready to roll into the spray booth. We have then completed a full respray on this M3 in its original colour – Carbon Black, which is a metallic black which has a blue flick to it in the light.

THE INTERIOR

We didn’t stop at the exterior refurbishment… we also took it a step further by removing the interior and refinishing the trim in gloss black, refinished all the plastics, had the steering wheel restitched, and even had the headlining re-trimmed! We had the leather seat bolsters replaced and actually re-colour sprayed the seats rectifying any previous signs of wear.

THE FINISH

Once again this been over with our friends at Unique Detail, based in Toddington, for full machine polishing, enhancement and ceramic coating to protect our hard work and take the finish to the next level!