ChrisO

That Concours calendar is pretty neat! I need to check out Gibson's myself, always hear about the good deals up there.

Keeping it is a good idea

"de-stance"
i like you. 

I play the angles and keep my distance when taking pics of the car 
I'm on spring break so I have about a week here to do a few things with the car while I'm home from school. Today I pulled the car out of storage, took the Rays Gram Lights and adapters off and drove to Milwaukee to deliver them to the buyer as well as pick up something pretty rare for the M3... Although the exterior of the car always bummed me out, it actually has a very nice complete black interior. Nothing is broken, door panel are all intact and not falling apart, 99 steering wheel etc. The opportunity came up to buy a pair of seats from a LTW M3 for $500! The guy I bought the seats from (Might be on here?) built a track car out of a LTW that had wrecked at Road America a long time ago. He's had the seats for 15 years in his basement, and I don't think I'll ever come across another set not attached to a LTW for sale. I'm pretty excited, and tomorrow I'm going to take a trip to the junk yard to pick up some door sill trim and take my vaders out/ throw the new seats in!

I need seats like those

Come along with me on this journey as I de-stance my very rough M3 and make it functional
With the help of you guys, I decided not to part out my M3 and continue to enjoy it until i'm out of school.
I've owned the car since I was 16 (5 years) and should have a build thread that is like 30 pages long. Better late then never, I don't wanna make a huge list of everything I've done (nothing crazy) so i'll start from where I'm at.
The car looked absolutely horrible when I first got it in 2013. Broken front bumper, missing front lip, blacked out corner lights and tail lights, pink wheels, purple peeling window tint, fake carbon fiber eBay emblems
Here is a few pics from the early years after undoing everything the previous owner did

 

I play the angles and keep my distance when taking pics of the car 
I'm on spring break so I have about a week here to do a few things with the car while I'm home from school. Today I pulled the car out of storage, took the Rays Gram Lights and adapters off and drove to Milwaukee to deliver them to the buyer as well as pick up something pretty rare for the M3... Although the exterior of the car always bummed me out, it actually has a very nice complete black interior. Nothing is broken, door panel are all intact and not falling apart, 99 steering wheel etc. The opportunity came up to buy a pair of seats from a LTW M3 for $500! The guy I bought the seats from (Might be on here?) built a track car out of a LTW that had wrecked at Road America a long time ago. He's had the seats for 15 years in his basement, and I don't think I'll ever come across another set not attached to a LTW for sale. I'm pretty excited, and tomorrow I'm going to take a trip to the junk yard to pick up some door sill trim and take my vaders out/ throw the new seats in!

Skip to the last year, the car sat in a garage for 8 months, I put my entire interior back in the car, I replaced a broken clutch master cylinder and return spring (the clutch return spring was the worst thing I've ever done on my car), I cut my rear arches, threw on Hard Motorsports flares and finally painted all of the primer spots on my car. My paint work doesn't look that great, but it's better then rust and I plan on vinyl wrapping the car so it looks like I have nice paint anyways.
Now I'm kinda caught up with the build thread...

Thanks for all the input guys, I have a year of school left after this year and you guys convinced me to continue to enjoy the car for now! I store it in the winter so at least it's not getting much worse. After I graduate I'll look for a clean shell or move on to another car 

Thanks for all the input guys, I have a year of school left after this year and you guys convinced me to continue to enjoy the car for now! I store it in the winter so at least it's not getting much worse. After I graduate I'll look for a clean shell or move on to another car 

I would love a slick top 4 door but I remember seeing the shell on craigslist in Chicago and I'm pretty sure it has body rust/ holes in the rockers and footwell areas. (If I'm wrong about that I'm sorry wasntm3)
17x9 +22 Rays Gram Lights with 15mm Ichiba 5x120-114.3 adapters, definitely a stretch making them fit even with the Hard Motorsports flares. If I part out I'll message you first before I post them up 
I wouldn't consider the repaired rusted out sections like a driving danger, but If I put a jack to it I'm sure it would bend/not be safe. I'd love to find a coupe shell but the timing is just never right. I'm in a tough position being in college where I'd only have the space for 2 cars from July to August, and I also have never seen a rust free coupe shell in Wisconsin with a clean title. My dad sold his truck with a hitch, and I have no trailer also. I think you are right about the part out. I really feel like I'd be ripping people off trying to get $3500-4000 for the car (without the $1300 wheels), and also wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing some kid just put a jack stand on the jack pad I reconstructed with my welds. If I was completely honest saying that this car isn't structurally all safe I doubt anyone would want it for more then $2800

Currently parting one right now. I'm selling stuff cheap and it's going slow. People want parts but I feel like the majority of these people have less than $5 to their name. 

You could fly Southwest...all jokes aside, you could make $3500-$4000 fairly easily but it all depends on the demand at the time you part it. Some days you could sell a nice Vader interior for $700+. Other times it will just sit for months and collect dust until you basically give it away. The engine would be considered "high mileage" to some (most of my cars usually have 200k when I buy them lol) and anyone interested would probably want it cheaper since they would plan on rebuilding it or doing a full build on it. Also, what is all done suspension wise? If it has nice coilovers and the bushings were done, those could be sold straight to someone so they can just swap it into their car without having to fiddle with pulling their old bushings. It would also be a good upgrade for a non M car. The rear diff seem to be going in to $350-$500 range lately depending on the ratio as well. It all depends on how long you want to sit on parts and how far you want to get into stripping the car down. 

When I do I'll be taking a flight west or south.

I hope you plan on getting another one!

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Hey guys, I'm thinking that after 5 years of owning a E36 M3 thats full of body filler and has patched sheet metal all over I might want to move on. The shell is done for and will never not have rust somewhere. The rear jack points in the rockers had rusted through, and although I cut out the rust and welded 16 gauge plate in, I wouldn't trust my welds supporting the weight of the car. I feel like it wouldn't be safe to sell the car to someone else nor would I get much with the shell having 100 rust hole patches on the floor pan and rockers.
Those of you that have parted out E36 M3's, how fast did you move all the parts and what kinda money did you make? I'm assuming it wouldn't be too hard to hit selling like $2000 worth of parts in the first month or so including the motor and trans, but I'd like some input. The car is a '97 coupe, 5 speed with 220k miles. It has a few aftermarket goodies and a nice complete black interior with heated vaders, the s52 runs smooth and has 170+ compression in all cylinders. Really nothing is wrong with the car other then the fact that the body is rusting into the ground. Tons of stuff has been replaced.
I'm just trying to figure out if I want to keep driving it or if it's worth it to part it out (worth it to me is making like $3500-4000). I don't really have a feel for what the demand of parts is like. I don't wanna just sell the seats, diff and motor then have the rest sit for a year  I've seen a few of you guys parting out E36 M3's in the last few months
Posting this makes me wanna cry after 5 years and 25k miles, but I can't stand the rust.