Das Race: My '97 M3/4/5

[Jake]

Humpty Dumpty is back together again!

She's back on the ground, finally. Figured I'd do a quick synopsis of how the rebuild went. I'm happy with the results, given I had three weeks to get it done before heading to Road Atlanta this Friday.

The door and hood that I got from the junkyard were white, although the door had started life as black. I had ordered Cosmos Black in spray cans but had to clean up the door first. Started taking the trim and mirror off of the door and realized the white paint was of poor quality and easily chipping off. So, headed to Home Depot and got some aerosol paint stripper and a drop cloth, and got to work:



After stripping the paint, I was left with a once-black-kind-of-sanded door that still needed paint, but was likely a better starting point than before:



While I waited for the paint to arrive, I took some tires and wheels to my local shop for mounting:



...and hung the replacement fender and nose panel on the car:



The fender lines up pretty well and was already black (just regular "Schwartz" from a non-M, but close enough) and has a tiny spot of peeling clear coat. Otherwise it's in good shape. I re-sprayed the nose panel - it was also Schwartz but had a ton of rock chips. I just used some Rustoleum "gloss black" for that, as it's a small enough piece that you don't notice the mis-match (much).

Finally, my paint arrived and on Thanksgiving morning (I had until about 1 PM before I had to be anywhere) I got started, first with primer:



Then a few coats of Cosmos Black, and a few coats of clear:



I let it all dry for a few hours, threw the panels in my basement and left for Thanksgiving dinner. On Friday morning, I hung the door and hood, reinstalled the side skirt (with all new clips) and got the ol' girl on the ground:



As far as how bad this crash ended up damaging the car... the final tally:

• Hood
  
• Fender
  
• Nose panel
  
• Driver's front door
  
• Driver's rear door (not replaced)
  
• Turn signal
  
• Side skirt
  
• Small tree-sized dent in floor pan where driver's doors meet, not structural
  
• Fender support bent and cracked (thanks again, Kaan)
  
• Bumper mangled but fixable with a few zipties
  
• Destroyed front lower control arm
  
• Bent driver's side tie rod
  
• Ruined Toyo RR tire
  
• Bent rear lower control arms
  
• Broken transmission mount crossmember

I put new trans mounts and a new crossmember on it (thanks, DJ, for the spare), was able to re-use the side skirt and ignore the rear door, already had Hoosiers ready for the wheels anyway, and had RRT do the rear arms.

Bonus shot of the front control arm that I taco'd: