Any car guys in here? Introducting: Project Inka

[BimmerFreak]

I have been working on this project for a few months, and thought I would show you guys the results of a lot of time and money this past winter

She isnt done yet, but I expect Project Inka to be fully sorted out in about 30 days.

For reference, the car looked like this on 8 December 2008

**

The whole story...

I purchased a wrecked 2000 ///M Roadster from Chris K. (2000MZ3) after he decided to drive it through a cinder block wall a few months ago. :rolleyes

I started the resurrection of this car last week, and thought I would document my journey.

I am planning on painting it Inka.

This is significant because my very first BMW was an Inka 2002 which I purchased back in 1989.

25 BMWs later, I figured this would be the perfect car to pay homage to car that started my madness!

A photoshop of what I am going for:

Close up of Inka:

Pre-wreck:

Day of the wreck:

Taken today after an initial tear down:

[BimmerFreak]

3 December update:

The frame and structural work is coming along fine, and we should start hanging parts tonight or tomorrow.

I am expecting a large box of parts to arrive from Turner later today, so new radiator, control arms, control arm bushings will be installed tonight with hopes of having the car running by end of the week.

I still need a hood and bumper cover, so if you guys see any for sale, send them my way!

8 December 2008

I stopped by the shop today to check on the progress and we have now installed the Turner control arms and control arm bushings, and did a test fit of the SSR Competition RS wheels.

The car is in paint prep, and the only major item let to source is a new hood.

I sourced a used bumper cover

No rear fenders

I picked up this rear bumper assembly and almost pulled my back out! I bet it weights 75lbs+

Working on getting minor door and fender dings removed

Sorta looks like a Mad Max mobile...

Hmmmm......Meat.

They have the paint in. Its a single stage, so we will clear coat on top of that.

with flash

without flash

[BimmerFreak]

9 December 2008 update:

They started day one of the prep/paint process and we are starting to sling Inka paint!

Used Estoril Blue bumper cover prepped for paint

We are adding an authentic Hamman lip spoiler

Prepped panel waiting on paint

INKA! :buttrock

underside of trunk

10 December 2008

Another quick update-

Paint is in full swing, and we are planning on rolling the chassis into the paint booth tomorrow.

[BimmerFreak]

Update 12 December 2008

Stopped by the shop to check on the progress, and it looks like we now have a painted chassis, with the only parts needing paint being the rear bumper, doors, and hood (still waiting on new hood)

22 December 2008 Update:

All major work has been completed, except for the need for a hood.

I hope to have a hood headed this way in the next week, which should get us closer to being complete on Inka paint.

Hood, outer door skins, and anything left needing Inka will be done all at the same time, which I hope is less than 2 weeks out.

Prep on all parts needing satin black will start after the holidays, and should be timed to be complete the same time we are finally finished with the hood.

I am changing directions on the wheels, having just sourced some nice SSR GT3s from Randan

*We will be painting the centers satin black, and keeping the lips polished.

And now, pics:

[BimmerFreak]

26 December Update:

Most of the guys have been off for the holidays, but we have both doors hung and adjusted, and started and ran the car for 15 minutes today.

We need to paint the outer door skins, and then its on to black/satin for the wheels, mirrors, gills, etc.

4 Feb 2009 Update:

*I forgot my camera, so these are crappy iPhone pics.

After looking around forever for a stock hood, I decided to give the guys at RaceonUSA at shot with their aftermarket hood.

Claimed weight is around 24lbs. and it took around 30 days from the time I paid, until the hoods arrival

Now that the hood is here, we will finish up with the Inka paint, and hopefully wrap this project up.

We are finishing the satin black parts now, and should have them completed in the next day or so

The SSR GT3 wheels are having the lips cleaned up and polished

More pics to follow as the project progresses

5 Feb 2009

Just got back from checking on the test fit of the hood.

Overall impression:

Well, its a hood. :shifty

While the hood came packed well and everything seems in order, the fitment

is nothing to write home about.

The pictures seen here are after about 3 hours of fitting.

As you can see, there are major gaps and fitment issues, which will require another few days of custom fab and tweaking.

I didnt expect this to be plug and play, but I am somewhat disappointed that this hood will take so much work to make right.

*If you are planning on buying one of these, you should make sure you factor the cost of 3-6 hours of prep time by your bodyshop prior to paint.

6 Feb 2009:

Stopped by to check on progress, and they spent the day polishing the outer hoops, and fitting the hood.

Paint should be finished by next Friday

This thing needs a detail BAD!

They removed the clear coat on the lips so they could get a good polish

[BimmerFreak]

Update 18 Feb 2009

The final Inka spray was today, with all remaining parts painted and clear coated.

Reassembly will begin tomorrow afternoon, and I hope to have most of the car back together by the weekend.

Update: 25 Feb 2009

All paint is finished, and now we are starting to put everything back together.

The left rear trailing arm was slightly tweaked, so after searching for what seems like forever for a replacement, I ended up buying a complete rear assembly from a fellow bfc member.

Got the satin black mirror mounted

Mirrors (and other trim) match the custom finished SSR GT3 wheels

Update: 28 Feb 2009

I stopped by the shop today, and it looks like we are getting close!

All major work is complete, with just the minor tweaks left to do.

We still need to do a major cleaning/detail, adjust some body panels, add all the badges and trim, get the suspension sorted out again.

That front end is a curb-killer!

[Jack]

Thats pretty!

[BimmerFreak]

Front wheel

Rear wheel

[BimmerFreak]

Update: 17 March 2009

Project Inka went for a quick shakedown drive today, and everything seems to be good to go.

It still needs to be detailed, aligned, and have all the new satin black trim/badges installed, but we are getting close!

[musicman]

Note to self: No driving Z3s into brick walls! (There go my plans for the weekend!)

While not exactly my style, nice work!

[poak]

Driving: Chris K was doing it wrong

Looks great

[Guest EasilyObsessed]

Wow Joe, well done. That is a huge project and it looks like it came out really great. Congrats!

[BimmerFreak]

Wow Joe, well done. That is a huge project and it looks like it came out really great. Congrats!

Thanks man.

Its still not 100% complete.

I still need to get all the badges and emblems installed, get the suspension sorted back out, etc. but it's coming along nicely

It's been a fun project, and im happy to have saved this ///M car from the auto graveyard.

[Guest mustangdave]

Very nice...that Inka Orange is definately a different color...POPS real nice.

[TGO David]

Pictures on the Internet are the closest that the previous owner should ever come to this car again.

[Guest db99wj]

Holy takes a few minutes to load even with a fast inteweb connection!

Nice color, nice car.

[Guest v3bahumut]

Man, you can see that thing coming from miles away.

Looking good though.

[Magiccarpetrides]

Nice job man....we just got in a 01 3.0 Z3 with only 18k on it...made me think about the resident BMW/Gun-nut here....and now I see this post lol. Those M-roadsters are awesome....240hp right?

[poak]

Nice job man....we just got in a 01 3.0 Z3 with only 18k on it...made me think about the resident BMW/Gun-nut here....and now I see this post lol. Those M-roadsters are awesome....240hp right?

More importantly, what's the power to weight ratio?

[Magiccarpetrides]

well considering the 3.0 only weighs 2900lbs....the 3.2 cant be much heavier.

[poak]

well considering the 3.0 only weighs 2900lbs....the 3.2 cant be much heavier.

Niiiiiiiiiiiiice! That's like, less than two of your mom!

[nightrunner]

it looks very nice, but how does it run? surely you cant do that much cosmetic work and nto have any perfomance modifications...

i think the front bumper is a bit too aggressive, but if you like it thats all that matters

[BimmerFreak]

it looks very nice, but how does it run? surely you cant do that much cosmetic work and nto have any perfomance modifications...

i think the front bumper is a bit too aggressive, but if you like it thats all that matters

The previous owner may want to purchase the car back from me, so if he does I wont do any motor work.

If I end up keeping it, there is some serious mods planned....

The car is sitting with ~265hp presently (3.2L Motorsport motor + Intake + Dinan software + performance exhaust) and would receive a turbo or Supercharge kit which would put the car at 350ish at the wheels.

*I had this exact same motor + FI build on a previous M car, and it was scary fast

**If I got FI, I will also go ahead and add Brembo GTs and a full cage

[Guest Linoge]

Wow. You certainly dug that thing out of a mess and made it one damn fine looking machine again.

That said, I need to get into the gun dealing business... would it not have been cheaper to start with a new one?

[BimmerFreak]

Wow. You certainly dug that thing out of a mess and made it one damn fine looking machine again.

That said, I need to get into the gun dealing business... would it not have been cheaper to start with a new one?

I may have been cheaper to start with a new one, but that wasnt the point.

I saw this as an opportunity to save a car, and it was a good excuse to build it up the way I wanted it.

This particular car had some frame and performance upgrades that may not be evident to the casual observer, and I factored that into the total "value" of the car to me.

These cars (M Roadsters and M Coupes) have a weak spot in the rear sub-frame area.

This car had been shipped up to Randy Forbes in Ohio (the foremost expert on these cars) who performed about 6k worth of performance/strength/safety upgrades to this car.

It also has the upgraded twin ear, finned differential cover which is also can be a weak point on these cars.