Feature
MY MINI Z3M SELF-ISOLATION RESTORATION PROJECT Words and photographs by John Denny
A
fter many a BMW M3, I currently find myself the owner of a 1999 BMW Z3M Coupe showing 158,000 miles. Backed up by a great service history, straight panels, and formerly enthusiast owned. What could possibly go wrong… In simple terms, I would say my heart did the buying here and not my head. For some reason (as I type I’m still not quite sure why), I did little to no research about the Z3M. I’m a member
Signs of surface rust beginning to show
44
BMW Car Club Magazine June 2020
of the Z3MCoupe forum and have been buying cars for years, but for some reason I saw the car and thought ‘that’ll do’ and bought it knowing I’d have to spend a few hundred quid getting it presentable. All this of course before the lockdown. The car was quickly into the garage for a fluid change and an annoying clunk to be fixed, which when completed, was back on my drive two weeks later with my wallet £600 lighter.
The garage, R G Lewis in Tattenhall, my normal BMW independent of choice, advised me that it might be worth looking at the floor around the jacking points as it was a bit scabby and would benefit from a wire wheel and a touch up. As soon as it had stopped raining I had the car on the ramps to investigate, and I found the signs of corrosion. After a bit of scratching about on the drivers’ side mount there was worse to come. The sill panel had started to disintegrate. So I then had to look a little deeper, and off to the internet to find out how to remove the sill covers and wings to see what was going on. The first step is to remove the arch liners, which is an easy enough job, so no need to include it here at this point. Just take the wheel off, undo a few clips and screws, and remove; the rears are trickier if they have grabbed onto the inside rear arch lip, so just take your time and tease it out. Once off you can see the edge bolts for the wing and sill cover. The majority of fasteners are 8mm hex www.bmwcarclubgb.uk
