Rebuilding my BMW M6 E24 project car

Don’t let the prospect of a £10k project car put you off. That £30k will turn into the finest £50k you have ever spent. For an internet meme, this one strikes uncomfortably close to home; it might as well be stamped into the door sills of my E24 as a lasting warning.

Still, there is an upside: for the first time in more than seven years, I have an entire BMW M6 sitting in my unit. There is one small complication, in that it needs to be assembled before it can return to the road. And by ‘some’ assembly, I mean several thousand parts distributed among 30+ boxes, all of them scattered around the car.

Rebuilding the BMW M6

In principle, putting it back together ought not to be especially difficult, were it not for a few extra obstacles. For a start, I have never stripped a car as extensively as the E24, never mind this exact version, while locating a step-by-step online guide that is not in German and is suitable for someone with absolutely no mechanical talent has been rather difficult. The greater problem, though, is the condition of the items inside those boxes compared with the parts still fitted to the car.

The bodywork is sorted. So too are the engine, engine bay, underside and every component that keeps it all connected. Each of those areas has been restored, renewed or rebuilt. Everything else, however, is where matters begin to unravel.

‘All original’ sounds reassuring enough, but there was a reason this particular car was inexpensive in 2018: it did not run and it desperately needed some TLC. That was plainly less troublesome when the intention was to discard the entire interior in favour of a pared-back, track-focused arrangement. Picture centrelocks, a roll cage, bucket seats and naff all else; all of it has either been made already or paid for.

Original E24 M635CSIs or track specification?

Sadly, after recovering every original part, I made the novice mistake of looking up what E24 M635CSIs are worth today. Now I am considering a completely different direction: simply returning it to standard specification.

Buyers appreciate originality, and well-executed restorations of desirable classics will always attract interest. There is also the reassurance of knowing the car might actually function rather than shed parts every time it goes out for a drive. It is the sensible route, but it also feels rather dull. After all, why choose a pristine, completely standard E24 when an excessively restored, track-spec version fitted with Group A parts could appeal to perhaps three people anywhere in the world?

Refitting all the original components would unquestionably be much easier, but everything else would then need restoring to the same standard as the rest of the car. Reinstalling torn leather seats is a little like getting new teeth in Turkey before refining your diet around fizzy drinks and bags of Haribo. Either choice represents a wonderful way to waste money.

I’ve never taken apart any car to the extent of the E24

Staying with the original plan

The alternative, and the actual point of this update, is a reminder that I should follow the original plan. I need to stop attempting to be sensible, acknowledge that this car is the very definition of that internet meme, and make a genuine effort to finish it. Have the roll cage welded in, build the centrelocks and turn it into a track car that has consumed so much money that the idea of bouncing it over kerbs while Sparco-clad M2 drivers hassle me is now even more frightening than finding the funds to reassemble it.

Over recent years, I have made plenty of promises in these Top Gear updates, nearly every one of which I have predictably failed to honour. Yet there is one statement I can now make with complete certainty: for as long as I am an adult obsessed with cars, I will never, ever begin another full-scale project rebuild. That is a promise... for now.