| m3 quarter panels are different. check out the lines of a 3 series and an m. you'll notice the wheel wells start at the body line that runs from nose to tail under the windows, to roll out a 3 quarter panel that far would make you run out of sheet metal.
i'm almost positive that the e36's were the last of the real production style m's. bmw would ship the "pre-m" to m-technik for the m treatment. however now that bmw owns m-technik i think they have a seperate line for m's. we have several customers, who have m3,m5,m6's etc, and when you sit an e46 m next an e36 m, you can really see the differences to their 3 series. the e36 chasis looks identical whereas the e46 is completely different (when talking about chasis and body work).
used to be if you had a 3 series you could buy all the shit you need to make an M, not so much anymore.
I will say that a 330, with suspension mods, and dumping a 3.91 rear end would give a feel for the m. but, fuck there is no way to reproduce the "power" button in the e46 m3!!!!
but the answer to your question is, if you want to buy body kits for an m3 and stick them on a 3 series, you will almost have to modify shit to get it to work. |