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While the wait for the cert plate was between 4-8 weeks, i would be cutting it fine to reach my goal of the mega meet. This wouldn’t stop me from revealing it for the first time. Taking out most modified at the 2019 New Zealand E30 Mega Meet. Photo credit: Hugo Greenwood Photo credit: Hugo Greenwood Photo credit: Hugo Greenwood Photo credit: Hugo Greenwood Massive thanks to those that have been involved or helped out in one way or another to get the car to this point. Couple of small things to sort then i can finally enjoy it!

With the interior sorted it was time to really step it up with the end of the year fast approaching, so i decided to book in for a pre cert check and a date for certification was sorted! I had just over 4 weeks! This time was spent getting the rest of the body panels and mouldings fitted and aligned nicely and getting it back down on the ground, something that hadn't happened for about 9 months! A short drive up the road and a quick rinse off and the car was ready for the pre cert check (which included a wof check and alignment). And finally time to get the new custom car cover on. With a couple of things sorted from the pre check, the car was off for certification a week later. The list came back with about 20 things to rectify. At least i had a point to work with to get it over the line. Back onto the axel stands its lived on for most of the year, with the main issue being a vacuum leak causing a variety of issues that needed to be sorted. A new pcv valve and intake gaskets sorted this, and gave me the chance to clean the engine up a little more. As my engine was mounted off the chassis rail the certifier wanted to see a cross brace between the 2 mounts, this work was carried out by local workshop Trundles Automotive, very happy with the results. Back for the cert recheck and we're good to go!

Excellent cond. Well maintained 202000 km. All M Sport options. lowered on H&R springs. Vehicle specs CIC upgrade kit available. $1 Reserve IMG_5848.MOV

Why? It’s a percentage of the total value, so the currency is irrelevant. 15% of XUSD is the same as 15% of the equivalent NZD after the conversion.

I can't decide which to keep and sell so I'll let you folk decide for me. Set of 5 style 5s, 17x8 e20 with hub rings as they are off an e39 $1100 have centre caps and tyres are 205/40 and one 225/45? ACS type 1 'monoblocks' 17x8.5 et13 $1800 Both sets in original condition and reasonably tidy for their age. Curbing on a couple of them as shown in photos

Sorted. FWIW you can hire these and many other Euro-specific tools from AllEuroParts https://www.alleuroparts.co.nz/contact-us great team to deal with.

Depends if it had actually failed internally or it just needs a clean, they shouldn't compress when filled with oil. Easy enough to inspect since you are cleaning them all but 2 new ones would be good for piece of mind. Never heard of anyone rebuilding them myself, buying a whole new one would be better i would of thought.

BMW 6's an above are usually above average from what ive encountered. This one from some sh*t box Honda is one worst examples ive personally come across in recent times.

Speak to Kiel at Kelfords (if he's still there), I gave him all of Cat Cams and Schricks specs 4 years or so ago when I was looking at getting mine done so he knows what is around. The problem is, the last I heard, is that no one is producing blanks for the M5X cams, there isn't a lot of material you can take off the BCD, and there is only so much you can do before the lobe becomes too large for the bearing ledge, as well as the lifter clearances becoming a problem. I'd have to look further into it but I do believe there is a VW? Audi? off the shelf solid lifter that drops straight in and reduces a lot of the problems with the lifters.

So after what feels like weeks of cutting, grinding, filing and shaping the replacement section finally fits in the hole and is ready for gluing into place.

Hi all, Time to finally report back after months of getting stuff on the BMW sorted, and I thought it might be best to put it on this thread for continuity, apologies if this isn't correct protocol. I will preface the following "novel" with the comment that I am really happy to have bought Brads car as it has been a brilliant starting point for my “little” project as the foundations were very solid, i.e. good motor, good body etc. I could only live in fear of the saga that would have ensued had I bought the Lancia Delta HF Turbo I was looking at before that. So thanks heaps to Brad for supplying such a good starting point! As with all 21 year old projects there have been a few trials and tribulations along the way, but I guess that’s what makes these things projects, I mean it would hardly be a project if all you had to do was clean and polish it. The saga started with a delayed flight to Auckland where I picked the car up from Brad. It was interesting to reacquaint myself with a manual car after years of driving an auto. The car went well but I noticed it never warmed up (queue new thermostat job for later). Also the handling was a little off as the front tramlined over bumps and felt a little vague and disconcerting (queue lower ball joint job for later). I also noted the carpets were damp, not a biggie I thought… Nevertheless, the car never skipped a beat and got me to Napier with no real dramas, score! It needed a service, and my brother is a mechanic in Napier so he serviced it the next day, oil/filter, gearbox oil, plugs, air filter, checked the diff oil and pronounced it a car that had been mechanically well looked after. After all, it even had the wee tool for pulling the plug caps still there. Checked the rust in the tail and dismissed it as not a biggie. He thought the water in the drivers footwell might have come from the windscreen. One weird thing happened, overnight there was a frost, so when I opened the car the door wouldn’t close??? Once it warmed up it was fine??? So drove the car to Dunnos, via stops in Wellie and Chch, and got there with no real drama, it burned no oil, and it purred along, I could see that once we sorted the handling it would be awesome as the few cars that passed me on the straight were easily caught in the twisties. The only pseudo drama being on the ferry, and getting a call over the loudspeaker for the owner of the teal BMW to come to the pursers office... gulp... Turns out the alarm had gone off even tho I only locked it on the key (new car who knew?). So started with the water leak, I ran a dehumidifier in the car for about a week to get rid of most of the water, at its worst on my steep driveway, it was like a wee swimming pool in the RH passenger foot well. However, I couldn’t figure out where it was leaking. Though I can say the foam holds water like you wouldn’t believe, even when the carpets above appear dry (must be a good vapour barrier). A visit to my friendly local garage sorted out the central locking fault Brad had told me about in the passenger door, and the electric window fault as it kept popping out of its rail even after it was fixed. They did the thermostat, lower control arm, the coolant flange, new brake fluid, and obviously new coolant. They also remarked that it looked pretty clean, and was remarkedly oil leak free for a BMW... Driving around in the wet showed up the deficiencies of the Supercat tires, so I replaced them and got a matching set on Goodyear Assurance tires (not required, but I thought why not, and they had improved the grip in my Honda Accord). Driving around also showed up some chips in the windscreen which couldn’t be fixed. This necessitated a replacement which unfortunately uncovered rust around the sills, but $250 later that was fixed, so all good, and a possible source of the water leak eliminated (not quite as it turns out). I went to a local panel guy to get the rust cut out, and $500 later it looked factory again. The painter touched up the areas affected by peeling clear coat on the roof and the boot and the spoiler, but in the process of removing the spoiler the painter stripped two screws which remained in the spoiler, queue another trip to my friendly mechanic. Removing rear spoiler for painting also broke the rear spoiler stop lamp (broken wire was fixed when the rear spoiler was reattached). Whilst we are on stop lights, I replaced the left rear as it had broken and got the wiring redone after it fell apart in my hands and I didn’t know how to rewire it (another friendly garage job). Also in taking off the plastic cover on the bonnet which was all cracked it removed the paint… sigh, so that got painted as well, so now most of the car has been resprayed. The latest problem to manifest itself in the leak saga was I found water under the left rear seat squab, which may have come from the rear screen. And when working on the passenger door somehow I managed to get another problem to come up which was the airbag light, however it turned out to be a seatbelt pretensioner connection, and not the sensor in the seat. Other jobs I have done along the way are replaced the missing foam insulation in the drivers door (also a possible source for water leak), located missing plastic inner door handle surrounds (its amazing how many people own and are wrecking e36’s and I am getting to know most of them in Dunedin). I then ordered new trim clips for door cards and re-glued clip mounts to same door cards so they work. Some of the side skirt clips broke when I accidentally clipped the skirt with my foot getting out, so ordered new ones and refitted. I fixed the hole in the leather on the drivers seat with some black cotton (easy fix), and used my new friend Q-Bond (where were you when I was busting motorcycle fairings when I was younger?) to fix the broken RH front inner guard so it now mounts solidly. I also used Qbond to fix one of the vent pieces that closes the vent from behind on the passenger side which was cracked and broken, and to repair the hole I drilled to try and fix the droopy glovebox (don’t believe what you see on line lesson learned). I also got a new gear knob (keeping the old one), fixed the backlight on the clock, fitted a new centre console to replace the one with the cool (but utterly useless) tape holders (tho I kept it for the next owner). I also got some better mats for free out of one of the aforementioned wrecked Dunedin cars, replaced the rubber strip that runs the length of the roof as the front door was catching it and snagging it, reconnected the boot light (disconnected it again when the car got painted). So that left a couple of things to do, like still tracking down the front driver floor well water leak (was not looking forward to pulling the carpets). After a day of investigation with my mechanic brother, it turned out to be coming in through what, looks like a sensor at the top front of the drivers door, and was then tracking into the car. The screen didn't leak at all, not sure why it did the one other time I checked after the screen replacement (even took a photo as proof), but after blasting water at it for ages, no leak. However this did necessitate another visit to my friendly mechanic to get the airbag light reset (had to pull the seat), and got a power steering hose leak fixed at the same time, so that’s pretty much job done for the moment. It certainly is eye catching in Fiji Green, and does engender a lot of comments (mostly positive but it would be fair to say the colour is polarising), and people coming up to talk about it. Most importantly it puts a smile on my dial every time I drive it and has introduced me to a whole new bunch of people with a similar interest. Have I ever had buyer’s remorse after the purchase, NO. Has it caused me a little angst along the way, YES. Have my friend laughed at me when I regaled them with the tales of what I did last night, what I fixed, and what broke after that, you better believe it! Would I change a thing about the story so far... NAH!

It may well be coming to Wellington. I cant justify over 20k for the Violet M3 (which is what I think it will go) for but this looks like a tidy car and is quite pretty as well. Plus my wife wants a vert.

Some reports have specifically mentioned the S58 and talk about the differences in power delivery of the same engine in X3M / X4M. Others just talk about a "twin-turbo" motor. Taking a massive leap of faith that the press report has it's facts right for a change and it does have the M engine. It would need something extra special to justify the GBP60k+ price tag for a 3 Series. Re-engineering the exhaust manifolds and associated plumbing of the M340i engine to incorporate a second turbo would also be a very expensive exercise for a relatively small volume car, which would back up the reports of the S58 being in there. The kit is apparently specific to the Alpina, so it is probably the M-Sport kit with bits of it modified / added over the BMW version.

So with a bit of time off from work I decided to get stuck into chopping off the rear guards to start fitting up the fibreglass ones. Decided to go gently and do it in small pieces so I could make sure that 1) I didn't chop out something behind the skin and cause problems there and 2) it left a reasonably neat and tidy edge to fit up against and 3) by taking it a bit at a time I could get the hole the right size!! still looking for the rust that I was told was sure to be in there, maybe I should stop cutting now...?? As I said before I order a pair of the M3 outer guards to save me from having to fabricate something up to get the wheel arch the right shape, using the proper panels it was more likely that I would end up with a "correct" position of the outer lip to fit the fibreglass guard up against. My welding skills are more than a little rusty, but I'm reasonably happy with how it has turned out. Only one small wound to the hand, and small amount of blood plus one small fire equals a win in my book!!