Jump to content

Leaderboard


Popular Content

Showing content with the highest reputation on 09/05/20 in all areas

  1. 4 points
    Hi there, Picked up an E46 330i Touring a few months ago and have been fixing it up to be a reliable daily. So far I have done the following: - Full cooling system refresh (Including hard lines under the intake manifold) - Front pulleys and drive belts - Power steering reservoir and hoses - CCV Replaced - Intake boots - Oil level sensor - Oil filter housing gasket - Valve cover gasket - Vanos rebuild - New DISA valve - Engine & transmission mounts - Windshield cowl - Transmission filter & fluid - FCAB's - Front control arms - Tie rods - Wheel bearings - Stock sport springs from HellBM - Sport Sway bars from BM World - Koni Special Active shocks on all four corners - Set of Style 72 rims to replace the Style 79 rims that came with the car - Changed differential fluid - Other little minor things around the car What I have got left to do is to replace all the bushings in the rear (If anyone has an RTAB tool I could borrow...) and I am looking at getting some new tyres soon since the ones that came with the new rims are pretty average. Best money spent so far was on the shocks as the originals were completely shot. And having everything in the cooling system replaced is great for peace of mind. For the future it would be nice to swap in a manual, but for now the auto is pretty good for what it is. Only major issues I have had is a tire blowout in Wellington on state highway 1 near the terrace (I think I must of run over something on the motorway), and a fuel line disconnecting itself which left me stranded outside Kumeu (Car didn't catch fire which was good). Overall the experience has been pretty good though, the car's fun to drive and I have learnt a lot during the process.
  2. 2 points
    In my quest to tidy up the loose ends and get the Mini ready for sale, the car received an oil service and a simple but impactful cosmetic change. Yes, the Mini is for sale. It should be no surprise really; by the time I got the car home from buying it, I had lost a lot of love for it already as it was a complete shitbox, but it was my shitbox and I had to work with what I had. Sure, its come a long way and is now a decent little car that can be driven and enjoyed, but the damage was done for me. Now its time to pass the car on to a new owner for them to enjoy my hard work. Part of the sale prep was, of course, a WOF. Thankfully this passed easily, with a clean check sheet and no advisories. I'd hope so after all the work I've done! This will give the new owner at least a year of worry-free motoring. A couple of other little loose ends to tidy up was an oil service. The sticker on the windscreen showed about 1500km to the next service, but who knows what the interval was, and the oil was looking quite black. I picked up a genuine oil filter and some Valvoline 5W40 synthetic oil and got stuck in. The filter is actually not that bad on the R53, its just tucked down the back a bit but there is plenty of access with a 36mm socket and ratchet (or breaker bar to crack it if the previous owner used many ugga duggas) The sump drain plug is on the back of the sump. I was a bit worried because I noticed early on that the plug isn't an original Mini one but a VW sump plug, which means it's been changed. The alloy sump is pretty soft so I suspect someone stripped the fine threads for the Mini plug and tapped the sump out to the course VW thread. It came out, and went back in, with no issue, so that's good. The old filter was filthy but wasn't housing any chunks or surprises The new filter went in (rubber seal on the filter facing OUTWARDS) and torqued to 25nm, same with the sump plug. The engine was filled with its new liquid gold and started to fill the filter. Everything looked good, so I reset the interval on the dash (went from 3100km overdue to 25000km until next service; yeah nah, 5k intervals please) and moved on to changing the transmission fluid. The trans shifts well enough but has been a bit on the notchy side. I figured with no records of having the fluid changed it probably hasn't been done, and it's an easy job, so let's just do it. The two plugs are pretty easy to get at with an 8mm hex socket and ratchet. Fill is removed, and drain is the black plug in the foreground. Always remove the fill first. The internet recommends Redline MTL as the correct oil (75W80 GL4), and who am I to argue with the internet? I grabbed a pair of quart bottles as it needs about 1.5qt. The old fluid that came out was dark black, thin and had a metallic sheen to it. Obviously it had been working hard; good thing I'm changing it. I used my little "tom thumb" transfer pump bottle thing, and pumped fluid in until it started to dribble out Put the fill plug back in, check both are tight, and jobs a goodun. The last job for the day was to slap some stripes back on the bonnet. There was previously a pair of stripes offset to one side that ran from nose to tail. White on the blue and blue on the white. The previous owner didn't like this so pulled it all off. Unfortunately, this revealed some fading from where the stripes were, so now we had dark blue stripes in the paint This bothered me, so the obvious solution was to slap some new stripes on and cover it up. I didn't want to go for the offset stripe, so after much internet research, I decided to go with a pair of solid white stripes. A big thanks to the guys at Doozi for hooking me up with some 3m vinyl stripes custom made to my weird specs (13cm wide stripes with 7cm gap between them). I was having issues finding anything else locally that would work and I'm happy to support a small NZ business. This vinyl was really easy to work with. The hardest part was getting the stripes straight and centered. LOTS of measuring and repositioning happened before I was happy with where they were. The biggest tip here is to use some soapy water, as recommended by Doozi, and keep the panel wet. This allows for repositioning, and then once you are happy just use a plastic blade to force the water out from under the vinyl. Because its cold here today I had to use some gentle heat from a heat gun to warm the panel and vinyl up, which made working with it a lot easier. I wouldn't recommend doing it all in a cold garage without heat. I carefully rolled the protective layer off and used a microfiber and heat to get any bubbles or liquid out. Compared to the stripes we did on the R50 Cooper, this was a much nicer finish. No bubbles, and only a couple of small blemishes. You can still see some fading next to the stripe, but without going with super wide or really spaced out stripes I couldn't cover it all. The fading also continues down from the scoop, through the grille and down the bumper, but it's not as obvious. The fading is more obvious under my new super bright LED lights than in natural light. I was originally planning on only doing the stripes to the scoop, and then I changed my mind and decided to go from in the scoop to the grille as well. Well, that didn't happen. I quite like the subtle little stripes from the scoop. Its like speed stripes from the go-fast scoop. Once done I had to take the car for a test drive, just to circulate the new oils around and see how it drives. The engine is quieter and the gearbox is shifting smoother, so its a win all around. I took some photos for the new listing, and hope it will get some interest. It's not the best example around, but its also far from the worst (and mechanically I think it will beat a lot of the "nicer" looking ones available). Hopefully it sells soon and I can move into another project. Some bonus shots of the underside from the WOF, just if anyone is curious what they look like under there
  3. 2 points
    Bye-bye Baby Blue. You were unwanted but nevertheless loved and appreciated and you left stronger than you arrived. Farewell, Godspeed. Sold!
  4. 1 point
    or paying 100's of $ for a slightly longer piece of alloy
  5. 1 point
    FK510 or PS4, both are good. If the FK510 are a decent amount cheaper then get those.
  6. 1 point
    Winner winner. Told the guy all of the E36's faults. Took it anyway. Somebody sell me an E39 touring.
  7. 1 point
    Adrian Orr et al @ the Reserve Bank was who I was thinking of. It's a cool car anyway - would love the touring version (maybe <10 exist in RHD)
  8. 1 point
    @balancerider Matt who is 'they'? The Government perhaps? (genuine question). At any rate, if you've $25k in the bank and want the car, why not? Money's not earning anything in the bank currently, with interest so low. If you have property to borrow against, how cheap can credit be? Holy crap, 3%. One's equity ratio is something to be cautious of in these times, before upping borrowing on frivolous purchases, though. In case things go well south. And neatly looping back to the govt of the day. I guess the way to encourage spending again is to create economic recovery through planning and implementing policy to people feel comfortable and secure in a recovering or thriving environment. Bailouts. Hmmm, yes.
  9. 1 point
    probably at least as much protection for auction buyers in NZ as there is for mom and pop investors on the NZX from deficient company directors.
  10. 1 point
    @Olaf Still, thought they wanted us to spend money? or maybe it's just a big bank bailout in disguise...?
  11. 1 point
  12. 1 point
    As shown on a recent $1 reserve auction someone won on another forum im on, and trademe is allowing the seller to bail on the sale as the reserve set was "a mistake" and "being sold too low", trademe is a complete waste of time and money. No care and no responsibility.
  13. 1 point
    If im honest, not as fun as expected. Its lacking down low power, but once its in its power band its takes off. You really need to keep it on boil. Handling is good, but there is a lack of decent roads down here that can take advantage of the crazy sharp turn in. Its useless in traffic and I wouldnt bother as a daily unless your commute takes you down empty back roads. You can throw it into almost any corner at any speed and you kinda pivot on your own axis and just whip around it. Mods like a smaller pulley would probably help, and an exhaust would increase the fun/lol factor, but im done spending money on it and will be selling it off soon to move onto the next project. On that note, clean sheet WOF today.
  14. 1 point
    I'm struggling with the lack of love displayed by the Kiwi BMW driver / motorist for the Alpina brand. Can see a lot in this car not present in the equivalent letter car, faster, 0-60mph, tops out at 195 MPH, better braking and handling. Coachbuilt, hand assembled engine sure, not 6 speed manual trans, and I get the luxo barge thing too. Comes down to price, heaps of car for not much money (by comparison)
  15. 1 point
    Consider using a password manager with unique passwords per account (even if the site has HTTPS) - better overall security.
  16. 1 point
    I think one of the defining points is whether the insurance company pays out the total loss - declaring the car a write-off and cancelling the policy - or pays out the repair cost for you to take care of the repairs yourself, and continues to insure you. At this point you should know inside-out the wording of your policy. I expect has to be offer and agreement here somewhere, and there must be more than one solution option. Knowing your policy will help you to reach an acceptable outcome, rather than being quickly shuttled through the processes (more on that later). Can you get a copy of the assessment that the two panel beaters provided to AA? Is there anything preventing you from getting a future booking with Airflowe while you hunt for a tail light? Steel bumpers can be repaired; the skills are rare now with plastic bumpers having been the norm for 30-plus years. FWIW I thought my chrome bumper was toast on my early 80's Datsun, around 1992. The panel beater owner (with more than thirty years experience under his belt) looked at it and said 'these are no longer available new, and hard to find used now... would you like me to have a go at it? I can get this straight again'. I was amazed at what he acheived with patience, skill, gentle tap-tap-tap with hammers, dollies, and (ISTR) a leather bag filled with lead shot. It was almost as good as new. As to whether the car is a classic, it's a 33 year old e28 that's had a great deal of work done to it and is very tidy. If it's not a classic then what is? e28s are increasing in popularity and decreasing in availability. Is the car on an agreed-value policy? If (say) it's insured for $5k, if repairs are coming to $4k5, they'll almost certainly want to limit their exposure and simply declare total loss, write the car off, pay out, de-register, and cancel your insurance. AA Insurance? I've had nothing but excellent service and satisfactory outcomes from them for more than two decades, including home and contents (plumbing failure/flood) and, automotive (from windscreens to tree fell on car, to total loss). It's down to how you deal with them IME. First place to start is ensuring their clock/calendar doesn't dictate closing this one with "proceed straight to write-off/total loss" option. Your claims manager is probably measured on metrics such as time to resolve claims, margins, reducing exposuure position by reducing open claims cumulative value, and possibly customer satisfaction. As this one has been open for some months, it might be drawing management heat "you've got ten claims over three months without resolution, what are you doing to resolve them? We need to get these off of the monthly report, it's bringing down the team stats!". As you've almost all the parts required, and want to keep the car, it appears your priorities would be: Know your policy, ensure the claim remains open while you work through the options to reach resolution. "It's a classic car on a classic policy; surely you have some cases where gaining parts and completing repairs takes longer than a modern appliance on wheels?" If all else fails, play the covid card. Get repair estimates for *you* having the repair done. Surely one option is going back to Airflowe and agreeing to have the Insurance-paid repair done when you've found a bumper? Identify a suitable repairer - may be out of Wellington. Phil mentioned the guy near Rongotea (details to come), and the electro-plater out of Christchurch... possibly someone in the Wairarapa. Knowing the costs for repair, you can talk with the Insurers about managing the repairs yourself. Can you keep the policy open - remaining insured with them - and take the repair coststo settle the claim? Tell them you're seeking to avoid a) write-off and de-registered status, and b) cancelation of your policy. What are your options? (this is where knowing your policy is essential). At all costs, keep it up-beat and pleasant, courteous and outcome-focussed. They're used to dealing with assholes and fraudsters, and have sophisticated systems, technology, processes, investigators, and a closet full of lawyers to protect themselves from loss. Do avoid getting into those queues, as your experience will become less satisfactory and pleasant, and more tiresome and frustrating. Also, you're seeking to extract parts from people with classic car hordes. Think of Smaug in The Hobbit. I'd recommend having a list and being specific. You're not a threat to their entire parts stash after lowering their guard and granting you that bumper piece or tail-light only to find you wanting a dozen extra items; you just need x, y, and z, and you can move forward. Can they help? Enlist the camaraderie of classic car folks, you're a worthy fellow-enthusiast wanting to save a classic. Hope that helps.
  17. 1 point
    Just checked, CRC Plastic & Rubber Doctor. No idea how long it will last but it still looks black some 5 months later.
  18. 1 point
    Still a hell of alot better than dealer plate surrounds
  19. 1 point
  20. 1 point
    A stunning silver E30 and E39 - what a great combo ??
  21. 1 point
    Trademe really needs to do more about that. I've proven to them on 2 different auctions, shill bidding had taken place. On one of them my autobid was maxed and the the bidder that beat me had their bid removed about 3 minutes before closing (despite having 100% positive feedback so clearly not one to f**k people around), the person hadn't asked for their bid to removed. The other I contacted the person who outbid me (they had their own car for sale) and they were the flatmate of the vendor. They should roll back any autobids when a top bid is removed.
×
×
  • Create New...