Olaf

I was kindly alerted of this by an old highschool mate. His Mum was about to sell, having had it since 1997. Would I be interested in an NZ-new 1990 316i manual? Turned out to be full poverty-spec, 103hp, 4 private owners, 257,000 kms, and reasonably tidy. Our offspring are approaching driving age, and I want them to learn in a simple manual gearbox car, with none of those fancy driving aids we associate with steering, these days. Helps that one can see every corner of the car, too. Sr E-Thirty Andy kindly agreed to come with for inspection, as e30 expert to help with my mid-range mech capability. We determined that it was an honest, reasonably tidy example, needing some TLC. It had only been doing around 250km per year for a number of years now, but had been garaged. It started (stone cold) willingly, first go. Serviced last week by Mike Page. It was sold through Shelly BMW when new, and when the last owner bought it new; I even found @Barryn's card in the service book from back in the day. A deal was struck, I did the ownership change, paid the cash, got the key stuck in the driver's door, Andy sorted that out, phoned insurance and paid, and set out for Wellington from Paraparaumu. I'm pretty taken by it, it's nice to be back in an e30. Plans: give it TLC to get it machanically sorted (clutch and associated bushes and seals), precautionary cambelt kit, general servicing and maintenance (leads, cap, rotor, fan clutch). In summer, check out what's underneath those front guards, and sort out bootlid keep it fairly stock for next three years until both of our scone-grabbers have their licenses then - quite possibly - make it into a well-sorted clone of Andy's "MY E30". Or at the very least, a 318iS. Hence "project" rather than showroom. Here she is in monochromatic glory:

Update. Department of Beep Beep! Some horn material, yesterday. Brought to you by the department of bad puns. A friend kindly dug these out of his parts stash. A pair of 325i Fiamm horns, one high, one low, complete with brackets. Along with a couple of connector shells, sans pins. (I must be) need a couple of nuts. And either there will be good fortune when I get underneath it and all the wiring is there to plug into, or I'll find those crazy Germans put in different looms. In which case I'll need to find the right pins for the connector shells, and make up some cabling to run from the central 'meep meep' horn to these PaaaaarrrrRRRRPPP horns. One goes on the Right side, and one on the Left (or wrong) side. Depending on your viewpoint. Wish me Luck! @adro next time we catch up I'd like to have a look around your SE to see how it's been done. Other things... Twirly thing I lucked-out, and nabbed a three-spoke leather OEM Sports Steering Wheel (aka SE wheel) from the book of faces, recently. It's pretty tidy, was just a bit faded. I've cleaned it, given it a couple of coats of black leather toner, followed by two coats of leather protectant, and a couple of coats of Elephant Leather preservative. I'll get it onto the car soon. Being fastidious, I've ordered a new locknut. 😉 Graunch in suspension. The Graunch of Suspension Wood, has been diagnosed by Jon at Auto38. Inner tie rod. I'm going for gold, and we're going to do tie rods, wishbones, lollipop bushes, and replace the steering guibo. I'll install the 20mm front bar, with new bushes & Meyle HD end links. That'll do for the next couple of months while I refurbish the Style 5 rims, and then the 51mm strut housings. This work will get it steering straight and true, and eliminate older (as in 15-20 years, probably) bushings and balljoints. Jon spanner-checked it, and it's a bit 'tighter'. The rest of it (excepting the tie rod) is all still WoF standard, though I want the front to feel as good as the rear end now does. Strut Housings Of the strut housings, thanks to @gjm & @_ethrty-Andy_ for the Bimmersport Good Bstard Express™ assistance from Nick's. I have all the parts for the strut builds, including new wheel bearings. Just need to sort springs. Sampling @adro's SE last week, I think I'll be able to live with HR Sport Springs to match with the Koni Yellows 8641-1210 Sport (front), & 80-2522 (rear). Abrasives and PPE I've ordered new filters for my 3M mask, and a bunch of abrasives to use with my Dremel and handpiece. It's going to be slow and steady prepping those buggers for paint. I've a large box to lash up a paint booth out of, and an old office chair that I plan to make a wheel spinner out of. Need to figure ensure all rims are true before I start (a precaution only), and cut the valve stems out. Questions about paint Now to source paint for the wheels. Thought about standard Wheel Paint (Felgen Silver) with clear. Nah, I'll get Granitsilber mixed up in aerosols, and clear coat. I liked the idea of Nogaro Silver, but it's darker and too close to Lachssilber. I'll pay a lunchtime visit to Union Hardware soon to source paint. Just thought, though... I have an airbrush compressor, and an airbrush I've little experience with... though it'd probably take an age to paint wheels with an airbrush, eh? Paint would be going off while I'm still painting. I'll keep it simple and go with aerosols, no clean-up. For the strut housings, I'm going to strip them down, rust preventative, etch prime, and two coats of Rustoleum gloss black. Questions - Paint: If you've thoughts or tips about painting my wheels, please let me know. 1k vs 2k, type of paint to withstand wheel heat, etc. Questions - Horns: If you know what bolt/nut, or in particular what the connector pins are for the horn connector shells, please let me know!

aye. Mrs Ubaru feels this is worth way more than it is That leather interior isn't too late to save, it's just been badly neglected.

50,000mi per year. as long as it's not exclusively on M25 at rush hour; oh, wait, that's physically impossible! GF in France or Germany, bingo.

Welcome, Sam! We need photos of your "Texas Special!" 😊

+1

Glad to see you’ve learned the error of your ways 🤭😎

I’d offer to someone to help them out on a weekend 😀, and expect replacement. I’d purchased them for a cooling system flush that I’m yet to execute. If I wanted to sell, they’d be listed in the for sale room. If you’re after some, your local BMW dealer will have BMW coolant in stock. This is where I’ll (unashamedly) plug that production of your BMW Car Club NZ membership card will win you 10% off, too. Hope that helps.

Who's not doing "newer than 10 year old BMW's? Page do them, Auto 38 do them... has a good independent in Wellington actually turned you down, or said "sorry we don't do newer than 10 years"? Or is this more of an impression? I'm genuinely interested - as I don't have anything newer than 2004! 😁 It's interesting, in developed countries (such as Australia, UK, USA) they have laws that ensure that providing the vehicle is serviced to the manufactuer's specs, the warranty *must* still be supported. Eg, buy a Nissan Navara new in OZ, you can have it serviced where you like, and the manufactuer's warranty must still apply - you don't have to take it to a Nissan dealer. Neat trick eh? cheers

that's gorgeous.

The difficulty is of course true AI is based on big data number crunching of data lakes by large supercomputers. These are damned expensive to build and make work; typically the large IT companies such as Microsoft and IBM hire this tech to customers. Military consumers of course are usually particularly reluctant to utilise systems that are shared or managed by third parties, for anything 'important'.

... which is what you want.

Yep, in Australia Fastbrick Robotics have commenced their first outdoor commercial build with Hadrian X, their Robotic Bricklaying machine. I've been following them for some time. Before xmas Hadrian X had test built a 180 square metre dwelling in under 3 days that met all relevent structural standards. https://www.fbr.com.au https://www.businessinsider.com.au/one-armed-bricklaying-robot-security-secrets-2018-11

Just watched episode 5 with my number 1 daughter. Very entertaining. Excellent film about Jim Clark. Watch it.

I can't argue with that! 😀

How do you reconcile that? S85: Rod Bearings, Vanos Pump, Crank/block (if clutch not replaced in time), etc etc - all catastrophic failures. N62: Valve stem seals (smokey), oil leaks, water leaks. Nothing catastrophic, just moderately expensive to fix. Don't get me wrong, neither are welcome "service features", but "worse reputation"?

you'd want the *last* 7 numerals for vin decoder.

you'd know if you have (had) it. (at least in the e60), when parking it's less than one turn for full lock. Takes a few days to get used to...

Welcome, Michael! Looks very tidy. Suggest you schedule a transmission service. Filter, fluid, gasket, bolts (I think). BMW's lifetime fill is rubbish. This should save you from a $4-5k bill if your trans shits itself (mine did - 325i Touring).

congrats! looks good and particular congrats for the de-cheesening. 🙂 🧀🧀🧀 are you sure you should be ditching cassettes, just as they're coming back in? https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/audio/a24848370/cassette-tapes-national-audio-company/ https://www.grammy.com/grammys/news/record-store-day-2018-inside-comeback-cassette-tapes https://www.loudersound.com/features/forget-the-vinyl-revival-the-cassette-tape-revival-is-in-full-flow hint for the cable ties: trim close to, and parallel with, the end. angle cuts create a sharp hazard for next time you're in the confines of your dash, provide great opportunity for bloody battle scars.

watch this space. 😎 I should have a suitable solution tomorrow. The 316i and 318i was given just the single tone horn.

... and I've just been informed by a wise and experienced e30-er that the 325i has dual-tone horns. 👌😎 Backstory: all this was precipitated by my arriving at a traffic light recently, daughter in car with me. I'd left a good 5 metres to the car in front, having followed them down the hill (tourists). They started reversing, couldn't see out the back window for luggage... and my meeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEPP was barely heard, they stopped half a metre short of us in the e30.

I guess there are other options. Not entirely convinced by Hella Sharptone or Supertone Horns around USD30. Perhaps Hella Twin Trumpet 007424801 High/Low Tone (around USD22). ... of course there are vidjos... sharptone vs supertone https://youtu.be/ngWrNOC5qhM supertone vs twn trumpet (even Kia owners are at it!) https://youtu.be/FEg1aDsVyHM Oh Hang on: Here it is. Hella do a Twin Trumpet version for BMW: HELLA 012010881 Black 12V BX Trumpet Horn Kit (Bmw) https://www.amazon.com/HELLA-007424801-Twin-Trumpet-Bracket/dp/B01EG18SAW/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1549399529&sr=1-1-spons&keywords=HELLA%2B7424801%2BTwin%2BTrumpet%2BHorns&th=1 if you listen to the video on the Amazon page it gives you an idea of the tone. I think it's perfect. only USD19.

yep. Flat rate, $39 DHL. Here in 5 days, prices in NZD. I've been looking at e30 suspension bits though, all cheaper from FCP and better quality.

awesome! thanks for the heads-up, Allan!