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Had a day off so did some cosmetic stuff. Repainted the bumper and door trim (thanks to Martin for the 'Forever Black') and did one of the cheapest but most effective interior upgrades so far. Picked up an old beige sliding arm rest with flip lid and coin tray (mine came with the sliding arm rest and coin tray where the phone would go but no flip lid). I'd previously bought a leather arm rest cover from Top Gaiters along with my brake boot and gear stick gaiter. Nice and cheap, think it worked out around $50 for the lot - black with dark red stitch to match the trim. Removed the arm rest pad from the sliding mechanism and coated with urethane glue. I then dampened the suede side of the new leather with a wet cloth and stretched it over the glued surface. Once I'd stretched it as tight as I could I taped it up with painter's tape to hold it for 3-4 hours while the urethane hardened. Took all the tape off and reassembled on the sliding mechanism (the back plate and handle help hold the leather in place around the edges). It looks a little wrinkled still but as it dries out it should tighten up before the glue fully cures. Installed in the car... Pretty happy with it for $50 in leather and $30 in paint for the trim!

The Toyota factory in Melbourne (Altona) only builds two models - the Camry and the Aurion (which is just a V6 Camry anyway..) the majority of which were exported out of Aussie, a handful of Aurions to NZ and the rest were Camrys to the Middle East. So the changes in the value of the Aussie dollar, were killing the cost effectiveness of the car. Once Ford and Holden had announced the closure of their plants there was not enough volume in the whole market to sustain a full supply chain, so it was only a matter of time before Toyota had to pull the pin as well. Unfortunately the factory, whilst it was probably the best of the Aussie facilities, was far from being a world-class facility and needed a hure amount of investment to bring it up to a competitive productivity level (which the unions would probably have fought against anyways...) which only made the decision come sooner rather than later. It's a shame as I worked with some real good people over there, I hope they will all be Ok in the future.

Hi guys, Just thought I'd get some advice, hoping some of the guys here have had some experience with any of these particular cars. So the situation is, a very close cousin of mine in Vancouver, Canada is looking for an upgrade to his 2011 Mustang Gt or so, we've lined up a few test drives while I'm there for a month or so and the cars in discussion are: 2010 R35 GTR.... 2008/2009 Audi R8 V8.... 06/07 Porsche 997 911 Turbo... I've been in the R35 and the 911, however if anyone has any better input or personal opinion I'd love to hear. I spend a lot of time in around north america and looks like I'll be moving there next year or so hence why I'm helping him pick a car. We've also looked at the C63 AMG coupe, 2011/2012 E92 M3 and the new RS5 however I've spent time with these three and it's absolutely obvious it's not in the same league as the 997 911 turbo, R8 and R35. Thanks in advance guys.. always appreciate the input from the guys on the forum.

I haven't driven any of them but on looks alone and interior styling it would have to be the R8 for me. Porsche's look like mid-life crises and R35s look like boy racers. Considering your mate clearly likes a bit of muscle, for less money he could an M6 gran coupe. Looks amazing, Euro muscle, four doors, decent boot, goes like stink, isn't tiny.

Well that was inevitable, its been costing them too much to make those cars for a while now and the price of Toyota's in NZ has gone up because of it.

http://tvnz.co.nz/auckland-daze/index-group-4326198

Heaps of interest and "would you swap for my savage RB?!" but apart from that only a couple of serious people. Think I might just hang on to it for a bit. Have some fun with it and make it go a bit faster haha

I'd say Sunwoo probably forgot to tell us a few things...

Yeah same here. Love to diy when I can or have the confidence. Far too much risk involved with this job imo. But hey, you'd have a sweet coffee table at least

Wrap it in shrinkwrap &hide it under some blankets in the shed! April isn't THAT far away!! Bloody hard to find a good V8 E34 man, you'll kick yourself if you let it slip through your fingers

Two thumbs up for your persistence! great to see you're making headway again

So a bit of an update. My diff bearings gave up on me so im having that rebuilt at the moment. And I have purchased some new brake parts. Pagid racing pads and factory discs that I have had drilled. I have also sorted out the boot install and got that looking really nice now also.

its genuine 540is i think he got it from ross at bm workshop who got it from ray the purple one . the other is a manual swap , from a scruffy ,damaged 540is (the blue one) , that cover is just from a e38 or e39 etc has the later clip on cover type , to replace the old broken m60 types . money in hand , is if you write it off you own in it