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Hi guys, big shout out to all you bmw fans, I'm totally hooked. Looking forward to getting involved with the scene! Only took me 33 years to get around to taking my driving test lol. Finally did it back in Dec last year, donno why it took me so long (always had mates and a misses to drive me around i guess lol, but really because I lived in London most of my life and didn't need a car till i moved to NZ 8 years ago then it was pure lazyness). Finally got my first set of wheels 5 weeks ago, mean looking BMW 530i with alpina body kit and some deep dish wheels. Already clocked over 5,000km in it doing some epic road trips up the cape and around the north island with mates. I think I also put off getting a car for so long because I'm a tinkerer, always had mountain bikes and ride at quite a high level, rebuilt all my bikes from the ground up and tweaked the sh*t out of them so knew i'd be the same the second I got a car! Already ripped the kidney grill off and stuck a matt black one on, new black badges just arrived and tinted windows. Now looking at blacking out the chrome window trims and lights. Quick question; I got quoted $450 for the trims and $380 ish for the lights front and back, which is about right but I'm thinking of doing it myself anyone done it before? for the trim should I Plasti dip or vinyl? I hear lamin-x is good for the lights? Here's a few photos of my car in it's current state

Soooo why the hell don't more people on here take notice of Glenn & actually USE his services....

Project: Convert E46 HELLM3 into a S65/manual E46/E92 hybrid. Our approach will differ to the other more complicated ways of making things fit. We aim to not tamper with steering and suspension setup. Started with a donor E46 to use as a mockup with a cutoff wheel taken to a subframe. Engine /gearbox placement has been achieved quite nicely (great skills `HellBoy`) Engine mounts ,gearbox mounts,exhaust to be fabricated by Quest. To compensate for the extra height added by the E65 plenum we will fabricate an E92 M3 bonnet dome onto the E46 M3 bonnet. Pics will tell the story.

Or you could let everyone know the conclusion you came to?

Hey everyone, just recently acquired a new BMW and i thought ill join the forums and see what the scene is like. This is my 3rd E36, its a NZ new, factory manual and factory LSD, with 131,000kms on the clock, with a full service history and receipts from 1994, hoping to have lots of adventures with it!

'cos it's easier to ask a professionals opinion and then rubbish it with "factz" from the internets. After all, a DIY hack from the back blocks of some god forsaken town in the middle of Nowheresville, USA / Slovakia / Morrinsville knows more than a craftsman with 30+ years experience. Rant done

Oversize E92 M3 bonnet dome roughly cut out .

How cool is this?

wow! this is old! been a while since i've been on here. i have had many E30's since the pictures above but i have always held onto this one here she is today. still lots to do but i'm pretty happy with how it is.

So I looped this short 1-2 second clip to be about 33 seconds longer so you can appreciate the V12s piston configuration I find the variation in the way motor configurations are ordered on the crank and their ignition timing quite a fascinating topic. M70s have a firing order of 1-7-5-11-3-9-6-12-2-8-4-10 The driver side bank is number cylinders 1-6 and passenger side bank 7-12. If we watch the clip cylinder 1 on the drivers side front hits TDC and a fraction of a second later so does cylinder 7 on the passenger side front. What I was wondering, is after the above moment, would cylinder 7 be firing at when it then starts traveling to BDC? It just looks like such a short ignition angle variation, unless I'm missing something? 4 strokes take two full crank rotations, so, 720 deg / 12 cylinders 60 degree per cylinder firing. Thoughts?

Selling the touring because my wife and I now both have company cars and our driveway now looks like a car yard. $1 reserve. Get yourself a bargain. http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=1062568013&permanent=0

Sam - please could you let us know what the outcome is? It'll save anyone else interested having to go through the process of asking and so on.

Yer that's what I'm thinking, been pulled over twice already and they ain't even tinted yet!

Ohhh puuurrrdy! Love a good e61 touring! Welcome aboard

My thoughts as well. Raise it and drive it on axle stands or a hoist. Check using a stethoscope

Are you sure it's not a wheel bearing? The 2 noisy E30 ones I've heard, did NOT alter in sound when cornering, just with road speed.

Sharp price Kyu! GLWS.

yes, tasty - nice work. personally I'd steer clear of anything that provides an opening to a side of road discussion with an officer of the law; the light tinting would not fly for me.

Bwahaha, you're a dead man Pics of the x-rays or the off never happened

Luv it. Gorgeous car and welcome back.

since those photos from 2009 it's had. 2.5 conversion. literally Everything! sway bar, battery to boot bigger struts ect.. Z3 rack all new adjustable bushes in rear and up front. BC gold adjustable suspension. Genuine E30 recaros (not the sports seats) in hounds tooth, leather door cards, black carpet map light mirror boot lid interior trim respray refurbished the rs003's smiley headlights headlight washers lsd being rebuilt at the moment. lots i'm probably missing!

Welcome from Welly - nice body kit and alloys

Haha! Parts are cheap as chips. Sometimes you need a few! Mine's done 55 miles in the last 4 years, and I've spent about $4K on parts Probably puts it on par with an M car . They eat time, so doing your own work, or having an allowance for VW specialists is a must! Don't let a "normal" mechanic touch them for most things. They aren't really economical either - not by modern standards. PM me if you want more info, or head over to http://www.nzveedubnuts.com Fun, interesting and slow as a wet week. However, it's far superior to Dads 29 Ford

Not fun when you get escorted go the side of the road at a checkpoint and get asked if you knew the light tinting was illegal. And they hand you a fine plus ask you to remove it on the spot. Anyways. Welcome and you seem to be handy with tools and a natural tinkerer. I say do the things yourself that you are confident in doing. Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

you will most likely get a fine and asked to remove them. may get away without a fine but depends on the officer. i personally wouldnt risk it but heaps of other people do it so its upto you. i quite like the rain shield thingys on windows good for ventilation on a rainy day but again, your call haha. with vinyl wrapping - half the job is in getting good quality vinyl. good ones can stretch easily with a bit of heat gun work but other cheap vinyl will just rip/tear. try any decent sign writing place so get some. dont buy cheap ones from trademe lol.

Check your inbox man *EDIT* Going down to Hamilton this Sunday, if its still for sale would be keen on having a look.

Mate, tauranga is chlamydia central now, either way I spend most my time in both Hamilton and tauranga just to be sure.

So if anyone is still interested, ended up confirming it wasn't a competition package. But bought it anyway for a pretty heavily discounted figure. Picking it up tomorrow, will put some better pics up once I get it if, again, anyone is interested.

veeeerrrrrry nice! plastidip is easy but make sure you mask off all the areas you dont want overspray. the plastidip speckles will fly everywhere and you wont see it so much on a black car but it will still land all over your roof/bonnet/doors etc. i recommend vinyl wrapping for window trims but its quite hard so plastidip is fine. its always reversible if you do it right. plenty of instructions online or pm me for any questions i would say do everything yourself, it will be heaps cheaper and you will definitely have fun while doing it. laminx is the way to go but just know that any tint on the lights are not legal so its at your own risk.

Just 'another day'...

Just a thought - i could order a bunch of stickers and put them in my shop for those who come along for the monthly meet. Saves ollie from having to send them out individually and people car buy them and put it on their car straight away.

Latest update - car is running great, and I'm a bit embarrassed. So couldn't figure out the ticking noise, and I was scared it was a sticky lifter or the eccentric shaft not timed correctly. The planned second oil and filter change was done after 70kms of running, and the noise was still there. I went and saw Glenn at Botany Motor Worx and he quickly had it diagnosed. Using a stethoscope he could tell it wasn't a problem anywhere in the valve train. He located the ticking to an exhaust leak at the back of the motor. He let me listen through the stethoscope and taught me what to listen for - the guy is a legend. Needless to say I will be buying a stethoscope this weekend as its a very useful tool to have. Got it home and checked the torque on the exhaust manifold bolts (for the third time) and it all seemed correct, so I wondered if I had damaged the manifold gasket on install. And now for the embarrassing part. I took the vacuum pump off to check the seals as Glenn had also spotted an oil leak there. And it was then I noticed I had forgotten to install an engine plug in behind the vacuum pump, and that is where the exhaust leak was! I installed the plug, reinstalled the vacuum pump (with the o-ring correctly aligned this time) and fired it up. She runs beautifully! No smoke, and no funny noises. Took it on the motorway and kicked it in the nuts and it performed awesomely. So happy. Big thanks to Glenn.

Might need to sort something out eh haha. Went for a skid up the road, weapon.

Prob gonna buy a cr500, the biggest baddest dirt bike you can get. Bring on the acc claims.

Exactly. So pick a job you can do in the rest of the country. I mean this for young people who are in the position where a career change won't be too detrimental. Yeah Auckland salaries are good, but that doesn't mean disposable income is. If people aren't willing to make choices in order to be able to better afford housing, then they aren't really in a position to complain.

People complaining about house prices. I purchased a house on a single income last year amist some of the highest growth Christchurch has seen . I'd say slightly more than average not like I earn massive amounts. Surely a couple sharing expenses and saving should be able to do the same.

What other big ideas have you got mate? There must be some real good stuff going on upstairs with gems like that

A policy that involved looking at mistakes made around the world, and not copying them, would be useful too.

Te Kauwhata.