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Hello Julian. Firstly thank you for coming in to see myself and Christian today. It was a pleasure to meet you and I'm sorry we were unable to accomodate your needs at this point in time. Whilst we wouldn't normally engage in this, I would like to point out a few facts so that the other Bimmersport members can stay educated and hear a bit from us too. When you spoke to Christian you were wanting us to use your products and tell us the technique you would like us to use. While we respect all of our customers requests - what you were asking us to do takes all of the quality out of our control; which would negatively effect our business should you be unhappy with quality due to us not following our process. To break down the facts about a brand new car detail is as follows. Step 1) Full wash down of the exterior including wheels, wheel barrels, under guards plus full dry of the vehicle and clean and dry of the door jambs. One hour. Step 2) Decontamination. Yes, all new cars need decontamination. I have attached photos of a brand new M235i we detailed. You can see all of the Iron contamination reacting from transport. Disgusting I know that new cars come out of the factory like this, but at least we were there to fix it. Following up with a very light clay bar for thoroughness. One hour. Step 3) Preparation of surface. We mask all exterior plastics and trims and prepare the vehicle. Quarter hour. Step 4) Machine polish using dual action machines. We use four different size machines, Rupes 21ES, Rupes 15ES, Rupes Mini, Rupes Nano to achieve a perfect finish. All new cars we do, including Rolls Royces and other high end have buffer trails, sanding marks, swirls from the dealership and more. Given in your case on white they are hard to see but I 100% guarantee they are there. Machine polish whole car, single stage. Four hours. Step 5) Secondary wash down to remove any light dusting, residues from polishing process. Again, not always necessary but we pride ourselves on being thorough. Half hour. So far. 6 hours 45 minutes. Exterior Only. Of course this excludes any wax, sealants, tyre protectant or interior detailing which we always do as standard to ensure vehicles leave our studio in pristine condition. This process would be at a cost of $549 for a mid sized SUV including the interior. If you consider here labour, product cost, overheads such as power, water, full insurance for your vehicle and our premises and the such - and given if we add on the finals above we are looking at more like 8 hours - I think this is great value. How much does your mechanic charge? $100 per hour excluding materials? At a rate of more like $68 per before expenses for which which I know and consider as just as skilled as a mechanic then it's great value! If you would like some guidance about our quality I would speak to Jooles C, Martin U, Andy P, Kevin L, Amber E, Tristan J, Richard P, Peter F, Dan S, Ryan H, John M, Raewyn A, Ray R, Seth H, Sam F, Sam R, Nick A and no doubt a raft of other Bimmersport members I can't think of at this time. Again, sorry we could not help to apply your products to your car. As mentioned I wouldn't normally reply to threads like this but of course I take exception when the business Christian and I have built comes 'under fire'. We have never had a problem customer before and we are happy to help with any customer request as long as we don't sacrifice quality. In regards to becoming soon 'bankrupt' we are constantly booked up every single week for over the last 12 months including winter, at the prices we need to charge in order to survive. If we were to lower prices to what you consider fair for the work, I would say we would definitely go bankrupt like you say!

New addition to the HellBM family, BMW 1502 with some extras: 2litre M10 transplant,Alpina headers, cam and dual carbs etc

They can always read in the 300 other places you posted it. MEH! The reality is nobody cared that you: got a price from them didn't like the price didn't use them whinged about it If it's cheaper in Europe, TAKE YOUR CAR THERE. Spend the weekend driving around Auckland complaining about the house and rent prices and see if you can get a half price deal somwehere. They'll all laugh at you too

+1 on the spanner and hammer method, used that on a couple of cars now with great success. Stick spanner on nut, and strike the end of the spanner sharply with the hammer (in the direction of undoing). It uses the tension of the belts to hold the pulley in place, and the shock from the hammer to crack the nut.

All fixed again

E39 M5 would be cheaper for sure, its a relatively simple car in comparison to the E55. Air shocks on the W211 are getting cheaper, with a factory reman option available now, but still a lot more than the standard shocks in an E39. A well looked after E55 is good, especially with a warranty, but nothing on a decent M5.

Julian, if you have the gear, and are telling them how to do it, then why not do it yourself and save your self some coin? Clearly, paying them because you don't have the time is not a factor, as you have time to post up your cry here. Thread locked. Happy to unlock and or tidy up if needed.

whoa havent posted in here for ages! just hit 300kms in the m3. .. idle went bad, stalling out at 500rpm etc .. ICV flooded with carb clean helped but the real problem was after the intake manifold was taken off and a bunch of perished hoses in the factory oil catch can system I believe causing a vac leak. ICV was cleaned, all other hoses checked, and perished one replaced. ran much better, still misfiring, plugs came out and they were eroded away .. replaced with a freshly gapped set and it is running like new now. Also the throttle position sensor was shot and replaced. now running really well! work done by Subirex Automotive which did a great job. Comp test was done while the plugs were being replaced 185 190 180 195 190 190 psi not bad for 300,000kms, within 10% (<~7%) between cylinders and still fairly high (factory comp values are reputed differently by which source you use but around but not far off... ).

don't forget the plastic is 20 years old and spun millions if not billions of times. its brittle plastic by now, just like the rest of a BMW cooling system (and intake manifolds too) i always replace with aftermarket alloy parts, which are available for the M70, not sure about M73 e.g. if they have the same water pump??

Done

How do you steal an e36 (with EWS)?

IIRC thats what he did, and it broke the pulley.

car dealer warned me off high km e55 compressors. He had a warranty claim for $20k for a customer to replace the active rear shocks and a couple of suspension bits in the rear. He won't sell them anymore . I do however know two owners that have had theses from new without issues. I think the M5 would be a safer bet in this regard.

All sorted with a ~$200 aftermarket regulator. As usual - more bust plastic! Driscoll Motors said 'at least it isn't a Volvo - the plastics are terrible on them...' I do have to pop back as the airbag warning light hasn't been reset after the work was done on the door Oh well...

The car has sold! Thanks for the comments / interest folks.

MTOY finally getting some work. I've never cut this car before (only performed a light polish 2 years ago), so I was genuinely keen to see the result. If anything, the paint has gained a bit more depth! 20160721_184822_HDR by Christian Taylor, on Flickr 20160721_185022_HDR by Christian Taylor, on Flickr The interior is looking a bit sad, still waiting for the replacement center console. 20160721_184850_HDR by Christian Taylor, on Flickr

When you don't check TradeMe for 5 seconds and a manual E46 320d with a cold start problem gets a Buy Now of $1500 added

You started it, Ash Ketchum

Silver 2007 530i saloon, travelling along Hingaia Road to the SH1 on ramp rego JTExxx (I know what the numbers are!) Nice car - pity about the driving. All those things 'other people' say about BMW drivers - this one is why. No indicators, impatient, cutting up other drivers to get into a lane, forcing other drivers to move or brake hard to avoid a collision. If you're on here, you should be ashamed. And please - don't do it to me again. I nearly did something I would now be regretting, regardless of whether I was justified or not. Be grateful I was at least awake (unlike so many at that time of morning) or you would have had a blue touring buried in your passenger door following one particularly ill-advised, un-indicated manoeuvre in moving traffic.

Boot area sheetmetal progress

Wheels have arrived. Rears are 11.5 x 18 -67. Looks like we have stuffed up on the fronts and the offset is 25mm too much. Mocked up the tyres for the front to get a better idea and am much happier with that. Need to order some new fronts, but we can now progress with the rear bodywork whilst the rims are made and shipped.

Progress on the boot area plumbing