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just a small update on this one. haven't used it much lately updated the wheels to some 17" BBS ones . fitted a arm rest still yet to fit a the ac condenser my dad visited nz last month from OZ so I let use his old car

Four of my favorites from my collection happen to have been born in 2001. E39 M5, E46 M3, Z3 M Coupe and X5 4.6is

the damage is done. I'm picturing a Dickensian waif chimney sweep character, doffing cap after alighting from your boot saying "job's a good un, fank you guv'nor".

Update #11 So last weekend we didn't get too much done. Dad and I went to the Bruce Springsteen gig in Auckland on Saturday night :parrot: SO GOOD! We did get a few bits and pieces done before we went... We swapped out the transmission mounts, and took the opportunity to clean up the support bracket, etc. at the same time. Here's the bracket and mounts as they came off the car: And here's a pic of the bracket & mounts back on the car. Bracket was bead-blasted to clean it up, and the mounts are new: The second thing we got done was fitting the new seals on the diff and reassembling. The diff body has been painted, the rear cover has been bead blasted, and in the input and output flanges have been painted as well: And today was RACP reinforcement plates day! First up we did a test fit of all components, and a dry run through of the process. Then we started with cleaning up the surfaces that the epoxy will be applied to. We put the finished plates into an acid pickle: While the acid did its work we got onto cleaning the RACP. The mounting areas had previously had the paint and underbody protection cleaned up as part of the manufacture of the plates, but they still need a final clean up before they're ready for the epoxy. We cleaned up the surfaces with a sanding disk on the die grinder, and then cleaned the surface with 5 rounds of kitchen roll and acetone (ensuring to clean from the centre out, so as to not drag dirt from the edges onto the clean surface. You can see in this photo that there is some residue from the paper towels, we used a lint-free cloth to clean off this residue and finalise the surface. Below is a pic of one of the mounts after cleaning with the lint-free cloth. We then put together a custom adapter to be able to use the 3M 7333 2-part epoxy with a standard caulking gun. The adapter is simply a plate with two pieces of rod welded to it, along with some washers to spread the load, and a second plate to add reinforcing to the arrangement. Here's a couple of pics showing the design and assembly. While we were working on cleaning the RACP surfaces and building the caulking gun adapter the acid pickle was doing its work. With the pickling complete, we neutralised the acid with baking soda, and dried the plates. Next up was to apply the epoxy. We were pleasantly surprised at how well our gun adapter worked. Here's a photo of it being prepared for use. The epoxy nozzles are seriously cool, the way they're designed to mix the two parts of the epoxy completely really makes the whole process a lot quicker and easier. With the surfaces fully cleaned and prepared, the process we followed to epoxy each plate was as follows: 1: Apply epoxy to the plate, and spread using the supplied brush. We applied an even layer (The consistency of the epoxy makes it easy to spread, and makes the appropriate thickness fairly self-explanatory). Note that we didn't brush to the very edge of the mounting hole, as we wanted to ensure that we didn't end up with too much epoxy squeezing into the hole when we clamped the plate in place. 2: Apply epoxy to the RACP surface. Applying the epoxy to the vertical surfaces isn't too bad, it sticks pretty well and can then be spread by the brush. We found with the horizontal surfaces that it was best to follow the nozzle fairly closely with the brush, doing an initial spread of the epoxy as we went, to get it to stick to the surface and not drip. :thumbsup2: 3: Apply an extra bead of epoxy to the plate along large surface areas, etc. and in places where the may be a slightly larger gap (e.g. around curves, etc.). 4: Mate the plate to the RACP, and bolt it up (we partially greased the bolt thread, in case we had a lot of epoxy spillage into the bolt carrier. We were careful to not get the grease anywhere near the bonding surfaces). Note that we manufactured clamping plates out of 5mm sheet steel, to act as large "washers" and spread the clamping force of bolt out over the surface. 5: We then did the same with the rear mount on the same side (as we would add further clamping and bracing in pairs. 6: We then added additional bracing using strategically cut pieces of timber. 7: With the plates well clamped in place, we then removed the bolt for each plate in turn, and ensured that it wasn't going to end up getting epoxied in place from the epoxy that had been squeezed into the bolt carrier. Fortunately we'd judged the spread well, the epoxy and spread to the inner edge of the bolt hole, but hadn't pooled in the bolt carrier. We cleaned up the thread and re-greased the thread and tightened it back up. We also took the opportunity to clean up any epoxy that had leaked out beyond the bead, and we inserted sheet plastic between the 5mm clamping plates and the reinforcement plates, so that we didn't accidentally end up with things epoxied to other things they shouldn't be! :rofl3: And with that we were done! The plates are all epoxied, and clamped/wedged in place. We've got good beads all the way around on the plates, and not too much excessive spillage. We found the whole process easier and quicker than we were expecting. The 3M 7333 epoxy is really great to work with. The mixing nozzle is awesome, and the epoxy is easy to spread and work with. The long work time also helps a lot. :thumbsup2: The clamp time is 8 hours, but we're in no rush, so it will stayed clamped until some time tomorrow. Dad has been loosening and retightening the bolts every couple of hours just as an extra check - would be a shame to have a :facepalm: moment at this point! The epoxy turns purple when it's cured. When I left my parents place this evening the epoxy was already starting to turn purple :parrot: Tomorrow will be more cleaning on the underbody, as well as clean up, seam sealing and undercoating the plates. Good day's work!

haha fair enough i figured id ask

blimey. you paid a small family friend to enter through that hole, didn't you? I hope you paid them handsomely!

Subwoofer time...

I've seen this on Taranaki street, nearly broke my neck ogling.

Due to the emergency nature, just dropped it off at Autobahn in Grey Lynn this morning. I was so flustered that I got myself lost, pulled into a driveway to make a U-Turn and crashed into their wheelie bin and the guy happened to outside to witness this.. I go to reverse away with embarrassment and end up jamming my bin against the fence with my car then completely knock it over. That's how my weekend has started haha

oh yea manual 540i for $3k

Such a change in excitement levels

The previous owner of my M5 traded it on a landcruiser, not a mistake I can see myself making!!

Not getting the same performance though, are you?

In a bit of pickle eh?

I know him! He is Mrs Pickle's husband! hahah

Unfortunately the day I leave my phone at home (so no photo)... spotted a white i8 travelling south on SH1, heading into the Terrace tunnel. Friggin heck! what a beautiful machine!

He was installing a CF intake in an e92 M3 in the Repco car park? Owning it.

CUBs. Cashed Up Bogans.

I'd go with these: Wouldn't mind a set myself.