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Okay so another update to the money pit..... Pre cert stuff done and dusted: Failed VTNZ WOF ( they even tried to put the 100mm brick under the car I think Im sitting about 70mm to side skirt and the gearbox x-member is the lowest point) Wheel alignment done (lots of poke up front with the camber removed) I went in for cert and failed.... Failed on no driveshaft hoops (thought I could get away by confroming with 2.5(9) of the LVVTA standard, but couldnt confirm the part #'s). Failed on tires to small for rim...... this is a bit silly.... I had 215/45 and 205/40 tires on 8.5" rims..... so now am running legal sizing of 195/40 and 215/40. - Yes that is correct, 195/40 and 215/40 are legal but for some reason 205/40/17 is illegal on a 8.5" rim, so now I have a hell of a lot more stretch up front!!! Final part I failed on was the rear springs are too big at the top and are not located perfectly by the rubber locating spike so will need to make up a little spacer/bush to make sure it sits tight in there. So for the driveshaft hoops I was able to get a pair custom made up, here are some pics as it seems I struggled to find any decent pictures of driveshaft safety loops for an E36! Front hoop: Rear hoop: Internal mounting plates with the 8.8 bolts: These are awesome quality and fit perfectly! JB Fabrication down here in Christchurch was able to do them up for me, on a Saturday too!!!! I will get something fabricated up this week to locate the springs nice and snug and will then take it back for its recheck next week! As always will finish off with more beauty shots after I cleaned it the other day

Hi all My name is Peter Just moved back from Aussie, sold my company Advan Performance Centre Sydney, BMW / Euro tuning etc. During my 16 years in Australia we owned many cars, one of my favorites was a BMW E92 335, over time it became our shop car and was highly modified. Its great to be back in Kiwi land and explorer our fantastic roads, its just the weather that we are still getting used to lol.. Now we are settled i have purchased a Keeper and one of my favorite cars. Its a M3 E92 2012 Edition 500 done just 22,000km, it was imported by a BMW M3 enthusiast in 2013 with only 53km on the clock effectively a new car. So happy to find something different. I raced cars in NZ for many years prior to moving to Aussie, so looking forward to having a play in the M3. My knowledge is extensive with BMW from 06 - 2016 M and non M, Very happy to help out members where i can. The wife and i are looking forward to meeting some of you at future events. Cheers Peter

Thank you for the words of encouragement (I think! ) Working at night was actually quite ok. My bottleneck ended up being that the baby monitor ran out of battery! I'll make sure to plug it in tonight and have at it. 10pm-2am is prime free time for me.

Ugh. Spent forever futzing with the airbox to remove it en route to the oil filter housing to replace that gasket. Just as I realize I am short one T50 socket for the pulley, my son's kindy calls and I have to dash off to pick him up. This immediately after I remove the upper radiator hose and spill coolant everywhere. Sick kid and car is sitting there all mucked up. Ugh. I might try and finish removing the alternator and housing tonight, clean and refit tomorrow. Wish me luck either way.

I took it for a strop to Auckland with #1 son, filled a few days of the school holidays in. And settle in the new shocks and tyres. Photos shortly. It's a great distance car. On smooth seal, you can turn up and enjoy the hifi without road noise intrusion. luxury. It's confortable, minimises time in the opposite lane while overtaking, stops and handles pretty well. And for the first time I had the fuel economy readout in the 11l/100km range. Pretty good given I was enjoying the kickdown bark while overtaking. Oh, and while in Auckland I went and had a look at the drift series at Pukekohe. My first time seeing it live, and I wasn't impressed. A separate post on that. I also fitted some genuine BMW wiper blades while in the north. I was having a little trouble fitting the new Valeos. Then I had trouble with the BMW blades... Auckland City BMW service advisor kindly helped me out. I guess I wasn't savage enough with them! Today a package arrived, and I'm enjoying reading my way through the north american e60 sales brochure (bout 70 pages), luxuriating in that BMW marketing speak. all rights reserved. hosted here on Bimmersport. My panzerwagen on SH4 - the Paraparas.

Kia ora team, My name is Ryan and I am a long term car enthusiast and recently found lover for all BMW's. It started late last year with me wanting a new tidy daily, something not Japanese. I flew up to Auckland and picked up my new BMW 2007 E90 6-speed manual 320i and drove it back to Christchurch. Being the male I am, I found the need to pick up a spanner so two months ago I jumped on a bus and went to the Nelson region to purchase my E30 1987 PFL coupe running a auto 1.8ltr m10. I personally love the m10, such an underrated engine that has a lot of potential and very strong from factory. Current plans are manual conversion, install my adjustable suspension and general tidy up / replacing tarnished parts with OEM factory. I am excited to learn and make new friends along the way! Cheers team,

haha as soon as I get the hung of the new machines ill let you know, ive only done a few pieces so need some more practice or ill become one of those FaceBook memes

Oh wow, thanks @kulgan David :-) I haven't seen the 750Li, but now that I have im going to bid haha and its the right colour too. Will need to swap the interior out tho Thanks agian

Have you seen these 2 Francois? 94 740i http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=1301755579 96 750il http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=1310472041

Managed to get a few hours in the garage on ANZAC Day. Got the engine out and started tidying up engine bay - clean oil/dust/leaves, remove sound deadening (but leave heat shields). I'm not bothering de-looming at this stage. Oh man, is the auto trans heavy compared to the manual gearbox! Pleasant surprise from BMW: no firewall drilling required for the clutch master cylinder and supply hose. 2 is definitely better than 1, right? Managed to mount the pedals before I got called out of the garage for the day. Lots more to do...

Luck! Don't despair, once you have done this a couple of times it all begins to make sense and becomes less of a drama. And it's an E39, so it WILL be giving you plenty of practice...

Can you get another bolt in behind it and use it to punch it through? The weight of the alternator pulling down on that one bolt isn't making it all bind up, is it?

I might try and avoid having a head on collision in my e36....

leased space, not public parking, parking like a boss yeah?

After removing the brake sheilds from the E39, because the council are too reatarded to sweep the stones off the new seal..... When to stay at the beach for a week - at Pacific Bay/Kowhawera Bay Tutukaka... turns out they just sealed the road out there too! E39 now has 3 new windscreen chips, numerous paint chips, stone stuck on the rims, underbody trays, wheelarches and suspension... GRRRR! Plus, in typical E39 fashion, had to nip down to the hardware shop for some "Knead-it"... to seal up the expansion tank, so we could come home! I only looked at it a few weeks ago, thining I should order one!

Just a quick post - bought one of those Airbag SRS reset tools on trademe. I triggered an alert when I was checking fuses. It just arrived so I followed instuctions, turned the key on, opened the bonnet, and connected it to the round interface to the right of the engine. Got cA up and hit enter. SRS Airbag light now off. If anyone needs this done in the Wellington region let me know. Jim

ooops, rego expired more than a month ago.... sounded mean. at Pukekohe Drift meeting.

Overhauled my brakes recently. I got RDA slotted/dimpled rotors, ordered from empoweredautoparts.com.au Plain rotors are fine too, but you can get even better deals for some Zimmerman or Brembo blanks, FCPEuro had decent prices last I checked. Then I bought EBC Redstuff pads off some random Ebay seller because they were really cheap. They're a good mix of performance and low dust. Some local brake part suppliers stock them too, prices vary. I've heard Hawk HPS 5.0 are excellent too, more on the performance side I think so I'd expect more dust. More expensive too. My setup works pretty well for me, handles regular driving nicely, no squeak and nice brake feel, a faint helicopter noise from the slotted rotors when driving near a wall or parked cars with the windows down. Handles my aggressive back-road driving sessions well and don't get too much dust to clean.

Mowed the lawns on a paddock today with it...