Leaderboard

UPDATE Progress has been slow, mostly due to finances but slow and steady wins the race. Engine bay was smoothed with a bunch of unneeded brackets and metal removed. A bunch of sanding, then its high build primer and more sanding Then its time for bmw black sapphire metallic followed by clear. Thanks go to @325_driver for a good deal on his leftover paint. With the engine bay ready to receive some parts it was time to work on the front crossmember. The stock crossmember has a bit of a weak spot where the engine mounts afix so I wanted to strengthen that. Here is the crossmember upside down - I cut some 2mm sheet steel to fit inside the two 'pockets'. These were then welded in and other pieces were cut to fit on top And then these are welded in too (above picture of the left side, below picture of the right side). Then it has a hole drilled in it so a socket can still be inserted to bolt up the engine mount. Then undercoated in zinc primer ready for topcoat. For those interested here is the comparison of the e46 crossmember with the e39 v8 crossmember. It was then painted with the same paint I used on the engine bay, and then installed along with the steering rack which was painted in satin black to match the powder-coated suspension parts. New msport control arms were purchased and I spent quite some time polishing them. They were then clear coated so the polish doesn't fade and partnered with new lollypops which I also polished and clear coated, and some alloy and polyurethane powerflex bushings.

Also used Youshop plenty, for both UK and US items. Never had an issue. +1 to threads like this being useless in general, everyone has an opinion of bad experience, with anything. I could say "WARNING WARNING WARNING DONT USE Z PETROL BECAUSE THE ATTENDANT POURED IT ON MY WIFE BY ACCIDENT ONE TIME" (true story)

Well, it's been a while since I last looked at this project, mainly due to other projects, business and getting married. Oh and moving house and travels etc (any excuse really haha) Original build http://bimmersport.co.nz/topic/49495-e39-touring-to-ute-project/ As some of you may know, I recently brought the Ute out of storage where its been for the last 18 months. I spent a few days deciding what direction the project should take and what deadline. I've chosen to go with a recently acquired decent PFL 540 that will be used as the foundation to power the ute, as trying to locate a donor M5 is just becoming near impossible. So for now, the plan is to run a super charged rebuilt M62 with padel shifts. The following still needs to be done, - Complete the Tailgate. - Rear left chassis jack point needs rebuilding - Review of the body work for surface rust, dings, misc things that need doing. - Engine bay clean and detail - A few wiring tidy ups - Engine transplant along with drive shaft, diff etc - Super charger kit for the M62 - Adjustable Suspension - Custom deck cover - Full respray, colour yet to be decided - Certification and re registration. If you or anyone you know is good with a welder, PM for some extra cash work

Will post pics here ? all photos taken without filter btw...

I have used you shop a bunch of times with no issues. The slowest part of any shipping I find is good old NZpost

Get the rocker cover off and have look... not a cheap fix unfortunately

Ok, I want to believe, but for the love of whatever, please just put up the links being requested. Stop being so secret squirrel about it all. What's worse, you linking to what you actually want us to know, or for us to go googling and make our own conclusions from whatever random stuff we find?

Have this one on my s54 project car

This. Make insurance compulsory (and it's no coincidence that the biggest campaigners for that are the insurance companies) and the premiums will go up. All the 'competition will make the market stable' claims will mean nothing - exactly this has happened in the UK. New drivers may spend as little as £500 to buy a car, and face £2500-3500 in annual insurance premiums. At present, the voluntary nature of insurance in NZ means that you buy insurance to cover yourself. Make insurance compulsory, and you're buying it to cover everyone else.

These kinds of posts are pointless because each case is special and it certainly isnt going to be enough to deter anyone to use it. Just use with caution and know what to expect. I personally had a bad experience with youshop as they (without my knowledge or approval) combined two shipments from the same supplier that I ordered on two separate days one for myself one for a friend and they taxed me on the total value despite both orders being under threshhold if calculated individually. On the flipside, I know another who has saved hundreds of dollars on multiple small shipments costing only $10 to land with youshop rather than the usual $40-50 on UPS etc. Would I use youshop again? yes, I would. But it would totally depend on the value of goods, supplier, urgency, and other factor before I decide so.

Thanks guys. It's good to be able to start working on it again. Made some progress on the the minor imperfections that needed to be covered up at the rear. Will sand down and shape tomorrow followed by some Epoxy primer. Still deciding on the rear licence plate location. Use the existing in the tailgate, or weld up and relocate to rear bumper

Over the last week, I've made descent way on the tailgate section, getting all the wiring and structure pieces cut up and welded. Welds aren't the best as the metal on that side of the chassis is rather thin. Pin holes will be filled with deck liner and the end bits will be sealed with heavy duty weather resistant silicone. Hinge needs to be aligned slightly, but opens and closes pretty well.

Well all done, bit of a mission but well worth it. while I was mucking around I pulled the hydraulic boot motor and reservoir out, topped it up and got that back to 100%. Boot works great now Now wheel alignment to tidy up the suspension change and just about done! Yes

Its proven but its a compromise. There are better ways of doing it.

UPDATE I was in the UK for a holiday last year and brought these back with me in my luggage; SPAX rsx coilovers. Adjustable height and adjustable damping. Stainless steel adjusters and spring seats. Really good quality for a reasonable price. I got the subframe and diff into the car. I had to then take it back out again because the lower and upper control arms couldn't be bolted in with the diff in the way. Rookie mistake. But second time is a charm. Because there are 2mm subframe strengthening plates, there needs to be 2mm spacers for the front brace to keep everything correctly aligned. People seem to just sit a spacer in like a big washer, but I wanted to weld the plates to the front brace for a cleaner look. I got the front brace and a couple other missing subframe attaching parts from @BM WORLD so big thanks to Brent. I also wanted to make some strengthening plates for the upper control arms as they are aluminium and known to fail with coilovers. So back to cutting up more 2mm steel. I hammered them to match the contour of the control arm and then I sandblasted them and took them to @aja540i for Andrew to do his powdercoating magic. Front brace was installed, and so was the control arm strengthening plates. I have just washed and reused the rubber spring seats for now. When the car can be driven I can make a decision on what thickness replacement rubber seats I will use. Springs and height adjusters went in easily. Then it was the turn of rear trailing arms. I'm using 330i trailing arms that I got from zebra wreckers, so I can utilise the larger brakes, and larger bearings. Of course they were sandblasted and powdercoated like everything else. I then pressed the new bearings in. New rubber bushes for the control arm attaching points, and powerflex bushings for the trailing arm to body mounts. Then they were installed with the zinc plated bolts. Rear shocks are next. The spax gas shocks got new top rubber mounts, washers, and custom stainless steel reinforcement plates and gaskets. Starting to take shape, and I'm really happy how its looking. Then the sandblasted and powdercoated brake backing plates and hubs were installed.