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No problem mate, just hope you are fully recovered now and back in good health.

Haha i know eh, will aim for that, again. You won't be disappointed!

Update. I've washed and waxed her, and been driving her. Whipped this photo out at sunset a few days back. I still haven't done my lock-barrel replacement; xmas family committments and grass in my backyard approaching 'elephant' status, have taken my focus, along with recommissioning my BBQ. Black Circles and Rear End The tyres are coming right, mould-release agents wearing away with some use in the wet; loads more grip than the previous 8-10 year old tyres. No surprises there. The disturbing things are: little 195s being a little bulgy on 5J5 steelies, natural lateral movement of car on rim with sidewall movement. the whole rear end being a bit squirrely with knackered diff bush, and old crusty rear subframe mounts, trailing arm bushes, and no ARB! the extra grip from fresh, modern rubber, fully reveals how 'off' the rear end currently is. ...though as you'd expect, "I have a plan" for the rear. Rear ARB (13.5mm) with new ARB bushes (BMW), rear subframe mounts (Meyle HD), trailing arm bushes (Lemforder) will go in this week. 14.5mm ARB is preferred (iS spec), but I just don't have the spare bread. My Koni Yellows (40k kms old) have arrived, so I need to do a little cosmetic remediation on those. I have Meyle HD rear shock mounts (3003359102/HD) to match them. They can go in soon with the existing springs, until I make the springing decision. This should tighten things up. Wheels Then there's wheels. I need to get the 14" basket weave/cross spoke/style 5 wheels from Napier, so I can give them a cosmetic refresh, and get them onto the car with the new tyres. 6J5 rims should hold those sidewalls more firmly! I've ordered a BBS spanner for the centre caps, and picked up some NOS puzzle nuts to help keep them secured to the car. Now I need to think about how far I go with wheel refinishing. The cursory "plastidip'; the home refinish with JB Weld and Aerosol; or the Wheel Magician or Wheel Specialist full refinish? And then there's colour. I fancy bubblegum (like you see in the carwash)... satin black or granitsilber is more likely. I like nogarosilber though I fear not contrasty enough with lachsilber. What are your thoughts? Sie sind verrückt nusse! Or at least bolts. Shifter Yes, there's a silent 'f' in there! I'd not bought enough of the parts to properly sort the shifter. My scottish heritage came to the fore; I bought a shifter bearing (Rein), though missed out other parts... then picked up Garagistic Delrin bushes for the front of the shift rod, and a Poly bush for the rear. Then I read more about the job on e30-zone, and talked to a mate about the short-shifter options. I pondered, puzzled, and prevaricated. Yesterday evening I sat down old-school style with printed material, pens and a couple of highlighters, and figured out what I was doing. In short, a new Z3 1.9 shift lever, and some more of the wear items sorted. (yellow-green = already have, pink = ordered, red=not bothering). Olaf's shifter parts diagram, yesterday. Front End Nothing like sorting out your rear end, to reveal shortcomings of the front end! I've sourced a 20mm front ARB, to go with the new bushes (Rein) and mounting hardware (BMW), and endlinks (Meyle HD). My Koni Yellows (8641-1210 Sport) - 318iS spec - arrived recently (used). I've ordered a bunch of parts to facilitate a build of new struts... bump stops (Rein), Strut bearings (Sachs), nuts, dust washers, coil spring shims... I already had one new SKF wheel bearing and a pair of nuts, dust shields and caps, and have ordered another SKF bearing. Shortly, I'll have everything I need to build the new front struts, except for: Springs (I need to decide on springs). H&R Sport Springs looking likely. A little lower, a little stiffer. 51mm Strut Housings. Yes, I need a pair of 51mm housings. Help! I'm basically going to strip and repaint whatever I get, don't care about the strut inserts themselves, bearings, or brake rotors. As long as the housings are sound. So having done a bunch of shopping, I need to paint that newly acquired front ARB, with my favoured flap-disk, rust kill, etch prime, and gloss black Rustoleum paint; do the door lock barrel repair, and get the rear end sorted. More updates as they come to hand. Thanks for reading. And: please, point me in the direction of 51mm front strut housings! Olaf

Agree, I use the same. Castrol response/react dot 4 for daily drivers - its a good deal for the temperatures it can handle.

Hi Jon, sorry I didn't get back to you. I figured my scottish roots would be unlikely to make it worth your while removing a bar from your car! About the time I was puzzling through that, I found myself unexpectedly in hospital (Nov) and recovery (most of Dec), during which time a 20mm bar came together. I apologise for not working it through with you!

The only brake fluid ive ever used in dozens of BMW's have predominately that Castrol Super DOT 4 or Motul RBF600 on the track. Get the Castrol.

Ugh, no matter how cheap it is, a single cam 318i auto..... ugh. No one should hate themselves that much.

Also been thinking about and playing with the graphics and logos side of things in between sessions in the garage/sauna - damn Auckland and it's humidity. Mentioned before changing it from John Player Special (JPS) to Jon Tyler Special (JTS) as a little personal touch, so found a couple of logos and modified them up to look like these: Pretty happy with how they look on the screen - now to try and see what they look like in real life. I will be working with Dave Farmer from GT Designs in Tauranga on the signage as he has got some pretty good new gear for working on this stuff and is a fellow Bimmer lover!

If it helps we tow a 10m three axle with two to three side by sides with both an e53 and e70, with a combined milage of around 300,000km and have yet to rip a draw bar out or run out of brakes

I'm sorry, but have you considered selling the boat? You'd have so many more car options then...

Yeah, definately 5-lug. Got a Ti rear end to go in now, and looking at options on the front. Needs to be a "good" conversion to keep suspension geometry etc. Long term I would love to get some centre locks so I can run some gold BBS E50s or even the correct Simmons wheels that were on Jim's car