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^ good luck trying to find a decent one these days.. prices skyrocketting for nice ones and the cheap ones are.. well cheap for a reason. thrashed to death vtec all day

Finally an update. Picked up some new hole drillers and chopped up my carbon fiber rear cards. Measured them up somewhat successfully, installed the rear speakers and fitted up nicely. Installation was quite fun with a cage in the way but I got there, and even better the stereo works. Great success. Untitled by Christian Taylor, on Flickr Untitled by Christian Taylor, on Flickr Untitled by Christian Taylor, on Flickr Untitled by Christian Taylor, on Flickr Untitled by Christian Taylor, on Flickr Untitled by Christian Taylor, on Flickr Pretty happy with interior as it is currently.

Hey guys, posted an update in the other thread. The work can definitely be done here but decide if you want genuine parts or aftermarket first as it seems some places have a policy of not using non genuine BMW parts or customer supplied parts. 9000Redline, regardless of this I've loved the car for the year+ I've had it. The workshops seem to agree they are reasonably reliable. Aside from this the main other things you might look out for could be: Throttle body actuators: -seems these will go at some point, distance varied greatly 80k-200k.. when they do the consensus is replace both to save on overall labour. If the work has been done already that's great. I believe you can still drive in 'limp mode' when one goes so at least you can get home/to workshop. I'm also told they are readily available in NZ so you hopefully don't have to wait a couple of weeks to get the part in. DSC Pump: Mine went. Got the message to 'drive conservatively' on the display until fixed ?. Got it rebuilt and it's going fine after 8months. Thermostat sensor: Might not happen but if this goes I've read the engine will over-cool and run below temperature inefficiently. Relatively cheap part, bit of labour to replace it. Gearbox/drivetrain: I don't think this is M3 specific. At some point I'll post about this separately once I've tried fixing this. A DSC E92 M3 car I test drove made a soft metallic 'clink' noise when the car transfers momentum from forward to aft or aft to forward. My manual does it too so seems unrelated to transmission. Seems not be a major issue, I've found some info with a reference to a BMW service alert. seems the fix is to use a specific grease between the drive shaft and gearbox. Vent tabs: Also not M3 specific but f* me they seem like a dumb design and are prone to snapping off. don't think this is a cheap/easy fix. still looking into this. Others who are more mechanically minded and or technical will probably have more to add. Regardless, I'm happy with mine.

Looks awesome, what class are you gonna track it in, $2k cup? ??

Getting few and far between are Coupe sports seats as you’re no doubt aware, best of luck sourcing - i kept my eye out for a good while. Had the suspension overhauled this week, and got the 3” gap between wheel and wheel arch sorted, looks a bit tidier now -

BMW remote keys have a reputation for the rubber buttons wearing out. Thankfully it's not that hard to give them a spruce up. The rubber buttons on the remote go soft and wear out from repeated use and age. This makes them hard to press, ugly and sometimes if they go sticky, unpleasant to touch. Both of the keys that came with the car look the same. The Lock button is just sticky mush that doesn't actually respond unless you mash your finger inside the rubber, and all the diagrams have worn off. Start by accessing the screws on the back of the housing. If it's still there, there will be a small panel covering them that just pops off Remove the screws and the back will come off. This is also a good time to change the batteries if they are low. CR1220 x2. The guts of the remote are a press fit into the housing. Gently dig it out of the housing and put to one side. Now you can see the horror. The mashed up rubber. Also note in the above photo, the black thing at the top of the key with writing on it, that is the EWS transponder chip. These don't tend to be held in with anything, and will take any opportunity to fall out and piss off somewhere hard to find it again. Take it out and put it somewhere safe. Don't lose it or its a new key plus coding. I purchased a couple of these "Replacement Remote Key Fob Case Shell 3 Buttons Fit For Bmw E38 E39 E36 Black" from Ebay. There are some different variations depending on what sort of key you have. The ones I bought have the provision for a red light to flash through the housing. Unfortunately my older style keys don't have the light, it's where the transponder lives, so I had to cut that off the new button pads. This did need further trimming to fit the EWS chip in snuggly. The old button pad is held in by being moulded through small notches in the key housing. You can push the old rubber pads out from the front, but if they are still stuck in there you may need to cut around the edges to help it along. The replacement button pad pushes in from the back of the housing. This took a lot of trimming to fit the transponder chip in, and also to fit a capacitor that sticks out on the circuit board. I had to trim along the orange line to give it space, or it would push the Lock button outwards I reassembled the key, and tested. The buttons are much easier to press now and work reliably. The key looks and feels nicer. The fit isn't perfect, and the buttons don't quite sit flush, but I'm hoping as they wear in a bit it will level out. Over all though, for the $1.09 per button pad, it's a steal and such an easy way to give it new life. Sometimes it's the small things that are the best.

Parts are arriving almost constantly, so it was time to start cracking on fixing my BMW. It's been a month now, since I obtained the M328i, and it's spent 98% of that time in the garage in bits. I've driven it home, to and from work once, and that's as far as its been in my ownership. Unfortunately the list of failures just kept getting bigger for those first couple of weeks, but now I feel I'm almost on top of the list and it isn't growing. Parts from all over the world, mainly The States, have arrived, with more still en route now. I decided to start with work under the car, as I needed to get new tires on the Style 24 wheels, so the car would be up on the QuickJacks, and it made sense. The main work I needed to do was to replace all the bushing in the shifter assembly, as there was far too much play when in gear, and much like Tess, it was like trying to row in a bucket of porridge. This is work I carried out on my first BMW when I had it converted to manual, and they didn't put any bushing in at the time. The shifter shaft seal was also leaking, making a hell of a mess, and accelerating the degradation of rubber bushes etc. The other job whilst there is to replace the drive shaft flex disk, or Giubo (usually pronounced Gwee-Boh, but apparently meant to be pronounced Joo-Boh). I noticed this was badly cracked when I had the car over the pit at work, so ordered a replacement. The drive shaft needs to be dropped to make accessing the shifter bushes easier, so it's a good time to do it. The first step once the car was in the air, was to drop the exhaust mid section. It's not hard to drop, just four flanges to undo, but its damn heavy. It also turns out one of the front flanges has been leaking, because one flange had a crushed flat gasket and lots of sealant, the other flange had no gasket, just gasket goop. With the exhaust section down, there is a heat shield that needs to be removed. It has six screws holding it in. To drop the drive shaft first you must loosen off the nuts holding the center bearing as this will need to be lowered later, and remove the cross brace in the bottom of the above photo. I marked the two flanges with a paint pen to help align them again later, and then went in with the ugga dugga gun to spin off the bolts holding the flanges to the flex disk. These are 18mm nuts and bolts. Turns out I didn't even have an 18mm spanner (most socket and spanner sets skip 18mm as its uncommon), so I had to rush out and buy one. Once all the bolts are out, remove the two nuts holding the center bearing in and then the drive shaft can be lowered out of the way. The Giubo was pretty shocking. It even had chunks missing. Compared to the new one With the shaft out I had access to the shifter assembly. I don't have photos of this in place because it was very messy and a real pain to get out. I had issues getting the rear bushing, and the "bastard" clip out, but there are lots of tutorials online on how to get them out. Once on the bench it was obvious why there was so much play. There were no plastic washers (which take up slack) where the green arrow points, and the ones with the orange arrow were worn paper thin. The main joint usually has a foam insert in it to increase resistance to movement. This had absorbed oil from the leaking selector shaft seal and turned to mush This bush which supports the main shifter arm had gone soft and worn out I stripped all the parts down and gave them a clean. I first replaced the shifter "bearing". The old one had worn and gone brittle. I pressed out the old arm bush and fit the replacement On went the new yellow plastic washers. A new main joint was obtained also. This comes with the new foam insert. This is an updated design that actually does away with the plastic washers on this end of the shift rod. Interestingly it's also made of an alloy and significantly lighter than the old steel one. You can see on the new one there is a built in sleeve that takes up the space where the washers would have been on the old one One tip I will say, is DO NOT REMOVE the retaining clip on the joint. It's a real prick to get back into place, and impossible to put on once the joint is in the car. Instead, slip the ring up the joint so it exposes the hole for the retaining pin. Move the ring to where the green line is. Once the retaining pin is in place, this allows you to easily push the ring back into place to lock the pin in. Before I could refit the shifter assembly, I needed to tackle the horribly leaking selector seal. This is a very common issue, and other than bad access, not a hard job to fix. I gave the area a quick clean to expose the old seal. The rubber was hard as a rock and I couldn't get a screwdriver or a pick into it, so no wonder it was leaking. I ended up using the recommended alternate option, instead of removing the old seal (which was proving hard), drift the old seal further into the bore and then install the new seal in front of it. Use a 15mm deep socket to install the seal, as it's a perfect fit on the seals outer edge. With the seal in, I reinstalled the shifter assembly. A quick test shows its lovely and notchy in its feel, with minimal movement in gear. Can't wait to drive with it. Now I needed to install the new Giubo and reinstall the drive shaft. This is bit of a shitty job, due to limited space for ratchets and spanners, but fairly straight forward. One major thing to keep in mind is to ensure the arrows point toward the flange that the bolt attaches to. You can just make out the small arrow in the below photo. The green arrow is pointing both to it, and in the direction its pointing in. The green line is where the flange should be that the bolt goes through. Once all the bolts are in, all the nuts are on and lightly nipped up, I torqued all the bolts up (per flange. Start with the three bolts on one flange and then do the other three) to the required 115NM. This is a lot of torque when lying on a rolling creeper with limited room! I torqued them all up, and then did a quick pass of all bolts again to make sure they were all locked in nice and tight. Then it was a matter of refitting the center bearing (remembering to preload the center bearing 5mm to the front of the car), rear brace and heat shield. I still need to refit the exhaust, but I'm waiting on new gaskets, which should hopefully show up early next week. As an aside, I also replaced the fuel filter whilst under the car today. It was too hard to get good photos under there of it, so no good guide (and there are heaps out there already), but it's interesting to note the old one was either the original filter, or hadn't been replaced in a long time. There was no obvious date stamp on it, but the label on the filter is old enough that I can't even find a matching photo online. Even if it isn't really that old, no harm in knowing it has a new one in there now. I'm getting closer to having the car back on the road. Unfortunately before I can take it for another hoon I need to remove the valve cover and replace the gasket as I found out the other day it's hemorrhaging oil down the back corner. This means I may as well rebuild the Vanos whilst I'm in there. Yay.

I bought a manual E39 for well under 5K, do I have to leave this discussion now

But top down with the 6 is part of its character.

This car is very reflective of your personality. I approve :p

Hey guys I have landed here a few times looking for info so I thought I would sign up. I'm currently restoring a 1969 manual E3 2500. This is my first BMW and I am quite fond of it. Cheers!

They would look spot on. But I like them collecting dust with my other stacks of wheels

Have used lots of the paint film on fleet cars and rental cars. Do make a big difference to the general nicks, chips and damage. Would certainly improve the condition and help resale value. Worth it on a new car you’re keeping. Plenty of people out there doing it so shop around as that price does seem a little on high.

N46B20O1 was used in the 2005-2008 E85 Z4 2.0i.

That’s a nice cooking set up you’ve got there. Been intoduced into low and slow recently, lot of work but soo nice! Big fan of the beef short rib now. Starting to experiment with my hooded gas barbie, but not made the commitment to buying a big green egg yet!

Just a Breitling and a Longines for me. On pain of torture by the wife.

Yep, all sorted now, cheers mate!

Just had the wheels re-done in Shadow Chrome...

Hahaha this article is awesome and I am severely jelous of his style fives

I can't imagine you'd want an external ceramic coating on a PPF/wrap, that would seem like a waste of money to me. As for the interior, that shouldn't need any protection unless you're planning to abuse it. I agree with Kyu, if you're really, really concerned get the front end wrapped clear and forget about the rest. Although I'd never bother to do that on any car I owned unless it was collectable.

She’s a beauty! I’m after a pair of those seats in the long term, and that fabric too - mine’s plainer, in pretty fair nick (under the seat covers), though I’m after the iS setup. bought mine similarly - overall in honest, unmolested nick, needed some TLC. Work in progress, or a “rolling restoration” as they call it in the UK ?

Thanks Michael & Kyu; definitely special blessings rather than a sacrifice. Only a small update today; have had a review of the welding work with an LVVTA certifier, only minor adjustments required. The arches are currently being filled and smoothed, and are coming along well: And with the front bumper lightly held in place (not properly attached):

Well, that's easy to fix! Make it mandatory. BMW may do that, but VW don't. The year is easy to look up, because it's right there is the VIN. It seems silly to leave it out, even if it's not a "requirement". Parts ordering would be easier - I know the BMW dealers struggled with getting me the right parts... though that was usually just because they had no idea what they were doing, or how a car worked...

honestly love these wheels on the E46.. sooooo nice. Must have said that at least 4 times in this thread haha

Did a little switcharoo this arvo, removed some decals and swapped the boot lid. Running the e92 18’s for that super smooth look. Loving how little effort this thing takes to swap around, keeps someone who’s consistently getting bored like myself entertained !

Update time! Spent a bit of time the other day trimming & fitting the rear interior (carpets, seat base & panels). Starting to look normal again..! Untitled by Christian Taylor, on Flickr I butchered the rear cards to make them fit past the cage, no other way unfortunately. Off to the trim repairer next to get this fixed up (it's a bit beyond my abilities). Boot carpet & trims fitted: Untitled by Christian Taylor, on Flickr Also the steering wheel turned up so I fitted it. Looks good, and all the buttons work a-ok! Test fit (ignore the airbag gap this is now sorted): Untitled by Christian Taylor, on Flickr This was the problem: Untitled by Christian Taylor, on Flickr Untitled by Christian Taylor, on Flickr Untitled by Christian Taylor, on Flickr Glued the velvet side trims with ADOS contact adhesive, this has been annoying me for ages: Untitled by Christian Taylor, on Flickr My Storm gearknob turned up too. It's so damn heavy!! Looks good in the darker finish imo, should suit the car. Untitled by Christian Taylor, on Flickr Untitled by Christian Taylor, on Flickr Untitled by Christian Taylor, on Flickr I've also bought a whole lot of safety stuff in the past few weeks: Untitled by Christian Taylor, on Flickr Untitled by Christian Taylor, on Flickr Untitled by Christian Taylor, on Flickr Untitled by Christian Taylor, on Flickr Untitled by Christian Taylor, on Flickr Untitled by Christian Taylor, on Flickr Untitled by Christian Taylor, on Flickr Also ordered these from Allports, waiting shipment later this week: Passed homologation and got my logbook: Untitled by Christian Taylor, on Flickr

I think the best examples of that are Lexus LFAs .... apparently you can still buy brand new 2010 cars never used, registered or PDI’d.