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Sorry - not so flash photos - but my overnight stay in hospital got delayed - so didnt get the opportunity to get the car out, and the sun was too low once I got home. I'll try and get some better shots later in the week

Oh man speaking of Trademe stupidity, I have another great example. Just got this question on my ad for a ladder - "How high is the ladder pls? Thanks" This is the ad: Lol.

Milland is good, as is EuroItalian. If you import from overseas FCP and Schmeidmann are good.

Why reduce the effectiveness of your brake lights? Insurance co will find this a big OUT if you get ended

It's about 1/44527778th the circumference of Earth? That should clear it up immensely.

Thanks for the advice everyone, I bought a 330i in Lemans Blue at the weekend. It arrives Tuesday if the registration etc gets done in swift order

Hey Scott, good to see you still have your one .. twin to my one which I sold a long time ago now to someone in ChCh I think? Still have 2 e30 verts but neither are standard so will be hated by all the flat-capped rivet counters ?

156,597 kms. Just achieved my second 10,000 “achievement points” in the old girl this week. Second 10,000 has been much the same as the first 10,000. Everything just keeps on working. A quick clean yesterday to celebrate the occasion (was also used to chauffeur my sister and date to their school ball last night) ?

Date: 7 July 2019 Distance: 259907kms 1. Window Winder Replacement (Passenger door) Jon Mechaniker was on the money, T25 and a flat blade screwdriver. All sorted in 5 mins flat. Love my 1/4" set. Before After 2. Took her for a drive, and made a couple of pictures. Ready for my profile shot, Mr DeMille 3. Added decal on rear window (forgot to photograph it!). You'll have to wait... Grey Thunder is going way, way better for that good drive to Castlepoint. With all the work we've done to bring her up to snuff, she's a joy to drive, and always improving. I'm sorting through cooling hoses and stainless hose clips. 4. Me e30 addicted? You think? A little light reading Time to re-finish that coffee table.

Don’t enter sales. If you were to view people who wanted to spend money with you as lazy f**ckwits and treated them as such, you’d go hungry. You want to make it easy for them to part with their cash. This takes a little effort, and a measure of patience. If you want to sell on-line , whether it’s TradeMe, forums, or FB marketplace, you can’t assume people can see the detail in images. They may be viewing in a hurry on a small phone with a broken screen, in bright light... whereas the words will net you the sale, no questions asked. Some don’t really get your words initially, and need first the pictures and then the words to verify. Some are only viewing your pictures and can’t see or don’t have time to read your words. When you list something, you’re hanging out your For Sale slate... part of the territory is inviting in the oddball buyer, the browser, the tyre kicker, as well as your ideal buyer. The better your advert - copy and images - the lower the noise. You can help the oddballs self-select out, if it matters to you; you just need to tailor your listing. It’s that simple. ”it’s all here, read the listing, look at the photos, don’t ask me stupid f#*king questions, ‘kay?” Does that sound helpful and inviting, or grumpy and arrogant? I find it amazing that folks list a car for sale with some pics and “e46 Ci, lows, serviced, leather, PM me offers”. If the expectation is that I’m going to search rego on CarJam to find model details and VIN, figure out the mileage etc... they’re dead wrong. cheers

After my above rant about Trademe I no longer have to worry about these muppets messaging stupid questions to me. I no longer use Trademe to sell items. Yes it reduces the audience and in turn my chances of selling an item quickly. But I am not in a hurry to sell anything. Forums are just fine. And usually the people are like minded. As for Facebook market place. The muppet questions you get on there are on another level.

I sold my modified 327i, 5 speed, M3 5lug, Tech II for 12k a couple months ago, some of these sellers are pure dreamers! Some would say i sold mine too cheap, but it sold in 3 days with multiple buyers... by the time i sold all my spares (wheels, interior trim goodies etc) that I had on the car/keeping for a rainy day i was knocking on 20k for everything i had accumulated over the years! Realistically these cars are worth more in parts with these stupid crazy prices ! ?

Probably needs a good run. Like Wairarapa tour and back, or Gentle Annie? ? Ours always runs a little smoother and sips a little more lightly after a good thrash steady run in the country.

Finally got the time to install the last of my Bavsound speaker upgrade, the front components (tweers and larger drivers, mid range is left standard) Taking the drivers door card off would also hopefully allow me to address the rattle coming from inside the door, this turnd out to be one of the metal clips that hold the window strip at the top of the door, had come off. Some how. Got the speakers in no worries, direct fit so was easy install. It wasnt until i did the passenger door i noticed the wiring between the 2 doors was different! upon closer inspection (after removing the drivers door card again (gah)) i noted the on the drivers side the mid range and the pinch sensor wire were plugged into the wrong spots( from previous owner / whichever did the work, I just plugged in where unplugged ), so the mid range wasnt actually working! I reversed this and all is well Finished passenger door and auditioned thesystem properly before putting it all back together this time. Once all back together the sounds is so much clearer high highs, lower lows all from factor fitment upgrades. I had this system in my e46 and loved it there also. Now once my GROM audio replacement PCB arrvies to stop the persistent humm and whine from AUX Bluetooth mode i'll be set! Or maye i'll get an amp to add a bt more ooomph. Edit: now the window plug is back in the right place the automatic window close is now working again. Woot.

such a beautiful colour!

Nice to see such an honest description, GLWS.

Date: 12 June 2019 Distance: 259342kms 1. Engine New engine mounts, oil filter housing gasket, sump cleaned inside and out (found bolts reinstalled), and new gasket. Oil filter and fresh oil. [edit:] 5W30 synthetic. The lifters in M40 respond well to the modern blend. Also replaced the two drive belts. 2. Suspension Front: Installed freshly painted 20mm front ARB, with new bushes. Assembled and installed 51mm strut housings with all new hardware (upper spring perches, and strut collars excepted), H&R Sport Springs, Koni Sport 8641-1210 strut inserts, new bellows kit and iS bump stops. [Edit: also new wheel bearings and associated hardware]. Rear: Installed freshly painted 14.5mm rear ARB with new bushes. Installed H&R sport springs, Koni Sport 80-8522 shocks with new top mounts. 3. Front Brakes Installed Vented rotors (Zimmermann Sport X-drilled Z coat rotors, rebuilt Girling calipers, Hawk Performance HPS pads, ATE hoses. Bled brake system rear to front. 4. Steering Wheel. Sport (also called SE) steering wheel installed. I just hadn't got there. 5. Aligned. It was aligned again, iS/m-technic specs. Jon & Auto38 did the hard work, with customary efficiency and precision, and updates. Report: Initial impressions: I collected it on Thursday at the end of the work day. All the slop in the steering is gone. It feels a bit lower (30mm for the H&R's). Jon cautioned me the the M40's sump is now closer to the road surface. I think a sump guard may be a wise precaution for touring. The setup is firm, yet comfortable. It's like a go-kart, compared with how it was previously. Big grins. Noted I may need to reduce tyre pressures; I was previously running higher to counteract the baggy suspension. I was initially worried that the tyres weren't up for it. This was proved to be wrong. Saturday morning I was out on the road at 0600, bedding in the rotors and pads. Zimmermann call for braking from 100 to 50 km/h over 3 seconds, cool for 3 mins; repeat 15 times. Then do heavier stops of 100-25 kmh over 3 seconds, cool three minutes, repeat 15 times. A saturday morning is a reasonable time with less traffic, slow lane on motorway, check mirrors, hazards on, brake. Rinse and repeat. After 90 mins of driving (to Te Marua, then Ngauranga, then Paremata, Johnsonville, back to town), a Nada Bakery pie was needed to settle my now-queasy stomach. The Brakes were feeling better. The Z-coat takes a while to wear in. I figured I hadn't finished the pad bed-in, but that would happen later on the Rimutaka Hill road. I sorted myself out, packed the car, and headed out to Melling BP and brimmed the tank with 98. A bloke in a people mover asked me if it was for sale. Told me had 3 other BMWs; I said "search for BMW Club NZ, we're off on a run. Join us!". I met up with the crew for the Wairarapa & Castlepoint run. The run over the Rimutakas was a joy. My first distance drive since buying Grey Thunder and bringing her home from Paraparaumu. Not a lot of power for hill-climbing, the momentum style is required. I did manage a couple of passes, notably a 4th gear pass toward the top of the Akatarawas. On the Rimutakas, I tucked in behind a D-Max whose driver knew the road well, we had a great run down, with a few motorists kindly making use of the stopping bays to let us pass. This is where the new suspension setup started to show the new character & capability. Loads more grip, turn-in is vastly improved, You can precisely place the car in the lane. Weight-shift is now a ballet, and the car is far more planted. I stopped at the bottom on nearer Featherston, and did my customary photos of the group passing at a bridge. When I re-joined the group at Martinborough, I couldn't stop smiling. This thing is a buzz. It's so much fun to drive. Later I headed out to find another vantage point, and drove more roads trying to re-join the group after they passed. I drove, dry, drizzle, rain, and fog. I drove unfamiliar country roads, and some more familiar, on a variety of seals. 200kms from the start point to Castlepoint, and I enjoyed every one of them. I can trust the car's handling, even if my entry line is wrong. It's going to take me a little longer to make the weight shift super-consistent, but I'm loving it. It's less a scalpel, more a sharp chef's knife, and it's forgiving. Oh, and it's comfortable. Firm, not jarring. I hit the bump stops on the fronts once on the way home, just off the brakes at the end of a descending bridge (to turn right) and found a pot hole right in the line. My fillings are intact, it was fairly gracefull. There will be some experimentation to do with the Koni's adjustable rebound damping. Tyres. These Hankook Optimo K415's are pretty good for what they are. Shame we don't get high-performance tyres in 195/65R14 down here. Reviews on the Falken Ziex 912 indicate it's no better; there are a hoarde of low-cost el-cheapo tyres to choose from, but little else (mostly touring tyres). I think it's nearly ready to receive it's iS badge. Should I wait till it has rear disc brakes? An LSD? An M42B18? I'm going to buy a strut brace. ? Workshop Photo Credits Jon Mechaniker. Beneath Grey Thunder in dry dock II: Sump gleaming, new gasket installed. Photo Credit: Jon Mechaniker. Beneath Grey Thunder in dry dock II: H&R Sport Springs, Koni Yellows, 14.5mm Anti-roll bar. Photo Credit: Jon Mechaniker. Beneath Grey Thunder in dry dock II: New front brakes. Photo Credit: Jon Mechaniker Rebuilt caliper with new piston and seals, nipple. Ready to install.. Photo Credit: Jon Mechaniker A more comfortable helm. Moody garage shot showing Sports wheel. Out in the country, photography pack-horse.

haha sh*t, and i've even owned one ? Still a very niche brand though.

They still build cars to meet the needs of the market. I suspect the only reason they dont make a FWD econobox like everyone else, is because of VWAG. VW and Audi already have the FWD market covered. BMW doesn't have any other brands under its hat, so of course it's lumped with econoboxes in its own lineup. BMW wont stop making "fun" ///M cars, even if they are AWD. The only thing a RWD car does better than modern AWD cars is skids/drifts, and whoop de do.

Lots of parts? Used to be that way, the e30 race series soon took care of that though ?

I know right, its crazy. And there is really nothing special about an E30, unless its an M3. Used to get them for 2k all day long.