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Date: 20 Nov 2019 Distance: 260610kms More items off of the list today. Less than 2 weeks to e30 Mega Meet. 1. Driver's door wind roar Oooh, this has been somewhat annoying. My sincere thanks to @Autoglym for working his magic with the errr rubber, and fixing the wind-roar. I've not had it above 90 yet (peak traffic motorway etc), though noticed even at 60 it's much quieter. Thank f#%k for that! 4 hours of it was a scary prospect. 2. Underbonnet foams At last. A couple of old bedsheets/duvet covers, gloves, plastic chisels, rags, IPA, and citrus degreaser. A sharp knife, and of course your replacement foams. And a good mate to while away the time, trying not to laugh to much with the fumes from IPA releasing old glue! Thanks @Autoglym ?! 1. Starting position. Thirty year old foams looking rather dead. 2. Duvet drop sheet catching crusty old foam. This is the easy part. 3. What a mess 4. We changed drop cloths, soaked the residue with the citrus degreaser, and scraped and wiped. Then followed up with the IPA. Removed the now very flammable drop cloth. 5. Washed, water blasted, and dried with the air-blower. 6. Happy Ending. 6a. A selection of bulk commercial cleaning products. Other things I've painted the new parcel shelf (vinyl dye). I brushed it (per the instructions). It clumped. Oh well, re-upholster in future. I've painted the rear speakers (vinyl dye). Tomorrow: wheels parcel shelf & rear speakers possibly stereo Next week: clutch master cylinder oil and filter, and more MBL8 MBL8 in gearbox POSTSCRIPT: These are the plastic chisels that @Autoglym has for this job. They're well worthwhile.

I read all this, and saw no "Epstein didnt kill himself" in this whole thread, I am disappointed.

Typical man in a white van. King of the roads. Fastest and best handling vehicle ever. Better stopping distance than a Caterham hence why they can follow you so close with precision. Sadly option 2. Next step. Get yourself a Front and Rear facing set of dashcams.

The trick is to find an honest and capable mechanic. Some of the Taranaki guys might be able to give you recommendations in your area

Well placed sign

My experience in similar accidents (although anecdotal) is that the reversing party is almost invariably found to be at fault. No excuse for the speed the van was moving at, and the van driver would have had a decent view of you and your movement, and should have acted accordingly. He was probably on his phone so not looking at the parked cars.

@HELLBM @BM WORLD perhaps you gents can assist?

Looking really good! I sprayed the vinyl dye onto my parcel shelf and it came up looking a million dollars.

Wow, looking good!

Will take them Chis.

Hey Google, what’s an Evo? “Based on your recent search history, I could only find one outcome” ? https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/classic-cars/a27193651/bmw-e30-m3-sport-evolution-changes/

Engine in the hole! 45 mins was all it took to go from flying engine to bolted in. Super easy in the end. Popped the inlet manifold on to check how good it looked. Pretty happy. Unfortunately after these pics were taken I had zero time on the car for 8 weeks due to work commitments. It hurt!

With respect, I think you're missing the point. What you refer to as 'fiddling around and looking' is in fact Diagnosis. The professional operator is exactly that; a professional. Anyone can plug in a scanner; it's what they do with the information provided, and what the discover beneath the hood and in driving the vehicle that results in a diagnosis. It's based on training, experience, knowledge. They'll recommend an approach, estimate or quote for their work, and stand behind their work and the parts they've supplied. Nothing wrong with 'going it alone', plenty of us here do so. Though with healthy respect for the professionals. Cheers!

Yes the owner does Nathan. You can't contract out. That's why sensible repairers will only diagnose the faults and supply parts for the repair themselves. It becomes a sh*t fight if it turns tits up and the repairer gets bad feedback for doing it. I'd rather read a book and have a few coffees and watch the grass grow than get into that situation . 99% of getting an effective repair done properly is diagnosing the repair properly first and then using quality parts to effect that repair in a timely fashion.

If you diagnose incorrectly or the part you source fails prematurely you have no comeback. Its always better to have the person installing the parts to also supply the parts, then there is no excuse like 'it failed cause your part was no good' etc

I think you might struggle to find someone to do that for you. It would be better to have the workshop diagnose it correctly and then you carry out the repair if you interested in saving money. In my experience, jobs where customers to self diagnose never goes well

That may indeed be a blessing for the professional workshop operator.

Finally got into the OBC menu and have been monitoring it, swapped in a new thermostat today and it's made a huge difference, KTMP is now a constant 88°-92° on the open road - apparently it's a common problem with the thermostats failing on these? Yeah, manifold was cracked, probably warped as well (leaking between manifold and head around #4), the downpipes from the turbo wasn't tight at all (I could rotate it by hand), and hte turbo support bracket wasn't bolted to the turbo - I dare say that would've contributed to the cracking. So it's now swapped for a cast job, no more diesel smell. Might be worth checking your thermostats, mine was exactly the same but a new one has sorted it and it's at correct temp now.

House.. hopefully

There's so much good about an older car that hasn't been optioned up - less to go wrong, less to worry about, and less to spend money on replacing this or that unusual part. Nice to have all the 'good bits' too, of course.

Bieber. Oh dear. The 80's wasn't perfect, try 'Bang your head' by Quiet Riot and you'll see what I mean. Still, I can spout 80's music all day long. Here's a good 'un... Why not a new rad and full cooIing system re-do right now? It's an excellent idea. I've purchased a large quantity of parts that has quickly added up to more than I paid for the car; needed to economise on the rad for the moment. I'll revisit next year after it's had some more fettling. Am currently working on the logistics around the how to get it all sorted so I can make it to e30 megameet (cambelt, clutch, cooling, fit rear ARB, wheel bearing, and some ever-so-slightly better rubber than what's on it now). ?

Ugly altezza ones, yes. Not OEM Startec ones, chief...

I didn't see your post sorry, I was in the garage doing some shitty jobs on the race car, wondering to myself "should I sell this and buy an M2 CS Racing?" "would I miss this tinkering in the shed? Would it be more fun?" the whole built versus bought type argument comes into play. It's hard to answer, would you really work on the car if you could pay someone else to do it for you? Some stuff, yes, as its fun, the shitty boring jobs, probably, no definately not. Other things (thankfully not that many) you have to pay for if you don't have the requisite skills. There are a whole heap of different makes and models that are colloquially referred to as "Evo" from even BMW itself as str8_6 has linked above (total porn btw), indeed even your own trusty E36 M3 steed is often referred to as the Evo, through some Italian makers, M-B, right down to the Mitsi Lancer that I know you are referring to. How did I deduce this Dr. Watson? quite elementary. The illustrious E30 M3 only got as far as an Evo 3, the 190E got as far as EVO II I believe, so that narrows it down to just a few. Add in the references to anti-lag and boost maps and we know it's a turbo car - so voila, the Mitsubishi Lancer is the answer. You have been hoist by your own petard, Your reinterpretation has nothing to do with what I said. Taking my reference to old shitters to mean the Evo V is in an interesting Freudian interpretation. Depending on your own particular choice of flavour there a plenty of cars in this bracket, from Scooby Legacys and Imprezzas, various Nissans and even the Mitsis. All great bang for buck, and easy to modify for improved performance should you be so inclined. I have done my time in this area of the car "scene" with various whips, doing "mean skids bro" and going brrrrrrrrrr, brrrrrrrr, pssstt around town. However, I now prefer to wear my cap the right way around and with a curved brim, preferrably something understated yet moderately expensive. As I am moving into the "Gentleman Racer" period of life, there is little fun to be had from banging door handles with people who think they are the next SvG and longer, Endurance racing is more appealing (as I am clearly an Endurance Athlete this suits me... lol!) where lots of other factors other than outright peak speed come into play. If going "wheeee" for six laps is fun, think how much fun it is to do it for one, three, six or even 24 hours.