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Hi, have just been bitten with the E46 bug after having owned 30+ Toyota MR2's, I have just purchased an NZ new 330Ci that needs a little work and it arrived just before lockdown, no excuse not to be working on it, cheers.

+1 for Laufenn LK03. As mentioned before they appear to be the old Hankook S1 Evo which are a solid tyre.

Maybe if it was a NOS standard production shell, but not a “new” Gp.A. Shell like the one pictured. There’s a used one for sale In Auckland for twice that.

Not much to post in here while I'm waiting on parts for the next month. So the seats definitely deserve another few photos on this thread before they go in. I'd be lying if I said they didn't come out every couple of days just to stare at them... Wish I was better with a camera for these. Photos don't do them justice at all. Light effects the way the alcantara top layer looks a lot. Something I did have a go at pre-lockdown was refinishing some trim pieces. Didn't expect it to go as well as it did so unfortunately I didn't take any before shots. My car has a mismatch of interior trim bits, all in various states of awful. The dash trim and front door handles are silver (I think known as titan 2?). These are in bad shape. The handles are peeling and scratched, brings the whole interior down. Annoyingly the finish on these is different to other types. The silver is some kind of aluminum layer on top of the plastic and really difficult to strip off. the rears are even stranger, they are a (very poorly executed) single piece black plastic mold. They are covered in dimples and imperfections in the plastic and are essentially total junk. Probably done by whoever did the leather retrim... I really just wanted a clean set in the OEM titanshadow finish. Unfortunately that proved incredibly difficult to source. Thought I had a couple times but to no avail. Eventually, a wrecked coupe came up at a wrecker yard near me so I went and grabbed the handles. They were in BAD shape. I wish I had taken photos because I really was not hopeful. The finish on the top and bottom of the handles was completely wrecked on all four. But they were $8 each so I grabbed them. Spent a few evenings stripping them down and painting them. They came up way better than I anticipated. Sanding them was a total nightmare and took hours. I found I had to go as low as 180 grit dry sanding to get the bottom sections all the way back to plastic, then slowly stepping up the grit until they were smooth. I think I finished with 600 wet. For the black sections, I just used a basic rustoleum flat black paint and primer. The nozzles on their cans seem pretty good and the colour is a good match for the other blacks in the interior. I did lose the 'soft touch' that is on the OEM pieces. No big loss imo. Just about everywhere that 'soft touch' finish is on the interior has not stood the test of time, it just gets sticky and starts to peel away. The top sections are trickier. No one quite knows what the paint code of the original titanshadow trim is. A friend was able to tell me that GM8573 is a pretty good match, so that's what I went with. It seems to be a pretty good match, but I don't have any new OEM pieces to compare it to atm so I will report back. Really stoked on how well these came out and will be a big upgrade when they replace the old stuff. I didn't get the dash trim out of the wrecked car because someone had replaced it with some fake carbon rubbish, but fortunately all the dash trim pieces and the gear selector surround are all available for super cheap from schmiedmann. They are ordered but probably a few weeks out. I'm just hoping the paint match on the handles is close enough that it won't be too obvious, not sure what plan B will be if they are way off. In the meantime the car is looking better than ever, but the to-do list is ever growing. There is definitely something sexy about an E46 M3 on square 18s...

Hi Team So i'm a new member myself and thought i'd kill two birds with one stone and introduce myself. Names Richard and i'm here to share my journey with my dream car build. Yes you read it right i am going to drop a v12 into the best shape ( my opinion ) bmw ever made. So i had purchased the v12 motor and auto box off trade me late 2015. Have also managed to find a rare 6 speed box that come out of the 850csi bmw that i had to get shipped from Britain. Treated myself to a nice New Zealand new 2000 manual 232i for my birthday earlier this year. Very nice looking with the factory 18inch mags and msport half leather seats and factory spoiler kit too. So here the build begins. over the 3day weekend i disassembled the engine to start cleaning parts for the rebuild. Had already took the heads off and sent to an engineering place to price up getting some custom cams and an ITB set up made. I also have a full new gasket set, head bolts and piston rings that will be replacing all the old stuff, a custom dry sump set up from the states as the oil pan had to be modified to fit the factory cross member. Here are a few picture of the motor in bits. feel free to pass on feed back or any advice team happy to share this build with you guys.

Finally have some time to make a thread for my M3. I won't backdate the stuff I've already done on here because there is too much and not all of it is very well documented (list is below though), but I might as well make a thread to put all the dumb stuff I waste away my weekends doing. Bought the M3 in July 2019, never intended to get as carried away with it as I did but that's what happens I suppose. I was always a huge fan of the M-Texture interior prior to owning my M3 but I was not very involved in the M3 market, and assumed that there were none or very few in NZ. I purchased my car not knowing it was actually a factory F2AT car that had been retrimmed to black leather, and when I found out I became a little obsessive over returning it to that spec. That has been the most consuming project of this car, with the engine rebuild being a close second. Main list of things that have been done to the car is below: Engine: Fully rebuilt by Kayne Barrie to OE Spec New OE piston rings/hone/main bearings/rod bearings/injectors/rebuilt head/all gaskets replaced/bunch of other ancillary stuff done at the same time Vanos rebuilt with complete Beisan kit - seals/anti-rattle kit/oil pump disc/timing chain tensioner Rogue Engineering updated high pressure vanos line CSL style carbon airbox - running off OE CSL engine management with Kassel MAP Sensor Suspension/Steering/Trans: Ohlins road & track coilovers Ground Control street camber plates Eibach rear control arms Purple tag steering rack CMP solid steering coupler Fresh OE clutch/flywheel/bushings/etc Body/Chassis: Status Gruppe CSL bootlid - Really good fitment, as close to OE as I've seen Status Gruppe CSL diffuser - The opposite of good fitment. Rubbish. Waiting for a karbonius/Mile End diffuser to become available Complete CMP topside subframe kit with front mount extension and underside plates. OEM facelift tail light conversion IR>RF conversion - Much better range remote key Wheels: Style 260M square set (18x9.5 ET23) Michelin PS4S 255/40/18 square TMS 75mm stud kit Interior: Factory spec M-texture interior Recaro Pole Position ABE's debadged and trimmed in M-texture Brey Krause brackets on factory E46 manual sliders Alcantara shifter+boot/e-brake+boot MirrorJohn redesigned mirror glass (Doesn't crack and leak)

Hi guys, A couple months ago I was sitting listening to a Philosophy general education course lecture (compulsory course for uni) absolutely bored out of my mind. While I was pondering everything except what the lecturer was actually saying a bright idea popped into my head: what if I made an e34 540i registry for New Zealand? E34 540s are far from a common sight in NZ so I was intrigued as to how many there actually are, and then the statistical break down of automatics and manuals, sedans and Tourings, production year, colours, import history etc. So far at last count I have 84 cars on the list! I managed to collate these from the E34 NZ Facebook page, as well as from old Bimmersport posts and then just seeing the occasional one while out and about. There are still quite a few more cars out there though! (There could be up to ~120 according to NZTA stats) I have been a bit busy with University stuff so I haven't quite finished filling in the colours of all the cars (as this requires using a vin decoder) but most of it is complete. Anyway, if you have or know of an E34 540 that isn't on the list, please add it! The registry is on a publicly shared Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/105QyKE6a_xYv8p-_R4dSbFnPsJcLvHrYUJ8W2PuhgZU/edit?usp=sharing The Google Doc can only be edited on a computer for some reason and if it doesn't work then just leave the plate of your 540 in the comments and I can add it for you. So far some statistics are: 8/84 are Tourings 76/84 are Sedans 8/84 are factory 6-Speed Manual 76/84 are Automatic 66/84 are NZ NEW 15/84 are Japan Imports 2/84 are UK Imports 1/86 German Import (Must have been tourist delivery) 1/84 are 1992 (I believe this was a dealer car maybe for Jerry Clayton BMW) 31/84 are 1993 33/84 are 1994 10/84 are 1995 8/84 are 1996 1/84 are 1997 (Was probably MY95 or MY96 and was in storage)

Slow progress still lately tooling around with header mockups and getting organised to start learning to TIG weld (waiting on gas bottle in L3). Happy to report that header tubes are mocked up for both banks now at least and lengths all spot on ... on the downside they will be a nightmare to fabricate, on the plus side I will be able to put them in and out of the car without removing the engine Onto the pictures since this is basically a photo record of the build it seems ... Started on some parts for the jigs I will make for the header fabrication. This is a fake collector end and some slit 1-7/8" tube which will snugly support the 1-3/4" primary tube OD. I will cut this down into small segments as needed and weld upstands to attach to a base plate ... this will support the plastic tube at key locations. At either end will be a flange to simulate the head and the fake collector on the pointy end. Sounds confusing but will be clear once I get a picture up of the setup. Left bank all mocked up. This side was much harder as expected, mainly due to the starter motor, brake / fuel lines, LCA bush carrier, clutch line fitting and the body work where the ABS is located. Managed to get it all working without any panel work or relocation ... will need some quality head shielding however and removal of the sound deadening fabric. The view from underneath ... not super ideal but about the best I could do and the lengths are all spot on. Finally something looks familiar and not like some crazy guys arts and crafts project

Hey Team Hope everyones making the most of their lockdown. So finally got the motor all back together with most gaskets changed, now to get the engine mounts finished off and to get the oil pump back from engineers. I should be able to test fit the motor and then get the X5 sump modified to suit. drilled out the starter hole in the passger side to allow more room for the custom headers.

This irritates me so much. And is why I quite like the Model S Tesla. It just looks like a car. Especially a few years since its release.

Bimmergeeks.net I think they still have inpa in their downloads section. It is called "bmw standard tools" which has inpa (diagnostics) ncs expert (for coding) winkfp (for updating software) and tool32. I haven't used tool32 much, only to change the vin number of a used DSC module, but i think its also useful if you want to reset frm short circuit counters. They used to have ista as well but the BMW bullies threatened them will legal action. Im surprised they didn't order them to take down the standard tools download as well because that is all BMW factory software. How kind of them! You can still get ista for free here. https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1847924 but unless you're an active member on there you can't get the links, again because of the BMW bullies. It's pretty easy to install. I'm a bit stupid and i managed to bluff my way through it. Ista is by far the easiest to use.

Looks like a 92+ spec air box, so let’s assume those are Deutsche Mark prices. The shell would cost you approximately $50k nzd today.

That's looking sharp!

spotted this BMW motorcycle and sidecar, parked up in the neighbourhood.

Oh for sure. The PO was similarly obsessive over this car, and his enthusiasm for it was half the reason I chose it over others for sale at the time. All comes down to taste mostly. I used the car as I bought it for over a year and loved it, our tastes align 99%. PO was also a photographer by trade, hence the nice photos.

216,9xx km Gavin at Euro-Italia supplied me with a high pressure hose and some new washers. Not sure what the brand is but it says ‘Germany’ on it. This wasn’t done during the engine swap as the original engines one looked good. Wasn’t till later and I was doing the vanos that I realised this one was leaking. lockdown has postponed a tyre purchase. Hoping there will be some specials once we are back at level 2.

There are design compromises in these motors that contribute to the short lifespan of the bearings, it makes correct servicing and carefull running a bit more important than usual but that won't totally prevent the issues from occurring.

https://www.motor1.com/news/508005/bmw-m4-csl-spied/ Ooo...... that sound 😏😏😏

225/40/18 and 255/35/18 Did have Roadstones now with Laufenn which are some Korean tyres. Cheap, quiet, and held up well at the track and at 200+ at the sprints. They have pretty good reviews. Going to replace the crap Bridgestone eagle f1s on the 200sx with these Laufenns.

Very nice Convertible M3 if have spare money i will take it lol. Also 6 speed 3.2 https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/m3/listing/3238066683?bof=vUiTLeT3

I find the design too fussy. I don’t like how car designers try to make all electric cars appear as if they are from the future. If it didn’t have the blue accents and possibly in a colour like black might look a bit better?

I certainly only consider my 328 memorable for all the wrong reasons. 😂 Doesn't mean I didn't love it for what it was. My 130 on the other hand is a hoot.

One side of the headers are completely mocked up now, managed to get the lengths the same to less than half a mm which is a good result. Modeled them up so I have a long term record but will need some tweaking due to errors introduced going from plastic to digital. Will likely build off the glued up plastic tubes making jigs to support the tubes at key locations.

Pretty sure he got banned for threatening members families.