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And up pops one that looks to be worth it. Shame its not one of the louder colours but white E36's are rare enough and look great. https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/listing/3453238373?bof=7OhyAXKn Don't see many this clean and original.

Underside and floor mostly prep'd for welding next week. Wheel arches and trailing arm pockets will be stiched reinforced also along with redoing some of the spot welds that were a bit iffy. The poor factory MIG welds for the front threaded receiver under the rear seats will be redone too. Finally the trunk floor reinforcement plates that connect the floor to the side of chassis legs. Underside plate are also plug welded from the trunk floor cavity for an even stronger connection.

January '22 223,XXX km To take a break from the demolition job, I got onto installing the trunk trim bits I'd scavenged earlier. Not that it made an astronomical difference, but pretty satisfying none the less. Also helped get rid of a couple pesky squeaks & rattles as well as properly securing the side bit that the cargo cover latches onto, where the bolt hole had been ripped out. Afraid to put anything in the trunk now... The donor also came with some decent leather door cards, so those got a good clean and went straight onto the wagon. They looked tidier than the current ones, where the cloth part had gone all saggy, plus the numerous scuffs had been a real eye sore, most notably on the passenger door. The new door cards came with the added bonus of additional smaller speakers that I'll need to figure out how to wire in further down the line. No clue how that will work, but I'm sure future me will figure it out. The trim inserts will need a little going over with some fine sandpaper and a coat or two of paint to finish the look off. The wagon also got the front indicators off the donor that don't seem to be prone to moisture infiltration. Another little annoyance ticked off the list. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the donor car was becoming an increasingly sorry sight. More and more bits were coming off and getting sold or put away in storage, all engine cables getting tagged, all nuts and bolts going into separate sandwich bags and being labelled. Out came the subframe, and with the help of a mate, the engine soon followed. Love that green coolant, yum yum yum. Stripped the very last parts off the shell. Tried not to let anything go to waste, so kept everything from the windshield washer motor down to the brake booster and anything else I could lay my eyes on. Now all that was left was to figure out how to get the body out of the garage without any wheels on it... Ended up lifting the rear with an engine crane and rested the front rails onto a pole poked through a couple of spare wheels, creating a magnificent wee Batmobile. In the final couple of days, the last bunch of salvageable body panels went off to new homes, leaving the formerly glorious machine cutting a rather sad figure. Never nice seeing one of these get taken off the road, but at least the heart will live on in a new shell. R.I.P. 2002-2021 So, finally caught up, this is where things currently stand. The rear subframe is sitting on the floor, ready to be torn apart and put back together. The engine is up on the stand, awaiting the same treatment. The manual parts are in England, being loaded onto a pallet and going in for freight in the next couple of days. Can't wait. As for Barbara herself, she's still happily chugging along. Despite being a bit capricious at times, she's never left me fully stranded, to her great credit (knock on wood). With every bit of work going into it, she's feeling more and more my own and will be a whole different beast of a car by the end of year at the latest. Hopefully much sooner though. This has grown into a bigger project than anything I've ever undertaken before, by several orders of magnitude, and I'd be very keen to hear any sort of advice and guidance all you more knowledgeable folk might care to share. If you notice me going something dodgy or spouting some utter nonsense, by all means pull me up on it. I'm humble enough to admit I'm barely informed at best of times, and desperately clueless at others, so am very open to learning from people that have been there and done it before. I'm doing my best to research every step of the process before embarking on it, but if you do see me asking silly questions that have been addressed numerous times before, point me in the right direction and I'll eagerly do the due diligence. The goal with this process is to do as much as possible with my own two hands, and hopefully by the end of it, be left with a solid and reliable car to enjoy for years to come. Thanks for all the kind words and encouragement! Will do my best to keep it entertaining.

The colours and maybe seats are the only thing special about them, otherwise they are exactly the same as that 318iS coupe with more doors and an Motorsport bodykit. I colours i can get on board with, Dakar and Fiji look awesome, otherwise i'll never understand why everyone is circle jerking about a 4 pot sedan.

Kiwi specs on cars are always a bit odd - can always spot NZ new GTIs for example as they have the uprated alloys but never Xenon’s

Thats a really nice looking example. Interesting/weird spec though, non-motorsport body, but sport suspension, seats and steering wheel. Povo spec OBC. Kiwis are weird. Slick top, no spoiler and style 24s are a great choice.

Hey Everyone So I finally got the left hand side all tacked up and ready for full weld which ill do this coming long weekend. Drivers side has been fully welded up, a little tip my engineer told me was to use stainless filler rod instead of mild and what a difference it made with the splatter and holes I was getting with the mild filler rod. Im quite pleased with how they turned out, good pratice for when i do the V12 ones. Thanks Team

After being out of the car scene for some time, I've decided to throw my hat back in the ring and create something fun to build and ultimately fun to drive. A user friendly budget would be a bonus but we'll see how that one pans out !! This will just be a fun street car so the aim is to have a mix of comfort, performance and looks. The car: A NZ new 2000 BMW 318Ci with 4 speed auto. Quite tidy generally with only a handful of the expected BMW "things that don't work no more" to resolve at a later date. Being under powered will hopefully mean no cracking around the subframe and minimal hard driving time etc on the body. The engine: A Nissan VQ37VHR from a 2009 Skyline 370GT automatic. 125k on it give or take so hopefully plenty of life left in it. Factory spec at 243kW which should be a solid upgrade over the cars stock 77 !! No plans for anything engine wise at the moment, must get mobile and legal first. Progress so far: The car is sitting with front end off, engine and driveline are out, rear interior and fuel tank etc removed. Have cleaned the underside to a reasonable standard and have welded in the CMP RACP reinforcement kit. Have cleaned and painted the 330 rear end components ready for reinstallation along with installing Powerflex bushes in most locations. Have created a rig to fire up and run the VQ37 on the ground which was a success and a lot of fun ... had the Nissan anti-theft (NATS) removed via UpRev and an ARC license installed at the same time. This was to validate that I can run the motor prior to install and working out the wiring later on when its more difficult. You can check the video here: Next Steps: REALLY keen to get the rear end back together so something is finished !! Will need to complete the welding in of the RACP to frame rails in the boot before the LVV certifier comes to check out my work. Once that's done I can get ready to stitch weld some other trouble areas then underseal and paint it all real pretty before installing the backend. Once the back end is together and looking slick I can finally turn attention to the pointy end and see if the engine is going to play nice. There will be a lot of work involved and a few options to investigate ... current thinking is it will be a custom oil pan and cross member at least. Steering rack may also be an issue. Some Pics To This Point:

I've been riding motorbikes for 40 years and my wife wanted to get her motorbike licence. during the test she fell off. after that, she was afraid of even riding on the back of my Harley Softail. Remembering back to my older days when i had a 1971 Corvette, convertible, i saw that as as close as you can come to a motorbike. Hence we started looking for a practical convertible. My wife's friend had a 70's Mer SL350 but when thieves decided to steal (what turned out to be nothing in the car) they sliced the top and it cost $5000 to repair. My first choice for a convertible would have been a 1974 Jensen-Healey or a 70's Fiat 124 Spyder ; wife didn't like either so it came down to a Merc SLK or a E89 Z4 since they are hard top convertibles. comparing the looks and finish along with the top operation, it was a clear choice. Mercedes is less refined and the roof makes noises going up or down like my back makes when i get out of bed in the morning. we ended up buying a 2010 S-drive 2.3 N52 6 cylinder import from japan for 23k in 4.5 condition with 68k I spent a couple of thousand upgrading it to carplay which integrates with the factory CIC with NZ maps, 2016 side markers, LED headlamps with daytime driving lamps, cruise control ,parking cameras and sensors. And all for less than a 15 year old stock Mazda MX-5. Now in its present form it has every available factory option along with carplay. During my life I've had many cars; a GTS Dino, AMC AMX, a Porsche 911SE,, a 1971 LS 454 Corvette convertible and a 1978 Bandit Trans Am. I've never got more positive feedback as I have with this car. I've had 5 people ask me in the last two months if I was willing to sell it. When I was thinking of buying the E89 I thought it would be a rough riding car like my Caldina GT-four. It's a very smooth GT tour with a top speed a can't disclose here. it has exceeded all my expectations. I just wish it was easier for my old bones to get in and out of. I do have a handicap placard that I do display when i park(since I have one leg) in a handicap parking spot, but people have keyed my car inspite of that. I think they think that no pour person could afford such a car but it's cheaper than a new Suzuki swift. I do have a question about the wheels: they are staggered 19x9.5 in the back and 19x9 in the front. does anyone know the code and paint code for the wheels? I think the are LA Star Spoke.

I've recently (sorta now as things drag on !?) done the RACP reinforcement (CMP products) along with 330 running gear swap into my 318 project car. Nothing that isn't covered elsewhere on the internet many times over but may be of interest to take a look at my thread for ideas. Also cleaned all of the underside and painted plus did poly bushings etc while in there.

Yeah i guess its the same reasoning i applied while with doing the full subframe reinforcement, just about everything is out so why not. Could of just done the underside which probably would have been fine based on what i know now, but fact is you can't fully know that car is 100% without cutting holes and inspecting. I would think in general anyone doing this sort of repair work would have adequate welding quality given the scope of it. Once sealed and painted etc and put back together it would be much hard to critique. The cert guy isn't really applicable to my situation but the people who engineered the fix are the only people id query if needed.

This is absolutely true.

Sensational sky!

To my knowledge the sedans in question are completely different to the coupes as such. A sedan 318is ms is on of approx 50 of in nz, south African assembled, in the usually m3 colours (Dakar hellrot fiji). The coupes never came, in my knowledge, in 318is ms limited edition. One of approx 50 is alot different to a 318is coupe, hence the pricing on these sedans.

Sounds like the classic UK spec @Sammo - big wheels, big engine and bugger all else... (as opposed to most of the rest of Europe where your 318i has individual paint / full leather and Adaptive LED's)

My commute is about 22km each way, mostly on the motorway at 100ish, I get a shade under 100km per charge now so I am charging it every day, but I don't nurse it along and I use the a/c all the time, mine is at about 80 % state of health which is above average for its age and mileage, but you won't get an above average one for 10k. Realistically a hybrid is a better option if you can find one that blows your hair back.....

You can use this pointless exercise and remove all emotion? 170km/day for 48 weeks My commute will be around 50k/yr soon I'll keep driving the cheap Camry 'till it explodes The cooling system "plastics" failure are entirely due to temperature, PA66-GF30 nylon has a bit of a massive lifecycle decline over 100°, hence why there are so few failures of plastics in BMW diesels compared to the petrol models. Same goes for previous generation Japanese cars, operating temps are typically lower by design (probably less efficiency and emissions care?) hence the lower rate of failures

A Leaf would be able to handle those KM's if it is nice and healthy. You won't love being in one for that long each day though. At 10K you won't get a healthy one.

I'm kind of more asking regarding the welding job itself, i.e. would it have to be done by a certified welder and have some accompanying documentation to go with it, or am I fine just getting a mate to do it or something...? Will definitely be getting the engine and tranny swap certed. About to get in touch with a local cert place sometime this week to get a better idea of how the whole process works. Will probably pose the weld question as well.

We bought a second hand Mazda 6 wagon and until recently were putting 33K km a year on it. It cost us about 12K 5 years ago and is now at 288K km. It's 2.0 engine returns 8.1L/100km and servicing costs have been trivial. It required a replacement steering rack (apparently these do that) at 250K km but other than fuel tires and scheduled maintenance hasn't cost us anything. We both still like driving it, it's a very nice modest "just does the job" vehicle- and it isn't a Toyota.

Long shot Im after anything to repair ,replace,copy to help complete project trim type not important Coupe or sedan

Excellent. It's had the Campbell done... I'll take another look at this tomorrow morning.

Yeah we need to do that this year!

Remutaka run for lunch in Masterton, the thirsty old-timer cruised over the hill, autobox did well. Stunning day here 🌞

A small update. The car has been behaving itself, aside from the drivers active seat starting to squeak when the side bolstering was moving in the bends. After some cursing, I managed to remove the rear panels from the drivers seat giving access to the gears which needed some lube. Over the holidays with another mate in his Lexus GS450H we did a small trip up to Opononi thru the Kauri forest on highway 12, the M5 went really well in the tight corners and I can't say enough good things about the PS4s's.

Big day today in general !! Got the drive shaft back and it looks really great ... was worth them noting 'fussy paint job' on the job card As per everything these days it was super expensive but at least they did a really great job. Went for the big boy 1350 slip yoke (because why not) which makes the OEM middle joint look positively puny. Also has a new CV on the end as the old one was poked apparently. Not directly swap project related but I installed my AliExpress air and oil separator for the compressor which is pretty sweet. Also washed the car with my apprentice, SO satisfying as it had 18 months of garage dust all over it (plus a dead cockroach). The E46 is such a classic good looking car

Ohhh look something that's not header related !! Got my fictional model badge ready to go on

One jig complete ... bends for this side are ordered so can get into it proper once they turn up.

The exhaust finally sold, booked in and had Hyperdrive come out with the mobile van to fit some Michelin PS4s. Absolutely chuffed with how much better the car looks vs the black wheels.

That's some awesome work David. I remember seeing someone do a similar 3D print of tube sections with the right CLRs and specs required, thought it was a great idea. When I did my V8 E36 swap starting 10 years ago I drew up the engine bay and engine block/heads by hand to insert into a CAD program so I could work out the exhaust manifolds down to less than 1mm, they were just basic 4-2-1 types and segmented the drawings into pipe sections that could be easily cut to spec and welded, in the end it worked out to be a very accurate process and the result was spot on. A couple of pics from the archives I am currently using a similar system to make up a single turbo V8 system on another car which has been working out well so far. The 3D printing method seems like it would allow you to make complex designs with full real world accuracy mocked up on the engine. I've not played around with 3D printers yet but considering it for other projects. How long do you think it took to 3D print all the parts to make both manifolds, must have been 100s of hours total?

For 10k, you will get a 1st gen leaf that will need a charge before each individual trip.