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Entering *and* exiting my driveway is now an exercise in extreme caution and full lock grrrrr. It looks good and drives good but simply not practical - flashback to creeping sideways over speed bumps in the E46. Im not dying to do this all again but think I’ll be installing thicker spring shims / pads front in rear in the near future (have 3mm and 9mm options in front and all kinds of combinations for rear pads) - I’m sure it will be a much quicker job 2nd time around. Will do brake pads / handbrake adjustment at same time so it feels less of a waste of time.

Got the new shocks and springs etc in - ST 50mm/40mm springs, AP Sport shocks, Meyle mounts front and rear and new BMW (I trimmed them) bump stops and 10mm spring pads No drama's at all on the install but I am a slow wrencher! Car drives much better than with the Dobi's and tired Koni shocks that were in it - a little firmer but well damped now and overall firmer, but more comfortable. I've not had a chance to spank it on a back road but while this isn't an out and out performance combo, it feels like a good street setup with my 22mm/16mm swaybars. Ride height is now a bit low at the front but should look better when/if I go for 16's. Reversing into my driveway now is an exercise in caution. One of the front perches was missing the lower spring shim, but I can't imagine new front spring shims would make too much difference in height? maybe 3-4mm? The yuppie-mobile in its natural habitat:

Couple of pics - new Storm Motorwerks shift knob

After about 18 months of failing to get an E30 out of my head, I managed to secure my affordable dream car. A 1989 (Built Sep 1988) M325i in Lachssilber. This is the exact colour and spec car that became etched in my brain 20 plus years ago when a well-off school friend's father had one in the mid-late 90s. Before I owned my E46 I had always assumed old BMWs were prohibitively expensive to maintain. Car popped up on Facebook, I got lucky and called the seller within 5 minutes of the post (was the 2nd caller) , built a bit of rapport and did the deal a few hours later. The previous owner is a great guy who has owned and loved it 20 years, although in the last 5 or so it's seen limited use so is in need of a bit of a birthday. I have to say however, for 33 years and 389km it is in good shape. In addition to all the standard M325i goodies it has a spicy Remus exhaust, Dobi / Koni suspension, 22mm and 16mm whiteline swaybars and a short shifter - things I would have done anyway. I still need to get under it and have a proper nosey, but have pulled together a to do list for the next 6 months: Maintenance Cambelt / Waterpump / Tensioner / Coolant / Drive belts Valve adjustment / Spark Plugs / Valve cover gasket Oil and filter / Gearbox and Diff Fluid / Fuel Filter / Air filter Rust treating for few small surface areas / clear sunroof drains / replace elephant drain Sort intermittent ABS light before my next WOF Fuel Lines / Vacuum Lines New tyres - 15" RE003 or 16" PS4 depending on wheel choice Steering coupler / Control Arms (with Powerflex offset M3 CABs) / Tierods Shocks / Springs / mounts - Will likely get a matched ST Suspension set - 50mm / 40mm with thicker rear spring pads for saggy butt Strut brace - I'm guessing a car this old and used could benefit? Engine mounts and transmission mounts Exterior DIY repaint mirror + rear window trims in meantime Full paint correction and detail Replace all faded / blacked out badges / decals with new OEM Exterior Trim refresh - front grills and kidneys / door handles / B pillar trims Euro plate Refurbish Basket weaves (or more likely get 16" Alpina / 16" Weaves reproduction wheels - undecided) Finish detailing engine bay and restore a few parts cosmetically Tackle rust gremlins - sunroof tray and few small bubbles in roof skin / boot and boot seal Respray roof / boot / drivers door and rear right quarter after rust work - other panels are excellent Interior Refurbish Mtech 1 380mm wheel inc new badges New plush floor mats Condor 'Shorty' Gear knob and Stitchboots shift and brake boots in Anthracite Uberkaro Bluetooth stereo in 'period correct' style - BMW Radios Reverse RDS customised with text / bluetooth / mic / pre-outs Refinish interior plastics and parcel tray / carpet Re-upholster full interior including door cards - Anthracite Uberkaro Re-foam and rebuild drivers seat with new shocks etc Needs odometer gears so will tart up the cluster while I'm in there Mtech 2 370mm wheel and restore that 2023 and Beyond RTABs / Diff carrier / Subframe bushes Shifter rebuild Beat on the M20 until it needs a rebuild and stroker 🤣 Looking forward to driving and improving this beauty!

Hi team I'm on the hunt for a good condition, well looked after E82 135i M Sport, Pre-LCI or LCI, doesn't matter. Ideally in Auckland. Anything out there?

Hey everyone So managed to get the last of the exhaust done and driveshaft hoop bolting points welded in. Working on getting the hoops themselves made over the week. So not much left to do other than the sump pan and wiring then we should be good to go.

Yeah i expect it reach 400,000 now without requiring any more significant amounts of cash.

All back together and driving good. Back end is noticeably tighter with the new\improved rubber subframe bushings, possibly with the reinforcements helping with some additional rigidity.

^^^^^ Complete with what used to pass as a personalised plate, perfect if your name is Oswald Quidditch.

Fixed that for you😁

Hey Everyone So managed to get the passenger side header all welded up, made a start on the exhaust back. Also picked up the box sections from the engineer that i will be welding in the car to be able to bolt the driveshaft hoops up to. Thanks Team

So inlove with this car 🚗

An update for anyone that's interested. Been ticking a few boxes off on the E39. Alot of the work that needed doing, just needed time and some fiddling. Headlights polished and ended up being the retrofitted Hella kind. The sunroof drains were loose, letting the water in through the a-pillars. A bit of RTV and some weed-wacker-wire to clear the drain and it's good as gold. New number plates ordered to replace the beat up ones, a $23.50 bargain. Got a new front guard from pick-a-part. Rear cup holders and vent replaced. Rear window regulator replaced (swaged portion on the cable had come out of bracket). Leather cleaned and looks great. Found and fitted a rear cargo cover and net. New tailgate liner (still need to fix locking issue). Wheels cleaned up quite nicely. The oil burning and dropped cylinder ended up being a tired CCV. Replaced it and it runs mint. Has a new radiator, thermostat and water pump. Just going to replace the hoses and the expansion tank. Money saved from not having to swap the engine will go to the roof repair. All in all, happy ish with the car once I got over the initial shock. Realising now how hard a black car is to keep clean lol.

Waiting on Fed Ex to deliver my car parts so kept myself busy for an hour or so taking to 33 years of filth with a wire brush, some degreaser and Aerospace 303 to get the M20 looking presentable until I get round to restoring the manifold / valve cover / AFM / brake-booster properly next year. Was supposed to be a much more thorough job but decided in the heat that an 80% effort was good enough!

Glass don't rust!

Moon roof

They are hilarious in the wet eh. Basically just sideways everywhere, in slow motion. Every round-a-bout, every intersection.

Just spoke to my cert guy and his words were "If you can't see it in a wof then you don't need to cert it " hahahahhaha wow. So much for clarification! But he did explain that if there's any cutting of the subframe involved then they wouldn't even cert it but because we're basically just welding a bracket on each side of the existing bracket and dremmeling the existing hole and putting in an eccentric bolt then no cert would be required,. His Words

@m325i Ahhh yes - per your username! Will be semi-daily-ing - i.e. driving 2-3 times in week then otherwise for fun whenever I want - I work from home 70% of time now-days and rarely sit in traffic. Could go clear markers - cheap to see how it looks anyway. 370mm Mtech wheels seem to be in the $800 plus range, yeah, although once you add a boss kit not much difference to a Momo or Nardi. Without airbags, I'm thinking an Mtech 2 wheel looks like a nicer place to smash my face into than a exposed metal wheel haha

Hey Team Hope every one is well and ready for the silly season. Small update but a good one. Finally got my oil pump setup back from the turning shop. I had to source two n62 front oil shaft supporters to hold the new longer shaft in place. the X5 pump now bolts right up the back. Also had to get a spacer made for the pick up to be able to rotate it inwards. Next step is to get my engineer to help fab up the new sump and oil feed lines. Also got my exhaust flanges cut, Brought a lego kit to help aid in making the headers myself and brought all the 180 bends ready to go for over the summer. As i was originally was going to use a steering shaft from a e87/e90 when i was at the wreakers i noticed that the F series have even a slimmer one. so i took the plunge and brought two. After some test fitting the base U-joint are the same spline as the e46, the top needs to be swapped with the e46 one and the total length was shorten by 20-25mm which now matches the factory e46 length. I will use one for the v8 swap and one for the v12 swap. Now the main part is back ( the oil pump) i can get the ball rolling again. Thanks Team

Hey Team Long time no post. its been a while still the last post, almost a year. I can tell you all that the projects are still alive and kicking, I've just been busy toying with other cars, wheeling and dealing and just been a bit lazy with the posting but definitely still wrenching with the bimmers. So slight change of plans, I was originally going to use the n62 rear sump setup on the m62 but thought it needed too much work so have opted to modify the x5 oil pump and mount it to the rear of the block and get a custom oil pump shaft made to run the front where the sprocket goes. ( currently at the engineers) So in the mean time i picked up a 2000 manual 318i sedan and decide to throw the dry sump m60b44 with the 5 speed box into it and turn it into a drift car. Everything is all good to go other than the wiring which was meant to go to the auto sparky tomorrow but due to level 4 that wont be happening. Brand new single mass flywheel and clutch kit. got some new engine mounts made just to tidy up the look from the original ones. Also got aother Hamann set of wheels sandblasted and powder coated for the e46 4.6is sedan car. That's it for now but hopefully will start cracking into the 4.6 motor and give it a freshen up. Thanks Team

Hey Team So finally got the car back last Saturday from auto sparky, I knew this was the issue the day after i dropped it off. I completely forgot to add the postive wire from brake switch to the ews box. I told him to do this and it fired up. But while it was there he wired up the electric water pump and a few other little things. Over the last two weeks ive pretty much got it 98% of being completed. got the front m3 brakes all on now. Spent the most of yesterday making this Air box with Juvy. ( Him making it, me watching) So will need to take the whole car to an engineers to help fab up the intake and route it to the air box. Had to put these wheels on as the 19's tyres were rubbing on the rears. And lastly fitted to this new solid mount shifter i brought from bmspeedshop local company in NZ. So car is driveable and man shes quick, 1st and 2nd are o.k but 3rd is where it hits. also finally managed to get a stationary sound clip. The ticking sound is the dry sump pump which goes away after a few mins and the noise was 10 x lounder than the video. Enjoy team

Small update Received a message from the engineer saying he has finished the CAD work of the lower portion of the intake manifolds and injector fuel rail. All to fit and sit nicely between the heads in the valley.

Hey Team Just a small update. Did a little road trip up to Auckland over the weekend and picked up a 2nd hand set of XYZ 6pot 330mm brakes. Thanks to Raymond for giving me a great deal. But the high light of my trip was when i went to buy some fruit for the trip home around Greenlane. Saw this beast that caught my eye. I'd have to say the mintest 750i possibly in NZ. I was lucky enough to catch the owner while putting his grocery's in the boot. Donny is his name, brought this back in 96 brand NEW! at $270,000 haggled down from $300,000 WTF. has all the bells and whistles as he got to pick what add ons he wanted. Having AC Schnitzer body kit and 18inch mags made it look stunning. Custom two tone leather, T.V , Phone Sunroof etc. And heres the kicker for a 21 year old car Donny's only done 90,000kms in it. Had a good old yarn with him and took some pictures. I said this will probably be the only time i would see this. Bloody awesome

And here it is team! One awesome piece of machinery dry sump system. Stage 4 pump and pan is so light - only 4cm deep! Just looks so shiny I'm like a kid in a candy store