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My old man recently passed away. He has owned this E55 since near new. Previous owner was a friend of his. I decided I would buy it from the estate pending a go over. He always loved this car and we have spent many hours towing around both my previous E30 series car and the current dormant E34 race car over the years. I enjoyed driving it so I thought I would keep it in service. Probably not the smartest move with the price of petrol about to drive the cost of living to near Switzerland levels. So off on my Mercedes journey I go.

Hi everyone Matt here from Christchurch. I'm a fitter/fabricator by trade and my work is customizing vehicles for people with disabilities. I own an 1986 E23 728i. Purchased the car last year and have been slowly working through tidying it up and putting my touch on it. The car is NZ New with 186,000km. Only rust is a couple of small spots in the sunroof. Car is generally tidy underneath and the only obligatory oil leak is coming from the front crank seal. I'll do a full build thread but the plan for the next 12 months or so is to order Coilovers, build some custom strut braces and focus on getting the suspension set up nicely. Once that's done I have a full manual conversion waiting to go in but it only has a 4 speed box so I need to find a getrag 260 for it. Finally I'm going to fit a M30B35 and piece together a turbo kit for it. I'm not planning any specific motor sport with it, but once I get it setup we'll I'm looking to do the odd Autocross event and track day. I've owned a few BMWs over the years. E82 135i N55 DCT stage 2 tuned, a couple of E46, E60 540i, F10 530D and an E53. I love bmws and my dream is to have a manual converted V10 E60 M5 one day (when fuel prices aren't so horrendous!)

Nope, the 130i one is a GS6-37BZ - rated to 370Nm, the ratios and box are shared with early Z4 3.0Si (think the later ones are shorter geared). 320i is a GS6-17BG... presumably to 170Nm??... and is used in the 4 pots 1-5 series.

Also the cross hanging off the rear vision mirror - probably more than a few 'Hail Marys' required to avoid borkage on this one

There are a few durries left in those packs, plus it has half a tank of 91 in it - hence the higher than market asking price

And for just a few grand extra you could get this immaculately presented example https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-3600457430.htm

I think I have one somewhere. Will have a dig. It actually did wedding duty a few times over the years. It's seen some Blenheim sun since. So time to refresh some bits and pieces. Mechanically she is sound and still hauls ass. I forgot about the active laser jammer in it. I'm not sure it is still working though.

Competing tonight for the most trivial of complaints… bought a pack of digestive biscuits. Seeming unassailed pack, but the individual biscuits, which appear whole when you look at them, disintegrate as soon as you touch them. The entire pack is like this. end result still the same, just messier getting there.

List started of: Sump gasket Oil filter seal Clutch Front brakes Extended to....

description is...succinct

Love optional extra ciggies on the floor, and the light weight "missing interior trim" option. Also appreciate the BMW "Individual" ruined front bumper, and very classy munted seat bolster too. Poor car. Saw it come up on Facebook a while ago. It's not even a factory manual. Realistically I wonder what its worth? 20-25K? Most thrashed example I've seen in a long time.

And tape holding the glove box shut... or something. 🙄

Complete with the towing eye sticking out the front bumper🤣

Sorry to hear about your dad man . That car was probably why I bought mine as well. Cool of you to keep it running in the family. Tried to find a photo of it from our wedding but must have lost them :o.

Demand has dropped off, but there is also a glut of nice E30's for sale now, possibly seeing the market being so hot 6-12 months ago but being slow to move. I believe that supply is compounding the situation. While I got lucky with my Tech2 6 months ago, I could have only dreamed of the variety of desirable models on the market at that time - it just shifted to being a buyers market now and has been for at least 4-5 months. There is also a lot of overpriced cars currently on the market, although I'm genuinely surprised the Silver Tech 2 / Dark Blue 2 door with ITBs and the stunning red sedan are still unsold. The Cirrus Blue 2 door 325i was a low kms NZ New factory manual that has been on the market over 6 months - appears to have finally moved on - lovely car but possibly a little marmite spec (Blue on blue) to attract the masses. I was considering it in October.

easier to digest in that form

Hi all, just seeing if anyone has an e39 sedan OEM Nokia subwoofer box available? Picture added.

Down to the final prototype for the transmission mount ... its been an on again off again piece of work but will be great to have it finalised !! Printing the remaining parts tonight as the printer is not big enough to do it in one shot. I'll be trying to get everything sorted for a single order at the laser cutters so that will involve two pieces for the trans mount in steel, cover for the exposed flywheel on the trans in aluminium and some plywood templates for the new garage entry profile which the concrete lads will use. <-- This could well be another thread in itself 🤣 Went on a bit of an archaeological dig to see how thick my garage slab is ... about 130mm it turns out. Looks like they put the mesh under the concrete which is hopefully the case across the entire thing as it will make life a lot easier for the demo !! Basic story here is that my garage entrance is too steep for the E46 or my Odyssey to get in / out so I'm going to cut away about 1.8m inside and outside of the garage doors then contour it in a nice smooth radius which will be car friendly ... insane right

222,500km Car has been undertaking it's daily duties nicely. Jammed it full of family stuff (and the family) over to the Wairarapa for school holidays recently. On a whim i decided to get some roofracks for either roofbox, bikerack, ladder carrying duties. Went with Thule Aero EVO bars and the roofrack mount. I'm impressed with the design, they fit nicely and the T bar system is quick and easy. Can't comment on the wind noise (i'm sure it exists) as haven't been on the motorway since fitting.

No, still for sale. I think it’s worth $55k though, basically a new car.

Thank you for the kind words gents Hopefully once things are complete it will look pretty OEM in terms of fit and finish, that's the goal at least. Not much in the way of photographic progress to report of late bit I am achieving some pretty satisfying pieces, really cool to start seeing the engine and car go from two separate things to being somewhat integrated now !! Wired up transmission so now have functional reverse lights and neutral switch Wired up ignition on so can use the key to power up engine electrics Run all cables inside the cabin that need to go there from the back side of the 'secondary' Deutsch 31 pin connector Planned where the OBD2 connector and Arduino will be mounted Located wires for oil pressure and alternator lights to the dash Next up will be finalisation of the wiring inside the car ... fuel pump relay trigger, brake switch, power supply for Arduino, CAN connections, dashboard bits etc etc

That connector is wiring porn, great work.

Another really satisfying milestone here getting the engine bay wiring virtually complete !! Just need to wire the back side of the 'secondary' plug which will have all of the wiring that will head into the cabin.