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Did a self driving wine tour in Tuscany today driving a Bright Green Bambina ‘Cinquecento’. Absolute blast and felt like an genuine antique compared to the E30. No gauges aside the speedometer whatsoever, first is good to around 20kmh, 2nd maxes out at 40kmh but then drops you way out of the 3rd gear ‘powerband’. Still a hoot though and managed to avoid stalling at all 💪🏽 Only in Italy will they hire you a car then ply you with wine 🤣

Rattling off what I've bashed out in the meantime. New shift shaft seal - thanks @Eagle, definitely needed it. Had cleaned all the leaks up so never noticed the thing being completely shot until looking at it closely. Just a $3 part too so definitely worth doing. New foam washer thingy for the selector rod joint. Very tight going on, which is no doubt a good thing. Cut that steering lock cable off right at the base at the steering column. Still locks the key in place with it turned but doesn't get stuck anymore so works as it should I guess. This happened. Again. Couldn't for the life of me figure out how to fit the clutch hard line through. Probably OTT but wanted to do it properly. Got the carpet out and pulled the remaining bit under the heater as far back as I could to create a bit of an opening behind/under the heater core. Even still, it's hella tight, was an absolute bastard to fish through but got there in the end. Not at all surprised that people opt for custom made flexible lines instead. Also realised I missed the other grommet for the hard line. I thought it was just the bit dangling on it already but there's another one that attaches to the body, part number 21521163894. I'd looked at this stupid diagram a hundred times and never noticed it mentioned in the bottom right corner... Have chucked an order in. Removed the brake booster and DSC module to properly get the other clutch line through. Not sure if it's even possible to seat the grommet properly without doing it. Again, OTT and will have to re-bleed the brakes afterwards but wanted to do it right. I'd also stupidly pushed out the other big grommet under the brake booster, thinking that's where the hard line was meant to go originally so wanted to rectify that too. Don't be like me. Took the pedal box apart, cleaned and re-greased the plastic bushes, installed new master cylinder. I'd gotten new pedal covers as the ones that came with the conversion were falling apart, but blindly got the ones listed on FCP without checking. Turns out, the RHD pedals are a different shape to LHD ones, for some bewildering reason. The RHD ones are smaller and pointier at the bottom so the LHD ones I got don't sit tight and slide around all over the place. Stupid. Dissected the throttle pedal to get rid of the kick-down clicker. Had to get a 5-point security torx bit set to get it open but was cheap enough from SCA. As was mentioned on e46fanatics, it's just a mechanical clicker on automatics and not an actual switch. Took apart the cluster to change over the fascia to switch it from km/L to L/100km. Also installed the front cover off a 330 with the silver rings to make it more legit. At some point might get that other small fascia in the bottom right corner that blocks out the window with the auto gears completely, as it does on manuals. Some more stupid OCD stuff but with the carpet out, replaced a couple of air vents with ones I'd pulled off the donor car way back when. One was cracked all the way through and taped up, the other had a patch of glue that would not come off. Will finish up the clutch switch and reverse light wiring during the week, then box on with the engine. Picked up another shitty parts car a few weeks back, will try and rip the dash out of that before putting the interior back together on this thing. Will finally get rid of that stupid footprint if that dash is in as good a shape as it looked on first glance.

NZ new just means it's worn out and covered in stone chips.

Let me have a think about what I might want for the Avante and put some pics together and I'll send you a PM. More... most of them gen vintage, not re-re's.

Yeah, one slots into the other. The one attached to the hard line isn't big enough to fill the whole opening and is just left dangling around. Not sure how you did it on yours. I think I actually tacked a spare onto my order so could send one your way once it arrives if you didn't have one.

Bloody awesome!! Would love to rent one of those for a trip around Italy.

So I got out for another short drive this afternoon to try and get the idle sorted (no luck) and I can concur, its in need of the LSD alright !! Got my front sway bar mocked up this weekend, welding the spring steel is not easy (apparently needs pre-heating and other black magic) but it should hopefully hold up long enough to have the real item made. The wacky step in it will be some kind of bend in the real item ... unless they make it like the mock, which would be really funny ... but also really lame Yes, thats a piece of 16mm rebar in there to lengthen it a little hah. The source of drama around the oil pump plumbing ... will be a pretty tidy solution once made at least. Had to bore a hole in the bracket to tack the cut pieces back together at a new orientation. Ta daaaa ... what a thing of beauty 😆

Meyle HD front control arm bushings. Near new, were pressed out of brackets for Z4M ones. $30

Have been meaning to do an update on my 540i and my W8 for a while now so thought I would start with Franklin. Finally got round to ordering Europlates - ended up being a bit of a hassle when the courier signed for me while I was out and then put the plates in a roof cavity near our front door, so I thought some parcel pirate had nabbed them and only found them yesterday. Anyway, put them on today, happy with how they look. Went for the classic Navy euro plate as I feel its almost an un-official rule that a pre 05' VW has the Navy euro plate. Other than that, car has clicked over to 248,000km (bought it with 242,9XX from memory) so have actually done a fair bit of driving in it considering it gets driven about twice a month. So far this W8 is one of my favourite cars to drive, the way the power is delivered is so unique. Gave the interior a proper detail last weekend too, conditioned all the leather etc. Have also managed to VIN decode the spec. Some interesting items: - Reflex Silver - Sports Package - Nappa Leather Recaro Sports Seats - Winter Package Otherwise its all just regular Passat options I believe. Also apparently 792 W8 Manuals were built total with majority LHD. Other than that, still trying to find out more specific information. SIDE NOTE: Small appreciation post for Bimmersport - the VASK NZ forum is simply ancient in comparison, can't even post photos! Passat's winter package ski bag coming in handy for some bits I bought for my 540i... any guesses what it is?

Imported F11's are a dime a dozen. Can think of very few NZ new ones (assuming that means anything). Diesel wagons looking less attractive currently with the trajectory of diesel vs petrol (95 is cheaper than diesel in Welly BEFORE you add on the RUC's)

good to hear, i've upgraded my taillight to led reverse light. they're soo bright that you get blinded by it haha

There's usually 20-30 though that slowed down the last few months. The free selling yesterday has brought a few out of the woodwork. That le mans blue manual in Porirua 🤦

Never seen so many 130i's on TM for sale - 37 at last count ???

A number of 'excitingly' priced listings.

I will point out it was free listing on trademe yesterday. So a lot of posts with not a great amount of detail, using photos that they just had last saved on their phone. https://www.trademe.co.nz/3817963700 https://www.trademe.co.nz/3817926469 https://www.trademe.co.nz/3817651796 https://www.trademe.co.nz/3817605041 https://www.trademe.co.nz/3817545174 https://www.trademe.co.nz/3817426883 https://www.trademe.co.nz/3816869395

Its Hyundai i30 blue

I had a few Tamiya's that I sold a few years back, A Frog a Boomerang and a Bigwig. Loved them, lots of fun.

E34 manual with mpars

Just me, or does the full fat M Performance kit look absolutely faaaarken awesome?? The rear bumper is light years ahead of the standard item (let's not discuss the over & under exhaust) and the larger front intakes with the side canards make so much more sense. Pub discussion with a couple of serial M owners this arvo, and the general consensus was "Why does it take another $30K (and the rest) of bits to perfect an M product?" The cynic / realist in me knows that it's an easy money spinner, but it's almost egregious that bumpers that are so cohesive for the awkward design they're working with are held back as an aftersales product when the main items look so sh*t.

Are you looking for shelf queens, runners, and/or NIB versions? Not yet, but possibly in the next 12 months or so I might be looking at thinning out my vintage Tamiya collection. Mostly buggies - Egress, Top Force Evo, Dyna-Storm, Avante etc but also some TA-02 Porsches and M-01 Rover Minis. Most I have NIB and shelf queen versions of. I do have a re-re (2011) Avante, built with unpainted shell, never run, that I probably don't need, if that appealed you might be able to temp me to part with it.

Haha, i predict one being installed in the future. I love my helical

I second this 😅