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Well , I must admit I’m very happy with “Fritz” ( my little E30 project) E30 1983 320i Coupe Still far from perfect nonetheless he is starting to look good 😊 He will be attending Beachhop in 2 weeks (all going well) Hope to see other BMW enthusiasts there

Also, major development on the engine output front !! Had been feeling like it was no where near as potent as it was lately although it was driving much better (idle, rev hang etc). Have been trying to data log my a/f ratios or voltages via Android app NCSIII and OBD2 dongle but alas they only have readings in 'alpha' ... this was on the thought that my sensors are much further back in the exhaust than previous and may not be getting hot enough etc, hence skewing things. Annnnnnnyyyhoooooo ... via the phone app I could at least reset the fuel trims, so I did that. Idle and drivability back to been a bit pants BUT it must have picked up 100hp !! Back to ripping like it used to. So will have to get it on a dyno with some calibrated wide band and see what the story is some time soon ... great that I was not imagining it slowing up at least !! Now, these may look essentially like the same photos but ... they're not 😆 Did a ceramic spray coating, dressed the tyres and finally cleaned under the bonnet. Its probably looking about as good as its going to for a while !!

Wow…. I never read this thread before. So it’s a ‘bitsa’. There are a few like this already in NZ- including a green one that Guido from BM workshop created from transplanting the running gear from a wrecked e34 M5. Personally, think you are playing big money here for a vehicle with murky provenance. It’s hard enough selling a left hand drive in NZ - but when the provenance / history is suss, hard to justify the value.

Don’t forget to add the buyers premium on top! You win the auction at $45k add on 15% premium = $51,75k plus the GST on the premium = $52,760 and change!!

My average is 8.8l/100kms at the moment. 90% open road. Give it a bit of sh*t daily but mostly open road cruising. I get around 11l/100kms int the E55. Which is always way nicer on the open road. I really need to retrofit Cruise control to my 130. I should start hunting for the gear.

Don't know anything about what you are done to your engine but O2 sensors may help. You can data log them to see, but i find they are slow on most older cars. Replacing them usually improves fuel mileage and throttle response when ive done them in my own BMW's after checking everything else.

Some of you might have noticed my car disappearing off trademe, but I didn't sell it! I actually did start to get some decent interest with some offers not too far off the asking price but in the end that just made me realise that I didn't really want to sell it afterall. It is way too much fun and I really couldn't see anything I wanted to drive more for similar money. On another note, I'd been getting pretty terrible fuel economy in it, averaging 11.5-12 l/100km on my daily commute. Having seen how much better fuel economy other people get I was wondering whether I had faulty injectors, or something else wrong to make it so bad. Then I decided to try driving it a bit more sensibly, and now for the last 6 weeks or so I have consistently averaged around 9.5 l/100km on the same commute!! Just goes to show... 🤣

Yeah should have read the Auction $35-$45K. Oh well lets mass report their false advertisements.

Hey congrats from another Porsche owner. I bought my 987.2 back in Sept. to keep the 997.2 company. I remembered someone said that you can't have too many Porsches...... If the Cayman is a 987.1 S, watch Jake Raby's videos on .1 S cars, and check for bore scoring. Remediating M97 engine costs around $30-40k, easily.

Time for another update , I have far too many cars to keep build diaries for all of them , but since this one has so much history I will make a point of keeping this one up to date ! a beautiful spring day today in the Hutt valley, so off with the passengers front door card and in with a brand new replica. I will be honest I grit my teeth and brought a Chinese knockoff but since it’s the passenger side I’ll take the risk. The kit came more complete than the “quality” ones I have brought in the past for other vehicles , take from that what you will, however I did need to reuse the original motor. Given its rarely the motor that actually packs up on these, I’ll see how this one goes, might be the way forwards on other projects too! Didn’t take pics , all classic BMW owners know how to change a reg these days, as they are a common failure point from the dawn of electric window BMWs to today. i was up at pick a part a few weeks ago to grab some bits for another car, and spotted this MINT windscreen trim up there. Haven’t seen one this mint fitted to a car ever, must have been replaced recently , as the paint was had it, so not a garage kept car. Rubber nice and supple still so I grabbed that for just $9, beats over $300 new! Fitted it up and looking much better ! also while I was up there I found an E90 Motorsport spec with a pair of brand new Firestone Firehawk Sport 01, which is identical to the Bridgestone RE003 of yesteryear. I’m sure I’m on record here saying they are the best bang for buck tyre and I still stand by that, so snatched those up. Only catch was the wheels were painted black. Fitted them up to the front because turn in in a deisel are important things. and painted another good pair with Pirelli all seasons I had here to match. Some may hate the black but I’m frankly indifferent at the best of times , especially on what will be a hack. while the car was in the air, time for an oil change. 4 years since it’s last one. The black as the ace of spades oil would have me worried if it was a petrol, but that’s just another day in the office for a diesel powered vehicle. Afterward I let the pan sit for an hour, and then very slowly drained off the top, to see if there was any contamination in the oil. Not a single metal flake or anything . Blows my mind this car has the Kms it does !! Then fitted new filter and the cabin filter, and filled her up. Never mind the 5L bottle in the photo, I know they take more, topped it up with another jug I opened last week for another job. often forgotten part is reset the service interval, all done. While up in the air I noticed the sump guard as standard on all e46 was missing, so pulled one off another e46 parts car I have here and fitted that, and then dropped the car. The car has also had a knock (not engine related) just on initial start and shut down. I noticed the exhaust (which is basically straight pipe from the turbo back to the rear muffler) was touching what used to be the catalitic converter or DPF support bracket, so removed the bracket and all is well. In ideal world it probably adds 0.01% chassis regitidty if this car was on Forza. In the real world it will make no difference having this fitted or not. next on the job list will be a transmission and diff service. Both are still cherry but would be great to get this car back to a zero base again. Now at 490800 km. (Writing on my phone so photos may be out of order?)

BIG milestone - Interior is now done: Full retrim in OEM BMW Anthrazit Uberkaro and matching OEM bolster fabric Fresh vinyl on outer bolsters, seat backs + door cards. Rear headrests, Mtech badges, refinished interior plastics, shampooed carpets and new mats. Fully rebuilt front seats - repaired and welded frames / new seat shocks / clips / fresh foam - feel like new seats. The textures and tones in the flesh look absolutely fantastic and like it was always this way - very happy. Might get my shift / gear boot done in genuine Uberkaro to match (they are reproduction Uberkaro at the moment and are a cooler grey) will likely get rear seat Mtech badges and need a new drivers door handle surround as well to finish off.