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I'm sure seeing those two pictures has shortened my life.

Few little wins: While changing out my non-existent accelerator linkage bushings (great, quick, cheap, noticeable change) I thought I would have a look at my clutch pedal which had been a bit noisy and 'off' the past week. Turns out one of the two bolts holding my newish master cylinder had wriggled loose - simple fix and firmed the pedal right up. The real benfit however it has totally solved my 'other' issue of 'clutch judder' in 1st / reverse changing certain gears - I thought I was in for a new clutch / flywheel etc! Love it when a seemingly big issue is solved with something so simple - car is now shifting smooth as ever. Also sourced a new flasher relay for faulty indicators for $45 (Hella - looks same as what came out of it) after finding out at BMW North Shore no BMW parts were in the country and would be $230 plus GST to import ex Germany. Did get to see @Breaker 750i at BMW getting a wash though Got quite a few jobs to do over the Xmas break while the wife is overseas - want it tip-top for summer spankings before it goes under the knife in April / May: Engine mounts Tranny mounts and fresh redline MTL Exhaust hanger / poly bushes for my aftermarket end links Oil & filter Refinish interior plastics with matte soft touch clear Paint correction and headlight refurbishment New Osram headlight and spotlight bulbs See if I can fix partially functional blower motor and resistor / washer jets before throwing parts at it 9mm spring pad front driver side to perfect ride height Full Cluster refurbishment (if my parts arrive on time...)

And this is where I’m currently at, -engine mounted -gearbox mounted -driveshaft made -all exhaust/turbo made to downpipe -fuel pump mounted, new fuel lines made and plumbed -radiator mounted and plumbed -intercooler mounted and piping fabricated -wiring all hooked up-minus afew sensors -BC Coilovers welded up I will make more of an effort to take more photos and post more of my progress if there is any interest. ive still got loads of work to get this done and would appreciate any advice/help.

Found some 16” BBS RS’s in 5x120 and decided they need to be bigger ended up building them to: 18x9 et+5 18x10.5 et-5

Sounds like someone didn't do them up properly.

Thanks man! It’s been just about a year and abit in the making at this stage. will also have alpina front lip and gold alpina stripes I’m thinking.

Hope to get it started over the holidays and then move on to getting it moving itself. my next major headache is getting it to stop, I have next to no firewall space and I’m considering mounting a willwood pedal box with the master cylinders mounted in the cabin, anyone whose done this to a road driven car- I’d love some advice. Some more random pictures and a picture of my motivation for this build (yes it’s low- will be converting the BC Coilovers to air suspension)

Started stripping back the engine bay for paint - jumped the gun abit but believe we were in lockdown at the time and was trying not to spend to much. picked the colour for a respray and got the engine bay done paint colour is the newer Malachite Green metallic as seen the new BMW M8

Thought I’d start abit of a build thread for my 635csi that’s well and truely underway

Will get the sunroof rust and a few other little bits of rust & panel work done which will necessitate partial respray, quite possibly a full respray pending cost differential. Definately no rocket bunny kit

I know it’s probably sacrilegious to most, decided it needed some more power. And I decided to go down the LS route - endless aftermarket parts -plenty of off the shelf wiring options -cheap(ish) Got the m30b35 out and got the LS mounted

Ta daaaaaaaaaa ... WoF booked for tomorrow then rego and then ... sheeeeeit, not sure what then !?!! I guess I can actually drive the thing ... like a real car ?! How odd 🤯

@Kees that Montreal Blue looks nice, same colour as @BozzaFC's 328i I think. 170kw from a V8 is kind of pathetic though, even the M54 in an E34 had 145kw. Possibly ordered in the UK by/for an NZ buyer, the kph speedo being the giveaway

I’m surprised no one has nabbed this: https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-3835547289.htm Sure its not particularly powerful for a V8, but it’s still a V8 MANUAL for $5.5K. Doesn’t get much cheaper than that! Aside from the hideous wheels and the lowered suspension it looks fairly tidy and I think it would tidy up well with some M Sport salt sprinkled on it. Plus I’m guessing it would be quite easy to swap a bigger M62 in such as out of a 540i to give it some decent power. Surely the manual conversion alone would be worth more than half the asking price? If I didn’t already have way too many cars I would probably buy this.

Sold

Checked the 80-120 acceleration measurement is working, the display is just hanging out in the glovebox for now. Will look to right align the metrics and change colour based on value or something later I think ... loads of tinkering one can do in that space !!

Will follow the thread its looking awesome and no hate from me, I just passed my cert today for VQ37 in E46 I'm trying to think now if I have some sage words of wisdom ... errrrrr ... Do the non glamorous things on the way through while you can and have access. I had to fix my new fuel lines to the body at 300mm centres behind the engine ... soooo easy to do before final fitment, a real shitter of a job to do after. If you've not already got a certifier on the case I'd sort that and have a quick convo or site visit, get them to point out any specific concerns etc The LVVTA forum is useful for questions https://lvvta.proboards.com/ You'll already have discovered this one by now I think, take your 'high' budget figure and double it 💸 Mini-tub the rear and get a good LSD ? 😂

Yeah could be. Listed for around $3500 awhile ago iirc. Take the shitty wheels of it and it will go faster.

Wish it was just a wash, has a steering fault. Dividing element and relay that assists the power steering system that needs replacing, ex Germany of cause. So it’ll be there a while, thank goodness for warranties 😕. $2k

Damn dude, this is wicked! have always liked the idea of an E24 with V8. Malachite with the BBS is going to look amazing too.

Got the LS back in and started to wrap my head around how all this is going to work. soon came to the conclusion that the exhaust manifold would have to be forward facing to clear the massive steering box - decided f**k it let’s just turbo it to. (my original plan was a cam’d high revving LS with individual throttle bodies and dressed somewhat older to make it look like it belongs there)

And i thought the wheels on my old M3-28i looked ridiculous 🤣

My first e39 was a 535i, NZ new. Really enjoyed it as it was very capable as an everyday driver, even in auto guise. Had a VR Senator at the same time and they were completely different cars although they had similar power figures. Found the 3.5 V8 was more refined with enough oomph for daily use, and even got it past 190kmh once haha (and got passed by an e63 M6!) I reckon this is bargain and huge bang for buck - very tempting and would be cool upgrading it to 'm-sport' spec! Wonder if this is the UK imported one that Angus & Burrell, in Wellington, sold a couple of times...

Not really uncommon, particularly on the pre-FL cars, not really a loss either as wasnt even very good when new and just dates cars when ages, may not have even been an option on the early kiwi cars. NZ 130s being lower speced than japanese is nonsense There are literally only 32 of them, 13 manuals, most got xenons etc. The only true poverty pack one Ive seen is one thats now a race car, was a red 2005, looked to be first one in the country - Manual/Non M/Halogen lights/no options etc... kinda gave the impression it was imported to be a race car.

It's not particularly common to have no iDrive but NZ tends to get under-spec'd cars... surprised it has Xenons and dual PDC actually.

@Gaz its noticeable slimmer, definitely helps for fitment of the headers as every mm counts. I had to get the top U joint swapped over to the e46 one ( i think e36 are the same) and i had it shorten by 20mm i think. Oh nice be nice to see one in a e36 too.

Never understood why in the event of an accident, you'd want to look like Spiderman.

Seats themselves are probably original but I have no idea as to what those headrests are from - Deffo not an M3, and they seem different to the old “fishnet” Recaros from old Escort/Capri, etc.

That spider in the reverse light though 🤣

Last week I had the lights protected by Obsessive Car Detailing in Auckland. Great team and you can't see the film unless you're really, really looking. I installed the headlights last Sunday afternoon (11 December) after the 24 hours waiting time for the protectant film to fully set in place. They look amazing both off and on. the Auto levelling works as it should and they are adjusted pretty well but will need some fine-tuning at some stage to ensure the aim is in spec. After a short drive in the rain on Sunday, I noted some very light condensation in the left-hand side. This dissipated pretty quickly but was concerning as it meant the seal wasn't weather-tight. I decided to remove the light, separate it again, and reseal it from scratch. Upon removal, I could see I hadn't been liberal enough with the sealant on this light and it had rolled rather than bulged when I had pushed the lens home. ( I've also read that Xenon and LED units don't get as hot as Halogens, so won't evaporate moisture to the same level. The sealant was heated up in small sections and scraped out using a plastic trim tool. An all-new more liberal bead of sealant was laid in the channel and the light reassembled. The light is back in the car now and working great, fingers are crossed that the condensation doesn't return as I don't fancy pulling it apart again This closes the lighting chapter in project E39.

Can we what!! Sex spec is back in fashion!! On the hunt for the chrome light set too!