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doesnt look to be a lot of interest in keeping this thread alive, never the less, it serves as a good build diary for me in the future, and prehaps the next own if it is ever sold ! had a quiet afternoon around march or so. had some black leather seats from an E53 parts car. The bolt pattern is identical across E38/E39/E46/E53 so spent the afternoon getting these installed. This 320d had poverty pack seats, was surprised to find it wasnt even prewired for electric or heated seats which they usually are. Not too fused about the heated seats, but had to run some wires to make the move/recline etc work, and also swap the seat buckles and pretensioners over I also got an E39 540i motorsport parts car in recently, which had a set of 18" M Parallels which were quickly pinched. The photos make them look tidier than they are, could do with a professional refurb, but look the business! Fitted brand new tyres to make them work (as the E39 tyres were much too big) as well as hubcentric spacers, due to the E39 center bore being slightly larger than all other Exx BMWs for some strange reason! The front work perfectly as is. The rear i had to roll the inner lips of the gaurds in, trim the wheel well liners a but, and delete the front most of the side brackets for the bumper. the rear shocks had visible corosion around the top near the upper mounts, so also replaced those. Sorry to the purists that only fit Bilstein etc, off the shelf items at BNT will do for this car. lowered back down and gave it a drive, no rubbing anywhere. over the past month has done a lot of miles loaded to the brim with gear for the shows Im doing for ACT, and no rubbing anywhere. Great result! forgot i had some BMW plates and found one day in the shed, so fitted those up as well. While it had a pitstop in Hastings last week, Greg at GH Automotive swapped the engine mounts for me. Left side easy peasy, right hand side a bit of a pain with a turbo tucked in there so you need to drop the frame to do it. Also discovered the vaccum hose to the wastegate was disconnected, and hooked that up. turbo whistle instantly sounded WAY better. as the EGR and DPF has been deleted many moons ago, its only the back box doing the heavy lifting. However, with that hooked up, the car would no longer go over 2500rpm. just to test, re-disconnected (is that a word?) and worked perfectly again. freeboosting isnt as much of a concern in diesels as it is petrols, providing the engine is healthy, so thats a good sign! I have ordered a new boost solenoid for it which should solve!

Signing off this thread, hopefully an owner carriers it on down the line. Sold the car back in July 2022. New owner drove it to Auckland and sent me some photos at the start of the year.

Got to confirm its for the right model car at last 😃 Hopefully the window moldings come up onto the roof slightly to hide the most noticeable pieces of deep resin, else might run a small strip of black vinyl perhaps ... will see when we get there but safe to say its going to look pretty sweet !! I can see why people might go with a plain 1x1 weave as the twill is fairly intense ... then again so is all the sh*t in the garage at the moment !! All back together with some light window tinting and it should look mean.

I have had three generations of Kicker gear pass through my cars over the years, and I'm sure some will completely disagree but I solder onto the male blade terminals of the speakers rather than using the friction fit connectors. This was after having a couple of the smaller size connectors either come loose or come off the frame entirely. Love your work, may you continue to be a beacon of the "because I can" mentality for all of us 😁

Still waiting for the roof bow (maybe another week) but some progress on the roof itself !! A little pictorial tour below ... The roof as it came out of the mold after rough trimming, 2.5kg 😍 There are a few imperfections (small air pockets on the corner ridges and resin build up where the fabric has not gotten right into the tight corner) but overall its pretty awesome !! Just a nice glamour shot during wet sanding, who doesn't like carbon !! Basic setup for spraying ready to go The setup at NZ Fibreglass in the booth. The item at the back is roof #1 from the mold; mine with the sanded finish ready to clear. 3 Coats of Upol clear coat on ... my first time spraying anything critical, and with a proper gun. Pretty happy with the result but an obvious orange peel going on. Will let it harden fully from here then sand it back flat and give it another two or three coats ... if we can't get it perfect off the gun (highly likely) we'll then safely have enough material to sand flat and buff to beauty.

Just around 4pm sharp this afternoon (20230611) blue e28 535i on Redoubt road towards Rainbows End, not sure if you are a forum member. Silver M5ISH here. Good to see another example driving around.

Finally got onto cleaning up the manual diff. Disassembled the thing, gave it a good clean with a bunch of wire brushes, hit it with rust converter/primer and a few coats of paint, then resealed and put back together. Made for some pleasing before and afters. Then went on a hunt for the culprit of the clunk but still couldn't pinpoint it with any certainty. Jacked the car up and had a mate operate the clutch. Clunks like a bastard every time the clutch is engaged to go into gear. Video Found a few videos on YouTube as well with exactly the same issue, combed through all the comments but doesn't seem like anyone's found a definitive answer either. Some are blaming the dual mass flywheel, some say it's driveline slop and their mechanics are claiming it's perfectly normal. I somehow doubt it. Regardless, got onto swapping out the diff. Tried reproduce the clunking with the driveshaft disconnected but all seemed fine with no load on the gearbox. Had another try once the shaft was connected to the diff and still all good. But then with the axles hooked up to the diff the noise came straight back. The search continues. Bit disheartened, bolted everything back up to go test out the manual diff and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the clunk had became much harder to reproduce. Definitely still there if you're looking for it but nowhere near as prominent under normal driving circumstances. Going from a 3.38 diff to a 2.93 fixed the gear ratios right up, 1st gear actually became usable and overall the car was now more pleasant to operate. Properly enjoyed driving it for the first time since the swap... ... just in time to park her up for the next 3 months as I'm off to Europe to catch up with family after 4 long years. Will pick up where I left off in September ✌️