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Have been chipping away at it every evening after work with longer shifts over the weekend. The boot floor panel ended up coming out without much trouble. Got to the final spot weld under the bracket with a file belt sander and it separated pretty easily. Not the prettiest of cuts on the front edge but will tidy it up afterwards. T-shaped bumps cut along and flattened out. Had a bunch of trouble getting the welder to work properly. Not a high-end machine, without a digital display and not a lot of adjustment options so was hard to get it dialed in just right and struggled to get any sort of consistency going. One weld would come out textbook-worthy, next one would randomly start spitting and bubbling up. Wheel arches were the worst ones with bits of underseal being stuck between the two layers of sheet metal that were impossible to scrape out. Ended up switching from 0.8mm to 0.6mm wire which made the task a bit more manageable. Some of the welds definitely came out looking better than others but they all work and will get tidied up prior to paint. Underside welding taken care of, moved over to the topside but only got as far as getting one of the side panels mostly welded in when we ran out of wire, sure enough just 15 minutes after Bunnings' early Sunday night closing time. Also ran out of flappy grinding discs so called it a night. Great to have made some serious progress though, starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel. Whilst the welding was going on, I kept myself busy by cleaning up the fuel tank and installing a new fuel pump and filter. Pump was still chugging along but at 20 years old was worth replacing, and a OE Continental/VDO one was reasonably cheap from Spareto. Annoying that it didn't come with an O-ring/seal which I had to get separately and stupidly cost about a quarter of the price of the pump... Also got a pair of new lock rings that were by contrast stupidly cheap. Managed to break off a couple of teeth on the old one when tightening it down the previous time with a screwdriver so used it as an excuse to get a pair of shiny ones. Also got a cheap tightening tool from Aliexpress that works well enough and makes the process a bit less crude. Also chipped away at assembling the new shocks and other new bits to go on. Should be an exciting week ahead, will try and get most of the welding sown up early on and get onto paint & finishing. Can't wait for reassembly.

Hi all, I have just ordered a G81 M3 Touring, my first ever BMW. In fact it will be the second BMW I have ever driven, the first being the demo G80 M3 Comp xDrive sedan from the dealership. This car is my dream car, and I am really looking forward to enjoying it for a long time.

Speaking of projects, eighteen months on from this: We have this: Admittedly spent more time on the hole in the side of our house than on cars, but we’re back. Have more space and *slightly* more time. Sam at @HELLBM has taken care of the oil leak that came free with the car, great service. Up next, the cooling system, and then hopefully some fun stuff like suspension.

they were ok jon, i had renewed the previous week, and the value was adjusted lower. lost some money but that is ok.

Hope the insurance give you a decent price for it and don’t fob you off with “market value” BS.