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Stayed up past midnight last night throwing on the new wheels and putting the interior together. Involved a lot of backwards & forwards, detaching and reinstalling trim bits and sound deadening as they go back in a particular order, under-overlapping in a certain way or using a single fastener to fix several pieces in place, like an intricate puzzle. Even remembered to torque down the wheels properly this time... Then filled the tank and dropped it off at BMW for the alignment. I had asked what they charge for an alignment when I called to book in the appointment the day before - $125 including GST. So I was slightly taken aback when a few hours later I got a text telling me the car is ready for pickup and that the total comes to $322.90... 2.5 hours of labour. Would have assumed the adjustable camber arms and the fact that all the parts were literally brand new and not seized on would have made the task easier but... what do I know. At least I got some unsolicited tyre shine and a couple of tins of mints out of it though Took the car for a quick shakedown up Dyers Pass, through Lyttleton and along Sumner Road, then a detour onto the motorway on the way home to try her out at 100kph. Honestly... I must've been driving absolute shitbuckets my whole life as I never knew a car is supposed to behave this way. I've grown so accustomed to tramlining, vague steering, rattles, clunks and an otherwise shaky ride that it's super weird not having any of it anymore. One or a few of the wheel bearings must have been cooked as I used to have a slight vibration doing close to 100kps that I had attributed to an unbalanced driveshaft but no signs of the issue anymore. Steering is sharp and tracking perfectly straight, sections of road that had previously been shaky are now perfectly smooth, ride height looks and feels a tad sportier but still gets in and out of driveways & parking lots without issues. An absolute dream. Mission accomplished. Only small issue I've encountered is some slight rubbing going over bumps at speed seemingly only coming from the rear left so I might have to give the camber arms a few more turns. The wheels were the one component I'd been most excited about. Great to finally throw them on after gathering dust in the corner of the garage for well over a year. Style 193's are up there with my absolute favourite BMW wheel styles and they just suit the chassis so well in my opinion. Absolutely in love with them. Even going up to 18" from the old 17" 194's, with the new shocks and fresh rubber the ride comfort is miles better than it was before. The engine feels great, power delivery is nice and smooth and more is always there when you need it. One downer in all of this is that my excursion behind the timing cover did not fix the startup rattle issue. My last remaining hypothesis is that the needle bearings in the VANOS units got tightened up excessively when I was putting in the anti-rattle rings and aren't able to rotate quite freely as the rattle seems to be coming from the top end of the engine. A while ago I lifted a whole VANOS unit off a 2006 X3 that I'll reseal and throw on at some point. Went through 3 cars at Pick-A-Part until I found a unit with no visible scoring marks in the cylinder bores... I suspect if the cylinders I have in the car now have seized up then they would have done damage to the bores so best throw in a fresher looking unit. If that still doesn't fix it then I guess I'll just live with it. Feels so good finally dragging this mission (mostly) over the line and being able to enjoy the fruits of the labour (and get some sleep at last). Will tally up the rough cost of all that's been done at some point, will make for some grim reading for sure. Time to properly enjoy some road trips now.

Buys honest low owner M3 EVO with non collectable millage. Spends 100k restoring it. Once completed, takes it out because it hasn't rained for a couple of days, but cant go too far because it might get dirty.. pulls up at the lights and gets dragged off by a Nissan Leaf.. so goes to pub and no one thinks anything of it there either.. questions fiscal decisions. Puts on trade-me for near the price of a decent Porsche that's actually fast and actually impressive. Must be an audience for these though, I say GLWS and I will look out for it on the road.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/885811932517799/?mibextid=nb1MFm3jZYALyyMy Anyone keen for E87 135i?

Expanding on an earlier post, i need to replace a 45 year old dust seal for the steering rack on the E21, the part is badly perished and not available as a single part, so i thought i would have a crack at making a new one from scratch. Step one, machined up an aluminium mould, 3 pieces that bolt together with an opening at the top to pour the goop in to, took about 9 hours all up but i'm not a machinist so i am just happy that i didn't throw it out of the lathe half way through!! Bought some casting plastic, mixed it and poured first attempt... Had a few issues, first up i bought the wrong product! the part came out ok but ended up being ridgid plastic rather than flexible so no good for a seal, other issue was a few bubbles on the edge that seals against the steering rack housing, so ordered new product and had a second go... This piece is better, although it could have had more pigment added, nice and flexible, size and shape are ok, but still has a few bubbles, Not worried about the small cosmetic ones in the center but the outside edge needs to be smooth and continuous as it forms the seal,, so next step will be to play around with purging the mould so there is less moisture to react with the urethane and cause bubbles, if that doesn't work i will look at vacuum de-gassing.... Under side of original part... Assembled mould ready to pour...

Was a hypothetical. Although some of the "specialist" quotes I have seen lately it wouldn't' be hard to spend 100k in 2023. Cost of E30 living is out of control. Market has stalled, nothing is selling ATM.. I mean, borrowing money to buy a BMW at current interest rates would be a bad idea, especially when you consider prices on used and collectable cars are down 20-40% vs 2021 peak and demand has dried up. If you put this car on the mortgage right now and financed it over 10 years it would owe you close to 300k.. Maybe it will be worth 300k in ten years, who knows? But that is not an investment and it is not a 300k experience. In this market, I would be buying clean e46's now and enjoying them.

It is a facelift M Sport E70 with the N55 3.0L Turbo engine and ZF8 speed gearbox - a very nice combination if you prefer petrol over diesel. Relatively low mileage at 133,xxx kms. Very tidy inside and out for its age. Definitely one of the better conditioned ones for this model. Has reversing camera and parking sensors installed. Keyless start and door lock/unlock which is rare for this model, 2 keys. Fresh 1 year wof and 1 year rego all paid for. Has 2 new front tyres, engine oil and filter replaced, air, cabin and AC filters all replaced. Listed on TM for $16900 but will take $16000 Let me know if you have any questions

I think you could expand this scenario to all E30's.

Yeah I probably looked like I could afford it hahah. To be fair, was prepared to pay a bit extra the first time around since so many components were changed so not too disgruntled. At least it's sorted and riding well. Last place I went to for an alignment didn't even give me an alignment sheet. Yeah I'm not gonna bother this time around, will just do the seals. Might play around with the cylinders currently in the car now once they're out and see if I can get it right. Saw a video of this Polish dude that goes through the process more in-depth than I've seen elsewhere gapping the spacer washers and how to check if they're not too loose or tight before reassembly. Have a spare cam gear thingy that I can grip in a bench vice and check for how freely the cylinder internals spin around so don't need to have the cam cover opened up whilst messing around.

ah lucky you! right on your doorstep!

That's the best way for me to go anyway being out in Beachlands. The dodgy alignment and old tires meant I didn't peg it through the straights in Miranda as I usually would but the perfectly sealed twisty road through Kawakawa is what the E46 is made for. I had such a good time I'll probably go again in a few weeks with fresh tyres and alignment.

The Coromandel coast road is a great drive when there's not too much traffic. I like to pair it with Kawakawa Bay to Miranda road if I have time - that road really suits the E46 M3.

That's the Hell BM one, pretty spicy

Saved the planet, one km at a time for approx 900kms, and sneered at all the farmers in their dirty diesel utes spewing smoke.

I need to make a proper update at some point but just got my car back from my mechanic who serviced the transmission and installed the genuine M5 springs I managed to get. Pretty happy, car looks great. Just need to figure out how to lower the rear, and then I also need my side skirts on and an exhaust job - I need muffler suggestions if anyone has any. E34 exhausts seem to be a pain because of the odd shape and limited space.

The M3 has been a bit neglected on account of needing a set of tyres and with my compact project eating up all my spare cash. Square set of 265/35 Michelin PS5s on order but I couldn't wait that long and was itching to drive it again. Took the long weekend as an opportunity to stretch it's legs and swapped my spare stock wheels with old track tires on, and took it for a blast to the coromandal for a night. Desperately needs an alignment, but 8k rpm with a carbon airbox does do wonders for the mental health.

You wait ages for a bus to come along etc etc... https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/m3/listing/4379495039 https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/m3/listing/4381295259 https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/m3/listing/4289575679

Sad but true. Let rip the can of cavity wax, got it in wherever I could. Don't get much out of a single can though. Might get another one next time I have the bumpers off for whatever reason and pump the chassis rails all the way through. Fuel tank, plumbing and all the plastic covers reattached. Now it's onto the real fun bit with a bunch of brand new and refurbished parts getting thrown on. Made a start at the front end with new control arms and tie rods going on. Another long night tonight and hopefully will have her back down on her wheels tomorrow. Also, made an extended socket (BMW Special Tool #24193531) for installing the front subframe mount studs out of the otherwise useless imperial sockets that came in the toolkit, although not sure if there's a torque spec given for these at all.