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Drove up to Auckland from Queenstown to put on some new bumpers/sideskirts/vents etc. The parts aren't all mint but neither was my current bumper so bit of a lateral move really. Still, looks a lot better than the stock ones mine has. Even got the M-Sport vents so everything fits nice and flush.

Started this project almost two years ago after I sold the 850i and finally got the car road legal yesterday (cert, WOF and rego). The goal was to build a very fast, comfortable tourer that I can use for daily driving, which meant retaining the automatic gearbox, ASC and AC - which all turned out to be pretty complicated!! Had a lot of help from a bunch of people but a big shout at to Brendon (Assault) and Westy as this would just be a paperweight without them! Car has an M62b44 (non-vanos) drivetrain with custom sump mounted to a modified front subframe. Gearbox is a 5hp24 tiptronic slushbox from the same donor car as the engine (97 E39 540i) with modified driveshaft. It has a bunch of other interesting mods and, at some point, I'll document everything we did to get this thing working. As far as I know, it's the only RHD M62-powered E36 in the world with auto, ASC and AC!!

Quality gear oil or ATF in the right viscosity would work fine. Dont think Repco really stock higher end stuff from what ive seen, possibly some Castrol stuff but you'd need to look at the tech specs. Redline MTL or MT-90 was my go to oil till it got too expensive. I use this now and am happy with shift quality on my ZF and Getrag boxes. https://1stparts.co.nz/product/torco-mtf-manual-trans-fliud-1-ltr-gl4-spec-replaces-sae30-10w30-or-gl4-light-viscosity/

As above they are pretty robust and you rarely hear of them failing. As long as the power steering oil has been changed at points be they would probably go forever only needed seal replacement. Current one has done 320,000km and my old E39 had ~290,000km on it with the original pump. A new OE FZT (LUK replacement) one is around $600-700.

Ahh nice! An Msport touring parts car is an epic find, especially in the same colour. Will need to snap one up myself if I ever see one but haven't come across any for a few years now despite constantly keeping a lookout. Never seen a touring at the local Pick-A-Part either. Some of the touring-specific bits like the plastic boot trims, hatch surrounds and rear seats could be worth keeping as they're damn hard to come by. The shadowline trims are absolute unobtanium. LF-20's have a tendency of shearing the shaft but LF-30's are supposedly pretty robust. I took mine apart, went to a local seal supplier, sized up all the necessary O-rings, cleaned and resealed it. Not as daunting a task as I originally thought it might be, I think there was 6-7 different O-rings in there. I still have a whole heap left over, I would have gotten several of each size and several size options for each O-ring just to be sure so should be enough for another reseal. You're welcome to grab them on your way back down if you wish.

You drove all the way to Auckland for that? Gotta admire the effort 😄 Looks well good! Don't forget to trim off the bottom edge of the rego plate holder, will tidy it right up, especially on a silver car. Bit jelly of those vents... Mine are all shagged and held together with zip ties. Tempted to get a whole new set along with the arch liners when I've got a good few hundy burning a hole in my pocket. Bloody hard to find used Msport ones in good condition.

Next items list: Replacement diff (e46 medium case) 3.46 (including the two small bushes, input and output seals, fill and drain bungs, oil, rear cover sealant) Replacement starter motor PCV system service (it's been a good 9 years or so since last done - do it while the starter motor is replaced Accessory drive service (pulleys, tensioners, serp belts) ARB bushes front and rear, rear shells (they're rusting) Endlinks front and rear Clean and rust paint the surface rust on rear subframe Replacement rear muffler, including hardware new sunroof seal new speakers in front Maybe install that Msport steering wheel with the stereo integration - need post-Takata airbag. keeping it well-maintained.

Another nerdy thing I did was to throw together another spreadsheet and finally tally up the full financial damage this endeavor has inflicted. And boy, was I in for a shocker. You don't notice it as much when gradually buying up parts but it was a pretty sobering moment when I hit Enter on the =SUM(...) command in excel. Here's the final tallies: $1,640 - DONOR CAR $1,940 - ENGINE INTERNALS (gaskets, bearings, chains, guides, VANOS seals etc.) $1,420 - ENGINE EXTERNALS (CCV, DISA, coils, sparks, seals, gaskets, engine mounts, belt pulleys, tensioner etc.) $970 - SENSORS (every single engine sensor) $360 - FUEL SYSTEM (fuel pump, filter, seals, lock rings) $860 - COOLING SYSTEM (radiator, T-stat, water pump, hoses etc.) $5,900 - GEARBOX (conversion, clutch & flywheel, slave & master, detent & shift pin repair, shifter, bushes etc.) $800 - STEERING (tie rods, pump reseal, hoses, coupler etc.) $1,430 - FRONT AXLE (control arms, bushes, wheel bearings, strut brace etc.) $1,940 - REAR AXLE (wheel bearings, reinforcement kit, bushes, camber arms etc.) $1,400 - SUSPENSION (shocks, springs, mounts, bump stops, reinforcement plates etc.) $1,880 - WHEELS (rims & tyres) $690 - BRAKES (caliper repair kits, brake hoses, pads etc.) $290 - DRIVETRAIN (guibo, CSB, diff seals etc.) $200 - EXHAUST (hangers, gaskets, nuts etc.) $910 - HVAC (AC compressor, condenser, heater valve, hoses etc.) $4,870 - SERVICES (machine shop, welding work, wheel alignments, AC regas, WoF & cert) All up, that's around $27.5k, which is scary enough in itself. But then that doesn't include the following items that sort of don't contribute to the value of the project: $1,100+ - CONSUMABLES (paint, oil & other fluids, filters, small clips, random nuts, bolts, crush washers, O-rings) $660 - SPECIALTY TOOLS (timing tool kit, detent punch kit, coding/scanning cables, piston ring pliers & compressor etc.) $1,160 - OTHER (head unit, trim bits, indicator lights, bulbs, hood & boot struts etc.) And the main whopper: $3,430 - SHIPPING (across 29 separate parts orders over the past 2 years) Factor in the purchase price of the car and I'm $40k deep in this thing. Could have had an M3 hahah. Wouldn't trade it though. Have made it my own whilst learning so much along the way. Can never know what life will bring but as things stand I've no intentions of ever selling it so hopefully spread out across a good number of years to come, the costs will start making more sense as time goes on. And as things stand, I've got a brand new 20-year old car to enjoy. No ragrets.

Tackling the cert process was next on the list. First, got a fresh wheel alignment at the dealership, free of charge due to the previous mishap. Then, successfully failed WoF. Car passed otherwise but had to ask for them to fail me on the modifications as per cert requirements. And finally, the nail-biting part of taking it in for the cert inspection. Actually didn't go as bad as I'd feared. Made an effort to prepare as best I could - compiled a fat stack of receipts for all the parts and services I could find and also made a ~40 page booklet (mostly pictures) of the work done throughout the project. Definitely made the process much smoother. The inspector was impressed and very complimentary of the work I'd done, saying his job would be much easier if all clients came as well prepared, which was nice to hear. But then still had to fail me on a couple of minor bits. First, he wanted more info on the adjustable camber arms - info I had provided in the booklet that he didn't notice initially. Pointed it out, he took a photo copy of it and that was that. The other point was the thread engagement of the front wheel bolts. Minimum requirement is 6.5 turns of thread engagement, mine only got 6. The rear wheels were fine. Quite a weird one that with pretty much all components - wheel hubs, rotors, rims, bolts - being OE. Potentially could have argued my way out of it but felt it easier to just do what was asked for. I thought that maybe the E90 had slightly longer wheel bolts but having looked up the part numbers it turned out that the bolts on nearly every modern-ish BMW were the same, apart from the SUV's. Ended up going to Mag & Turbo who found me some bolts that were roughly 3mm longer than stock, giving me "8 turns of engagement". At just $5 a piece, $50 later I was all sorted. The dumb thing about it is that even with the wheel off, the bolts start to protrude out the other side of the front wheel hubs at 6 turns in so that's pretty much all the engagement you're going to get, no matter how long the bolts. But what do I know. Went in for a recheck on Friday, got the wheel bolts checked over and approved, paperwork signed, tag put on and off I drove with a stupid grin across my face. The one silly part about it was when I went back to the WoF place to see if they'd be happy to issue a new WoF despite the tag not being live yet. Friday was apparently the last day LVV were updating their database this year so I'd have to wait for middle of January at best for it to be online. Gave the WoF guy the paperwork, he called up the cert inspector, verified that the cert had been approved, then he called up some other dude and decided he didn't want to risk it. Bit annoying as it'll be more than 28 days before the tag goes live so I'll have to pay for a whole new WoF recheck but that's just the time of the year I guess. Technically, WoF is still valid until beginning of February so I'll just drive around with all the paperwork on board until then. I was under the impression that certification only picks up the bits that go past the modification threshold requiring cert - in my case that's the increase in engine displacement, modification to the brake pedal, 330i brake conversion and adjustable rear camber arms. But in fact he picked up everything else as well - slightly lowered suspension, solid subframe bushes, solid steering coupler, front strut brace, even the RACP reinforcement. Not an issue as it all passed but I was surprised those things get noted down as technically you wouldn't need cert if those were the only modifications. The other annoying thing is the wheels. Even if I went back to Style 68's or some other stock rims then technically it should be a WoF fail since the car was certified on the Style 193's. Bit absurd that but that's the weird cert system that we have - even if all you're doing are minor modifications, once you go for cert the car is then considered a modified vehicle and is basically treated like a hot rod that was built from scratch, so every little thing needs recertification. If I ever were to change wheels then I'd need to go for a recheck, they'd have to road and brake test the car on the new wheels at a cost of roughly $600. Whether that would actually be a thing you'd fail a WoF for in reality would I guess be down to the inspector's discretion.

Got back from a round trip down south and up the West Coast with the parents last week, clocking up around 2,400km across 6 days. Threw in the old stock rear springs beforehand. Whilst it didn't completely eliminate the rubbing, it isolated it to only the harshest dips in the road when catching them at high speeds, but overall much better and meant I could drive with way less stress and way more confidence. Considering this was the first road trip I've taken the car on with 4 adults and a bootful of luggage on board, I can't really complain about the little rubbing still remaining. This was an outlier of a situation and with 1-2 people on board, I don't think rubbing will be an issue on the stock springs. Some absolutely amazing roads out there and an absolute ideal place to put the car through a proper stress test after the big rebuild. Some small issues aside, the car performed perfectly and effortlessly ate up the km's. Queenstown - Glenorchy is still my favourite bit of road in the country but also enjoyed experiencing the Queenstown - Te Anau and Wanaka - Haast routes for the first time ever. The folks loved their first time in NZ as well, saying it felt like they've been to 5 different countries in the short time here, such was the variety of landscapes behind every new mountain ridge. Good good times.

Ohh, and thanks for pulling me up on it! Since you pointed it out it actually started bothering me to the point where I felt motivated enough to do something about it Took the panel off the bumper, moved the license plate further up to line up with the protruding edge in the plastic, chucked in some rivnuts, went with 4 instead of the original pair just to be safe. Then took some hardcore pick tool and scraped away along the bottom of the numberplate creating a deep groove, then just cut my way through the plastic with a box cutter knife, filed the edges smooth and voila! I'd have probably never even given it any thought, but it does look so much cleaner this way. Thanks! Just need to find 4 matching bolts to tidy it up further.

Took up some arts and crafts for a change. Stripped down the scruffy looking driveshaft and bottom brace plates to bare metal and gave them 3 coats of low gloss paint. Came out quite nice. Left the U-joint part of the driveshaft untouched as I didn't want to get any of the actual pivoting bits caked in paint. Bolted and torqued the driveshaft up with a new center support bearing and that's the driveline sorted. Didn't feel like bolting on any rusty bits to went full stupid on the exhaust. Post fact realised that most of it was likely an absolute waste of time but happy to have some shiny exhaust tips at least. Onto less trivial stuff, busted out the laptop and tackled the coding/flashing part of things. All went without a hitch. Threw in the fully charged battery and got the latest 330i EU2 software installed, EGS coded out and adaptations cleared. Got rid of the gear cog from the cluster so must have worked alright. Haven't tried starting it yet but nearly at that point now. At the end of the night, went to roll the windows up by holding down the lock button on the key fob and was met with a pleasant WTF moment - along with the windows going up, the mirrors also folded in. The same mirrors that had refused to work all throughout my ownership. Absolutely no idea what the issue was and what fixed it but not complaining! Finishing touches now. Brakes and clutch fully bled through and feeling nice and firm. The old brake fluid had definitely seen some better days. Went through the underside and engine bay to double check that everything is bolted and connected up. Moment of truth tomorrow morning. Will see if she'll fire up, then hopefully go for a drive if all is looking well. Fingers crossed.

Id be very surprised if this isn't the best mechanically sound non M E46 in the country (once fully completed)