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Had a lovely festive season away. Very impressed with this vehicle. It is absolutely incredible on fuel. I was getting around 4.6 litres per hundred ks open road and it felt so refined and comfortable on the drives. I clocked up around 2000ks of driving which was beautiful!

Just before Christmas I suddenly remembered Barbara wasn't the only BMW I owned... I bought a green 320i parts car well over a year ago and it had been sitting in my mate's paddock ever since. Out of sight, out of mind so I managed to completely forget it existed until finally getting around to putting it out of its misery over the break. Whilst scavenging for parts, I decided to also try my hand at some jobs that I hadn't done before, from smaller stuff like taking off door handles to removing the heater core and the front carpet without cutting it. Naturally, things escalated and I embarked on a learning exercise of removing all of the body loom in one piece - from the boot to the headlights and everything inbetween. I've got a weird idea of "fun"... Anyway, I've not got all the spare bolts, nuts, clips, grommets and brackets I could ever need, as well as snagging a few more bits for ol' Barbara. The rubber surround on the driver's door was ripped and perished in a few places, something I didn't notice straight away but had been annoying me ever since I did. Brand new ones cost stupid money and most used ones will be similarly shagged by this point. Unsurprisingly, the driver's side one on the parts car was no different, but the passenger door one, obviously not getting as much use, was in much better nick. Luckily, both front ones are the same so fit perfectly. Another surprising find was the rear seat sound deadening. The one I had was long perished and only had a few random chunks left of it in a few places. The one in the parts car though - immaculate, all in one piece, no rips or cracks, the fuel pump cutout tabs still intact, as if the rear seat had never been lifted. Gave it a quick wipe and threw it in. Doubt it will make any sort of noticeable difference but does look legit. For the time being anyway.

Acquired this a couple months ago and just got it back on the road. Bought it de-registered and all it required was a right front door and driver's side guard, some paint and repair cert for compliance. Got it all done and dusted, complied, registered and some RUCs for 7k all up which I am not complaining about. She has been a beautiful car. All I have added thus far is a front splitter and the mirror caps which I bought online for measly dollars. Will be updating this as I go along my journey. It came on these factory 19 inch wheels but looking to get some 3 piece 20 inch wheels for it and lower it a tad on H&R super sport springs. Currently doing 117k and will go up as I commute - a lot! Here's some pics

Have you still got the E28 actuators? Im after two front left and front Right. My contact is 02102442242

Non-reusable hose clamps. I can't be arsed trying to find an Oetiker clamp on a Sunday afternoon.

Never buy it when it's not on special. Take the Briscoes approach. It will be on sale sometime soon. I just keep buying it when it hits 50-60% off.

Got 50% of the glossy trim on, great for showing people what a difference it makes lol. Getting the trim off the parts car was actually pretty easy, even that last panel that is known to be a pain. On my car however that part that Sreten in his E46 series struggled with had me struggling as well. I Got it off but the trim piece was a mangled mess at the end of it, I'm glad the glossy ones came off easily. I'll do the rest when I am back in Queenstown. Pretty big improvement though even people who haven't noticed any of the other things I did seem to think the glossy looks a lot better. Anyway got it all packed up and drove to Wellington yesterday, then ferry back to the south today. Wagon utility coming into it's own here.

In other news! Sold the 335i, bought a momo wheel, hub adapter and a set of xyz’s coil overs for the compact, so spent a couple days fitting all that up, pumping the rear guards to fit the 17x9.5 arc-8’s, as well as getting the intercooler system plumbed up and working

It came!!! such a work of art!

Have been busy finishing off cleaning the engine, now that ive removed everything, all bolts in labeled bags. Also been ordering parts for the new engine. All new gaskets for the motor, everything from oil pan to oil filter housing, font and rear main seals, vanos solenoid seals, valve cover gasket, complete turbo install kit (all manifold studs, nuts oil/coolant feed and drain gaskets/o rings, intake and exhaust manifold gaskets etc, basically everything except the head gasket. Rod bearings and rod bolts on the way also as well as a new drive belt. New solid UHMW engine and gearbox mounts ordered from Condor speedshop also as well as a oil pan baffle from VAC motorsport. Now just a matter of waiting for parts to arrive... In the meantime I have also purchased walnut blasting tools, managed find the official bmw service tools for sale locally, so will be cleaning the intake valves soon. Got bored waiting for parts so I decided to take the oil pan off, oil pump out and pull a rod cap off, rod bearings looks in good shape, but will be getting replaced regardless, just wanted to see their condition as an indication of main bearing condition. In the meantime will order new oil cooler cores as I don't want to risk reusing ones that have metal in them from the old motor, and one I pull the old motor out I will be sending turbos off for a rebuild too. Car should be absolutely mint once its back together, tempted to try make a stainless exhaust from the downpipes back...

Been a minute... Have been very busy with work. Recently acquired a new motor for the car, 89,000km semi complete engine, missing a bunch of bits but I plan on using most of my own parts from the old engine anyway. Collected it from Kamo, just north of Whangarei with a trailer and the trusty E91, and have been stripping it down and cleaning it up in preparation for a thorough refresh. It will be getting all new gaskets all round, new rod bearings and a baffled sump. Still need to order the parts for it, hopefully will get around to it in the next week or so. Had a look under the valve cover and pulled the sump off and it all looks exceptionally clean, no sludge whatsoever. Have also managed to acquire some VTT high flow turbo outlets, as the factory RHD outlets have a kink in them which reduces the flow. Was a lucky find on marketplace as they are very hard to find nowadays, seemingly discontinued.

Here ya go ya old farts The “Green Thing” Back in My Day Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to me I should bring my own shopping bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment. I apologized and explained, “We didn’t have this green thing back in my earlier days.” The cashier responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.” She was right — our generation didn’t have the green thing in its day. Back then, we returned milk bottles, pop bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn’t have the green thing back in our day. We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every shop and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. Back then, we washed the baby’s diapers because we didn’t have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts — wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right. We didn’t have the green thing back in our day. Back then, we had one TV or radio in the house — not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief — remember them? — not a screen the size of the county. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the post, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she’s right. We didn’t have the green thing back then. We drank water from a fountain or a tap when we were thirsty instead of demanding a plastic bottle flown in from another country. We accepted that a lot of food was seasonal and didn’t expect it to be flown in from other parts of the world thousands of kilometers away. We actually cooked food that didn’t come out of a packet, tin or plastic wrap and we could even wash our own vegetables and chop our own salad. But we didn’t have the green thing back then. Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mothers into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint. But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the green thing back then? Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smart-ass young person. We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to … Especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced smartass who can't make change without the cash register telling them how much.