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Been a while since my last confession! Car failed a WOF on its clapped steering rack (play / leaking / torn boots) 3 weeks ago - hummed and hah'd about doing the purple tag swap but cert / bump-steer test anxiety and being time-poor and WOF'less currently, decided against it. Old rack was beyond a rebuild (shaft stuffed) so went with a remanufactured E30 rack from LPSR in Perth. They do new / remanufactured and used tested BMW racks of all types. Really responsive outfit and arrived in a week. Got car back today and am stoked - was a little worried I was dropping a bunch of coin for a WOF sticker and no driving improvement - it feels so much better though - tighter / smoother and even a little weightier. We also sold our little house in the burbs and bought an apartment in Freemans Bay and will be moving next week. So while the E30 will be gaining a secure covered carpark, I will be losing the ability to meaningfully DIY on it - no drama's TBH as car is well sorted now and I've never had any talent for wrenching. While I'll be doing amore walking and a little less driving, I'm looking forward to hooning around a new neighbourhood.

Oops, new addition to the fleet

@Neil McCauley Dad was also a good friend of Bob McMillan and they passed in the same year so a fitting tribute to both of them.

Hi all, Been a while since I've posted here. My other project is still a work in progress, however decided to put that on hold and start a new project that's more suitable for family life! I'll update here, more as a journal for myself to look back on. Recently I picked up Malachite Green Touring on trademe that had partly been stripped out - no engine, gearbox, diff and the interior was very average but a good chassis and base to work from. the plan was to tidy up the paint, fix up the interior and pop an engine in it - likely an M40/42 and keep it fairly stock. As it was missing a bunch of bits, it would have been a fairly slow job collecting what was needed and getting bits and pieces done. Things changed when this Lagune Green Touring popped up a few days later that had almost every single part I needed, including a stroked 2.8L engine, gearbox, LSD, black door cards, nice rear seats, touring specific carpet/boot panels, and some body panels I needed. I couldn't say no to that! Unfortunately the chassis is probably beyond repair, but this was worth it to me in the parts alone. First job was to stocktake what's there. I created an excel sheet of everything so I can keep track of what I need of which car. E.g. Valance off Lagune, Bonnet off Malachite, front seats off Malachite, rear seats off Lagune etc. Once I got both cars to one location, the strip down began. Decided to go for a full panel and paint but keep the Malachite colour - I've never seen an E30 in this colour before and love it! Having the two cars together meant I can compare parts side by side and pick the best parts. Currently waiting on my painter to free up his current jobs so we can move onto this set. While that happens, we're waiting for engine parts to arrive (water pumps, hoses etc) to get the engine in Lagune running again, as it's been sitting for about a year. Fingers crossed there's no major issues as it's been rebuilt not that long ago. Worst case I have a spare M40 which can go in. Due to time, I can only visit the cars one day every couple weeks, but will be working on cleaning up some of the parts (carpets/Door Cards/Smiley Lights) in the Lagune that I will keep in the final build at home to keep be busy between visits. I'll be needing some recommendations - first up is a decent headlining restorer - based in Auckland/South Auckland that can do work on site. Windscreen will be getting replaced and sunroof swapped out for a fibreglass panel so would be good to get it done at the same time. I'd like to get a period correct material and ideally someone that's done this on an E30 before. Will post more as I get along!

If you haven't experienced a CSL airbox in person yet, feel free to get in touch. One quick ride will probably be enough to prioritise the purchase 😅

As I'm sure everyone knows sourcing some E46 M3 parts is starting to get pretty dicey - Like some others I've started to modify my purchasing priority based on how likely I estimate it is that various things will go NLA. This is of course educated guess-work and I'm primarily focussing on anything CSL that I think I might need and second to that any of the more cosmetic pieces. I guess/hope that more regular mechanical components will be more likely to remain in availability for longer. To that end although it's not likely that I'll get to doing the airbox any time soon, I've ordered all the ancillary parts that I'll need to do it when the time comes. I've been monitoring some of these parts pretty closely and it certainly seems for some of them that we're coming to the end of availability (unless BMW decide to do further production runs at any point). I'll put these parts on the shelf and will order the airbox and whatever snorkel solution I decide on closer to the time.

...Next you'll tell me it's got M-audio with the yellow cones.

It's even got 3 pedals. It's actually a prefacelift but converted. Updated Idrive and taillights.

Facelift, silverstone, 18's. Absolute win.

@Misty Maxilite do very good reps, https://shop-us.maxilite-wheels.com/index.php?k=80 @Sammo is running them on his E30

+2 cool points for Team Mac plate surrounds!

Good on ya for saving and sorting a classic!!

I used to just buy them second hand on eBay. Probably sourced 20+ of the high-failure hard-to-find e46 ones over the years shipped from Europe. Paid as low as 70 nz each and stopped when they got to 200+ nz each. Haven’t had to do one for e87 yet, but if it’s anything like e46 you just need to replace the black ecu only, which for e46 could be done without disconnecting hydraulics, and reset the vin using ncs expert.

This whole thread is great reading on a 16hr flight. Looking forward to getting home to fix bits and pieces on mine.

Car has been going great guns through the miserable winter months but with the nice change in weather got out on a few rural backroads with @Cement and @elias on Saturday - Dave and I having to navigate a pretty decent swathe of semi' precarious gravel roads, so here is a rare dirty picture of the old girl! Next project is a cluster refurb and tart up and then a refurbished steering rack before the next WOF. From there will just be dirivng the wheels off it and saving up for some rust repair and full respray next winter.