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that's looking very well cared-for. kudos.

I did also swap out the amber indicators for a fresh set of clears as some eagle-eyed folk might have noticed from those videos. TYC brand corners and fender indicators are good quality and still pretty cheap from Spareto so got sets of both ambers and clears last year. Paired them up with chrome bulbs from LEDPerf since they were the only ones I found (other than Aliexpress) that carried the smaller chrome fender indicator bulbs. Pricing seemed reasonable but did find dealing with them quite annoying so probably wouldn't bother again. Despite a .co.nz website and NZ flag plastered all over the place, they ship their stuff out from France which in my case took over 3 weeks to arrive with little to no tracking updates along the way. The bulbs look to be random brand and probably Chinese-made anyway so would just go direct to Aliexpress next time. Chrome bulbs do make quite a difference though and give a nice clean finish instead of the egg-yolk look you get with amber bulbs. With the fender indicators I somehow ended up with slightly different ones with one having a pearly white edge and the other more of a beige. Might tack on another pair with the next order to have a matching set since they cost the equivalent of a pack of chips. I've also taken up the practice of super-gluing in those metal tabs after having 3 of them shoot out one after another into the fender cavity when reinstalling them after a polish. Don't need the hassle of trying to fish those out again. Did enjoy the amber look but wanted to switch it up a bit after a a year and a bit on that setup and the car does look way more modern with the clears. Need to take her out for a scenic photoshoot up in the hills on a cloudy day sometime.

Cheers! I'm getting to it, just breaking the spiel up into parts as the posts are getting pretty long.

mate, that's commitment! how do they sound? how does it go now?!

With the catless headers being significantly more compact, bolting them on was a fair bit easier since they slid through easily enough so that the engine arm didn't need to come out again. I also replaced the stock studs with new ones from the N-series engines that are slightly shorter and have an E-torx head, making installation a lot easier than the double-nut method. I thought about reusing the manifold gaskets with the heat shields, mostly to retain the clips for the O2 sensor wiring but due to the different positioning of the bungs those wouldn't have worked anyway. The new headers are angled straight down, are quite a way away from the valve cover so keeping the heat shields probably wouldn't have had much effect apart from making access to the bolts a lot more tedious. Opted for brand new M52 gaskets that are pretty much identical to the M54 ones, minus the heat shields. The bank 2 O2 sensor (990mm) had enough length in it to fit into the factory clips, bank 1 however (570mm) was now considerably further away and wouldn't reach at all. The options were to order in a new longer bank 2 sensor (which might still have been too short) or make up an extension which I decided to have a go at. Not the first time the spare wiring loom has come in handy. Hacked it up a bit more, as well as a spare old O2 sensor and made up a nice factory-looking extension that blends right in. I only recently discovered these heat shrink + solder butt connectors and now swear by them. So easy to use and seem to create a nice, solid connection. 10/10 recommend. The additional new connection didn't fit under the beauty cover but slotted in between the valve cover and the fire wall and sits there quite securely. The other issue with these headers was that the bank 2 O2 sensor bung is positioned so that the top of the sensor pretty much sits right up against the fire wall heat shield. I bashed them in at that spot as much as I could but it's still mighty close. Not ideal but it is what it is. The exhaust was a bit tight going on but the flanges bolted up fine in the end. The bank 1 flange must still have ended up angled slightly wrong with a slight gap over top of it but luckily the edge of the inner opening looks to be slightly bulged and the gasket looks to be sealing fine.

Somewhat impulsively jumped into another side project in the form of RHD headers from Malian Exhaust / Kage Trading. tl;dr of it is - THESE ARE NOT A STRAIGHT BOLT ON. They will require (quite extensive) modification to bolt up to the rest of the exhaust, nor will they clear the steering linkage, contrary to their claims. Unless you have the welding equipment & experience, or are prepared to shell out another 1-1.5x the purchase price in paying someone to have these reshaped, my recommendation would be to AVOID. I knew some of the downsides prior to diving into it so had time to emotionally/financially prepare. These were originally purchased by @Eagle who discovered the fitment issues and subsequently abandoned them in favor of an M52 setup. I then took over the baton knowing that at the very least they'll need new flanges welded on in place of their stupid '2024 revision' slotted bolt hole design. Eagle also kindly provided the new flanges. I took off the stock manifolds (bit of a mission having to support the engine & taking out the exhaust side engine arm & mount to gain enough clearance to slide them out) and dropped both sets off at Flame Performance. They used the stock manifolds to make up a jig to accurately position and weld up the new flanges. Bank 1 was fairly straightforward and just needed a bit of extending and a bit of an angle adjustment. Bank 2 however was angled completely incorrectly and needed a lot of work. Also have them weld on the supplied bolts to turn them into studs and make installing the rest of the exhaust a bit less of a hassle. The initial test fit revealed that bank 1 needed to be extended by another 4mm so got dropped off back at the shop to get redone. With that done the angle between the two flanges was still slightly off but close enough for the gaskets to eat up the slack. I gave both headers a quick polish to get rid of the discoloration from welding and wiped them down to avoid having any fingerprints permanently burnt on. Came out looking pretty flash.

Rear floor damage, will need to go on chassis machine to check alignment plus a good few panels to be replaced. If you’ve got the gear and know what you are doing would be a good project. And yeah, they are writing cars off far too easily these days.

Battery access looks better in the E46 than in my F31 (as my newly skinless knuckles can attest). 8.5 years for the original Varta 90aH AGM in mine, i thought that wasn't too bad given the increased parasitic drain in newer cars

Mates at a wedding. Nice bridal car.

I don't think my riding gear will ever not smell of it after that run. They have announced next years run and it should be huge.