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Was taking a casual stroll through Pick-A-Part the other week when by chance I caught a glimpse of a rare sight in these parts - a rogue X5. Must have been a rush on a Friday to duck out of work as it was yet to be listed on the website so I managed to get in there nice and early. Weirdly enough, another thing they forgot to do was remove the battery. Lucky for me, it made removing the rather tidy heated seats that much easier, or even at all possible. Somehow crammed the seats in the trusty old Swift and scooted home. Did manage to grab a few other handy bits whilst I was there, including the boot cargo cover, which ended up having a bit of an adventure of its own. While I was loading up the seats, I put the cargo cover onto the roof of the car, which... of course I completely forgot about. Managed to get all the way to the main road, got on the gas and heard it tumbling all the way along the roof before crashing down onto the road behind me with a massive thump. Lucked out that there wasn't any cars closely following me, pulled over to the side of the road and bolted to grab before it got run over. Got a bit banged up but somehow the damage ended up being purely aesthetic and still works well enough. Another lucky break. Anyway, got the seats home and gave them a good clean. Used some Lux Soap Flakes / Softly Laundry Flakes for the initial wash, a "hack" I'd read about from some thread on here a while back. I've had a leather recoloring kit from Clyde's Leather Company sitting on a shelf for a while and finally put it to good use. Happy enough to recommend the kit itself but goddamn are they annoying - if you end up going for the same kit, do yourself a favour and opt out of all comms as soon as you've placed your order - I must have gotten more than a dozen emails with "news", requests for reviews, "special offers" and whatnot within the first week. Filled in a few of the bigger scratches/cracks with the leather filler, let it dry, sanded it down a bit with some 600-grit, wiped the whole seat down with alcohol and applied 2 coats of the recoloring balm, then let it fully dry for 2 days before applying the conditioning cream. Initially made the seats real greasy but the shine has come down since, leaving a nice, subtle finish. Got the old seats out, gave the carpets underneath a thorough vacuum, transferred over the seat belt buckles and dropped the new seats in. Unlike the E46, the X5 comes pre-wired for the heated function so all that needed doing is hook up the seats, swap out the switch panel and that was that. Did check over all of the fuses - there's two that correspond to the heated seats, both were already installed but one had a 5A fuse instead of the 30A it was supposed to house. Easy fix. The original seats weren't in terrible condition but the base did have more cracks in the leather and were looking slightly more tired. The new ones didn't really need a full re-dye and could have gotten away with just a good clean but figured I might as well. Both had similar wear in the bolsters but not terrible enough to warrant tackling at this stage. Here's the two driver's seats for comparison. ORIGINAL SEAT NEW SEAT - post clean NEW SEAT - post re-dye & conditioner Not a perfect job, the finish is a bit patchy in places with some shinier bits sticking out but on the whole a massive improvement - some bigger cracks filled in, some cracks are still visible under certain light but don't stick out nearly as much being colored in and a much deeper tone of black overall. Was surprised to discover that even the extendable thigh bolsters have heating elements in them. Always assumed only the base and seat back would be heated but that's a nice bonus. That's the wife's biggest gripe with the X5 taken care of, should keep her nice and warm in the winter. Wouldn't mind these in the E46 but hey, happy wife - happy life.

Another perfect Saturday, another early morning drive. This time went over the Awhitu Peninsula - through Waiuku to Karioitahi beach, then up and accross to Grahams Beach / Big Bay and Glenbrook. Stunning area, especially with the morning low fog today. Roads not as good as last weekend (from City to Waiuku is pretty boring) but once there its beautiful. To do list: Need to replace my drivers window seal - 51321904782 (bloody expensive) and sort my drivers seatbelt reciever before the next WOF. Also have a rattle from the exhaust that I'm hoping is just a hanger / mounting issue.

Trycycling improves fuel economy, lowers tyre wear. My picture, Nikon D4s+AF Nikkot 70-200 2.8 FL/E, B+W Kassemann Pol filter.

That looks superb. Very individual. I’m finding myself in the very unusual position of being envious of your stick 😎

Hi, I have a set of original factory staggered 18” rims for a E46 M3 for sale. They are in immaculate condition with the front 18 x 8 rims wearing Michelin Pilot Sport 4’s 225/45/18 with 90 percent tread left. The rear 18 x 9 rims are wearing Hankook Ventus S1 Noble 225/40/18 with 70 percent tread left. asking $1200 or near offer

Gold wheels are definitely polarising, nice interior though. I wonder if the manual conversion has been certed. https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/530i/listing/5220384911

It makes my soul happy to see someone else driving their e30 on the roads I love to drive! Beach hop with mine this coming weekend

I've not been fancy enough to have Alcantara, thanks for the pointers👍. Leather's hard to beat for durability! When your kids are young, leather's the best for cleaning out dropped sweets, ice cream, vomit, nappies. When they're older, pie crust (grrrr!)... so much harder to clean out of fabric.

No no nooo don't do that on alcantara, do not get it wet, it'll dry to a crispy finish and will never be the same. You need to be real gentle with it, heaps of detailing videos on the topic on YouTube. Basically just spray conservative amounts of APC on a brush, agitate and wipe off with a microfible cloth. Pretty much as with suede. Real easy to ruin.

Bissell carpet cleaner, job done.

adulting is overrated! you can be a grownup without being surrendering everything!

All the JDM M-sports have it (which is probably 50% of the remaining E39's in NZ) - that along with the lack of cruise control and PDC puts me off.

lol, i love the sport alcantara interior on the E39. If i got another it would have to either have it already, or i'd swap it in. So much nicer than leather.

I thought the same thing when I first got mine and determined to do the same fix at some stage. But the more I've driven it the more I like it - up or down with either (or a single) hand. Not looking forward to going back to "normal" on a future vehicle now ...

Being the hoarder that I am, I had managed to acquire a couple of spare sets of black cube trims over the years and finally got around to doing something with them. All of the pieces, including the ones installed in the car, had varying degrees of wear and scratches so I've been meaning to do a mini-restoration for a while. Could always just redo it in semi-gloss black but fancied a bit of a colour change and went for a silver tone to sort of emulate the clubsport silver trims. Went to Spraystore, showed them what I was after and instead of custom-mixing something they recommended the off-the-shelf silver wheel paint, which was pretty close to the tone I wanted. Gave the pieced a light sand with 600/2000 grit, masked off the inner edges on a few pieces, wiped down with alcohol and gave them 3-4 light coats (10 minutes between coats), followed by 2 coats of matte clear for a bit of protection. The coats were light enough to retain the cube texture and not look too dull. Might have turned out a tad brighter than I would have liked but on the whole I do quite like it. Will see how I feel about it in a few months' time but so far I'm pleased with the outcome. The wife said she liked it better all black. I guess haters gonna hate.

I did a similar repair on mine. That part is borderline impossible to get to without cutting open more of the chassis. The rust starts on this piece underneath and spreads to the cowling area and under the windscreen. Check through the opening the inside of the lower windows in the corner, it usually starts from the inside. Take the fender off and you can slice open the inner fender. Also check the inside through those openings, feel up under the bottom of the windscreen and down (shown where I cut below). Generally the lower windshield corners rust from the inside out.

Took her in for a WoF inspection the other week, sailed through without a hiccup. Always enjoy getting compliments from the mechanics, even got thanked for bringing it in. Clearly preferred dealing with what he dubbed a "full restoration" than the clapped out Altezza that came before me. Hit 240,000 km's on the way home. 12,512 km's since the engine rebuild and 10,308 km's post driveline overhaul. Here's to many more.

All the hooning around was a good excuse to bust out the camera and take some glamour shots though.

Jeebus.