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Been a bit slack with this project recently, trying to come up with a plan for rust etc, and needing to figure out what’s going on with the gearbox in my touareg. anyway, decided to let a panelbeater sort out the rust/engine bay paint work, so the car will be getting dropped off for rust repairs to the rust hole under the cowl, rust around the boot shut, and full engine bay respray after Anzac weekend. then I will begin working on the engine refresh in the meantime now that all the parts have arrived from overseas. also picked up a purple tag steering rack and cleaned it up, should sort out the bus like steering feel of these e30s. Thanks for the suggestions regarding the gearbox detents, spoke to Kayne Barrie, and will get him to sort that out for me, get him to give it a good look over at the same time. He’s doing “all stuff” as he calls it for $300 so I’m pretty happy with that, I will trust his judgement on what needs doing and what doesn’t. managed to snag a manual pedal box and some new tailight lenses as well as a dash mat last week for it too. E30 part pricing is so wildly all over the show that it really pays to be patient and keep an eye out for a deal. Had multiple people tell me they wouldn’t sell me a pedal box for less than $800, ended up picking mine up for $120. So much money to be saved if you can find a seller that doesn’t charge e30 tax.

Funny little things, but yep considering I was shopping for a chrome classic, the weeny wheels suit better than 80’s race. Here’s what was on the way before dad passed(and hey maybe still will be?)

Those VW Beetles have a very distinctive silhouette.

Wonder how much the Mazda 3 is worth…🧐

Right makes sense, unfortunately I’ve already got 80A poly engine mounts as they make mounting the m52 much easier/better. Will most likely do 80A poly for control arms, rtab, swaybars, and subframe then and oem rubber for diff and trans.

Looks great on the weaves though!

- 24 minute mark

moved into a new “work” yard, so can now actually work on cars. Also has a hoist to top it off! Blew a radiator hose in the compact while helping to pick up cones after an autocross took m3 to have the computer looked at/studied on how to tune it for Alpha-N tune. Gathered more parts for e30 to one day start on Dropped trans pan on X5 to see what zip kit and seperator plate I need, have ordered those so can refresh valve body to stop the rough shifting, and cleaned out rear seatbelt collector that was jammed up for a wof and adjusted handbrake.

I like the “box guards”. They look like I made them out of some old Marley guttering.

Yeah the cost of all those gearbox detent parts jumped up significantly not long after I did them on my compact. Worth doing imo, the ZF in my compact has probably the best feeling gear change of any car I've owned. I also have a set of the detent punches if you need them. Based in Beachlands.

Yeah you need a special set of drifts/punches to install the detents and guide sleeves. Happy to lend it out to you, just cover return shipping. Can't remember the detents themselves being that pricey. I got mine from Schmiedmann a few years ago. One of the pins was expensive, the others were fairly cheap. Can't tell if it's the 5th or reverse one but part number 23-31-7-502-165 - looked through my order history and I paid 59.01 EUR back then, now it's gone all the way up to 81.64 EUR. Yikes. I got my DSSR from BM Speed Shop, a local fella here in Christchurch. Quality was decent and very reasonable price. Not sure what length you'd need but he might be able to advise or even make a custom one for you if no other ones suit.

Jeebus.