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Started getting the shocks and brakes off today, also test fitted the f8x brakes while I still had the chance. Next time this car rolls under it own power it going to be a completely different car. Its going to take a while but it will be worth the wait.

F'ing love those wheels.

Yes he did. In future, they will be assigned to track duties at Taupo Winter Series dual car sprints and also the two day Targa Regional Tour in mid October 😜👏👏

Before the next few months of overhauling the car this is some previous stuff to catch up on. IMG_20250308_104937_536.webp

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/15XAyuwzF4/?mibextid=wwXIfr a bog standard e30 steering wheel in what looks like average condition. $100.

If your's was for sale a year ago when I bought my car I definitely would have. Your car would have been a much better starting point. I keep a spreadsheet of how much I have spent on my car and it hard to believe how quickly things add up.

I agree, it would seem they should be worth 10-12k but I think it's a small market. Another reason they are a good buy is they ALL have LSDs! (All 2.8s) I bought mine 4 years ago on a bit of a whim. Turned out to be an excellent decision. I put B6 Bilsteins on stock springs. I am all in on the top down motoring, such a pleasure to drive moderately quickly. The engine, gears and steering are perfect. If you buy one, put new HD front control arms on, it makes a huge difference. (factory arms have huge wobbly rubber bushings). Sorry for the rant....

back down to $25k...

Didn’t someone on here buy one for their son for like $4-5k? From Waiheke?

Haha I have actually sold 2 of my 3. I just have my OG LCI left. Though I have plenty of other cars :s Good thing is that Neglected E87's are not actually too bad to bring back to life. My Black manual turned out to be an awesome car.

Yeah I have seen a guy throwing wheels over the fence at PAP. So anything nice is removed. Do they still have those manky cobra chickens guarding the place in Mangere? Loved being hissed at while your under a car pulling parts.

Exactly. What I also find ironic is that Pickapart will not have come close to maximising the parts value of the car. Anything rare/desirable/expensive has to be sold at a low fixed price, and people are so rough with the cars that anything left (particularly on the interior) generally gets ruined. In a weird way everyone loses... While its a shame to see a nice car getting parted out, often it provides the parts to keep 10+ more on the road - yet when a car is at Pickapart there is so much wastage and you have to live nearby to physically go get the bits you need yourself. This was absolutely mint, but I bet it won't be long until it's ruined with people leaving doors open etc.

Got a little bit more work done recently, been busy making a plan for all the suspension stuff and figuring out which direction to go for the clutch/flywheel. Decided to keep it oem and stick with a dual mass flywheel and oem 240mm luk clutch kit. Got all the underside parts taken apart and sandblasted, in the process of getting painted at the moment. gearbox is back from kayne Barrie now with fresh detents. More or less just need to order the clutch kit now and then can put the engine and gearbox into the car. picked up a e90 325i auto front half driveshaft and a e36 medium case rear half from @Toast which so far seem to work together, will see if they end up the right length. Paid $80 for the front half instead of the $700 people charge for zf 5 Speed Front halves nowadays. will need to swap the carrier bearing over to an e30 one as well. Fuel pump is back in the car too now ready to start replacing subframe, trailing arm bushings etc now and reassembling the rear end.

Gave the spare exhaust a quick lazy polish before bolting it up and dropping the car off at the shop. Even on the way there I still hadn't fully decided on the final course of action - whether to cut out the resonator or the secondary cats. Sound wise both would probably have had the same effect but the smelliness of it all was my main concern. Had the guys at the shop start up a couple of decatted cars to get a sense of what life would be like cat-free. Don't know if I got an objective feel for it or if my sense of smell had simply been decimated from sniffing all the brake cleaner fumes over the years but it didn't feel as bad as I had feared so cat delete it was. Somehow turned out to be a bit more work than I thought it would be, they cut out a bigger section than I'd envisaged but the end result looked really nice, the welds were tidy and the sound exactly what I was after. This was a progress photo they'd sent through, I forgot to ask for a full underside photo at the end. I'll be taking the exhaust off shortly to fit new exhaust gaskets, refit the damper at the back of the resonator and finish off the polishing mission so will take a photo of the rear section then. Loving the end result, the purr at startup is awesome, has a nice deeper tone to it throughout with a tinge of the signature BMW rasp. Loud enough to be enjoyable but not loud enough to be obnoxious so shouldn't annoy the neighbours too much. Once warmed up it's still surprisingly quiet at idle but definitely feel a bit more kick when giving it some beans. Took it onto the motorway to see if there's any droning but all good on that front too. The smell isn't nearly as bad as I'd feared as well, probably would only ever be an issue if left idling inside the garage for a while. VIDEO: Cold Start VIDEO: dB Meter Test VIDEO: Before Comparison with the 325i Exhaust Took it out for a quick bash along the hills the other weekend with @Carbon and his Honda mates, as well as a certain infamous M5. The muffler-deleted V8 and well as my newly opened up exhaust reverberating off the surrounding hills was a bloody nice soundtrack. Have now clocked up a couple hundred km's on the new exhaust setup and couldn't be happier, a nice finishing touch. Quickly running out of things to improve on this car. Thanks again to @Gaz for the hookup. Wifey called me a bogan as I pulled up into the driveway so that's the mission well and truly accomplished.