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Hey all, I don’t normally do this sort of stuff but thought I’d share my recent experiences, If you need any powder coating work I highly recommend the team at PowderPros in East Tamaki - Some brilliant work and really easy to deal with.

Most springs and sway bars are powder coated from the factory, the cured powder is pretty flexible and very durable compared to paint, As with all coating systems, proper preparation is key, solid metal parts should be sandblasted and powder coated ASAP before corrosion can start again. It won't last forever, but nothing will and powder coating is really easy on awkward shaped parts like springs.

Small list of jobs to do then up for sale. Had a go at vinyl wrapping the outer pillar door trims. Turned out great! didn’t even have to remove the piece the 2nd time round, but front lhs one was cracked and needed repairs before hiding all the ugly. After the wrap has cured i’ll try some plastic X on the DA to get rid of all the marks i’ve made on them. Cheers @Jacko for the seats! Couldn’t find an e87 undertray as this one’s went walkies. Found one for an e90 being used as a bridge at Pickapart. Mainly in-tact but needed to trim the front and drill a couple of holes for the fastens going in to the subframe. Hasn’t flown off at speed so calling that task done. Didn’t grab any pictures and hopefully won’t have to

Recent progress. Got the front Wheel bearings installed on to the strut tubes, along with the dust shields. Rear wheel bearings pressed out and new ones installed, hub flanges pressed in as well. Trailing arms back in the car, brake lines hooked up. Assembled the rear struts with new top mounts, and installed them along with the new springs. Haven’t torqued bolts down yet as that will need to be done at ride height. next up is handbrake assembly and handbrake cables, then need to order some new discs and pads. Haven’t done much else on the front suspension as I’m hoping to install the engine and gearbox from underneath, so subframe will only go into the car with the engine. Have all new arms m3 offset bushings etc all ready to go for when that happens. clutch kit arrived as well now so just need to sort a starter motor and some bellhousing bolts and engine and box can be bolted up and put in the car, have the engine and gearbox mounts sitting on the shelf ready to go.

Neither did I till I showed him all the bits I needed to get done, I'm playing around/restoring a Genuine E30 318is at the moment (I should really start a thread at some point) and didn't want to muck around with the factory ride height too much. PowderPros use Prismatic powders and they were quite confident about the durability and that there would be no damage to the original spring, I did do a little bit of research on there website: https://www.prismaticpowders.com/gallery?htids=Suspension @Vass They really take the each job on a case by case basis and to be honest my arms weren't really in the sharpest condition to begin with (surface rust) , James at PowderPros did mention to me with these sort of jobs its best customers drop everything off at once as staggering the parts can add some time and cost to the overall job, I would highly recommend you have a chat to him if your interested. @Neil McCauley the process for all the parts: Acid Stripped, Sand Blasted, Zinc Primer, then colour: Gloss Black or Silver then Clear

Avus 540iS got down to $16k when it was a private sale, so let’s not stoke the Sunday Garage market pricefest… To be fair it is/was an incredible car; wether you place value on buying an immaculate survivor factory specced car or a well restored facsimile is entirely up to the buyer.

That motor would be great in many cars (Cough840iCough)

Saving the Silver Lemon: Day whatever. Intake removed, solid amount of oil in it so will take a look at CCV. Rocker cover off, not the first monkey here as it was sealed on with rtv. Insides look pretty good, seen way worse anyway! Hydroformed exhaust cam (07 for reference) Headbolt has snapped, but thankfully the internal ones still have heads, so no major to solve it. Remains of the old micky mouse flange must have been floating around the engine bay, as found some of it under the car post wash #3.

Yeah I did a quick search after seeing that comment and that one came up... bonkers. Pointless getting a bare engine anyway, unless swapping out a dead engine in an M3, you'd really need a full donor car to do a proper conversion. Good luck getting your hands on one nowadays... best bet is probably importing a crash damaged one from overseas still, the US & UK prices still seem somewhat attainable. As much fun as a Compact M3 would be, if by some miracle I ever get my hands on one, it'd be destined to turn ol' Barbara into an M3 Touring

I got the chance today (making the most of winter before the weather improves and I get started on house projects again) to get started on a project I've been wanting to do for a long time. The goal here is a 1:1 replica of the SMG shifter knob. Why? It occurred to me some time ago that modern manufacturing techniques present an opportunity to create a twist on the stock SMG shifter to make something a little bit unique. The plan is to have the knob 3D printed in titanium and then finish it to a polished surface which will hopefully be a cool twist on the chrome of the original item. The 4 leather pads I'm planning to do as leather-covered TPU with an ABS or similar backing (drawing heavy inspiration here from how heinzboehmer recovered the pads on his SMG). Why titanium? It is of course a PITA to finish, and it might not end up working out, but I've decided to give it a try for two reasons. Mostly because it's a cool thing to try, secondly - thermal conductivity. One of the nice things about the OE shifter being plastic is that the shifter doesn't feel ridiculously cold to touch on a winter morning. This is because plastic has poor thermal conductivity. Titanium of course has much higher thermal conductivity than plastic, but also it's an awful lot less than stainless steel or aluminium, so will help to reduce this effect. The model above as you see doesn't have the pockets cut for the leather pads, reason being I want to do a test print to make sure that I've got the internal geometries right first in case I need to change anything that affects the pockets for the pads. I'm intending to reuse the OE clear acrylic centre insert which mates the shifter with the shaft, so I need to make sure it's a spot-on fit. Anyway - first draft is being printed and will do some test fitting when I get the parts. In the meantime here are a few screen caps of the two parts:

Looking sharp mate! Really like the attention to detail and the organisation of the plated goodies

Ripco has 30% off Penrite too. Got a 20l ecobox before I saw this - although 4 less plastic containers in landfill is worth something too, no?

Some more progress. Got my hardware back from zinc coating, all Organized again now. Got the rear subframe back in. Along with new rear inner brake lines. got the steering rack fitted up into the front subframe with some spacers I machines. Also swapped on some new e36 outer tie rod ends. just waiting on rear wheel bearings to show up and I can start putting trialing arms back in.

Yesterday I got the tires fitted to the ARC-8's and today I put them on the car and went for a test drive. It will surprise no one that this setup is a huge improvement over 19s with old RE050A's. The first few minutes of driving were weird, it felt like I'd lost a bunch of road sensation and it took a few minutes to realize it was just harshness and unhelpful noise that was missing. All the useful feel of the car and the road through the seat and wheel was still there, it was just a quieter smoother ride with much less of the unnecessary hum, buzz, fizz, whatever you want to call it. As soon as I realised I could still read the road as before I settled in and started comparing the difference. I can't talk to how the Potenza Sports compare to the PS4Ss, but compared to old RE050A's they are very significantly quieter, I first noticed this by noticing that the CSL intake sounded louder! 18inch wheels are clearly what this car was designed for and are better than 19s in every way when it comes to ride quality and feel. I'm very happy I opted for the firmer sidewall of the Potenza's over the, softer than PS4S, PS5's. The accuracy and immediacy of handling is still there, significantly improved upon with new sticky tires. I need to give a big shout out to Bry5on for his advice to put 9in wheels up front with the ET42 offset. I'd always been worried about putting anything too wide up front, afraid of ending up with heavy, dull steering, but with pretty much the correct offset and lighter wheels and tires all the precision and immediacy is still there, and when you get on to windy open road the feel of the car with a larger tread patch up front and closer to square setup overall is just superb. On the topic of weight. The combination of lighter wheels and lighter tires means I'm almost 4kg lighter per corner, which (including weight of the rotors) is close to a 14% reduction in rotating mass, and I can really notice the difference. I'm always skeptical of my butt-dyno because I'm always concerned it is excessively influenced by the "wallet factor". But in this case there is no doubt. Acceleration and braking both noticeably benefit, not to mention how much better the car ride and holds to the road with less unsprung mass. In summary, as you would expect, this is a fantastic upgrade in every way. I do want to thank everyone who took their time to give me advice and suggestions on this project. It wasn't one I was planning to do right now, and as a result I had not performed my usual excessive amount of research and preparation well in advance. I'm very grateful to everyone who shared their knowledge and experience to help me arrive at the ideal outcome. Thank you! Like heinzboehmer I've very much missed driving the car while it's been laid up, so like him when I got it back on the road a short test drive turned into a longer one. Only I ended up at a slightly less globally-famous landmark. The Mt Rex sand processing facility in Helensville 😂 Also, it's winter here, it was raining, and the sun was in the wrong place.

sadly my 135i probably owes me enough that I could have had a 1m

It's been driven to its credit. Do the looks appeal to anyone under 50? I think it's one of the ugliest cars ever.