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DONE! Too many cans of primer Too many pots of filler (most of it sanded off!) Too many sheets of sand paper 1000ml of paint used as guide coats Learning 1000 ways how not to sand complex curves One last crack at the rear lhs kink, thin but long layer of filler, knee board as a sander block and she's mint. Rear quarter panels, kinks and arches SIGNING OFF! Guide coats and hand touch finally revealing nothing, well I'm sure there's always low spots but I'm really struggling to find it using the go to techniques. Onto easy small door dents, what a relief!!

I have come to the conclusion the best cars to buy are the ones I am selling.

the fecking size of it as it passes in the end, like some 8 series beheamoth, ?

E39 out, E46 in. Transported it up from Arrowtown last week, picked it up this week. 211,000km NZ New 2 previous owners. Last owner had it for 12 years/173,000km Known faults were the remote keys don't work and it has a vacuum leak under the intake manifold as diagnosed by an indy shop in Arrowtown. A few bits of service history but nothing significant. Fresh off the trailer: After talking to experts (forum members) I've started what looks to be a bit of a maintenance mission. Started with the PCV. It was dated as 2002 so original and very brittle. The oil return line disintegrated in half as I pulled out the dipstick tube. I left the manifold on in a bid to have a driveable car to pick my daughter up from day care in and in my haste I forgot to plug in a few things. Idle was smooth but it was real jerky and had a big dip in the throttle when you initially got on the gas. Scanned it and it came up with cam position sensor fault. So out came the airbox and it turned out I had forgotten to plug in the cam position sensor, alternator and something else...whoops...anyway, seems to be running alot better now. Revs are constant and it's not throwing misfire or rich codes. Did the classic air filter, cabin filter and oil + filter too. It's pretty oily down here... Pretty dusty up here.. ewwwww New stuff I went with 5W-40 just because I had 1.5L left over from the 540 so figured I might as well use it up. New Roundel. I got a cheap one off trademe last time and it wore really fast so went all in on the dealership one this time. Changed the plates over too. DQZ346 lives on. Things to do: - coolant system overhaul - vanos valve cover gasket oil filter housing gasket - New Disa valve (rebuilt) - Tints & chrome delete around the windows - Motor mounts - Get the remote locking working - Trans oil and filter Things I would like to do: - Tyres - Suspension Eibach prokit, Bilstein B4 shocks front and Sachs m sport rears - Xenons + black corner lights - Bluetooth hands free - Bavsound upgraded speakers Feel free to add to this never ending list ?

Winger parts dept for instant gratification and supporting your local business. If shopping by price, consider FCP Euro - they may have OEM options such as Valeo or Bosch, in addition to Genuine BMW.

more f**king nanny state bullshit. if they were really serious about cleaning up the vehicle fleet, they would: introduce vehicle emissions testing at WoF time introduce emissions laws - no tampering with emissions systems for road-legal vehicles introduce stiff penalties for non-compliance. introduce carless days under certain conditions (eg high polution readings). It's as simple as based on the last character of your number plate. It doesn't have to be a heavy drain on workshops to buy equipment - the govt could establish drive-in testing stations, independent, job done. I've seen this in operation in one of the world's most densely-populated and poluted cities, and since it's introduction, polution has fallen significantly. Meanwhile, shuffling the deckchairs here in Godzone makes for good PR for green voters.

Went for a look change. Niche Rainier, 19s 8.5 in 35p fr 9.5 in 40 p rear. 265 pilot sport rear, 235 front.

Yea, fuel filter, and new vacuum hoses and hose clamps for it. Vanos seals from besien systems or similar will recover some power and fuel economy. e46 Electric fan mod. msport front bumper. Black grills and shadowline. Just my opinion Also check and replace the little rubber bungs on the back of the manifold as they will be cracked or missing at this age and will create a vacuum leak.

If this was the one on TM a few weeks back, I’m glad it went to a good home!

Good dealers are the exception. I remember when I got my M5 It would CEL after a hard run due to a faulty ionic control module (knock sensor). I diagnosed the fault myself, proved it by swapping it to the other bank and in the end the dealer said to go to AC BMW. AC BMW couldn't fault it but took my word for it and replaced the ICM. The dealer had to give me his CC number over the phone to pay for it, man I could hear him cringe when they said the price. I also wanted the wheels balanced and aligned as it was driving pretty lumpy. They said they fixed it but it was still lumpy. I eventually got it balanced and they took a whole pile of weights off as no one had re balanced it in ages. It was a complete ball ache to deal with. I have had very few good experiences. The only one I can think of was a place in Mt Welly near the old Moyes.

PBTech's Black Friday Sale starts soon, and I think it is going to be a ridiculous rush to save less than 10% on most parts.

Ancient filthy diesels are the thing that winds me up. The 90's trucks are disgusting

Very true. Discussing PC parts. Apple people show up to inform us we're wrong. Nearly as bad as people with Air Fryers.

Parked the M5 up for the arvo and gave one of these a workout. Still prefer much slower M5 though!

Took it up to Auckland for Xmas and then over to Raglan for New Years and then back to Welly. Didn't miss a beat and got to stretch it’s legs. Stopped in and met @Lucan and picked up the roof racks he was selling a while back. Back down to Welly and gave the new snow foam lance a go Thought it was a gimmick but it's really good. At 208,000km I have just replaced: - Timing chain guides - Timing chain - Oil seperator (returned to OEM setup as PO had installed a catch can system) - Vanos Seals - Valley Pan - CCV - Water Pump - Thermostat - Coolant temp sensor - Engine mounts - Upper oil pan gasket - Lower oil pan gasket - Crank seal - Fuel Filter - Oil Filter - BMW coolant Thanks @Etwenty1 for hiring out his timing tool. Now that this is all done I will hopefully make it to the next Wellington Club meet. This ended up being a lot more time consuming than I thought and ended up having the car off the road for the last 7 weeks using spare hours here and there to get it done, learnt a lot and had to ask lots of questions from more mechanically minded mates but got there in the end. Here’s a few pics from my journey. I don't think I actually took a finished engine bay photo...but you get the idea. I do really regret not painting the rocker covers but I was pretty over it being in bits at this point...