jeffbebe

All the trim's out in mine (just in time for the meet today!! haha) for a sand and repaint because the wood trim was pretty faded and cracked. Still got a couple more coats to go, then lacquer and sand before it goes back in. Will post a DIY if it works! Next re-finish the seat leather... One step at a time.

Multicultural bro.

Those sort of flat bright colours look very fast and furious to me. Prefer your Estoril Blue.

So the upshot of this is they can't code it to my VIN on the bench and Guido at BMWorkshop said they can't recode an EGS... Obviously I'm not going to do this now but wondering what would happen if the EGS failed. Surely can't mean the car is scrap because no-one in NZ seems to know how to recode??

If you send them the ECU for a bench tune instead of buying a chip they can probably do it.

Nice paint work on the Porsche kit.

You need these to match your plate.

Shiny

I went to get some cleaning products from Repco the other day and they had Angry Birds wheel covers... Almost bought one for you.

Seriously, ABS plastic is really easy to work with. By a cheap set of standard eyebrows - there were some on my old car when I bought it and the fitted well. Put them on the headlight with some blu tack and close the bonnet. Mark exactly where you'd like them to end and start sanding. ABS is soft so if you start with some gritty paper you'll make light work of it and when you get close to your line use a a nice light paper and then finish with 1500 wet n dry to get a nice smooth finish... Then off to the painters. Easy.

I'm a big fan of the cinnamon interior, especially in a blue car but there's way too much going on in that one with the black wheels and cf wing mirrors. Busy busy busy. Great build though.

Quick question for the boffins... If I bought an EGS like this one from a seller in the US and get them to ship it to Dinan. Then get Dinan to upgrade it and ship back to me. Will it be a straight swap for my existing EGS? I've checked the part# on Real OEM and it looks compatible but I'm really not 100% on these things. If it's possible seems like a good way to do it so I keep my stock EGS in case the software upgrade isn't what I hope for. My VIN is WBADN62010GF11548 I assume it has to be recoded to my VIN which I'm hoping Dinan can do, if not is it a job for the dealer or can anyone here do that?

The ones pictured were made by a company called Element 6 designs. There's a fair bit on the US boards about them but all old, so I'm guessing they went out of business. You can try emailing them and see if you get a response [email protected] If you can't find them just get a pair of $20 standard ones from Hong Kong on eBay and cut/sand them. As long as you get ABS plastic ones it'll be easy. Some slightly thicker ones here: http://www.kit-tuning.com/?mod=23&t=pP...61&pID=1530

Hey Brent is the 540 an M62tu or M62. I'm looking to "borrow" a pair of M62tu valve covers while I powder coat mine.

$200's cheap... I looked at Supersprint headers and they're US$3000+ for the V8! OBX don't seem to make one for the V8. In fact, there don't seem to be many options and the ones out there are freaking expensive ($100+ per hp gain!).

Definitely, enjoying it though it's going to take a while to get it in to as good shape as the 528... But way more fun to drive. Absolutely... Haven't really had a chance to put it through its paces properly yet, it's been pretty shite weather over the two weekends I've had it. Hopefully this weekend I can give it a good thrash.

Did you fabricate them yourself? If not, can you recommend where to get them? Most of the ones pre-fabricated headers I've seen for the 540i are in the $1.5-2K region.

Lux flakes are the business but always give it a decent feed afterwards. I use Connolly hide food - it's amazing - but Meguiar's leather conditioner's pretty good. Otherwise the soap flakes will gradually leach the natural oils out of the leather and it will get hard and crack.Sadly the leather in my 540 is in much worse condition than my 528... Too bad for hide food to rejuvenate but not so bad that a recolour first won't see it back to its best.

I'm off to Aus for work tomorrow so dropped the car off at my mechanic's for a service in order to fulfil my mechanical warranty obligations. Have asked that they do a couple of extra things while it's therm - skim the rotors, give the suspension a thorough check, full transmission service and check the viscous fan clutch (it's been sounding like it's locking up occasionally, fortunately the dealer said he'll pay for the repairs if required). Pick it up on Friday when I get back and hopefully it will be in tip-top condition for the Auckland meet over the weekend.

Best test track north of the bridge, Ray!

92bhp between 528 and 540. 112bhp between 540 and M5 - that's a fair difference. Also, for me anyway, the difference was night and day between my 528 and the 540. Think you're just high on that M5 buzz!

I imagine the feeling is like me going from the 528 to the 540... The 528 felt like a big car that the engine had to work hard to move. In the 540 it feels like a small car that's raring to go! The M5 must be nuts... When I drove the F10 it was plain ridiculous for a car that's even bigger than the E39. Can't wait. Like many others on here I watched that car with interest on TM. Glad it went to a good home.

I want lots of power and a wife who doesn't loathe my car way more than I want an extra pedal.

Sounds a very good idea... Where would I find something like that? Sounds pretty specialist.