aja540i

The amperage is only one of the variables to consider when welding panel steel (or anything) remember it has to be hot enough to melt the wire you are using! Total heat input is much more important and that involves energy input AND time elapsed, you can weld panel steel with a lot of energy input if you are fast enough. I don't think i have ever turned my mig to it's lowest setting and i have done a lot of patches in the E21.

You keep your man card, i will keep my $140 a week!

If there is a random black box under the dash or in the glovebox with a credi card size slot it will have an electronic toll system and it will be for that, pull it all out.

Co2 generally runs hotter and you get more splatter but If you are grinding your welds anyway It makes no difference, costs a fraction of what the argon mixes cost. Works fine for stop/start welding on thin sections.

I have had several BOC welders over the years and we currently have 3 at work, have never had a single issue with any of them, they are worth the extra money. If you are just learning and doing occasional stuff most chinese machines will be up to it, but the most important thing to look at is the duty cycle, they are based on 10 minutes so a 20% duty cycle means you can weld for 2 minutes in every 10, 40 % means 4 minutes welding etc. MIG welding generally uses an Argon / Co2 mix while TIG requires pure Argon which is a lot more expensive. I personally dislike flux cored wire welding so i recommend sticking with solid wire and shielding gas. flux cored is UGLY and smokey and generally not as strong. A 180 amp welder with a good duty cycle will do almost every job you need it to do.

I replaced the grilles on my 540i when I had the bonnet resprayed, got them from BMW and im sure they weren't that expensive, I have a vague recollection of maybe $80 each, although that might be just what I told my wife I paid!

Breaking election promises is what governments do, you can't act surprised!

Have done over 7000 Km in the leaf now, with that and the price of fuel the way it is, it has made a good start on paying for itself!! I see EVs becoming a lot more popular in Auckland in the near future too....

E10 should be ok, but if you want the full performance you need to use the good stuff. I don't want to sound like an a55h0le but if you can't afford to run your M5 on 98, you can't really afford to own an M5.

can't weld it on the car but if you pull it off and clean it up i can weld up the crack for you. (good time for wings and baffles for when you take it racing!)

New episode up.!

Hopefully not the same one !!!

https://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=1625126239&open_homes=&region=&district=

VERY dodgy way to get a 'certed' car, and certainly won't hold up under scrutiny. Better to throw the cert plate away and start again IMO.

There are numerous places around Akl that can do it, but as with painting the money is in the prep! If you take them freshly sandblasted or dip stripped wheels with no badges or weights or tyres the price will be pretty reasonable. I have had a set of 4 done for $50, but they were 13s. Mikestan do a good job but it is not their core business, Cazcoat on the shore are good, as are Rainbow. I would offer to do it but I cant fit wheels in my oven.

Not so much 'behaving badly', more like highlighting the drivers actual skill level !

They have a layer of tar on them now, from all the road works!

Nothing is impossible, but the brake booster placement in these makes fitting anything with more than one cam a challenge, especially a straight 6, it would probably be no more work to fit a V8 (or a turbo 4 which is what it should have)

mine did this after i swapped the door handle, it was a switch on the door lock mechanism, something to do with the anti theft stuff, it fired up as soon as i got it fitted properly, but it would only start when you unlocked it with the key in the drivers door, if you left the window down and unlocked it from the inside handle it would just crank over until the battery died.

I'm certain i would get in trouble with my wife if i got one of those...

The one that lives in the sump is getting done, will probably do the others when the next thing needs replacing.

Big ol' box of goodies arrived on doorstep yesterday, now to open the motor up and tip them in....

Got my intermittant ABS fault on the way to Takapuna in the M5 this afternoon so popped in to BMW and they scanned it for me...37 codes! I still don't know what it is.... I suspect a few of the stored codes are a result of having it on the dyno, so clear them and try again.

Angle grinder. Never fails.

confirmed my suspicion that it has enough power to get the groceries home!!