E30 325i Rag-Top

Such a cool car, will be far to good to keep for "just" a track day car, but I can fully understand what you are saying about not wanting to be leaned on! Have a look at the Historic Touring Car Class that Gerry Hodges is promoting and getting going, I'd say he'd love to have your car on the grid with them.. and the emphasis is "fun" for them as the cars are very valuable!

Any courier company that sends DG - as long as it's marked as such, and you tell them what it is, they shouldn't have a problem with it. NZ Post have a very large "too hard basket" which lots of things get put into...

Said it before, and I'll say it again - awesome work in this project. Your skills are amazing. Keep posting the updates, and fingers crossed the rest of the build goes smoothly for you.

There are certainly some very "special" drivers out there.Back in the UK, my mates dad managed to have a head-on with a fire engine, you know the great big red things? Even better, it was on the way to a fire so had all the lights and sirens going. We took the piss out of him for years about that one...

I've never had chance to put the 265 next to a 260, but it (the 265) is certainly a big heavy box. Sat much further back in the tunnel than the ZF 5-speed I had in the E30, and certainly weighed a lot more. The rubber donut is much larger, which also means the driveshaft has to go up in flange size. IIRC the ZF is the same as the Getrag 240, so a bit smaller than the the 260, but I would expect the 260 to be smaller/lighter than the 265. Another issue would be the price and getting hold of one. 265/5 is a $2.5k+ gearbox plus a couple hundy for the bell-housing if you can find one before it's snapped up. 260 would be about $4-500 in comparison. The US spec h-pattern 265/6 can be got for about US$300 + shipping which might be a good solution? No idea about the newer boxes sorry, or which will fit.

Good work Josh, glad that is now sorted.We can now move on to the big issues, like the incorrect use of capital letters, and caps lock keys..??

The old fashioned "krooklok" devices that were used to lock either the steering wheel or hand-brake & gearstick were also good for that!

Could this be a new race car Touring??

I think that might be possible for Andy, but while I have a baby face I still pre-date the E21, let alone the E30 cab.

Are you looking for just the 265 gearbox, or do you want a bell- housing as well ?

Not my opinions, just pointing you to the other thread, hopefully there is someone out there who will appreciate it as much as you. My car had a hard top with it from new, I ended up selling it as it became a complete pain to store it and it was never used. When new, and these cars were dailied the hard-top was a great option to have in the winter. Chances are that now they will only be used as second cars, for sunny Sunday afternoon drives (sweeping generalisation there). Has yours got the stand and lifting cradle still? Makes getting it on and off 100 times easier if you're on your own.

Seen two ridiculous accidents today on the commute, nose to tails both of them. How can you drive into the back of someone on a clear sunny day on a perfectly dry road??

Hmm... Can't think who you mean?

Good idea Grant - I never thought of doing that!!

It is a nice car Alex, there is some market feeback on the thread here.. http://bimmersport.co.nz/topic/51844-wow-e30-rag-top-3/

I know that it's illegal and dangerous to use RFTs on a car that is not set-up for them, that is it doesn't have a tyre pressure monitor system to tell you when you have a flat and the first you know about it is when the tyre blows out, but I've never heard of it being an issue the other way around...?

Those part numbers and the inter-changeability tie up with what I found out fitting my tow-bar. The coupe / saloon bar doesn't fit on the wagon due to the lock for the rear hatch sticking out a bit further in the middle, which would be why the Part No. 8 look to be different lengths. I "engineered" a solution to get around the problem as I was already committed to buying the bar and needed to use it urgently.

Covered the front of the F30 in dead insects, driving to and from Napier over the long week-end. Boy do those bugs get attracted to the adaptive LED headlights at night. Extra note: the front of an F30 is a real bitch to clean dead bugs out of, so many nooks and crannies that they get caught in, where it's hard to get a sponge or brush.

Wiring kits with relays don't work very well on the face-lifted E46, due to way the side / brake lights are pulsed to give different brightness.

You do feel more vulnerable, being out in the open... but then you can keep a F#3k off big stick down under the seat, should it be needed at any point ! I hired an E36 Cab for my wedding and was driving it through London, when an anti-capitalist protest turned into a smash sh!t up riot just around the corner whilst I was stuck in traffic, was more than a little worried then, mostly about whether I would have to pay for any damage excess!!

Yes, very rare that you make any money on a car, unless you pour $$$s into it, or do all the labour yourself type situations. Once in a while, a car becomes the hottest collectible on the market, once it was E-Type Jags, even rusted out hulks in fields were selling for $20k+, then that market crashed. Probably been a couple of cars in between, but right now it seems to be the E30 M3. Which is a real sh!tter because I so badly want to buy one and as fast as I save the prices are going up faster. It is not so noticeable in NZ as there are so few cars, and a very restricted demand, however keeping an eye on prices in Germany, UK and USA show how much they have gone up., and how much people are trying to cash in on the boom, and in some cases are. Fingers crossed the bubble will burst and I will get to own my dream car at some point. Marketed correctly and sold through the right channels, a car that was worth $40k in 2008 would be easily worth $70-90k now, even if it had been driven quite a bit and maintained at a reasonable level. As I mentioned on another thread, the best E30 M3 road car is leaving NZ soon as it's owner was made an offer that was too good to refuse. But overall, yeah, who buys a car as an investment rather than to drive the thing.... shouldn't be allowed, especially with M3s!

Pretty sure that air-con wasn't available on E30s in '83.Also, '83 was the pre-pre-facelift and there are quite a few differences around the front valence, including the fog-lamp mounts.

I know who HOWDEN Ganley is, I even shook his hand at the festival. However, this thread is called HOWARD Ganley, it is he whom I do not know...

Could Kayne re-build it for you Dan?

Who is this Howard Ganley bloke? Is he related to Howden Ganley, the racing driver? Or even Len Ganley the snooker referee?? All jokes aside, some good shots on there!