E30 325i Rag-Top

No problem mate, just hope you are fully recovered now and back in good health.

Not content with having the wife’s E46 and the E30 racecar in bits, I decided to take the E30 convertible apart!! Have had a timing belt and camshaft seal sitting in a box for 3 years so decided to finally get on with it before it snaps. Only ever done a belt with the engine out before, bit more challenging with it in the car!!

Was Pelican one of those previously excellent specialist suppliers that have been bought up and merged? On another note, how big is that box for such a small part and a sticker? Must have a good postage deal!!

Manuel - common Spanish name, also common mis-spelling of manual, especially on TardMe.

That's a pretty cool shed full of toys the guy has there, two boats, an HSV and performance bike plus the M2. Jealous. There are a few manual M2s around, and a couple of M2 Competition manuals as well. Get your rowing boats while you still can!!

That's a cool, lo-cost performance upgrade!! Not sure it would be healthy in the long run though? As the sun was shining this morning and the traffic is very light with holidays, etc I decided to pull the convetible out of the garage for the daily commute. Happy Fri-yay!

If you are dealing with a BMW authorised dealership, which I think you are then the amount of margin the dealer has to work with is not that great tbh. If the 10% discount were off a new vehicle then they have well and truly dropped their pants in terms of what they are making on the deal. If it is parts you are referring to then that is still a very sizeable chunk of any profit they would have made being given up. Whilst there is not 100% coverage of NZ with stock of runflats, I would imagine that were the case on less common sizes of non-run flats as well, particularly the big, low profile, high-performance tyres required for an M3. So an over-night supply from a central warehouse (as would be the case from BMW NZ as the parts warehouse carry the runflat sizes) would be likely case there as well.

You can now get tyre and rim insurance in NZ... it's available from all good local BMW dealerships Edit: don't think it's free with the tyres though, just saw that part of your comment - I don't think it's a huge sum of money, but not free. As you were.

Black one here.. https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-1837585947.htm?rsqid=eeea75fbc8344d3d8f5fc5187c727ecf And grey one here.. https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-1790139532.htm?rsqid=7a9d17e2e0df4497be1d52a8521b1899 Quite rare to see these in the spanish version, and I do believe these are no longer offered as a manual from factory.

Also been thinking about and playing with the graphics and logos side of things in between sessions in the garage/sauna - damn Auckland and it's humidity. Mentioned before changing it from John Player Special (JPS) to Jon Tyler Special (JTS) as a little personal touch, so found a couple of logos and modified them up to look like these: Pretty happy with how they look on the screen - now to try and see what they look like in real life. I will be working with Dave Farmer from GT Designs in Tauranga on the signage as he has got some pretty good new gear for working on this stuff and is a fellow Bimmer lover!

Just seen the zoom in from above, over the "exploded parts" view - that also is awesome. How did you do that one, using a drone or hanging off the roof of the house and using the camera zoom? Either way it looks brilliant. The imagination and or the vision to imagine those shots is also pretty impressive, before you even start talking about the execution.

The photo in the long grass is awesome!!

Pretty sure all M cars come with performance tyres, and specifically do NOT have run-flats. Double check your tyres to see what they have written on them. You still won’t have a spare wheel though, should be the motability kit in the boot. I

Don’t let the facts ruin a good thread..

The cost of using runflats is acrtually much greater to BMW, not a cost saving. The cost of a spare tyre is more than outweighed by the added development costs to have to design and manufacture a suspension system to handle both types of tyres, plus all cars with run-flats MUST have a pressure monitoring system otherwise you will not know you have a flat until the tyre disintegrates many miles later (as per previous post - how you know when you have a puncture). Another key factor is the weight reduction in not having to carry a spare and have somewhere to put it - this then helps with the fuel consumption and emissions reductions needed. I may have mentioned this before on another run-flat discussion - in my driving lifetime I have had two tyres get an instant loss of pressure due to a massive puncture on the motorwat - the first normal tyre, the second a run-flat. With the normal tyre the first I knew was when the rear end suddenly pulled massively to the left - I tired to correct / catch it, but ended up spinning into the concrete central divider at around 70mph. With the run-flat I got the warning light on the dashboard, followed by a slight pull to the left, no spin, no massive accident. When I got home and checked the tyre it had a three inch gash from hitting some sharp debris on the road - no wonder it went down so quick. I know which I prefer to drive myself and my family around on. As for not doing long drives on run-flats, I regularly do Auckland to Naper via Taupo and the Napier - Taupo road. On one Friday night trip I managed to hit a pot-hole in the road at speed, just past the cafe where it starts to get twisty. Massive bang and it felt like the strut had punched up through the tower! Slowed right down, and it still felt ok, sped back up to 80km/h for rest of journey. Checked damage in the morning and there was a massive bulge in the sidewall, and when I went to the tyre shop they found a massive buckle in the rim as well, fitted a replacement there and then no waiting. Pretty sure a non-run flat 40 profile tyre on a 19" rim would not have survived that impact and again would have been another blow-out situation.

The aftermarket M3 indicator lenses turned up, even with my staff discount just the lenses were ridiculously expensive for genuine parts, so for a race car I’m happy to use copies. With a bit of kiwi ingenuity I should be able to get the aftermarket indicators, that were supposed to fit an M3 but don’t, to work with them. End result will look heaps better then the bodge up I had on my old M3 bumper any ways. Now working on modifying the facelift bumper mounts to make them lighter and work for both holding the bumper and connecting the A-frame for towing.

I bet the owners soon realised that saving a few dollars on buying non-runflats was a short sighted saving.

Ahh ok, previous stuff not too relevant then, sorry. What is the starter problem, is it spinning but not engaging on the flywheel?

Took advantage of the time off to have a real good tidy up / clean out and sort in the garage. Managed to get enough stuff onto shelves, into cupboards and in the bin to find the convertible again. Now dusted off and started up (first time!!) she’s off for a WoF in the morning. Fingers crossed.

People normally blur the plates on public posts to stop naughty people taking their details or even finding the car to steal it. I can’t figure out how that would work for a soft toy version, can you even register it..?

^^yup, what he said. if you want to do an engine swap pick anything other than the M20B20, just not worth the effort.

THats cool, but why the blurred out number plates..?

How big are the photos? Need to be a reasonably small size. 800 x 600 I think it is. that is usually the issue.

Happy Christmas for you!! #SantalovesanM20build

Saw a very nice looking orange 1602/2002 out the window at Mount Wellington this afternoon. Driver also had a matching orange t-shirt for added Jagermeister-ness.