E30 325i Rag-Top

So with a bit of time off from work I decided to get stuck into chopping off the rear guards to start fitting up the fibreglass ones. Decided to go gently and do it in small pieces so I could make sure that 1) I didn't chop out something behind the skin and cause problems there and 2) it left a reasonably neat and tidy edge to fit up against and 3) by taking it a bit at a time I could get the hole the right size!! still looking for the rust that I was told was sure to be in there, maybe I should stop cutting now...?? As I said before I order a pair of the M3 outer guards to save me from having to fabricate something up to get the wheel arch the right shape, using the proper panels it was more likely that I would end up with a "correct" position of the outer lip to fit the fibreglass guard up against. My welding skills are more than a little rusty, but I'm reasonably happy with how it has turned out. Only one small wound to the hand, and small amount of blood plus one small fire equals a win in my book!!

Just do it...

Sounds like it's all getting a bit George Orwell's Animal Farm in here - "Two Doors Good! Four Doors Bad!"

Come on, keep up. The M3 hasn't been a coupe for a whole generation now (F80 production has now ended), and the M4 is obviously the coupe as it's based off the 4-Series which has 2-doors, except the 4 GC, which has 4-doors, but is a coupe. Erm, ok, maybe that's not quite as clear as first thought.. Interestingly (maybe, or probably not if you're not interested in these things), the M3 - the four door, has proved to be a much better seller than the M4 - the 2 door one, in general for New Zealand by quite a long way. IMHO it's better looking especially from the rear, definately more practical and surprisingly feels better balanced when being pushed hard. For those reasons, amongst others, many people have chosen the M3 over the M4. Strange that this car has come up for sale so quickly after being delivered, I got the impression the buyer liked to buy cars very regularly but they probably waited longer for it to arrive than they have owned it!

Whereabouts in NZ are you? It's not listed on your profile.. pickup is usually favourite with wheels, especially when they have tyres on them!

The service guys at CHCH BMW might have a set, try and speak to them see if you can swap a few over? I have seen them on USA eBay, as singles, quite small so Air Freight could still be reasonable?

All For Sale posts must have a price, offers is not permitted as per forum rules.

The bar through the middle, horizontally is a Harness bar for mounting a race harness shoulder straps on. i believe the consensus is not to use normal seat belts with a 1/2 cage on the track. having the bar close to the back of the seat helps to reduce the belt stretch, which can happen when they are fixed to the rear seat belt mounts.

Fences & Hedges -brilliant!! So apt for rallying. plus I really love that B&H livery from the M3s. Good luck with the build I hope it goes smoothly.

As I thought, I haven't got any that thick. 3.90 is the fattest I've got sorry.

Doesn't look to be anything special, or a very desirable spec. A great big hole in the sill suggests there will be other issues in the body. The work required would seem to be much greater than the final reward.

Not sure if I've got any that thick, I will have a look through what I have got spare and let you know. IIRC you had to order a whole "kit" the last time I looked at buying some specific sizes, so I ended up swapping some with a dealership.

The steel outer halves of the inner guards have now turned up, just in time for my week off next week - so will be back to cutting and grinding in anger. Fingers crossed I should make some good progress with these if I get a good solid run at it!

Not sure if my measurements are 100% as the battery was flat in my vernier so I had to measure the gap with a tape measure! Also not 100% sure what all the thickness variations are for an E30 ARB. One I have is probably an 18.5mm, I also have an E30 M3 one which seemed to come out about 19 - 19.5mm and the one on the race car seems to be a 20mm.. If you pm me what any of them would be worth to you, we can discuss. i'll try and find a battery and get proper measurements.

If Ray / HellBM team put the second engine in then there's nothing to be worried about there, which I believe they did but would have to double check with them to be 100%. Probably almost a positive selling point, because things would have been done properly and any issues found whilst in there would have been sorted - plus all the other work that was done when it was converted over to the V8.

Cool base for a BMW Race Series 2 Litre car..

i've got a few in the cupboard, I will have a measure up of what sizes they are. Are you only interested in the 20mm?

As per my above post, this ISN'T Nardo Grey, yes it's similar, but not the same shade of grey as this one. Two of the cars in this series are 'Nardo Grey' but this one is Medio Grigio. 50 different shades of grey in the BMW colour pallette.

Very similar, the CS colour is "Lime Rock Grey" which is a little lighter than this one - Medio Grigio, which I think means "middle grey" in Italian? There are also a couple of these limited Indivudual Edition M3s in Nardo Grey which is also nice. I can see that it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, and yes it does look like they only put the primer on and forgot the top coat (do they still even use primer now..??) over it, but they do stand out a bit more than some of the more common colours. My choice would be one of the two of these that are in the E36 M3 metallic Daytona Violet.

Would certainly be an awesome car... fast and practical! Given the sales success of the Audi RS4 and RS6 as wagons you would have thought that there would be a justification to try and get some of that market share.

Another good AutoCar rumour!

For the price you can buy the panels it's not really worth it tbh. I did order a number of spares, originally to make up another full set of front, rear, F Guards, Rear Guards and side skirts so I would have a whole set to on-sell, but after the cock up with the steel rear panels I am now short a set of those so will probably just keep the rest as spares. sanding and filling FRP is bad enough, but working with the resins is total brain damage. Want to keep as far away from that stuff as possible so not even thinking of making any parts or splashes off of these parts.

Carbon Black with red leather is a great colour combo, but yeah Tom's modded E46 M3 would be a more "fun" car to own and drive. If it wasn't for the yellow exterior colour I would have been seriously interested in Tom's car. Not sure I can live with Pheonix Yellow even on a weekend car.

Spent a couple of days this week on a farm playing with some new G05 X5s, in their (un)natural environment. Not hard-core off-roading but even with 22" rims with very wide sports tyres (315 wide on the rear) they were still pretty capable. The new air-suspension making a big difference to the ride, on and off-road. Up hill... And down dale. 3Pedals would not approve, none of them were manuals, and there is no manual option for most of the range now.

The best way to describe the fit and finish for the parts is probably "variable", some parts are pretty good, some are average and some like the C-pillar extension are pretty poor. As with most things in life, I think you get what you pay for. The main thing for me is that they are fairly accuratedly detailed to the originals and they are light. No point changing to FRP panels if they are 3mm thick and weigh the same as steel panels. The edge profile of the M3 inner guard is pretty different to that of the standard E30, not just a case of cutting it off and moving it out 20mm as I was hoping. So rather than try to fabricate a modification I have ordered a pair of outer-inner guards for an M3 which should be pretty easy to fit up, and then give a more accurate position to fit the outer guard up against. So whilst I am waiting for those to arrive, I have started fiddling around with other bits and pieces, including the front lip spoiler / splitter. The supplied part was just a single upper skin that was far too flexible to be any use, so I added a bottom skin from a sheet of aluminium composite and used some expanding polyurethane foam to fill the gap between the two and bond it all together. A bit of old carbon-fibre look wrap on the top and it almost looks like a bought one!! Worked out a slotting fixing system so it can be moved in or out as required for more or less front grip similar to the M3 Sport Evolution. As it has a reasonable thickness I was able to shape the front to act like a proper splitter and should have some proper aero effect, rather than just looks. Here it is in the fully extended position.. One part finished, just fifteen to go..