Rumblefish

Brent is correct on all counts......

The Tri Spoke steering wheel is standard for the 540is.

Thanks Brent.... I would have thought the engine cover would have elicited more comments from the experts, but it seems to have gone un noticed in the hullaballoo over whether the car is a 540iS or not

Any potential future owners were being made aware of the cars history. The Petrol Mica Metallic Car is registered as Blue - the Orient Blau Car is registered as Blue. If I replace the engine in my car - the numbers will not match - if the engine is not stolen, the boys in blue would have nothing to say... Engines are swapped all the time, and the new engine numbers are never added to the registration... The price reflected what the car is, and in my mind, represented excellent value - I know what it has cost me, and how much work has gone into it, profit was definitely not the motive.. I have been a member for a while just had nothing to contribute.

Thanks for the clarification, but I believe my morals are fine, nothing about the car is illegal - there is nothing on it, or in it, that I do not legally own. I was totally open with what had been done to the car, and certainly was not trying to hide anything, or pass it off. The price reflected what the car is, and in my mind, represented excellent value - I know what it has cost me, and how much work has gone into it, profit was definitely not the motive.. The value was suggested by a BMW specialist mechanic who has recently worked on the car. All in all, as I have said before, you are entitled to your opinions... but they are not going to change mine. I'm generally not one for telling the story till it's done, and generally, when I'm done I sell the car and move on to the next project. I have been a member for a while just had nothing to contribute.

Withdrawal has been covered. As for fixing the original it was a close run thing, I bought the 540ia donor to use the panels off, and sell the rest. As I got into the job, I found someone had cut through the rear shock mount area to fit speakers in the 540iS, around a third of the circle the shock top protrudes through was cut away. I decided I wasn't happy to weld in the back parcel shelf from the donor car, including the top shock mounts, as the original car had had this area butchered, probably could have gotten away with it, and it would have been an easier road, but I would never have been happy with it. So, as the donor was actually a good car, I had Ray convert it to manual, as I dislike auto's, and the madness began....

If they had been in better shape I would have used them. I am looking for both, and they will end up in the car as soon as I find some.

I agree, when I bought it on Trade Me, I thought it would look much better than it turned out.. Oh well...

Ray did the Manual Swap, he did not do any of the other work on the car.... suspension swap, diff swap etc etc. So Ray would say, he did the Manual swap....

I hardly think your Falcon example comes anywhere close, but realistically if you bought a crashed Falcon GT, lets say an XY, as the XA was crap by comparison, I've owned many a Falcon back in the day when having an XY as a daily was not unusual, but I digress, back to the crashed XY GT.... If the body was irreparable and you didn't want to see the end of another classic car, what are the chances your rebuild would include a factory GT shell? Not likely, so when you find a GS Shell, V8, Manual etc., and everything was transferred from the GT, what makes the car? The body shells are identical, from the same production line, and the factory fitted different components to make the model. Are you saying this would now make your car not a GT? I have restored many vehicles, from Ford Anglia's to Triumph Stags.. I am a qualified mechanic, and when I have rebuilt something, I know what I have built. I would be inclined to agree with your point if I had got a 1989 E34 525 shell and bodged a V8 and Manual into it...and thrown on a chassis tag.... but really, I'm struggling to see your issue. Maybe you just have nothing better to get bent out of shape about?

Withdrawn because as I said, I wasn't 100% sure I wanted to sell the car.... the hullabaloo it's caused has just made it easier to decide to keep it. Haters Gonna Hate.....meh.

From the LVVTA - Example: A car can be crashed during a race, then subsequently re-bodied with a new shell, incorporating all of the unique parts and the original Cars identifiers, and the car remains the same Car anywhere in the world, provided that there is evidence that the remains of the wrecked body are destroyed. This practice has been tested in court throughout the world over the years, and is on safe legal ground. ...... these examples illustrate that a new authentically-replicated replacement body does not, in the eyes of the rest of the world, deem a car to suddenly become an entirely different car, nor is it suddenly deemed to no longer be the original car. The low volume vehicle category definitions has clarified that a vehicle that is re-bodied in an authentic manner with no chassis or mechanical component modifications, will not become a low volume vehicle (LVV) and is therefore not subject to the LVV certification process. This allowance will rely on the vehicle retaining a unique factory-assigned identifier.

Vin # WBAHE52070BK35074

Hi all, yes it is a members car......mine. It is what I have said it is, a 1994 540iS, that has had the body shell replaced with a body from a 1994 540ia . A genuine NZ E34 540iS, not to be confused with an E34 M540i, was a 540ia, that the factory put a manual in, added a body kit, MSport suspension, Seats and Steering Wheel. Nothing too earth shattering...it is what it is. I am a little offended by some of the comments on here...It's not being dodgy, I have been totally upfront about the car. I purchased a 540iS that required body work that was un economical to repair - rather than stripping it for the gearbox as most would have done, being a BMW enthusiast, I chose to get the car back on the road rather than see it die. The method I chose was my own. It's all a matter of opinion in the end, but as I have commented on Trade Me.... People replace the bodies on classic cars all the time, for various reasons. You can buy a new manufactured, aftermarket MG B roadster body to restore your MGB. Using it does not make your car not genuine, the body is just a part of the entire machine. If you replace a part on your car does it make it not genuine?... At the end of the day, you are all entitled to your own opinions, and I expected every idiot to come out of the woodwork on Trade Me, but I do find the negativity here a little disappointing, considering it is coming from people who are supposedly enthusiastic about the marque. At the end of the day, you don't have to buy it, and you can always go and buy one of the other more genuine E34 540IS's that are for sale