_ethrty-Andy_

Id recommend an E46, either a prefacelift 318i, or otherwise get a 325i/328i E46. all other E46 are not worth your while, especially as your first one. interiors are generally good quality, headliners usually the only thing that fails. if anything else inside is wrong then thats a pretty good indication of the life the car as had, as they otherwise dont break on thier own. people arent rough on the interiors but service the car impeccably. if the exterior is a bit scruffy then not a big problem if its a common colour, panels are cheap and plentiful, as are all E46 parts and they will be for another 5 years or so too. E36 are mostly getting a bit long in the tooth now, though there are certainly some gems amoungst the rubbish. the first 3 series that was designed to protect its occupants in a crash. coupe specific parts are becoming hard to find, but their motors are plentiful, as are sedan parts, tho prices are starting to climb a bit. non specialist wreckers dont bother to buy them any more. E30s are past being a first car now. highly collectible and reserved for enthusiests these days, even the scuffiest 318i auto sedan is a 3-4k car, and no matter what you buy, you will be working on it from time to time. if you are ready for E30 ownership, you'll know, because nothing else will do. But above all else, regardless what you buy, please recognise that things can and will go wrong. they are 15 - 20 years old now, and were only ever designed to last 10. if your budget is 7k, rather than spending the lot at having nothing left in the kitty, you are FAR better off buying a car for say 4.5k and then spending 2k replacing the cooling system, giving it a full service, and then tidying up the inevitable short comings in the interior. Its true that you wont get your money back in the end, but you werent going to get it if you spent the whole budget anyways, so you might as well have a base line established. be carefull of mutton dressed as lamb too. its very easy to make a car look very good, the buyer gets thier heart set on it, but underneath its a basket case.

truth be told id get value out of the documentary channels too. but the real cost is much higher. i am quite productive, but i would veg more if i had more programs to watch.

no...

correct, eurosurgeon, not EuroItalian, which is Gavins business i was recommending to a friend for some other bits and pieces ha.

building a CSL replica by the looks of it eh

yes it does, but I'm not paying $80+ p/m for sky at home

ha, i am Andy, Olaf is Richard, happy to help mate.

HP are very bad at this sort of thing. One of my pet peeves with them is they ship every monitor they sell with its own stand. we are recycling upwards of 500 stands a week that are brand new out of the box and straight into the shredder to be recycled. and it all but the very latest models come in polystyrene. (Yes i understand exceptions on a production line, and i understand they cost both cents to manufacture, and are worth cents to us) a pity really, because HP is otherwise the best brand in new zealand, if the sheer amount of kit with their badge on the front is anything to go by.

talk to Joe at EuroItalian EuroSurgeon, he has done plenty of them, and has a 335d as his daily.

id like to know what all these programs that are available online are. i have searched on netflix amazon prime light box and you tube, haven't found many series at all that are interesting.

yip i use 10/10ths in my M52 race car too.

i was very happy with my compact race car, but ultimately, would rather have it all in an E30 so reshelled it into my E30 coupe.

sounds good. Want to shed some light on how the nitrous instal has been completed ?

how much did that set you back ? was about $300 last time i looked into them

usb sucks. acquire an old win xp laptop with a serial port, if only you knew someone with an abundance of them and connect using that. alternatively, icom's are a possibility, though i do not have one.

don't worry paul, all since gone, that was a 2008 look. there has been stretched tyres been and gone since too.

i am now an admin here, but i am not an IT guy, so this is over my head sorry. and yes, still on a Macintosh too

I've been watching quite a few Top Gear episodes lately, Clarksen et al of course. there is so much content it is impossible to remember everything. haven't watched any of the new new top gear apart from the first three episodes of the ginger presenter whatever his name is bouncing about the place and deciding it wasn't for me.

welcome. See you thursday ?

late to the party sorry, usually just drop the rear exhaust hangers and the transmission subframe so the whole assembly tilts down when i do anything related to the trans/gearbox. Also as above on the control arms, plenty of room for a small club hammer on the exhaust side, you need to be a bit more creative using whats available to you on the intake side. don't use a pry bar between the arm and the subframe, you can damage the ball joint and/or the arm.

you are welcome to the ones on my E46 if you like. you'll have to come over before Wednesday as its already on the trailer ready for its final journey to the crusher.

i had a a slave do the same thing a few weeks ago, i think there might be a bad batch of them being sold at the moment. replacement bolted in and sweet as good to go.

what have you brought ?

can confirm that an E36 boot fits inside an E28 boot, in case anyone was wondering ha.

perhaps it has a slow leak. or he is going drifting. or planning to store the car for 6 months. you are probably right tho ha. Ford recommend 49.7psi for my daily.