gjm

A whole car...? Actually, I don't think it is all that bad. Rear quarter, and (as usual) battery tray. I'd be looking to tidy it up a bit without spending too much on it (a few $00, max) and then see if I can swap it for a half-decent M10 or M4x automatic.

Might have lined up a swap... Our E36 318i SE 4-door 5-speed manual sedan for a 1985 E30 320i... Don't actually want a 6-pot E30 but there's more chance of swapping that on for a 4-pot model than doing the same with the E36. If it happens I'll be looking for some tips on bodywork repairs. That's not something I've ever done as I consider it more art than engineering, and I'm no artist.

09/07/2018 - Rain stopped play.

I came to that conclusion... I've packed up for the night but will try fiddling the cable into position tomorrow. If I'm almost upside down, I can look up into the door shell and see where it needs to go. Absolutely no chance of getting a hand there to line it up, so there's likely to be a lot of trial and error, and swearing, tomorrow.

OK - next question. While the battery is out of the car, reducing the likelihood of an airbag going off, I've been investigating the lack of ability to open the passenger door from the outside. (It works fine from inside the car.) Please see here: Any thoughts on the simplest way to resolve this?

Taking advantage of a battery not being fitted to the car, today I'm working on getting the passenger side door handle working from the outside again. (It works from inside the car.) Several reasons why this fails, including a cable becoming unclipped (and can be fixed with a cable tie! @aja540i ) to, and in my case, the cable becoming completely detached from the handle mechanism. I should have expected it, but was still disappointed to find 'someone' had already removed a couple of screws from the door panel and not put them anywhere sensible. Got the 'Airbag' plaque out of the door panel (and the screw behind it), got the the little plastic cap out of the handle recess (and the screw behind that), carefully removed the whole door panel. Peel the moisture barrier back, remove the rubber cap around the top corner of the door body. Cannot see where the cable is supposed to go. I suspect the handle is going to have to come off to sort this, so some investigation into where the locking slide plate is will be necessary. (Getting to the securing torx-head screw is easy once the rubber cap is out of the way. I found a pic of the back side of the mechanism: The cable in the pic is the one which has become completely detached at the handle end... I have absolutely no idea how to put it back together without removing the mechanism from the door (I can't see where the cable has to go), and that looks very tricky while the window regulator is in place. I've released the mechanism from the door, but there doesn't appear to be a way to get it out of the door shell!

I thought that might be the case, but it was worth asking. I've typically worked on the theory that anything under 10V is done.

Reviving an old battery... Is it possible to bring a dead battery back to life? The one I have in mind is a completely sealed lead acid 12V car battery... Currently showing about 5V. I have had some success in the past with topping up with distilled (or clean rain) water, throwing 14V across it for a bit, and then charging hard (6A) for a while, but that approach isn't practical this time. It got this way by sitting unused for an extended period of time. It was OK, did start a car before being left in the garage... Can't afford a new on at the moment!

Fixed the battery clamp (in the boot). Battery fitted when we got the car was too tall so the plastic tray cover wouldn't fit. The clamp wasn't fitted... Pulled the battery, found a DIN55 spec (to suit the 318Ci), fitted that, found the clamp (where are the passivated bolts??? Found some in the garage) and tried to fit it. The horizontal tang was bent out of shape, the two small vertical tongues were spread, and the adjusting screw felt like it was seized - it'd turn about 1/8th of a turn and that was it. I don't know how you overtighten one of these, but that's what had happened, stretching/stripping the thread of the adjusting bolt about halfway down. Getting it undone removed the captive thread from the underside of the clamp. Fettled the securing bar to get it back into shape. Looks like someone had dropped it across the battery at some point. Re-purposed the clamp plate and used a nut, bolt and washer to hold it securely in place on top of the battery. What an unnecessary waste of time. ? Still, sorted now.

Refurbished/rebuilt the battery clamp for the 318Ci after POs boyfriend 'mechanic' managed to strip the thread in the securing bolt... Nope - I don't know how he managed it. All good now though.

Another coolant flush today. I did expect to need to, so no great surprise to find more brown gunk coming out. I think I've got (if not all) most of it now. The car does seem to be running better since I've done this, but I suspect that's psychosomatic. Picked up (very nearly) new tyres from Paul - @Smackiee - the rears look HUGE! ? They're a correct fit for the rims. .But 255s on a 318Ci? LOL Still - this is a 'dress up' car. Very common in Singapore where travelling any distance or at any speed is uncommon; many people will buy a high-spec but smaller-engined car and upgrade it. Removed both bodykit sills. They don't look bad but are woefully impractical as they sit so close to the road. Any speed bump and you can hear them fouling. They were fitted with 3 screws front and rear, and generous daubing of black mastik (or similar) so there';s a bit of cleaning and tidying to do. I'll do a review of RealOEM (or similar) and see what engine plastic I'm missing. The 'mechanic' neglected to keep all the bits he removed in one place, and seems to have discarded all fastenings he may have found. ? I was in Hamilton yesterday and visited Kerry at Mosen, picking up screws to secure the cabin filter tray, the cover for that tray, and a couple of other small bits. More will be needed.

Huge thanks to Paul - I collected the tyres from him this morning. They look great, and so much better than the ones that were on the 318Ci when we picked it up!

Not sure about LWB. I think there is a double-decker, though.

May need a Public Service Vehicle endorsement on your driving license... This thing is huge. The grill covers an area of 1.3 square metres.

Some of the stuff I see on IT-related jobs is tantamount to saying "must have experience building 4-bedroom houses"; an applicant who has built 3 bedroom ones doesn't have the experience, and those who've built 5-bedroom places don't understand the scale or budget required.

"Are you an experienced Project Manager- Network and Infrastructure with a background in finance sector..." What does 'finance sector' have to do with it?

Yup - new strategy, but want 10 years experience of something no-one will ever use again. It's a familiar story. People skills are imperative when managing anyone, or any extensive piece of work, but companies don't seem to have woken up to that yet. There's so little actual cloud in NZ that it beggars belief. There's some small-scale implementations, but nothing with true resilience or BC. And the other thing so many people lose sight of is data sovereignty - NZ law requires much of NZ data to be kept in NZ, and not under the control of someone in the US, India, some funny little island somewhere...

Conveyancing in the UK is rarely done by solicitors. It is done by firms of solicitors, but it's legal clerks, aides and similar who do the work. (And they still charge solicitor-level fees for it.) This means no-one actually thinks - they just parrot the rules in the book. I genuinely don't see the problem. It's a 50/50 wall. Half each. which means we can't even knock it down without the neighbour's agreement!

And... Here's what they didn't show you... What_Porsche_HID_from_that_onboard_919_Lap.mp4

I know. Unfortunately we're 12000 miles and 12 hours shifted from them. The lawyer maintains they are acting in the interests of their client. Their client may be happy to believe that, of course.

I'd like to think so, but with the neighbour being uncontactable at present, it wouldn't get far. the situation is very similar to that experienced by some buyers in rural NZ - boundaries exist, but are somewhat fluid. The issue in this case has arisen because the wall was built *on* the boundary, and not on one side or the other. the solicitor is being an overly judicious arse and demanding formal representation and agreement, and doing so in the name of making more money protecting their client.

'Make work' is exactly what this is. We've seen it before, with the sale of my grandfathers house. Payment to the solicitor may be withheld but more worrying for us is the buyers desire to move quickly. We could lose our buyer.

f**king solicitors (in the Uk, but this may be an accurate generalisation). Selling mother-in-law's house following her passing away earlier this year. Have a keen buyer. House ckeared - a traumatic experience. Buyer has finance and is keen to move. Solicitor notices there is a 3' high wall directly on the boundary, separating the two driveways. It's been there 26 years and is regarded as, and described as, a party wall meaning shared responsibility between the neighbours. Buyers solicitor refuses to complete until they receive written documentation from the neighbour... Who is away until mid-August. Buyer is livid. We're livid. Solicitor is running up a bill with phone calls and letters.

I've found the devil is in the details and that the tiniest straying from a role description has sidelined me. In fact, meeting every requirement is insufficient - I need to exceed, by some margin the experience stated, in time-served, qualification and breadth, before I make first interview. I have to consider that I am doing something wrong, but the feedback I get (when I actually get any feedback, which is very rare) doesn't support that. I seem to be consistently second, in areas I know back-to-front and inside-out. By deciding I don't want to work in Auckland, or live more than 4 hours from Hamilton (where Bex is at Uni) certainly does limit the field, and I accept that.

Rear rims are 2-piece Mille Miglia (Mille 1000) Revenge IIs, 18x8.5. No idea of offset, but they fit. I'll check the fronts but looking at tyre fitment, I suspect they are the same size. Shocks are BMW (Sachs) all round, and springs are from Eibach.