Olaf

it'll be great to see progress resume in the ute, Francois.

nice work Jim. It was a great idea ridding the world of lead. Unfortunately the legacy of dry joints from these lead-free wave soldering manufacturing techniques leaves us with a lot of kit going on the e-waste heap, or worse. We'd never have gotten away with joints like those on distribution frames, eh?

there ya go. with the blessing of Don Kulgan, it all came together! Looking forward to reading up on your new project.

I forgot to mention - a $3k 6 cylinder 325/328/330 (that seller must be insane™*** ) e46 is massively better value than any e30 at the same price or less. *** @Young Thrash Driver will get the reference

For a shade under $3k you can buy that e46 328i that's on sale in this parish, avoid e30 scene tax and get a better, safer car. No, it's not an e30. But it is better braked, better handling, torsionally more rigid, quieter. And there's a whole lot less risk. than buying a 30 year old car of unknown provenance. just a thought. PS - it's not missing two cylinders, is more powerful, more efficient, and has lower emissions.

Welcome, Graham. Looks like fun! Indeed, your colour is STAHLGRAU METALLIC (400) Plenty of e46 experience around these parts, do sing out if you're wondering or need help. If you want your option details, take the last seven digits of your VIN and go to bmwvin.com cheers

so it's missing a couple of cylinders, then...

hmmm. on... CONCRETE piles? or.... TANALISED piles? or.... original TOTARA piles? more seriously though, you're right not to let that picture overly influence your decision. You can find those palms for a few hundred at any competent nursery. Looks like a great garage. You should buy it, land looks flat enough to park a caravan or couple of shipping containers adjacent.

Looking cool. Issues with paint adhering to the Sikaflex?

throwing stars - hell yeah! Hmmmm, as luck would have it, there's a staggered set for sale in the for sale room! Booyah!

Get in touch with @BM WORLD Brent, he may be able to help

^^^this ? Yeah, sharp e34 you've scored there, you should be able to just keep it maintained and enjoy it. Look forward to seeing you/it at the next meeting. nought wrong with being a co-pilot! ?

Welcome, Raj... and welcome to the e60 movement too! looking forward to seeing your pics.

"Serious Inquiries from US Residents Only - Exportation of EAG cars breaks our strict buy-back policy." "Work Order on this car ensuring its integrity as a well-sorted E28 M5! Enthusiast Auto Body has performed a full exterior paint correction + protection process with 22PLE VX1 Pro Glass Coating." what a load of horse sh*t. They wrote their ad copy between successive lines.

sorry man, my time in Auckland was sliced so thinly I didn't get a chance.

you had to ask?

+1 - welcome, Peter!

I missed the smiley from my post - smug in a good way - well deserved

leased space, not public parking, parking like a boss yeah?

...and although it's not BMW, I couldn't help wondering if this very sharp looking Lexus/Soarer was @Michael.?? at Pukekohe Drift meeting.

ooops, rego expired more than a month ago.... sounded mean. at Pukekohe Drift meeting.

yeah William, I acknowledge that there are - the large proportion of - audiophools who devote their lives to the pursuit of soundstage. I lost all interest in it when I found that the systems I heard that excelled in soundstage, almost exclusively fell completely flat when it came to rhythm, timing... that sense of fun that you experience when the band is in front of you, playing together, and playing in time. Swing. I don't give a flying faark if I can discern a jazz quartet playing in space in front of me, if the bassplayer doesn't sound like he's locked-in with the drummer! It is for this reason I beleive this whole soundstaging malarky is in fact a wrong turn or even a distraction in the pursuit of musical reproduction. By contrast, a decent system that portrays the rhythm and the spontinaety of music well, will still provide me with enough (minimal) spatial information - such as the backup singers in 'walk on the wild side' walking up toward the vocal mics - and away again - while they're "doo, doo-doo, doot, doot-doot-doot"-ing. Still, could we be arguing the same point, as you're talking about rythmic information and the things that cause smearing? Back to cavity loading/porting - yep we're on the same page there. I still trot out - from time to time - that ported speakers are in fact the work of the devil, and transmission lines, doubly so! Extending this to car audio, subwoofers have to be fast, able to turn on a dime, to follow the bassline, and not get overcome by the kick drum. I'm finding that the Logic7 in the e60 is still a bit slow in the bass. Aside from tuning via the equalisers, not much I can do about that, so I have to fogive it its trespasses.

I took it for a strop to Auckland with #1 son, filled a few days of the school holidays in. And settle in the new shocks and tyres. Photos shortly. It's a great distance car. On smooth seal, you can turn up and enjoy the hifi without road noise intrusion. luxury. It's confortable, minimises time in the opposite lane while overtaking, stops and handles pretty well. And for the first time I had the fuel economy readout in the 11l/100km range. Pretty good given I was enjoying the kickdown bark while overtaking. Oh, and while in Auckland I went and had a look at the drift series at Pukekohe. My first time seeing it live, and I wasn't impressed. A separate post on that. I also fitted some genuine BMW wiper blades while in the north. I was having a little trouble fitting the new Valeos. Then I had trouble with the BMW blades... Auckland City BMW service advisor kindly helped me out. I guess I wasn't savage enough with them! Today a package arrived, and I'm enjoying reading my way through the north american e60 sales brochure (bout 70 pages), luxuriating in that BMW marketing speak. all rights reserved. hosted here on Bimmersport. My panzerwagen on SH4 - the Paraparas.

@kiwi535 surely you're tempted!

well done. you get a well done medal, with extra smugness bar! I wasn't "encumbered" with a BMW when we were using tethers, it was all about getting them to work in Nissans (easy for the later ones - the kit from baby factory just worked - quite a rigmarole for the 1989 model). I'd have been stoked if I'd been able to look up a parts catalogue online and order from a dealer - regardless of location - who said "why yes sir, we have just what you need".