Olaf

a nice oxford green e38 740i on polished M-pars, heading up to the mt victoria summit this afternoon. had the blinds up, people in the back... showing visitors around our little town, perhaps. ideal afternoon for viewing from the top.

like Andy said earlier in the thread, make sure you pay the carpark owner for the vehicle, just a nominal sum will do. If your receipt included 'abandoned car' in the description, that could help you later. Once you own it and have a receipt stating this, then you'll have something to work with - in terms of getting keys, a locksmith, a tow, insurance, rego etc etc. The advice of a lawyer here may save you pain/money later.

I think the lenders use a number of factors in their calculations. It all looks rosey until one of the couple goes off the pill, puts on weight, stops work and spits out a bairn. Then "hello single income" oddly tempers the shock and mystic awe of parenthood with the deights of "breadwinner servicing over-extended mortgage". Good on you for acquiring property, Gaz. Can't argue with your logic, continue on the road less-travelled!

I first ran in to Robert Kiyosaki's ideas in 1993 when he was on Radio Active in Wellington touting his book "If you want to be rich and happy, don't go to school". Which was basically "forget the US university treadmill financial con, and here's some ideas for financial independence".

it's an interesting point you make. In my case, the work I do is all centred around Enterprise ICT. There's nothing of sufficient scale elsewhere in the country. I even considered a move to CHC about 10 years ago, it seemed attractive and a nice choice for single-income with wife at home and young kids; decent house, garage, and access to the mountains, bush, rivers. However, the limited scope if the job disappeared (restructure/redundancy) presented a higher risk which did not overcome the lower housing cost and lifestyle options. This pretty much locks us in to Wellington or Auckland, where housing costs are higher but opportunity for me is greater. If I understand your argument correctly, there's an option of choosing cheaper housing and aim lower job-wise, rather than complaining about high housing costs in the centres. I bought into that, choosing Wellington over Sydney! I determined I'd not be able to pay off a Sydney mortgage before retirement, in a broadly equivalent suburb compared to Wellington, despite enjoying the greater employment and lifestyle opportunity Sydney offers. I'd move to Coffs Harbour NSW in a heartbeat if I could get steady work there. Still, I'm happy walking to work in Wellington, living with a sea view, strapped to the side of a hill getting blown 40 b@stards in each storm. #8 ) In summary: I suggest there's a continuum between risk (job opportunities) and reward (earnings potential), where house prices vary from left to right on the scale for a given location.

I've been watching Nick's channel on and off for a couple of years now, and the thing that - for me at least - has held him as grounded is his love for the e30. Good to see he's not lost the passion!

awe-soame!

good work, no issue too big to resolve. Can't beleive nobody's commented on your garage - it's awesome! so much space.

the clay bar wheel in the video is 3M Adhesive Eraser Wheel. Many different sizes available. Dental Floss will snap; fishng line won't. Now for the fisho's amongst us; mono, braid, or leader? #; )

the question is, do the wheels match his collection of heels?

heh heh, I remember first time I went to DC in the 90's. I needed some spring compressors, looked up a couple of likely places. A friend looked on the map on her office wall, said "where you thinking of going? NO! don't go there - carved up the map into quadrants and said "don't go here, don't go there - unless you're looking to get shot". It was the murder capital back then. The touch parking in DC had nothing on Mexico City! Enjoy, it was a neat place to visit back then, I'm sure it's still fun now. Snow tires for your winter. Olaf

HI Lisa, welcome along. Thanks for putting in your location, it really helps with providing location-specific advice. I'm certain one of our number will be along shortly to give you the steer in Christchurch. cheers Olaf

been there. done that. no t-shirt, no stickers, no response. Hey ho. #8 ) I thought of neighbourly as simply a marketing system, whereby they gain a whole lot of valuable personal information from you, for free.

#8 )

Isabel's scored her e46? needs it's own thread, more details please and congrats. Yes, Herbmobile is also Orientblau #8 ) Looking forward to seeing your A/C retrofit progressing, nice work!

good news on the central locking, Andrew! Did your parts car come with M20B25? Perhaps you can retrofit that and the ARB's, brakes etc... #8 ) thanks, yes it's orientblau metallic, it polishes up pretty well despite wearing the usual minor blemishes from living outdoors, supermarkets, and parking buildings. I'm pretty stoked with the wheels, though full credit to Lewis for really proving Style 194's on the e46! The wheels have been repainted, clear coated, and then baked. Perhaps I'll do a thead on this car; it's never been so much a 'project' as more a series of ongoing maintenance tasks and repairs! Odd to think I've had it four years already. Question: should it be a project thread, or a showroom thread? cheers

wow, it's lovely. GLWS.

wow - awesome. sale in less than a day. nice work, Pete!

hey, what happened to the "driven sparingly as family car, never ridden hard and put away wet"? #8 ) GLWS

Tony, the Metric tyres seem to be unobtanium** these days. At least if Barry finds some replacent rims in a 'normal' size soon, there'll still be some tread remaining on the TRX's for concourse events. #8 ) They are awesome though: EDIT: well, there are websites listing TRX 220/55 VR 390 for sale, but at nearly 300 quid a corner they're not exactly cheap. Or buy new from Coker Tires, they produce 'em with the original moulds... ouch, USD400 per corner.

On Saturday I washed and dried mine, blacked the tyres, and made an image or two of it wearing its new boots. On sunday I drove it to upper hutt and back. and I liked it! #8 )

Dave, FWIW I tried a magnetic sump plug with my Volvo many years ago, next change it had attracted some very minor particles, though wiping it off I found the finish flaking off and decided that sh*t should not be transported around my oil galleries. I restored the original sump plug. Hopefully yours is of better quality and provides no issues.

Jayden is very fortunate. His family understand his cumpulsion for wheel collecting, multiple sets adorning garage, dining tables, and car boots. They care as much as to assist with the precision engineering some of his most audacious restorations. But if one should ask what else he keeps in the closet along with his wheels, and one is met with stoney silence... Seriously though, awesome effort.

go to yellow pages or google, find a place that specialises in bullbar/towbar or 4x4s and they should sort you out. This kind of thing is everyday business in the 4x4 community, should be easy to source. You should be abe to drive in, and collect your vehicle later with the bar safely mounted. HTH edit: i just googled "fit fabricate bullbar auckland 4x4" and got a good first page of promising hits.

yep, 3/8" aint for wheel bolts. a 1/2" socket, short extension, good 1/2 strong-arm (bar), and a 1.5 metre length of pipe (to slip over the strong-arm) should be enough to ease any over-tightened wheel bolt, with carefully applied torque. Next time you go to a shop, specify "final tightened with torque wrench to 90 Nm" if the wheels are coming off. At least that should prevent the shop monkey leaning on the rattle gun at setting three.