Olaf

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.

fair call!

do you mean these - style 20? seems like a good idea to me. I thought Style 3 would be awesome, but only available in 15".

Graham has just clocked this thread. #; )

looks like a score, Andrew. #8 )

So, you've spotted something cool in a movie. what, when? The Numbers Station: Silver E38 on Style 32s as getaway car nearly 10 mins from the end.

15 years ago they were 4500-5000 pounds (STG) in Germany. I had plans to go and buy one in 2002, and register it in the UK. Sadly work dried up for me, I sold my e30 touring and returned to Niu Zild in Sept 2001. If I'd bought an e30 M3 as planned and brought it back, I'd be well made up!

"tell him he's flamin' dreamin'!!"

looks really pretty tidy. GLWS!

use the force, not the farce! indeed, Subaru - for all their positive points - are still a japanese car... there are points of difference from other japanese cars, but hey.... they're just not the dynamic drive that the cars that Kelvin's talking about are known for. The similarity is that Subarus are a relatively high-cost maintenance commitment, like our BM's. Be patient Kelvin, bide your time. winter's coming, folks will be quitting their toys...

sounds good to me Graham. We could have reduced a number of waiting lists for cancer ops around the country, in addition to the rail link. NZ no longer has a left and a right, only the outdated notion of such #8 )

agreed. I've not seen normally intelligent people confusing the question of a new flag with one 'side' or the 'other' of our two main centrist parties! How people get "left" or "right" out of two parties so closely aligned with the middle, is beyond me. #8 ) Most folks I know were concerned about the state of the logos proposed not offering a genuine alternative to our existing flag. It was an interesting exercise; how differently could we have used that $26M eh? Hey ho, at least the final referendum question was clear and unambiguous; that in itself should be celebrated. #8 )

welcome, Chris. I've noticed - and admired - your touring around the traps #8 )

so it's really a rebuilt write-off? If so, that's outrageous! Car Jam Link I'm particularly impressed with the seller's photography of local foliage, with his touring obscured in the background. Who got a 50 f1.8 for their birthday, then? Anyway, the alpinweiss looks nice and shiny. With a bit more use it might catch up with Graham's 320d in the mega-mileage stakes #8 )

looks nice, and I should think the purchaser is happy with acquisition at close to $20k. All things considered, it's a 9 year old BMW performance 3 series coupe, that should be about top dollar for them now in terms of depreciation vs maintenance.