Olaf

great outcomes. congrats on the sale, Dave; and congrats on the aquisition, Brent! Smiles all round.

what a cool car, I'd be very happy with that for giggles and track days I'm amazed nobody's put an N52B30 into an e46 yet. or e30.

PS: mine had headlamp wash/wipe. Looking through the photo album (thanks @qube for linkage), I'm reminded how agricultural the e30 touring is, compared with e46 touring. I loved my time with my e30 Touring, and am full of nostalgia for it; I remember the sound, feeling, smells... driving the M25 on a Saturday arvo at the ton, or driving country lanes in the Cotswolds... though if I had to choose between my old e30 325i Touring and my current e46 325i Touring... my e46 still wins overall.

aye, it's very similar to the one I had in London in 2001 (Alpinweiss), except mine had more miles and was factory manual, and had some particularly Dugly aftermarket 15" rims and dodgy tyres. And a small rust hole under the rear window (that I rust-killed and filled with windscreen sealant while I waited to identify a suitably non-dodgy panel beater.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-E30-325i-Touring-Last-owner-20-years-wonderful-condition/183059645879?hash=item2a9f3485b7%3Ag%3AdwIAAOSw-PFaeid3 Check it out...

everything else about it looks really sharp. IMHO.

as the wheels aren't on your wagon and you can take your time, I'd consider pre-finishing them yourself. Panel shops often hate the prep-work required to sand/fill/prep wheels. So if you've got them smoothed and ready, then have them 2k baked at a Panelbeaters. Much more durable finish. Or you could do the home finish... even get hold of 2k rattle cans! Wear appropriate PPE, and try not to vent to your neighbours place, yeah?

aka "mumble pants"

just a thought... if you were to join BMW Car Club NZ you'd get 10% off parts from BMW Dealers... membership paid twice over, instantly!

Thankfully, no reappearance of the CEL. As yet. iDrive did did tell me to pull over due to low tyre pressure; I'd done the pressures just 4 days before and put in 2.4 bar in fronts... it was down to 2.0. I aired-up, checked again in the morning and it was on 1.9. Visit to Bridgestone Torrens Terrace, and he had to put it in the tank to find the leak... (cue rim shot): crack, in the rim. I'm keeping it aired-up, and parked so the weight is off that corner... now searching for a new rim!

166605kms : happy one year of ownership (my first V8). So that year's gone by fast, 14,311kms, a decent chunk of change spent on maintenance, and many smiling miles driven. Every time I drive it, it puts a smile on my dial. Comfortable, quick, remarkably capable for a commode-sized car. Next up: bumper repaint (insurance - left a 'present', though left no note), 2mm stone chip in screen to be repaired (insurance), and source a new rim (slow leak from a crack). I'd planned on giving her a 'birthday' today, another good wash. Too busy with other stuff. So here's a snap marking the occasion:

The crazy thing is: there's a cost to carrying the part on the shelf, of course. But indent items? Where you walk in with the part number, they don't carry it, will order it in for you... yet charging you more than four times what it costs you to do the same thing, quicker (Volvo parts). WTF?

rattle can satin black paint job. makita lowering springs and make it *sound* bogan with rear muffler delete. choice of decals and a windscreen strip with appropriate text actually why not go Old School standard: banded steelies, chrome dress rings, low-as-you-can-go, roof rack, CB whip antenna, JDM stuff (doesn't matter that it's not a japanese car), japanese subway grip thingy hanging off back tow point. sorted. Extra points for Bosozoku exhaust. Image linked from Speedhunters.com

Yes, I read the same thing for e60 545i. I decided to have the workshop do it for me.

I've been back in contracting for four years, and this is the first time I've had an empty pipeline. I'm looking forward to seeing evidence of the vacancies and demand that's currently being touted, in the form of concrete opportunities!

yep, same with e46; early ones don't change, later ones do.

Just make sure you pick a good line between them, and think of your exits not just the apex

Awesome! Looking forward to seeing the pics, man.

indeed. they use 10 KHz, we use 9KHz. Plus FM, the equalisation settings in USA are different to NZ (and rest of world) - IIRC it's 15uS vs 25 uS. Plus fine tuning is slightly off in NZ with a US head unit. How do I know this? Apart from being a bit of a tech geek and having studied this stuff many moons ago at tech, I purchased a really nice Kenwood head unit in USA in the mid-90's to bring back (2nd to top of line I think). I knew the risk I was taking. The tuner was excellent, though never quite right down here. Tape deck was superb. I had it in a couple of cars, left it in a Sentra I sold along with some Magnat speakers. I doubt the new owner appreciated what they had. O.P.: The more modern kit may well have software configurable settings for local radio. Why not just buy one locally, save the shagging around?

Depends on which chassis you're talking about.

yep, you've got it mate. just 'follow' should see you right. +1 on Adro's recommendation of flickr; I've been using it since 2005, and the bonus these days is it's now free! cheers

yep, those coils do show their age, eh? Good old fashioned preventative maintenance. whoda thunk?

PS - sticker-bomb or manga comic the trim. It'd be something different. EDIT: Here's a bike I saw this morning that had been tastefully Hulk-bombed.

yeah Cory, as it's a runner and has the M54B30 in it, should be plenty of car for $3k or less. Only thing will be when you're insuring: "has the car been modified?" errr, yes, it's had its engine replaced. One wonders if there's more to be done; bigger front brakes? thicker ARB's at front and rear? I'd guess that as it's a 325Ti it should already have most of the fruit you'd need to put on, for a conversion. Hopefully Allan TIM325i will drop in on this thread and share his expertise. Could be a really fun package.

yeah, what Pete said We do a lot of organising out of the club, stand up events, they have cover under the NZ Club mantle, and we extend to Bimmersport acknowledging it's one big community and not everyone joins the club. As Pete indicates, we're an inclusive bunch and (fortunately) we're not yet faced with the challenge of events becoming 'too big', despite growing quickly.