bradgalbraith

Seems a bit cheap doesn't it?

I bet it pulls like a freight train after removing all of the heavy junk in the trunk!

Update: Rear trailing arm bushes were pretty shocking so I've replaced them with Powerflex black series bushes. I haven't had a chance to test drive the car yet but will hopefully put the new Mtech 2 steering wheel on and get a wheel alignment in the next week or so. Progress has been slow as I've been busy but it's slowly getting there. As for the installation of the bushes, yes, I did it the messy way but it still works so I'm not bothered. Pretty much broke the aluminium cylindrical piece out of the old bush, cut the rubber back in one part,  crimped it inwards to free it from the housing/bracket and then lightly sanded the housing before installing the new bush.

Standard or aftermarket?

Another mini update- recently bought a ZHP gearknob to replace the rubbish old one. Also bought and installed a set of Powerflex rear camber arms. Hopefully I'll get a spare minute in the next week to install the Powerflex rear trailing arm bushes. The plan is to then get tyres and an alignment afterwards in preparation for cert.

Also a nice little photo in there of the new daily driver..

On 2/27/2019 at 6:30 AM, _ethrty-Andy_ said:

if its an early nonvanos 325i then will most likely be the ZF you are looking for!!

I thought that the 316,318,320,325 all came with the G220 and the 328i and 3.0 M3 came with the ZF?

5 hours ago, beemwr said:

Thanks for your response. I am in a quandary currently about whether I remove the roll-cage now and put headlining and carpeting back in to make it a four seater and more suited to cruising - what do you reckon?

Keep it how it is. I have done a very similar kind of thing with my E36 and I think it offers a really good middle ground between a racecar and a street car.

On 2/13/2019 at 10:51 AM, qube said:

F10 M5 available for 45K at the moment. @bradgalbraith yours?

I wish ? you must have the wrong Brad.

Side note- there's a fully rebuilt S50B30 vanos on trademe that someone has desperately been trying to sell for a fair bit of time. You might be better off buying it and putting your one on the shelf and rebuild it one day.

2 hours ago, Arron said:

Hi Shaun, last running about 3 weeks ago when removed, 

 

shipping to auckland approximately $300

no issues with it, vanos has all been rebuilt 

I've never needed $6k more in my life! ?

On 1/20/2019 at 12:27 AM, zero said:

How do you like the powerflex bushings?

 

I use them too.

I really like them for a number of reasons- Cost is decent, they feel nice and firm and they were easy to install -overall, a quality product. I guess it's hard to say too much more than that as there are many factors that make up how the car feels and handles. They are undoubtedly a vast improvement on the floppy factory ones that were in there before. After putting the new control arms in too, the front end has really tightened up. You can drive much harder through the corners and the car doesn't squirm and dart around like it did before. Just need to get an alignment done to get both wheels to have more toe in. Looking at getting the Powerflex rear camber arms and rear trailing arm bushings before I do my alignment. Has anyone had experience with Powerflex camber arms? A friend of mine has Hardrace camber arms and doesn't rate the quality of them too highly..

Slight update- Style 24s have since been sold and replaced with BBS RK 17x8s. I've also replaced the front control arms as the old ones were knackered. Pro tip- if doing this job, it is made 10x easier if you spray some CRC/WD40 on the thread before you try and remove the outer balljoint that connects onto the hub.. the first one took me a while. I also had a good friend of mine polish the car to bring up the Cosmo Schwartz shine. It's coming along slowly but surely. 

I've recently gone through the MVDT because of a dodgy car from a dealer and I can assure you, you can't hide behind 'as is where is'. We won the case convincingly. 

Very nice and refreshing being white but I'd be very surprised if it sold for more than 20k

https://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=1903681827 

Have you still got this mate?

Keen to come round and take a look. I'll PM you.

So I took the car to my first track day ever on the weekend. We had an absolute blast down at the Taupo Bruce Mclaren Motorsport Park! The car performed exceptionally well considering it is 23 years old and has 278,000 km on it. We drove it down from Auckland, drove hard all day and drove back without a single issue. It would definitely perform better with some better pads, an LSD and if some of the rear bushings were replaced but all in all I'm very impressed. I also managed to get myself 2 Racetech seats to replace the Bride replicas which I had before. I highly recommend spending the extra money for a better seat. The shape is far better, it's more comfortable and most of all it doesn't twist and flex. Overall, not bad for a car that has cost only $8649.50 to date. See some of the photos below from the day:

10 hours ago, M3AN said:

No offence taken and fair cop also. ?

I'd love to see this one in Ak to fawn over, I really do think it's a mint and rare example example. Might be the best optioned NZ new?

Sunroof and SMG don't work for me but that's subjective. 30k though? Not yet.

 

Is your M3 non sunroof Dave? If that's the case, your car really is my dream! #shamelesslyinlovewithyourcar

4 hours ago, M3_Power said:

Appreciate the responses!!! Exactly what I needed!! Thank you all!!!

Anyone with a spare rubber tube that attaches to that connector sitting around want to sell?? Please contact me thank you!

Best to buy one new, they’re old cars now so any spare is likely to be perished. 

It's a rubber tube with a hose clamp attached. Not fun to reattach.. 

7 hours ago, Camu said:

Bump.

There's a low mileage 3.2 SMG in techno violet for 30k and an avus blue PFL which has had evo running gear put in it for 18.5k.

11 hours ago, Gaz said:

Keeping the rears stock? Be interested to see how you go, looking at doing the same but using m3 evo rear pads and discs

I've got a full set of M3 evo pads if you're interested? I think they're just standard but could be useful.

10 hours ago, zero said:

The brake balance is best with e46 330i fronts and e36 328i rears.

Quite an improvement over 328i front and rears.

As Nathan has said, I'll be doing e46 328i rears to achieve the optimal 68% Front/32% Rear brake bias. By themselves, the 330 front brake upgrade is said to be a bit unbalanced:

E36 with E46 330i front and E46 325i/328i rear: 68% / 32%

https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?531881-E46-330-Brake-upgrade 

2 hours ago, zero said:

What issues are you having with the brakes?

 

I've done the 330i brake swap on a 328i e36 coupe with excellent results.

I’m not having any issues, the rotors and pads are just old and don’t feel as effective as they could be.

5 hours ago, Gaz said:

What other plans do you have for the brakes? Did you notice much difference with the 330i brakes? 

I’ll be doing Goodridge braided brake lines, probably EBC yellow stuff pads and DBA slotted rotors. That’s the idea anyway, the brands might change.