Vass

7 minutes ago, balancerider said:

@Vass the euro plinth from the original car will fit?

It'll fit but I don't think it'll clip in properly. I had an Msport euro plinth on another car, it also had two clips in behind the front surface that went up into the bumper. Then I had a donor car with a stock bumper euro plinth and that didn't have those extra clips, only clipped into the front and somehow it didn't go in deep enough and didn't feel securely attached. I assumed the stock and Msport plinths are different but could just have been some anecdotal. 

9 hours ago, Hazzy said:

Might have to take you up on that offer for those O-rings, was looking at this kit. Let me know if you need any touring bits since I'm taking it apart anyway. 

I'll dig out what I've got left but that kit looks pretty decent as well. Not sure what that one shaped seal is, I obviously didn't replace it.

Could be keen on a few bits, thanks! I'll pm you. Cheers 

Ahh nice! An Msport touring parts car is an epic find, especially in the same colour. Will need to snap one up myself if I ever see one but haven't come across any for a few years now despite constantly keeping a lookout. Never seen a touring at the local Pick-A-Part either.

Some of the touring-specific bits like the plastic boot trims, hatch surrounds and rear seats could be worth keeping as they're damn hard to come by. The shadowline trims are absolute unobtanium.

LF-20's have a tendency of shearing the shaft but LF-30's are supposedly pretty robust. I took mine apart, went to a local seal supplier, sized up all the necessary O-rings, cleaned and resealed it. Not as daunting a task as I originally thought it might be, I think there was 6-7 different O-rings in there. I still have a whole heap left over, I would have gotten several of each size and several size options for each O-ring just to be sure so should be enough for another reseal. You're welcome to grab them on your way back down if you wish. 

You drove all the way to Auckland for that? Gotta admire the effort 😄 Looks well good! Don't forget to trim off the bottom edge of the rego plate holder, will tidy it right up, especially on a silver car. 

Bit jelly of those vents... Mine are all shagged and held together with zip ties. Tempted to get a whole new set along with the arch liners when I've got a good few hundy burning a hole in my pocket. Bloody hard to find used Msport ones in good condition.

Ohh there's this one too that I actually used to own a few years ago:

Doesn't seem to tick any of the boxes and has a broken PS pump, apparently. I've got a spare one of those and could help with it if needed. 

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/888339542901697/?mibextid=dXMIcH

Don't see many e46 tourings going around.

There's this one in Christchurch:

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/3554124221533238/?mibextid=dXMIcH

https://weitzindustries.com/collections/e30/products/e30-front-cut?variant=30288115793995

53 minutes ago, e30ftw said:

Quite an easy part to remove and replace.

Is it? Haven't looked at e30's too closely but looks a bit more involved that e46's where it's just held in with a few bolts. Is it riveted/welded/seam sealed in place? 

Installed a clutch stop the other day. Tiny little mod but makes gearshifts quicker and less vague. Screwed it all the way in until it bottomed out and didn't need any adjustment beyond that, ended up pretty much spot on. The clutch now starts to engage as soon as you let off the pedal. Good stuff.

Don't see these on there too often. NZ new, later model and looks very tidy apart from the front end damage. Will probably fetch a pretty penny still. Parts car anyone?

https://www.turners.co.nz/Damaged-Vehicles/Damaged-Cars-for-Sale/bmw/m325i2/23222393

A bunch of this stuff and more are still available. Also about to rip into another partout project, a green 2002 320i e46. Will do a proper garage cleanup over Christmas and will be updating the post as parts start to come off. Feel free to message for any E46 bits you might be after.

Cheers

15 hours ago, Eagle said:

He does good work but certainly a lot of things he doesn't do optimally which I noticed in his E46 builds.

1 minute ago, Harper said:

I noticed the same on his 330 touring project, but I guess that was meant to be something of a budget track build. He also seems to replace a lot of parts that could almost certainly be used again which is supremely satisfying to watch but kind of wasteful.

Keen to hear what stood out to you guys. Really loved the lengths he went with the interior. He hasn't done a full M54 rebuild yet but apart from that I haven't picked up many glaring oversights. Granted, most of his E46 content I would have last watched a good while ago now, probably worth a revisit.

One bit from his more recent videos that grazed my ears was when he claimed the torque spec on the trailing arm brackets to chassis being 100Nm when it's actually 77Nm, but that's just me being a nitpicky nerd and it being fresh in the memory having just done that job recently.

Have picked up a few helpful tidbits from his videos that I've added to my wishlist:

• OFH metal oil return valve - have a pair of these now sitting on the shelf. Remember my valve having a slight groove eaten into the plastic. Wish I'd known about this part being available when halfway through the rebuild.
• Xenon refurb kit - looks worth taking on at some point.
• Gauge.S - don't need it but really want it for reasons unknown.

2 hours ago, E63 said:

Also related:
'Readability issues' with some black number plates (1news.co.nz)

Elaborate KiwiPlates ad, or justification for a black plate? 😀

Ohhh I've been thinking of getting one, that might have just sold me on it

21 hours ago, balancerider said:

FCP / Spareto must love you! I don’t even know if Sreten from M539 has managed to hit that number (maybe on the alpina b7 with 3 engines!) 

Ohh I'm sure most of his projects go far and beyond what I've put in. The sums appear much smaller when viewed in Euros as opposed to NZD  

4 minutes ago, Eagle said:

Yep waste of time and money for what you have done. Insurance purposes are the only good reason to have it that i can think of.

Yeah, the camber arms are the only thing on it now that would make it fail a WoF. I could have done without them but going for cert was the intention anyway so that was a "might as well" move.

Insurance is the only real reason I did it for. Currently it's still considered a bone stock 325i and I'm being overcharged and undercovered.

Wonder if any insurer would go with a $30k agreed value?

Another nerdy thing I did was to throw together another spreadsheet and finally tally up the full financial damage this endeavor has inflicted. And boy, was I in for a shocker. You don't notice it as much when gradually buying up parts but it was a pretty sobering moment when I hit Enter on the =SUM(...) command in excel. Here's the final tallies:

$1,640 - DONOR CAR
$1,940 - ENGINE INTERNALS (gaskets, bearings, chains, guides, VANOS seals etc.)
$1,420 - ENGINE EXTERNALS (CCV, DISA, coils, sparks, seals, gaskets, engine mounts, belt pulleys, tensioner etc.)
$970 - SENSORS (every single engine sensor)
$360 - FUEL SYSTEM (fuel pump, filter, seals, lock rings)
$860 - COOLING SYSTEM (radiator, T-stat, water pump, hoses etc.)
$5,900 - GEARBOX (conversion, clutch & flywheel, slave & master, detent & shift pin repair, shifter, bushes etc.)
$800 - STEERING (tie rods, pump reseal, hoses, coupler etc.)
$1,430 - FRONT AXLE (control arms, bushes, wheel bearings, strut brace etc.)
$1,940 - REAR AXLE (wheel bearings, reinforcement kit, bushes, camber arms etc.)
$1,400 - SUSPENSION (shocks, springs, mounts, bump stops, reinforcement plates etc.)
$1,880 - WHEELS (rims & tyres)
$690 - BRAKES (caliper repair kits, brake hoses, pads etc.)
$290 - DRIVETRAIN (guibo, CSB, diff seals etc.)
$200 - EXHAUST (hangers, gaskets, nuts etc.)
$910 - HVAC (AC compressor, condenser, heater valve, hoses etc.)
$4,870 - SERVICES (machine shop, welding work, wheel alignments, AC regas, WoF & cert)

All up, that's around $27.5k, which is scary enough in itself. But then that doesn't include the following items that sort of don't contribute to the value of the project:

$1,100+ - CONSUMABLES (paint, oil & other fluids, filters, small clips, random nuts, bolts, crush washers, O-rings)
$660 - SPECIALTY TOOLS (timing tool kit, detent punch kit, coding/scanning cables, piston ring pliers & compressor etc.)
$1,160 - OTHER (head unit, trim bits, indicator lights, bulbs, hood & boot struts etc.)

And the main whopper:

$3,430 - SHIPPING (across 29 separate parts orders over the past 2 years)

Factor in the purchase price of the car and I'm $40k deep in this thing. Could have had an M3 hahah.

Wouldn't trade it though. Have made it my own whilst learning so much along the way. Can never know what life will bring but as things stand I've no intentions of ever selling it so hopefully spread out across a good number of years to come, the costs will start making more sense as time goes on. And as things stand, I've got a brand new 20-year old car to enjoy.

No ragrets.

Tackling the cert process was next on the list.

First, got a fresh wheel alignment at the dealership, free of charge due to the previous mishap.

Then, successfully failed WoF. Car passed otherwise but had to ask for them to fail me on the modifications as per cert requirements.

And finally, the nail-biting part of taking it in for the cert inspection. Actually didn't go as bad as I'd feared. Made an effort to prepare as best I could - compiled a fat stack of receipts for all the parts and services I could find and also made a ~40 page booklet (mostly pictures) of the work done throughout the project.

Definitely made the process much smoother. The inspector was impressed and very complimentary of the work I'd done, saying his job would be much easier if all clients came as well prepared, which was nice to hear.

But then still had to fail me on a couple of minor bits. First, he wanted more info on the adjustable camber arms - info I had provided in the booklet that he didn't notice initially. Pointed it out, he took a photo copy of it and that was that.

The other point was the thread engagement of the front wheel bolts. Minimum requirement is 6.5 turns of thread engagement, mine only got 6. The rear wheels were fine. Quite a weird one that with pretty much all components - wheel hubs, rotors, rims, bolts - being OE. Potentially could have argued my way out of it but felt it easier to just do what was asked for.

I thought that maybe the E90 had slightly longer wheel bolts but having looked up the part numbers it turned out that the bolts on nearly every modern-ish BMW were the same, apart from the SUV's. Ended up going to Mag & Turbo who found me some bolts that were roughly 3mm longer than stock, giving me "8 turns of engagement". At just $5 a piece, $50 later I was all sorted.

The dumb thing about it is that even with the wheel off, the bolts start to protrude out the other side of the front wheel hubs at 6 turns in so that's pretty much all the engagement you're going to get, no matter how long the bolts. But what do I know.

Went in for a recheck on Friday, got the wheel bolts checked over and approved, paperwork signed, tag put on and off I drove with a stupid grin across my face.

The one silly part about it was when I went back to the WoF place to see if they'd be happy to issue a new WoF despite the tag not being live yet. Friday was apparently the last day LVV were updating their database this year so I'd have to wait for middle of January at best for it to be online. Gave the WoF guy the paperwork, he called up the cert inspector, verified that the cert had been approved, then he called up some other dude and decided he didn't want to risk it. Bit annoying as it'll be more than 28 days before the tag goes live so I'll have to pay for a whole new WoF recheck but that's just the time of the year I guess. Technically, WoF is still valid until beginning of February so I'll just drive around with all the paperwork on board until then.

I was under the impression that certification only picks up the bits that go past the modification threshold requiring cert - in my case that's the increase in engine displacement, modification to the brake pedal, 330i brake conversion and adjustable rear camber arms. But in fact he picked up everything else as well - slightly lowered suspension, solid subframe bushes, solid steering coupler, front strut brace, even the RACP reinforcement. Not an issue as it all passed but I was surprised those things get noted down as technically you wouldn't need cert if those were the only modifications.

The other annoying thing is the wheels. Even if I went back to Style 68's or some other stock rims then technically it should be a WoF fail since the car was certified on the Style 193's. Bit absurd that but that's the weird cert system that we have - even if all you're doing are minor modifications, once you go for cert the car is then considered a modified vehicle and is basically treated like a hot rod that was built from scratch, so every little thing needs recertification. If I ever were to change wheels then I'd need to go for a recheck, they'd have to road and brake test the car on the new wheels at a cost of roughly $600. Whether that would actually be a thing you'd fail a WoF for in reality would I guess be down to the inspector's discretion.

Tinkered with some of the electrical gremlins I mentioned previously. First took apart the ignition switch. Blew out the dust, sprayed it throughout with some contact cleaner spray, cleaned the contacts with some strips of cardboard soaked in solvent, sprayed it all down again and reassembled regreasing all the contact surfaces.

Pretty straightforward job. Trickiest part is taking it apart whilst trying not to break any of the plastic clips. Have only driven it a handful of times since but so far so good, no signs of the no crank issue but time will tell if that's fixed it.

Then took apart the lights to check for any obvious issues. Main thing I noticed is that the problematic driver's side light must have been worked on at some point already. The date label on the igniter read 03.03.18 (at least I assume that's the date) and had a generic no-brand bulb with just 4300K written on it. The passenger side read 03.04.03 and had a Phillps bulb that I assume is original. So that's great.

To start with, I just switched the bulbs over. Both lights now lit up but the driver's side took a good 5 seconds longer, so I assume the issue isn't the bulbs. Pretty weird that the driver's side light looks to have new igniter leads but is still acting up. Would be good to know why those were replaced in the first place.

Left it there for now. I guess the first step will be to get new matching bulbs at the very least, then poke further. Will keep a look out for a cheap set of xenons for sale to poke around in as don't really want to risk messing up the only set I have. Then maybe further down the line go with an upgrade kit as seen in one of M539's videos.

6 minutes ago, E63 said:

Got a link? I've seen a ton more vans recently. Radar detector might be bumped up the list a bit..

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/133430315/speed-cameras-to-quadruple-nationally-as-nz-transport-agency-waka-kotahi-takes-over-operations

Quote

NZTA is calling them "safety cameras" in a Cabinet-ordered attempt "to shift the public away from perceptions that safety cameras are an enforcement, revenue-gathering tool".

Hahahahhh

3 minutes ago, Allanw said:

And with the thread protrusion, you can put some nuts on the back now.

Safety first! 🤣

Yeah it's pretty stupid ey. Took me a while to put 2 & 2 together but if the bolts start to protrude at 6 turns in then even with longer bolts you won't get more than 6 turns of thread engagement. OE hubs so this is how it would have rolled out of the factory. Good enough for BMW but not for cert, apparently.

But I'll keep my mouth shut on that one.

Thanks for the suggestions and offers of help fellas! Hopefully have gotten it sorted. Popped by Mag & Turbo and they found me some bolts that are just a few mm longer, at $5/each. Silver in colour but I can live with that. I count 7.5 turns now. Booked in to get those checked over and get tag put on this Friday. Hopefully that's the last of the hassle 🤞

24 minutes ago, Eagle said:

Ive got some cheap extended ones for 15mm spacers if you want to cut them down to whatever.

Cheers, might take you up on it. Might check with the cert guy how he feels about shortening bolts first though...

Just had a bit of a play with it.

The bolts do only want to go up to 6-and-a-bit turns with the wheel on.

With the wheel off they go up to 11 turns before the tapered part bottoms out on the rotor.

At 6 turns the bolt starts to poke out form the other side of the wheel hub, but does not hit the collar of the dust shield behind even when bottomed out on the rotor at 11 turns and the wheel is still able to spin freely, so there is a bit of wiggle room.

Measured with a vernier - 1 turn is roughly 1.6mm so all I really need are bolts that are 2-3mm longer than stock. 

42 minutes ago, M3AN said:

Hope that works out for you... M&T wouldn't sell me longer bolts, even though they were on display behind the counter. They said they "can't enable illegal modifications"... smh.

Weird that. Will see how I go. Called them up after collecting the car today, told the fella the situation, he gave me his name, told me to come round the back when I'm there and he'd help find what works. Fingers crossed.

16 minutes ago, Cement said:

Same experience with my certification 🤣 Factory wheels, factory hubs, factory bolts etc ... I got some from the below and shortened on the front only where they were just nicking the (assumed) brake shroud.

Racer Products (chris@racerproducts.co.nz). The bolts are from Grayston Engineering in the UK. Used on rally cars etc. They are zinc coated / silver which may be a deal breaker for some.

Not listed on the site but here you are all the same: https://racerproducts.co.nz/collections/wheel-studs-and-nuts

Cheers, will give it a go if the above doesn't work out ✌️

Back on the topic of actual ranting...

Took the touring in for cert today. All went pretty well, no issues with engine, gearbox swap, reinforcement work or suspension. Dude was very complimentary, said he loved everything I'd done and wished all clients were like me etc...

But then still had to fail me on front wheel bolt stud engagement.

6.5 turns is the minimum. Mine only got 6.

0.5 turn out.

What's that, like 1mm?

Stock rotors. Stock hubs. Stock (albeit E90) wheels. Stock wheel bolts (same part number as E90 and pretty much every other modern BMW out there).

Friday is the last day they can enter info to the LVV database this year so have to figure something out in a hurry if I want to drive it over the Christmas break.

Will pop by Mag & Turbo and rummage through their piles of bolts to see if there's some that are just a tad longer, but of course not too long as to not bottom out.

Could have gone worse I guess but bloody hell... To fail on something as minute seems pretty ludicrous.

Happy days.

Damn, that's a very reasonable price and awesome spec. Love those wheels too. If only I didn't have a wedding to fund...

Got into the E46 scene originally wanting a convertible, still on a top-down high from living in Aussie. Settled for a black Msport coupe at the time, have had a black Msport wagon and a black Msport sedan since then but never got the one I originally intended. One day...

Best of luck with the sale, someone will have themselves a sweet deal.