325_driver

An orbital sander. 4 x 40 grit discs. 1 hour later. That entire panel had a layer of at thinnest 2mm to thickest 5mm. Absolutely unnecessary, I can't see any dings or low spots that would justify it, it was pure madness. It's going to take some time building that panel back up to perfect, but better done right from be ground up, and I would prefer less bog used, it was straight up stupid. Finally got the panel back to where I could only see a thin layer of surfacer over the original paint. Might probably sand it back even further when I get the bumper off anyway since I'll be re primering the whole panel. But the surface looks pretty good past the fuel cap.

I got no issues with using bog, but there is a time and a place, and a way in which it should be used But this here is madness. Where does the bog end?!?

So I was nearly about to finish up that panel without more sanding, but since the paint lifted in the first place u thought the chances of it happening again might be likely due to a poor job in th first place. So I started sanding into this and man, rainbow cake. Followed some bog from the edge of the door to the fuel cap. Bloody heck Now would be the time to do it right Anyway, would hate to have to do this again especially on that panel, it's a big job to do with masking Ive had to do it on the other e46

Ain't a pic, but exhaust note yes!

@Sammo wouldn't it be funny if it was factory?? haha

@qube @zero the tribe has spoken. I couldn't let the BBSs go anyway haha Also I kurbed one today, RIP So I guess I'm repainting them too haha.

Also picked up another set of 18" BMW rims style 172 (I think they might be replicas), but not sure which one I like best on the e46. The 172s are 8.5" x 18" and will be going gun metal. Was planning to swap the BBS from my wagon and put on the e46. Difficult to decide which will go on the e91 and which on the e46.

@tire tbh it was probably a few months off the scrap yard at the rate it was going, and I have a thing for the e46 coupes, thought it would be a waste. Cut & Polished the head lights, and gave it a clean. That colour has quite a nice pop in the sun light. Commencing some body work tomorrow, going to try and get that rear right panel mint. Saw a pretty mint ding in the left side, hope I can pop it out, don't want to use filler.

@Jacko yeah well when i started digging, and the red flags started adding up to a state of carelessness, i decided to be extra pedantic, especially if it's eventually going to be a daily. And i don't usually do a shout out to the workshop that did the last WOF, but it's safe to say, this car was certainly not road legal 6 months ago, in-fact in hindsight, the state i drove it home in i have concluded to be dangerous. There's no way all of this happened in the last 6 months, plausable, but more likely at the least optimistically a lazy WOF and pessimistically a dangerous bar for WOF standards. Oh and while i'm at it, let's not forget to mention a co-star of this horse fest, Tyre King, who was paid $169 to do a "full service inspection" 1 week prior to me picking it up by the old owner, and look over everything to make sure it was in good running condition, who essentially just changed the oil & filter, but didn't point out things like brake lights, trunk wont open, electric seats not moving, cracked radiator expansion (visible coolant leak), reccommend imminent replacements of fan clutch / blades etc.

@zero I went through them, 1 by 1 on the diagram. apart from the 20amp in the garage door opener slot, and the 15amp in the driver seat adjuster (i put in just to get in the seat when i picked it up) the only things out of place were missing fuses for ABS, ASC and Airbag and (fuse 10 to remove the instrument cluster light) Big shout out to Als mechanical repairs in Te Atutu! Fixed a few other minor things that were bugging me today, drivers seat wouldnt slide forward, and one of the rail bolts wasn't in and when you pulled the lever it wouldnt lift up because some one had put a non OEM long nut / bolt through where the seatbelt attaches to the rail ... the nut was jamming in the seat rails, which was also jamming the seats and warped the rail angles on installation. Pickapart had an OEM torx one, even found a replacement ambient temperature sensor for $5! All interior lights working now too A window squirter wasn't working, and that's because it was leaking, and the "bro's" once again had tried their magic work with some insulation tape on the T-junction where it was leaking. I'm starting to wonder if theres any place I won't find some careless rangi mods. And if the worn brake pads are an indicator of the rest of the cars suspension components. Luckily after removing the bumper I found what was dislodged making it mis aligned, not too much work there. Picked up my high build primer, onto some dissasembling so I can get onto Body work on that rear right panel. ^^ and check out the direction of the tread pattern on those directionals? haha that can't be safe in the wet.

So i was wondering why, when my fogs were no there were no instrument lights, and i couldnt use my stalk button either. I checked the fuse box, and sure enough number 10 was missing, so i put it in, then some more lights came on and i could use my stalk. But the airbag light stayed on hmm. So then i realized who ever was in there last had removed several of the essential Air Bag, ASC, and ABS fuses, obviously to hide the faults from the dash, for their chur bro wof? There was also a 20amp fuse in the "Garage door opener" slot haha What a time to be alive

@KwS not sure if youve tried this, but lemon juice plus baking soda. Really does get rid of those insanely difficult oil based stains that normal carpet cleaners won't attack. Sometimes takes a few times, but I've been amazed at how such a simple thing out performs a rug doctor on difficult stains.

Probably for more smoother coffee blends ...

Yeah until it's fully resprayed, and I want to look over suspension & braking. Still driving the e91 atm, its reminding me what well looked after and reliability feels like ?

After spending a few hours on wiring and fixings connections, I have rear lights. It sounds trivial, but on the way back I only had a right indicator and a right hand brake light, and trunk lid wasnt opening, so wanted to get to the bottom of it before I begun body work. Left hand bulb holder had a prong half snapped and lodged into the plug, so got innovate for the time being (yes I will be replacing it later) but it did the trick. Made female number 3 connector into a quazi male prong to extend into the broken off one in the bulb holder ??? works fine I've unplugged / replugged several times and it just like factory, but not.... Both reverse lights were ancient and decayed, replaced. Both license plate bulbs weren't going because of corrosion on the terminals either side. Some one had a 12v10w bulb in the left holder of right tail light ??? And also had fitted duct tape to the base of the bulb holder ! A few broken wires in the boot I'm assuming all of this happened after it's last wof in January ? or this vehicle has been getting some chur bro warrants by the bros in Massey Auckland.

@Jacko I broke the plastic cover on the head of mine, the only place you can get a replacement is from Australia and half the cost is shipping lol. @qube I was thinking the same thing, tyre does look old, but I was more getting at that I'm stoked the rim is an OEM style 68 not a space saver.

Gave the interior a good clean, tbh the carpet cleaning was in pretty good condition. And just realised the spare wheel is an OEM style 68 with an eagle f1 245/40/17 on it. Battery is new too. Those two things are probably half the value of the car is when I bought it ?

@zero thought my number one priority was to get it back to bare metal and primered before that rust did any more damage. Looked like it was probably from a repair job done wrong years ago.

Finished tidying up, the wiring on the driver seat. Hopefully that stops the strange rail twist going on. Stabbed my self many times trying to de pin the connector with a small screw driver. Also an added benefit of not worrying about the car not sparking a fire under my ?

o another surprise! Not only is it chur bro level, it's not even insulated!

Not perfect just wanted to get that big rust patch back to bare metal and slap some etch primer over it. While I clean / diseasemble. Will be doing proper panel work on it at a later date as it's not perfect straight, looked to me like a patch repair was done maybe in the past. let the waterblaster loose oh it. Actually cleaned up quite nice, panel not as bad as expecting.

@Sammo not same colour, I've got a colour lined up but will keep it a surprise, the suspense haha. Quite a bit a filler layer on this!! Ive seen worse to be honest haha, good news is the panel has integrity.

@zero hopefully I caught it just in time. I've tapped it with metal and it feels pretty robust. Won't know until I unleash the 40grit on it.

Made it home. Definitely something maybe like a fuel pump on the way out. Was holding speed and every now and then felt like car was out of gas then power would come back again. Really nerving because it was doing it just when I got on the Auckland motorway all the way to Hamilton. Some silver lining, $40 from Bombay to Hamilton to paeroa to Tauranga. Not bad at all.

@qube after the restore I'll probably look into a swap later on down the track. Want a e46 coupe for the long term, provided the engine is sweet for another year I'll be happy. Apparently it has another motor put in @240,000km but no receipts to prove it. The motor doesn't look 350,000km to be honest. No major oil leaks, no smoke or lifter tick. So might redo the coolant hoses water pump thermostat, drive belts etc to get some more life out of it. And look at something real ambitious in the long run