Well, it has been a few years and a lot has changed within, I'm not really sure where to start, I feel like so much has happened and I'm absolutely sure it has, coming back and reading this as I'm typing, a lot gets started and not much finished - something I need to work on.
The Lexus, I bought that as a 3.0 for my 30th birthday, I always knew it would need some rust repair as it was sold as needing it. I began preparations and practice welding on the MX5 I had previously but haven't picked up the torch since so never really got around to it, I can't remember exactly how many months I drove it for but managed to get some supra Tein electronically adjustable coilovers for it and some deep wheels. My younger brother and I swapped cars, I loved the lexus but.... with the EJ9 civic in the garage I also liked his K20 powered accord.
Together we sourced a chap to do the welding and some front control arm bushes from Russia, now I don't know how much you know about these gen 1 GS300's but this was a PITA at the time. My brother came down for an extended weekend with a view to getting the bushes sorted ahead of going for rust-work. We struggled like all hell dropping the subframe to get to the wishbone bolts which stupidly go in from the top not below. The bolts were so frozen in place and we at the time didn't want to rip the engine as he had a 200 mile journey back home to do in it. Copious amounts of heat and grinding and attempting to source replacement bolts never really got us anywhere. At this point my brother decided enough was enough and he went out and bought a BAM quattro TT instead. The lexus was then abandoned on the drive for the next 6 months.
I drove round in the accord but grew tired of the look of the thing, it was faded and well worn, the engine was smoking on vtec so wasn't a decent candidate for using on my civic.
I decided it was time to buy an Audi B5 S4 a car I have lusted over for years because of how brutal they can be when tuned up. This one was high 400's and would turn the solar system backwards.
The accord was used as a scrap metal shed before being scrapped, the lexus was broken for it's 2JZ. Depending on how closely you follow my threads - probably not very because I never finish things so it's likely not very interesting, you'd know I had a Datsun 280z. The 2JZ was kept aside on the offchance I would ever gain the skills/knowledge to be able to put it in there. The shell was sold onto a chap who rebodied his own GS300.
Somewhere in all of this, the cost of living crisis hit, now you'd think with as many projects as I have, I wouldnt think about that, well I did. The S4 was pretty high insurance and doing 15mpg at best when fuel was getting close to £2 was not a good idea.
I bought the S4 in october, did the suspension over winter and then early 2022 fuel went crazy, my partner had not long bought an Audi A2 colour storm because her B2 Audi coupe was taking longer to source parts for than we had anticipated, so I followed suit with my own 1.4 tdi A2, this was a very cheap car, £30 year tax, 60-65mpg, insurance was cheap and I only paid £700 for it.
For a short while our driveway looked like this :
Now Anyone would think we liked Audi's. On that specific day I tried to get my mother in law to bring her A4 and it would have been cool to have the brother in laws A3 there as well making 7 Audi in the close family circle.
That wasn't long lasting. We found we were going to be moving house, into the one you see all these photos at, for the few years before I would visit and work at the garage and maintain the gardens which I can now do at my leisure in the evenings rather than just at weekends.
Cost of living crisis came in, we started cutting back as house costs increased and the S4 was on the chopping block a REAL shame because I friggen loved that thing.
Remember that Datsun 280z I mentioned earlier, well. When we moved house that went into storage away from home. With the EJ9 civic, the skoda rapid and Clo's audi taking up garage and drive space there wasn't anywhere to keep it.
If you're anything like me, you are in a multitude of classic and retro FB groups where people list odd and interesting cars. I'm in the Datsun UK group as a result of my 280z. That was when a fella selling a Datsun Sunny fastback estate had posted on the groups, looking for swaps for a fast estate or a defender.
What did I have? An S4. Didn't really free up any funds as I'd hoped but it was cheaper to run I guess.
So yes, that happened. If you went to Retro rides weekender last year you'd have seen me and Clo there with our sausage dog in his radio flyer.
Following the house move and me having the Datslam. I was beginning to think I didn't really have the time, skills or money to put in the effort to get my Z going. Now here's something I never really mentioned on the thread for the Z. At that point, I had owned the car for 4 years and the rust it had, was very difficult to source parts for.
You note I bought a rear quarter, that took 3 years to find. The rust my car had - the lower windscreen upper firewall/raintray was essentially non existent from left to right. Given this was a very curved and complex piece I waited out and was pouncing on any opportunity to try and buy parts cars but every one I came across for what I could afford (Z's are expensive!!!) were rusty in the same place, I managed to find a guy in reading who had a partial panel cut for what I needed but it wasn't really enough.
After 4 years I decided enough was enough, the wheel wasn't turning fast enough for what I could achieve or afford with a full house renovation going on. I'm not really one for selling cars or successfully turning cars into money - I saw a running and functioning but rough Chevy corvair on FB marketplace, I saw in the background the guy had an s13 so took a punt on whether he'd be interested in swapping my Z for the 'Vair. Turns out he was.
I cannot stress enough again how absolutely gutted I am even now nearly a year later that I don't have a Z in my life anymore - in my eyes they are the best looking car out there bar none.
Somewhere in between all this, I needed garage space and money for the house so the EJ9 left the stable and Clo sold her B2 Audi Coupe GT.
I have been driving the datslam a lot and am beginning to feel like that and the chevy are filling the hole the Z left. The corvair is equally as interesting a car if not quite as good looking or as performance orientated.
That brings us roughly upto last July. I just can't leave a deal alone when I see one - E46 330ci on FB for a grand with MOT - hell yeah.
"Hell yeah" has been something I kind of regret, this car has been an absolute bar steward - BUT - I have to be pragmatic about it - I have learned an awful lot from it. Even if, everytime I fixed something, something else has broken.
Fix ABS, learn ECU is not the original, spend 6 weeks scouring the internet learning about BMW coding tools and how to code stuff in, 02 sensor dies, buy 02 sensor tool and sensor, whole exhaust has to be removed because of 02 location, bolt in exhaust stuck in very awkward place. Fix this. Rocker gasket leaks. Fix this. fuel gauge doesn't work any more, reset this, buy 4 matching wheels. Winter arrives, random missfire, missfire goes away, bonnet cable snaps, can't undo bonnet no matter how easy youtube/google makes it seem. Cut open bonnet, replace bonnet, replace cables, handle inside car for bonnet then breaks. Buy bonnet pins. replace bent suspension components and bad angle mods. Central locking doesnt work, use manual locks, manual lock in drivers door breaks. fix this. Decide its time for an MOT to see what else it needs. Car fairs terribly. Buy new arms/bushes and brakes because those are what it failed on, fit bushes, arms and front brakes. New rear 330ci calipers don't fit - measure trailing arms - yeaaaah they're not 330 trailing arms. Annoyingly I had just pressed in new bushes. Change welded diff to non welded diff because now the ABS was back working it was cutting power because of the diff when pulling out of corners when on way too and from MOT centre. Source 330ci whole rear end. Remove trailing arms, remove recently pressed bushes and refit into new arms. Now I'm waiting on components from far east europe to finish the brakes with all new everything. You'd think this was everything I have done on the e46 at this point, rest assured it's not. Would I buy another now? No way. I'm too far in now, and as I mentioned at the beginning, partway through all this mess, I have had to come to terms with actually finishing something I start. No matter the time spent and agravation, this BMW will be back on the road.
I can honestly tell you, when I bought it, I had no idea it was going to be like that - are all BMW's like that? Just think how much I could have done to my Datsun in that time, it's the age old expensive car is never cheap thing - hindsight.....
Anyway, that's I think 2-3 years all rolled up into one update. All of this and we havent really touched the gen 1 civic, we took it out once last year I think to Podium place - our local haunt. I'm really hoping I can finish this BMW so I can drive it, My tdi A2 was given to my brother as he sold his TT. I've been going up and down the A34 in Datslam every other day, would be nice to get some spanner time in on the Skoda again.
The Lexus, I bought that as a 3.0 for my 30th birthday, I always knew it would need some rust repair as it was sold as needing it. I began preparations and practice welding on the MX5 I had previously but haven't picked up the torch since so never really got around to it, I can't remember exactly how many months I drove it for but managed to get some supra Tein electronically adjustable coilovers for it and some deep wheels. My younger brother and I swapped cars, I loved the lexus but.... with the EJ9 civic in the garage I also liked his K20 powered accord.
Together we sourced a chap to do the welding and some front control arm bushes from Russia, now I don't know how much you know about these gen 1 GS300's but this was a PITA at the time. My brother came down for an extended weekend with a view to getting the bushes sorted ahead of going for rust-work. We struggled like all hell dropping the subframe to get to the wishbone bolts which stupidly go in from the top not below. The bolts were so frozen in place and we at the time didn't want to rip the engine as he had a 200 mile journey back home to do in it. Copious amounts of heat and grinding and attempting to source replacement bolts never really got us anywhere. At this point my brother decided enough was enough and he went out and bought a BAM quattro TT instead. The lexus was then abandoned on the drive for the next 6 months.
I drove round in the accord but grew tired of the look of the thing, it was faded and well worn, the engine was smoking on vtec so wasn't a decent candidate for using on my civic.
I decided it was time to buy an Audi B5 S4 a car I have lusted over for years because of how brutal they can be when tuned up. This one was high 400's and would turn the solar system backwards.
The accord was used as a scrap metal shed before being scrapped, the lexus was broken for it's 2JZ. Depending on how closely you follow my threads - probably not very because I never finish things so it's likely not very interesting, you'd know I had a Datsun 280z. The 2JZ was kept aside on the offchance I would ever gain the skills/knowledge to be able to put it in there. The shell was sold onto a chap who rebodied his own GS300.
Somewhere in all of this, the cost of living crisis hit, now you'd think with as many projects as I have, I wouldnt think about that, well I did. The S4 was pretty high insurance and doing 15mpg at best when fuel was getting close to £2 was not a good idea.
I bought the S4 in october, did the suspension over winter and then early 2022 fuel went crazy, my partner had not long bought an Audi A2 colour storm because her B2 Audi coupe was taking longer to source parts for than we had anticipated, so I followed suit with my own 1.4 tdi A2, this was a very cheap car, £30 year tax, 60-65mpg, insurance was cheap and I only paid £700 for it.
For a short while our driveway looked like this :
Now Anyone would think we liked Audi's. On that specific day I tried to get my mother in law to bring her A4 and it would have been cool to have the brother in laws A3 there as well making 7 Audi in the close family circle.
That wasn't long lasting. We found we were going to be moving house, into the one you see all these photos at, for the few years before I would visit and work at the garage and maintain the gardens which I can now do at my leisure in the evenings rather than just at weekends.
Cost of living crisis came in, we started cutting back as house costs increased and the S4 was on the chopping block a REAL shame because I friggen loved that thing.
Remember that Datsun 280z I mentioned earlier, well. When we moved house that went into storage away from home. With the EJ9 civic, the skoda rapid and Clo's audi taking up garage and drive space there wasn't anywhere to keep it.
If you're anything like me, you are in a multitude of classic and retro FB groups where people list odd and interesting cars. I'm in the Datsun UK group as a result of my 280z. That was when a fella selling a Datsun Sunny fastback estate had posted on the groups, looking for swaps for a fast estate or a defender.
What did I have? An S4. Didn't really free up any funds as I'd hoped but it was cheaper to run I guess.
So yes, that happened. If you went to Retro rides weekender last year you'd have seen me and Clo there with our sausage dog in his radio flyer.
Following the house move and me having the Datslam. I was beginning to think I didn't really have the time, skills or money to put in the effort to get my Z going. Now here's something I never really mentioned on the thread for the Z. At that point, I had owned the car for 4 years and the rust it had, was very difficult to source parts for.
You note I bought a rear quarter, that took 3 years to find. The rust my car had - the lower windscreen upper firewall/raintray was essentially non existent from left to right. Given this was a very curved and complex piece I waited out and was pouncing on any opportunity to try and buy parts cars but every one I came across for what I could afford (Z's are expensive!!!) were rusty in the same place, I managed to find a guy in reading who had a partial panel cut for what I needed but it wasn't really enough.
After 4 years I decided enough was enough, the wheel wasn't turning fast enough for what I could achieve or afford with a full house renovation going on. I'm not really one for selling cars or successfully turning cars into money - I saw a running and functioning but rough Chevy corvair on FB marketplace, I saw in the background the guy had an s13 so took a punt on whether he'd be interested in swapping my Z for the 'Vair. Turns out he was.
I cannot stress enough again how absolutely gutted I am even now nearly a year later that I don't have a Z in my life anymore - in my eyes they are the best looking car out there bar none.
Somewhere in between all this, I needed garage space and money for the house so the EJ9 left the stable and Clo sold her B2 Audi Coupe GT.
I have been driving the datslam a lot and am beginning to feel like that and the chevy are filling the hole the Z left. The corvair is equally as interesting a car if not quite as good looking or as performance orientated.
That brings us roughly upto last July. I just can't leave a deal alone when I see one - E46 330ci on FB for a grand with MOT - hell yeah.
"Hell yeah" has been something I kind of regret, this car has been an absolute bar steward - BUT - I have to be pragmatic about it - I have learned an awful lot from it. Even if, everytime I fixed something, something else has broken.
Fix ABS, learn ECU is not the original, spend 6 weeks scouring the internet learning about BMW coding tools and how to code stuff in, 02 sensor dies, buy 02 sensor tool and sensor, whole exhaust has to be removed because of 02 location, bolt in exhaust stuck in very awkward place. Fix this. Rocker gasket leaks. Fix this. fuel gauge doesn't work any more, reset this, buy 4 matching wheels. Winter arrives, random missfire, missfire goes away, bonnet cable snaps, can't undo bonnet no matter how easy youtube/google makes it seem. Cut open bonnet, replace bonnet, replace cables, handle inside car for bonnet then breaks. Buy bonnet pins. replace bent suspension components and bad angle mods. Central locking doesnt work, use manual locks, manual lock in drivers door breaks. fix this. Decide its time for an MOT to see what else it needs. Car fairs terribly. Buy new arms/bushes and brakes because those are what it failed on, fit bushes, arms and front brakes. New rear 330ci calipers don't fit - measure trailing arms - yeaaaah they're not 330 trailing arms. Annoyingly I had just pressed in new bushes. Change welded diff to non welded diff because now the ABS was back working it was cutting power because of the diff when pulling out of corners when on way too and from MOT centre. Source 330ci whole rear end. Remove trailing arms, remove recently pressed bushes and refit into new arms. Now I'm waiting on components from far east europe to finish the brakes with all new everything. You'd think this was everything I have done on the e46 at this point, rest assured it's not. Would I buy another now? No way. I'm too far in now, and as I mentioned at the beginning, partway through all this mess, I have had to come to terms with actually finishing something I start. No matter the time spent and agravation, this BMW will be back on the road.
I can honestly tell you, when I bought it, I had no idea it was going to be like that - are all BMW's like that? Just think how much I could have done to my Datsun in that time, it's the age old expensive car is never cheap thing - hindsight.....
Anyway, that's I think 2-3 years all rolled up into one update. All of this and we havent really touched the gen 1 civic, we took it out once last year I think to Podium place - our local haunt. I'm really hoping I can finish this BMW so I can drive it, My tdi A2 was given to my brother as he sold his TT. I've been going up and down the A34 in Datslam every other day, would be nice to get some spanner time in on the Skoda again.
