Well 6 months in the making and we have cold AC! soooo cold! Just in time for winter! haha. 

I ended up making my own hoses using a kit from "speed ac spares" up in north qld. dunno how many ppl will read this but these guys were extremely helpful.

https://speedyairspares.com.au/

The hoses came with a set of hand crimpers that were surprisingly easy to use. All very simple. and significantly cheaper than all the quotes i got done. (like 60bucks per hose as opposed to $200)

AC man came around this morning and gave it a vac test and everything was all good. 20mins later i had cold air!

 

So its been a saga but lots of fun and good learning experience. learnt how to tig weld in the process so there will be some more tig welding projects in the future.

Like most things turns out AC is not that complicated.

So next step is going to be relocating the battery to the boot. the 325i and 318is came with the battery in the boot. Dunno why the 323i didnt. but i dont think the 318i did either. 

I have a battery box and isolator already, just need to get some cable and figure out a way to hold the battery box in. I could get the oem battery tray etc but i think a plastic box secured nicely in the corner will be neater than the oem. 

 

 

Well apparently 3yrs has gone by. And to be honest basically nothing has changed. 

AC still works great, mega squirt has been totally reliable. haven't touched the tune for years now. starts immediately every time. 

Although I did relocate the battery to the boot as above, and this allowed me to really tidy up the engine bay. The coils now site where the battery was and alot of the wiring was able to be tided up

Car gets out most weeks for a drive or two, I take it to coffee and cars every month, and euro day at lakeside raceway every few months. House renos have taken priority as one would expect and kids activities on the weekend, but the car is always ready to drive on the key if the opportunity arises if only for a trip to Bunnings to buy more plaster screws.....

Heres a photo from the last coffee and cars. If you look up the rego on that rusty truck its actually a nissan patrol, body swapped with whatever that truck is. super cool. the variety at coffee and cars is pretty nice.