I'm not seeing the usual pm control panel....
Do I have to have over a designated number of posts or something?

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/private.php?do=newpm

Upper right corner above the log out button, there is a link to "private messages" From there you can send pm.

Least I have my answer, thanks for the reply.

"
bondheli, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:

Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation."

you need more post count to be able to use the PM function

It's like 25 right?