patsbimmer1

Good things will be happening this winter...

The coilover install had a slight hiccup preventing me from finishing it a couple weeks ago but it was unrelated to the coilovers themselves.  My passenger rear lower shock bolt snapped off which meant I needed to pull the arm to try cut out the shock and remove the bolt.  Spoiler alert, I could not get the bolt out.  It's an aluminum CA and a steel bolt that I'm guessing is stainless or has some coating to prevent galvanic corrosion.  I tried soaking it in PB, heat, heat plus wax, drilling, using an extractor kit and swearing at it with no luck.  I ended up ordering another control arm from ebay before I left for SEMA and got it all put together this weekend.
The coilovers are ST XTA +3.  At a high level these are KW V3 dampers with a different coating.  They are a 3 way adjustable (Rebound, High/Low speed compression) with height adjustable front/rear and camber plates up front.  The shorter sway bar links were included.  The instructions are my biggest complaint because they mix German and English and there's not really any organization.  It's not like one page is in German then the next is the same thing in English.  Some have both languages, some are only in German and some have the pages mirrored.  Thankfully the part where they tell you how to set up the rebound and compression is English!
I have it set to their recommended settings and the ride height a little lower than the H&R springs.  The ride quality is amazing!  It's more comfortable than stock while giving me more confidence in corners, reduced push from the front end and it's far more settled if I hit a bump mid corner.  I need to get the car over to Big Bear for corner balance and alignment then the handling will be perfect!

Exhaust drone from 1800-3000 rpm is a bit.. strong. 
Found a stock muffler for $20 right near my house, so I went and picked it up. Installed it, started it, rolled back under the car and took it out, way too quiet. Will be cracking it open and replacing one of the perforated tubes in each side to get some volume out of it. 
Current exhaust is interesting, and done well. At this point those cans are completely empty though. I will be grabbing some mufflers to replace them with as well and see how that goes. $50 for some cherry bombs cant be worse than it is haha. 
All to avoid spending $700 on the muffler I truly want. 


A friend has a set of quick jacks, these things are really slick, and for $1300 it is a pretty sweet option. The older I get the less I care to jack up a lowered car and put it on stands...


I've been working on a priority list of things I want to do on this car, as none of it is cheap. Wheels / tires could stand to be replaced and the engine / driveline could use some maintenance. I miss having a proper winter that keeps me from wanting to drive cars, they don't salt anything out here so it is just a slide-fest. 

I don't want to sell my other cars (E30's) but man I haven't touched them

Welp, bought a family hauler for the wife to DD and for us to use for roadtrips, hauling, etc. 
She was amenable to something 'enthusiast' and a car I am very happy to own - a Toyota 4runner. We needed an SUV that could tow, hold a lot of gear, and be reliable. I love their simplicity, capability and aftermarket parts availability.  They have approx. the same amount of technology as a 90s e34. The only two nits I have with this model are the electronically controlled drivetrain selection and the rust-prone frames. 
I got lucky that it ended up being white. After months of searching, I found this rust free example in Tennessee - flew down from MKE at 6am on a Saturday and was home by 10pm same day.
Here she is in the beautiful mountains of TN on the day I drove her home. its a 2007 Limited, white with gray interior. Super clean, daily driven by an old lady, garaged, Toyota parts used for maintenance, blah blah. 

I got right to work with a few upgrades before letting it hit the road.  I did a tune up including oil change, air filter, spark plugs and boots. I plan to change all fluids (both diffs, transfer case, transmission) in the spring, I'm out of time now. 
look at that frame. i was stunned how clean it was. similar age/mileage Wisconsin cars I looked at had fist sized holes in the frame. 

 
I removed the pinstripes then gave the paint a full detail with clay bar, polish then wax. 
 
Of course, the truck got a bixenon retrofit, which I kept from the e30. TRS Mini-D2S 4.0 with 50w ballasts and custom foreground limiters. 

I also smoked the headlights while they were open, and restored the lenses. 


GROM Bluetooth adapter with aux-in and charge port (bottom black box with white plug)

I ran the aux-in and usb charger to the dashboard below the RAM mount which I installed based on Dave's recommendation. It works great at holding a big heavy phone. 

I cleaned out the POs filth in the console.  Lady must have ate fries everyday - greasy crumbs in every nook and cranny. bleh! 

 
I found some used 5th gen 4runner TRD Offroad wheels, plastidipped them black and added General Grabber snow tires for the winter. 

I added a 1.5" lift kit to the front of the 4runner. They come from the factory with quite a bit of rake, and it levels it out. It is simply a 3/4" spacer than goes on top of the front strut, and due to the geometry it nets a 1.5" lift. 

and the most important bit of work i did was to try and prevent future rust for future me.  PB blaster has recently come out with a new rust-protectant coating that has an optimistic 2-year life. most of the products (Fluid Film, motor oil, etc) have a 1 year recoat time. There's a guy on Youtube who tests all of the undercoating products and he says it is now the king of the castle. Its also only $10/can and I used 5 total for coating everything. 
I jacked the car up, removed the skid plate and spare tire and sprayed every nook and cranny on the underside.

I also I removed the front bumper and sprayed all the steel inside

i also removed all 4 wheels and sprayed all the suspension and frame inside the wheels. 

 
On the exterior i also painted the lower front valance black, added a Yakima roof rack, debadged the doors and in the future will black-out the rear badges. 
Here's the final product!



with any luck ill be back here with some stuff within the next year or so 

Today was a great day to get out for a little back roads drive! Since picking the car up, I've swapped wheels/tires, stock headlights, added wheel spacers, Gruppe M carbon airbox, bimmerworld intake elbow to delete ASC, AC Schnitzer leather steering wheel, and installed a BMW motorsports golf ball weighted knob.
 
 

🔥🔥🔥

So this should be arriving next week:
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2003-bmw-m5-131/
 
Easier to just post the listing so I don't have to type up a diatribe. I stumbled across this auction which only had 3 hours left on the timer. So I scrambled to pore over the photos and documentation and come to realize this is actually a super legit Dinan car with everything except the wheels and flywheel. (dinan flywheel was installed but removed later).  lol @ $29k when the car was new in 2003 for all that Dinan shit. Even has the 3.45 differential. 
I have utterly 0 plans for this car other than to get stock wheels or apex arc-8 - basically something that allows me to run BMW centercaps - and then drive the shit out of it. 

Smh, Missed a week, Bump

couldnt get a pic, but i saw a guy today in a mini cooper with WI plates: DOCPSY
doctor of psychology or dr. pussy? you decide. 
paging dr. pussy! 

She's finally home!  Sorry for the shitty pictures I was just too excited to take any decent ones.  I asked them to leave my lip off so I can line that up how I want it so I still need to do that.  I could not say enough good things about the work Radix did!  I can't tell there was any work done other than there's no more rock chips on the front end!
I took the kids for a rip on the way back home and they just giggled and giggled when I'd run through some gears with the windows open!  It feels so good to be back in this car.
Now to get my coilovers installed!

She's finally home!  Sorry for the shitty pictures I was just too excited to take any decent ones.  I asked them to leave my lip off so I can line that up how I want it so I still need to do that.  I could not say enough good things about the work Radix did!  I can't tell there was any work done other than there's no more rock chips on the front end!
I took the kids for a rip on the way back home and they just giggled and giggled when I'd run through some gears with the windows open!  It feels so good to be back in this car.
Now to get my coilovers installed!

She's finally home!  Sorry for the shitty pictures I was just too excited to take any decent ones.  I asked them to leave my lip off so I can line that up how I want it so I still need to do that.  I could not say enough good things about the work Radix did!  I can't tell there was any work done other than there's no more rock chips on the front end!
I took the kids for a rip on the way back home and they just giggled and giggled when I'd run through some gears with the windows open!  It feels so good to be back in this car.
Now to get my coilovers installed!

She's finally home!  Sorry for the shitty pictures I was just too excited to take any decent ones.  I asked them to leave my lip off so I can line that up how I want it so I still need to do that.  I could not say enough good things about the work Radix did!  I can't tell there was any work done other than there's no more rock chips on the front end!
I took the kids for a rip on the way back home and they just giggled and giggled when I'd run through some gears with the windows open!  It feels so good to be back in this car.
Now to get my coilovers installed!

Congratulations!

My friend took the footage he had and posted it on his youtube channel. Figured I would share.
 

You did a really nice job with this car and i’m glad you got out and enjoyed it while you owned it.
See you over on siennachat forums. My username there is “goldfishcrackercarpetstain99”

Order when you can afford to get it.  If it's made of any commodity it will eventually become a problem.

You mean already impacting?  I work directly with the automotive aftermarket suppliers in the suspension, accessories, electronics, lugs, performance parts, etc categories and everyone is already falling behind and it's not looking to get better for 2022.  If it is made out of copper, aluminum, steel or relies on being shipped into the country then it will continue to struggle.

USAIR event was today. 
took 8th/120 in raw time and 2nd in class
course was identical to the one in the spring - the start and finish were in the same spots lol. 

In the spring I drove the evo and went 61.2, this event I went 62.0 - super happy with how this car is setup now
 

I've been waffling a lot about that. Prices of other cars being sold range from "yeah, that checks out" to mind-boggling. The market it crazy now, which is the only reason I'm selling - the cost of regular used cars is bullshit! 
took pictures last night at dusk because the light was great. Just organizing them now, organizing my extra parts and writing the ad
 

 
 
 
 

SOLD

Watch out with that, SEAM3N courtesy of me got two kids once upon a time.