suspenceful

All signed up for July 15th at Blackhawk Farms!  I have a buddies trailer that I can use if I choose to so I think I may do that just for the convenience of not having to haul everything in the car.
Can't wait!

Carbon accents should really set it off.

Sold the RE71/K1s, replacements showed up today  
225/45/15 Falken RT660
 

 
plan is to slap them on these:
konig hypergram 15x8.5 

 
it’s about the only lightweight 8.5” wide wheel I could find that didn’t have bacon fender inducing offset. Ordering up some spacers later today. Hoping to have this all ready to go by the time RA autox rolls around 

I agree that cropping it frames it in a better sense, but it also feels more closed in. Wanted the surrounding area and the car to almost be equal in the focal points of the image. 
Here's another from last night. This is pretty good area for pictures actually.

Doesn't look like it has. I'll have to give it a try.
*Edit; I do not have slots. I have like a pirate hook looking deal on the lower bolt.
Pic from tonight.

I also started tinting the tail lights last night. I think it looks much better than the standard amber color, especially against the red of the car. Passenger side one will be done tonight.

 

Polished the insert and hit the rubber part with a coat of paint. Cleaned up pretty well. Needs to fix a couple spots on the insert before it’s complete.
Drilled holes in the trunk lid for the studs. It was hard to gauge how the spoiler would fit without being able to lay it flat on the trunk lid. Came out well, still need to drill or cut a hole on the underside of the trunk lid to access the far outside screws. I think I might use a combination of some double sided tape and foam tape(not exactly foam tape, but something of that nature) to close the gap at the ends. Guess will see how much the far studs will suck it closer to the lid with nuts on them. You can see how I tried to get the gap that ran the length of the trunk tighter. As a result of this, the radius of the spoiler leaves somewhat of a gap at the ends.

TLDR:
I bought an E28 M5 spoiler. Believe it's the same color as my car.
Full, but quite the experience, story:
With not a lot to do during quarantine, been doing a lot of online window shopping for things for the E30. Found one of those "I have parts for *inset car here*, just ask me what you're looking for" type Craigslist ads. I figured why not just see what he might have, was just looking for unique/rare little bits to add to the car. He knew a guy who was selling an E28 M5 spoiler, but it was a little more than what I wanted to pay(reasonably priced for the part, just more than what I wanted to spend at the moment). Conversation stopped, but he ended up texting me like a week later saying that he actually did have one, just found it when he was going through some of his stuff. The insert was red, but was hard to tell from the pictures if it was the same red as my car. It had some blemishes, so he told me to make him an offer. I threw out a pretty low number in comparison to what these usually go for and to my surprise he accepted it. Told him I could come down Saturday and pick it up.
Saturday 5/16: Drive down to Middleton. I took a look at his address on Google maps before heading out. Looked like a small farm out in the country, so wasn't sure what to expect when getting there. Turns out the Google maps images were old, because at the end of his long, hilly driveway were two, large, brand new metal buildings. First one was in the shape of typical shop, probably 80x80 if I had to guess, and about 20 some feet tall. First car in the door was an E36 M3 on a lift, next to it was an Oldsmobile(not sure the model, 60s Camaro shaped), and next to that was Diamond Schwarz E30 M3.

Unfortunately, this was the only picture that I took. Never seen one on Borbet type A's, but I like it. Above the car, you can see there is a loft with a ton of parts on it(as you can, there's also a motorcycle up there lol). He had like 4 M-Tech 1 wheels, Momo wheels, new old stock S38 valve cover, euro E28 interior pieces, misc E30 pieces, etc. Just tons of stuff, all of which I took a look over. On the wall behind where I took this picture, there is another loft. Had E30 and E28 hoods, doors, trunks, windows, bumpers, etc. One caught my eye that I couldn't determine which it was. Turns out it was a euro M-Tech 1 bumper that he checked as a bag on flight from Germany...
So this building was divided in two parts(you can see the wall behind the E30). The door was open between the two and saw something through that I had never seen and had no idea what it was. We take a walk through and I felt like I was transported to the Peterson Museum. There were four 4 post lifts on one wall and two on the other wall, both had cars on top and below them. Two BMW 2000 CS's, two Auto Union badged Audi's that I had never seen before, a wood panel Willy's Wagon, a Nissan S-Cargo, Oldsmobile 88, old Germany military motorcycles, other old motorcycles from manufactures I had never heard of before, and probably 8 other cars.
The second building had 5 double wide garage doors spanning the length of building and was probably 30-40' deep. Once again, walk in the door and feel like I'm in Bruce Canepa's or Bruce Myer's garage. I'm looking over a sea of what had to be like 40 cars, most of things that I could vaguely recognize or had no idea what I was looking at. There was his E28 M5 a Messerschmitt car, the classic amphibious car, old VW looking wagons but were made by someone else, that weird electric car where the whole body folds on clam shell mechanism, and 30 other old German and other foreign cars. Both of the buildings have epoxy sealed floors, insulated walls, incredible LED lighting, and are climate controlled.
It was overwhelming(in a great way), because the last thing I was expecting to find in the hills of Middleton was this incredible car collection in these amazing buildings. The M5 spoiler was honestly an after thought in all of this. We grabbed it after 20 minutes of talking and it sat on a bench until we were done walking around the rest of the buildings.
These kind of finds are the things dreams are made of. The guy couldn't have been nicer and was really a BMW nerd. I think we were there for like an hour. I don't think I'll ever have a better Craigslist transaction experience in my life. This was completely stream of conscious typing, so it's possible I'm leaving things out.
Anyway, the spoiler. In pretty good condition, definitely is worth a lot more than what I paid for it. Has a couple of chips on the ends I should be able to fix. The paint was pretty hazy, so I started to polish it to see if I could get a better idea of the color. I had an old pad that I used on the car, so I couldn't get a good cut or polish. From what I was able to do, I think it's the same color as my car, or very close to it. Very stoked on it, think it's gonna look great on the car.

Turns out this speed was super accurate. 
45mph she really came alive, this wasn't too surprising as I have determined most ball joints are bad in the current axles. New axles seem to have better ball joints so that should help.

Did my first off-road adventure with it and holy crap driving manual in demanding off-road terrain is a wild time. I should be good at dancing after this!
Slipped a front wheel into a pond, whoops.





 

Much better than being at work

Here is a photoshoot @pynacl did with @ChrisOs M3 this weekend.
I would have had some photos to post aswell but my dumb-ass forgot an SD card 40 minutes away at home. 😕 
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmNgsFY9
 

Tried to get some car pics, but my best shot tonight was a tree again.

Took the Konica 1.4 apart. I got most of the gunk out of it and it's a lot sharper now. Once I get the right cleaners, I'll have to get back in there to remove what's left of the fungus. Since I'll be taking it apart again anyway, I figured I'd have some fun and put a piece of cardboard with a square hole cut in it behind the aperture. Square bokeh! 🤣

Your best bet for a community is either Instagram or Reddit for more camera focused discussion.
Flickr is just a good hosting site for high res images.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I've enjoyed seeing your camera and photography related posts, and I'm learning a little even so I'd say carry on. The shots lately have been awesome too.

I'll be there in the M3 😀

Which lift kit is that?
 
😅

RIP the lifted and slammed M21 dream. This car has certainly been on quite the journey. From the gravel drive way of somewhere in the middle of no where in Shawno, to lifted diesel swap, to sold to Russian's in Washington.
ben pls

I installed a red start button from Amazon and China fucked it up so I exchanged it and that was also fucked up but less fucked so I installed it to see if I liked it. Well, the family took the M3 to Leducs for ice cream tonight and my wife noticed the button.  To emphasize how strange this is I will say that my wife still hasn't noticed I went catless.  Anyways, she noticed it and said it looked stupid and she liked the black button better and she was right.  Long story short I reinstalled the black button at 11:30 tonight.  There's no pictures and this was a largely pointless post.

I had to go grocery shopping tonight and made a mandatory stop in an empty parking lot at Generac to take a picture.  I love this car.

Well she's no daily driver, but I still wanted to document this for later! My roommate has been building an XJ for a bit, and we've been meeting people that have land and off road trails on them, not to mention the places 30 min from the house that are stellar for wheeling. I quickly learned the truck doesn't fit on jeep trails, so there was only one solution!
The $300 93ish XJ
I don't ever name vehicles, but for some reason Ruby sticks with me, as this will be the red(headed) stepchild that always gets beat.


It spent the last year of its life sitting in a barn at a friends house under the presumption of a bad clutch, and he had no desire to work on it (got it in a trade) 
He was looking to clear out space so it went real cheap. 
When I showed up there was a search for keys, and the conclusion that he didn't know where they ended up. I have never drilled a lock cylinder so I wasn't going to do that, but you can get a cylinder and key for the xj for $20 bucks which made it tempting. Mobile locksmith wanted $140 for 2 keys, but then stopped responding to me. Ended up bringing the keys to my roommates XJ and lo and behold the key for his door locks worked in my ignition perfectly. Convenient.
This will be the third vehicle I have purchased knowing mice lived in it, and it makes me question myself sometimes. Oh well. 

Got it on the trailer using the hill to roll it as there was no battery. 


Got it trailered home (obligatory on trailer pic)
The next day I got to cleaning it up a bit. The roof was amusing to clean with the pressure washer, as it had many much algae on it. 



Got the mouse nest out of the glove box, pulled the airbox apart and found a nice possum nest with a dead possum in it so got that out of there. Put a battery in it and it fired up without much drama. Didn't want to idle at first without throttle, but that eventually cleared up, probably needs the ICV cleaned. 
The clutch does function, but seems to sort of "bleed by" slowly. If you are in gear with no brakes applied and have the clutch pedal pressed it will slowly lose hydraulic pressure and engage the clutch.

After cleaning it in the little hidey hole I have it (I alone have 3 cars and a truck at a house that is setup for 4 cars, much less my roommates 2 cars lol) it looked alright, especially considering what it'll be used for.



Turns out to have a handful of aftermarket parts in it, the front steering components have all been replaced with stronger pieces, the rear lift was done properly, slip yoke eliminator in the rear, adjustable upper control arms in the front, good tires, factory skid plates that are actually staggeringly thick, and a few other odds and ends. 
It should prove to be quite fun! 
 
 
 

I try my best to be as gentle as possible getting in and out of them. Probably should do another leather treatment on them.
Real nice day out today. Got the rear valence painted and swapped the rear stud conversion from the Calypso car to the red one.
Then vs. now, miss the E46

@suspenceful can sure do some nice stuff with cameras.
Those seats look mint!

Took some pics with @suspenceful today. 
Jake also rolled the front fenders, seems to have taken care of the majority of the issue. Will have to see with some more steep inclines.

@suspenceful as always with the fire behind the lens.




 

Just some metal specific spray paint. Was debating using bed lines for the texture and toughness, maybe the next time I do it.