RobZR

Well the car has been out of commission for a couple weeks now.  I had just picked my son up from school and was heading to the grocery store when I was side swiped by a box truck.  I was in the left lane when he came flying past me and came from the right lane to the left and his rear bumper caught my car.  Nobody was injured but there was a bit of cosmetic damage done to the car.  The front right fender exploded, the passenger mirror was destroyed, tire popped and the wheel had a small dent.  His lane change was aggressive enough that I thought the guy hit me on purpose.  We pulled over and I asked him if he was OK and he Immediately offered to write me a check for $2000 because based on his assessment that's about how much the damage cost.  I was very calm as we waited for the police to show up.  The guy kept making small talk and telling me how perfect his driving record was and that he'd prefer to handle this outside of the insurance companies.  At some point after multiple ways of asking to exchange insurance info I straight up asked if he had insurance and I got many excuses about not being able to remember, lost his card, his wife handles it, etc.  He did give me a business card and that's when I learned he owned the box truck and a small landscaping company.
The police showed up and took statements while I waited for my wife to show up with a spare wheel and tire for me.  I was able to swap out the wheel and drive it home without issue.  I reported the incident to my insurance company and started talking to them the next day.  They made a hard push to have the car towed to one of their "authorized" repair facilities near me and I was adamant I would use my own repair facility.  First I called Merton Auto Body where a friend of mine works and they were a month out.  Next I called Radix Collision and Restoration where my wife's uncle works.  I told the guy who I was related to and he acted like he knew but said it'd be a month out.  A little bit later I get a call and hear "Hey, who are you related to here?"  I said Bob was my wife's uncle and told him I'd met him a couple times from stopping in there and a light bulb came on!  He asked if I could get it in the next day, a Friday, so they could look at it right away Monday.  I said yes and dropped it off the next day.
They looked at it last Monday, quoted and ordered parts the same day while the adjuster showed up Wednesday and green lit all the work.  Every replacement part is an OEM BMW part.  The benefit of using a high quality body shop!  They'll advocate for you and your car.  These guys are car people.  They've got a trophy case in their waiting room filled with awards from SVRA, the Brian Redman Challenge, etc.  There's vintage engines all over the place, vintage bodies on shelves and more!  My wife's uncle is doing all of the work except for the paint where they have a paint specific guy.  The good news is my car is going to come back in better condition than when it went in!  They're fixing ALL of the rock chips in the front bumper and hood for me!
The bad news.  As many of you may have guessed by now, SURPISE! The guy doesn't have insurance.  I'm on the hook for the deductible unless they can get money out of him.  They'll go after him for 3 years and after that it exceeds the statute of limitations for the incident.  I might see my $500 some day but I'm not terribly hopeful.  My insurance company broke that news to me last Monday.  She said the guy tried to blame ME!  He said a pothole caused my fender to explode and I sped up to hit him.  Thankfully I provided the number of a friendly witness that provided a statement to my insurance company that corroborated what I had said so I was found 0% at fault.
I'm hoping to have the car back this Wednesday but I know BMW was supposed to have parts there by last Thursday and on Friday I got a text with pictures of the progress and them letting me know the parts still hadn't shown up.  I'm lucky enough to have my truck so I'm not in dire need but I'd really like a few more drives in before the end of the year.

 

Soooo who else is getting one? I love the look, I was expecting just a plain white plate so this was a pleasant surprise. 

I know we've got some fisherman in the group so I wanted to share this one my son caught two weekends ago up in Luck, WI on Little Butternut Lake.  According to my scale it was a 14lb bowfin!  He caught it on a size 6 hook fishing for panfish.  He hooked it and reeled it in all by himself.  It's easily the largest fish he's ever caught!
 

The seats were REAL shiny. I tried hitting them with some Lexol leather cleaner and a microfiber and it didn't put a dent in it. I know it's a sin, but I VERY carefully used a magic eraser (with zero pressure applied) and Adam's interior detail as lubricant. I was careful to only buff off the oils/grease and not damage the protective "clear coat" layer. Hard to tell from photos, but they look night and day different.
edit: still need to swap the front door cards, just haven't had time yet
Before:

 
After:

the e34 looks great @David_R04 and looks like you have yourself the #1 e34 mentor. 

If you guys haven't guessed, David is my teenage son. They say this addiction can be hereditary. I have 2 that can attest to that, and my wife thinks we're all nuts.  We have a  three E34 family among other BMWs.
 
RobZR

If you guys haven't guessed, David is my teenage son. They say this addiction can be hereditary. I have 2 that can attest to that, and my wife thinks we're all nuts.  We have a  three E34 family among other BMWs.
 
RobZR

If you guys haven't guessed, David is my teenage son. They say this addiction can be hereditary. I have 2 that can attest to that, and my wife thinks we're all nuts.  We have a  three E34 family among other BMWs.
 
RobZR

If you guys haven't guessed, David is my teenage son. They say this addiction can be hereditary. I have 2 that can attest to that, and my wife thinks we're all nuts.  We have a  three E34 family among other BMWs.
 
RobZR

I don't so much mind the interior pieces but the exterior bits are fucking terrible.  Now, holy grail being the factory 4.4l engine, adjustable dampers, titanium exhaust and lightweight pieces.

more pics/info on your e34! 

Sorry for the delay, it's been a busy few weeks for me.  We've had a lot going on at work and at home lately!
I got my wheels hand delivered by @SteelBlue last week and promptly got them installed!  They are Artisa Elder's running 19x9.5 et35 and 19x10.5 et25 with Yokohama Advan Sport+ in 255/35r19 and 275/35r19.  The wheels are .5" wider than my stock ZCP wheels.  The offsets make them slightly more aggressive than the ZCP wheels but not as aggressive as I wanted so I'm running the same 12.5mm rear and 15mm front spacers I had on the ZCP wheels which makes it about a half inch wider than the old set up.  The picture makes it look like the rear is cambered in but it's a weird angle in the picture.
I have a set of ST XTA +3 coilovers on the way to replace the OEM 93k mile struts/shocks.  The goal isn't to lower the car more just refresh the current set up and dial in the ride and handling.

Good lord this is 41 pages long. Sorry for posting so much. BUT I got the MaxJax all set up and the garage cleaned up to do the suspension on the 850. 
 

 

The anchor epoxy that came with them was expired by several months. After a ton of needless research I ended up ordering this from Grainger: 

The manufacturer specs rate it at 46k lbs with allowable load of 11k lbs. Each post has 5 bolts. I'm pretty confident in it. It was also reviewed and recognized for short and long term loading. The epoxies I could find off the shelf were pretty clear they weren't for long term loading. 
With that said, I have an extra one of these and the fancy $120 double caulk gun for dispensing it if anyone is interested. lol.

clean rot-free  E36 Ti
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/260631952541380/

Inflation must be sky high when a 300k mi E34 goes for 63k.😵 Mine should be worth at least half of that.😁
This build and auction has thrown the valuation of modded BMW's upside down.
we all have learned for years, that you start a custom build on a high mileage shell is a recipe for financial ruin.
Jason has shown us the right way to build and promote such a project. 
at the end of the day if you can't get a few people that really want what you have built in the room. it can be all for not.
We've seen a few well built and promoted modded cars like RVAE34's lsx E39 touring and Mattymatt's E34 touring.
But, the common theme is the touring brings in the money.  Not since 540keith's calypso e34 has a non M5 E34 sedan brought in any money, until now.  

Since, the m60b44 designation was never used by BMW, and if a TU short block was used for the frankenmotor I could see their confusion.  In my view, it's better without the vanos.
I would venture the car has had a respray in it's life since it had north of 250k before the Frankenstein conversion/restoration.  It's great props to Jason's restoration and the Socal climate that it looks this unbelievable now.  The detail pics are just mind boggling. The black wood trim, the euro touches like the drivers glove box, etc.  Who goes and reupholsters new racing seats with m-cloth and adds seat heaters on a tuner build.  You have to know these cars well to see the little details. 

I also had a failing headliner so i tackled that job at the same time. very tedious project, but doable. considering the cost to DIY is like $75 compared to 600+ for a shop, it is worth it. apparently volvo used 'environmentally friendly' glues that just dont hold up over time.
I used this ebay vendor for the headliner material. it comes shipped in a roll (important), was a close match to the grey, and was the correct size to do the headliner + sunroof panel. i ended up using two cans of 3M headliner and fabric adhesive.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/280980573545?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649
this diy was great for the process of gluing on the new fabric: 
 
this is how the old material looked as it was falling apart

to get the headliner board out you have to remove: visors, oh-shit handles, sunroof switch/dome light panel, cargo net clips, rear dome light, rear trim at the tailgate, A pillars, D pillars, front and rear seats, one half of the cargo area carpet/plastic covers/spare tire foam, seat belt retractor. you also have to pull all of the wiring that is glued to the top of the headliner off. its a stupid design, the harness connects somewhere inside the dash so there is no way to unplug it, you have to just leave it hanging. 

the panel will barely (not really) squeeze through the rear tailgate. you will be bending the edges pretty harshly to get it in and out.


no pictures of the process of gluing the headliner fabric on, see the youtube DIY above. it turned out 8/10, with a couple of wrinkles and the areas where the handles go are too stretched. but in reality,  no one will notice unless i mention it. 

the fabric was a good match. I think it was actually nicer stuff than the original. much better texture, better cut resistance, a slight sheen. 

probably the worst bit of this job was reattaching all the wires to the top of the headliner. after putting the headliner back in the car, you have to lay the wiring back across in its original position and hot glue it back into place. i used gaffer tape to hold it in place as the glue set. the wiring runs across the front windshield area, and also snakes backwards and across the center of the car to the two rear dome lights. a simple harness plug in the a pillar could have made this 1,000,000 times easier. 

 

headliner back in place. the four cargo net clips have bolts inside so they hold it up best while you attach everything else. 

and voila. 

Finally pulled this out of storage last thursday as I wanted to get some miles on it for the year and the A/C is out on the 530i which I wanted for a weekend trip to Madison. Swapped on the 16" Style 5's as I'm gonna take the 17" wheels down to the Alloy Wheel Repair Specialist in Sun Prairie to get the barrels straightened back out on at least 2 of them. I didn't see anybody local up in the fox valley if anybody happens to have suggestions. 
Car ran great down to Madison but while I was down there sometime after sitting in belt line construction traffic for minute I went to go again and it wouldn't rev past 3100 rpm. Check engine light would flash along with a few other lights only when hitting that "limit". It was pinging bad as well. Changed the spark plugs as last time I had similar detonation on one of the M60's new plugs solved it. It ran better but ignition timing is still off and still can't rev. I was able to limp the car home though as it ran fine between 2500-3krpm's so just kept it in 5th till home. My best guess is the crank position sensor is faulty with a quick read through the Bentley but I haven't had time to diagnose yet. 
@P_Roloff and I have also been playing a game of forget the parts. He ordered door stay reinforcement plates for each of us and once I have those I'll start the door and fender swap project. The car needs to be sorted before winter so I'll update the to-do list as well. 

More pictures and videos when I'm back in the country tommorow but in short this trip is fucking awesome!  These trucks are extremely capable and regularly run the Baja 100 and 500.  Today we did 75mph on the beach then hit speeds up to 70mph in the canyons later on after crawling up and down massive ditches and mountain switchbacks.
It's through a company called Wide Open Baja and they are for clients who want a ready made team for Baja.  People like Patrick Dempsey, Will Turner and many more have paid to drive their cars and get the support team.  The support we had following us is the same team that supports the races and these guys fucking rocked!  They also do tours like this for people who want to try the trucks out in more of an adventure setting as opposed to full race.  Here's the truck we've been driving!

Tail of the Dragon! This has always been a bucket list road for me, and it blew my expectations out of the water. Not only are the curves a blast, but most of them are banked too! The ride height wasn’t ideal for this and we had a couple rubs. Strangely enough only from the passenger rear, where it was tapping the fender liner.
 
Love this little 328 though. Tackled 2,000mi and being pushed at tail of the dragon without a break. Impressed how smooth it is!

Up until last week I had 3 cars, '15 F30 335i, '08 E92 328i, '02 E46 M3. I sold the 335 and 328 last week in an effort to "downsize". Ever since I had the idea to downsize I've been searching for the perfect daily to my M3. For me that means the following recipe: 4 doors, safe, RWD, 6MT, NA. I want to be able to haul our two dogs around, but still be a fun spirited driving machine (E92 wasn't cutting it with the cramped backseat).

I set out to find a run of the mill E90 328i. Didn't really care too much about spec, until I saw a super cool M Sport one pop up for sale. Sadly it had hail damage and I passed on it, but couldn't get the idea out of my head of having a daily thats ~cool~. So then I revised my criteria to: LCI, E90, RWD, M Sport, 6MT. At first I didn't realize how rare of a spec this actually is, but was pleasantly reminded after posting a WTB ad on the Bimmerpost forums. From my research it seems that combination is even rare on the 335i, so I would expect the 328i version is even more uncommon. Most that could afford to spec out a 328 would normally just spring for a 335. To find one meant I had to find someone who custom ordered the NA, lower spec of the car for a very specific reason, to be the ultimate daily driver.
After quite a bit of searching the entire US, I came across one in Orlando FL that ticked every box:
6MT LCI RWD M Sport Non-iDrive Manual Seats It's on the higher side of mileage at 141k, but has all the common maintenance items addressed and a few tasteful mods:
 
Maintenance
Valve Cover Gasket Kit (Valve Cover Gasket, Spark Plug Tube Seals, Both Eccentric Shaft Seals)
Oil Filter Housing Gasket
NGK OEM Spark Plugs
Upper Radiator Hose
Coolant Hose
Expansion Tank Hose
Accessory Drive Belt Kit (Serpentine Belt, Belt Tensioner Assembly, and Drive Belt Idler Pulley)
Water Pump Replacement Kit (Pierburg Water Pump and Borg Warner Thermostat, OEM BMW Coolant)
Mods
BC Extreme Low Coilovers
Apex ARC-8 17x9 ET30
Achilles ATR Sport 2 255/40/17
Stud Conversion
Silicone Intake Inlet Hose
LED Headlight and Fog Light bulbs
Eonon GA9465 Headlights with Apple Car Adapter
 
Never been this excited to own a 230hp NA car, but for some reason I'm just as jazzed as the day I bought my F30. Will be flying out this Friday (7/30/21) to collect it and drive it home. Absolutely hitting tail of the dragon on the way back.
 

Driving out Wednesday and Thursday. Rally is Friday and Saturday (also Sunday but I'm not staying for that portion). Drive home Sunday and Monday. Google Maps says 3500 miles but will be more because of the rally portion. 

Just picked up a very nice 1999 Z3M Coupe this past weekend. Only 56k on the clock. Originally cosmos over black, repainted very well back in 2005 in Laguna Seca Blue. Can't wait to start modifying it! Stock currently, other than H&R springs. First order of business is finding some oem headlights. 

This past weekend we had 2 of my wife's friends stay at the house with their kids and husbands.  On Saturday the girls went to get their nails done and go to a beer garden in Waukesha and they took the M3.  When they got back my wife said her friends need to drive the car but were "afraid" so I spent the rest of the day egging them on.  On Sunday one of the girls was ready so I threw her in the drivers seat and we went for a drive.  She eventually fell in love with it and spent the rest of the weekend asking to drive it anywhere so we put a few more miles on it.  Her other friend drove it but it was too stressful of an event and she was done after one drive lol.
This is one of the reasons I bought a DCT.  I love handing my keys to someone and letting them rip!  It's even more fun when they've never really driven a sports car.  With a 6 speed there is a barrier to entry that scares people away.  You have to want to drive a manual trans AND have one available to learn on.  The DCT is a terrible automatic but the fact it can shift on it's own takes one barrier down.  
It also made me think about why these girls were "afraid" to drive my car.  They kept saying they're afraid they'd hurt the car.  It made me ask more then we got to the root.  They know how much I love the car and they don't want to be responsible for disappointing me.  Also, the perception that it's a terribly expensive car if something did get damaged scared them.  I had to go above and beyond to assure them it's a car, I have insurance and they can't hurt it.  I took them for a drive and they saw how I drive.  They won't be harder on it than I already am.
This also reminds me that it just takes once to get someone hooked.  One time behind the wheel to spark something you didn't know you had in you.  It's one thing to always be a passenger and enjoy a ride but to have the opportunity to push the pedal and control the noises coming out of the exhaust pipe is a whole different experience.  The friend who enjoyed it spent the rest of the weekend asking me about how to get into a car of her own like this and convincing her husband that it's do-able.
 
TL;DR - Don't be a dick.  Share the keys.