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Alright so last year i sold my old e36 you guys might remember it as the "art wheel car"
from the moment i sold the car i felt like i had made a mistake but i had gotten a great deal on another car blah blah blah. fast forward to a few months ago, i started offering my services refinishing wheels to the general public and i decided that i should probably have a car to use as a demo vehicle for that and my prelude was starting to need money for things so i decided it was time to go back to BMW. i was lucky enough to quickly sell the prelude and i started searching for a BMW.
Found one in Florida, flew down, the owner picked my up from the airport and this is what was waiting for me
Untitled by Majend, on Flickr
A black on tan 1997 328is 5 speed with just a tan over 130k on the clock. All that was really done to her was a hot air intake, ultimos (they seriously make the regular racelands on my 325is feel like week old pudding...) staggered DSIIs, Recaro seats (don't know if they are real) and VAC Motorsports seat mounts.
Drove her around for a while with the owner and talked about it, i handed him a stack of cash (way way way under budget) he signed over the clean title and i hit the road.
Untitled by Majend, on Flickr
i don't know what was more impressive, the temperature or the fact that the OBC looked brand new lol.
I didn't get on the road till about six pm so i drove to the north boarder of Florida and called it a night. In the morning i hit up my favorite southern breakfast spot and hit the road again.
Untitled by Majend, on Flickr
Untitled by Majend, on Flickr
I got about 300 miles into the day and i started hearing a slight hum from the rear. My buddy had a e30 with a whiny diff and this sounded more like a worn tire so i put it out of my mind.
Untitled by Majend, on Flickr
got to Tennessee (holy crap i forgot just how beautiful this state is) and the noise started getting louder and sounded more like a rear wheel bearing. the previous owner had mentioned that he thought one might be on its way out but i couldn't feel anything on the test drive and on the first day so i didn't think much of it but after it got louder i started to get a little worried.
Untitled by Majend, on Flickr
By the end of the day I was getting kind of worried so i stopped near St. Louis since it was going to be the last major city i was going to hit before home. Saturday morning i went to the independent repair chain near my hotel to see if they could take care of it. They wanted $1200 dollars for each side and wouldn't guarantee that they would finish that day so i said screw that and hit the road. I had looked the night before and found a number of people that wrote that it was booked at 3.5 hours for the passenger side and 4 hours for the driver side because of the exhaust and since it would have cost me as much as one side to toe the car home i figured it was an appropriate gamble to make.
The sound didn't get any worse on staurday so i just pushed on and what do you know the car made it home after 1800 miles.
Untitled by Majend, on Flickr
So glad to be out of that seat...
Untitled by Majend, on Flickr
All in all i am so happy to be back in a BMW, it just feels like home. When i get the car all cleaned up and a few little details worked out i'll put up a build thread but i wanted to share the tale of the trip with all of you!
(yeah i know that was taken from the thread from my trip but i wanted everything to be here)
A few days after i got the car home i gave the car to my buddy Mike to have him put the new wheel bearing in. I knew that it would just be much easier for him to do it at the shop since they can be a big PITA. This turned out to be the right choice since literally every step something happened that i wouldn't have been able to handle in a timely fashion at home.
hey look Ultimos hehe
Untitled by Majend, on Flickr
we had a little fun mocking up one of Mike's wheels
Untitled by Majend, on Flickr
also had to do something about the tint. there was damage to the tint on both front windows and i'm more of a fishbowl kind of guy so i stripped the tint out
here is what i had to start with
Untitled by Majend, on Flickr
Untitled by Majend, on Flickr
Untitled by Majend, on Flickr
after a little heat gun action (makes taking tint of so much easier since the glue doesn't stick to the window)
Untitled by Majend, on Flickr
i have a C&C tomorrow morning and i then a buddy wants to shoot the car in the evening so i'll post any pictures that i find.
i have some interesting plans for the car but i think i will most likely end up hoarding parts and throwing them on all at once. right now i'm just happy to be back in a car that i actually like driving hehe
from the moment i sold the car i felt like i had made a mistake but i had gotten a great deal on another car blah blah blah. fast forward to a few months ago, i started offering my services refinishing wheels to the general public and i decided that i should probably have a car to use as a demo vehicle for that and my prelude was starting to need money for things so i decided it was time to go back to BMW. i was lucky enough to quickly sell the prelude and i started searching for a BMW.
Found one in Florida, flew down, the owner picked my up from the airport and this is what was waiting for me
Untitled by Majend, on Flickr
A black on tan 1997 328is 5 speed with just a tan over 130k on the clock. All that was really done to her was a hot air intake, ultimos (they seriously make the regular racelands on my 325is feel like week old pudding...) staggered DSIIs, Recaro seats (don't know if they are real) and VAC Motorsports seat mounts.
Drove her around for a while with the owner and talked about it, i handed him a stack of cash (way way way under budget) he signed over the clean title and i hit the road.
Untitled by Majend, on Flickr
i don't know what was more impressive, the temperature or the fact that the OBC looked brand new lol.
I didn't get on the road till about six pm so i drove to the north boarder of Florida and called it a night. In the morning i hit up my favorite southern breakfast spot and hit the road again.
Untitled by Majend, on Flickr
Untitled by Majend, on Flickr
I got about 300 miles into the day and i started hearing a slight hum from the rear. My buddy had a e30 with a whiny diff and this sounded more like a worn tire so i put it out of my mind.
Untitled by Majend, on Flickr
got to Tennessee (holy crap i forgot just how beautiful this state is) and the noise started getting louder and sounded more like a rear wheel bearing. the previous owner had mentioned that he thought one might be on its way out but i couldn't feel anything on the test drive and on the first day so i didn't think much of it but after it got louder i started to get a little worried.
Untitled by Majend, on Flickr
By the end of the day I was getting kind of worried so i stopped near St. Louis since it was going to be the last major city i was going to hit before home. Saturday morning i went to the independent repair chain near my hotel to see if they could take care of it. They wanted $1200 dollars for each side and wouldn't guarantee that they would finish that day so i said screw that and hit the road. I had looked the night before and found a number of people that wrote that it was booked at 3.5 hours for the passenger side and 4 hours for the driver side because of the exhaust and since it would have cost me as much as one side to toe the car home i figured it was an appropriate gamble to make.
The sound didn't get any worse on staurday so i just pushed on and what do you know the car made it home after 1800 miles.
Untitled by Majend, on Flickr
So glad to be out of that seat...
Untitled by Majend, on Flickr
All in all i am so happy to be back in a BMW, it just feels like home. When i get the car all cleaned up and a few little details worked out i'll put up a build thread but i wanted to share the tale of the trip with all of you!
(yeah i know that was taken from the thread from my trip but i wanted everything to be here)
A few days after i got the car home i gave the car to my buddy Mike to have him put the new wheel bearing in. I knew that it would just be much easier for him to do it at the shop since they can be a big PITA. This turned out to be the right choice since literally every step something happened that i wouldn't have been able to handle in a timely fashion at home.
hey look Ultimos hehe
Untitled by Majend, on Flickr
we had a little fun mocking up one of Mike's wheels
Untitled by Majend, on Flickr
also had to do something about the tint. there was damage to the tint on both front windows and i'm more of a fishbowl kind of guy so i stripped the tint out
here is what i had to start with
Untitled by Majend, on Flickr
Untitled by Majend, on Flickr
Untitled by Majend, on Flickr
after a little heat gun action (makes taking tint of so much easier since the glue doesn't stick to the window)
Untitled by Majend, on Flickr
i have a C&C tomorrow morning and i then a buddy wants to shoot the car in the evening so i'll post any pictures that i find.
i have some interesting plans for the car but i think i will most likely end up hoarding parts and throwing them on all at once. right now i'm just happy to be back in a car that i actually like driving hehe
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