Blue Collar Ballin'

[Dave-ger]

I found something I overlooked in my repair. Turns out I didn't only bend my tie rod, I some how damaged my control arm bushing. I discovered this when the center piece of it fell out while I was driving. Took me a little bit to diagnose the problem, but it was a simple fix. I got polyurethane bushings off ebay that seem to be made really well for less than I can buy stock ones at my work with my employee discount. you can hear and feel the road more than before with them, but I'm okay with that. the car should feel more solid and race car-esque when I drive it hard, and I want that.





so now I need to fix that annoying fan clutch, replace the diff bushings, and do some fab work to make my sway bar fit again. I also should replace my remaining original low pressure power steering line. I think that is the remainder of my leak with the system. I also want to put in a cone filter, mostly to start cleaning up the appearance of the engine bay.


lots of plans, but for the most part, I'm anxious to put miles on this car again.

[Dave-ger]

gave it more of a shake down today, loving it. I want my sway bar back, but it steers tighter than ever with the poly control arm bushings and new tie rods.

[Dave-ger]

last couple shots before I put winter tires on it and attempt to use it as a rugged winter car





hopefully I'm not bothering you all with so many photos, I do like the car a bit if you couldn't tell.


I need to put the sway bar back on, so some actual fab work should be going into this car soon to make that happen.

[Dave-ger]

took it from summer mode







to winter mode








and at ride height.




and I need to go and get a much better feel of this car before I do this again. I'm still shooken up pretty bad from my california incident, and this car is vary unfamiliar to me in the snow right now. I'll get it sorted I think.

[Dave-ger]

in an attempt to protect my mismatched paint from the winter road chemicals and crap, I waxed it all nice like with professional grade components.



I wet sanded the backup lights too as they were fogged over real bad. They are mega fresh now.








maybe I'll have better progress next time I update.

[Dave-ger]

been having trouble with my belt running crooked on my top idler pulley, so some nice folks at work who do this stuff for a living helped me figure it out



I was very glad they did that for me, because I was confused and frustrated. what they found was that my water pump pulley was out too far, causing it to not line up. The water pump pulley was also all busted up looking, so I bought another one and installed it to rule that factor out.



if you look close, you'll see it still doesn't quite line up. Now I'm about to buy a water pump for it even though mine feels solid. it looks to be installed right and everything, but obviously something has to be causing it to stick out too far.



my drivers door handle also broke, so I got a new one and got pretty close to the overall color of my car with some 10+ year old model spray paint and some clear coat. it doesn't completely match, but I think it's close enough. many other painted things on the car don't match any closer than that anyways.




I also made one of the biggest improvements since I bought the car, next to ball joints and the clutch: finally replaced that horrid diff bushing. it was so horribly bad. the car drives way smoother and even shifts better. Most of all, it doesn't feel like a pile anymore.

[Dave-ger]

figured out by belt problem!

the pump on the right is the new one. pretty self explanatory, besides the 3 bmw techs I work with not ever seeing it happen before. probably related to my wreck or the one time I had air in the coolant or something weird like that




I also built a cold air intake, bro




loving this car

[Dave-ger]

almost a year later, this car is still going, and going well. Having some minor tank leak issues, but the new check valve solved most of that.



The car also went on another vacation road trip, this time I didn't crash it.












The car is also conquering winter well, and I even updated the paint on my crappy winter wheels.










The car is just about to hit 222,000 miles, and has a bunch of very minor problems, just as any car with such mileage would, but nothing serious. It is extremely dependable and enjoyable to drive. My plans for spring are to change wheel size, so the 19's will have a real slick for sale thread soon I imagine.

[Dave-ger]

besides work, I have a lot of distractions from this car:





I have however secured a new job at North West Wheel Repair, and took advantage of some employee perks:

Before:




These pics do the damage on the wheels no justice. They literally had chunks of aluminum missing, and the clear coat was peeling. The nice detail work by my friend Mario hid the damage well.






After:






I was going to downsize to 18's, but I had no good offers on the wheels how they were. Besides that, I have found out these wheels are super tough. they run rubber bands for tires and I drive to many places, and they are virtually unbent. The fronts were barely bent before the powdercoat, and my boss made them perfect on the wheel straightener!


Happy with my new job for sure. I need to do some work on the wheels on my other vehicles, and my trailer, which I bought back in Feb. Just takes time.

[mk3f.t.w.]

i dig it. i currently have an e21 im working on. Your e21 was one of my favorites.

[Dave-ger]

Thank you sir, i sure miss that car.

[TWM Performance]

I adore your car and build! I'd be curious to see how it would look with some spacers up front. It's all it's missing in my opinion

- Renato

[Dave-ger]

thanks. I feel like the fronts would rub an excessive amount with spacers, but I may test that out if I get spacers for the back of my new winter setup like I want.

5 series wheels:




and a picture of my hauler with a Christmas tree, because it's that time of year.

[Dave-ger]

X3 blades:







The 19's are for sale in the 5X120 thread. Hit me up at davesmufflerandmore@gmail.com if you want to purchase them.