Tweet
*Long Read
Never made a thread about this so I figured I'd share some pics of the 7. Me and my sister drove the car out west because I've always wanted to drive cross country and I wanted to do a bunch of stuff to the car myself that I couldn't do without the correct tools and assistance. A mixture of having a friend on the west coast with a shop at his disposal and Stance of the Union being in Sacramento had me in my car and driving west without much thought. The car is pretty much getting torn down this weekend and won't see the road again for a few weeks. I won't have it back in my possession until mid February so these are the last pics I will post in its current state.
This is the story of my travels. Its a bit of a long read but I needed to document for memories sake so it might as well get posted.
I left my house in Boston at about 8AM one of the thursdays last month:
At 9AM I was back in my driveway with my car overheating and an altered ride height violation. I added coolant, bled the system (me and the old man installed a new radiator the day prior so we assumed it was just a poorly bled system), and got back on the road:
An hour or so later on the Masspike stopped because I got a low coolant light and wanted to see if the car was leaking anywhere:
Back on the road I drove through western mass and into NY where I encountered this bad boy outside of Albany. Me and my sis drove next to the guy for 20 miles trying to figure out what the fuck he was towing and he finally must have had enough and decided it was time for a ticket:
Yes I got a speeding ticket from that thing.
Around 330PM thursday I was parked in Dewitt, NY at my friend Orxhans house bleeding my system again and trying to figure out where the fuck all my coolant went again. More coolant, more laughs, Orxhan showed me how to get a digital read out of my temp on the dash, we murdered some bomb ass pizza he made, and we hit the road.
Around 630PM I was texting Ben and saw a sign for Rochester, NY. By this point I was 3 rockstars in and wired. I said fuck it I'm stopping to see Charlie. Texted him, he was in class, I said i'd chill on his campus until he was done and then I got lost. Ended up getting there after he was done. Shot the shit, snapped some pics, got back on the road. About 45 minutes later we were kicking it in Niagara Falls:
At this point we decided to just crash a motel for the night and wake up in the morning to head towards chicago where we planned on spending the weekend with some old friends. At 7AM up and running. Load the car up, pop the hood, check the expansion tank - bone dry. Fucking sick. BMW cooling systems amaze me. I add coolant/water and hop in the car. Get to dunkin donuts a mile down the road pull in and park the car. Heats cranking, beats are bumping, sister walks out with her coffee and her jaw drops. I knew right away the car was pissing one of two things: Coolant or Oil.
After an hour long ordeal of trying to figure out what the issue was I found a kinked o-ring in one of the hoses. I had to remove the hose with no tools, which involved taking a bobby pin from my sister and turning it into a pin puller for the clip that held the transmission cooler hose in place. After a bit of a battle I got the hose off and started walking two miles to the auto parts store. I got about an eighth of a mile from the car when I realized I was walking right past the service department of a Ford dealership. The guys there were nice enough to give me a bunch of o-rings which resolved my problem and I got back on the road. Another pic of the falls:
Drove through boring NY, boring PA, boring Ohio, into boring IL and into Chicago. Chicago is definitely one of the coolest cities i've ever been too but the coolest part was visiting Fluid Motor Union.
I'm gonna make this real clear for those of you who aren't really reading anymore (I probably wouldn't be):
The guys over at FMU are seriously the coolest, most down to earth, helpful people I've met in my recent travels.
I rolled in on a saturday morning when OJ , Mike, OJs Mom, and all the other employees were already busy with other projects and barely even got out of my car before OJ got in it, rolled it into the shop and went through the entire car. He pressure tested my cooling system, gave me a list of things I needed to replace down the line, and assured me the car was good to make the rest of our trip. Being into this stuff for years I have dealt with a lot of different shops and people. With that being said I can truthfully say that the FMU guys fucking rock and I can only see their business growing in unimaginable ways with the customer service and respect they have. My pictures do this place and the people zero justice but thats why they have Mike.
I even had the treat of going for a ride in their ridiculous e90 m3:
*paging Mike B:
Some of the best exhaust fabrication i've seen.
After my FMU I drove back into the city, kicked it for the rest of the day, hung out part of sunday and then hit the road to Denver. My sister got our second speeding ticket of the trip outside of chicago and decided she was done for a while so I drove the Iowa to Denver stretch of i80 which really sucked.
Lavish living in Denver
Colorado Concave
After rolling through the rockies we came out in Utah where we decided we would hit up a few national parks starting with Arches.
We crashed in richfield and then continued onto our last leg of the trip in which we decided we were going to hit Zion National Park, the Grand Canyon, Vegas for a few hours, and then keep driving to California. We almost made it.
Zion is under construction by the way so if anyone with a lowered vehicle plans on driving there...DONT. It was a brutal experience.
Arizona rodents
For the record the northern rim is much cooler and less touristy then the southern
We ended up making it to some gas station way off near bakersfield before I died. Woke up in the morning and carried over to SLO where i've been ever since. I strongly advise anyone (broke or not and believe me IM BROKE) to do this once in their lifetime.
Never made a thread about this so I figured I'd share some pics of the 7. Me and my sister drove the car out west because I've always wanted to drive cross country and I wanted to do a bunch of stuff to the car myself that I couldn't do without the correct tools and assistance. A mixture of having a friend on the west coast with a shop at his disposal and Stance of the Union being in Sacramento had me in my car and driving west without much thought. The car is pretty much getting torn down this weekend and won't see the road again for a few weeks. I won't have it back in my possession until mid February so these are the last pics I will post in its current state.
This is the story of my travels. Its a bit of a long read but I needed to document for memories sake so it might as well get posted.
I left my house in Boston at about 8AM one of the thursdays last month:
At 9AM I was back in my driveway with my car overheating and an altered ride height violation. I added coolant, bled the system (me and the old man installed a new radiator the day prior so we assumed it was just a poorly bled system), and got back on the road:
An hour or so later on the Masspike stopped because I got a low coolant light and wanted to see if the car was leaking anywhere:
Back on the road I drove through western mass and into NY where I encountered this bad boy outside of Albany. Me and my sis drove next to the guy for 20 miles trying to figure out what the fuck he was towing and he finally must have had enough and decided it was time for a ticket:
Yes I got a speeding ticket from that thing.
Around 330PM thursday I was parked in Dewitt, NY at my friend Orxhans house bleeding my system again and trying to figure out where the fuck all my coolant went again. More coolant, more laughs, Orxhan showed me how to get a digital read out of my temp on the dash, we murdered some bomb ass pizza he made, and we hit the road.
Around 630PM I was texting Ben and saw a sign for Rochester, NY. By this point I was 3 rockstars in and wired. I said fuck it I'm stopping to see Charlie. Texted him, he was in class, I said i'd chill on his campus until he was done and then I got lost. Ended up getting there after he was done. Shot the shit, snapped some pics, got back on the road. About 45 minutes later we were kicking it in Niagara Falls:
At this point we decided to just crash a motel for the night and wake up in the morning to head towards chicago where we planned on spending the weekend with some old friends. At 7AM up and running. Load the car up, pop the hood, check the expansion tank - bone dry. Fucking sick. BMW cooling systems amaze me. I add coolant/water and hop in the car. Get to dunkin donuts a mile down the road pull in and park the car. Heats cranking, beats are bumping, sister walks out with her coffee and her jaw drops. I knew right away the car was pissing one of two things: Coolant or Oil.
After an hour long ordeal of trying to figure out what the issue was I found a kinked o-ring in one of the hoses. I had to remove the hose with no tools, which involved taking a bobby pin from my sister and turning it into a pin puller for the clip that held the transmission cooler hose in place. After a bit of a battle I got the hose off and started walking two miles to the auto parts store. I got about an eighth of a mile from the car when I realized I was walking right past the service department of a Ford dealership. The guys there were nice enough to give me a bunch of o-rings which resolved my problem and I got back on the road. Another pic of the falls:
Drove through boring NY, boring PA, boring Ohio, into boring IL and into Chicago. Chicago is definitely one of the coolest cities i've ever been too but the coolest part was visiting Fluid Motor Union.
I'm gonna make this real clear for those of you who aren't really reading anymore (I probably wouldn't be):
The guys over at FMU are seriously the coolest, most down to earth, helpful people I've met in my recent travels.
I rolled in on a saturday morning when OJ , Mike, OJs Mom, and all the other employees were already busy with other projects and barely even got out of my car before OJ got in it, rolled it into the shop and went through the entire car. He pressure tested my cooling system, gave me a list of things I needed to replace down the line, and assured me the car was good to make the rest of our trip. Being into this stuff for years I have dealt with a lot of different shops and people. With that being said I can truthfully say that the FMU guys fucking rock and I can only see their business growing in unimaginable ways with the customer service and respect they have. My pictures do this place and the people zero justice but thats why they have Mike.
I even had the treat of going for a ride in their ridiculous e90 m3:
*paging Mike B:
Some of the best exhaust fabrication i've seen.
After my FMU I drove back into the city, kicked it for the rest of the day, hung out part of sunday and then hit the road to Denver. My sister got our second speeding ticket of the trip outside of chicago and decided she was done for a while so I drove the Iowa to Denver stretch of i80 which really sucked.
Lavish living in Denver
Colorado Concave
After rolling through the rockies we came out in Utah where we decided we would hit up a few national parks starting with Arches.
We crashed in richfield and then continued onto our last leg of the trip in which we decided we were going to hit Zion National Park, the Grand Canyon, Vegas for a few hours, and then keep driving to California. We almost made it.
Zion is under construction by the way so if anyone with a lowered vehicle plans on driving there...DONT. It was a brutal experience.
Arizona rodents
For the record the northern rim is much cooler and less touristy then the southern
We ended up making it to some gas station way off near bakersfield before I died. Woke up in the morning and carried over to SLO where i've been ever since. I strongly advise anyone (broke or not and believe me IM BROKE) to do this once in their lifetime.
You drove right by campus.. 
stanceworks: I don't really fit in.
Comment