WIBIMMERS

Picked up the car from Ruben today.  It looks friggin' unbelievable!  They are artists.

Odd both of these cars come up for sale at the same time...

Two very serious, period modified e21's built by guys who were, and maybe still are, big names in modded BMWs:

https://newlondon.craigslist.org/cto/d/1978-bmw-dinan-333i-turbo/6391124816.html

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1982-alpina-dietel-alpina-345i-turbo/

The justification for my higher education is being able to afford a garage that's deep enough so the back end of my cars don't stick out.

I commend you for not hitting the guy with something along the lines of:

"Wait a minute, you get God on the line, and instead of asking what the meaning of life is or how we got here or how big the universe is...YOU ASK HIM ABOUT YOUR FUCKING TIRES?!?"

Since guys are putting up track/race pics. Anastos Racing e30 at Blackhawk yesterday with some lame-o's e21 in the background.

I got some good news last week Thursday, and I think we all need some good news about this.

I only know one person who had this disease, a friend of my Dad's/acquaintance of mine.  Heard from my Dad that last Thursday he has fully recovered.

He went into the hospital on or around April 30th and tested positive for coronavirus.  He went home.

The guy is a friend of my Dad's from the VFW, a Korean War veteran who is 90 years old.  When my Dad forwarded me the e-mail that Mr. B had contracted the disease, I thought he was for sure a goner given his age.

Unfortunately I don't know a lot of details about how bad it was and such.  My Dad is pretty freaked out about this so I didn't drill him for a whole lot of answers.

I hesitated to even type this given the only other person I told immediately slapped me down with "WELL PEOPLE HALF HIS AGE ARE DROPPING DEAD LEFT AND RIGHT!".  But whatever, I understand some people are really concerned this is the end of the human race.  With the talk here of hundreds of millions of people dying from this, I decided to take the chance and put out a positive note.

That was cool, really cool.  Thanks for posting it.

I realize this is a BMW forum but...

Four or Five or so years ago I bought an air-cooled 911 with the intention of driving the piss out of it.  I wanted to load my wife and kid, take only as much luggage as we could carry and road trip in it...things like take mostly backroads out to see my sister in Wyoming, maybe drive all the way down to the Florida keys in it and such.

Because I'm stretched too thin time and money wise, it took a couple years to get the car sorted for being ready to do these kind of things and not have issues.  Not sure if you guys watch them but in that time, the car nearly doubled in value.  Then suddenly I'm having these thoughts about not piling miles on it even though I SWORE TO MYSELF I was never again going to do this "saving it for the next guy" crapola.

Next thing I knew, 4-5 years have gone by and I hadn't really gone anywhere in this car.

Finally, two weeks ago I drove it out to watch the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix. ~1200 mile round trip.  It was quite awesome.  I hadn't enjoyed driving that much in a long time.  I could go on but will spare you.  Life is too short to miss out on stuff like that, drive the damn cars.

Hi guys,

I know I haven't been around here much and this is probably frowned upon to make these sorts of posts but...

I need to get a new(er) car with automatic for a variety of reasons.  Therefore this thing has to go.  The edmunds true car won't give me a value for it for whatever reason so I have no way to know if I'm getting hosed by the dealer (if I trade it in) or what to ask for it if I try to sell it outright.  I know it's not worth a whole lot.  I was looking at a 528i automatic several years ago and that dealer didn't want it because it was manual trans.

It's an '07 328i sport package with manual transmission, rear wheel drive.  Space gray with saddle leather (obviously).  178,500 miles.  The car is cosmetically clean with just the normal chips in the front bumper cover.

It needs a driveshaft, which is kind of prompting this.  It is currently drivable but it's on the way out, there is the "rust colored powder of death" coming out of the rear u-joint.  There are some other minor nits, but the major stuff like the a/c works.  If it ends up going for sale here I will disclose all said nits as I'm one of those dreaded completely honest type guys.

It had shocks, struts, water pump/thermostat at ~150k, and within the last 3k front control arms, two front tires plus I just had the oil pan gasket done.

Any thoughts?
Wally

For guys considering a lift, one other comment is my garage only has a 9' ceiling.  Maybe all 4 post lifts are like this but the detent slots in the bars the car hangs from are 6" apart and they have 6" of thread at the top you have full adjustability.  In order to stack the e21 over the 911, I had to move the bars a couple inches.  It's a tight fit.  There's 4-5" to the ceiling and about the same from the apex of the roof of the 911 to the drip trays.

Later,
Wally

Useless update here...

So the car is still setting in my garage nearly a month later still with a bad driveshaft.  I have been waiting for my mechanic, SJM Autowerks in IL, for over three weeks now to get the parts in.  I check in with them weekly and the last two times they have completely blown me off, meaning they said they were going to check with their parts supplier to find out where the hell the driveshaft is and call me back, then never called me back.  This is really getting irritating.

Update...

They sold the car a few weeks ago and ended up netting me $500 more than the last time they "sold" it and things fell through.  Yes, I actually got paid for it and everything.  Somewhat unbelievable given we are in the midst of the coronavirus lockdown but they did it.  I don't know where it's going.

I still have the MT 328i e92 so y'all won't be getting rid of me that easy.

Later,
Wally

patsbimmer1 said:

I stopped by a random car show on my way home frim Chicago on Sunday morning and saw this in the parking lot... I know it's not illegal but it's not the best idea in front of an airbag.

Caymans have a weight/pressure sensitive airbag switch in the passenger seat that turns it off if there is a light passenger who would be harmed by it.  I think most late model cars do.  I've driven my daughter around in my Dad's Cayman several times and a light comes on that says "PASSENGER AIRBAG OFF".

straight6pwr said:

needs more s50

Ask and ye shall receive :

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1989-bmw-m3-28/

I got some good news this morning that two of the three active jobs I am working on will not be cancelled, the customers are willing to wait until my source in Illinois opens back up again on April 7th.  Haven't heard from the third guy yet.

Bad news is my wife works at my daughter's school and she was furloughed without pay when this whole "shut everything down" thing started.  So far they haven't said when they will open back up again.

I wish someone could explain to me this fixation on hoarding toilet paper.  Are people thinking it's going to be the post-apocalyptic currency?  Maybe where the single ply Scott's will be like $1's, Angel Soft $5's and the Charmin Ultra-Soft will be like $20's?  I've heard stories of black Friday style fights in Costco over cases of TP.  WTF??

Thanks guys!  I will call around next week.

edit: car is going into Ruben next week Thursday for engine compartment and outside polish and detail.

Yeah, great pics.  Fortunately, the e21 photographs better than it actually is.

Yes, you should go, there were no fewer than 10 e28 cars there.  About 6 in the actual show area, then the V8 one and at least a few trickled in and out in the regular parking.

Great day, perfect weather.

HipMF said:

@Daggerty

https://madison.craigslist.org/cto/d/500-sec-lorenser-mercedes/6275026226.html

HipMF,

Shouldn't you be more concerned with this than the Benz?

https://milwaukee.craigslist.org/cto/d/1980-bmw-320i/6266893746.html

In Hubertus...anybody know this guy?

Later,

Wally

After those pictures it went on consignment at Gateway Classic Cars Milwaukee location (which is actually in Kenosha, but whatever).  The guys there shit when they saw it, Ruben and his crew did that good a job on it.

It sold within three weeks for more than I originally expected out of it, despite their poor pictures and relatively poor description.  Seeing as they tack their commission on top, they must have gotten a lot for it.  Well, a lot for an e21, borderline e30 money.  The car is being shipped to California, at least that's what they told me.

It kind of sucks I had to sell that car, but it was a poor choice from the beginning.  I should have bought a less nice one with more miles so I wouldn't be afraid to drive it.

snap said:

I had such a great time today, thanks so much for everyone who came out to enjoy it! It was my first time at RA and it was like visiting heaven for a little bit. 

A few tidbits from the day:

....

 Great to meet you @wally509, that E21 is just gorgeous and its great to see it being enjoyed! 

Hope everyone else enjoyed the day as much as I did

Great to meet everyone as well.  Thanks for being friendly to the new guy (me), who also happens to be the old guy (me).

I wish I could have driven up with you guys, that mishap boils down to me being an idiot.  RTFM, in this case read the f-ing MAP, I went back and looked at it this morning.  Where I pulled over to wait for the last group was already North of the exit from 45, which is why I never saw anybody.

Later,
Wally

P_Roloff said:

Huh, I guess I never realized the f10 came with the n52. Looks like a sweet car, although I don’t know enough about them to comment on price. Could be the time of year though, most regular people prefer AWD.

Me either, I was going to give up on BMW after this one (meaning the e92) because I typically run my cars to 200k+ and don't really want to dick with turbo and DI systems.  I also don't have a problem with RWD, with good snows never had a problem.  Hmmm...wonder if I could get anything for the e92, getting tired of the MT.