Coast to Coast, an e30 American adventure

[jgilber0]

Looking good! I’d love to do this someday too in my e30.

I just followed you on Flickr - you have some nice images there.

Wishing you safe and enjoyable travels!

[pondhopper]

Well now you know your brakes work perfectly!

[benwalsh91]

Sunday 09 September

So over the next couple of days we are going to Mammoth Lakes and Yosemite, we decided to head closer to the area and grab a hotel, we got up when we got up today with the understanding that we are just going to take the day as it comes. Took a nice chilled drive over the Sonora taking the back roads once again staying off the Interstates.

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We got to the hotel quite earlier, a lot earlier than our check in time so we went and grabbed some food and went to explore, we came across some cool town which has a lot to do with old trains, so i will dump a load of photos from whilst we was there of the cool shit they had.

Someone order a Cummins Crate motor?

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Heard you wanted to strap a turbo to your M50 build...

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Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

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There was also a couple cool cars lingering around.

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Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Now, leading on from the Delorean there was also some real movie props there from the film!!

unsure if this Delorean was the one used but the train was the genuine movie prop.

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Just realised i haven't edited the photo of the other Delorean and my laptop is about to run out of battery so some of you may say that i am outatme on that...

[shootnjunky]

Subscribed

[benwalsh91]

Saturday 08 September

Our body clocks are still quite messed up as England is 8 hours ahead of California in time we keep waking up silly early, we decided to take advantage of this and when we naturally woke we decided to drive up to San Francisco and spend the day there.

Took a nice chilled drive up, the car is averaging 26.7 which i think is pretty good.

We got the San Francisco at a good time and took advantage of this, the first stop on the list was the famous Lombard Street. It was early and kinda empty so went around a few times, i kicked the Mrs out the car and told her to grab some photos (typical tourist)

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Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

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Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Taking advantage of the low levels of traffic we then headed to the Golden Gate Bridge, Obviously i was driving so couldn't get any photos going over it.

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We then headed up to a look out point onto of one of the surrounding hills of the bridge, i actually took a wrong turn and ended up there which was super cool and worth it. We took in the sites and just took a moment up there and embraced it.

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We headed up to Lands End and went for a small hike, didn't get many photos but saw this camper van.

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I refused to pay the premium parking that is in San Francisco so we circled the city for a while finding street parking, damn them hills are crazy steep, i have heard they are steep and photos of them really do not do them justice, the car really done well and i was surprised, i honestly thought it was going to let go on some of them hills but shit she done good!!

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We headed to Pier 39 to hit up the tourist spots.

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Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Should probably call my dentist and make an appointment already for when i get back home in December as damn you guys love a Candy store here and i cant resist!!

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And we came across these noisy boys as we went around the pier

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and some random street art.

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Ever wondered how they turn the trams around, nope me either but we saw them doing it anyway.

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We went to the Painted Ladies houses, honestly waste of time and i would have been a little pissed if we paid to see them.

Atlas there was an NSX out front so there was something worth seeing.

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The end house is up for sale at the moment for $2.2 million.

[benwalsh91]

Friday 07 September

Now, how to start a day in America... with Pancakes of course, and now that we are fuelled up we can start our journey.

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The original plan for this day was to go to San Francisco, we are currently staying in Los Banos, We decided to take the scenic route up the coast via Santa Cruz, we got to Santa Cruz and decided we would just chill out take the day as it comes up enjoy the beach and the coastal roads.

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This stuff is amazing!!!

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We went along the pier and i didn't take as many photos as i should have done but oh well.

Also i am really trying to figure out and get used to taking photos with the sun in it!! we don't get much of the sun in England so the photos may not be as good as they should be but i am practicing.

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After exploring Santa Cruz and not taking enough photos we drove up the coast to check out the spots.

Found this cool little light house, tried to get a photo with the shit box

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Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

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The car is creating some weird weird noises coming from the back. Something is definitely loose back there but i do not have any tools on my currently, In a few days i will be at a friends place who has a lift and is good with e30's so we shall be having a good look over the car.

The Power Steering was empty of fluid so more than likely has a leak somewhere, it was making some horrible noises, i have topped it up with fluid and has sorted the noise issues but will keep an eye on the levels to make sure these don't drop/have a leak.

The passenger side has a bronzit fender of which i have a pair at my buddies house so will be replacing both of them, also the side trim came off the door but its in the trunk i havn't totally lost it so will be fitting that when i get to his too, just need to go to BMW to get the clips to attach it back properly.

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Also spotted this cool ass Corvair.

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Also came out to this.... contraption whilst we was in Walmart.

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[benwalsh91]

Welcome to CA!

Hard to tell from your route map...check out Santa Cruz, Monterey, and Carmel if you aren't. Also, when heading down to LA don't take I5, take either 101 or Highway 1 all the way down the coast. I5 is boring as shit, the other two are wayyy more fun.

If you take 101 stop at Firestone Brewing just south of Paso Robles- great beer and restaurant.

Hell yeah man we went to Santa Cruz it was super nice and chilled! really enjoyed ourselves.

Monterey is coming up in about 3 days and driving all the way down the PCH

The plan is to try and avoid as many interstates as we can and stick to the backroads, obviously this is time dependent.

...and it begins!....

welcome to California! Sucks about the headlights, it sounds like a relay is messed up or something, but Im no electrical expert.

Definitely enjoy the time and not staring at your phone or taking a million pics of stuff but definitely want to take a few to remember the moments.

Flickr is great for uploading pics FROM your phone, but is terrible for sharing pics and you'll have to do that on the laptop as you mentioned.

Have a safe trip, I will see you in 2 weeks

See you in a few weeks man, we will get a date sorted for a meet!! i have updated my above post with photos and now to go through the rest of them to catch up from the past few days.

[2mAn]

...and it begins!....

welcome to California! Sucks about the headlights, it sounds like a relay is messed up or something, but Im no electrical expert.

Definitely enjoy the time and not staring at your phone or taking a million pics of stuff but definitely want to take a few to remember the moments.

Flickr is great for uploading pics FROM your phone, but is terrible for sharing pics and you'll have to do that on the laptop as you mentioned.

Have a safe trip, I will see you in 2 weeks

[jpod999]

Welcome to CA!

Hard to tell from your route map...check out Santa Cruz, Monterey, and Carmel if you aren't. Also, when heading down to LA don't take I5, take either 101 or Highway 1 all the way down the coast. I5 is boring as shit, the other two are wayyy more fun.

If you take 101 stop at Firestone Brewing just south of Paso Robles- great beer and restaurant.

[benwalsh91]

Haha. I bought a tape recorder with an audio input to record music off my IPhone. I had made a few cassette tapes for myself since I wasnt going to remove the stock head unit. However, I upgraded it to Bluetooth so I had to remove cassette mechanism from the radio :( I have a few left over cassettes and am willing to make cassettes for anyone with an OEM tape deck. For free, just cover shipping I guess.

Haha hell yeah I am down for that! I haven’t had time
To fit the tape deck yet but the centre console of the car has the 6 cassette holder box piece whatever you want to call it. Accidentally leant on it the other day whilst sorting bits out in the car and turns out there are tapes in them!!

When are you going to be in Los Angeles? My new place is near Randys Donuts, we can have an impromptu GTG there for you. Im sure I can round up a few others

I am 100% down for a LA gtg for sure!! I have a few things on in the evening when in LA with friends but I got a couple free dates I believe. I will have to double check but how does Friday 21st sound?

Any Updates?

Yes sir. Just been manic busy!!

Wednesday 05 September

SO here it goes!! The adventure begins, first things first is drop off the luggage of which we was about 10kg over our limit and they charge us 9GBP per kilo over which sucked!!

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Right, thats done with. Bags dropped off, through security then we get food, our last british meal, options where very slim at the airport though.

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Goodbye miserable England.

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Our flight from England to Oakland was delayed by 2 hours which was really shitty! It was delayed because 3 people went through security and didn’t make it to the plane on time. This royally fucks me off I feel that if you can’t get to the plane on time then you should miss it!! Assholes.

But because of this we got to Oakland late. We landed just after a couple of other long haul flights and it just bottlenecked up the airport which meant getting through security took ages and so did getting our luggage. When we did eventually get out of the airport we then hit all the traffic getting back to my friends place. At this point we had no time to work on the car, we went and grabbed food, only one place for it when in Cali so we went In’ N Out then went to bed after being up for around 28 hours straight.

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Thursday 06 September

So the first day we stayed in Vacaville which is where my buddy lives who has been helping me out with the e30, for those who don’t know Vacaville is situated between San Francisco and Sacramento. We spent the morning doing bits to the e30 tidying it up, fitted the front valance done some bits to the interior and also the front turn signals was not working managers to figure them out and got them to work but the headlights still don’t work. They only work when I have the high beams on and then all 4 lights are on. Sucks for everyone else around me but I can see st night. This is super not ideal, when I get to LA I have a friend who is going to check this out for me.

After we done all this it was then time to sort my insurance and get the car registered. THANKFULLY I am a member of AAA and they had an office in town which made this a breeze. In the office for about 45 minutes insurance done and the car is registered.

Rest of the day was spent just chilling with my friend Steve and his girlfriend. Steve had helped me out massively with getting the e30 for me, storing it and sorting multiple stuff out for me. I honestly could not have done this without him. This is what always impresses me with the internet and being car enthusiasts it doesn’t matter if you hadn’t ever met before and live half way across the world it’s so easy to form great friends over one mutual interest and I can not say I know of any other hobby that greatly brings people together like this one. I am sure every true car enthusiast has life long friends and stories about people they have met along the way through just a mutual interest in cars. Without friends like that platforms like this wouldn’t be as popular and helpful.

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After we sorted the car at AAA we went for a walk around the outlets of course got some Vans shoes for the trip, Krispy Kreme for donut and coffee, when in America do stereotypical American things. We then finally went to some amazing smoke house in Sacramento for dinner called the Tank House. And drove through old sac, unfortunately didn’t have time to get out and explore or get to many photos as it had been crazy busy day and I didn’t want to be out taking loads of photos when I was chilling with my friend who had helped us out massively so left the camera in the car and my phone in the pocket and just appreciated the day without technology. Was refreshing for sure!!

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Today we are off to San Francisco!!!! If anyone has any tips or anything I should see whilst in San Fran or just south of San Fran let me know!!

Peace out.

[IceWhite]

Land in Oakland (San Francisco) on 05th September.
Fly home from New York 04 December.

Any Updates?

[2mAn]

I am getting super excited, also looking forward to seeing that Datsun of yours.

When are you going to be in Los Angeles? My new place is near Randys Donuts, we can have an impromptu GTG there for you. Im sure I can round up a few others

[Mike36]

How much you charging for a mixtape these days?

Haha. I bought a tape recorder with an audio input to record music off my IPhone. I had made a few cassette tapes for myself since I wasnt going to remove the stock head unit. However, I upgraded it to Bluetooth so I had to remove cassette mechanism from the radio :( I have a few left over cassettes and am willing to make cassettes for anyone with an OEM tape deck. For free, just cover shipping I guess.

[rogue38]

Sounds like and awesome trip. I would suggest heading into the Asheville, NC area and picking up the Blue Ridge Parkway. Its a much slower ride, but beautiful scenery. I live less than 20 mile off the parkway.

[Stanley Rockafella]

If you need any cassette tapes made just send me a playlist and I'll see what I can do.

How much you charging for a mixtape these days?