my $500 project

[roguetoaster]

That's quite a few moves, yet the E30 lives on, impressive.

[McGyver]

While still living on Robinson St in Richmond, VA, I backed over the little hump that separated my friend's driveway from his neighbor's. It beached my car on the exhaust and mangled it:


I "fixed" it with a bunch of scraps laying around at my friend's shop:


This was how I worked, in the gravel/dirt/mud with everything laid out. I thought it was the best thing ever:


But when nothing could happen when it rained:


I moved to Floyd Ave in Richmond and got tired of my messed up fog lights:


So I replaced the glass with new glass, shipped all the way from Russia (it took weeks to arrive):


Occasionally the street would fill up after a thunderstorm:


I went to a car meet and apparently my car (Luna) made some friends:


The new place had a little covered "garage", but no doors. So I had to fully pack up any time I was done working. Just getting set up and tearing down took a solid 45 min. BUT I HAD A SPACE TO WORK!!!!


Oh look, two broken cars! I bought the pictured "exhaust", but it didn't have a cat. So I cut the pipe and welded a generic 49-state legal one in. My welds sucked real bad, even though the mig at work was the same machine and put down good beads. I figured it was just cause I was running flux core. (Actually I had it wired for mig AND the wire I bought was gas flux core, no wonder my welds were so bad):


Then my GF got accepted to Berkeley for her Masters of Architecture. So we decided we were gonna drive across country. That meant pulling the whole drive train to replace as much as possible before the drive:






Last day in Richmond. The m30b35 convertible (Scotti) and I was worried I'd have to tow her to my friend's shop to store her until I could afford to have her shipped. Turns out the CPS wire was worn through on the water pump. I popped an m20 CPS on and it worked! I got to have one last drive before leaving.




Loaded up with everything we owned. Dog in my car (without AC) and cat in the GF's car (with AC) to drive across country, going south through Texas, in August. It was a "once in a lifetime experience", I'll never do that again in august without AC. Ever.










And we made it to Oakland!


This gets you to Aug 11, 2016. Four more years of updates to go!

[McGyver]

So we made it out to CA without any major problems or stuff breaking. My steering wheel was slightly cocked to the left the whole drive out, but it wasn't bad enough to want to move it one spline over. Once we got to Oakland, I hit a massive pothole and the wheel ended up slightly cocked to the right. At the time I thought "maybe it was always to the right?". Then one day while I was parallel parked, I turned the steering wheel, the rubber hit the curb a bit, and the tie rod snapped. Good thing that didn't happen while driving, also welcome to CA!

So I went for a drive in the Marin Headlands and stopped to take a picture at an old fort. The bay has so much cool stuff and is really pretty.


Now that both of us were in CA, neither of us had jobs or a ton of savings. The GF was going to Berkeley for Architecture, but I needed to figure out what to I wanted to do. I had a bad experience with my first engineering job, so I decided to be a mechanic again. The experience at the shop was pretty mixed. On one hand, I learned a lot and my work really moved to the next level. On the other hand, all my tools were at the shop and the owner wouldn't give me a key or the opportunity to work on my own car. So repair work and modifications were reduced to what was absolutely required to get me to work. It kinda sucked.

Anyway, I got a HUGE hole in my exhaust which needed to be patched.





Then I started getting a grinding sound for my brand new (less than 5k miles) Graf water pump. Then it started weeping. Then on the way to the shop it let go. It was a real treat to sit outside the locked gate at the shop while I waited for a hungover coworker to drag his ass out of bed to let me in to work. Real fun.



That's an issue (how the fuck do I post a GIF from imgur?!?!?):

https://imgur.com/8LKETmi

So I re-did the timing belt/water pump. This time with a Geba. I swear I can do the job in 2 hours, but I spent about 6 on it so I could clean EVERYTHING. Also replaced the cam seals, which I never knew was part of the job. I was definitely learning.



Around this time I quit the shop and started working as an engineer again. I went to RadWood and got to drive a few slow laps on Sonoma Raceway. The car was running well, but had a bad noise. Part of it was a snapped alternator bolt allowing the alternator to flop around on decel. The other half sounded like bottom end noise, more on that later.



About this time my m30 convertible got totaled. It fucking sucked to lose a car that I spent a decade working on. I eventually bought a sedan, which apparently had a gutted catalytic converter. So I brought the dog to work and swapped exhausts around on a Saturday so I could smog the new car.



Now we're to 2018 when I moved to a place with a garage. This is when things started to take off.

[Jonhansen]

Great updates!

Sorry to hear about the convertible, I had an 87 VW Scirocco that I built up through High School, just to have it totaled from a lady that didn't understand how stop signs work... but that's life I guess! haha and I see you have now been able to experience the wonderful world of California Smog Regulations

[McGyver]

I planned on making this a longer post, but I guess there's no point anymore. Anyway, from 2018 to 2020 I drove this car a bunch, had a lot of fun, and did a bunch of work to it.

It started making a horrible sound. It was pretty obvious once I started pulling it apart, one of the connecting rod bearings was completely destroyed:


While the car was down, I put the 5-lug suspension from the T-boned convertible onto this car. I went with some style-5s from an e38:


I also modified the rear to be able to adjust camber and toe. I made the adjusters at work from scrap steel and then welded them on:


It was pretty clear I needed a new engine, so here's one with all new seals/gaskets and some fresh paint going in. This was the first time I did a job like the 100% by myself. It would have been so much easier to have someone work the hoist while I positioned the engine, oh well.




The wheel offset was +30 and rubbed a lot, so I found found some +35 AC Schnitzer wheels and had them refinished. Word of warning, NEVER buy chrome wheels. Its expensive to strip the chrome and it'll leave pitting in the aluminum whereever the chrome coating failed. Lesson learned and here's the wheels ready to go on:

[McGyver]

Probably going to be the second to last post I make for this car. I was driving to work yesterday, going through an intersection with a green light, and a guy in a work van (coming towards me) decided to turn left into me. I crawled out the passenger side. The hospital said nothing's broken, but I'm super sore and my head it still fuzzy from hitting my face on the steering wheel (even with my seatbelt on).

The car is currently in impound and I'm waiting to get started with their insurance. It's a processes I've been through before and I'm not looking forward to it. Still not sure what I'm gonna do at this point, probably strip the car and sit on the parts. I had plans to turbo the car (95% of the parts are on a shelf waiting to go) and to put a 2.7i stroker in it (engine is at the machine shop). Now I'm not sure.

Anyway, it was a beautiful day and Luna was driving great these past few months that I've been DD-ing her. Oh well.













It sucks that this is where it is, next step is to strip her back to the shell.

[kronus]

ugh man i'm sorry

glad to hear you're relatively undamaged. that looks like a monster hit

[zwill23]

Fuck man :( I was really enjoying this whole saga, feels very familiar... I purchased mine for $500 and forced it into daily duty for 5 years while I fixed every mechanical ailment I could, mostly in a driveway. Such a bummer it got trashed before you got into the real fun of turbocharging it . At least you still have the four door that some parts can hopefully migrate to.

Feel better dude...

[QuiqueUy]

wow , i was really into the updates on how luna was evolving ! so sad about the accident, hopefully you are ok . that's what matters after all !

how did the vert got totaled? you got it shipped to you or it was totaled by your friends shop?

hope you get naughty on the 4 door ! :D

[Northern]

Well that's not what I wanted to see.
Hope you're feeling less sore soon, and that insurance doesn't fuck you around.

[2mAn]

These are NOT the updates Ive been asking for! ... ugh Just glad you're ok

[McGyver]

how did the vert got totaled? you got it shipped to you or it was totaled by your friends shop?

https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/forum/general-forums/members-rides/the-project-forum/121863-my-dad-said-to-just-get-a-new-car/page4#post10016183

I've started working on documents for insurance. Have everything documented (every call, timeline, pictures), have 18 comparable cars that sold on BaT in the last year (avg price ~$20k), and 7 current comparable FS ads (avg price ~$13.7k). We'll see how this goes...

[mike.bmw]

Very sorry to see this, but I'm glad you're OK. Good luck with insurance. :-(

[McGyver]

I finally got the car back from impound. What an ordeal; police release, pay fees, schedule pickup within 4 hours. I waited 3 hours for the first tow truck before calling to get another scheduled.

The driver tried to tow it with the rear wheels on the ground, but the transmission crossmember was ripped out, causing the driveshaft to be out of alignment and smack around. He reluctantly put the back end on dollies.


Last ride.



The driver ended up being really nice and helped stuff Luna into the garage. He backed it in as far as he could, then used his hydraulics to push it far enough to close the doors.





Door shut, so I could get to work in peace. It's a bit of a "lively" neighborhood, so I try to keep the doors shut so no one knows all those tools are in there.



I needed to move the car out of the entrance. First step was freeing the rear wheels. I pulled the back half of the exhaust, then the heat shield, then the driveshaft.



The front driver's wheel was the next issue. I pulled the hood to get a bit more room the look around. The fender and the frame were bent into the rubber. I cut the fender to bend it out of the way, then sliced off a corner of the frame.







Everything was freed "enough" but it didn't want to roll easily and the floor is really slanted towards the drain (directly under where the car was sitting). How do you move a dead car by yourself? Use a socket wrench on the lug nuts. Smooth movements aren't enough to break the lugs loose, so it's surprisingly easy to roll the car, even with a wheel binding.



I threw a catch pan under the engine. Then I had to clean up all the oil/coolant/power steering fluid that was leaking out. Lots of mopping/scrubbing with purple power.



And that's where Luna will sit until I settle with insurance. Then the part-out begins.

[2mAn]

thats painful to look at. Im glad you're ok.