Mike's Alpine White 1991 318is

[Albie325]

Congrats on getting into the bracket, I dropped you a vote! FCP is my go to for parts and love that they're based in my home state of CT.

Also, got my Bimmer Life copy the other day and flipped right to your page, nice work!



Am working on getting some paint protection on my car but need to get out to some local cars and coffee once it's done, your pics are great.

[mike.bmw]

Congrats on getting into the bracket, I dropped you a vote! FCP is my go to for parts and love that they're based in my home state of CT.

Also, got my Bimmer Life copy the other day and flipped right to your page, nice work!

Am working on getting some paint protection on my car but need to get out to some local cars and coffee once it's done, your pics are great.

Thanks, Albie325 ! I appreciate the vote and kind words on the writing and photography.

Hopefully we'll be able to meet up at The Vintage in a couple of months. Fingers crossed!

[mike.bmw]

Voting for #FCPEuroMadness round 1 is live! Follow FCPEuro on Instagram, click on their logo to view their IG "stories", and tap right until you come across the match ups. Your vote is appreciated!

[mike.bmw]

To close the loop on #FCPEuroMadness, I got CRUSHED. I kind of expected this was going to be the result when I was matched up against Branden's awesome photo of his beautiful 318is in the first round. Overall, it was a fun week getting into the bracket and virtually meeting and chatting with a number of new car and photography lovers - people, like Branden, that I wouldn't have been introduced to otherwise, and I hope to keep in contact with them.

Thanks to everyone that voted for me to get into the contest as well as the first round! I hope to see the remaining E30s do well in the tournament.

While I lost by a substantial margin, I did receive the PERFECT AMOUNT OF VOTES. I'm not making this up, I received 318 votes! Results below:

fcpeuromadness by mike.bevels, on Flickr

Speaking of 318, it's March 18th. Happy 318 day!

This month also marks my 5-year anniversary of flying to Altanta, GA, purchasing the car, and making the 650 mile drive home to the Washington D.C. area, all in the same day (March 16th).

An exciting weekend of driving and photography lies ahead. Can't wait!

[roguetoaster]

318 votes, posted about on 3/18, you are a legend Mike.

[mike.bmw]

318 votes, posted about on 3/18, you are a legend Mike.

LOL! That's all it takes? :-)

[mike.bmw]

An EPIC weekend of E30ing to kick off spring...

NCC BMW CCA Dust Off Tour - Part 1

I took Avery on the first NCC BMW CCA tour of the year, the Dust Off Tour. We racked up about 200 miles over the course of five hours on Saturday afternoon (March 20th). The weather couldn't have been better - temps in the mid 50s and not a cloud in the sky. The route chosen was a LOT of fun with posted speed limit signs of 50+ mph on some very curvy and lightly trafficked roads. I believe there were 50 cars in attendance, which was mostly comprised of BMWs, but also included a few Porsches. Avery and I had some great father/daughter bonding time between driving and taking photos. We ended up at Orr's Farm Market and picked up a fresh apple pie and half a dozen apple cider donuts. After eating some snacks and chatting with fellow tour-goers, we headed home in time for dinner.

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[mike.bmw]

The EPIC weekend of E30ing continues...

A Visit to Lothar's BMW Collection - Part 2

I think Wayne and Garth said it best when they met rockstar Alice Cooper: “We’re not worthy.” That’s how I felt about meeting BMW rockstar Lothar Schuettler, and being given the opportunity to see his collection of award-winning, vintage BMW cars and motorcycles. My co-editor and I headed over to Lothar's house on Saturday afternoon and got the full tour. Lothar does the vast majority of the restoration work on these award-winning cars himself, which includes the 1937 BMW 328 that won Best in Class at Pebble Beach in 2016. I loved hearing Lothar tell the stories behind these cars and his restoration work, and of course taking some photos.

With three large glass garage doors, you can see a row of BMWs looking out onto the circular gravel driveway, as if they were welcoming you to the property. It’s almost as if they are asking, “can we come out to play?” And, yes, they can come out to play. All of Lothar’s cars are plated and registered to drive. This is impressive considering what’s inside.

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E30 content ;-) :

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[moatilliatta]

Looks like a great time, I can't wait to dust off!

How many people are super gear heads at that event?

Id love to retire and just tinker with cars like that. What a dream, I love old people and their stories. Looks like a blast.

Nice section in BimmerLife, Don't forget to check out page 58 :)

[D.Martijn]

Wow, epic! what a nice way to get old :D

[mike.bmw]

Looks like a great time, I can't wait to dust off!

How many people are super gear heads at that event?

Id love to retire and just tinker with cars like that. What a dream, I love old people and their stories. Looks like a blast.

Nice section in BimmerLife, Don't forget to check out page 58 :)

Gearheads - a variety of people and cars, which makes it fun.

Retiring - that would be a dream for sure. His stories were just as cool as the cars.

BimmerLife - thanks! Just saw page 58, very cool! :-)

Wow, epic! what a nice way to get old :D

#LifeGoals for sure! I could tell he absolutely loves what he does and it's awesome that he also enjoys sharing it with others.

[mike.bmw]

I do more than just take photos of cars these days (though my thread might make you think otherwise)...

Stainless Steel Brake Lines

This has been on my "To Do" list for 5 years. The old lines looked fine from the outside, but they were likely original and thus needed to be changed. After some research, I decided to go with BimmerWorld's kit for the E30. It's DOT approved (vs DOT compliant). This may be meaningless, but it gives me a warm and fuzzy. Plus they sponsor NCC BMW CCA track days and are somewhat local. For fluid I went with Motul RBF 600.

A couple of days ahead of the install I sprayed all the connections with PB Blaster. This morning at 5AM I got to work. Everything went fairly smoothly. After realizing there wasn't much access to the rear inner lines, I punted on those. Limited access = chances of something going wrong. I'll get to those when I do the rear subframe refresh.

I used the "dry" bleeding method with my Motive Power bleeder. Thanks to Zeemz for alerting me to this. Essentially you just fill up the brake fluid reservoir and leave the power bleeder dry. Pump it up and let the pressure push the fluid through the system. No cleanup!

I did hit a snag bleeding the slave cylinder. It wouldn't bleed. I had my wife pumping the pedal. I even had the bleeder out completely. I had the system pressurized with the Motive power bleeder. So I have a new FTE slave cylinder and FTE clutch line on order. Should be here by the end of the week. The car is still drivable in the meantime as no air got into the slave cylinder or clutch line.

Big thanks to jgerock for helping with the slave cylinder trouble shooting!

The kids helped reinstall the wheels once they got up.

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[jgerock]

Good to see you got those new lines on. As you found, most of these cars don’t get proper maintenance, especially the clutch hydraulics.

[mike.bmw]

Slave Cylinder and Clutch Line Replacement

Back at it in the garage this evening. I replaced the slave cylinder as the old one wouldn't actually bleed (even tried removing the bleeder screw and still nothing would come out). I also replaced the clutch line because like the brake lines, it was probably original. I opted to go with FTE brand for both the slave and clutch line. I had to remove the new slave cylinder and reinstall it after botching the bleed and introducing more air into the system. Simply unbolt it, point the bleeder toward the sky, and pump the piston by hand using a normal open, compress, close, depress bleeding procedure. The pedal feels about the same as before.

Ready for take off:

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How's it hanging?

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New:

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Old:

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[mike.bmw]

Epic Weekend of Car Photography

Saturday at sunrise I found some cherry blossom trees in an empty office complex. The road's name is Sunrise Valley Drive - aptly named. I didn't think I'd top these for a while, but then Sunday happened (keep reading).

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Sunday (today) I was invited to come along with some friends (a great group of BMW enthusiasts) to go to Washington DC and take photos of the cars. Eight E30s and one E38. We met at 6AM and caravaned into the city. It was empty when we got there. Such a great bunch of people and it was a ton of fun. As we drove through the city, pedestrians and police officers were giving us the thumbs-up, waving, and pulling out cell phones to take photos of our caravan of nine.

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