Mike's Alpine White 1991 318is

[dmanb2b]

Looking great Mike!

[mike.bmw]

Yesterday I went to my BMW CCA Chapter's (National Capital Chapter) Cars & Coffee and New Member Reception hosted at BMW of Catonsville. This was about an hour from my house. I planned a nice route to get there comprised of twisty roads and highways. The weather was clear and crisp. It was a great way to spend a morning.

fresh_TD was there in his fantastic E21:

DSC_0763 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

I parked next to some other 3 series:

DSC_0756 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

I didn't get any other photos of my car, but NCC BMW CCA posted this one on Facebook:

FB_IMG_1573425542674 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

[mike.bmw]

der Bayerische Article (National Capital Chapter BMW CCA Magazine)

In September I posted about attending the National Capital Chapter (NCC) BMW CCA HPDE at Summit Point. 2 years prior I met Anna, one of the editors/writers/awesome people that publish NCC BMW CCA Magazine: der Bayerische. After chatting with Anna for a bit she said they are always looking for writers and submissions. After the recent HPDE I decided to write something and submit it. Well, it was published!

20191026_085657 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

20191026_085705 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

20191026_085738 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

20191026_085749 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

20191026_085803 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

RS001s

I went out for a drive this morning and took a couple photos in one of my usual spots. I have a set of 1/3 height hex caps and new BBS logo caps on order from Ehrlich Wheel Works. When those arrive I'll get out to a new location for some better photos.

DSC_0444 copy 1 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0461 copy 1 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

I re-polished the lips earlier this week. I did it by hand and it didn't take very long to do. If this is something that needs to happen on a fairly regular basis I'll probably order a drill attachment for polishing.

20191023_153105 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

[ATL_E30]

NICE! Really looking forward to The Vintage next year (my first)! To be honest I would've taken any color RS001, but I'm glad these are gold. I plan to replace the BBS logos and possibly order a set of billet 1/4 height hex caps within the next couple months. I may also see if I can source some touch up paint for the gold as there are a few chips. The condition of the lips, bolts, and barrels is great. The paint (or powder coat) on the faces is a little tired, but looks good unless you're up super close.

With as hard as they're to find nowadays i'd probably take a set in any color as well. I do love the gold however!

I think I had a typo in my previous post saying "Just can't BEAR the white on gold look" when I meant "Just cant BEAT the white on gold look" Oops! haha regardless enjoy them, they look great! Your car has always been an inspiration for me!

[e30austin]

Perfectly refinished wheels, on a car you actually want to go out and drive, are very overrated - ask me how I know :/

enjoy them!

[mike.bmw]

Great score Mike...love them!

Thanks! I'm looking forward to doing some driving tomorrow!

yeeeeeees!

wow 8 lbs thats wild!

I went ahead and weighed the stock 14" weaves. Turns out the BBS RS001s weigh about 2 pounds LESS per corner than the stock 14s! Stock 14" weaves with 195/65R14s are ~36 pounds and BBS RS001s with 205/55R15s are ~34 pounds. The Ronals with 205/55R15s were ~42 pounds! Updated the original post with photos.

20191016_184654 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

Nice Score Mike! Now we'll be twinning at The Vintage! Yours appear to be in awesome condition! Just can't bear the white on gold look!

NICE! Really looking forward to The Vintage next year (my first)! To be honest I would've taken any color RS001, but I'm glad these are gold. I plan to replace the BBS logos and possibly order a set of billet 1/4 height hex caps within the next couple months. I may also see if I can source some touch up paint for the gold as there are a few chips. The condition of the lips, bolts, and barrels is great. The paint (or powder coat) on the faces is a little tired, but looks good unless you're up super close.

They look fantastic. Congrats.

Thanks! Certainly not perfect like something out of EWW, but I'm happy with them!

[e30austin]

They look fantastic. Congrats.

[ATL_E30]

Nice Score Mike! Now we'll be twinning at The Vintage! Yours appear to be in awesome condition! Just can't beat the white on gold look!

[wworm]

yeeeeeees!

wow 8 lbs thats wild!

[dmanb2b]

Great score Mike...love them!

[mike.bmw]

The quest for BBS RS001s has come to an end!

Over the past 3 years I've been looking for a decent set of BBS RS001s. I've traveled to look at sets that were not in the condition advertised multiple times. I've had folks on the forum send me leads (thanks!), but they either sold quickly or were out of my budget. Well, last Friday I found a set on FaceBook marketplace. It was not a great ad, which is probably why they hadn't sold yet. Simply: "BBS 3 pc" with a couple of photos of wheels on what looked like an E30.

I messaged the guy and eventually called him on the phone. He sent me the pictures I requested (photos of the stampings, lips, etc). The seller was only ~90 minutes away so I figured it was worth a look. I took the E30 as we have nice fall weather in VA right now. The drive there was a blast: no traffic and the E30 is running really well.

When I arrived I was pleasantly surprised by the condition. The tires were shot, there were some paint chips on the faces, but overall the wheels were in great condition. The seller was a nice guy. I made him a fair offer and he accepted.

On Monday I dropped the wheels off at RRT so they could verify straightness and trueness. They checked out on the balancer so I ordered new tires from TireRack. The Yoko S.Drives are no longer available in 205/55R15, but their replacements, the Yoko Advan Fleva V701s are available in that size. The wheels were ready for pickup today so I dropped by RRT on the way home from work. I installed them on the car when I got home.

I weighed the stock wheels vs the Ronals vs the BBS RS001s. The RS001s are a good ~8 pounds lighter than the Ronal LS per corner with tries mounted AND about 2 pounds lighter than the stock 14s! The bathroom scale is far from accurate, but the weight differences can be plainly seen regardless.

Stock with 195/65R14s (~36 pounds):

20191016_184654 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

BBS RS001 with 205/55R15s (~34 pounds):

20191016_133142 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

Ronal LS with 205/55R15 (~42 pounds):
20191016_131957 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

Now for the photos!

20191012_164732 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

Loaded up for RRT:

20191014_091456 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

Rainy driveway shots:

DSC_0454 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0473 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

I'll try to get some more photos later in the week.

[Zeemz]

Thanks again for having us. I know I need a post update. Your posts will serve as a teaser, until I can get some pics of everything installed.

[mike.bmw]

Yesterday was an E30-packed day. In the morning Avery helped me get the car on jack stands, inspect the catalytic converter, track down an intake leak, and inspect the rear brakes.

20190922_094617 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

Previously I thought I might have a clogged cat, but after pulling the cat-back and taking a peek it appears to be fine. I believed the car to be a little down on power, which may have been due to an intake leak (running lean). Here's the cat:

20190922_091946 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

Avery helping out with the brake inspection:

20190922_094326 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

Play Date

In the afternoon Zeemz came over with his daughter. The kids played together while we worked on our cars. In fact, the kids played so well together we're going to have to do this again!

Zeemz helped replacing the front brake pads (Pagids) and bleeding the brakes (Motul 5.1) on my car. The rear pads still have plenty of meat left and will be good for a while so I didn't change those.

Front pads (old vs new):

20190922_135248 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

Zeemz knocked out some things on his car, which I'm sure he'll post about soon. He really has a nice theme going with a lot of quality parts and quality work. I wouldn't mind if my garage looked like this all the time:

20190922_151723 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

20190922_151735 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

Thanks for the help yesterday, Zeemz!

[mike.bmw]

HPDE Maintenance Assessment

My helper and I were looking over the car at various times this weekend. As we work on certain things I tell her what their purpose is. It always impresses me when she remembers things that we worked on last year.

Brakes
My front pads have about 1mm of material left. Apparently I cut that pretty close at the HPDE last weekend. New pads, fluid, sensors, and grease should arrive early this coming week.

Plugs
We pulled the plugs and they look normal to me. Though I'm no expert at reading plugs.

20190913_153714 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

20190913_153610 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

20190913_153347 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

20190913_153452 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

Exhaust
While under the car I noticed that the exhaust has turned white from the header flange to the cat. It's the original stock cat section as far as I know. Very odd. At first I thought it might be a clogged cat as the car seems slightly down on power, the exhaust sounds more muted, and I thought the discoloration could be due to heat. Based on this site (https://www.2carpros.com/articles/ho...ytic-converter), there are a few things that can be done to check if your cat is clogged.

20190914_103039 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

That gave us an opportunity to learn about infrared temp guns.

20190915_152220 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

The post-cat reading was about 60 degrees higher than the pre-cat reading. That leads me to believe the cat is still working correctly. As a secondary test I picked up a vacuum gauge (lost the old one), but it was broken when I opened it today. I'll try to pick up another this week and perform a vacuum test. At some point I'll just suck it up and unbolt the cat-back so I can inspect the tail end of the cat visually.

Suspension
The suspension and bushings all looked to be in good condition. They should be as they are all fairly new.

Tires
The tires received a good thrashing last weekend, but they are still in great condition. I'll rotate them when I get around to replacing the brake pads and fluid.

[jeenyus]

Mike, I don't have that awesome banked turn though. That thing looked way fun. Mine is more in that speed range though. Utah drivers drive fucking fast.