1971 BMW 1600 Project

[rzerob]

Are you going to start a new thread for the 1973 02? If you are, could you post a hyperlink in this one so I don't miss it? My 3rd E30 should be gone by the end of this week. I plan on looking for an E10 after I get my finances straight.

[phreshkid]

I'm beat. This last weekend I attended both Legends of the Autobahn in Carmel, and Pebble Beach Concours D'Elegance in Pebble Beach, Ca. Between those two events were many more smaller events (dinners, bbqs, sightseeing, reckless driving, etc.). Overall the weekend went well.

Over a thousand miles of driving and I'm happy to say that I had very minimal problems.


Here are a few photos of the weekend and of today, where I decided to begin assessing my tail light assemblies and prepare for a refresh of sorts.


About 118 miles into the drive back home, my speedo stopped working. It wasn't until this morning that I found the culprit: broken speedo cable. How does this happen? No idea, but it did. Have a new one on the way now.





Before the speedo cable broke, we took a nice little cruise down PCH from Monterey to Huntington Beach and I snapped this shot along the way. Not pictured were two 3.0 coupes, both with 3.5-3.8l m30s. Serious cool cars.





I have a few more photos of the trip, I just need to find them.






Now back to today and the tail light refresh. I took apart both assemblies to assess the current condition of the lenses, bulbs, and housings. All could use work. Unfortunately for me, I am unprepared. I am ordering new gaskets, High Output bulbs, dialectric grease, either chrome paint or mylar material (for the reflection on the housings), and some good plastic polish.

For now, I just took everything apart and cleaned it with alcohol and plastic cleaner and put it all back today. Today was more of a "assessment day".

Photos:

This thing is broken, I should buy another one. It's on my list.









Driver's side tail light with a disintegrated gasket. All bulbs will need to be changed. None are out, but all are pretty dim. This is likely contributed by the bulbs themselves and the conditions of the housing which over the years, has lost its reflectivity. I'll remedy all of this very soon.







After I cleaned the first one, I started on the second one. Same scenario, though the gasket is in slightly better condition. This car really is a survivor.








I threw everything back together and removed a sticker. The amount of dirt and grime I removed from the assemblies was amazing. I can't wait to redo this with all the proper parts. I'll probably have everything by early next week at the latest.









And now I'm here. I'll go through and replace the oil this week, along with the speedo cable. I'll start putting together a new list of things I need to address. I can finally start taking care of the more "detail oriented" projects on this car.






Oh yeah, I have started on the other 1973 BMW 2002 project I have in Sacramento. When purchased, it was white. When I dug a little deeper, I found the original color to be Polaris Silver, but I have a really bad it to paint it Colorado Orange. Who knows what I'll end up with. Either way, that project has begun rolling and is gaining momentum. Up first is bodywork and paint, then suspension, then everything else. I'm actually kind of scared of that one, as it will be much more involved than this car.



Until next time,
Ryan

[E30_Pare]

would be the quickest way to get an enema.

[phreshkid]

Sign this car over to me before you jump off any more cliffs.. and get me specs on those wheels!

Ah sorry I didn't respond earlier! I believe the wheels are 14x6 et18. Enkei Apache V id the official make and model. They are copies of the BBS E30 Wheels. Originally 3 piece, but the barrels were welded to the lips, making them one piece wheels.

There were larger unsuccessful drops?

Have you ever been seriously concerned that your butthole ripped apart because of how you landed in the water? Well I have. Let me tell you, those are some of the scariest moments in my life.

[LJ851]

Biggest drop I've successfully done was roughly 85 feet. It was off a bridge into a river. When I dropped, I clenched by butthole closed as tight as I could and bent my toes downward to break the surface tension of the water before the rest of me crashed through.

There were larger unsuccessful drops?

[blue plates]

Sign this car over to me before you jump off any more cliffs.. and get me specs on those wheels!

[phreshkid]

That's what i'm talkin' about !





Cliff jump looks mega fun, 65 foot is about as high as i have jumped although i had to climb up a tree on the edge of the cliff to get the last 15 feet.

Biggest drop I've successfully done was roughly 85 feet. It was off a bridge into a river. When I dropped, I clenched by butthole closed as tight as I could and bent my toes downward to break the surface tension of the water before the rest of me crashed through.

My butt still hurt. It was unavoidable.

[LJ851]

Next up is for Lorin. Lorin, this photo goes out to you:

That's what i'm talkin' about !





Cliff jump looks mega fun, 65 foot is about as high as i have jumped although i had to climb up a tree on the edge of the cliff to get the last 15 feet.

[Dylanhat]

what wheels are those?

I think Enkei's?

[blue plates]

what wheels are those?

[phreshkid]

Small things today.


First off, I finally installed the fire extinguisher. It looks good there. It makes me feel like more of a badass. And as an added bonus, if my car is on fire, I should be able to put it out, which is nice.






Next up is for Lorin. Lorin, this photo goes out to you:







And then a gay iphone shot. I would post in on Instagram, but for one reason or another, I just don't think it's worthy.










Off topic, but I spend a few days on Lake Mojave in Arizona/Nevada (border). We did all sorts of dangerous stunts and had wild adventures. Some of which involved cliffs. This is me 2 days ago. 65' monster:










I'm headed to Monterey for Pebble Beach Weekend in a day or two. I am to judge a few shows, see old friends, and make new ones. I'll make sure to snap a few photos and post them.


Blessings upon you, brethren.

[SkiFree]

I friggin' hate them.

I can solve complex math equations and trick your parents into believing I'm a saint, but put me in front of a carb and I go blank.

I'm going to insist you come help me tune mine in the future.

[phreshkid]

You got it easy, wait till you have to sync 3-4 carbs.

No! You can't make me.




Small Updates:

I decided to spruce up the new cluster and get it installed.
I pulled it apart, cleaned it all up, put it all back together, then installed the cluster with the new tach. I found the elusive black wire that connects the the negative terminal of the coil and the tach gave life! The speedo worked great as well, which was a nice little surprise, considering my speedo was really slow, and did not display accurate speed. The only downside to the new speedo gauge was that the mileage and trip meter didn't work. The internal gears were broken.

This lead me to start taking both speedo gauges apart and start mix and matching parts, in an effort to get my original speedo to display correct speed. After about an hour or tinkering and switching parts, I reinstalled everything and went for a drive. No dice. Oh well, I have a tach now. That's a good start.

Here are some photos:

All apart





Old and New (I'm considering taking it apart once more and painting the rings silver, as they should be. Maybe later once I get a working gauge cluster with the correct mileage reading.






And here it is, installed. I revved up to a little over 3k. Sweet sweet victory.





I also sold these today. Bittersweet.







I've been driving the car nonstop over the last few weeks. Next up is replacing more seals, likely some more paint restoration, and getting the front end to sit lower.


Soon.

[blue plates]

You got it easy, wait till you have to sync 3-4 carbs.

[phreshkid]

Looks good with those horns on there. Glad to hear it's running good too. Carbs scare me.

I friggin' hate them.

I can solve complex math equations and trick your parents into believing I'm a saint, but put me in front of a carb and I go blank.