So I pretty much accomplished none of the ambitious items from the to do list I last posted. Of all those items, all I managed to do was spend 20 minutes sanding one of the rough sections on the euro trim. I guess I never really looked too closely at it because now I am seeing many broken tabs (I expected some, but having every bottom tab broken on one piece makes me worried that it won't sit flush). I guess we'll see what happens.
Anyway, the reason I didn't get much done was because I was trying to be responsible and complete some much needed maintenance on my daily. After all, the entire point of buying it was so I wouldn't be commuting in the e30. That worked well for the first several months until all the maintenance I knew it needed, but procrastinated doing, caught up to me. It needed a new clutch badly, new O2 sensors, suspension needed to be raised, new tires, a valve cover gasket, rear window seal, and front cowl trim (hence why I got it so cheap :D ). So I parked it like 3 weeks ago intending to get it all done quickly, but each day I got home and "didn't feel like it" and also didn't do anything on the e30 because I felt too guilty. Then the heat wave struck and I was dying in the e30 without AC (110 mile round trip commute), so I got to work, though progress was still slow since I really didn't want to do it.
Saturday was slated to be about 105-110F but I got some relief via the big fire burning in Santa Clarita. Wind shifted and blew the smoke overhead early afternoon and the temperature dropped about 20 degrees and cast an apocalyptic orange light over the area. It was weird.
After spending Saturday lying on my back underneath that damn sedan, I decided to reward myself by spending Sunday in Venice detailing cars, beaching, and BBQing with a buddy. Never get tired of seeing his blue s4 avant.
Snapped a current picture of the bay and discovered the google photo editor. I still have a bunch of ideas and plans to finish the bay off nicely.
Picked up a one touch window module and some e36 switches. My e30 switches have been getting really finicky lately requiring me to really mash them to get them to work.
Got some new clay to hopefully remove the overspray/general surface contamination that the rear of the car suffered while I was fixing the accident damage. I didn't fully cover the car since I ran out of plastic, and I wrongly thought it would be okay. The trunk back was uncovered and is really rough now. I'm hoping the aggressive clay will take care of it and I can give it a quick polish to finish it off. The LEDs are for another little idea I've had floating in my head for months.
Here's the pitiful progress I made on the euro trim.
Before (I already hit it slightly with an orbital sander. It looked worse)
After a little bit of work it looks better. Still needs quite a bit more. Maybe I can find some sort of plastic primer that could fill the light scratches. I'll be spraying all of the trim with sem trim paint to restore them to a nice new luster.
Lastly, I picked up some new oil. This stuff seems to be the gold standard when it comes to oil for high performance BMW motors. There's a note on the bottom that this oil is "specifically recommended for m-engines", and the amazon reviews are overwhelmingly positive. Supposedly this is even a better alternative the the extremely expensive castrol 10w60 available at the dealer. This stuff is pretty damn expensive too, but if it's really as good as I've read, I won't hesitate to continue using it. I am hoping that I get less lifter tick at the autox tomorrow.
So now that the e36 maintenance is nearly finished (just need to repaint a set of style 32s, mount tires, and do window gasket, VC gasket) I will feel like I've earned the right to play with the e30 again and finish up the last details to get restored to its former glory, and then some :D
Anyway, the reason I didn't get much done was because I was trying to be responsible and complete some much needed maintenance on my daily. After all, the entire point of buying it was so I wouldn't be commuting in the e30. That worked well for the first several months until all the maintenance I knew it needed, but procrastinated doing, caught up to me. It needed a new clutch badly, new O2 sensors, suspension needed to be raised, new tires, a valve cover gasket, rear window seal, and front cowl trim (hence why I got it so cheap :D ). So I parked it like 3 weeks ago intending to get it all done quickly, but each day I got home and "didn't feel like it" and also didn't do anything on the e30 because I felt too guilty. Then the heat wave struck and I was dying in the e30 without AC (110 mile round trip commute), so I got to work, though progress was still slow since I really didn't want to do it.
Saturday was slated to be about 105-110F but I got some relief via the big fire burning in Santa Clarita. Wind shifted and blew the smoke overhead early afternoon and the temperature dropped about 20 degrees and cast an apocalyptic orange light over the area. It was weird.
After spending Saturday lying on my back underneath that damn sedan, I decided to reward myself by spending Sunday in Venice detailing cars, beaching, and BBQing with a buddy. Never get tired of seeing his blue s4 avant.
Snapped a current picture of the bay and discovered the google photo editor. I still have a bunch of ideas and plans to finish the bay off nicely.
Picked up a one touch window module and some e36 switches. My e30 switches have been getting really finicky lately requiring me to really mash them to get them to work.
Got some new clay to hopefully remove the overspray/general surface contamination that the rear of the car suffered while I was fixing the accident damage. I didn't fully cover the car since I ran out of plastic, and I wrongly thought it would be okay. The trunk back was uncovered and is really rough now. I'm hoping the aggressive clay will take care of it and I can give it a quick polish to finish it off. The LEDs are for another little idea I've had floating in my head for months.
Here's the pitiful progress I made on the euro trim.
Before (I already hit it slightly with an orbital sander. It looked worse)
After a little bit of work it looks better. Still needs quite a bit more. Maybe I can find some sort of plastic primer that could fill the light scratches. I'll be spraying all of the trim with sem trim paint to restore them to a nice new luster.
Lastly, I picked up some new oil. This stuff seems to be the gold standard when it comes to oil for high performance BMW motors. There's a note on the bottom that this oil is "specifically recommended for m-engines", and the amazon reviews are overwhelmingly positive. Supposedly this is even a better alternative the the extremely expensive castrol 10w60 available at the dealer. This stuff is pretty damn expensive too, but if it's really as good as I've read, I won't hesitate to continue using it. I am hoping that I get less lifter tick at the autox tomorrow.
So now that the e36 maintenance is nearly finished (just need to repaint a set of style 32s, mount tires, and do window gasket, VC gasket) I will feel like I've earned the right to play with the e30 again and finish up the last details to get restored to its former glory, and then some :D
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