Out of Sight, Out of Mind- Part 3

Matt at my office suggested that if I'm having such a hard time finding a place to store the second 323i, I should just park it in the spot behind by office. We have a small 16'x 12' area with a concrete slab and just about totally surrounded by buildings in back and so we checked out the only open area to squeeze the 323i into and you know what, it just may fit!!! Thanks for the E21 being so small! The car is about 5'9" wide and thats about 4" narrower than the opening to the back area. I guess instead of trying to put the car in at my home garage and incurring the rath of my better half, I can securely store it in back of my building and gate off the opening.

Logo base graphic property of BMW AG and/or it's affiliates.

Cleaning up the garage

Well finding a home for the second 323i wasn't hard, just finding one that's not $90/ month is. I don't see the sense in paying so much just to stow this car when I paid so little for it. I do have room in the garage, but this will require some clearing out of "schtuff" from the bay that housed the first E21 (that white one with the sporty paint job).

Now, where am I going to put all of this stuff?

Stage One Rescue Efforts Underway

Today marked the time for visiting the 323 in Syracuse and getting a few things out of the way prior to the towing. One: swap out the tires and install a set of new ones, two: replace windshield. An hour-and-a-half later the tires are on and the windshield placed and ready for install. The tarp and brick method didn't keep cats out. There was a big gray and white tomcat sitting in the car when we pulled the tarps off... please don't use this as your litter box!

The mildew is certainly a factor as you can see by the interior shots. This will require a good cleaning to get back in shape. I brought a jack and good thing Tom has a low-profile jack because mine would not get under the E21 with all the flats! We managed to jack it up under the front sway bar brackets to get the front tires on and get to the rear control arms in back to install the rears. One point made me nervous: the right rear brake disc was missing. The wheel just hits the caliper when there is no disc installed, but we found it in the trunk.

Now for installing the Class 3 hitch on the van and off we go!!

It's in the mail. No, really.

The funds went out to the 323i owner, but the post office has decided the Priority Mail is just a relative term. The letter went all over the eastern seaboard and is now heading to where it should have been days ago... for no additional charge.

My next step is to formulate a plan to get the car out of it's current location. The tires are all flat, the car hasn't been started in years, so the BIG items will be to do a tire swap (still have the set of snow tires from the 320!), drain/ refill the fluids including the gas tank. The gas in there has to be pretty damn scary. The windshield also needs installing since a big ice chunk from the house fell and took it out and the hood. Brake fluid, battery, boy this is getting expensive...

This may take a couple of trips to retrieve. I am not imagining that I can just fix and drive this car out of the garage, but that would be sweet.