Hey, trade Trixie for a shark....

Looks as if I'll be trading Trixie along with a bunch of hard won parts to travel down to see KlubVintage in NJ to acquire a nice 635csi. Hey, I have to bow to three things: 1) getting rid of a bunch of parts stored in the shop, 2) getting one 3 series out of the property and , 3) getting a BMW that my wife not only said was "better looking than mine!" but an automatic as well.

If you are going to get an autotragic, what better car than a Shark that's top of the line!

Looking forward to seeing KV for the drop off and pick up this month!

Wahoo!

Taking the parts apart....

It's been a slow project this summer. Starting out with retrieval of "Trixie" early this Summer due to my mechanic client just getting sick of storing all my ill-gotten-booty in his yard -- to soaking all the parts in PB Blaster and Liquid Mechanic so I have at least a chance of not snapping any bolts. Up to now I have reinstalled the sandblasting system and cleaned up the rear calipers and front subframe. The last week or so has involved taking the rear subframe apart for cleaning and fixing. All the rubber parts are shot and need replacement but that should be done on a 30+ year old system. Calling Jester!

Last night I began pulling off the rear control arms and succeeded in pulling out the flanges from the rear differential! I guess I found a new way to pull those out! The bolts holding the rear diff will just need to be cut off since the heads are so corroded. The rear differential has been confirmed as a 3.45 lsd so that is great news for the upgrade!

I'll be selling some of my stock of parts to finance the upgrades. Guess I'll have to go through the garage again and start posting things in FleaBay.

UPdate: I spent some time last evening using the grinder to cut the bolts off the differential. Wow! What a job! As you can see from the last photo, the front long bolts have decided to stay on. It will take some persuasion to remove them but the main sub frame is free to be cleaned off. 

Vintage at Saratoga! Hot, Humid, and Highly Sucessfull!

The temps topped out at 90+ degrees with over 90% humidity for the show but no one really noticed as 100 old BMW's started rolling into the Bottling Plant site at the Spa at Saratoga, now the Museum of Automotive History.

Patroon Chapter of BMW CCA should be acknowledged for organizing such a great show and in a wonderful location!

Our journey started on Wednesday night, fixing and doing all the little things that will get the 323i ready for the show. A marathon day on Thursday saw the new Recaros installed, new rear seat, final paint work, pumper installs, interior work and more. We were on the road by 10am and on our way to Saratoga in the 90 degree  heat!

Here is a link to the show by RedLine:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1WF4tgtCudM

Shipfitters Brakes

The brake parts were collected and the old ones were scraping metal-on-metal so it was a good time to make the switch. Used the time to clean off the rear control arms, repaint, clean and strip the brake shield and calipers, and install the new cross drilled discs. 

Pics below. Good timing since my trip back from Watkins today involved a near collision with a fawn! Stopped so close to the little guy I bumped him a bit. He did walk away from it. I noticed the brake shimmy dissipated for the most part with the new setup.

Wheels off and jackstands on. Old disk still installed and clearing off all the crud and rust.










After sanding, rust treatments and priming with high temp semi-gloss black....

 Newly painted calipers, new cross drilled disks and e-brake components (always hate the spring install!).

 Wheels back on with new setup. Deer tested, driver approved....

Getting the bits Ready

The forced relocation of parts I have acquired has left little room in the garage for my work. Right now I have doused the entire set of assemblies with PB Blaster to loosen the nuts and bolts, sprayed some rust etch on some other parts to get them clean and really just generally started cleaning up parts in preparation for a future install.

GiNormous Thanks to the Wife, again

My wife has got to think I have completely lost it. I guess if you can't have a smoking, drinking or womanizing habit this is a substitute. Thanks, Honey!

As I help her build up her kids entertainment business (see www.kidventuredome.com ) the owner of the garage where I had kept Trixie and other Ill Gotten Booty from over the past year + finally had it with me and told me "I'm gonna motivate you here a bit. You have to have all your stuff out by Friday at lunchtime." Now he did add that I could use his forklift and anything else to get her running and ship out other parts. Among them are the other bits gotten from the Free Boston Giveaway (engine, rear axle, etc) and other salvage parts I couldn't get to.

Here are a few pics of the stuff finally retrieved and sitting at my place.

 Rear axle with disk brakes, carrier, rear differential, sway bar (big one) and the driveshaft.

 the M20 engine, all the bits, too.

I forgot that I haven't added onto the garage yet.

Prepping for the Vintage at Saratoga

Placed my reservations to go to the Vintage at Saratoga this July 13-14. Should be fun.
http://saratogaautomuseum.org/bmw-vintage-at-saratoga/  The plan is to leave mid-am on Friday to make the afternoon/ evening events and stay over Saturday.

All drivers looking to meet up along the route (NYS Thruway for the most part) that day can meet up with us. just email or contact via the blog or on Bimmerforums.