What's he Building In There
10/05/09 06:40 AM | Spurts
Parts and Pieces: Part 1 (of many)
You say your old car is a piece of junk. That is usually not true in the purest sense. Many components are still valuable, probably most even, it's just that as collective they are not playing well with each other. Rebuilding any old car, say circa 1986, you are going to run into some parts deficiencies. You can't just walk into an Auto-Zone or O'Reiily Auto parts and say hey I need four stabilizer bar linkage isolator bushings, and two control arm bushings for my BMW E-28, and expect them to look at you like you didn't just say that in German. They will give it the old Yankee try on their computer, after you explain that an E-28 is a BMW 5 series body with one of 5 different engines and a couple of transmission options produced in Germany from 1982-1988. They will even show you the near misses as they work down to the part or parts that they can special order but none of the local stores seem to have it right now.
When I joined the BMW CCA (Car Club of America) three years ago I started getting their awesome Roundel Magazine monthly, this publication is on par with an Automotive magazine on store shelves, but is exclusive too and for BMW's and their owners. It was there in the pages of the Roundel that I have found several parts places that stock parts for my antique Ultimate Driving Machine (ultimately, ultimate driving machines have evolved as the ultimate bar as ultimately been risen several times in the past 24 years). The first choice for parts for any of my searches is Bavarian Autosport in Portsmouth New Hampshire, they have been compiling and remanufacturing and specializing in BMW and Mini parts for over 30 years. I will be expecting a package from "BavAuto" (as their license plates and other exclusive pasts and pieces proclaim them to be) today when I get back to work after a week off, where I did my fair share of crawler-ing and noodling on and under the Blue Frankenstein.
Two of the pieces in todays expected package are no bigger than a quarter apiece, but will result in untold happiness for me, they are the odometer gears that broke in my 85 E-28 right after I got it back on the road after 2+ years of parts searching. The odometer died at 302,075.1 miles and I have since then put at least 500 miles on it since then, so I've moved to odometer up manually (once I got the instrument cluster out of my dash) to 303,303 miles, since I do so love the palindrome in all it's guises.
Above: The E-28 instrument waits in the passenger floorboard to get "Geared Up!"
There are other pieces in that box too, including two control arm bushings for the right front suspension, and they were less than $13 apiece form BavAuto, way less than the $33 apiece I could have gotten in a week on special order from the local parts chains.
The neighbors have been asking, What's he building in there.
Chuck Pace ©2009
|
You say your old car is a piece of junk. That is usually not true in the purest sense. Many components are still valuable, probably most even, it's just that as collective they are not playing well with each other. Rebuilding any old car, say circa 1986, you are going to run into some parts deficiencies. You can't just walk into an Auto-Zone or O'Reiily Auto parts and say hey I need four stabilizer bar linkage isolator bushings, and two control arm bushings for my BMW E-28, and expect them to look at you like you didn't just say that in German. They will give it the old Yankee try on their computer, after you explain that an E-28 is a BMW 5 series body with one of 5 different engines and a couple of transmission options produced in Germany from 1982-1988. They will even show you the near misses as they work down to the part or parts that they can special order but none of the local stores seem to have it right now.
When I joined the BMW CCA (Car Club of America) three years ago I started getting their awesome Roundel Magazine monthly, this publication is on par with an Automotive magazine on store shelves, but is exclusive too and for BMW's and their owners. It was there in the pages of the Roundel that I have found several parts places that stock parts for my antique Ultimate Driving Machine (ultimately, ultimate driving machines have evolved as the ultimate bar as ultimately been risen several times in the past 24 years). The first choice for parts for any of my searches is Bavarian Autosport in Portsmouth New Hampshire, they have been compiling and remanufacturing and specializing in BMW and Mini parts for over 30 years. I will be expecting a package from "BavAuto" (as their license plates and other exclusive pasts and pieces proclaim them to be) today when I get back to work after a week off, where I did my fair share of crawler-ing and noodling on and under the Blue Frankenstein.
Above: The E-28 instrument waits in the passenger floorboard to get "Geared Up!"
There are other pieces in that box too, including two control arm bushings for the right front suspension, and they were less than $13 apiece form BavAuto, way less than the $33 apiece I could have gotten in a week on special order from the local parts chains.
The neighbors have been asking, What's he building in there.
Chuck Pace ©2009
|