So, i have a thread regarding my trip in itself, but this isn't about the trip. This is about the car!
I do need to go through an update the thread on the trip but i will get to that as i want to go into much more detail on that thread about the places and the roads and i don't want it to get muddled up.
This thread is about the journey of this car, the build and basically the documentation of its life.
When i initially told people i planned on flying from London to California, picking up an old BMW and exploring america over 3 months, doing circa 10,000 miles everyone doubted the car i had chosen. Everyone said it wouldn't make it, i should just get a rental or something newer. But that's not me, that's not what this trip is about.
So this trip had been something I dreamt of for years and years and we figured if we didn't do this soon, then we never would. In-fact, this trip was actually my honeymoon.
So every road trip plan must come with an overview of the route.
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
ow, we originally planned on finishing our trip in Boston, but as our time came towards the end we was seeing it was stupid cold in Boston, the car at this point was getting tired, i wasn't sure if i wanted to risk driving it all the way up there so we decided after Tennessee we would do a U-turn and finish back in Florida where we could enjoy a final couple of weeks in the sunshine before heading back to grey, dark, cold, miserable England.
The car in question was actually purchased from a member on here.
1984 325e coupe. White, Black leather interior, odo stopped working but guesstimated at 280k on the clock and it was a manual.
I was actually looking for an early model "e" car with the diving board bumpers. A LOT of people would have and did think this car will never complete this trip, even the original owner was sceptical. but i figured fuck it! lets just give it a try and see where we go.
I ended up getting the car for a bargain price of $1,000 which is around £700. I had my friend who lived local to the car in NorCal go collect it for me ready for my arrival. He purchased the car on 01 July 2018 and i was planned to land in NorCal on 05 September 2018 so we had a few months to figure out if anything needed doing to the car.
The car had a ton of maintenance recently done to it which was good!! new tyres, timing belt and water pump, all new cooling system and so on and so on.
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
his was really the only photo i really could see of the car from the CL add.
The other side of the car had a Bronzit door and front fender, these had to be addressed so i managed to find a white door and a pair of white fenders which we could fit onto the car so i had them collected, the door was fitted prior to my arrival but the fenders where located down closer to LA so we fitted these around week 3 of my trip (but we will get to that)
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
The car came with a few misc parts chucked into the trunk. one of which was this IS front air dam, i really wish i still had it but we will get into that later on.
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
My friend Chris who collected the fenders for me was able to give them a clean up to see what we was working with. Unfortunately the passenger side fender (which was the main one we needed) was quite badly damaged by years of being in the sun. Regardless, it wasn't Bronzit so i wasn't too bothered.
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
When my friend collected the car he was able to take photos of the interior for me. Bonus, the car had sports seats from a convertible in pretty damn good condition at that too.
not sure what was going on with the carpet which some of you may see
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
The car was parked up on my friends farm with his Dinnan e36 M3 sedan which is super clean!!
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
And this is where the car sat until my arrival in September.
We flew from London to Oakland airport on 05 September 2018 where my good friend Steve who had collected and looked after the car for me picked us up from and took us back to his place just North of Oakland near Sacramento.
First impressions of the car...
Looked much cleaner in photos but i had an idea on what i was getting into, the wife not so happy with the purchase. Thankfully she got on board with the car and fell in love with it.
first full day in California 30+*c (not sure what that is in Fahrenheit) and this English idiot decides to wear all black...
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
after spending the day in the small town of Vacaville sorting out the paperwork to insure and register it. Was actually much easier than anticipated, i went to AAA rather than the DMV. I managed to get Insurance, break down cover and register the car within about 40 minutes!! they didn't really ask too many questions, i figured it was a small town and to be honest they didn't really care much.
getting used to driving a manual car on the WRONG side of the road and the WRONG side of the car i got used to it quicker than expected. Spent the day with my friend Steve and headed to our hotel for the night. the next day we was to head to San Francisco!!
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
San Fran, WOW, Stressful!!! first day really driving the car getting used to everything. old car, manual, everything was on the opposite side to how i've been driving for the past 10 years. All the images i have seen of the SF hills and streets do not do justice to just how crazy steep they are!!!
but we did manage to go down Lombard street a couple of times before it got overran with tourists, there was still quite a lot there but not as many as later on in the day
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
We then struggled to find somewhere to park, i refused to pay the extreme amounts that people wanted for parking in SF so we found some street parking. got some food, explored the pier and other parts of San Fran, it had been a stressful day so we headed for the coast!!
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Some of you may have seen in previous posts the wanky old shift boot this car had. Well Matt over at 2m made me up some new ones which i fitted to the car! quality is honestly amazing!!
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
still trying to get used to the size of some of the vehcles in America.
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Now, at this point we went a little bit backwards and we drove from the top part of the PCH across to sonora where we would then make our trip to Yosemite and Mammoth lakes
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Sonora and the Sonora Pass was absolutely beautiful.
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
It was at this point i really felt that i had made it, i felt that this trip was really happening. The trip i had dreamt of doing for years.
We was finally out in America, exploring and hitting the open road. Only a few cars passed us and we pulled over to just take it all in. It was crazy, it almost felt as if i was having an out of body experience whilst parked up on the side of this amazing road looking out over the forest.
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
we hopped back in the car and just drove the bends and cruised until the car got hot. We pulled over again and i tried to let the car cool down, we went for a walk in the surrounding area and just didn't let the extra hot car bothered us, i would look at it when we got to civilisation.
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
ended up just being a bit low on oil and also topped up the water. (later on we found out the thermostat was put in backwards)
We then hit up Yosemite what a beautiful part of the world!! only got one photo with the car.
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
after spending a couple of days in Yosemite we done the long long drive to Santa Cruz where we would start the decent down towards LA along the PCH!!
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
From there we drove Big Sur, explored the national park and just enjoyed the coast.
More gas and cleaned up the millions bugs on the windshield.
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
We went to Sequoia (i think) and drove through a tree.
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
e now got to Lancaster, this was the stop before i got to LA. we had a long weekend staying at my friends house Chris who i believe is on the forum.
Now Chris really saved my arse with this car. I can truly say the car WOULD NOT have made it much further without his help and assistance. And I can not thank him enough for this.
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Got the car into his garage. There was quite a few things that we knew we had to tackle and quite a few things that surprised us.
Now, the lights wasnt properly working. just the main beams wouldnt work on there own they would only work if i put full beams on which meant all 4 of the lights would then be on. and i didnt want to be that guy, so for the first few weeks i was driving will my full beams on but i had the inner two lights unplugged which meant only the outer two lights would be on.
The wiring was a shit storm, it was a bloody mess...
a small wiring fire later and fixing the issue we had a success, albeit only for a short time and then i had to revert back to my previous driving of having the inner lights unplugged and driving with the full beams on.
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
We also had other work to do which involved fitting the new front fenders, also the passenger side inner door handle was broken meaning i had to get Nicholl out the car each time by walking to her door and opening it. Although this made me look like a gent it was getting annoying so we welded up what needed to be done and that was fixed.
new fenders on, and also removed the front IS dam as i had smashed it to pieces a few hours prior getting to Chris's house pulling into see the elephant seals on the PCH too quickly and there was a nasty big dip which absolutely killed it. sad times.
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
also painted the lower kick pannels, put new brakes on the car.
whilst under the car we noticed the shift linkage was loose so we tightened this up and there was a rattling from the rear which was the rear ARB mounts which was destroyed. it turns out there is a larger rear ARB on the back but couldn't work out what it was. this was dark blue but may have been painted. also there is no ARB up front...
turned the car on to leave Chris's to head down to LA where i would be staying for a week. car wouldn't fire, heard a bang, Chris got wet...
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
yep, that's the fuel line. someone had fitted the wrong fuel line into the car so we replaced it all, i literally have no idea how the car got so far and also how lucky we was that it decided to go in Chris's garage and not in the arse end of nowhere.
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
out of the garage and off we left much later than expected but thankfully the car was in tip top shape.
This is where i will leave it for now..
I do need to go through an update the thread on the trip but i will get to that as i want to go into much more detail on that thread about the places and the roads and i don't want it to get muddled up.
This thread is about the journey of this car, the build and basically the documentation of its life.
When i initially told people i planned on flying from London to California, picking up an old BMW and exploring america over 3 months, doing circa 10,000 miles everyone doubted the car i had chosen. Everyone said it wouldn't make it, i should just get a rental or something newer. But that's not me, that's not what this trip is about.
So this trip had been something I dreamt of for years and years and we figured if we didn't do this soon, then we never would. In-fact, this trip was actually my honeymoon.
So every road trip plan must come with an overview of the route.
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
ow, we originally planned on finishing our trip in Boston, but as our time came towards the end we was seeing it was stupid cold in Boston, the car at this point was getting tired, i wasn't sure if i wanted to risk driving it all the way up there so we decided after Tennessee we would do a U-turn and finish back in Florida where we could enjoy a final couple of weeks in the sunshine before heading back to grey, dark, cold, miserable England.
The car in question was actually purchased from a member on here.
1984 325e coupe. White, Black leather interior, odo stopped working but guesstimated at 280k on the clock and it was a manual.
I was actually looking for an early model "e" car with the diving board bumpers. A LOT of people would have and did think this car will never complete this trip, even the original owner was sceptical. but i figured fuck it! lets just give it a try and see where we go.
I ended up getting the car for a bargain price of $1,000 which is around £700. I had my friend who lived local to the car in NorCal go collect it for me ready for my arrival. He purchased the car on 01 July 2018 and i was planned to land in NorCal on 05 September 2018 so we had a few months to figure out if anything needed doing to the car.
The car had a ton of maintenance recently done to it which was good!! new tyres, timing belt and water pump, all new cooling system and so on and so on.
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
his was really the only photo i really could see of the car from the CL add.
The other side of the car had a Bronzit door and front fender, these had to be addressed so i managed to find a white door and a pair of white fenders which we could fit onto the car so i had them collected, the door was fitted prior to my arrival but the fenders where located down closer to LA so we fitted these around week 3 of my trip (but we will get to that)
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
The car came with a few misc parts chucked into the trunk. one of which was this IS front air dam, i really wish i still had it but we will get into that later on.
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
My friend Chris who collected the fenders for me was able to give them a clean up to see what we was working with. Unfortunately the passenger side fender (which was the main one we needed) was quite badly damaged by years of being in the sun. Regardless, it wasn't Bronzit so i wasn't too bothered.
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
When my friend collected the car he was able to take photos of the interior for me. Bonus, the car had sports seats from a convertible in pretty damn good condition at that too.
not sure what was going on with the carpet which some of you may see
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
The car was parked up on my friends farm with his Dinnan e36 M3 sedan which is super clean!!
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
And this is where the car sat until my arrival in September.
We flew from London to Oakland airport on 05 September 2018 where my good friend Steve who had collected and looked after the car for me picked us up from and took us back to his place just North of Oakland near Sacramento.
First impressions of the car...
Looked much cleaner in photos but i had an idea on what i was getting into, the wife not so happy with the purchase. Thankfully she got on board with the car and fell in love with it.
first full day in California 30+*c (not sure what that is in Fahrenheit) and this English idiot decides to wear all black...
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
after spending the day in the small town of Vacaville sorting out the paperwork to insure and register it. Was actually much easier than anticipated, i went to AAA rather than the DMV. I managed to get Insurance, break down cover and register the car within about 40 minutes!! they didn't really ask too many questions, i figured it was a small town and to be honest they didn't really care much.
getting used to driving a manual car on the WRONG side of the road and the WRONG side of the car i got used to it quicker than expected. Spent the day with my friend Steve and headed to our hotel for the night. the next day we was to head to San Francisco!!
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
San Fran, WOW, Stressful!!! first day really driving the car getting used to everything. old car, manual, everything was on the opposite side to how i've been driving for the past 10 years. All the images i have seen of the SF hills and streets do not do justice to just how crazy steep they are!!!
but we did manage to go down Lombard street a couple of times before it got overran with tourists, there was still quite a lot there but not as many as later on in the day
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
We then struggled to find somewhere to park, i refused to pay the extreme amounts that people wanted for parking in SF so we found some street parking. got some food, explored the pier and other parts of San Fran, it had been a stressful day so we headed for the coast!!
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Some of you may have seen in previous posts the wanky old shift boot this car had. Well Matt over at 2m made me up some new ones which i fitted to the car! quality is honestly amazing!!
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
still trying to get used to the size of some of the vehcles in America.
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Now, at this point we went a little bit backwards and we drove from the top part of the PCH across to sonora where we would then make our trip to Yosemite and Mammoth lakes
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Sonora and the Sonora Pass was absolutely beautiful.
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
It was at this point i really felt that i had made it, i felt that this trip was really happening. The trip i had dreamt of doing for years.
We was finally out in America, exploring and hitting the open road. Only a few cars passed us and we pulled over to just take it all in. It was crazy, it almost felt as if i was having an out of body experience whilst parked up on the side of this amazing road looking out over the forest.
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
we hopped back in the car and just drove the bends and cruised until the car got hot. We pulled over again and i tried to let the car cool down, we went for a walk in the surrounding area and just didn't let the extra hot car bothered us, i would look at it when we got to civilisation.
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
ended up just being a bit low on oil and also topped up the water. (later on we found out the thermostat was put in backwards)
We then hit up Yosemite what a beautiful part of the world!! only got one photo with the car.
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
after spending a couple of days in Yosemite we done the long long drive to Santa Cruz where we would start the decent down towards LA along the PCH!!
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
From there we drove Big Sur, explored the national park and just enjoyed the coast.
More gas and cleaned up the millions bugs on the windshield.
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
We went to Sequoia (i think) and drove through a tree.
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
e now got to Lancaster, this was the stop before i got to LA. we had a long weekend staying at my friends house Chris who i believe is on the forum.
Now Chris really saved my arse with this car. I can truly say the car WOULD NOT have made it much further without his help and assistance. And I can not thank him enough for this.
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
Got the car into his garage. There was quite a few things that we knew we had to tackle and quite a few things that surprised us.
Now, the lights wasnt properly working. just the main beams wouldnt work on there own they would only work if i put full beams on which meant all 4 of the lights would then be on. and i didnt want to be that guy, so for the first few weeks i was driving will my full beams on but i had the inner two lights unplugged which meant only the outer two lights would be on.
The wiring was a shit storm, it was a bloody mess...
a small wiring fire later and fixing the issue we had a success, albeit only for a short time and then i had to revert back to my previous driving of having the inner lights unplugged and driving with the full beams on.
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
We also had other work to do which involved fitting the new front fenders, also the passenger side inner door handle was broken meaning i had to get Nicholl out the car each time by walking to her door and opening it. Although this made me look like a gent it was getting annoying so we welded up what needed to be done and that was fixed.
new fenders on, and also removed the front IS dam as i had smashed it to pieces a few hours prior getting to Chris's house pulling into see the elephant seals on the PCH too quickly and there was a nasty big dip which absolutely killed it. sad times.
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
also painted the lower kick pannels, put new brakes on the car.
whilst under the car we noticed the shift linkage was loose so we tightened this up and there was a rattling from the rear which was the rear ARB mounts which was destroyed. it turns out there is a larger rear ARB on the back but couldn't work out what it was. this was dark blue but may have been painted. also there is no ARB up front...
turned the car on to leave Chris's to head down to LA where i would be staying for a week. car wouldn't fire, heard a bang, Chris got wet...
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
yep, that's the fuel line. someone had fitted the wrong fuel line into the car so we replaced it all, i literally have no idea how the car got so far and also how lucky we was that it decided to go in Chris's garage and not in the arse end of nowhere.
Untitled by Ben Walsh, on Flickr
out of the garage and off we left much later than expected but thankfully the car was in tip top shape.
This is where i will leave it for now..
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