Well I suppose I should be happy. I have the car back from the shop and hopefully this is all the mechanical work that it will need other than care and maintenance for quite sometime.
Don't get me started on how much it cost. I will say that my mechanic(Tan at Europa) has very good rates that definitely beat other shops and his work is first class.
*side note*--Tan isn't your ordinary tech. He has a phd and used to be a chemist. He bought his first nice car at Barrier and that was the beginning of his path to servicing northern European cars. After having paid way too much for some service work at their dealership he started learning to service his own car and well one thing lead to another. Here he is today, a shop owner and just being the one honest tech out there that will hopefully make a difference. He does this because he didn't like getting ripped off and doesn't want to see others taken advantage of. When in north western Washington and in need of a GREAT shop to service your BMW,SAAB,Volvo,Mercedes or VW go see Tan at Europa in Shoreline.
So now that I have that out of the way- major service job later and this car is great for another 100k. She had a head gasket, t-belt, valve job, piston heads polished, full tune, O2 sensor, oil change and some hoses installed that can only be reached when the head is off (I had them in the trunk just waiting......so.......)
In addition to that, I have had the front grille work out for a few weeks. Sanding and refinishing it and applying new black paint. The kidneys are supposed to be chromed, but I opted for black kidneys. They just look better in my opinion.I also have the front chin spoiler off the car right now as well. Side story on that is I was on my way to work one wet Thursday morning back in April and in the process of making a lane change, the arse of the car started to slide and spun me around. I got her straight, but was facing the wrong direction. I ended up curbing it. OUCH!!!. Fortunately, the most damage was a severely smacked up wheel (thank the maker that the spare matches the four on the car!!!) and the chin spoiler was ripped off on the high curb that I hit.
So it only took me about 2 weeks to find a chin spoiler. The factory one for the 325 is is really hard to find and when they come up they go fast!!! I was fortunate that I could snag one pretty quick. One of the other members of the local chapter of the BMWCCA had just picked up a wrecked 325 is and the chin spoiler was not spoken for yet. I got it for steal and it has the factory driving lamps and temperature sensor it it still.
The rest of the summer will be spent on going over the body and getting surface rust on the rear quarter taken care of and popping out in impression in hood and one in the lower left just above the rocker panel and one nasty looking ding on the front corner of the left side front fender.All that will bring the body back to straight and I can concentrate on just getting money together for a good paint job and getting the interior whipped back into shape.
I know that my dashboard buddies are glad to be back in action. They are Hula Hottie and Big Wave Dave. They're the only passenger that don't have to grab a JC handle when things are in motion.This car has a long way to go still from where the previous owner left me.....................with his headache!! This service call was created because old headbolts were re-used when putting the head back on after having new cam shafts installed. For those that don't speak car-ese, the head bolts are ALWAYS replaced. They are designed to stretch as the newly installed head is broken back in allowing the gaskets to set properly. Fortunately time and patience and some necessary visits to the shop have produced a car that I will be proud of having and showing off on the streets.
Hopefully this will be the end of this series for a while. The next will be about work that is being done because it's time to get it taken care of not because it's broke and I need it now.
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