We’re enjoying a sunny day here at Reggie’s Motorworks!  It looks like Spring might finally be here…for now!  We’ve had a busy week.  Let’s take a look at what Reggie’s been up to, shall we?

1. Replaced timing belt, water pump, and power steering belt on 1986 528e.  Also serviced the transmission and installed alternator bushings.  See below for more detail on the alternator bushings.

2. A 325 got new engine and transmission mounts, guibo, center support bearing, and rear transmission seal. The exhaust got new gaskets and a strap before being remounted.

3. Work on the ‘91 Volvo 240SE – lowering springs, changing the wheels and adding new tires…goodbye, studded snow tires!

4. New project!  An e30 trailer!  Keep reading to see the photos!

Here’s the ‘86 528e.  What a great car!

These alternator bushings were well beyond their prime!  Reggie used a razor blade to remove the old bushing’s remnants.

Reggie tests the flexibility of one of the old bushings.  These brand new ones were just what this 528e ordered!

Reggie has been waiting to work on the Volvo, namely to put on these bright new springs and to change out the studded snow tires.

By the looks of this photo, and to my untrained eye, it appears that the new red spring is the same size as the old one…well, that’s because the old one is still compressed!

Reggie attaches the spring compressors so that he can take off the upper strut mount:

Now you can see the difference…we’re excited to put the Volvo back on the road to test these bad boys!

We’ll be sure to post photos soon to show the Before & After results of the new springs!

And for Reggie’s latest project…an e30 trailer!  Reggie and Jordan sliced up this car last Friday afternoon, which they were both pretty excited about! Check out the photo gallery here!  We’ve tossed around a few different ideas for the function of this trailer:

1. Track Tire Hauler

2. A grill – perfect for our Open House and social events!

3. A float in a Bimmer parade.  Ok, I just made this one up, but wouldn’t that be cool?

Have a great weekend!

Reggie’s Motorworks has decided to thin our shelves down some, in order to make room for new inventory! We want to invite everyone to the shop on Saturday, January 30th to share some great deals with all of our fellow enthusiasts!

This will be the one/only day that I will really bend on our normal BMW parts prices. Come prepared to make cash offers and take things home. If you need large/heavy BMW parts, bring something to haul them off in! My main motivation is creating space, so I will not be willing to hold items.

THIS IS NOT JUST A SALE! It is also a great time for BMW/auto enthusiasts to gather (in a heated building!) and chat about cars, projects, and whatever else we feel like!

Here are some photos of our overtocked shelves:

For those of you who don’t know, we are located in Westfield, IN, which is a northern suburb of Indianapolis. Here is the address:

411 W. Main Street

Westfield, IN 46074

We hope to see everyone there!!

With summer pretty much here in Indiana, we decided it was time for an overdue celebration! We like nice weather… oh and BMWs! So gather up your Bimmer (Beamers welcome too!) and come have a park in our garage for a good time with some fellow BMW enthusiasts! We will be having food (really really good food), drinks, games, contests, door prizes galore.. and lots of cool BMWs to look at!

Date: Saturday, June 20th 2009
Location: 411 W. Main St. Westfield, IN 46074
Time: 11am-4pm

Here is a bit of a summary of what we have in store:
Prizes:
Best in Show | People’s Choice
Best Beater | People’s Choice.. amount of rust may or may not be a deciding factor..
Highest Mileage Car | Odometer’s Choice
Furthest Distance Travelled | Trip Odometer’s Choice
Cornhole Tournament!

Mechanical Challenge! Will remain a secret for reasons of fairness.. we don’t want anyone losing sleep, training to wee hours of the morning swapping wheels to gain an advantage! Just be prepared for getting your hands a little dirty!

Prizes include, but are not limited to Hand-Crafted BMW trophies, BMW Enthusiast Apparel, Coupons, Gift Certificates, and more!

If you’re in the area stop by!

The Mecum Auto Auction had plenty of eye candy on display at the Indiana State Fairgrounds on May 13-17. Building after building was lined with hot rods, classic cars, and everything in between. Here are a few that caught our eye.

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Wednesday, May 20th was Community Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It was also Reggie’s birthday! And so we thought it would be fun to take the Baur out for a victory lap around the infamous track. Although the speed limit for this event was 30mph, we only clocked about 10mph, following the drivers in front of us. It really allowed us to take in the scenery and get a little bit of a glimpse of what the Indy drivers see at 230mph!

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Happy Friday!

We’ve got a little quiz for you called Name That Tool! If you know the name and function of this tool, please leave your answer in the comments for this post! Good Luck!

Welcome back to another Friday edition of Reggie’s Motorworks Blog! Today’s entry is coming to you from my perspective, as Reggie’s wife, Stephanie. Hopefully what this post lacks in technical detail and graphic design will be made up by way of illustration. Let’s take a closer look at the work Reggie’s completed so far on the now infamous Alpine weiss cabriolet.

As you may recall, last week’s blog left off right here. Unfortunately, rust had its way with this poor section of metal.

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Hello all, Reggie here. This is MY first post. Kipp, my jack-of all trades (web-designer, T-shirt producer, eBay listing writer, and shipping guru) typically handles the blog, along with my wonderful wife/photographer, Stephanie. They have both been taking my experiences in the shop and bringing them to life here on the web.

I want to point out that I am NOT a “trained” professional. I am a former DIY guy that has decided to go “pro” simply meaning that I do this everyday and pay my bills by doing so. The processes I show/describe are ones that I have learned from reading, trying, and believe it or not….watching TV. Most of the projects you see me tackle on this blog are ones that I have done between 0 and 3 times prior. This being said, I can not be responsible for any “less than desired” results if you are using my blog as a how-to guide.

This week I’ve been doing more work on the 1988 325ic that belongs to my good friend Sean. Just a quick bit of history on this car:

I bought this car back in the summer of ‘06 for $300 and a scrap Mercedes-Benz 190e. The poor car was literally on the back of a wrecker on its way to be sold for scrap when my towing guy spotted it. He told the scraper that I may be interested in buying it, so brought it by and a deal was made. I purchased the car on Sean’s Birthday, and he since happened to already have an ‘87 325is track car in the same color combo, it seemed like a sign that he should own it. It had around 86,000 miles on it, but it had sat outside for a long time. We’ve been piecing it back together ever since. We will be calling it done after this last extended stay at RMW, so you will see the final results next week.

For now, we have some rust repair to do!!

Here are the three areas I will be addressing: the battery tray (up front on a convertible)/frame rail, the top of the valance – just under the grille, and the left quarter panel – in front of the wheel and above the rocker.

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We received a call awhile back from Barri Stallworth, a great customer that was in somewhat of a tight spot. He said his 88 325i convertible was in the shop, and it needed a new engine. The German mechanic, wanting to make sure the car was absolutely tip-top, insisted on ordering a refurbished motor from BMW to the tune of $4500+… Yikes! We all know the M20 engines are fine for 200+ thousand miles, and our e30’s don’t exactly hold enough value for most of us to justify an engine in this price range, so we fixed Barri up with a very nice used/partially reconditioned engine for his cabrio.

Luckily we had just pulled the same engine from an ‘87 325is! The engine was running very well when we pulled it, but we like to do things right the first time, so we started to inspect it. After pulling the valve cover, we found that one of the old style head bolts had broken off. This could likely lead to a head gasket failure in the future, even with the head bolts replaced. At this point we decided to remove the head and have it checked out and reconditioned. On top of that, we offered our services in making the whole engine a little easier on the eyes with some detailing and powdercoating!

We pulled the dirty thing a part and sent the head and some of the top end bits off to the machinist for inspection, rebuild, and a good ultrasonic cleaning. Think of it as a baptism for your car’s soul!
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