VintageFest conquered the rain!

What a great trip to the Windy City for VintageFest!  We left the shop Friday evening with perfect cabrio weather surrounding us.  We grabbed some dinner at Portillo’s Hot Dogs (you must try their Italian Beef with hot and sweet peppers, dipped!) just south of the city before doing some night driving along Lake Shore Drive in Chicago.   Luckily, we had Takashi, Chicago native, to lead the way around the city…and to open our eyes and delight our tastebuds with the best tiramisu I’ve ever had!  We will definitely be going back for more!   Saturday morning was a different story, as far as the weather was concerned.  Dark clouds slowly moved in carrying a few sprinkles, and eventually a downpour of “big ol’ fat rain” as Forrest Gump would say.  Despite the rain, we headed off to the event location and waited out the rain.  Luckily, the rain stopped before the event officially started.  And the cars arrived, and all was right again in Vernon Hills, IL.  To view our album at your leisure, click here.  Or simply enjoy the following slideshow!

Just like last year, we did Leatherique demonstrations, but this time we used the Baur’s back seat.  It was great to hear feedback from those who purchased Leatherique last year!  If you’re in need of Leatherique, give us a call or send us an email!  We also donated some Reggie’s Motorworks t-shirts and a 16-ounce Leatherique kit as door prizes for the day.  Speaking of the Baur, we were happy to be awarded 2nd place for Best e30!  Thank you to all those who voted for our bimmer! Enthusiast Apparel was even represented, and some of their cool shirts were door prizes too.  So despite the gray day, the event was a success, and we’d love to go back again next fall!  Thank you to Kent, Shari, and the Windy City BMW CCA for welcoming us!

In other news, it’s been another busy week at the shop.  Reggie’s painted a bonnet, deck lid, spoiler, and third brake light a sweet mauritius blau for a 1992 318i cabrio.  Here’s a look at the prep work done on the bonnet, where there was a slight dent on the passenger side in the front.  Stay tuned for photos of the finished product!

Reggie marks where to apply studs in order to pull out the dent where needed.

Then it’s time to use the stud welder!

Next, he uses the slide hammer to pull out the studs, thus pulling out the dent:

Just a look at the tools used for this part of the project:

Using a profile guage, he compares the shape/slope of each side of the bonnet to see if any more pulling is necessary:

After applying body filler, sanding, and high-build primer, he again compares the shape of this side to the other side:

Once the bonnet, deck lid, spoiler, and third brake light housing were sanded and prepped for paint, it was time to spray that beautiful metallic blue, maritius blau.

Stay tuned for more on this and our ’86 325 project!

We’ll be off to the Cruise-In shortly, and we hope that you can join us…the weather is perfect!