Team Italian Job

August 3 – strip lights, skin doors, meet “hanging Chad”

minifisti — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 18:20:32 +0000

Greg invited the team (Gavin Pete and I made it) to his house last Sunday. Greg already had the glass out and doors off. We finished stripping the rear taillights, turn signals, marker lights, speakers, trunk hardware and other bits. More fodder for eBay.

We want this car as light as possible to offset the weight of my gut. And our weak exhaust. A bit of handiwork with an air chisel gets us at least another 50 lbs…

Doors before and during skinning:

Meet “Hanging Chad” our exhaust system

That will buff out, don’t worry…

Boosted parts fenced

minifisti — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 17:58:42 +0000

You missed this deal on flEbay!

Been a while since updating you all. I sold the power antenna on eBay for $32. Too bad the original Blaupunkpt four channel amplifier was ripped from my hands for only $0.99 (I got the 99 cent starting price jones from the guy who sold me the wheel).

I DID NOT let the Pioneer DEH-P5500 XM ready stereo go on a first auction at 0.99 — perserveance paid off - yeah ! eventually found a su&$3r err…willing saavy shopper at $52.55 !

Sunday July 20

minifisti — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:06:52 +0000

Pete helped me get the car down to Connecticut yesterday. The trip along Lucky Route 13 to I-190 to I-290 to I-395 went by just ducky! This gave a chance to test the fuel gauge too. Seems to like to stick up in the high end, but eventually starts to drop as fuel is used up. Probably reads about 1/3 higher than it should.

And now this week a film crew from New York is trying to chase us down for a pre-event interview. If only we could manage to get more than two or three of us in one place. Greg will be stripping off the glass, the lights and other things like figuring out to get the Sparco seat in a spot that works for everyone.

Road testing – week of July 15

minifisti — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:03:14 +0000

After NHMS I re-registered the car in New Hampshire this week. Was anticipating getting it down to Greg’s house in Connecticut without having to pay for a tow. No way the car was going to actually pass NH inspection what with the gaping rust holes in the floor. Bought some roofing tar to patch those it actually works quite well if you ignore the smell…..but while I was under the car patching the holes I realized the exhaust is now basically hanging by one rusted strap. New clamp is only a partial answer.

With the 10 days available before inspection on a new registration, I decided to drive around as much as possible. Took the car down Route 3 at rush hour on Friday July 18 to the office in Massachusetts. Had an interesting “high temperature, red line moment” on Route 128 in Waltham; 96 degree weather. Car only lasted 5 minutes in stop and go traffic before I had to pull off to avoid overheating.

Then on the way home the adhesive on the duck tape holding the dashboard together melted from the extreme heat, and a piece of the dashboard fell off wedged between the accellerator and my foot. After a hail mary moment I got the car off the road safely and spent about 20 minutes removing more parts under the dash before I could drive it safely back home.

NHMS Smackdown

minifisti — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:20:50 +0000

July 6 and 7. New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Pete, Brian and I orchestrated a two day smac – er better make that — ”shake down” here at NHMS. Our $500 craptastic car, while the slowest thing out there, performed flawlessly. Three different drivers and over five hours of track time. Lots of interest from the BMWCCA faithful present in what we’re up to. With a MINIs On Top sticker and Duck on Board, we’re 1/2 way to being a counterfeit MINI already!

Found a local Juvie Dee (my son) for boosting the stereo and other low hanging fruit…got to start selling off parts to stay below the $500 limit for non-safety items:

We stripped off other stuff like the antenna and radio amp between run groups.

Links to more photos on Flickr from Brian and I are after the jump.

Pete and Brian were “driving while awesome” although as you can see from the pictures they did hold up Jason and a few others. At least we caught Jason (and Greg’s!) attention enough to join the team that weekend!

My set:

My set

Brian’s:

Brian’s

Pete’s:
Pete’s

Prepping for testing at New Hampshire

minifisti — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:12:43 +0000

The car has been with Mario at Vintage Sports & Racing (www.vsr1.com) for a while. Mario got us a great lead to a roll cage (here’s the cage being transported to Marios in the back of the volvo):

We trust Mario implicitly when it comes to preparation of race cars and safety concerns. Today, one day before the July 4th long weekend, the car was finally up on jacks getting “pre-event inspection” and install of the cage and race seat.

While at Marios, we swapped the leather interior and the 15″ basketweave wheel for some used shocks. These Bilsteins are very used, but still better than what was on the car when we bought it. Mario also flushed the cooling and braking fluids while he was in there. NHMS here we come!

99 Cent bottlecap wheels – what’s not to love?

minifisti — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 16:59:02 +0000

Recently been spending lots of time worrying about wheels and tires. Among team members we have at least 4 sets of 17″ “S-Lite” MINI cooper wheels – how sweet if those could fit the E30. Looks like the 17″ will fit with some fender rolling but quasi-massive 20mm spacers would be needed to. At $80 a wheel. And that would introduce a possible safety issue for some drivers. Not to mention probably about 2x in tire costs versus 15 or 14 inch wheels that are on the car. 15″ Basketweaves were stock on the 1987 325is and the car came with one in the trunk. But that would mean finding three more to match.

Solution – I recently found an original E30 14″ bottlecap wheel for $0.99 on eBay. Ooo now that fits the budget!! A complete set of four more matching wheels, stripped and not silver painted, was a bit more marketpriced but who cares? Entire set was less than what a new 15″ wheel would have cost.

$0.99 wheel on eBay!

This set of four was $160.

Team Italian Job is IN

minifisti — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:10:50 +0000

Likely due to some grave oversight (or perhaps a clerical error?) we just received notice that our entry for the 24 Hours of LeMons was accepted. Its now time for some serious planning and preparation.

Italian Job support vehicle

minifisti — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:13:14 +0000

May have an inside lead to this beaut of a support vehicle. Well, OK our team member Joe is already holding the title. Its a recent veteran of the Big Apple to Big Easy (BABE) Rallye — believed to be (or at least once was) a 1954 Plymouth Belvedere. For 24 Hours of LeMons, let’s get this gussied up (in flat black natch) and with a couple of coshi riding “shot gun”, you know, just for gas and oil runs to and from the pits.

has race car !

minifisti — Sat, 24 May 2008 11:37:36 +0000

Found and fetched the whip on Wednesday. Its a 1987 325is with 287,000+ showing.

The Good: Still a looker from 20 feet away. Morning dew actually made the paint glisten in the spring sun. Protruding rear lip spoiler is something else. No huge dents (but did someone sit on the hood?) or rust spots. Almost new, matching BF Goodrich rubber. Fluids all there. Engine and tranny feel strong – I guess we’ll be finding out their limit.

The Bad: Needed jumper cables to wake up dead battery (common trait for all E30s left sitting). Gray leather seats look like they starred in a slasher movie, even have that “dried blood” brown patina. Seat back mechanism and handbrake lever broken. Puffing blue smoke like a Castro refugee. Oil spots on engine neer front plugs. Water-filled left rear tailight creating some awesome visual effects when you step on the brakes (maybe that’s good?) Rest of electrics (lights, wipers, windows, moonroof, blower, A/C) all functional. But whose really gonna need any of those – eBay here we come!)

Test drive 1: Bus-like handling and fluky shocks revealed at the first corner. Religious moment at the first stop sign. So the brakes are definitely going to need some attention. Don’t know about the rest.

Next — we need an install plan for the cage, seats and harnesses.