Oh yeah, I'll have to pull my The Hire DVDs back out and watch "Star" again. Keith, I expect to see your remake on Youtube shortly! Just don't forget the red leather pants for Janel...
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Sept. 17, 2009 2:25 p.m. pigeon Reader
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Sept. 17, 2009 3:25 p.m. Keith PowerDork
I dragged Janel into the TV room and made her watch Star again last night. She particularly enjoyed the gratuitous tire abuse.
I'll see what I can do about the red leather...
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Sept. 17, 2009 7:32 p.m. 2002maniac Reader
Congrats! Enjoy it!
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Sept. 17, 2009 7:36 p.m. Josh HalfDork
Pics or it didn't happen!
Edit: Of the CAR. I hadn't read the last few posts when I typed this.
Welcome to the fold of BMW+Miata owners, there seem to be a bunch of us on here.
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Sept. 17, 2009 8:38 p.m. Keith PowerDork
I'm picking up the car in the next few days. I'll get pics, don't you worry your pretty little head about that.
Now I'm a BMW+MG+Jeep+Land Rover+Toyota+Cadillac+Mini+Camaro+Locost+Miata+Miata owner. Time to sell something.
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Sept. 21, 2009 5:22 p.m. Keith PowerDork
Picture! Just one, because I'm supposed to be working. But it's for real!
Ignore those headlights. As part of the repair, someone went with an aftermarket set of lights. Decent output, but they've got a chrome surround. Ewww. Job one is to pull them apart and paint the chrome black like it's supposed to be. The wheels are also refinished a normal silver instead of the smoked chrome, but I'm good with that.
So, remember how it had an audio problem? In the midst of playing the "what does this button do" game - which, by the way, is hours of entertainment in a pre-iDrive high end BMW - I discovered that the car has a tape deck hidden behind the navigation screen. Let me tell you that it's really fun to hit a button and have part of the dash start swinging out. Total 007. I stuck a tape adapter in there and hooked up the iPod and music came out!
Some careful wire routing and voila, I have iPod integration and a functioning stereo in the beast.
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Sept. 21, 2009 5:28 p.m. DILYSI Dave UltimaDork
Congrats dude. You know I'm an E39 fanboi. I will have an M5 at some point.
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Sept. 21, 2009 5:30 p.m. John Brown MegaDork
SECK SEA
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Sept. 21, 2009 9:10 p.m. MiatarPowar HalfDork
Beautiful. I'd love to drive one at some point. The 540i/6 was awesome. I can only imagine the hotness that is the M5.
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Sept. 21, 2009 9:46 p.m. neon4891 UltraDork
Every tim I see an E39 in person, I always say to myself that they look smaller than I exspected.
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Sept. 21, 2009 10:08 p.m. Keith PowerDork
Their size is deceiving. They're styled like a big car, but park one beside an Accord and they look small. They have a pretty big trunk but feel compact to drive. I'm digging it. The 323 GTX is an example of a car that's just the right size. So is the E39.
It's a 540i turned up to 11. The extra horsepower is obvious, of course. But the steering feels better, the brakes are endless and the suspension is nice and firm with that feeling of a body shell that was machined out of a solid ingot. The seats are great and that completely gratuitous Alcantara headliner makes me laugh every time.
We spent the weekend doing errands of highly questionable import. I haven't come up with this many excuses to drive a car since I got my first Miata 16 (!) years ago.
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Sept. 22, 2009 8:55 a.m. pigeon Reader
Needs dark tint, lose the chrome headlights (I know you already said that), blackout the kidneys (3M vinyl tape), smoke the corner lamps and side markers, and get a plate that says VADER or EVIL
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Sept. 22, 2009 9:42 a.m. Keith PowerDork
Well, lose the chrome headlights anyhow
I'm not quite ready to be a pretend gangster.
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Sept. 22, 2009 9:48 a.m. DILYSI Dave UltimaDork
I'll +1 the tint. Mine was dark - 20%, but even 35% would be an improvement IMO.
I also had the blacked out kidneys.
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Sept. 22, 2009 5:23 p.m. Butch_86 New Reader
So you going to drive that in the Winter in CO...as I happen to have a set of wheels and snow tires that came off a E39 that need a good home
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Sept. 22, 2009 7:59 p.m. Keith PowerDork
Winter in Grand Junction is pretty mellow - we're in the desert here, so there isn't a lot of snow. Maybe once or twice a year. Thanks though.
I've been doing little things to the car to bond with it. A poorly placed ///M badge on the rear trunklid has been relocated to the proper spot. A bit of oddness in the right turn indicator has been hunted down and fixed. The garage door openers are programmed
You know, the little stuff that bothers you. I've also hunted down a bunch of manuals and documentation.
I have had the headlights out a few times to see if I could possibly pull the lenses apart to get at that chrome with some spray paint. No can do, they're installed with an epoxy or something that's got a higher melting point than the plastic. But it turns out my cheap plastic chrome eBay headlights also come in cheap black plastic, so I ordered a set. I should be able to reuse the xenon parts, so it actually didn't cost much at all. Cool.
Once I've got those lights replaced and I'm happy taking pictures of the car, I'll put it in Reader's Rides.
The thing I like most about this car is how special it feels. Everything about it just reeks of that little bit of extra effort to make it as good as it can be. It's a treat to drive. Makes me want to head across town to get milk.
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Sept. 22, 2009 9:34 p.m. Treb Reader
Across town?
What, they don't have grocery stores in Denver?
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Sept. 23, 2009 9:15 a.m. Keith PowerDork
Hmm, good point.
By the way, as part of the "what does this button do" game, I found one that tucks the mirrors up against the body. I thought it was for parking on narrow European streets. Janel said it was the top speed setting for lowest drag. I love that girl.
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Sept. 23, 2009 10:59 a.m. njansenv Reader
You know, reading these posts ISN'T helping me stay off Autotrader or the like.
I hadn't realized how much the price was dropping on these.
Nathan
