Basura Blanco Racing - an evolving fleet

Boss new M3 subframe is decked out with new parking brake gear, brakes, rotors, lines, bushings and adjustable LCAs. 

Unfortunately I don’t have enough eyes and hands to get it lined up correctly by myself. Will need to call in Pops again for a hand. 

She’s back on the ground!

And WOW!!  Between the limited slip diff and ebc yellow pads, this is a completely different car than before. It rips MUCH harder and brakes MUCH better. It’s scary fast!!  Now...for that alignment!

The ole Miata got a lil Challenge press. I miss her. 

I got the BMW back from corner balance and it feels great!  Total weight is under 2900 without driver but I’m still waiting for the “setup sheet” from the shop to give me the specific details. The offset of the style 32 wheels and 255 meats have the rears rubbing the fenders a bit  I’ll have to do some more massaging  

And the garage build has run into a hiccup. Permit office tells us that accessory structures can’t have more square footage than the home. My current detached garage makes things such that the metal garage will put me in violation. We’re currently asking for a variance to keep the building 40’x40’. I really do not want to go any smaller. This sucks :(

That's lame.  Stupid permitting bullE36 M3.  

Lof8 said:

And the garage build has run into a hiccup. Permit office tells us that accessory structures can’t have more square footage than the home. My current detached garage makes things such that the metal garage will put me in violation. We’re currently asking for a variance to keep the building 40’x40’. I really do not want to go any smaller. This sucks :(

How far is your detached garage from your house? I know when I lived in a E36 M3 hole college town people use to run a couple 2x4 boards from their house to their detached garage to technically make it attached by the legal definition. Could you maybe build some type of cheap but still decent looking roof-type structure to attach the house and garage?

Maybe something simplistic like this?

In reply to edizzle89 :

Seems like it’s worth looking into at least!

In reply to edizzle89 :

Edizzle, I think you may have gotten me over the hump!.  First I called into the permit office and spoke to a few people who told me my connection had to be a roofed, shingled structure, which was going to be near impossible to look good with my roof angles and orientation of my structures, not to mention very costly.  I drove down to the permit office today to talk face to face and had some photos on hand to show my situation and ideas.  I finally got to the main dude and he said, "I don't care what it looks like, as long as it meets FL building codes."  Boom!  Pergola style connector acceptable!  I've already stopped at a drafting shop who wants about $300 to draw up the structure.  Then, more waiting on permits...and pergola construction...then new site survey...then...maybe...we'll have some garage progress.

In reply to Lof8 :

I'm not suggesting it, as I know things differ from township to township, plus it sounds like you already got a nice bit of leeway from them, but the township my old job was in basically told my boss that it's better to ask forgiveness than beg permission. That is in a pretty rural area though, so I suspect it might not be taken so well where you're at. 

Well, the permit guy I spoke to yesterday refuses to put his statement in writing and instead says “you’re not understanding correctly”. But he won’t elaborate or help me understand what exactly I need to do. I don’t have the patience to deal with it nor the funds if anything goes awry, so the new building is going to be modified to 37.5’x40’.  I also have to disassemble an existing carport structure, just to put it back up again a few months later.  I hope this means progress soon. 

I want to say that you aren’t allowed to have more garage than house even if it’s attached. I’ll try and read through the building code about that

Who are you dealing with at the county? I don’t really get into building stuff, more on the land development side. Shoot me a text I’ll try to help

Finally got the bmw setup sheet. This is with 180 lbs of sand in the driver seat and 1/2 tank of gas. 

You should never street race, but if a ‘98 ish era Camaro SS just happens to pull up next to you at a light, he may be in for a surprise. You may be 500 lbs lighter  

 Nice camber. 

Fun rallyx at the FIRM

And currently struggling with a bubble in the cooling system of the BMW. it’s likely related to how I routed/capped the heater core portion of the system. Currently waiting on a couple of pieces to show up so I can try to resolve that. Haven’t been able to play with that one much yet. 

My wife’s friend is lining up a camping trip at beautiful Ginnie Springs so we picked up this old pop up camper to fix up a lil and take on some excursions. $500 and it’s all there and mostly functional!

The garage build is quickly becoming a nightmare. The county now says I need a permit to take down the carport to reapply for a permit to build the smaller metal building.  And I can’t REALLY afford to lose the carport space.  Nor was I happy about losing 100 sf in the new garage  

I’m going to hire a local designer/builder to design a connector between my house and existing detached garage. The timeline and cost for this ordeal are growing quickly. Not a fun time. 

Pop ups are great, we have been shopping them a little. 

Professor_Brap said:

Pop ups are great, we have been shopping them a little. 

This is my first dealing with them, but I like the design.  It tows nice and light and opens up to be pretty spacious.  My wife is excited to get to do little HGTV-type projects inside and I'm happy to support her projects in return for her support of mine.

So I had read somewhere that I could send the heater return line to the expansion tank and block off the other heater port and things would work, like so:

But im here to tell you that doesn’t work!  :). You gotta loop em. I put in a tee to feed the expansion tank.  Me and all of my hose clamp friends are pretty happy now!  Took her for about a 30 minute ride and the needle never moved from center. Took her up to 100 and it feels nice!

I think I’ve finally arrived at the finished product. It shreds sooo hard!  I may add some sway bars down the road but I need to get some track time to determine if that’s necessary. Also need to see if the M3 brakes are up to the task. Took it for another drive this afternoon and can’t wipe the smile off my face.  I picked up the donor car 11 months ago. Dang.  A lot of work, but very satisfying.  

Nice work on the M3 dude!

Permit bullE36 M3 sure sucks here in the land of the free.  

I took another look at the codes...and found that there is no square footage requirement if your building is related to agricultural purposes.

So I asked my Contractor to tell the permit office this thing is for storage of agricultural equipment. 

Edit: Better safe than sorry!  

Edit again: berkeley the permit office.  They tell me I need to have a fully functioning farm to build an agricultural building.

In reply to Lof8 :

Not to change the subject but I'm interested in the trailer that he uses to haul his tractor it looks lighter weight than a conventional car trailer that is geared to carry 7000 plus pounds. I'm looking for a smaller-scale car trailer that has about a 14 foot long bed. Could you ask him about that trailer? Only need about 2,500 to 3000 lb capacity.

That trailer in the photo is my car trailer. 

In reply to Lof8 :

Even better! So can you tell me is that trailer actually a little lighter than most car haulers?

I’d say yes, although it’s the only one I’ve ever owned or towed with. When I see other trailers, they usually look significantly heavier than mine. It’s all steel framework with diamond tread on top. I bought it used about 5 years ago or so. Title says it’s made by Cherokee but I’ve never seen any identifying marks on it. 

In reply to Lof8 :

I'll be damed...chekokee is a trlr mfr right near me in olive branch miss.  Small world.  Are you pleased with it?