Camping at Nowhere Else Festival
Camping by the corn in the E30 at Nowhere Else Festival in Martinsville, Ohio. More photos from the festival here.
Rollin’ on the River Charity Car Show 2023
Enjoyed helping out again at a local charity car show with fellow mechanic friends from Wheels.
The Covered Bridges of Greene County
Enjoyed a drive in the E30 with Rivertown Gear Busters friends to the covered bridges of Greene County, Ohio (east of Dayton). Thanks to Jim Denker for organizing it and Mike Self for route planning.
Rollin’ on the River Charity Car Show 2022
Enjoyed helping out again at a local charity car show with fellow mechanic friends from Wheels.
The Vintage 2021
Drove the E30 to The Vintage in Hot Springs, NC, as a daytrip from Ohio. This was my fifth trip to The Vintage but first time solo. (Daughter was sorely missed, and I wonder when she’ll next be able to attend.)
Rollin’ on the River Charity Car Show 2021
Enjoyed helping out again at a local charity car show with fellow mechanic friends from Wheels.
“The Best Of The Hack Mechanic” book design
Celebrating the release of the book The Best Of The Hack Mechanic: 35 years of hacks, kluges and assorted automotive mayhem from BMW CCA Roundel Magazine by Rob Siegel. Author-inscribed books available here. This is my fifth* book design for the author. The design challenge was to create a page template to allow each magazine column to…
RGB 2021 Spring Drive
“When one organism is in distress, others in the species will gather and raise their tail as a form of help.” At the Rivertown Gear Busters 2021 Spring Drive there was both driving and a pitstop; the latter involving (I think) differences between an external and internal voltage regulator. (And I need to fix the…
Happy 50th Birthday
Happy 50th Birthday to our project car, made on this day in 1971. You’re stuck in a cold garage now and missing many parts, but your day will come. You Are Not Forgotten. From info.grouparchiv@bmwgroup.com: The BMW 2002 US VIN 2571026 was manufactured on February 19th, 1971 and delivered on February 24th, 1971 to the…
Pizza Saab
Update: SOLD For Sale: 2001 Saab 9-3 SE turbo. 5-door, 5-speed, black/gray, 235K miles, sunroof, heated seats. Runs and drives but is rusty and needs driveline repair. VIN YS3DF55KX12006314. For project or parts. Car is in Cincinnati, Ohio. Price: One Adriatico’s Bearcat pizza, $50. Email eric@kingandsons.com. Mechanical Motor purrs; it’s smooth, quiet, economical, and has gobs of smooth power right…
Front subframe assembly
Really enjoyed assembling the front subframe. It’s great to finally put new parts on-instead of taking rusty parts off! This is still a “loose assembly”–nothing torqued correctly, no cotter pins, etc. Next up are front hub wheel bearings and struts.
RGB 2020 Fall Drive
Rivertown Gear Busters 2020 Fall Drive included 20+ cars, an Ohio River ferry crossing, and driving in Kentucky and Indiana.
October 2020 update
Recent work on the 2002 includes replacing front hydraulic components (brake and clutch master cylinders, brake calipers/hoses), finishing the steering box rebuild, and putting new tires on really old rims.
“The Lotus Chronicles” book design
Celebrating the release of the book “The Lotus Chronicles: One man’s sordid tale of passion and madness while resurrecting a 40-year-dead Lotus Europa Twin Cam Special” by Rob Siegel. (Author-inscribed books available here.) This is my fourth book design for Rob Siegel (“Resurrecting Bertha”, “Just Needs A Recharge”, “Ran When Parked”), and all have been a delight…
More vintage emblem shirts!
We’re making more vintage BMW emblem shirts! Pre-orders only, by midnight ET, August 22, 2020. October 2020 update: The shirts are printed and all of the pre-orders have shipped. Even got some international orders, yay! Extra shirts are for sale here.
Selling a Grestch Round Badge drum to get Roundie car parts
[ Sold ] For Sale: Vintage Gretsch Round Badge 14×14 floor tom in rare black/gold Anniversary Sparkle from 1960-ish. Condition: Fair (partially torn wrap) to Good (everything else). The wrap is shiny but has a section missing near the seam, opposite side of the round badge. The chrome is bright but has some micro-pitting. Drum…
June 2020 project car update
On the 2002 we painted the cleaned-up steering box, tossed the old (and bent) control arms, got the subframe bits ready to paint, and wrestled with a bushing mount bolt. (Thanks to Paul Wegweiser for the HEAT suggestion to get that sorted.) Many thanks to Wil Tinker for his gift to us of painting our…
RGB stickers!
For Sale: RGB stickers! Got a new batch, 3” wide with adhesive on the back. $2.50 each, shipped. Paypal to eric@kingandsons.com or Venmo @Eric-King-177.
RGB Spring 2020 Drive
Rivertown Gear Busters Spring 2020 Drive was yesterday in Hocking Hills; great fun on rollercoaster roads. Video here. Our E30 was sporting a new brake master cylinder, without which I would not have gone!
The Vintage 2020 postponed
This weekend would’ve been The Vintage in North Carolina, but it has been postponed to October. Here we look back at some of the cars we’ve seen and some of the people we’ve met at The Vintage since we started attending in 2016.
RGB Off-Season Gathering 2020
At the Rivertown Gear Busters “2020 Off-Season Gathering” last night, Vintage BMW enthusiasts came from Cincinnati, Dayton, Indianapolis, Louisville, and Lexington. Host Jim Denker (center) provided metts, brats, beer, sauerkraut, potato pancakes, and pies. Conversations were sprinkled with 02, E30, and E28.
“Resurrecting Bertha” book design
Celebrating the release of the book “Resurrecting Bertha: Buying back our wedding car after 26 years in storage” by Rob Siegel. (Author-inscribed books available here.) This is my third book design for Rob Siegel, after “Ran When Parked” and “Just Needs A Recharge.” Each book contains a spread of fun pages (thanks, Rob!); the first…
The Vintage 2019 in the E30
We had a great trip to Asheville and back in the 1987 BMW 325is. On the way down we enjoyed being in the 15-car caravan with the Rivertown Gear Busters, while on the way back we flew solo. The car held up well–but I kept thinking, “What’s that noise?! What’s that smell?!” I had been…
E30 update
We’ve been working hard on the E30 to get it to The Vintage, and there’s still work to do–with only two days left. 1) Valve Cover Gasket: Adjusted the valves and replaced the gasket; this will hopefully cut down on some of the oil leaks. 2) Cooling system: Replaced the radiator and we think it’s…
Wheels moves to new home
Wheels had an Open House to celebrate their move from Oakley to Cleves. A good time was had by all, and there was a bonus appearance of an E30 M3!
Death Star exhaust port cornhole board design
In honor of “May the Fourth” Star Wars Day, here’s a DIY family project from a few years ago. We wanted to overhaul our old cornhole set and settled on a “Death Star thermal exhaust port” design — with corn hole bags as the proton torpedoes. Make your own with this design! Download links below. These…
Steering Box disassembly
Disassembling the steering box required the use of a pneumatic pickle fork to hammer off the pitman arm. Then, while trying to remove the two seals, I was (unintentionally) trying to tear apart the seals instead of removing them; oops. I had read about the metal inside the seals and had removed those—but I had…
Welding the subframe
Repaired the front subframe by welding in reinforcement plates–one for the driver’s side motor mount (which was cracked), and the other for the center bottom of the subframe (which was all bent up from car jack use). Also fixed a bent and broken tow eye; we’re guessing they were both bent inwards by a tow…
printed shirts
The shirts (backstory here) are finished and have been shipped! Thank you very much to all who ordered; our subframe repair will start soon. Send us a photo of your shirt with your car, and let’s see how well the colors match–or not! Extra shirts from this print run are available here, along with info…
Recap video #1
As we start a new season of work on the car, a look back on two years of fun. Video by Sarah.
BMW 2002 “factory color” shirts!
UPDATE: October 1, 2018: Shirts are printed! Since BMW 2002 owners take their colors seriously–Verona, Polaris, Inka, Sahara!–we’re offering “factory color shirts.” Proceeds go to purchasing parts for our project car. Order here. As a designer, this was a really fun project. Thanks to everyone who helped us match paint colors to shirt colors. And…
Rollin’ on the River Charity Car Show 2018
Enjoyed helping out again at a local charity car show with our fellow mechanic friends from Crossroads Wheels (who were asked to serve as judges). Many cool cars, lots of walking, and a bonus of riding with my friend Steve in his Vanagon!
BMW CCA Oktoberfest 2018
Had a great 24-hour visit to Pittsburgh for the BMW CCA Oktoberfest, which included a day at the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix.
“THE ICON: 50 Years of the 2002” exhibit opening
We had a great time at the BMW CCA Foundation exhibit opening in Greer, South Carolina; many cool cars and saw many friends. Video
“Just Needs A Recharge” book design
I designed the book “Just Needs a Recharge: The Hack Mechanic Guide to Vintage Air Conditioning” by Rob Siegel. (Author-inscribed copies available here.) It was a fun project, and as a bonus I learned a lot about vintage A/C systems. This is my second book design for Rob; here’s the first.
The Day Our Dragon Got Its Wings
Remembering another Winter Project from three years ago—and the day our dragon got its wings. It all started the previous weekend, when Cincinnati got a dump of snow. We (myself and our three youngest) built a big snow dragon by working five hours on Saturday and three on Sunday. We named the snow “mithril snow”…
Teardown
We decided to drop both subframes because everything needs sorted. In the front, one of the control arms is bent. In the back, both axles are cut. Our theory is that a salvage yard cut the axles in order to roll the car around with a seized differential. (There is great freedom in working on…
RGB dinner
Rivertown Gear Busters Off-Season Dinner, January 2018. Lots of car knowledge–and lots of fun–in this community.
2018: Vintage Prep
We’re working towards getting the car roadworthy for The Vintage in May. After a party with local 2002 experts in the Rivertown Gear Busters, we started to clean the engine bay before deciding to just drop the front subframe. Also started a Facebook page for the project.
Engine Removal
We got the engine out and will set it aside for now; we’re not sure what we’re going to do, engine-wise. One cool thing with this BMW M10 engine is the ability to mount it sideways on the engine stand. Now it’s on to the engine bay and the sorting of many systems. Last photo:…
Rollin’ on the River Charity Car Show 2017
We enjoyed helping out again at a local charity car show with our fellow mechanic friends from Crossroads Wheels.
Engine Hoist & Engine Stand
A huge Thank You to Al Buchweitz for giving us an engine hoist and an engine stand. We’ll soon use both as we remove the engine and sort out items in the engine bay (while debating what to do next, engine-wise).
IKEA campout
People have said, “An IKEA car!” when seeing the photo of our project car spread out on the driveway. Our family knows IKEA very well; back in 2008, we camped out for the opening of the first IKEA store in Ohio. (Ohio’s second IKEA store will open tomorrow on June 6, 2017, in Columbus.) Below…
The Vintage 2017
We had a great trip to The Vintage in Jason’s “Beer Snob” car; we saw some familiar faces and made some new friends. Video
“Ran When Parked” Book
I designed the book “Ran When Parked” by Rob Siegel over the course of about a week. We met Rob at The Vintage 2016 and again in Louisville, Kentucky, earlier this year–when he was working on the car whose story became this book. For the whole story of how the book came together, read Rob’s…
Radiator Rebuild
We had the radiator tested and rebuilt by Jim at Price Hill Radiator. Whenever we get the engine sorted, a new cooling system awaits! Video
Garage Nights, Weeks 2-7
The remainder of Garage Nights was spent dealing with the mysterious engine blockage. The head seemed okay, and when we put it back on (and torqued it) the blockage was gone. So, we’re debating what to do next; options include having the head gone through, swap in a used head, swap in a used engine,…
Garage Nights, Week 1
An eventful first week of Garage Nights (4 down, 18 to go) as we made mechanical progress while welcoming friends. Mechanically, we 1) sorted the ignition wiring to get spark, 2) enjoyed the First Start (see video), and 3) ran into A Big Problem on Night #4. While doing a compression test, the engine locked…
Garage Nights
We’re starting a seven-week run of work nights on our car, aiming for the high goal of The Vintage to keep us focused. Tonight we’ll kick things off by trying to get the engine started for the first time. Leading up to this, we’ve changed oil and plugs, checked and adjusted the valves, removed the…
New to the Garage: Fire and Flood
We got some fire safety equipment, LED worklights, and a lot of unwanted water. it’s all cleaned up now, but it was a mess.