Spent yesterday hidden away in Mill Valley doing a bit of clean-up and tweaking on "Orange Julius" for the show next weekend.

There are no surprises in his appearance, just a little bit of sprucing up 'cuz I haven't really made an effort to get all of the road grime from underneath various engine compartment nooks and crannies since I made the trip West back in 2006. Ah, well! Mae West has been keeping me busy and salving my 2002-ish needs...on a daily basis, may I add.

Anyway, I removed the trapezoidal mirror in an effort to tighten up the head. Seems it just kinda flopped around and a good gust of wind or merely slamming the door could put it out of adjustment. So I removed it, took it apart and found that the mirror head screw was loose..loose enough to NOT be holding the head to the base!!! Why it never fell off is a mystery to me!!!.

Incidentally, this mirror is original to the car. I'd hate for it to fall off.

Anyway, I dug into my stash of trapezoidal mirror bits and came up with a large-head, Phillips fine-thread screw that caught the threads of the pot-metal base a bit better, cranked it down and in doing so provided just enough resistance for it to hold position -- even after a few door slammings. In the end, this made me feel a whole lot better about door mirrors in general.

Also, in my ventures out into the world, I located a VGC mirror retaining ring made of black, not white plastic. I popped it in and lo and behold, it worked like a charm. Not one to trust trapezoidal mirror technology (such as it is), I put a dab of clear aquarium sealer in each corner.

I much prefer the black mirror ring over the white one for a couple of reasons: One is aesthetic, the other is, for some reason, the black one hasn't deteriorated into white dust like the white ones do. Not sure why.

Mae West, who is not feeling well, will not be attending. Also, I'll not be selling parts this year. I have a set of staggered 13" Alpinas, an Alpina steering wheel and a nice Alpina wooden shift knob available as a package for $1,000. I'll bring it if someone is truly interested, but I'd rather be mingling amongst the crowd and not be hawking my wares this year.

Cheers!

Delia
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1973 2002tii
Inka (aka "Orange Julius")
VIN 2762756

1974 2002tii - damaged
Polaris (aka "Mae West")
VIN 2782824

BMW CCA member #1974

www.oldschoolbmw.com

deliawolfe@gmail.com