CDV and Euro Dash conversion clinic

Barry McHale and Randy Fedor came to Maplewood, NJ today for a CDV removal and a European Dash conversion. Barry had a beautiful, black 2001 540i 6-speed and Randy brought over a very nice looking 2001 525i Touring as well as a hot tray full of fresh lobster that he had picked up on the way. (Mmmmmm!)

Barry arrived at 9:00, but we had to wait until his car cooled off enough to remove the CDV. The catalytic converter is right next to it and I didn't feel like burning my hands. At about 9:30 we started and by 10:00 we were cleaning up, just as Randy arrived.

We started on the dash and quickly ran into a snag trying to remove the cassette player. We took everything else apart that we could, left a call for help on the message board, and then broke for lunch around 12:15. Had a wonderful meal, sitting outside under a big umbrella at a place called Pane Vino on Route 10 in East Hanover. My wife Maria and I enjoyed getting to know Randy and Barry and sharing our interest in all things automotive and technical. Randy and Maria both follow Formula 1 racing, so Maria brought everyone up to speed (no pun intended) on the results of this morning's qualifying session in Austria.

After lunch we attacked the radio problem again with clearer heads. We eventually figured out that it wasn't the two yellowish Torx (T8) screws that held the cassette unit in place but instead it was the nearly invisible, recessed black allen screws. After that, everything went smoothly. We wrapped up the dash installation around 4:30.

Randy's car came with rather unattractive loooking 15" or 16" (I can't remember) wheels. I mentioned that my friend Mike Mario was testing out a set of my M-Parallel (Style 66M) wheels and might be interested in selling his Radial Style 32 wheels with brand new Potenza RE730 rubber on them. We decided to throw them on the car to see how they looked and I think Randy was smitten with them. They do look very nice. So he's taking them home to try out for a week.

If he decides not to buy them, they'll be for sale. As of today, the tires have about 300 miles on them. Don't contact me about them yet, as I think it's very likely that Barry won't be able to resist them. :-) But if he does return them, I'll post here and let everyone know.

Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of Barry or his car, the CDV removal, or the dash conversion. However, I did manage to snap a few shots of Randy and his car after we installed the wheels. Those are below.

In summary, another fun day was had by all. Such a refreshing break from the grind at work at a telecom start-up company.

RANDY AND HIS NEW WHEELS

RANDY'S CAR WITH MY NEIGHBOR'S 540i IN THE BACKGROUND

Dave Z.

Follow Ups:

Dave's new labor rates (It's all my fault...) njpaguy 23:19 5/12/2001 (3)
- HAHA! And I can assume CRAWFISH won't work? Mike E 98 540 07:06 5/13/2001 (2)
  - For Crawfish I'll clean your windshield! :-) David Zeckhausen 07:31 5/13/2001 (1)
    - What about for some mudbugs? RevHigh 15:20 5/13/2001 (0)
Re: CDV and Euro Dash conversion clinic - Report Barry 21:08 5/12/2001 (0)
Hey dave...... Rob 19:29 5/12/2001 (1)
- Wheel price info ... David Zeckhausen 20:15 5/12/2001 (0)
Touring looks great! nice color. cdgb 19:26 5/12/2001 (0)
Nice report. What color is Randy's car? Robert A 18:58 5/12/2001 (1)
- The color is Slate Green Metallic ('01 color) njpaguy 22:59 5/12/2001 (0)
Re: Nice car Tony 18:22 5/12/2001 (1)
- Wheels are called Style 32 or "Radial" David Zeckhausen 20:16 5/12/2001 (0)

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