Cadeez's Titanium 2004 ZHP - General Project Thread

[fredo]

Interested why you consider the NB set transaction shady. Pls share details.

[Cadeez]

Interested why you consider the NB set transaction shady. Pls share details.

Sorry in advance for the long story, but let me just start from the very beginning. The below thread is where this entire meal was cooked up…

http://www.zhpmafia.com/forums/showt...ruitland-Idaho

A fellow member from MN was looking to buy the rear folding seat from this guy in Ontario, OR, and was looking for a “local” party to do the deal. I thought, shoot I could score a NB interior at a decent price out of this deal, you’ve got my attention. Keep in mind Fruitland, ID/Ontario, OR (border towns ~hour west of Boise) are ~375 miles from me, a boring 7 hour drive I’d never made, through baron farm lands and a snowy mountain pass. At the time the idea was pretty farfetched and unrealistic; all I have is my ZHP, how would I transport the interior pieces, when would I have time, etc.? But somehow I was able to put everything together and now it was a reality.

The seller was relatively responsive to my texts, he sent me all of the pics I asked for, interior appeared to be in decent shape, not great, but decent enough. KTS317 had already told me the price the guy was asking, so when the seller and I talked price and he threw out a huge number I was like, F this guy. I let him know I knew the price he had already offered up on facebook to “anyone willing to come get it”. Didn’t hear back from him till the next day. At which point he then even lowered that price, which I probably would’ve paid, but out of general principle, condition of the int and cost for me to go get it I went even lower and told him that was my final offer, take it or leave it. Didn’t hear back for another day. He then responds, f*ck it, it’s a deal. I believe that was on Monday. So I made all of my arrangements final, I secured an SUV and a place to stay for that coming weekend, everything was lining up perfectly. Texted him on Thursday to make sure that we were still all good and that he’d have everything ready for me when I got there. He replied saying that he wouldn’t have time to pull the interior out, but I could do it myself when I got there, which was NOT the deal. Naturally I was pissed, we went back and forth, and then he told me if I wanted to come the following weekend that he would remove it, and he’d do it “nicely”. Oh? WTF does that mean?! I began to worry that now he was just going to rip everything out and it would be ruined, then he stopped responding. Texted him a few times on Friday, he finally responded, said he’d found some help and it would be done by the time I got there on Sat. I was a bit uneasy, but the wheels were in motion and I was going regardless at this point.

Got up early on Sat and my buddy & I made the drive, which was pretty boring and shitty due to pouring rain nearly the entire drive. Seller keeps asking when I’m going to arrive, I keep telling him between 5-6pm. We finally get into town about 6:15, I text him and he says he left because I was late and he had stuff to do. I’m sorry…WHAT?!? I just drove 7+ hours and you F’n left?! Now, undenounced to me we had actually gone through a time zone and it was actually an hour later than I thought, so my bad there, but my phone hadn’t updated I’m assuming since we were in the mountains. Regardless, no call, he just leaves. I tell him we are 3 miles out from his house and he says he’ll come back, cool. As we get closer to the pickup address, the area is progressively getting much “different” the further we drive. Now, we’re in the straight country ghetto. We finally get to the destination (hoping we’re at the wrong place), and it is the most disgusting trailer park I’ve ever seen in my life. I’m talking, bad, I was legitimately nervous. We roll through, two clean cut white boys in a newer Land Rover, we felt like a parade float. Potholed dirt road, folks coming out of their trailers, dogs barking, half naked kids running & screaming across the road, broken down shit everywhere, etc, really not great. We find trailer 41, and I see the car under a tarp off to the side, my buddy says…welp, this must be the place! We get out and start folding down the seats and getting things ready, all the while we are clearly the center of attention. Dude finally shows up like 15 mins later, blows around the bend in a brand new black lifted 4 Runner, big wheels/tires, bumpin music, dealer plates still on it. I’m thinking, this doesn’t really fit the profile, but okay. So him and his boys pour out, he tells me the interior is stuffed in the cab of this busted ass primered S-10 pickup parked behind the BMW, front seats are still sitting in the BMW, awesome. Go to grab the front seats and I quickly realize it’s a 330xi, not a ZHP, excellent. We pull everything out, I inspect all pieces as thoroughly as I can with him telling me it’s all there and good. I notice a few issues not disclosed prior; broken tabs, a big stain, couple other little things. To which he says, oh it was like that when we pulled it out. Of course it was. For a few mins I debated walking away, I really did. I handed him the chedda, we shook hands and my buddy & I packed up everything while they just watched us, then we went directly to the local watering hole…which is another story all together So with gas, food & drink for the both of us, I’m in it for his original facebook post asking price. More than I wanted to pay, but I should still be in the green if I end up selling it. We’ll see how it looks after I clean it up, I’m hoping for magic.

Story told on paper may or may not sound all that bad to you guys, but let me tell you to experience this all from beginning to end was unlike any other transaction I’ve ever had. Learned a few valuable lessons, and will never travel for car parts again, especially to an uber suspect trailer park in the ghetto of the farmlands…

[PdZHP]

Crazy story to read this morning lol, glad it worked out. I'm pretty active on Craigslist, but the first thing I do when I have the address is Google maps/street view. I've backed out of one or two deals after looking that info up, not worth the discount.

[BMWCurves]

Ugh. I would want no part of that, and I'd like to think my threshold for weird and shady shit is decent.

[Cadeez]

It was surely an experience that I won't soon forget... The drive home was pretty nice though, we had great weather and the miles seemed to just click off. We stopped in Hood River for a late lunch, which then turned into brewery hopping and eventually an even later dinner haha.

For those not familiar, heading east on Hwy 84, the Columbia Gorge is a beautiful drive complete with tons of waterfalls, rolling hills and the Columbia River by your side. Until you hit the Tri-Cities area, which was almost our halfway point, after that it's farmland nothingness for a couple hundred miles. But the pouring rain ruined our drive out, we were lucky for the nice weather on our return trip.

[fredo]

Man, what an adventure. Glad you enjoyed the trip back home.

[nextelbuddy]

amazing story and experience lol. I can totally relate to it, been there and done that. not fun..

[Cadeez]

I guess it makes for a pretty funny story now, but at the time...I was not amused

[Cadeez]

Finally had some time this weekend to tinker in the garage a little bit, got a few things knocked off my list.

I bought an M3 dead pedal off eBay and tried to install it over the weekend, however to my surprise it did not fit. I swear I've seen these in sedans before?? At any rate, guess I now have a M3 dead pedal for sale



I recently picked up a new lower trim piece for the steering wheel from a member, mine had some scratches on it that bothered me, and it just didn't go with my new wheel. Oddly the trim didn't have the same mounting setup as the one on the car, to mount it to the upper piece with the buttons, so I had to do a light modification but it all worked out perfectly. Old one on top, new one on bottom


I also took a Mr Clean sponge to the top trim piece to flatten it out a bit, looks much better and almost all uniform


I finally got all of my lighting straightened out, installed my Orion V2 angel eyes from Umnitza, new headlight lenses w/ gaskets and some 6k bulbs. It's amazing what a set of new lenses will do to the car, they make such a noticeable difference, very happy with the way things turned out. The 6k bulbs look nice even with my severely burnt bowls, which I will be tackling soon.

Angel eye install went super smooth. I did have to Dremmel off one of the non functional tabs on the black plastic inner headlight housing, as it was pressed firmly up against the high beam angel eye ring and could be an issue with the auto leveling.

New lenses vs old lenses

Outcome...perfection

[Lorenzo]

Looks terrific. Where did you purchase the headlight lenses? Cost?


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