So i'm driving to Oakland, I need some tips, and ideas.

[ferrariowner123]

Alright, so My friend and I are driving down from Seattle to Oakland (area), (13 hour drive) to have his 1986 BMW E30 painted, and then we are going to be driving it back again.

 

But that's not the point, of this thread, the point is that i have no idea what to do when i get down there, because basically, we are going to get there the 24th, sleep, go out and rent a car for a few days, and go to as many junk yards as we can.

 

So i'm asking you all, where can i decent deal on a rent-a-car. Cheapest i can get for 3-4 days. Since My buddy and I are under 25, its a little bit extra to get a decent rate on even the eco-boxes. Enterprise is telling me about 150-180 for me at 21, but were gonna try and have the painter rent it for us so we can save some money.

 

Also, other than pick-N-pull, what are the best Junkyards for cars in the Oakland Area, for anything, except the specialized yards (i.e no Honda, Hyundai yards).

 

And anything i should or shouldn't for that matter, do while i'm down there?

 

Thanks

 

-Kyle

[Trogdor636]

Baseball game. A's and Giants are right there. I cant say Ive ever done much in Oakland, San Francisco there is a bunch to do. Pier 39, Golden Gate, Science Academy. How touristy eo you want to get?

 

You can go raid Precises fridge, hes a little north.

 

Oh, bring a gun, Oakland is dangerous.

Edited June 10, 2013 by Trogdor636

[Trogdor636]

Oh, youll be driving through Redding. Might as well stop and say hello!

We have the farthest north In n Out Burger on I-5, so might as well stop for lunch.

 

I have normally rented from Budget, but being under 25 the rates might be totally different for you. It was like 100 bucks for 3 days, all insurance included.

 

As far as junkyards, I think Rancho Cordova has what you are looking for. Brand specific junkyards for as far as the eye can see. Like a whole junkyard of just Nissan, just BMW etc. Its a bit east of Sacramento, which is an hour drive from Oakland on I-80.

 

Lombard Street is another stop if you have never been. Chinatown. I could think of stuff all day to do down there. If you are into amusement parks, Six Flags Marine World is in Vallejo, and Great America is in Santa Clara. Great America has more coasters I think.

[Precise1]

The Exploratorium, Fishermans Wharf, Alcatraz, hell even the Monterey Bay Aquarium is within reach...

 

Only some parts of Oakland/Richmond are bad and you probably won't be going through them, but you'll know it if you see it and I recommend you just turn right around and make a dignified retreat, no joke.

I have a buddy who lives down there and I'll ask him about the various yards. I know there are quite a few, but I don't go down there myself. Googling would give you about as much info as it would me, but I'll answer any questions I can. You are welcome to come up north for lunch/dinner and a nights stay if it works out that way but there isn't much up here unless you like world class wine and beer; there is a P&P just north of here.

 

Can't help you with rental info, sorry.

 

When are you coming down?

 

B

[ferrariowner123]

Baseball game. A's and Giants are right there. I cant say Ive ever done much in Oakland, San Francisco there is a bunch to do. Pier 39, Golden Gate, Science Academy. How touristy eo you want to get?

 

You can go raid Precises fridge, hes a little north.

 

Oh, bring a gun, Oakland is dangerous.

 

 

Oh, youll be driving through Redding. Might as well stop and say hello!

We have the farthest north In n Out Burger on I-5, so might as well stop for lunch.

 

I have normally rented from Budget, but being under 25 the rates might be totally different for you. It was like 100 bucks for 3 days, all insurance included.

 

As far as junkyards, I think Rancho Cordova has what you are looking for. Brand specific junkyards for as far as the eye can see. Like a whole junkyard of just Nissan, just BMW etc. Its a bit east of Sacramento, which is an hour drive from Oakland on I-80.

 

Lombard Street is another stop if you have never been. Chinatown. I could think of stuff all day to do down there. If you are into amusement parks, Six Flags Marine World is in Vallejo, and Great America is in Santa Clara. Great America has more coasters I think.

I might stop by, (ill let you know), but its more of a cannon ball down, get there quickly and hand around where were staying, which more specifically is the San Leandro area, (basically Oakland). The painter has graciously offered up his loft above his shop as a place to hang out while he works.

 

And i check out Rancho, looks like a great score, my only concern is mileage on the rental we get, is the average daily mileage like 150 from most places?

 

The Exploratorium, Fishermans Wharf, Alcatraz, hell even the Monterey Bay Aquarium is within reach...

 

Only some parts of Oakland/Richmond are bad and you probably won't be going through them, but you'll know it if you see it and I recommend you just turn right around and make a dignified retreat, no joke.

I have a buddy who lives down there and I'll ask him about the various yards. I know there are quite a few, but I don't go down there myself. Googling would give you about as much info as it would me, but I'll answer any questions I can. You are welcome to come up north for lunch/dinner and a nights stay if it works out that way but there isn't much up here unless you like world class wine and beer; there is a P&P just north of here.

 

Can't help you with rental info, sorry.

 

When are you coming down?

 

B

 

Nice, ill check those places out if we have times.

 

And thanks for the advice on the rough places, Im leaving some of my Seatlle pride stuff at home, just so i dont stick out so much. lol

 

That would be great for info on the yards, i've done a fair bit of googling so far, hahah

 

Im heading down on the 24th, and im leaving the 28th (i think)

[Trogdor636]

Its always unlimited for me. But being under 25 might change it.

[Heloflyboy]

Why drive 13 hrs to get car painted? Is this guy that good? By the time you factor in food rental car and bars it ends up being a very expensive paint job.

[ferrariowner123]

Why drive 13 hrs to get car painted? Is this guy that good? By the time you factor in food rental car and bars it ends up being a very expensive paint job.

Not really my concern as its not my car, but a full 3 stage, ppg, paint job. For a thousand bucks Sounds good to me, he's a legit certified collision center and only gives this steep of a discount for the e30 guys.

 

I'll post pics of before and after.

 

But I'm mainly in it for the road trip, lol

 

-Kyle

[5523Pathfinder]

When you get down there, your ounce, skip thr rental and take BART. I did that when I was in Pleasenton for training a few years ago. Went into San Fran and watched a Giants game. We just walked a few blocks instead of a taxi. It was fun to see the whole area from the train too.

[ferrariowner123]

When you get down there, your ounce, skip thr rental and take BART. I did that when I was in Pleasenton for training a few years ago. Went into San Fran and watched a Giants game. We just walked a few blocks instead of a taxi. It was fun to see the whole area from the train too.

Well the beauty of the rental was we could get around on our time and have space to put the parts from the junkyard.

 

Train sounds like fun though, I've never been on one.

 

-Kyle

[5523Pathfinder]

You would be kind of right in the middle of it.....

 

http://www.bart.gov/stations/

[MY1PATH]

"So i'm driving to Oakland, I need some tips, and ideas."

#1 don't go to Oakland.
#2 you didn't listen to 1 so now DUCK!

#3 its not really that bad but do watch your backs.

 

 

lol

[Precise1]

So, I just remembered this since I just helped move my friend back down to Richmond. He isn't that familiar with the wreckers in the south bay, but there are several big wrecking yards in North Richmond. You would probably take 580 West and go North on Richmond Parkway, that should keep you clear of most of the bad parts.

http://goo.gl/maps/OG05I

 

If you edge into neighborhoods where all the houses have gated driveways and/or bars on the door and windows, you might want to get through quick or rethink your approach.

 

B

[Precise1]

Just a FYI, a quote from a "Most Dangerous Cities" article...

 

 

3. Oakland, Calif.
> Violent crimes per 100,000: 1,993.1
> Population: 399,487
> 2012 murders: 126
> Poverty rate: 21.0%
> Percentage of adults with high school degree: 79.9%

There were 1,085.9 robberies per 100,000 residents in Oakland in 2012, higher than any other city. This was also significantly higher than the 851.2 robberies per 100,000 just a year earlier. The rates of murder and aggravated assaults also increased in 2012 compared to 2011. Violent crime was not the only issue in Oakland, either — there were 6,594 property crimes per 100,000 residents in 2012, more than all but eight other cities, and up from 5,287.9 in 2011. Crime in the city has increased ever since the city’s police department went through a round of layoffs in 2010 due to $30.5 million deficit.

 

It was narrowly beaten out by Detroit and Flint Michigan respectively, but there's always hope for next year what with the cop lay offs and crime rates rising...

 

B

[Precise1]

Well? So how did it go?

 

B

[ferrariowner123]

It was a fun trip, didn't get to really do as much as i had hoped, didn't go to single junkyard, but we ended up going to Concord, which is a bit of a nicer neighborhood, at least i felt safe,

 

Here is us leaving. We attempted to try and protect the bondo as much as we could with a layer of blue painters tape on top of the bondo and duct tape on top of that. This was all so we could drive through the HURRICANE we'd be driving into. Seriously some of the heaviest rain i have even been through,hydroplaned many times and nearly go into to two accidents! AND THAT WAS JUST TACOMA!! Or less than an hour after leaving!

 

But the car made it, here is what she looked like leaving my buddies place.

And how much of the tape survived when we got there.

We made great time, by the time we were on the road after the last minute errands, it was 9:00pm, and we got to his shop at 8:30....AM You heard right, we made a 13 hour trip in 11.5 (okay ill confess, we sped) average speed was over 75 MPH (i should point out that all of oregon is 55MPH.... Sorry mom )

One of the many on the road modifications we had to make, The stupid Kennwood deck we had lying around, and installed for the trip, so we atleast had some tunes for the drive, had the BRIGHTEST volume switch, so we made a duct tape flap.

But we ended up getting great mileage too, which was really weird, but we swapped in a

2.93 Open diff just for the trip, He was rocking a 3.73 LSD prior so the swapped helped keep engine speed down for the drive over. Very quiet car for how old it is, and how many miles it has. (264,000 Miles!!)

But promises weren't kept, after putting the engine in the E30 that he said we could use, he said "its not even legal" so we were forced to hang around the shop and look for stuff to do, which we eventually did.

 

Here is this POS, Plasti dipped ETA. (This was also covered in Ant's, which is how i stayed entertained when i wasn't need for a brief moment. KILLIN' ANTS )

And we DID NOT stay at the disgusting loft above his shop, place was crawling with Ants and was a crappy dirty couch was all we had, as soon as we saw it, we immediately found a nice hotel.

 

Here is the loft we were offered.

Pics do not do it justice, Plenty of ants, and so much dust and dirt, just not a pleasant relaxing place to be.

 

 

[ferrariowner123]

Paint looks okay, plenty of runs to figure out how to fix, (we all missed them when we were looking at the shop). And the car was accidentally painted the wrong color, the paint shop mixed the interior red as opposed to the exterior red (yes i know, super weird but that's what happened)

 

Here is the pinkish color that was sprayed first.

Again, pics don't do it justice, it honestly took us a day of staring at it and checking the door jams to see that it was completely the wrong color.

So that wasted about two days.

but she is all better now. The factory Zinnoberret (Cinnamon Red)

It is by no means a well done paint job, it was rushed, and it shows, but for the price we really couldn't complain, well i could, but my buddy who footed the bill, didn't.

 

[ferrariowner123]

All in all a fun trip, got shuttled around is this AWESOME E39 wagon, which i absolutely fell in LOVE with.

I'm a sucker for a good looking wagon.

 

But it was gutless Auto 528i, not a manual 540i.

 

But we also got invited to Sonoma Raceway for Drifts and Drags. Got to do some ride along which was a first for me.

 

the Shop manager dailies this S14 ( No idea how, this is setup for the track, welded diff, HARD coil-overs, loud exhaust...)

 

Video from inside his car (DAMMIT. EMBED!!!!)))

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7V_FSPYn7k

 

Audi's AWESOME testing center.

[ferrariowner123]

But we did end up making a trip to San Francisco which was really cool, Golden gate was in the fog, but got a lot of walking miles under our feet trying to get their from pier 1,

 

But having the BART was great. super convenient,

 

Some pics of that

 

And it WAS HOT.

I took this the day before we left.

It was 110º when we left.

And did i mention the car DOESN'T have A/C. Yeah that sucked.

But still had a good trip.

Edited July 9, 2013 by ferrariowner123

[devonianwalk]

Looks like a wonderful time. How in the world did your friend find this paint shop?

[Trogdor636]

Lucky you guys hit town before the BART strike.

 

So you didn't even try to rent a car I'm guessing?

[ferrariowner123]

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Looks like a wonderful time. How in the world did your friend find this paint shop?

The BMW e30 forums, he gives out deals for the e30 guys.

[ferrariowner123]

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Lucky you guys hit town before the BART strike.

 

So you didn't even try to rent a car I'm guessing?

Nah, we had already been spending $100 a night on a hotel. We were holding out to borrow one of his 9 cars, but like I said, promises weren't kept. But by that time, we really wanted to go home. So we just put up with the painter and stuck it out.

 

-Kyle

[Precise1]

I deleted that for you.

 

Well, cool, sounds like you had some fun even with the flakiness. You were at Sears Point, eh? That is about 40 miles from my house and I grew up riding dirtbikes in the hills/back 40 of the property. Sorry you got the heat wave, it isn't usually that hot but the Concord/Walnut Creek area isn't cool either. Too far from the bay to get the effect...

 

That body style takes me back. Some of the new BMWs look really slick, but in my head, that body style (and to 5 series of the same time) is what I see when I think BMW. Other than the motorcycles, that is...

 

B

[ferrariowner123]

Thanks.

 

And when you said Sears Point, i had to Google it to find out that along with it had also been called Infineon and Sears point. haha

 

But i love the experience, turns out my old dentist just got back from the same place, tracking his Audi R8 GT (1 of 90 brought into the US)

 

And the heat wasn't TOO bad, it was a fairly dry heat, so we were just sweating, humidity i cant stand and turn into a straight up women in those conditions.

 

But the sweat box that we were in until northern California was an experience. Our biggest challenge was staying OUT of the sun, after getting burned from our trip to San Francisco, the day before, any sun light that hit us just stung!! and since that car is old enough not to have ANY UV protection from its windows, it make for an interesting drive out of central California.

 

I'm starting to like the body style too, he's gone full European look, with the Euro bumpers (not the ridiculous diving boards they had to put on for low speed impacts), REALLY rare BMW factory Body kit, and the euro headlights. It looks pretty clean, still need to work on the final fitment and getting the bumpers and body kit to line up better to the body.

 

-Kyle