Julia and I had a wonderful time meeting all the new people and seeing all of the regulars as well. We overslept in the morning but were very glad that we decided to crawl out of bed and make the drive out to Long Beach. As I was telling Keith and a couple of the other guys at the table, my car was filthy from a few days of rain in San Diego, so we went straight to the car wash after we got up and had the 7 rinsed off and ready to go. Just as we left the car wash, it started raining again! There was a specatular rainbow since it was nice and sunny, but that's not really the point. LOL. I blame the peer pressure from Keith & the other guys with "immaculately" clean 7ers. My 7 is almost always dirty and the wheels always have a nice anthracite color to them from brake dust.

I got to play with James' (JL) Sogovision (by LA-Sean) and it is truly impressive. For anyone considering it, go for it! I have worked in the software/hardware engineering industry for 5+ years now and was thoroughly impressed with the Sogovision setup. Definitely very well put together.

Keith, sorry I didn't email these pics to you last night! The woman and I went to South Coast Plaza after Claim Jumper (to walk off all of that food, no less) and by the time we got back to La Jolla, I was so exhausted that I fell asleep fully clothed (after answering a couple quick emails and forum questions). Anyway, without further ado, here are the first few pics that I resized and processed!

Again, it was truly a pleasure meeting all of the new faces. We all love these cars, but it's truly the people that make this forum what it is!

http://7er.aaronliao.com/pictures/2006.01.14/IMG_3959.jpg

http://7er.aaronliao.com/pictures/2006.01.14/IMG_3961.jpg

http://7er.aaronliao.com/pictures/2006.01.14/IMG_3962.jpg

http://7er.aaronliao.com/pictures/2006.01.14/IMG_3974.jpg

http://7er.aaronliao.com/pictures/2006.01.14/IMG_3980.jpg

mmmm...very nice...

dinan7 :drool:

Holy 7ers....my god that Dinan is just beastly :drool: :eek:

now that's a 7'ers meet right there!

Nice!

ill take the green one

:eek:

Aaron,

Thanks again for posting the pics, your photos always turn-out beautifully. Don't go to BB, I said some things about you there :P

The Pics don't lie, for the record, you have the bigger "Stick", uh, I mean, pipes, those Eisenman Exhaust are pretty big compare to my Remus ;)

JL

Aaron,

Thanks again for posting the pics, your photos always turn-out beautifully. Don't go to BB, I said some things about you there :P

The Pics don't lie, for the record, you have the bigger "Stick", uh, I mean, pipes, those Eisenman Exhaust are pretty big compare to my Remus ;)

JL

LOL thx for the flattering photo of us! i was having a good hair day, as everyone can now see. *laughing*

anyway here are my afterthoughts now that i've had enough sleep to think clearly.


i seem to have lost the photos of one specific car that was compellingly nice, but you can see a little bit of it in the group shots. it's the last black 7 in the row on both of them. the pic doesn't show it, but those are 20" replica chrome MPars and even more brilliant is the PERFECT (and i mean PERFECT) paint on this black car. not a single swirl, ding, or nick on the paint. the gentleman who owns the car told us that he recently resprayed the whole thing (by himself, too, i think!) and it shows. i have never seen a cleaner black car. another thing it had was a completely custom trunk setup (all suede) with dual subs, amps, etc. really, i wish i had the photos of it. that car was stunning!

my girlfriend and i made good time going up to LBC. it is approx 95 miles from my place in La Jolla to the Claim Jumper we were at. we left LJ at 9:40ish and arrived in the parking lot of Claim Jumper (after overshooting once, no less) at ~10:35. i averaged ~100mph the whole way with a few 140+ sprints to pass a few motorists in high performance vehicles that were feeling competitive ;]

i convinced JL to park next to me so i could get the photo op that i wanted for so long: Remus square-tipped exhaust on Hamann rear apron side by side with Eisenmann round-tipped exhauts on Hamann rear apron. thanks James!

the lot of us had a very fulfilling lunch at Claim Jumper and I walked away with a fat wad of cash from everyone pitching in (since i decided to put the whole tab on my Amex platinum for the rewards points). many pleasant conversations took place during lunch and i'm sure that i speak for most of us when i say that it is always a pleasure to meet & greet with the 7er forum guys.

back in the lot, JL demonstrated his Sogovision to everybody and showed off all of the pretty shiny things under his hood (dinan CF cai, strongstrut, etc). i invited Trevor (son of one of our members) to hop into my 7er and fire up the engine via the push start a couple times. he seems to have enjoyed it and i kept prodding him to push his pops to get one too ;]

anyhow, that's it for now. i have a few more pics of individual cars that i'll be sharing later in the week when i get a chance to post-process and resize them. thx for reading and thx to all those who came out to the meet! and a big thanks to Keith (SealBeach740) for organizing this (and many of our other) meet(s)!

We had a really good turnout on Sunday, with a good mix of regulars & new members. We had some really nice 7s to look over, but what makes the meets fun is the people. Aaron was gracious enough to take the pics & do the honor/chore of collecting the money from lunch. James made sure everyone got to see his newly installed SogoVision & other numerous mods (like Aaron), while Andy showed off his beautiful black 7 with the suede trunk! Yes, an honest to goodness suede covered trunk! With a huge subwoofer setup! Sean & Allan made sure everyone met everyone else, which was a task with the newbies! :buttrock

We lucked out with the weather (unless you were James or Aaron & Julia - who drove out from San Diego, who hit rain in Carlsbad), since it rained kinda hard on Saturday. The 7s gods must have been smiling on us!!

Looking forwards to the next meet! :alright Thanks, everyone!

There are more pics at http://www.bimmerboard.com/forums/posts/146150 if you're interested.

ill take the green one

Thanks! That one's mine! Most people don't really care for the green color, but I kinda like it. :buttrock

Thanks! That one's mine! Most people don't really care for the green color, but I kinda like it. :buttrock

I luv the color man!
http://7er.aaronliao.com/pictures/2006.01.14/IMG_3962.jpg

Most people don't pay much attention to the green ones. But this one deserves a lot of it. I never noticed how nice the color is! Great work.

I luv the color man!
http://7er.aaronliao.com/pictures/2006.01.14/IMG_3962.jpg
Thanks, I really do appreciate it! It's really cool to hear others like Oxford Green also. :buttrock

Most people don't pay much attention to the green ones. But this one deserves a lot of it. I never noticed how nice the color is! Great work.

BooYaa! A couple of people like the green! Actually, I gotta say, ever since Craig (CG) taught me how to prep the paint & keep it nice, I've used Zaino & love the deepness of the paint. I think the metalic colors show really well, if you like that look. Thanks for commenting! :redspot

How do you keep your paint so nice, I need to get in on this. Please fill me in what Craig (CG) told you. haha I have the same color and yours looks very deep....:eek:

Craig (CG) and I spent a complete Saturday about 3 years ago prepping the paint & waxing my 7. He has a complet detailing shop in his garage (PC, pads, MF towels, all kinds of paint prep products, and I brought my new Zaino stuff to test out (the first for him & me). I first did a Dawn wash, then clayed the paint. Then, we used 3M Swirl Mark remover with the Porter Cable to clean up most of my swirl marks (I bought my 7 used, and the paint wasn't in to good of shape), then Meguiars Glaze & P21S Polish. With the paint prep done (I had also filled in a couple of small paint chips with touchup paint, and the paint prep process smoothed it out & the chips almost (but not quite) disappeared.

Then, just the basic Zaino process of layers of Z2Pro (we used Z2 back then cause Z2Pro wasn't avaiable yet & Z6 (again, before Z8 was available) between coats & for the final coat.

The real trick is not introducing new swirl marks after cleaning most of the up. I always hand wash my own car, and I only use MF towels & waffleweave towels on my paint. My neighbors think I'm wacko, but I also use a leaf blower to dry my paint. Drying cars is the most common way swirls are introduced. Now, I always do a Quick Detaling (Z8) step after every wash to keep the deep, wet look alive. I really like Zaino.

I love green cars too. When looking for my 7 that was my first choice color. Ended up with my third choice. Oh well I still like it. Very nice green!!!

I'm on the green team too. But I'm sorry I missed this meet. Could someone PM me next time?

I'm on the green team too. But I'm sorry I missed this meet. Could someone PM me next time?


good excuse to go on a road trip to SoCal in afew days:
http://www.bimmerboard.com/forums/posts/269228

There's something sexy about seeing a line of 7s all in a row :)

I'm on the green team too. But I'm sorry I missed this meet. Could someone PM me next time?

'this meet' took place in January ;)
I've been to a couple more, they are always terrific fun! I highly recommend going to the January event - even if you can't stay.

E38's will live forever.