PNW Oppo Meet Recap: LeMay Museum

Having read CarsofFortLangley’s post about this has gotten me in the mood for some quick writing. I already had a tremendous amount of fun at the first BC Oppo Meet not too long ago, and when he asked if I was in for this one, I just had to say yes.

Started the day at 5:30am to meet up with CarsofFortLangley just south of the border in Blaine, WA. Crossing the border this early is always fun — even more so when you have to explain to the US Border Patrol that you are traveling down to meet up with a bunch of internet people.

Chuckanut Drive, viewed from my dash cam.

Our first stop was Chuckanut Drive near Burlington. As advertised, that road delivered plenty of fun in the 3rd and 4th gear range, complete with a good amount of corners. It was also quite narrow, which made me glad that I didn’t bring the much bigger and slower 635CSi — my summer ride. Instead, I showed up in my 2009 BMW 128i, with the cold weather package (apparently this is what you talk about at these meets). 

Got to the LeMay Museum at 10am, pretty much on the dot. This is after we’d gotten lost driving around the outskirts of Bellevue for a while, so talk about great planning! This is where we met the rest of the crew: Nkato, Zoidberg, Studystudystudy, just-a-scratch, Spaceball-Two & Gettingoldercarguy.

I got very excited at the sight of the IS300 wagon. Always badly wanted one of those.

The museum had a good amount - and a surprising variety - of cars. It was just a little odd to see so many Fast and Furious-type cars by the main floor. One of the staff (looks to be in her 60s) also helpfully explained to us what “hellaflush” meant while we were gazing at a MK 3 GTi with a Porsche Cayenne V6 swapped in. How incredibly helpful.

The good stuff though were hiding downstairs.

That was a pretty good way of spending a Saturday morning.

My day wasn’t over though — the previous night before the trip, I had scouted on Seattle Craigslist for potential parts purchases for my E24, as well as a seller who was willing to part with a brand new (albeit aftermarket) carbon fiber spoiler for $130 (which is much cheaper than how much you’d have to pay online). Thankfully, they were also free during the afternoon, so I came home with a brand new spoiler and a small amount of interior parts from a stripped-out 633CSi. Alas, as his car was an ‘82, I couldn’t find too many interior parts that were good for my ‘87.

The remains of the ‘82 633CSi I scavenged some parts from.

The gentleman parting out his E24 also had an amazing collection of Volvos out front. He even sold the parts to me for free, on the condition that I help ship a box of seasoning salts (I had to check to make sure that they were indeed seasoning salts, of course) to his relative in Calgary. “Shipping this stuff here will cost me $54,” he said. Shipping in Vancouver costed me $18. 

A straight up gorgeous shell of a Volvo P1800.

Followed by a pristine-looking Volvo P1800ES.

The new spoiler looks pretty darn good too. Not bad for $130.