Even Steven Pliers ;)

UPDATE * 4:00pm January 5, 2017:  What Once Was Lost Dept.! Good News!  ;)

Ok, so today I am messing around stripping out parts from my 1978 320i that is headed for the crusher. I have already pulled the engine, tranny, stripped out the dash, engine compartment and the interior.  

This was yesterday's project:

I pulled the engine and tranny.  Fun project, I just love that "Green Monster' cherry picker crane hoist! 

Since I have had some requests for the brake booster and the glass, that was today's task list. I got the brake booster, and the clutch slave cylinder out and started on the pop out windows. You need to loosen the 10mm retaining nuts in the 'B' pillar to get them out. While doing so, I caught my socket wrench on something inside the B pillar, and I heard my 10mm socket fall inside the pillar. Day um. 

The 10mm socket is like the most important socket on a BMW.... you need it everywhere! I decided I needed to get it back! I have others, of course, but this was my oldest and favorite 10mm, part of a small set in a little metal tray that i have had for about 20 years. I have never lost one of them. Until today! So I was determined to get into that B pillar and force it to give up my socket! I started with a magnet extension slipped into the pillar: no dice! So I pulled out the rear seat interior card, removed the seat belt mechanism.... still no sign of that socket! WTF?? I pulled out a crow bar and ripped out the rusty rocker panel, bent away the bottom of the sheet metal..... and .... nothing! Well, not exactly nothing. I did find a rusty pair of pliers down there! I am guessing that the pliers were left there by the last guy who lost his 10mm socket in that frickin' B pillar! So it all sort of evens out in the end, I suppose. I am down one 10mm socket, but I am ahead one pair of very rusty pliers. Yeah, I got the raw end of the deal. I'd rather have my 10mm socket back! ;)

My Even Steven Pliers, to paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld! ;)

*UPDATE: January 5, 4pm. I am continuing to strip out my 1978 320i parts car. Today I pulled the ignition, turn signal switch, and various relays etc under the dash. You have to be a bit of a contortionist to get at that ignition, usually, but since I have the interior completely stripped out, it is a little easier to get under the dash: no seats in the way!

Anyway, when I finished pulling all those items, I decided to try to recover my lost 10mm socket one more time. I remember thinking at the time that, based on the noise it made, it didn't sound like it fell very far. But I had inserted a long, telescoping magnet from both the top and the bottom of the B pillar, and had come up with nothing. I decided to give that technique another careful shot. Sure enough after a minute or two, I found the socket jammed about halfway down the B pillar, caught in a narrow crevice! With my fingers and the long magnet I was able to free it. I am happy to say it is now safely tucked away back in the little metal tray where it has resided for the past 20 years!

All's well that ends well! ;)