BMW 635 Project
This one’s special to me.
It all began during COVID, when the world was locked down and we were all stuck inside craving fresh air. One crisp fall afternoon, my family decided to take a walk around our neighborhood. As a bored 7th grader with nothing better to do, I started paying attention to the cars parked along our neighborhood Loop—a quiet side street lined with neighbors’ driveways.
That’s when I saw it.
Hidden behind a fallen fence, quietly rusting away, was a car that immediately grabbed my attention. I didn’t know what it was at the time, but something about it felt important. Curious, I went home and did some internet sleuthing. Eventually, I figured it out: a 1982 BMW 635 CSi. I printed out a picture of it and pinned it to my wall like a piece of art. That was it, or so I thought. End of story.
Fast-forward four years.
I was still obsessed with that car. I’d bring it up constantly to my grandpa—a retired truck driver for the City of San Francisco and a lifelong mechanic. I’d talk his ear off about how amazing it was, how badly I wanted to save it. Eventually, he had enough of my chatter and said, “Let’s go see if it’s still there.”
We had a free afternoon, so we walked back to Ardilla Loop and knocked on the owner’s door. The man who answered was friendly and surprised anyone still cared about the car. He told us it had been imported from Germany to New Mexico, where it belonged to his dad. His father drove it for years before passing it down to him. But life happened—kids, responsibilities—and the car was pushed aside. It had been sitting there, untouched, for 20 years.
Then came the question that changed everything: “What are you planning to do with it?”
He paused, looked at us, and said, “If you and your grandpa can restore it, you can have it.”
I couldn’t believe it.
A massive grin spread across my face. After years of dreaming, I was suddenly the owner of a car more than three times my age—all thanks to the generosity of someone who, just minutes earlier, had been a stranger.
That was the day my dream came true.
The car is still a work in progress, but it's mine, and soon it shall be back on the road.