For this edition’s Heap of the Week, The Forge has decided to honor Kelly Meeder’s 1987 E30 325i BMW. She had been saving ninety percent of the money she earned from her job at a café for over a year in hopes to buy a car when she stumbled upon a dark blue BMW convertible. While looking at a variety of cars on Facebook Marketplace, she instantly fell in love. She bought the car for $6,000 from a doctor who had a surplus of cars he didn’t have space to keep, and although the car was in pretty good condition Meeder completed basic maintenance of changing the air filter and the spark plugs. Her least favorite job she’s done is changing the shocks, which Kelly describes as a, “very scary, long, and kinda dangerous job.” She also changed her wheels to bottle caps, describing the five-spokes she had before as, “so ugly.” With manual labor help from her dad, she has successfully completed all of these mechanical tasks. Meeder values the time she spends with her dad working on their vehicles and his extensive collection of tools. Meeder’s love for her car is evident in her willingness to not only take on learning about the mechanics of her car, but also evident in the time that it takes her to complete these repairs.   

When asked about her favorite memory in her car, she immediately lights up as she depicts her love for not only driving with the top down, but also her love for watching the sunset from the back of her car and the sense of “zen” that encompasses her while watching the sun set over the mountains. She also loves to drive up Alameda Padre Serra and Sycamore Canyon. Often while driving, is accompanied by her friends Alina and Camille, and whether the top is up or down it tends to get pretty windy inside the car, resulting in her friends getting, “their hair really messed up by the wind.” A memory in which she finds hilarious. Her friends beg Kelly to let them drive her car so she can, “sit in the back seat and experience how insane the wind is.” Since this is Kelly’s last year at Santa Barbara High School as well as The Forge’s last Heap of the Week of the year, The Forge thought there was no better way to honor Kelly’s dedication to The Forge over her time here than to feature her car for Heap of the Week. 

Kelly Meeder’s 1987 325i E30 BMW pictured in front of a train [Image Credit Kelly Meeder]

Meeder with her car [Image Credit Kelly Meeder]