What have you done to your car today?

Soldato
Joined
25 Jan 2008
Posts
2,923
Location
Peterboro, Distro:Ubuntu
Just ordered four Goodyear F1 Asymmetric 2's from Apex Tyres for the new wheels I had delivered yesterday

£99 fitted, each.

From what the bloke was saying at Apex, Goodyear are pushing the sales of "Efficient Grip" more.

Both tyres are the same price. (£99)

Apex are getting them in Monday morning. So I'll finally have my new wheels on next week.

Bit worried about that though coz the wheels I ( Ordered )were out of stock and wouldn't be replenished anytime soon (don't you just hate that) so I changed the order to WolfRace Luganos and got a £160 rebate.

They came yesterday and on opening one of the boxes it turns out they are not WolfRace but "Rial" but in the exact style I chose.

I can't even find those style of "Rials" on the site !

They look HUGELY wide. I really hope my order hasn't been mixed up with anyone elses. What chances of that ?

Anyway.. Apart from the width which is (or should be) 8" I noticed on the box they have an ET of 50

I know nothing of offsets but I've seen ET45's on CivInfo so I'm really hoping mine don't look "Carlos Fandango" stylee Stooopid !

Pix next week !
 
Soldato
Joined
14 Jul 2005
Posts
17,615
Location
Bristol
I'm sure this'll please a lot of you...

Before:
01_Before.jpg


During:
02_During.jpg


After:
03_After.jpg


Fitted:
04_Fitted.jpg


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Removing PlastiDip is fine on the polished spoke faces and the rim, but removing it from the spoke edges and the centre was a pain. The spokes just peeled off but the centre etc. I had to use some rather strong chemicals and scrub it off.

I originally put the PlastiDip on them as I'd planned on running the car over the winter and wanted to protect the polished faces without having to clean them. I chose red because, well, why not, seemed like a different and fun colour at the time.
The car failed it's MOT in autumn and whilst sorting things out I never bothered to remove the dip, now that it's spring and it's road legal I figured I should remove the colour.
I do much prefer the silver look, just need to sort out getting them properly painted at some point as I'm not a big fan of polished faces.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
4,452
Location
Wolverhampton
Went to Top Gear Automotive in Wolverhampton for exhaust midpipe swap on the MX5, some nice TVRs in for fettling at the moment...

SHi8pic.jpg

Then the exhaust....modified Milltek midpipe (old one - top) vs BBR midpipe (new one - bottom)...

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The new one is better because...

  • 2 1/2 inch piping vs 2 3/8 inch
  • Narrower resonator (better clearance on my ILM chassis brace)
  • More sensibly sized sports cat - the old cat was absolutely huge, it was welded in to keep the car legal once the manifold was swapped out, but being so big and opening out as wide as it did just down from the manifold was in hindsight likely less than ideal for an N/A cars exhaust...

The car sounds miles better with the new exhaust fitted, get some nice bangs on hard upshifts and generally a more throaty exhaust note...will maybe get some videos tomorrow!
 
Soldato
Joined
29 Sep 2010
Posts
5,736
Took off my LMs to put on the stock RC's which come on the 328. I'm going to do the centres gold though when I get time, not a huge fan of black on black.

 
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Caporegime
Joined
29 Jul 2011
Posts
36,456
Location
In acme's chair.
Put on some metal pedal covers, because racecar. :p

I'm hoping, really hoping, that I get the job I have an interview for in a few days. If so, in a couple of months I should have a car which will surprise and satisfy most of you. ;)
 
Caporegime
Joined
29 Jul 2011
Posts
36,456
Location
In acme's chair.
My project for this morning was making my trashed bumper look more presenable, I have succeeded, but obviously it still looks rubbish. It is a temp fix until I find a good used one for sale. :p

Washed:
qRyT25F.jpg

Polished:
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Primed:
js4XjGt.jpg

Bodged with copious amounts of cheap touch up paint:
APoWdSD.jpg

:p
 
Chooser of poor weather meets
Soldato
Joined
25 Apr 2009
Posts
2,780
Location
Sidcup
Today I enlisted the services of "PaulTheWelder" from M3Cutters to do the "2 pipe" mod to my OEM backbox. The mod involves opening up the stock backbox which reveals 4 perforated pipes, two of these are wrapped up using exhaust tape and some other fiberglass thing, then the insulation is put back in place and the exhaust is welded back up again.

The car now sounds like it should have done when leaving the factory. It's perfectly civilized when driving normally (albeit a bit louder), and lets the heavens open at WOT. The downshift from 3 > 2 is brutal now, I enjoyed being a complete knob today and making people jump with it :D

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Video shall come shortly.
 
Associate
Joined
27 Feb 2009
Posts
2,184
Location
On the edge of a Cliffe
Thanks to the wonderful material BMW use on the Z4m Steering wheel and the previous owner having some sort of claw for hands this is what the plastic on the wheel looked like.

old_5_zps3z2xek6m.jpg

old_1_zpsejqaq7im.jpg

h
old_2_zpsaulfiaub.jpg

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And as replacement plastic parts for the wheel cost over £200 I decided to have ago at spay painting them, this is the result.
new_1_zpsamjdzjpx.jpg

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For £20 quid and a few hours worth of time its a massive improvement I think. You can still see the worst of the marks but then I didn't spend a huge amount of time sanding the parts down and at least they are all the same colour of black and not a mixture of glossy and matt finishes. Now I just need to see how long it last and if it holds up I might redo them when I have more time to get a better finish.

Now I just need to get it re-trimmed in the same style as mrks and I will be a happy bunny.
 
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