Dec 18
2010
Twas the night before christmas on the C30 threads
Not an engine was turning
Not even Little Reds!
TrevorDJ was happily tangled in wires
Irukandji was home
Fitting new winter tires
Damien, busily cleaning his steelies
While Buster was out
On his bike pulling wheelies.
When all of a sudden, a crash and a clatter
So they rushed to the forum
To see what was the matter!
“It must have been Santa!” yelled a jumpy Coolbreeze
“He’s handing out Spoilers
Made by Heico Sportiv!”
So the gang got together and jumped in their cars
Led by Genjy and Fletcher,
And mighty King Khan.
They followed the sleigh, had to swerve past a tree,
Thanks to Heysa’s quick thinking,
(And DTSC)
But as they got closer, it occured to young Dirty,
“Hey, that ain’t no sleigh!
Its a fricken C30!”
It weaved in and out of the trucks and the wagons
Then D-Wright exclaimed
“It’s the Tail of the Dragon!”
They tore through the three-eighteen turns and survived
“there’s the gift shop!” said Alcone
“he must be inside!”
They burst through the doors to find they’d been duped,
“but that isn’t Santa!
‘Tis The Dude in a suit!”
“So?” Asked Adagio “Do you have our free gear?”
“YES! FREE SPOILERS TO ALL! HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!”
Nov 25
2010
just a quick update!
Sorry for the lack of stuff lately, been bogged down at the service centre recently:
*Had the splashguard refitted free of charge
*Cars first Service; basic fluids & filters etc
*Back to square-one with my DPF and oil levels…running oils at 60% and monitoring whether they rise or not.
And to top it all off the camera on my blackberry has gone U/S so I cant even document anything!
Didn’t get round to painting the bumper before the cold set in…and now i’m glad!
We got a tonne of snow yesterday and parked my car on a sheet-ice car park before going to the cinema (harry potter - girlfriends choice!) and got back out 2 hours later to see my car had slid forward a few inches onto a curb and shaved another layer off the bottom of my bumper! If I’d just painted it, I’d be furious.
So winter wheels might be on my shortlist disregard anything
Starting to wonder if the R-Design kit it for me… Is the earlier kit any shorter? I’d rather have less kit and lower it a little, than just have a sheet of unnecessary plastic hanging off the front…
Anyway, I’m gonna see how this winter turns out and paint it when I think it’s clearing up.
In the meantime I’ve picked up some LED reverse clusters from EBay to get me out of my driveway easier at night. Can’t say using LED’s has made the light brighter but they’re definitely whiter, which helps picking up the finer details when reversing. Looks nice too! Think I’ll be going to the same guy for my DRL’s
This guy-> http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/wilson.001/
Couple of smaller mods I’ve done:
*Brushed Ali tax-disc holder, looks nicer than the flimsy dealer rubber one.
*Bosch Aerotwin wipers for the winter.
*Ali valve caps for my tyres, I’m checking my tyres before every other long commute to make sure I’m getting the most out of my car.
Once I’ve got a camera again I’ll get some pics and how-to’s up!
Oct 23
2010
This is something I’m slowly eradicating throughout the car: UGLY BARE GREY BUMPY PLASTIC!
Its EVERYWHERE on modern cars and it looks so cheap! you can even buy brand new AMG Mercedes that’ll come with bare plastic grills and fog-light covers. Frankly its cheap and lazy of manufacturers to send out cars with bare plastic on show, it’d take them no time at all to cover it up.
To fix this problem you will need:
Plastic Primer
Black Paint
Clear Lacquer
Trim tool (bone-tool)
400-600 grit emery
1500 grit wet&dry
Total Cost: Under £20
Total Time: Around 20 mins (spread over 4 days)
Step 1: Remove your trim
If you’re going for the fog-lights consult your owners manual. There are 6 clips holding it in place. I used my right-angle trim tool for this, but a thin flat one would work fine.
Here are the locations of the clips:
Step 2: Prepare
Take a 400-600 emery/sandpaper and key the surface of the trim. You don’t need to worry about getting all the bumps out of the plastic, you just want to give the primer something to stick to. A few layers of primer should smooth out those bumps anyway.
Here’s the difference between the normal trim and the keyed trim. Nothing too significant:
Step 3: Prime
Next clean the panel, dry it off and apply 3-4 layers of primer. Leave 10-20 mins between coats. Once you’ve applied a good base layer, leave it overnight to cure.
Step 4: Paint
The primer I used leaves a frosted finish, so there was no need to key it before painting. I painted around 8 coats onto the trim leaving an hour between each coat. After the final coat your trim should take on a rich shiny black. Mine was so shiny, it’s actually dry in this pic but looks wet! The can wasn’t lying about its super gloss!
Step 5: Lacquer
Leave overnight, now to apply the gloss. Key down the black paint using wet 1500 grit. Take care on the ridges, as the paint is thinner and wears down faster here. Clean, dry and apply a thin layer of gloss. Leave to cure overnight and follow with another 1500 wetsand and a layer of lacquer.
Here they are after 2 layers of lacquer:
Step 6: Repeat a billion times!
This was day 4 and I had to refit them to drive somewhere, but if you build up a few more layers (sanding and cleaning in between), the trim will start to look like it has a layer of polished glass over the top of it. Looks really professional if you have the time for it. I’ll be finishing these off next week!
Sep 12
2010
autostream:
atouchofclass:
lethal-imports:
autostream:
It’s so low it scrapes, is it hellabeat caniflush illest stanceworks jdm approved?
lmao you’re an idiot. If you knew anything about the culture of “Hellaflush” and “Canibeat” you’d realize that it originated in Europe. That slammed offset look originated with BMW’s, Volkswagens, and Audi’s alike. It humors me when people try to talk shit about something they know nothing about.
I think you are the idiot in this picture. If you can not spot the way to obvious sarcasm in that post you seriously fail. They have posted plenty of stanced cars. And BMW drivers were kinda late hopping in on the stancing. VAG drivers started it all and it became a trend worldwide.
Edit: And The VAG drivers all took it from the Hotrodding scene, as they were stretching their tires way before both you and me existed.
@lethal-imports
I don’t know what’s better, the scrape-age in this shot or the schooling in the comments that come with it!
via autostream
Sep 8
2010
Hi there,
Thank you so much for your support on the Automotive directory. It really means a lot!
Cheers!
R.
goodoldvalves
haha no problem! It’s a great blog! You really capture the beauty of what’s loved in a car. I often look at it and feel guilty for forgetting about some of the great cars that have been lost in time.
keep up the good work :)
MBTW
Sep 7
2010
For the past 3 hours, Twitter, Tumblr, Blogspot, EVERY car forum and auto news feed has been going MENTAL over a ‘leaked picture’ of Shelby’s new SSC Ultimate Aero II and how it aims to break the 270 barrier. I think SSC have missed the point altogether. They MAY beat the Veyron’s production land speed record, but any car company could build a car that could do that…and if they do, Bugatti probably won’t fight back, and Veyron owners won’t really care. The biggest of Bugatti’s acheivement’s with the Veyron wasn’t solely it’s top speed: It’s biggest acheivement was hitting that speed with a full leather interior, air conditioning, a CD player and no loss in comfort. Even the wind and tyre noise at 250 was remarkably low! The French proved, in the true French fashion, that it could be done, in style, without even trying. The Aero II will beat the record with pure American belligerence; with a loud, clumsy engine, a cheap plastic and felt interior and no style at all, and the Veyron will still be the driver’s favourite.
Sep 6
2010
This is the exact reason I was inspired to write this blog! I just woke up to overhear my housemate ringing his dad and asking how to jump start a car…
If I had to ring to ask my dad something as fundamental as that, it’d break his heart!
I can imagine the phonecall now: “I have no son!!!!” *click*
I’m going to start a section on here called “Shit a Real Man Should Already Know”. It’s gonna be full of the basics. Jump starting, spare tyres, fixing headlights, checking oil etc. Things that I wouldn’t dare own a car without knowing.
Sep 5
2010
gotta love false advertising!
theautoinsider:
18” Volk Racing TE37 for sale. Green; fit 2011 Ford Fiesta; like new condition, never been curbed.
Or so they say…
Sep 5
2010
Yesterday, I got out my car, for the first time EVER, as a result of road rage.
A TT driver was my antagonist; you know the type; pressed ‘casual’ shirt tucked into his stretched chino waistband, sunglasses on top of his flushed, greasy forehead. The kind of TT driver that doesn’t fully appreciate the car he has.
Proof of this? His car had broken down and was about to be towed.
There 2 types of performance-car driver: the type that saves up over years to have that one, dream car, look after it, test it, and push it to the limits so they can enjoy every inch of it, and the type that use it at about 10% of its potential; in order to pull women and brag loudly in bars about its horsepower. This man was the latter. Until you can heeltoe downshift it on a corner at EXACTLY your tyres friction limits, all those years of engineering and the hundreds of men who built and serviced your car to perfection have acted in vain.
Anyway back to my rage:
I did my best not to adknowledge this guy, as I made my way across the car park; I know if MY car broke down (which it wouldn’t, I look after it) I wouldn’t want to see that ‘Sucks-to-be-you’ face on every other driver that passed, so I kept it, smugly, to myself and got in my car.
It was a tight carpark, so I’d have to reverse towards his car in order to get out.
*Start the car: TT driver looks up
*Engage reverse: TT driver stops what he’s doing and watches as I begin to back out
*15 feet from the TT: driver walks to the side of his car to watch my manouvre - I’m already pretty offended…
*10 feet from the TT: ‘WOAH! WOAH!’ Driver screans and waves as though I’m bumper to bumper with him.
Knowing that I’m a healthy carlength away I keep reversing…..
BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!!!
Hearing the bangs I slam on the brakes, 6 feet away from the TT, hit neutral and check around to see what’s happening.
There is a TT driver…
Hitting…
The top of my car.
You might have seen the picture of me in my first post, that was taken 2 years ago. I’m now a lot bigger, stronger, a stone heavier and a bald-tattoo-headed engineer. Frankly, scarier. This guy must have expecting the OLD me…
I step out of the car.
I show him the amount of space behind my car.
I insult the driver, his car, his background and his level of neglect for his own vehicle.
I get my apology.
I drive on.
I shouldn’t be proud of what I did, it should never happen, but it made me realise a few things that you should bare in mind when you see other drivers around you. (I’m as guilty of forgetting these as the TT driver).
1. Another car, no matter how much shitter it is than yours, has no intention of driving into you.
2. You do not know know more about another man’s ability to control his own car than he does. Leave him to it.
3. You should never enforce you own driving opions onto another driver, be that deliberately blocking them from overtaking, or flashing at them for driving slowly.
4. In the words of John Travolta: ‘you should NEVER fuck with another man’s automobile’
Here endeth the rage.
Sep 3
2010
If the roads are dense: make your friday commute more enjoyable by saluting, instead of waving, to merging traffic :-)
