Topic: What did you do to your car today?

[mlin32]

Got the winter (all weather) wheels and tires installed today. The swap was free at the shop I bought the wheels online from them. Went down to 17" and you can see how little brake clearance there is.

I chose the all-weather Michelin CrossClimate+ tires because it does not often snow more than 5-8cm in the Rhein/Main valley. However tires with the 'snowflake in mountain' are mandatory in Germany during "winterly conditions" so don't want to risk the loss of insurance coverage and fine if somethings on a wintry day.

The hilarious thing is the Type-Approval papers that came with it. Because this is Germany, there must be paperwork proving that the modification of wheel and tire size does not impact the roadworthiness of the vehicle ! Because with out it, if you do the roadworthiness test (Hauptuntersuchung or contrôle technique ) with them installed, your vehicle could fail ! It is 15 pages long, stamped (ja remember how I've said nothing is valable without a stamp ?), with many signatures, data, footnotes, and words like Genehmigungsunterlagen (approval documents) and Radhausausschnittkanten (wheelwell clearance) 

Ze Germans, what a strange society sometimes. It's just a wheel change....... . Now just one more stack into the stack of véhicule papers......

[jamie1]

It always bugged me that Subaru sold themselves as the maker of cars for poor conditions and never installed headlamp washers.

The only FCA vehicle in Canada that has optional headlight washers is the Fiat 124.

[jamie1]

Took advantage of a Black Friday sale and ordered a Raceseng weighted shift knob for the roadster.

[rrocket]

Took advantage of a Black Friday sale and ordered a Raceseng weighted shift knob for the roadster.

Ok we really like ours.

Which one did you get?

[tpl]

MY AUdi has them. They work well. Not under manual control tho'  they wash every 10 times the screen washers are used.    Get through a lot of washer fluid.  Car does have a 6 litre tank but even so one trip to TO and back means a refill.

They should be mandatory in Canada and most of the USA as well.   A VW salesman told me once that many people in focus groups don't want them 'as they make the car hood dirty"

I disagree, I think more things need to become mandatory before that.  How clean do your lenses have to be?

If you travel unlit roads at night with lots of wildlife I would say as clean as possible.

Sure, I suppose in those circumstances.  Which is why it's probably not mandatory.  Because that's not what the vast majority of where and when people drive.  Maybe a way for to be easier to be applied in the aftermarket would be a good idea.

Snow.  plus Salt. plus a sunny day after a snow fall.    Windscreen opaque every few minutes.   So same happens to light lenses.   That may be ok at the moment but not so much when it gets dark.

[jamie1]

Took advantage of a Black Friday sale and ordered a Raceseng weighted shift knob for the roadster.

Ok we really like ours.

Which one did you get?

Sphereology with black Delrin cover.

[rrocket]

Took advantage of a Black Friday sale and ordered a Raceseng weighted shift knob for the roadster.

Ok we really like ours.

Which one did you get?

Sphereology with black Delrin cover.

That's the one we have. Nice piece.

[pi314]

Plasti-dipping the (new-to-me) winter rims for the golf. Gunmetal Grey with graphite "metalizer". We'll see how it turns out.

Aaand I'm pretty happy with the results. Originally standard silver colour seen on most vw cars. Looking forward to mounting the winters now!

Here they are on the car:



There was some slight damage when mounting but I think I should be able to touch that up. You can't notice with all the salt anyways.

[tortoise]

Wow.  Those look great on the blue car.  I think you've inspired me to do my winters for next year. As a bonus, it should help protect them.

You gonna put the lug covers back on?  They do really make it look tidier.

[Great_Big_Abyss]

There was some slight damage when mounting but I think I should be able to touch that up. You can't notice with all the salt anyways.

At the same time, they are winter wheels, they look great as it is, so how hard are you really willing to try?

[quadzilla]

Here they are on the car:

The car/wheels looks great.

[pi314]

Thanks folks.

There was some slight damage when mounting but I think I should be able to touch that up. You can't notice with all the salt anyways.

At the same time, they are winter wheels, they look great as it is, so how hard are you really willing to try?

At this point it’s more about learning/knowing the best technique. I agree it’s not worth the effort from an aesthetic perspective.

Wow.  Those look great on the blue car.  I think you've inspired me to do my winters for next year. As a bonus, it should help protect them.

You gonna put the lug covers back on?  They do really make it look tidier.

Definitely think it’d look fantastic on a white car. I also have a can of the Metalizer stuff. They recommended far too much. It's yours if you want it.

And I really should put the covers on. I took them off 'temporarily' in Feb and still haven't put them back.

[Great_Big_Abyss]

Thanks folks.

There was some slight damage when mounting but I think I should be able to touch that up. You can't notice with all the salt anyways.

At the same time, they are winter wheels, they look great as it is, so how hard are you really willing to try?

At this point it’s more about learning/knowing the best technique. I agree it’s not worth the effort from an aesthetic perspective.

I guess you'll find out if it is easy to touch up/blend.

If I could be absolutely sure to not get overspray on my new Blizzaks, I would consider painting my new winter wheels black (they are currently silver).  I wouldn't want to bother removing the tires, though.

[Gurgie]

Car looks good pi314!!!

[BWII]

Got a Compustar 5000' range 2 way remote starter installed on the truck this AM.  Factory unit is complete shiite, you have to be within 100' or so...and with the new parking lot where my wife works it's probably closer to half a k walk from the truck to the building.  Took an hour or so...pretty quick I thought.  Guess he knows what he's doing.  I forgot to look for the antenna to see where he mounted it.

[Great_Big_Abyss]

Got a Compustar 5000' range 2 way remote starter installed on the truck this AM.  Factory unit is complete shiite, you have to be within 100' or so...and with the new parking lot where my wife works it's probably closer to half a k walk from the truck to the building.  Took an hour or so...pretty quick I thought.  Guess he knows what he's doing.  I forgot to look for the antenna to see where he mounted it.

Cue 'people not from the frozen prairies wondering why the hell you need a remote starter, don't you know you only need to let your car run for 30s before driving it'.

[tortoise]

 

[blur911]

Got a Compustar 5000' range 2 way remote starter installed on the truck this AM.  Factory unit is complete shiite, you have to be within 100' or so...and with the new parking lot where my wife works it's probably closer to half a k walk from the truck to the building.  Took an hour or so...pretty quick I thought.  Guess he knows what he's doing.  I forgot to look for the antenna to see where he mounted it.

Cue 'people not from the frozen prairies wondering why the hell you need a remote starter, don't you know you only need to let your car run for 30s before driving it'.

No arguments from me.

That reminds me, I have to change the battery in my Subaru remote, not working.   
Some January mornings at work it's nice to start the car from the cafeteria and then hit the showers.   Also nice when you wake up to a car encrusted in freezing rain.

[BWII]

Got a Compustar 5000' range 2 way remote starter installed on the truck this AM.  Factory unit is complete shiite, you have to be within 100' or so...and with the new parking lot where my wife works it's probably closer to half a k walk from the truck to the building.  Took an hour or so...pretty quick I thought.  Guess he knows what he's doing.  I forgot to look for the antenna to see where he mounted it.

Cue 'people not from the frozen prairies wondering why the hell you need a remote starter, don't you know you only need to let your car run for 30s before driving it'.

Hey I'm hoping she doesn't start it 10 minutes in advance all the time...gonna eat up a lot more gas that way.  I can go a month or more (she can) without filling it if we don't use it for anything but her work.  But yeah...it takes more than 30 seconds for it to come off high idle (or to be remotely ready when it's real cold)...so that'll be nice, knowing she won't be throwing it into reverse immediately after starting like every girl here does.

[Brig]

Here they are on the car:

That looks amazing, Pi!  Nicely done, and perfect for that car.