k on the menu today.. pulling out my STI again for a nice am drive, doing a full wipe down afterwards, dust off the GTI's interior and that is pretty much it for car related today.

will help wife with the final decorative trimmings installation on her shelving and relax rest of the day. aka ice cream and bumming out.. expecting yet another full day.

have a good sunday everyone!

 

Nice! Would eat ice cream (well sorbet, but close enough)

This morning I'm going for a drive with a friend & his Miata in the AP1.

After that I'm doing 'Open Doors MKE' where buildings all around Milwaukee are opening up for free tours. Going to tour the Eero Saarinen designed War Memorial, a few Frank Lloyd Wright designed homes, one of the most energy efficient new buildings in the city, one of the oldest architecture firms in the city & the UW-Milwaukee architecture building.

Today has the potential to be a dope day.

Also, got my Nest-E all installed/paint matched to the rest of the wall (old thermostat was bigger & PO of the house hadn't painted behind it) & bought some pillows. With some art hung up my living room should be a pleasant place to spend time.

 

mike- have fun out there! looks like ur living room is coming along nicely.

 

motored the STI, had a blast. cleaned up the car with QD. so hot and humid today. i hate humidity.

i passed on dusting the GTI's interior till tomorrow cause it looks like weather's going to hold this week, im going to wash the car.

 

alright, got out there before before sun rise and checked psi on my GTI and GK. psi is fine but i need to adjust later this week as temps are expected to drop about 20F overall. also checked vitals. all checked out.

washed my GTI..found quite a bit of contamination build up (tiny spots) on the rear gate and rear bumper top. it almost looked like
the contaminant was etching into the paint so claybar'ed and applied mild polish to remove. looks great again but mang, this paint
is pretty weak. the car's only one year old and i have to polish to remove minor surface etching..? wtf mang. it aint like a huge
bird drop.

but then i looked over at the GK and the whole plastic piece forward of the windshield has faded gray. LOL hahaha wat a pos. need to wash the car and apply liquid polymer to seal. i might stick it through the autowash today. i dont spend time on the GK..as long as it's functional and looks okay, then that's plenty. i bet there is clearcoat failure starting on the roof.

 

and it's not like ive neglected the GTI's paint.. ive washed the car almost every weekend, at least 3 times a month and applied polymer sealant spray often. maybe i drove over something that was acidic with all this construction and crap going on..

anyway.. today im off and expecting a new diversion valve for the GTI's turbo to come in. if it comes early i'll install it but will probably be this coming saturday. the one for the R is also coming in later in the week. i wasnt aware of this until recently but with running higher boost the factory valve tends to leak so just going fix it once and for all.

 

Sounds like a busy weekend for all of us!

I attempted to reshape that visor....it stayed in its "new" shape for a few hours....then just "remembered" its old shape and went back. May just have to sand the few mm's off it and be done with it. Not sure I wanna risk removing it.

Removed and sent my kicker door speaker in for warranty.

Was gonna ride the bike yesterday but the battery is shot...got 4 years out of it so not too bad for a $40 china battery.

Installed my DDM HIDs...stupid relay harness wouldnt work so gotta return that. Currently going to just order a moritomo harness. HIDs are plugged directly into headlight wiring. Not ideal but hopefully should only be a few days.

I may just bite the bullet and buy the bumper PPF and attempt myself. Just seems a bit risky with all the curves even at $200.

Yeah I feel paint is getting weaker these days due to environmental requirements. Dont get me wrong...yes lets save the planet and all...but dang it...paint is so flimsy/soft now.

 

I wash my Fit like once every couple months.

S2000 gets washed when I feel like not being lazy.

Haven't washed either car in a few weeks, been super dry here the last few weeks so I'm trying to avoid using water until it rains.

 

It's not you. My battles continue weekly with our GOLF. I've owned a LOT of cars, but not experienced paint like this.

I actually scratched it with a clean Wolfgang clay bar and had to pull out the orbital again this weekend. I don't know what's going on with it, but I'm highly displeased.

The only reason that I even pulled out the clay bar is I had a small contaminant of some sort that didn't want to come off with my microfiber wash mit. Anything that sits on it for more than a few hours starts to eat into the clear.

This is after I've even sealed the paint.

I could wash my Lincoln with a brillo pad and get less scratches than the golf gets during a normal week.

 

shinjari- yah, id do the trimming approach too. heating plastic is tricky as some tend to change color when heated, or leave a weird texture or discoloration. hope u get that speaker back soon. i had similar silly issues with my ohio made civic long time ago too. little things breaking within weeks of ownership or not working at all.

so u decided to try the HID's huh? cool.

clearbra isn't too hard to install even if the bumper has a bunch of curves. there is a bit of a learning curve to install, (big learning curve if you're going pro) but for the most part, these films are very forgiving.. even if you accidentally stretch the film it wont be obvious to a normal person.

the install can look like crap for a few weeks if you have soapy water you werent able to squeegee out correctly, but just leave it. dont force water out. eventually all will dry and look good. most importantly keep your fingers wet while touching the adhesive side, be patient, and wash your bumper and blast the nooks real well before install.

 

haha, ure like me with the GK. i dont remember the last time i washed the GK. i mean i know i washed it after winter to rid the salt from the engine bay and under carriage but that mightve been the last time i wash the car.

my wife took it to the car wash once after that..

ive had good luck with waterless washes. as long as one uses product liberally and lots of clean towels, no issue with swirls.


yah this paint is very delicate. i use Griot's super soft claybar these days that i call 'mud' cause it is so soft i have to wear disposable gloves or it will basically melt onto my hand in the summer months. it's good for the VW's paint if you want to try it. no hazing. and ive been using only the red wax pads to polish. anything else is too coarse for the paint unless super swirled.

 

Agreed! I think it's worse with the vehicles made in Mexico.

US and Europe switched to all water based paints years ago and have finally seemed to get the process right. Hopefully the years of peeling clear coats are passed the US based plants.

Mexico has not had as stringent rules for auto paints which allowed manufactures in the past the ability to use some paints that weren't legal in other parts of the world.

I think that many Mexican plants are now converting and using a mixture of old and new technologies. The result does not seem to be so good.

Walk through any Ford or Honda lot and you can usually pick out the Mexican made cars by the difference in their paint. To my eye, the Mexican made cars are usually actually shinier. I thought that was a good thing, but I'm now thinking that the paints are more delicate.

A good friend has this same problem with his Mexican built Focus ST.

All just theories and ideas. Father in-law is retired Honda plant manager and is the one that told me the Mexican plants got to use different paints.

 

Thanks! I'll order some now to try. The Wolfgang is quality, but not super soft. Pure, but more of a medium hardness.

 

k, got the more robust diverter valve installed on my GTI and took it out for a spin. i can definitely say that the boost feels more solid now and the car is more responsive to progressive increase to WOT. like if i pulsated the throttle input from 40%-80% back and forth, i can feel the consistent build up of torque whereas it felt kind of sloppy before. DSG's shifts are even more crisp too especially 1-2.

even at 90F pretty humid, oil temp 230F the car pulled hard! very cool.

 

damn... cant seem to find a good 1/4 drive extended ball hex bit set. they all seem to be 3/8 drive. im looking for 3 ~ 8 mm sizes.

when i was doing the diverter valve install on my GTI today i couldnt reach the screw head with my regular L shaped ball hex allen wrench so used a standard hex bit + flexible shaft adapter with a ratchet handle on the other end. i mean it worked since i didnt need to crank the torque real high, but with the super tight space i wish i had a simple 1/4" drive long ball hex bit. looked for a decent one online but failed and ended up falling asleep behind my MBP.. lol haha

woke up, grabbed some icecream and ended up getting a longer 1/4 shank ball hex power bit. guess im going to use my extended non-flex adapter this time when i do the GolfR's valve in a few days. at least this way i can get the angle i need plus the torque.

 

.. things we do for boost.

 

Yeah went to that site you gave me and Im contacted another vendor. Dont see how I the site can charge $200 for the JUST bumper, but I can get the COMPLETE partial kit (bumper/grille/headlights/partial hood fenders and side mirrors from another vendor for $260 for the same 3m material. Figure the trick is to start in the middle and work my way out. Then do the other half of the bumper. Dont undo the whole sheet at once.

As for HIDs they look good. The relay harness is just bad....or I think it is. Gonna try another one.

As for the speaker it is actually one of the kicker speakers I installed. The tweeter went out for some reason. Also my Civic is foreign made...in the UK LOL.

Hope everyone had a good monday.

 

hey GL with the install! yah, what i usually do is unless my wife can help me hold the other half of the larger sheet, i just tape some clothespins on the car and have them hold the other half while i work on one side. lol

im sure you can shop around to find better pricing, the link i sent was just a suggestion to start you off. but their install kit is pretty convenient if this is your first time doing the install. they give you 2 spray bottles and all the tools you'll need to do the install..well, less soap, distilled water, and rubbing alcohol.

ahh, good to hear it wasnt a honda warranty issue on the speaker cause they really need to get in the game to improve quality. the last decade they were plagued with stupid silly problems all too often making them not so 'honda'.

 

my wife's making us hambagu tonight. awesome, my favorite.

 

back to the grind ..

gotta work to play.. i finally finished the wife's furniture yesterday.
my wife got me a new extended JDM armrest for my STI. . should have it in my hands before the weekend.