not much going on today other than it's raining and
washing away the road salt. hope i can pull out my
MINI for some fun motoring this coming weekend!


man, i cant wait for the temps to rise... that rusting
DRAG wheel mess is really beginning to bug the hell
out of me. want to fix and paint it ASAP!


little OT...music talk...
started using this analog (duh) tube compressor
as my mix-down compressor for my music. with
the right setting the music program sounds GREAT
even after the digital peak limiter is applied at
intense levels to squash and push the mix's output
quite hot.

 

after working very late hours helping my customer at work
and not being able to get the z's last night i was SUPER TIRED
this am.

and driving to work was quite a journey. this was the first time
in 3yrs i actually wished i had a AT! hahahaha.

i wanted to just call in today but i had some urgent reports
for the same customer i had to submit and was forced to come
to work (while my assistant who im helping the last few days)
called in sick/late. WTF!!!

i must say i hated stepping on the clutch pedal and releasing it.
it was a pretty whippin' MT-newbish ride. lol

after consuming some nice large dosage of coffee, i
think im back and looking forward to my smooth ride
home.

 

yah, im still here... just been super busy with work and finally i think
i have the upper hand after getting bombarded by many many x100000
issues earlier this week.

temps are still 50F at best here so i cant work on the FitS's
fender PDR... plus i hear it's going to snow(?!) again in a few
days. damn it....

any thing going on with you guys out there?

 

had a good time motoring my MINI on saturday morning....hours before the rain/wind/snow..


had like 3" of snow on my FitS by this am.

Since i washed the GE8 and Hydro'ed a few weeks ago snow slid right off the roof when i used my snowbrum,
but not at all on my GD... i need to wash and
wax it soooooooon.

 

I know, I was surprised and pissed as f*** when it snowed on my car. It was so freakin cold and now my cars dirty again... I must give it a wash and wax job.

 

hahaha, yah luv4jdm i know wat you mean!


i was like WTF?!! when I woke up early morning and saw
all the white outside. i was a bit confused if it was just
seeing a bad dream or if i woke up back in December.

im glad we're going to be in the mid-50f's by late week... (which can change any moment...)

 

so this morning the wife and i left the house at the same time.

she in her GE (well, it's actually mine), and me in my GD. i
have to say the taffeta white GE's are fabulous to look at.

im sure some people might think im crazy, but i luv these
boxy cars and i think the FitS (especially the 09's) look
fantastic. they look HELLS better than the new MINI's
that's for sure. (not saying the Fit's look better than my
previous gen 03' MINI). LOL

 

looks like it's going to be about 50F and decent
tomorrow... im off work so im thinking about
getting my PDR tools out to fix that front fender
followed by a nice buffing to remove the paint
transfer and scuffage. (finally!)

 

I might just wash my car today pretty decent weather. Hopefully it doesn't randomly snow again... GL wit ur project.

 

luv4jdm- wow, pretty good weather 3 days in a row. hope you got a chance to wash your car.


i fixed(?) my FitS to about 90% which is good enough for me.

the fender was pretty bent up from the accident and the paint was
basically partially sheered off so even the lightest PDR push cracked
some areas of the paint. I did the work under the sun and even used
heatgun but still cracked the paint so i dont think there was any
more i could've done. after i was done though, i put a slab of clearbra
over the area so i think it'll last a good 4-5yrs. it's drying now. in
a few days it should look pretty good after all the solution gets out
from under the bra as it dries.

also upon inspection there were 2 small torn areas on the fender around
the lip where the metal is tucked under. can't really do much on that
so i touched it up real well. all the major scuffage was paint transfer
so i used my random orbital and polished it out. there's some scratched
areas where paint's missing but oh well. it's not too bad. i'll touch it up
when it gets even warmer.

not bad for "free."

 

took a pict this am to compare the fender. forgot to take a better pict on the damage from the front to
show how much scuffage i removed... oh well.


BEFORE.





NOW (not perfect but ok for a dd)

 

so today i got some new wheels..rota slipstreams in gunmetal
with polished lip. looks good. except i forgot to tell the shop
i didnt want to use the center caps... so i need to remove
them before taking some snaps. LOL

so i'll post some picts later on.

i brought home the rusted DR21's which im going to fix and
paint them this summer.

 

looks like it's going to be pretty warm tomorrow so im going to
touchup the silver on the bumper where im missing paint due
to the scuffage from the accident. almost there!

looks like rain though this weekend again.

 

just got done re-torquing the lugs on my new wheels. a good habit for those that dont know, lugs tends to backout after 5-10miles of driving so it's best to go back and re-torque them again.

i use anywhere from 80lbs to 85lbs/ft on my torque wrench.

 

hey anyone know a good place to get some light gray checkered flag decals for my car? i want to do those bmw-like flags where it goes over the fender.

kinda wanna cover up the scratches on that side of the car. LOL

 

i chose the new set of wheels 15x6.5 instead of the earlier 15x7 in hopes that the very minor rubbing in the front would go away (while turning) and lessen the torque steer while accellerating pretty hard while changing lanes.

both wheels are +40mm and happy to report that the FitS does quite better with 15x6.5 vs 15x7. using the same exact set of tires i was using before (ziex912 195/50 crapola's).

so, anyone in the market for wheels, you might want to consider the 15x6.5" size even though 15x7's look a tad better in terms of tire sidewall.

the sidewall flex difference goes undetected as far as steering response since the tires are pretty crappy to begin with.

 

Got a chance to pull-out my MINI over the weekend. not much else went on as far as car things, but I was happy to see that my FitS had no issue carrying back blinds for our house without folding the rear seats.

Installed those blindes, played some t-ball with my older son and played in my music room all day Sun while my FitS's were getting their carwash(rain). Hahahaha.

 

hummmm.... i think i made a wrong choice in color on my
Rota Slipstream. it looks good in the dusk/dawn, but too
brownish hue (bronze) during the day.

i thought i bought Gunmetal but Rota's Gunmetal is like brown.

anyone want to buy my new wheel set with the tires?
I think im going to get black with polished lip version.

$600 with tires (decent tread left on tires 70% or more)
local pickup only. (chicago burbs).

 

hummm... was looking at the wheels today and for some reason it looks better than before. werd. not sure maybe the color needs to be broken in. jk

 

then today it didnt look all that great. LOL

i think im going to sell these and get another set soon. it looks fine, but
just not my taste.