November 22, 2008

Minor Body Work

After removing the rear aero flares that are apart of the appearance package that came from the factory, I noticed they left these nifty drill holes at the bottom of my rear bumper. I had gotten together with Marcux from RX8 club (Donnie) to patch this up.

Below is the steps I observed him perform on my bumper. I'll have him chime in if I missed something or spelt something wrong, as I'm not exactly very "body work" savvy.

1. Clean out the drill holes using a small sanding pen
2. Fill the holes with JB Weld - Let dry for 1 hour
3. Coat top layer of JB Weld with spot putty - Let dry for 30 minutes
4. Sand down flat with 2000 grit sand paper
5. Make sure it is smooth
6. Apply touch up paint over the spots - Let dry for 1 hour
7. Coat with clear coat brush - Let dry for 1 day
8. Wet sand with 2000 grit sand paper lightly
9. Rub in the rubbing compound to smooth out - Then buff out
10. Rub in polish compound - Then buff out
11. Apply wax
12. Buff out

Below are pictures in respective order-

November 20, 2008

A Greener Approach

Corksport really took care of me on this special little order here. It was back ordered from Green for about a month when I originally placed the order, but they stayed true to their expected delivery date to my doorstep. Their pricing was fair and they kept in close contact with me throughout the entire month, making sure I was well informed on when they would be getting it, and when it would be shipped and so forth. My friends have used Corksport many times, (buddies in NEPOC for their Proteges) but this was my first real time dealing with them (I ordered this along with my Knight Sport oil filters way back when) and I am just impressed with them. They certainly have a customer for life when I need parts they have.

As for the filter, a great review was provided by RX Reviews a long while ago that I stumbled upon. Reading it, it seems that the Green filter is a much better product all around then the K&N filter. It may essentially "filter less" but that simply means you just need to use the recharge kit at something like 15,000 miles as opposed to 30,000. I had swapped this in and immediately noticed the difference in the tone of the intake, both at idle and acceleration. At idle, you can hear more of the vacuum like noise coming from my Racing Beat air duct, while when accelerating, it's a deep strong sound. The gains are not too much. Some claim 2HP over K&N, but then again, my K&N filter was real dirty, so I would not be surprised if I managed to even get 5HP gain or something. Either way, feels good, sounds great, and for the same price as a K&N filter, I would go with this. Besides, I think everyone I know has K&N, why not be different?

November 16, 2008

LED Upgrade

Wasn't liking the look to my parking lights anymore. I had purchased from superbrightleds.com the single LED for the parking lights above. They were great at first, decently bright and white matching the HID headlights to a point. But then, I had heard from Altspace about the parking LEDs from v-leds.com that are cheaper, better, and 4 LEDs for just a single parking light. The results are seen below, and boy what a difference! Now whenever I am behind someone, I won't think my parking lights died on me!

November 11, 2008

More Interior Decorating

Decided to finish what we had started at Josh's not that long ago and really paint the center console trim. If you remember from my old post, we had simply sprayed piano black colored paint and were done with it. Came out nice, but still had some nicks and bubbles. Today, we sanded it down to make it extra smooth and get rid of the nicks, then decided to paint it flat black to try and match the interior. The results were nothing less then amazing. It looked stock and looked great as you can see from the pictures.

Since we had the center console off, I needed to adjust my side brake as well, so that as I pull it up, I'm not pulling to a 90 degree angle. Also patched up two small rust spots where the doors meet at the bottom sill, I guess that is common with 04.

Lastly, we took off my rear appearance package. Was not really feeling the look, it's a different approach, plus I noticed a lot of Japanese tuners leave the rear alone and just use side skirts and a front bumper or something. In my opinion, it looks GREAT. It really helps accent my wider tires and my camber in the rear, while showing off more of the appearence package on the side and front, as taking it off gives the car more shape. No pictures of that now, but check back soon for pictures of it on other posts!

November 9, 2008

Quick Detail

Had a small get together at Bob's house to educate him on proper detailing, while also washing ours cars. Really small, just me, Oleg and James to help out. Bob had gotten the full treatment first, starting with a wash. We then lightly dried the car to get it ready for the clay bar.
For those who are unfamiliar with "claying your car", it is a process in which it removes built up surface dirt that normal washing of the car cannot remove. Sometimes you may need to clay off cone rash or tarmac, but after claying, you will need to reapply wax, as it also removes that.

After claying his car, we had then applied 3 coats of this special wax that Oleg has, that you actually need to mix before using. After waxing and buffing on and off 3 times, we pulled Bob's car out for the final touch, some wheel wax. All in all, the end result was great and his paint (White pearl) really shimmered. Products used were:
Poorboy's World Super Slick & Suds Concentrated Car Wash
Zaino Z-18 Claybar with diluted Zaino Z-7 car wash
Jeff's Werkstatt Prime Strong
Zaino Z-5 Pro Wax (Synthetic Sealant)
Zaino Z-8 Grand Finale Sealant

Pictures, including pictures of Oleg's new 2006 Mazda Miata are all here!

November 1, 2008

Best Motoring International - Japan VS USA Drift Off

This month's Best Motoring was packed with a humorous drift battle, a great demonstration of the new M5's abilities, a bit on the Solstice, finishing off with some coverage of Orido's and Taniguchi's racing career. The DVD was not that bad at all, but did not have that eye catching media to it like the Civic Type R episode. It was a nice coverage of the M5, and the drift battle was very enjoyable (especially for NC Miata drivers), but again, not everything it could have been. This is more of a straight to the point video - Drift Battle - Circuit Race - Solstice in Action - then some commentary on the others.

If I were to have this on my list to get, I would only be getting it for the drift battle, seeing Ken Gushi and Rhys Millen, otherwise I wasn't really into this episode as I am most of the others.