One thing that drives me nuts about the “bottle cap” rims is that they’re impossible to clean. If you leave the brake dust on the wheels it eats into the surface and you cannot really get your fingers in the slots to keep them clean when you wash the car. Since I had a little …
I talked to the experts at Paint World and upon their recommendation, added a third coat of clear to the hood. That made all the difference to get the repainted hood to match the shine of the fenders. I had some paint and clear coat left over so I also repainted the rear panel around …
It took a week longer than I planned, and many more cans of paint, but I finally finished the hood. I still need to polish it, but it looks pretty good.
The hood on the BMW has one of the worst paint jobs I’ve ever seen. It’s like the history of paint. I think there’s at least 4 layers, the top coat being a very cheap, very thick respray one of the previous owners had done after something fell on the hood. The paint was burned …
I always thought the stock grille on the Cooper S was a bit of a contradiction. It wasn’t all chrome and it wasn’t all painted. It just looked incomplete. I like the look of the grille included with the Aero Kit, but didn’t want to go through the expense of replacing both bumper covers and …
I went in to Behe Performance for a track-day inspection. I got that, but I also got a couple of surprises — one pleasant and one expensive. I knew my car was leaking oil. You could see it dripping at the drain plug. But it turns out the pan seal was going bad and the …
There is a very easy and inexpensive way to get XM radio in your ’02-06 MINI. The install process described below can be done with simple hand tools, and takes less than 20 minutes. I became interested in satellite radio for a couple of reasons: first and foremost, it’s a gadget and I’m weak when …
Driving on the track in the extreme cold, I noticed how the supercharger really responded to the cold. I did some research and found that the stock intercooler and diverter has a thermal efficiency (TE) of only about 65%. Before paying a lot of money for more surface area, why not try to improve TE? …
The development of the Garage-mahal took a significant step forward yesterday. We have been attempting for almost a year to get our driveway repaved. Actually, paved would be more appropriate. Only about twenty feet of the old driveway could be called paved, the rest was gavel, rubble, dirt, or grass. The plan was simple enough: …
I finally got around to installing the B&M Short Shifter kit I bought last year. I like this kit because it reduces both the throw and length of the shifter. It is almost 2 inches shorter than the stock one. The install is pretty straight forward, though somewhat time consuming. Instructions. A couple of the …