Well it’s been my 2nd weekend since the end of the project and of course I still need to tinker with something. I took this opportunity to address my corner lights as the “diamond clears” were just too bling for my liking. There are lots of options out there when it comes to corner lights but I don’t really like any of them! The frosted look of the OEM Ambers, Clear style and Smoked just don’t do it for me as the difference in texture compared to the headlights just doesn’t flow.

Here is what I started out with today, with the help of a Dremel and a cut-off wheel I was able to separate the lenses from the housings. After that I masked off the areas I wanted to paint and scuffed down the areas that I wanted to paint. You can see in the pics I had the center pieces masked off but I ended up painting them in the end.I used Dupli-color trim paint which is a Satin Black finish which matches the headlamps.

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After the paint dried I used a soldering iron to “Plastic Weld” the lenses back to the housings. They came out pretty good. I think they compliment the headlights rather well however I am not sure that I am sold on them yet. I am considering painting them silver to match the trim now and doing the housing portions of the headlamps too. We’ll see but this is what I have for now, I am very satisfied with the results. They are different but better than Amber, cleaner than the Clears and flow better than the Smoked.

Well it was an extremely long weekend, not to mention a long 10 weeks! It has taken me the past week of trying to relax around my full time job to adapt to my new found extra time! The weather has been beautiful and it has been nice to be able to take a break for once. As for the show, everything was a great success. Thursday morning of March 11th, we were on the road by 9:30am and had a nice easy ride all the way to the International Center in Toronto. I ended up driving my 2000 Lightning and the ACS and Mustang followed on car trailers.

The rest of the day was spent detailing and setting up at the show. It was nice that all 3 cars managed to be positioned next to each other to make set-up and sharing of detailing products very easy! I had a few friends help me out, so big thanks to: Mike, Chuck, Andrew, Jordan and my Wife! Everything went smoothly, just took up a lot of time. Had to jack up the cars once they were inside to adjust the coil overs and of course the detailing took forever! The cars had collected quite a bit of dirt, dust etc. I would like to give a huge thanks to Carpolish.CA for providing the ZAINO products used to detail the cars. The instructions were intense but WOW does it ever work great!

Friday was the first day of the show and it was great to meet people and answer questions to those who had been following the project along. It was also my Birthday so I managed to take full advantage of free meals at local restaurants. Saturday and Sunday were some long days but friends, family and fans kept me busy. Here you can see a few pictures taken by myself, friends and others who have been kind enough to send over their pics.

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Sunday was the awards day and I am pleased to say that the 1992 BMW ACS and the 2000 Ford SVT Lightning came Runner-Up in their respected classes. Unfortunately the Mustang was up against some pretty fierce competition and did not bring home any awards. I am very proud to have not come home empty handed, it’s been a long few months but I feel great knowing I had finished this project and possibly look forward to another in the future!

I want to personally thank everyone who has sponsored, contributed and/or followed along fun. You all definitely made this project worth while and kept me motivated to work on these cars every night after my full time job! TIP2?

A big thanks goes out to HID Canada! Jason, was simply awesome to work with and he kindly sponsored TIP with a full 6000k H1 HID kit. I was impressed when opening the box that their kits comes with a spare bulb! That’s right, 3 bulbs in total. Great concept, as it allows you to have one on hand in case one burns out and you can warranty the other instead of having to drive around with a burnt out light!

Installation of this kit is super simple and the hardest part is finding a good spot to mount the Ballasts. They are what provide the power needed to properly power the lights. With the headlights out I found a great spot on the actual bumper re-bar to mount them. I had to file out the mounting hole of the ballast just enough to get the bolt used to go through the hole I found on each side of the bumper!

The picture above shows the hole I used. Using this hides the ballast and keeps it away from all the elements! I did not need to extend any of the harnesses, it was completely plug and play! I did have to modify my headlight housings some to allow the wires to pass through the housings and connect to the bulbs. As shown in the picture below.

As you can see, the results are fantastic and a good alignment will light up the road wonderfully! Again a big thanks to HID Canada! These are definitely stand up kits and I would highly recommend them to anyone looking to upgrade their lighting.

Well I knew it was coming but wow does it all come fast… I am not even 24 hours away from getting to the show yet and I fear all the things I am going to have to do and get ready etc. I have not filmed the past 2 days as I am trying to stay focused on all the million other things I need to do. Tomorrow will be a long day and most likely night trying to get the cars cleaned up as much as possible prior to taking them to the show. I will be filming so be sure to watch out for that!

My plans were to drive both my Lightning and the BMW and trailer the Mustang, however due to insurance issues I will be having to trailer the BMW. It seems that State Farm has finally pulled the plug on my modified vehicles and its only a matter of time before my Lightning gets denied as well. Needless to say I will be insurance shopping next week as the weather is just awesome and it’s time to be driving something nice again.

Well I am running out of time so I better get back to work. I hope see you guys at the show! Be sure to come check the cars out in person! Parking is free too. www.performanceworldcarshow.com

I had the pleasure of having a personal visit from Mark Dsylva (aka. Mark D) creator of DSylva-Tech yesterday. This guy is a bit of a legend on a few BMW forums I frequent. He has been making custom chips for OBD-I BMW’s for a while now and was kind enough to provide me with a custom chip. Although I already had a Bavarian Auto chip, since the M3 cam install it was time for a tune that would utilize the cars modifications and bring out its full potential.
The installation process is very simple and even a person with next to little experience working on cars could do it. The following pictures below outline the steps that were taken in order to install the new chip. The metal tabs that must be bent backwards are very brittle and all of mine are now broken due to frequent entry into the DME. Do not worry too much as the 4 main screws hold it together just fine!

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This chip should make a significant difference in the performance of the 1992 BMW and Mark is excited to hear the results when I drive it up to the show this week. I could tell right away when starting the car that the idle was even smoother. This particular chip is made to run on 91 octane gas (and higher of course), and also takes into account my modifications such as, exhaust, cams, cold air intake, pulleys, etc… He also has a red line set to 7500 rpm. He told me he normally does 7100 but knows how I like to push the limits sometimes so it should be interesting to see!

Mark, I would like to thank you again for making the trip to see me in person and even help install the chip! It was an honor. To anyone out there looking for some nice canned tunes (or maybe a custom one if you’re willing to pay for it) Mark is the guy to talk to, he really knows his stuff. Be sure to visit his website or you can contact him directly at:  mark@dsylva-tech.ca