So being as I love to match just about anything to anything else I own, I splurged and bought some new shoes to match all of my toys! Featured in these pictures are 3 different pairs of DC Shoes which I imported from the USA from Amazon at a fraction of the cost for which the shoes would sell for here. Not to mention the selection here isn’t very good and it is impossible to find anything larger than a size 10! (DC hook me up!)

- Click for Slideshow

BTW if someone from DC Shoes see’s this and wants to hook me up with any freebies?!? I am game!

So it’s been forever since I have posted here but life has been crazy over the past 6 months. I have since left Texas and moved to Dubai, UAE. Things are pretty amazing here and I encourage anyone to come check it out if they ever have the opportunity. I am working a full time job of course but have not forgotten about my passion for cars! I originally shipped the Lightning over and it was only 1 of a handful in all of the UAE! With that said, I got an offer I could not refuse and sold it! I will soon be onto another project which I will be updating you all with shortly!

Of course we all know my love for BMW’s and you have all posted on my POLL for my next project… Needless to say I got a 2003 Hamann ///M5 BMW. What an amazing car. It came with quite the mod list including:

• Hamann full length headers
• Hamann mid pipe
• Hamann catback
• Hamann tuning
• Hamann Body kit & Badging
• Hamann 19″ staggered wheels

Aside from all the Hamann add ons there are several other things like Billstein PPS9 coil overs, HID lighting, Brake cooling ducts, etc. I will soon be installing a set of AFE cold air intakes from Turner Motorsports and a few other goodies I won’t reveal just yet! Be ready for tons of great info and work on this beast of a car! For a some more information now… Check this article which the ///M was featured in from Crank and Piston…

So after almost 4 years of having dyed the interior in my Lightning it was time to do a few touch ups. People always go on and on about painting interior plastics. But did you know some companies paint their pieces from Factory? Normally cars that have 2 toned pieces such as a dash or door panels, there will be one primary color and the secondary is usually a result of dye/paint.

Since my Lightning only ever had a Gray option I was quick to dye the interior black. I had dyed dozens of Mustang Interior, BMW interiors, Hondas etc. I have used black, white, blue, red, gray dyes and paints. There are many options out there when it comes to the paint/dye you want to use and it can be extremely confusing. What it really comes  down to tho is the prep work. Much like painting a car.

Plastics & Vinyl

Paint/Dye options. You will notice that most now saw plastic/vinyl and both will work just fine as most interior consist of these two materials. Please note that you CAN use this on leather with great results as well. So here are some options you may come across these days:

• SEM (limited vendors and expensive but great quality and my personal pick)
• VHT (available through most auto stores such as Autozone, Advanced Auto Parts, Pep Boys etc. Also a very good option)
• Krylon (Wal Mart and has a great spray nozzle and super cheap!)
• Rustoleum (Recently seen this taking over the dupli-color options at Auto-Zone, great color selection and haven’t used it yet)
• Dupli-color (Most auto stores and “okay” quality hard to find some colors)
• Dealer (Yes you will know you can buy interior paint directly from the dealer if they used it, be prepared to pay, good quality but you pay for it and inconvenient)
• Dupont (You can buy it by the gallon if you wish and mix it and spray it through a paint gun for bulk projects)

Gloss/Satin/Flat: Lots of controversy over this and I have used all of them. In my honest opinion stay away from Gloss finishes. It looks cheap, reflects light into your face and just looks cheesy. There are however sometimes a time and place for it with some custom interiors. If you are after a factory OEM finish like most cases, you will want a “flat” or “satin” finish. It really depends on what you prefer. I tend to lean towards a satin finish since it gives a nice clean look. I also find that the flat finishes tend to scratch a little more easily as they have no sheen what so ever. The sheen sometimes allows things to “slide” a bit better.

So along with all these options, some of the manufacturers of these paint and dye products  also have available their own “special” cleaners and adhesion promoters etc. They are sometimes even more expensive than the paint itself! Don’t be fooled by such gimmicks. The best way to prep your surfaces prior to paint is to use the right products and to take your time!

Here we go!

1. Get some dish soap (yes the kind you wash your dishes with). Make sure it doesn’t have hand lotion or any other weird stuff (scented is okay)
2. Bucket of nice warm water and add a good amount of soap.
3. Get one of those cellulite sponges that has the scotch pad on the back
4. With your interior panels removed and in a clean area wash them down with your water and sponge really well. Also go over the whole area with the scotch pad side of your sponge. This will help “scratch” the surface to give the paint something to stick to. (don’t worry it will not damage the surface)
5. Use clean paper towel to dry your panels off completely. You will be amazed at the dirt and grime and old Armor All you remove! Wash them again if you feel they are still dirty. Some parts you may have to use a tooth brush (like on dash vents)
6. Use a clean cloth and poor some Acetone on it and wipe down the surface you are about to paint. It will dry itself and this will make sure your surface is free of any dirt or oil. Acetone can be found in the household paint area in Wal-Mart
7. In a well ventilated area place your pieces out on a big piece of cardboard or whatever you got to make it easy to paint and get access to. Be creative! Make sure there isn’t much wind and that you have good lighting. Make sure to mask off any pieces/areas you don’t want painted.
8. Shake your can of paint/dye well and apply light thin coats almost “misting” it on. The idea is to get a uniform look and not to have a “splotchy” finished product.
9. For color changes this could be 5-6 coats.
10. Let dry and reinstall! – Note: Interior dye dries fast! Like 10 minutes fast, but I recommend waiting 12-24 hrs prior to handling for re-install.

- Click for Slideshow

The pics above are some I recently took of my lightning.. The interior was gray and originally I had dyed it with VHT Flat Black  interior paint. After 4 years and 40, 000 miles there were a few marks on the kick panels and door sill plates and I wanted to try a Satin finish. This time around I used Krylon. So far so good! Before I had some Silver accents in the interior that I wanted to get rid of also. It used to look like this!

Carpet:

- Don’t waste your money on an aftermarket rug if yours is in good shape. Do the following:

1. Remove the Carpet
2. Remove any sound insulation from the back
3. Get a large garbage can and fill with warm water if possible
4. Add 15 boxes of RIT dye from Wal-Mart in the Laundry Detergent Section
5. Mix Well
6. Add your carpet one chunk at a time (wear gloves!)
7. Move the carpet around as you eventually get the whole thing in the can and submerged
8. Wait an hour
9. Remove the carpet slowly and put it back in another way to avoid light spots and creases
10. Submerge (use of a cinder block helps) and let sit overnight
11. Remove and rinse off with hose until water rinses clear (pressure washer OK!)
12. Let dry
13. Re-install

Not only will your carpet look like NEW and be all cushy again, but it will fit like OEM because it is! No trimming and cutting and it will NOT RUB OFF!

Headliner:

Easy to recover with the material of your choice. Remove headliner and peel off the material and recover using 3M industrial grade spray glue! Make sure to spray both sides of the surfaces.

If you wish to just paint your old one… Don’t waste your money on material paint. Buy the $1 cans of black primer from Home Depot and paint in cross X patterns each coat. Get a soft brush and brush in-between coats to get soft again!

Reinstall!

More Seafoam action recently performed as well! I have been busy on lots of small projects. I am thinking of setting up my camera over at my buddies place to film some of these little things to bring the “LIVE” aspect back to this page! A fellow SVT owner was by the other day to get some help with some maintenance on his 2003 SVT Cobra! As most of you will know these are bad ass Mustangs! Very minimal mods gets these cars running numbers in the 1/4 mile. Shown below in the Youtube vid, you can see we gave it some Seafoam treatment!

Also the car received, new plugs and fuel filter change, and air filter cleaning! Didn’t snap any pics of this project but did get the vid of the Seafoam coming out! Again, I do plan to start filming all these little projects again and will follow up with more info.

Before coming to Austin TX we sold my Wife’s e36 back in Canada as we could get more $$$ for it there. Once  we arrived here I found a great deal on this Steel Blue 330ci with premium and executive package. She absolutely loves this car and now that she is in an e46 she won’t look back. Unfortunately, not too long after getting the car, the fender had a small encounter with a concrete pillar due to the horrid parking areas in which we live.

It could have been much worse but no biggie. Jacked the car up, took off the wheel and removed the inner fender. Then some patience with a hammer and an old connecting rod (pics to come) was used to bring the fenders shape back to life! Sometimes you have to make the tools you have around you work right? So about 45 mins of shaping and hammering almost no filler was needed at all. Not bad considering the body line of the wheel well was affected.

- Click for Slideshow

Some follow up pictures to follow with paint of course I am just glad the dent is gone. Oh and after I was done, my buddy and I had a bit of a tailgate party down in the garage.. mmmmmm Barbecue!

So a good friend of mine recently picked up this amazingly clean 1994 325i. The car has 180k miles but sure doesn’t look like it! Luckily the previous owner was a painter for BMW here in Austin. Car has the complete M3 aesthetics package and lowered on some Eibach Sportline springs. The car did need a little bit of TLC so we quickly got to work to check things over.

First off was the cabin filter! To do this you remove the glove box and the panel underneath and squeeze your hand behind the center console. The old filter came out in a few pieces and was just disgusting. You will see in the pictures below the old vs the new.

Next was the repair to the intake boot. This boot is notorious for cracking on e36′s and creates lovely vacuum leaks and idle surges. For now, a good cleaning to the area, some automotive GOOP and good as new!

The car seemed like it was lacking a bit of power for a 325 despite the mileage. So some seafoam was in order. Seafoam is a product that continues to grow in popularity and I swear by it. It can be added to your oil, fuel or directly sucked in through your vacuum system. In this case we removed the Vac line to the brake booster and sucked in about 3/4 of the can. You want to be careful and keep the car running be giving it good throttle until you get the desired amount into the engine. Then you turn the car off and wait 5-10 minutes. Put your Vac line back on then drive it like you stole it! Lots of smoke will come out of your exhaust and I mean lots! So drive it until no more smoke appears

This made a significant different in the way this car drove. We also performed and oil change and changed the struts, shocks and lower control arm bushings! More work to come as this car continues to get upgraded.

- Click for Slideshow

So in preparation for a HUGE Ford SVT Lightning cruise to take place in February 2011. It is in Old Town (just outside of Orlando Florida). I have a huge list of things I want to do to get the truck ready, one of them being the modification of my taillights. I will be doing another post on how I open up the lenses and paint all the chrome body color to match the truck.  However, in order to get this task done and the truck being my daily driver I needed a set of temporary taillights!

A good friend of mine here in Austin had an old set that he failed at using VHT Nightshades to smoke out the lenses. Let’s just say they were as black as the darkest night you have ever seen! I appreciated the donation but thought this would be asking to get pulled over by the popo. I figured I would try to remove the spray and see if i couldn’t salvage them!

As you can see in the pictures below, the results were phenomenal!

- Click for Slideshow

Here are the steps I used:

• wet sanded the lenses with 400 grit until all the spray tint was no longer visible
• proceeded with 800, 1000, 1500 grit papers
• used a buffing wheel with some medium scratch remover (turtle wax)
• voila! brand new looking lenses.

To my surprise these lenses had the carbon fiber look on the insides which I wasn’t even able to see prior to beginning this project. Was the time spent worth it? Hell yes, it only took my an hour from start to finish including installation on my truck!

Check back for the full update on how I modify my old ones!

Hey All,

Please excuse my horrible efforts to keep my site up to date. A lot has happened since Performance World and the first cruise of 2010! I have relocated to Austin Texas for work and pretty much packed everything up from home and moved south! I have been here for 2 months now and just love it. Lots of opportunity here and I hope to continue delivering some builds and project in the near future. Unfortunately I just installed an AEM computer setup in my friends 335i BMW and didn’t even take a pic to show the wiring pining and install process I will be sure to keep y’all posted with new stuff soon. Here is a sneak peek of a few pictures taken today helping my friend fix some panels from his bike! More details to follow!

Update on the project cars:

• The only vehicle I have with me in TX is my 2000 Lightning and I drove it all the way down with only the possessions that would fit in the back. Currently waiting for a new set of 23″ tires to show up as my old ones were Bald..
• The Mustang Convertible is now in the hands of my very good friend from back home. He has been enjoying the car all summer and has entered a few shows with great reviews and has not yet brought it to the track.
• The ACS BMW has been in taken care of by a good friend of mine back home and is currently listed for sale If you are interested please be sure to send me an email.  Here are some up to date pics of the car. It has been running great!

- Click for Slideshow

So after many hours and frustrations in regards to the 1992 ACS BMW I finally got it out in time to participate in a local forums opening cruise! Shortly after the Performance World Show in March I noticed that the engine all of a sudden would make a horrible sound resulting in loss of power and misfire above 2500rpm. At first I thought perhaps the cams were out of sync so I re-timed them yet again, this did not solve the issue. After that, I changed the DME, Fuel Filter, Plugs and anything that would cause such an issue under Load. Finally, after advice from some BMW shops, it was concluded that the chain guides were most likely damaged.

Lucky for me, a good friend (Boots) was kind enough to give me his old M50 motor from his 1992 BMW. He recently had an S52 swap into his car and offered me his motor as a good gesture. Needless to say, I did not waste any time. Friday night at 7pm I started working on the car and by 12am the replacement engine was in place and bolted down. It would have been sooner however, I swapped over some key parts like my: Turner Motorsports Lightweight Flywheel, Clutch, UUC Pullies, Changed the Plugs, Oil, Tightened the oil pan bolts, Installed the OBD2 headers etc.

The car sat for Saturday and Sunday morning me and my buddy flushed and bled the coolant and got the front end of the car bolted back on in efforts to catch up with the 2010 opening cruise for MaxBimmer . We were running a little late and unfortunately no one was able to provide us with route information as it is always kept a secret until the cruise starts. All we knew is that the cruise was to come through my town of Peterborough later in the day. Me and my buddy set out to start driving to key points to figure out where we might intercept them but had no luck. We drove approximately 100kms and just as we gave up and were heading towards home we intersected the cruise right in the middle! What Luck.

The weather was absolutely beautiful and my arm is burnt to prove it. There was about 50+ BMWs that were on the cruise and although a few bad apples that don’t know the difference between a race track and a cruise made things a little stressful, there were no tickets given. Near the end we were confronted by the O.P.P (State Police) and they pulled us all over on the side of the highway. No tickets were given, just an hour wasted.

The car never skipped a beat and ran beautifully. Approximately 4000rpms most of the time due to the 3:91 LSD. With the fan delete mod and no back up cooling the car performed amazing and never overheated or gave any issues. We ended up travelling a total of ~400kms (250miles) and only used just shy of 1/2 tank of fuel. I was very impressed.  Below are a few more shots from the cruise.

- Click for Slideshow

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.

- Click for Slideshow

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?