Andy665

Just replaced the old Sony headunit in the BMW and really pleased with what I've got for the money.

Wanted something that looked subtle (no shiny silver etc), ideally with Bluetooth and started to look around, ending up taking a chance and buying this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/XTRONS-D708-7-Tou ... 563f55b3be

Arrived very quickly, looks solidly constructed and the features it has for the money are amazing

Might not be one for thr true audiophile but anyone looking for a decent amount of features for not a lot of money you could do a lot worse

Kev - I'm surprised you say that.

I'm a born and bred Northerner but spent 14 years living down in the South East, without a shadow of a doubt I found (on average of course) that Southerners were more pleasant and friendly than Northerners :D

Corozin - the wheels where for exactly that an E46 M3 engined E30 :D

Dropped off a set of Hartge wheels to someone in Bucks yesterday, when he opened the gates to his garden I was gobsmacked, cars everywhere and all his:

2x E30 M3's

Mercedes 190 2.5-16

BMW 850i

Various Alpina's

Maserati Shamal

ec etc

All in various states of repair, lovely bloke who said that he could never not buy anything interesting that was offered to him - wish I'd had my camera with me

Goldie - the non-resonated was a no brainer for me, JMR knows me well and he said that I'd be disappointed with the resonated system, quality of the system seemed better than for Corrados as well but still not a patch on the Eisenmann on the BMW

At 3.5k the non-resonated is a tiny bit louder than the standard exhaust, absolutely not intrusive though, I would imagine the resonated system is as quiet as standard, I went for the non-resonated as it allowed the VR burble to rerally come through when being worked hard but no less refined when cruising

I had a non-resonated Milltek fitted to my 4Mo - smae twin tailpipes as standard spec, good quality and the noise was superb, lovely burble at tickover, howled towards the redline but no noisier than stndard at normal cruising speeds. If you wanted to be extra safe go for the resonated system that has a centre box, if you appreciate the VR burble then its got to be non-resonated

is is also a good deal, was looking at these when at the original price, definitely being bought today at half price

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... &width=800

Thanks - coming from the owner of one of my all time favourite Corrado's I take that as a great compliment

Some fresh pics after a couple of days of re-assembly.

Car has been in for some paintwork to sort out 12 years worth of scratches and scuffs, interior re-trimmed, BBS splits to accompany the Hartge rims.

Yesterday was a deep clean of the interior thanks to 3 weeks worth of bodyshop dust, a thorough cleaning of floorpan and arches, made easy by BH Surfex and a wash and wipedown, desperate to do the paintwork but want to leave the paint to harden off for a couple more weeks

I don't think she looks too bad for a 12 year old 117k

Big Ben - got one of those underbody lances - worth their weight in gold, makes cleaning the floorpan so much easier

Judith

The work was done on block paving and it just rinsed away no problems at all - I'd heard people rave about this stuff but didn't think it could possibly as good as people were saying - I was wrong :D

I usually get it from www.elitecarcare.co.uk - the Bilt Hamber stuff is fantastic, just got some of the Dynax S50 anti-corrosion wax which is reckoned to be the best in the world

Decided to clean the arches and underbody of the BMW this afternoon - usually a painful, messy business but this time it was very different

Used Bilt Hamber Surfex surface degreaser - all I can say is wow. Sprayed on and left for a couple of minutes, re-sprayed and this time agitated gently and left for another couple of minutes then pressure washed off - job done.

Cheap at £14 for 5 litres and can be diluted down massively, I used 1 part Surfex to 3 parts water today

Knocks spots off every degreaser I have ever used - all four arches and floorpan cleaned of 12 years of dirt in under two hours

I served to avoid a dog a few years ago in my Racing Puma and hit the kerb, it still drove but didn't feel "right" - ended up needing over £3k of subframe / suspension work, at first glance underneath it did not appear to be anything major

Orange peel appears to be particularly bad on Audi and BMW's in recent years. Japanese paint quality appears tobe better but the payoff is thinner paint

 

3. Am fortunate enough to regularly drive cars 6-12 months before they go into full production

 

What do you do mate, sounds great!?

Spend some of my time working for manufacturers writing training material and content for new car launches - working on the Lexus CT 200h at the moment - drove it back in June and not going into production until December, weird to think no more than 4 English people have driven it - not even journalists

1. Recently diagnosed with "off the scale" Aspergers Syndrome but managed to cope perfectly ok with it all my life without knowing

2. Have a 3 year old who can identify virtually any car on the road

3. Am fortunate enough to regularly drive cars 6-12 months before they go into full production

Not got any before or afters but the ones on the Chipex website are 100% representative of what can be achieved - never as good as a respray but a huge amount better than just using a touch up pen. if you look really closely you can see where it has been touched in but will be invisible to most people

I have used Dr Colorchips from the States and just used a Chipex kit - results are identical but the Chipex kit is quicker to be delivered, better value and no hassle with the potential of getting hit with customs charges

VWRobboVW - great communication, turned up when he said he would - perfect buyer

Andy665 agrees with Kev twice in a week shocker :D

Good friend of mine has a really well sorted 993 and that gets driven as it was designed to be driven - hard but with a nod to mechanical sympathy - proving to be incredibly reliabe, wearing a few body scars but he bought it to drive and enjoy rather than to impress others

Kev - the Accord Type R was a cracking car, more of a true Type R in that it was stripped out, no air con as standard etc, it had an LSD, 2.2 litre VTEC lump pushing out 204 bhp, top speed was 140'ish, again you had to drive it hard but the chassis was a peach, very sharp

I think the biggest letdown with the Mk2 CTR was ditching the independent rear suspension, a damn good reason to buy an import CTR saloon which retains it

A friend of mine went from an AC Schnitzer tweaked E46 M3 to a Mk 1 Type R (both bought new) and much preferred it, reckoned that it took more effort to drive the Type R quickly and well which ultimately made it more satisfying.

I loved my two Racing Pumas and the Mk1 Type R was very close in concept / execution - quite amazing when you think that the FRP was an expensive and pretty bespoke product whereas the Type R was churned out in their thousands at a very affordable price

The R does have a lovely bark to the exhaust - still not as nice as a meaty 6 cylinder lump but those days have gone forever