Internal cumbustion builds..Cars/Bikes/Trucks..Show them old build pics etc...

Lorddarthvik

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Stuff is finally happening!
Fixed the thing that holds the trunk opening button and licence plate lights in place. Scrubbed the rusty spots, added anti rust base and paint, then applied new screws so it won't be falling off the car anymore.
Did some anti rust plus paint on the rear arches.
Started on doing up the horrible lacquer peel on both sides and fixing up the very scratched bumper. (pictured after paint, no lacquer yet). Idgaf about doing it properly. No filler and scrubbing anything flat and shiny.. Just a quick scratch and the paint goes on. The cars just not worth the effort.

Also pulled the dark film from the trunk window on the X3, it was wrinkly and throwing chips into the cabin. All of em need changing but at least we can see out the back window now, the wrinkles were really getting bad.

Top tip that actually works : let the car sit in the summer sun for a couple of hours, once heated enough you can pull the film without it leaving any glue behind. Well worth the patience, especially if you are looking for someone to put on a new film and won't diy it. They will be really greatful and it might even be cheaper as you don't have to pay for hours spent removing film.

Anyway, story time: I'm on holiday, finally got my own garden all week as its owned by family, so I can work on the cars to my hearts content. Unless the kids keep bothering me, which is 99.99999% of my time but that's alright. Anyways, I went into town after finding a paints shop via Google maps. For context we are in what's considered the countryside, but it's kinda major town in the region. Found the shop , lovely lady dressed in a black dress greets me with a smile, asks wth I want. She starts looking on the pc for which set of bmw color cards she needs to find my exact paint color. Already a bad sign lol. Anyway, we go out to the car, non of em match, so we decide on the factory color code card. It's gonna be good enough. Random painter guy arrives, obviously a pro at painting houses. Starts chatting her up. Lady tells me and the guy she would need at least 10 mins to fill a spraycan for me. I'm like alright, I got time. Biggest mistake i could make.. Anyway, she says she starts up the machine, while I tell her I'll go hit the government fag shop (yes that is a thing here unfortunately) to buy some cigs and a coke that's just on the next corner. 15 minutes later I come back. She tells me she hasn't even started on my paints yet.
Filled the guys order for 8liters of wall paint, had to make phone calls to her boss to ask for measurements and shit. Then after like 40 mins she started on my paints. While she was doing it she served 3 other customers who just wanted regular paints and masking tapes and stuff. She wasn'tike totally dumb to the business, she explained the difference between all the different masking tapes to a customer in such technical detail even I had no idea about. But still.

It took her 1.5 hours to get me 2 cans of fucking carpaint!!
Goddamn it was slow lol
It was really chill and all, typical countryside, but damn I would have been fine waiting only 30 mins for it lol

IMG_20230815_161242.jpg



The real punch for the end of that story is that next to the fag shop, just 1 min walk away from the paint shop, was the local specialist Car Paint Shop!!! Shouldn't have listened to Google map first choice hahahaha


Edit2: BTW tby the end of the week, I play to put on all the dumb fake stickers I bought on Ali express. Completing the meme aspect of the car. There will be an actual "shopping list" on the doors that's for sure hahaha

Edit 3:.before you freak out about me doing a trash job "fixing up the paint". I know, but I have reasons. I want to change the front bumper to something cooler, which is cracked in 3626 places and needs professional fixing anyways. The rear arches need bodywork done, what I'm doing is just to keep it in check until I can afford it. It's gonna be ugly but it wont rust anymore. The paint peel I am handling as much as it needs to be, cleaning up beforehand, sanding it back, and it doesn't need any bog on it as its straight, just needs paint. Also I either do this now the best I have time for, or not at all for at least another year due to my circumstance of not having access to a private spot, only public street parking where it's very illegal to do any of this.
 
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Stuff is finally happening!
Fixed the thing that holds the trunk opening button and licence plate lights in place. Scrubbed the rusty spots, added anti rust base and paint, then applied new screws so it won't be falling off the car anymore.
Did some anti rust plus paint on the rear arches.
Started on doing up the horrible lacquer peel on both sides and fixing up the very scratched bumper. (pictured after paint, no lacquer yet). Idgaf about doing it properly. No filler and scrubbing anything flat and shiny.. Just a quick scratch and the paint goes on. The cars just not worth the effort.

Also pulled the dark film from the trunk window on the X3, it was wrinkly and throwing chips into the cabin. All of em need changing but at least we can see out the back window now, the wrinkles were really getting bad.

Top tip that actually works : let the car sit in the summer sun for a couple of hours, once heated enough you can pull the film without it leaving any glue behind. Well worth the patience, especially if you are looking for someone to put on a new film and won't diy it. They will be really greatful and it might even be cheaper as you don't have to pay for hours spent removing film.

Anyway, story time: I'm on holiday, finally got my own garden all week as its owned by family, so I can work on the cars to my hearts content. Unless the kids keep bothering me, which is 99.99999% of my time but that's alright. Anyways, I went into town after finding a paints shop via Google maps. For context we are in what's considered the countryside, but it's kinda major town in the region. Found the shop , lovely lady dressed in a black dress greets me with a smile, asks wth I want. She starts looking on the pc for which set of bmw color cards she needs to find my exact paint color. Already a bad sign lol. Anyway, we go out to the car, non of em match, so we decide on the factory color code card. It's gonna be good enough. Random painter guy arrives, obviously a pro at painting houses. Starts chatting her up. Lady tells me and the guy she would need at least 10 mins to fill a spraycan for me. I'm like alright, I got time. Biggest mistake i could make.. Anyway, she says she starts up the machine, while I tell her I'll go hit the government fag shop (yes that is a thing here unfortunately) to buy some cigs and a coke that's just on the next corner. 15 minutes later I come back. She tells me she hasn't even started on my paints yet.
Filled the guys order for 8liters of wall paint, had to make phone calls to her boss to ask for measurements and shit. Then after like 40 mins she started on my paints. While she was doing it she served 3 other customers who just wanted regular paints and masking tapes and stuff. She wasn'tike totally dumb to the business, she explained the difference between all the different masking tapes to a customer in such technical detail even I had no idea about. But still.

It took her 1.5 hours to get me 2 cans of fucking carpaint!!
Goddamn it was slow lol
It was really chill and all, typical countryside, but damn I would have been fine waiting only 30 mins for it lol

View attachment 24812


The real punch for the end of that story is that next to the fag shop, just 1 min walk away from the paint shop, was the local specialist Car Paint Shop!!! Shouldn't have listened to Google map first choice hahahaha


Edit2: BTW tby the end of the week, I play to put on all the dumb fake stickers I bought on Ali express. Completing the meme aspect of the car. There will be an actual "shopping list" on the doors that's for sure hahaha

Edit 3:.before you freak out about me doing a trash job "fixing up the paint". I know, but I have reasons. I want to change the front bumper to something cooler, which is cracked in 3626 places and needs professional fixing anyways. The rear arches need bodywork done, what I'm doing is just to keep it in check until I can afford it. It's gonna be ugly but it wont rust anymore. The paint peel I am handling as much as it needs to be, cleaning up beforehand, sanding it back, and it doesn't need any bog on it as its straight, just needs paint. Also I either do this now the best I have time for, or not at all for at least another year due to my circumstance of not having access to a private spot, only public street parking where it's very illegal to do any of this.
Nothing like a project. You know what the outcome shall be so its only a matter of one step at a time. Personally I like your style kiddo.
What bumper are you kicking the tires on?
O7
 
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Lorddarthvik

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Nothing like a project. You know what the outcome shall be so its only a matter of one step at a time. Personally I like your style kiddo.
What bumper are you kicking the tires on?
O7
Thanks for the kind words! I was looking at the CSL bumper but I'm not so sure if I'd like it on a normal width coupe like this. It's just too long of an overhang in the front, but I really like the single circular hole on the side design.

Well. Paint is done. From 10+ feet away, and on camera, it looks like I did a decent enough job. If I had the time and put in the effort to do it anywhere near properly, it looks like I might have pulled off a decent enough job with the cans of spray paint. As it stands now, everything is visible. There is a whole landscape of hills and valleys under the fresh paint hahahaha Apart from where the shitty canned paint spit on it, I only have a single paint run under one of the mirrors and it's in the lacquer layer so I could even sand it away lol

I thought it would be hard for me to accept this as a good enough result.my regular job involves what we call pixel fucking, trying to get things pixel perfect per frame in VFX. A total waste of time in the name of perfection.
Yet I'm really liking this very messed up imperfect result. Overall it looks way better than it did, even without the polish it badly needs.
It looks like something that has been cared for even if it was done badly and it makes a huge difference. I'm actually quiet proud of myself for doing a blend in the front left bumper corner and it turning out barely visible from 20+ feet away lol. If I did it a dozen more times I believe I could get pretty decent at it.

Anyways, some pics of how it looked right after removing the masking. BTW proper 2K can of lacquer was really worth it, it hardened so fast that when I had to drive it around 3 hours after spraying it, it left no marks in it. I could just wipe all the dirt off later. Next up, to apply the meme stickers.
IMG_20230817_112548.jpg

IMG_20230817_112601.jpg



IMG_20230817_112614.jpg


BTW our family car X3, the one that's supposed to be reliable, died. Thankfully just before we went on a day trip with the kids right before exiting the city we were in, and I could get it back "home" before it totally stopped working. Generator is dead, probably a stuck bearing, and it's most likely shorted out as the battery totally drained itself in 20mins of standing still and being turned off. It was also quiet hot, so I uncoupled it after I managed to climb into the back over the rear child seats (electric tailgate lock, no manual safety release in or out, had to Jimmy it open with a screwdriver, battery is under the cargo tray )
Note that I'm on holiday at my parents house over a 100klicks away from home. I would do the swap myself in the garden , if I could find a working generator, but there is so much fiddly plastic shit and rusty screws in the way that I'm just not willing to risk it. It would be a lot of hassle if I broke anything else during the repair, not worth it. So a transport is coming tomorrow to pick it up and take it back home to my mechanic. Already managed unlock the transmission and put in neutral so I can roll it.

BTW, watching some YouTube mechanics vids is worth it. I learned that pushing a car by the body is effing stupid. I could barely rock the X3. Grab the wheel spokes and just turn it. It's much much less effort. Use gloves, cos it's dirty, if you can but damn it's it's so much easier.
 
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Thanks for the kind words! I was looking at the CSL bumper but I'm not so sure if I'd like it on a normal width coupe like this. It's just too long of an overhang in the front, but I really like the single circular hole on the side design.

Well. Paint is done. From 10+ feet away, and on camera, it looks like I did a decent enough job. If I had the time and put in the effort to do it anywhere near properly, it looks like I might have pulled off a decent enough job with the cans of spray paint. As it stands now, everything is visible. There is a whole landscape of hills and valleys under the fresh paint hahahaha Apart from where the shitty canned paint spit on it, I only have a single paint run under one of the mirrors and it's in the lacquer layer so I could even sand it away lol

I thought it would be hard for me to accept this as a good enough result.my regular job involves what we call pixel fucking, trying to get things pixel perfect per frame in VFX. A total waste of time in the name of perfection.
Yet I'm really liking this very messed up imperfect result. Overall it looks way better than it did, even without the polish it badly needs.
It looks like something that has been cared for even if it was done badly and it makes a huge difference. I'm actually quiet proud of myself for doing a blend in the front left bumper corner and it turning out barely visible from 20+ feet away lol. If I did it a dozen more times I believe I could get pretty decent at it.

Anyways, some pics of how it looked right after removing the masking. BTW proper 2K can of lacquer was really worth it, it hardened so fast that when I had to drive it around 3 hours after spraying it, it left no marks in it. I could just wipe all the dirt off later. Next up, to apply the meme stickers.
View attachment 24813
View attachment 24814


View attachment 24815

BTW our family car X3, the one that's supposed to be reliable, died. Thankfully just before we went on a day trip with the kids right before exiting the city we were in, and I could get it back "home" before it totally stopped working. Generator is dead, probably a stuck bearing, and it's most likely shorted out as the battery totally drained itself in 20mins of standing still and being turned off. It was also quiet hot, so I uncoupled it after I managed to climb into the back over the rear child seats (electric tailgate lock, no manual safety release in or out, had to Jimmy it open with a screwdriver, battery is under the cargo tray )
Note that I'm on holiday at my parents house over a 100klicks away from home. I would do the swap myself in the garden , if I could find a working generator, but there is so much fiddly plastic shit and rusty screws in the way that I'm just not willing to risk it. It would be a lot of hassle if I broke anything else during the repair, not worth it. So a transport is coming tomorrow to pick it up and take it back home to my mechanic. Already managed unlock the transmission and put in neutral so I can roll it.

BTW, watching some YouTube mechanics vids is worth it. I learned that pushing a car by the body is effing stupid. I could barely rock the X3. Grab the wheel spokes and just turn it. It's much much less effort. Use gloves, cos it's dirty, if you can but damn it's it's so much easier.
Thats one nice ride Brother....Well Done :like:
 
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Lorddarthvik

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Thank you!
I'm starting to actually like the look of it again. It really could use some white wheels though.. Hahaha

Added the literal shopping list and the AMG strip to the side for a bit of trolling.
I have a stripe that says e46 where the breaks are in this one, but I forgot to pack it, so for now I'm keeping this one lol
Next up for this ride (once the X3 is fixed)
Fix the weird death wobble that comes on at 160kph+ that's coming from the middle of the car. Probably the driveshaft lost its stabilizer bearings in the middle, and is also probably bent. No speeding until then.
Attach the spoiler! I've been kicking that thing around for months know, I just need to find a place that's willing to sell me some proper glue for it.
Btw, any tips on what exact glue to use for affixing glasfiber to metal body? Double sided tape, no matter how awesome it is, is out of the question due to shape and size. Also no rivnuts, wouldn't fit the design, too barbaric.

IMG_20230819_160612.jpg
 
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Im no body guy so I will not offer any bad advice. Plenty of aircraft epoxies out there so its gonna be some research for you brother.
The car looks epic Eggs Bread Milk and Ham all the way:o7:
 
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Lorddarthvik

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Found a little bag in the glove box. I forgot I bought the 2 dollar set of tiny corner spoilers from Ali ages ago. Stuck em on. It's made of rubber with pre applied double sided tape that was kinda already melted from the heat. I give it 2-3 drives until at least half of em fall off lol
IMG_20230821_193201.jpg

IMG_20230821_194241.jpg

Edit : now that I have a medium scale fdm printer, I might just design and print a front splitter instead of buying a cheap pre made "fits non" style.
 
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Lorddarthvik

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So looong, freshlypaintedbumper!

Neighbour had a rough time getting into his garage. He is getting old and managed to find my ride regardless of me leaving more than a 6 foot gap between me and his gate.
I know it's not much damage in pure monetary value, but goddamn I just made that corner look shiny a week ago! ffs...
Also the arch wasn't damaged before, and I'm guessing there is a new dent in the hood as well. Even if there isn't, the bumper got pushed aside so yeah, great. Oh and ofc the ali express winglets are now junked. I could probably replace the tape on them, but it's literally cheaper to buy a new set then to buy a roll of decent double sided tape so... haha.
Anyways, I got insurance, but it's not that simple. He has to admit being at fault, which he seems to be willing to do, but if he won't, I'll have to go through the police which is a nightmare.
Tomorrow will tell what he comes up with to fix this mistake, but no matter what, it's gonna cost him more than he thinks, and it's gonna be rough.
This is a total financial loss, at least I'm guessing that's what the insurance will say. So yeah. Fuck my life.

373465077_134207843098819_7008807413498873803_n.jpg
 
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So looong, freshlypaintedbumper!

Neighbour had a rough time getting into his garage. He is getting old and managed to find my ride regardless of me leaving more than a 6 foot gap between me and his gate.
I know it's not much damage in pure monetary value, but goddamn I just made that corner look shiny a week ago! ffs...
Also the arch wasn't damaged before, and I'm guessing there is a new dent in the hood as well. Even if there isn't, the bumper got pushed aside so yeah, great. Oh and ofc the ali express winglets are now junked. I could probably replace the tape on them, but it's literally cheaper to buy a new set then to buy a roll of decent double sided tape so... haha.
Anyways, I got insurance, but it's not that simple. He has to admit being at fault, which he seems to be willing to do, but if he won't, I'll have to go through the police which is a nightmare.
Tomorrow will tell what he comes up with to fix this mistake, but no matter what, it's gonna cost him more than he thinks, and it's gonna be rough.
This is a total financial loss, at least I'm guessing that's what the insurance will say. So yeah. Fuck my life.

View attachment 24851
Just stumbled back to the forum and saw this. Murphey's law at work, Jenga or complete BS...Hope things worked out after all the hard work.
 
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Lorddarthvik

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Just stumbled back to the forum and saw this. Murphey's law at work, Jenga or complete BS...Hope things worked out after all the hard work.
Oh hey there, nice to see you back!
Things went surprisingly easy, took a week or two to sort it all out but the neighbor admitted the fault and payed out of pocket to avoid having to mess with the insurance. It wasn't his first time having to deal with something like this...
Car looks better than I've ever seen it thats for sure, got the corner and the hood fixed back into shape along with a fresh new professional paintjob. I had to pay partially ofc, cos I'm not a dick and we both knew the hood was kinda busted already. In the end it turned out okay, I just haven't taken the time to get the little lips back on yet ,and the stripe had to be removed for the repaint on that fender.
Car is going strong, I had brand new Bilstein B12 kit put under it. Basically the same height, maybe a couple mm lower than where it was before, but that wasn't the point. Old front shocks were busted, rears were made for the slightly heavier 325i... it was a mess as everything is with this car.
Most importantly the car now sits planted. It felt really floaty in long corners and at speed. It's all good now.
Feels awful at city speeds though, the roads are really rough especially now after the winter freeze so it's kind of a strange muffled yet bumpy feel. I dunno how to describe it exactly. It's like the chassis starts bending first along with the suspension in low speed corners and bumps. But when I start driving even a little bit more properly it all falls into place and grips up like chewing gum under a mcdonalds table. It grips so well that even though I tried to be a hooligan, on my summer tires in the freezing cold after 11pm in a roundabout I tried to get to power slide it in first gear.... nope. Wouldn't budge. Clutch kicking works ofc, but the sheer amount of grip these hankooks have even in below freezing (but dry) conditions is astonishing.
Next up on the list:
brakes
proper brakes
change the damn brakes!
get the damn handbrake working (cos I live on hills)
Then fix the aircon, and get an LSD.
 
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Lorddarthvik

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lol, nah, I want it to be a bit more civilized than that. I drove a welded e30 for a week. It was great for being a hooligan in the parking lot, but not much else.
Found some reasonably priced helical LSD from the UK, made by Blackline. Is this a good choice for a balanced style with a bit of everything? I'm not looking to become the next DK. Just wanna have a bit of fun sometimes, hit up a track day a year maybe. Not much else. Or do I need to go for the much more expensive plated LSD?

Had some fun tonight. Around 10pm I went up the hill to a place I need to visit every week, and ofc I ignored the weather warning that it will be sleeting. (Bing and google both tell me that's the proper translation. But is that a word even? It's rain that freezes coz it's below freezing temps and it should be snowing but it rains instead. We call it tinny-rain, as in the solder. Cos, hell knows why.).
Anyways, arrived without issues, on my summer tires ofc. No sign of any rain, but it was getting foggy. 10 mins later I started driving back, and it was like the car was in neutral. Revving but barely rolling. That's when the fun started! Babied it back home, starting every corner really carefully...
Good times, new suspension came in handy, everything remained controllable. Didn't need no clutch kicks or welding anything, it was slippery enough as it is hehehe
 
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Lorddarthvik

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Thats great news Lorddarthvik...
I sorta did a thing this month and picked up a rather old retro style bike....And I couldn't leave it alone :love:
Don't get arrested you holigan!:o7:
Is that a Royal Enfield Cafe racer build? At least that's what google came up with.
I really like the look of those cafe racers, rare to see one in the wild though.
Grats on your new ride!
 
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Hey Lorddarthvik. Yeah I picked up a GT650 a few weeks ago and threw all my old Ti at it along with pipes,air box and power plug. Deleted all the emission crap like air injection and EVAP. You might say that its first 300 miles have been interesting. Love how old and vintage it looks :love: All I need now is a leather football helmet, the glass aviator goggles and a handlebar mustache.:thump:
 

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Lorddarthvik

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Woke up and did a few things that Im sure will upset tree huggers everywhere.....Cheers :o7:
I feel really, really bad....Honestly I do:drunk:
Dyno when? :D


The only thing I modded this weekend was some black wrap on the chrome window trim. Only done the bottom rails, not finished yet. I'm just curious how it would look with a "shadow line" trim which I'm not willing to pay hundreds of bucks for. It's also a pain to install, tearing out old rubber mouldings and such along with the trim, I feel like wrap is the less attractive but way more sensible approach.
Also went for a proper drive with the roads finally being warm enough and having a tiny bit of free time. I realized, again, that I need a full break refurb. Pads, disks, and most importantly fluid cos it doesn't look healthy. I believe it's not supposed to look like a dark soup with spots of "oil" floating on top.

Also my front left indicator decided to break at the screw, so it was dangling out the side of the car on it's wiring. Ducktape fixed it, for now. Thing is I went down the rabbithole of headlight+indicator combos and OMG... you don't wanna go there. It's deep, and even the dealer database is utterly confused when it comes to it. My fr L headlight is apperently the wrong type as it got replaced when the seller crashed the car while selling it to me. The outside is correct, the lenses are correct, the rest of the black plastic bits are a mix of later pre-facelift and post facelift. It's utter chaos in there so I'll just buy a new one, and that's where the rabbithole starts, with options for clip-ons and screw-ins and slightly different outlines and orange vs clear indicators with different mounting... it's a mess.
 
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