Car Thread - VROOM VROOM

[CaptainAutism69]

I think people would be more impressed with the AM because muh badge / name. Either way, decent choices and I'm jelly of your tough decision. GL

Any car bros who are or have done project cars, have any regrets / words of advice for someone starting on one? Things you wish you did differently, things you realise you didn't need to or that you should have done, etc. etc. etc.

I went for the Rapide. Paid today, will be in hands on Thursday. The heaviest car I've driven is a GT-R, and yes, the weight is something, but the Aston isn't a sportscar and will just be driven as a nice GT/Barge.

 

[Bassomatic]

Please post when she's home!!!

So I got a good chunk of wood in my leg. I'll be hobbling a while, can't drive stick since left leg. Bought a cheap ass fucked up Mazda 3 for 1500 lol.

I'll probably clean it over winter and flip for what I paid if I can't get that I'll donate for a write off.

 

[seri0us]

Are there any reputable places where one could buy individual chrome letters in that Honda font? Eventually I want to get a Honda Odyssey and make it say "Odysneed" on the rear.

 

[Catgirl Enthusiast]

Any car bros who are or have done project cars, have any regrets / words of advice for someone starting on one? Things you wish you did differently, things you realise you didn't need to or that you should have done, etc. etc. etc.

First of all start off with a actual car. It is cheaper in the long run to start with a solid body than to buy a rust bucket masquerading as a vehicle. Second of all there are orders to things. Body work and paint should always be the absolute last thing you do. I have a truck in my shop that the owner got ripped off for 14K in body work before he brought it to me for the LS swap portion of the build. It hurts my soul cutting into that body to make shit fit. He bought some rust that resembled a truck and then paid somebody to make it look like a truck again and now I have to cut it up to get the engine he wants to fit in.
Second of all don't go cheap on shops. This is kind of a hard one. There are two ends of the spectrum. There is the shop that will charge you half the price for something that may work. There is also the shop that will charge you double the price that is reasonable. If you need to outsource some work to a shop you really need to talk to car guys in your area to figure out who can do it right and at a reasonable price. I have ended up with projects from a local guy too many times. He will LS swap your shit for $500. My dude knocks these cars out in a couple of days. Whenever I have to go after him and fix his bullshit it will cost you more for me to make the shit right than If you had just come to me in the first place.
Third of all just learn everything. I take money from people who don't want to learn. They are too busy with making tons on money with other shit and family and stuff. They pay me so they don't have to learn how cars work and they can be part of the community or have their dream car etc. If you have the intellectual ability to post to this forum you have the intellectual ability to figure out any and everything automotive.

 

[Doctor John B. Zyklon]

I went for the Rapide. Paid today, will be in hands on Thursday. The heaviest car I've driven is a GT-R, and yes, the weight is something, but the Aston isn't a sportscar and will just be driven as a nice GT/Barge.

Awesome! I wish I had driven my current daily more before buying it. I test drove some but didn't get to throw it around like I should have. I still enjoy the car, but 3800lbs is just...a lot. Especially AWD.

intellectual ability to post to this forum you have the intellectual ability to figure out any and everything automotive.

Agreed, thinking is half the battle. It's part of the reason why I put off working on my project car I'm starting for two years. I didn't know wtf I wanted to do / where to start. LS swap this, full engine build that, all of my car buddies were fairly useless. Just throwing out big ideas with little reason. Talked to some older guys and they helped me figure out a plan of attack. "So you want to rebuild the engine, throw a bunch of hot boy parts in it...why"; made me realise I don't need to. Even with some of the higher end power goals I'm thinking about, I don't really need to do all of that. At least right now.

 

[CaptainAutism69]

Awesome! I wish I had driven my current daily more before buying it. I test drove some but didn't get to throw it around like I should have. I still enjoy the car, but 3800lbs is just...a lot. Especially AWD.

TBH after a few days of driving I'm not all too blown away by it. It's nice, but not special...I guess it's a case of 'don't drive your heroes' (just like with my old GTR). It's nice to look at, feels ok inside, and gets nice comments, but I'm not having fun. The startup sound is beautiful though.

 

[Car Won't Crank]

TBH after a few days of driving I'm not all too blown away by it. It's nice, but not special...I guess it's a case of 'don't drive your heroes' (just like with my old GTR). It's nice to look at, feels ok inside, and gets nice comments, but I'm not having fun. The startup sound is beautiful though.

It sounds like you want something light and tossable like a Lotus Exige or Opel Speedster.

 

[CaptainAutism69]

It sounds like you want something light and tossable like a Lotus Exige or Opel Speedster.

Used to have an Evora and that thing handled like it was on rails (when it was working). I wanted a nice bruiser to cruise in comfort but fun when I wanted to compliment my s2000. Tbh I got more from my old E class than the Aston. I'm crying about owning an Aston... first world problems

 

[BeckhoffAX5702]

Any car bros who are or have done project cars, have any regrets / words of advice for someone starting on one? Things you wish you did differently, things you realise you didn't need to or that you should have done, etc. etc. etc.

I would not recommend having two project cars, even if one is quite reliable daily driver despite its age and millage. Those project cars aint a Toyoder.

Just last week my "reliable" daily threw an SRS (airbag) light, mine has a single airbag for the driver. This probably means the clockspring (steering wheel cable harness) might have developed an issue and guess what, its no longer available since the manufacturer went down under few decades ago.
bit dumb dramatization, luckily it doesn't matter, she'll get fixed anyway

 

[Yamamura]

since the manufacturer went down under few decades ago

SAAB?

 

[Smar Mijou]

The typical approach is to thumb your nose at the twin disc, since it is $1,500+, and buy a horrific pucked single disc with a pressure plate that could flatten a penny. I will say emphatically that it is the wrong call and you're better off buying the twin disc with streetable plates than a single disc with aggressive pucks if you are making big power. There are even twin disc clutches with the floating plate attached to the basket so there's no rattling.

As an aside I have no idea why so many hondas run such aggressive clutches when they make so little torque even boosted, more than once I've seen awful unsprung pucked clutches go into civics making <400lbft of torque, and outside of the drag cars there are very few which would make as much torque as the car I have my twin disc in. Hondas must use very small disc diameters or something

100% agree with the "buy once, cry once" of a Twin Disc setup. I've driven cars with the retardedly hard sprung singles, and would rather have my TwinDisc setup any day. It's actually pretty streetable considering the holding capacity. I think the overabundance of unsprung single disc Hondas is because of the glut of cheap Chinese copies all over Amazon/Ebay, etc, and young dumb kids see something like "XTR Stage 3 Clutch - 600HP!" in the description and immediately click the buy it now button without doing any research.

Sweet. I personally would rather have a dragster or an offroad only truck than a classic car since it would likely be totalled by a karen or an illegal. Someone i know lost two brand new cars this year that way, building or restoring a nice classic and then losing it that way would really suck

I fucking hate that shit. I've had a number of classic/unique cars that I'll never reveal hear because of "doxxxxxxing", but the anxiety of dealing with people and traffic , knowing that one dumbass could easily ruin your years of hard work over their carelessness is on another level. I won't sperg/PL too much, but seeing careless Karens and/or their kids absent-mindedly open their generic CUV doors right into the side of the one next of them and not give it a second thought is infuriating. So having a vehicle with trim pieces and parts that aren't reproduced and finding that replacements are either unobtanium or high dollar, adds even more to it. Still, nothing beats the feeling of getting in that old car, turning the key, letting everything fade to the background and just  CRUISING.

Some of the comments are hilarious, I'm trying to read them before they get broom'd by Hoovie.

I actually like Hoovie for his channel and personality. He plays up the "dumbest automotive channel on Youtube" shtick, but most of his content is at least entertaining. And much respect to him for filling in for Steve Magnante on his channel while he's been dealing with major health issues. That alone is more than most other people would have done. It seems like Hoovie kinda got fucked over by his chink ex-wife who apparently cheated on him, hence why he moved and sold a bunch of things, but it's  GLARINGLY  obvious that this chick is just a rebound, and is more than likely using his fame and userbase to further her own career and interests interested in him for his personality. Hopefully he's thinking with the proper head, and doesn't fall into the alimony trap again.

 

[Doctor John B. Zyklon]

TBH after a few days of driving I'm not all too blown away by it.

Perhaps it's in that middle ground of cars, in fact, I'd argue most cars these days, where they lack the mechanical experience but they are not elevated to the point of being an experience within themselves.
Having never had the experience, do the higher end (more expensive at least) dealers / automakers have programs to let you live with the car a bit? Or it is basically the same experience as joe schmo buying a toyota? Except you may get some booze w/ your purchase.

 

[CaptainAutism69]

Perhaps it's in that middle ground of cars, in fact, I'd argue most cars these days, where they lack the mechanical experience but they are not elevated to the point of being an experience within themselves.
Having never had the experience, do the higher end (more expensive at least) dealers / automakers have programs to let you live with the car a bit? Or it is basically the same experience as joe schmo buying a toyota? Except you may get some booze w/ your purchase.

If you're buying new you can get a demo car for a while, but this one was a second hand private sale.

 

[BeckhoffAX5702]

SAAB?

Yeah quite the Saabstory too...

 

[Yamamura]

Random question not sure if related but not sure where else to post it. For the lawsuit against Hyundai and KIA for the car thefts I was wondering if it has any basis?

The plaintiffs (17 cities) cite:

Hyundai Motor and Kia Corp on Tuesday asked a U.S. judge to reject lawsuits filed by 17 cities for failing to install anti-theft technology in millions of their vehicles.

In this case my guess is they're talking about not having immobilizers. But I guess my thinking for why it might be baseless is because:

• Hyundai didn't promise or advertise their cars have immobilizers in the first place
• And immobilizers are not legally mandatory in the first place

The automakers noted NHTSA does not require immobilizers unlike some other countries.

I guess everyone just sort of assumed that they did have immobilizers and never really thought to look into it. But the idea of suing a company because other people are stealing their products seems a bit counter intuitive, no matter how easy they are to steal. So what do you think LOLsuit or they might have a case here?

 

[WhatInTheActualFuck]

Random question not sure if related but not sure where else to post it. For the lawsuit against Hyundai and KIA for the car thefts I was wondering if it has any basis?

The plaintiffs (17 cities) cite:


In this case my guess is they're talking about not having immobilizers. But I guess my thinking for why it might be baseless is because:

• Hyundai didn't promise or advertise their cars have immobilizers in the first place
• And immobilizers are not legally mandatory in the first place

I guess everyone just sort of assumed that they did have immobilizers and never really thought to look into it. But the idea of suing a company because other people are stealing their products seems a bit counter intuitive, no matter how easy they are to steal. So what do you think LOLsuit or they might have a case here?

In a just world, these cases would have been laughed into the dirt by now. That said, I don't see it progressing too far, since the easy counter to most of them would be to note the sad state of law enforcement practices in most of the places filing suit.

 

[God's drunkest driver]

Any car bros who are or have done project cars, have any regrets / words of advice for someone starting on one? Things you wish you did differently, things you realise you didn't need to or that you should have done, etc. etc. etc.

My biggest piece of advice is find a car with a good body if you want a car to keep long term. My first couple of projects ran fine but were rusty and while I put a lot of work into making them fast and improving handling there was nothing I could do about the rust since I had no sheet metal work skills nor tools to do it. I now no longer have to buy rusty cars or cars with bad paint to afford something cool so I will pay extra for a good body which will stay nice in my garage with good upkeep anyway. Mechanical work is easy and can be done in a piecemeal fashion, body work cannot. You pretty much have to paint a car all at once for it to match, and you can’t drive it around in various stages of primer because the primer gets contaminated and the paint will fail.

I am accumulating tools to do my first fully DIY rotisserie restoration now and it is intensive compared to something like an engine build, but paying someone to do it would run $50k+. I had to upsize my compressor, and buy a paint gun, respirator rated for painting, and materials to build a paint booth. This is the only rusty car I kept and it’s going to take hundreds of hours of building, learning and working to get it to like new condition. The rotisserie itself took at least 10 hours to build and it’s going to take another 20 at least to strip the car down to a bare shell, complicated by finding space for a glass rack and all of the harnesses, fasteners, interior pieces, etc, and very expensive parts like window seals.

 

[WelperHelper99]

I've been noticing a lot of 1997-03 Chevy Malibus on the road lately, my car. It's actually fun finding them and picking out the differences. Some have spoilers, some still have the stock antennas that were prone to snapping off, some have aftermarket headlights; it's just really cool seeing so many of them still rolling around

 

[Smar Mijou]

Re: project car advice. DO NOT modify something that you rely on as your daily driver car. Now, an intake, wheels, etc is fine. But stiff as a board coilovers, loud exhaust, high-strung turbo engine, etc, absolutely not. If you got the modification bug but no funds for a spare vehicle, stick to Go-Karts or something similar until you can afford it. You don't want to fuck yourself if you break your only mode of transportation to and from work, or beat your spine and eardrums into a pulp on your commute because your SOHC automatic Civic DX NEEDS that $200 set of Ebay springs and 3" catless downpipe and exhaust.

With a non-daily project car, you can afford to break things as you learn, without stressing as much over how to fix it ASAP. Likewise, you can afford to plan things out somewhat, and try to resist clicking "Buy It Now" on everything spur of the moment.

 

[Sneeds]

Lmao