I like cars, this info is not new to any of you, I also really like to ride BMX and if for whatever reason I had to pick between the two I would probably chose the latter.
However, I don’t see having to choose anytime soon so I have decided for this Theme Tuesday to combine my two interests and post cars owned by fellow riders.
Most of these have been found on bmx message board but a few have been found on car message board with bmx threads.
Last time I posted this car I had no idea it was a BMXers ride
Pontiac Fiero
This bikeguide member has one of the cleanest Fieros I have ever seen, these cars rarely show up on message boards anymore
Probably the cleanest Fiero I've seenThats lots of dish
Minitrucks
A lot of BMX riders are minitruckers as well, suicide doors was started by a BMXer who used to work at Dans competion.
Matt's a local and we used to shred the hell out of our local park togetherLove this truckMini project by a fellow s10forum/bikeguide member
Honda’s
Honda’s are cheap and reliable exactly what we need to get from spot to spot.
This Civic is super clean and the photography is top notchSame civic different kicksOne of the cleanest bodied and styled tegs I have seen in awhileThe same car on rpf1s (I'm jealous)
VW’s
VW’s are popular with everyone why not riders?
Rider from the UK with a LupoThat sky looks evilStraight to the pointGreat looking murdered golfDurks car is legit
Drifters
The BMX mentality lends itself quite well to drifting…
DorrriiiLogans Legacy is well known for good reason it's very uniquePuuuurrrrpppleFlushGettin looseReal loose
If you ride and read this blog and I didn’t post your car this time around don’t worry. I already have half of a part 2 started.
Feel free to email me at [email protected] you want to make sure I include you in the next one
Local tuner shop, and Stance Is Everything sponsor, Nextmod is having it’s one year anniversary meet this Sunday August 15th from 1pm – 5pm.
Every meet at Nextmod is sure to be packed with vehicular eye candy since the crew at the shop always provides free drinks and BBQ’d food for those in attendance and if there is one way to get people to come out it’s with free food.
There will also be a live DJ on site spinning the wheels of steel and as an added bonus there will also be a special discount on all products ordered or purchased on Sunday.
I still don't know what this says, hahThe Next Mod store front pre signageFree BBQProper 350I have not see this Fit since that meet, wonder if it is still aroundOne of my favorite local speed 3s
Last year there were over 400 cars so if you are local come out and let’s make this meet even better.
If it’s not obvious Stance Is Everything will be at this event.
sumTHAIguy on Mazda 3 forums has always had a pretty low speed3, and he’s gone through a number of wheels since I first started paying attention to his ride. Recently he changed both his front suspension setup and wheels and in my eyes really dialed in his stance.
Using the same smaller lock rings and cartridges from BC that I am he added a custom shorter spring up front (4″ vs 6.7″) to the mix and his now able to tuck tire on his Work Ryver DT4’s.
The result is his car now looks epic.
As soon as I saw this pic I was floored by how good it lookedNot much is getting under that bumperWith 18x8.5 +25 and 18x9/5 +30 he does his fair share of rubbingOfftopic: That roof reminds me of the high school from Tony Hawks Pro Skater 1HAI
When you ride low, no matter how careful you are things are going to: hit the ground, get scraped, get dented, dinged and otherwise damaged. Most of these things happen away from prying eyes (oil pans, frame rails, sub-frames, cats, mufflers, etc) but every once and awhile a visible piece like a lip or side skirt to feel the pain.
Having these things repaired professionally time after time, can get quite expensive so a lot of us end up having a go at fixing the damage ourselves. Repairs like these are a great way to get your hands dirty in regards to body work since there is little to no risk of making the problem worse.
The Problem
Shortly after putting on my replica fiberglass Garage Vary lip for the season I brain dumped and ran it into a sharp/steep ramp of an unfamiliar underground parking lot.
It sucked, and I was pissed but I had repaired the lip last year after some road debris jumped out at it so I knew that there was nothing stopping me from doing it again.
Supplies
The most important part when taking on any project is making sure that you have all the necessary supplies BEFORE you start, nothing sucks more than getting part way through and realizing you don’t have something you need.
Fiberglass
Fiberglass is what does the bulk of the structural repair you can use mat or cloth, and I currently have both in my garage but for his application I used fiberglass mat.
Fiberglass mat is pretty easy to use, you tear/cut it into portions you need, mix the resin and hardener together, and then apply the resin/hardener mix to the damaged area via a brush.
Once the repaired area is saturated you then brush the mat to get it saturated as well then apply the mat to the damaged area using a stippling technique.
The cloth works in essentially the same way but you cut rather than tear.
A fiberglass repair kit, like the one below, will have everything you need.
Here is a shot of my well used supplies which are outlined above and below
Body Fillers
Body filler takes care of the cosmetic portion of this requires using three different levels of fillers: Short strand fiberglass filler (‘kitty hair’), plastic filler (your typical bondo), and spot filler (fast drying filler).
Short strand fiberglass filler
Short strand fiberglass filler is two part (filler and hardener) product that is the hardest and strongest of all of the fillers used in this repair, all of the fillers used after this are appearance level fillers and are not as strong, rigid or durable as fiberglass filler.
Plastic Filler
The second type of filler used will be plastic filler, generally when people refer to ‘Bondo’ this is the type of filler they are talking about. Similar to fiberglass filler this a filler/hardener combo but it does not contain any fiberglass and is therefor easier to sand but offers less structural support.
If you repair cracks with only this type of filler there is a good chance it will crack and fall out later.
Spot putty
The final type of filler used in this project is “spot” filler. It’s pre-mixed filler than provides little to no structural support but is great for filling small imperfections, pinholes and stone chips. It sands out very easily, provided you let it dry completely first.
It also comes in a UV version that will dry faster if you leave it in the sun.
In regards to brands of filler, I currently use ‘Bondo brand’ because it’s what Canadian Tire stocks and had I bought a bunch of it from a previous project (for my e30) so I still had quite a bit left over.
However it is considered relatively low grade and a lot of guys won’t touch it so if you can find Ever coat pick some up.
Sanding Materials
You will need the following grades of automotive sand paper to do a good job:
80,100, 180, 220, 320 (Initial sanding, Fiberglass filler, Plastic Filler, spot putty)
400, 600, 800 (Spot putty, primer coats leading to color)
To do an exceptional job you will also need:
1000-2000 and rubbing compound (Removing runs, dust, orange peel)
Note: Color sanding always seems to bite me in the ass (spray paint is easy to sand through) so I take special care to avoid runs and try and lay the paint as smooth as possible so I can avoid this step.
A sanding block is highly recommended as not only does it make the sanding even it makes it much easier to do.
Paint
You will need at least 3 different types of paint for this type of job: Sandable primer, High-build primer, Primer sealer (if working with metal), base/clear mix (this is what I had) or base and clear in different cans, or if you have on available a compressor, paint gun, and proper automotive paint.
I get all of my paint material from Cawthra Automotive since they have a wide variety of automotive supplies and will mix rattle cans to your paint code. I have received the odd bad paint can from them but most of the time the results have been good.
From what I understand NAPA also mixes paint in cans for you but none of the locations withing 30 minutes of me do so.
Base/clear, Sandable primer, high build primer
Misc supplies
Additional things that you will need for this project are: mask, safety goggles, a sanding block, a tack cloth, and a trigger for the spray can if you feel necessary (can really help when using standard spray cans).
Assessing the damage
After assembling all the materials and supplies above it’s time to get down to work and the first thing to do is assess what you are working with.
This is my lip prior to the repairs, the damage is located in the left bottom cornerHere is a close up of the damage untouched, on first glance it does not look too bad.
The first step in the repair is to remove the paint chips, cracked filler, etc to really see what kind of damage you are working with, first glances can often be deceiving when doing this kind of repair.
Once I sanded out the damage I could see just how extensive it was and that it was repaired before, thankfully there was no loose fiberShining a light on the area from the front and looking from the rear it you can really see how much of the top layer was compromisedThe circled area shows where the fiberglass was weakened on the backside of the lip
It was easy to tell that the front needed to be repaired but, after careful evaluation, I also chose to do the job right and repair the back as well so that the lip would have some of it’s structural integrity restored.
Once you have assessed your damage read the instructions on how to use your materials before proceeding, not knowing how to mix fillers correctly just leads to more wait time and a longer process over all.
After sanding the damaged and surrounding area with 80 grit sandpaper I applied the short strand fiberglass fillerOnce that was dry I then cut/ripped some the fiberglass mat for the rear repairI test fit my pieces making sure they covered the crack(s) adequately on both sidesI then fiber glassed the layers (4 in all) into place
Once you are satisfied that the area is structurally sound you can begin the long process of completing the finishing work to the visual area of the lip.
Be warned there is lots, and lots, of sanding ahead.
I brought the fiberglass filler down quickly with an 80 grit sanding disc attached to a drillNext I worked my way up to 100 grit while I manually blocked it downHere you can see the marks left from the 100 grit paper and the areas the short strand has now filled, the rest need plastic fillerPlastic filler applied to the repair areaOnce the plastic filler is sanded out using 180 grit out you will notice that there are pinholes that need to be filled with spot fillerLay the spot filler on every where that looks like it needs it, this stuff sands through easy so don't be shyHere is what the area should look like after sanding the spot filler with 220 grit sand paper, it's ready for an early primer guide coat
At this point you are ready to lay your initial coat of primer. I neglected to take any pictures of my priming process but here are some general best practice tips:
Make sure your cans of paint are warm
Make sure that the area you are painting in is over five degrees celsius
Wet the floor to limit the amount of dust you stir up
Cover anything you don’t want painted
Take your time
Maintain an 8-12inch distance from the object being repaired
Use a lot of light coats over one thick coat
Once the lip is primed you will begin to see lots of little imperfections which again need spot fillerIf you are unlucky this can happen, its a reaction caused by poor cleaning, the only way to fix this is sand it outHere is the reaction and another reaction spot sanded out, I had no more issues with this area after this stepI then filled in as many rock chips as I could see at this point... I had a few.Here is a terrible picture of what the spot filler and primer look like after 220 gritRepeating the prime, fill, sand process, notice a lot less chips this timeAs you can see by round 3 I have finally filled all of the imperfections
After this round I sanded the lip with 400 grit sandpaper (instead of 320) and applied some high build primer to the areas I thought needed a little bit more help.
Once the high build primer was dry I sanded once again with 400 grit sandpaper and did a final coat of primer.
Here's the high build primer over the damaged areaThe damaged area after then final coat of primer
After the final primer coat I sanded the entire lip with 600 and then 800 grit primer so that I would have the smoothest surface possible for the base coat to be applied. The goal is for the base coat to go on as smooth as a surface as you can get it.
Sanded with 800 grit sandpaperThis was my first color coat after sanding, as you can see the lip is white at this point but lacking glossAfter a few more coats you can see that the light beginning to shine off the lipAnother shot of the lip after all of the coats of paint were complete, as you can see even in low light there is glossThe finished product, as you can see the color matches, fairly well, though it still lacks the full amount of factory glossThis side shot shows that the paint is again, slightly off shade and gloss, but not all together terribleCloser shot of the matching/or lack of matching depending on how you look at itParting shot - my front end was so much higher then!
I have been driving around with this lip installed for the entire summer now and took my new drop pictures with it on. The paint and repairs have been holding up quite well considering I have kissed it on the ground more than once and put quite a few km’s on the car.
I have yet to perfect my method to the point where I can exactly match factory paint with rattle cans but I just picked up another lip which needs no repair and just paint for a steal so I should be able to try this process out again and see how much better I fair.
If you got this far hopefully you found this tutorial helpful and if you do use it to repair one of your own lips I would love to see the results.
While slowly making my way outward from the ice cream truck I saw an older looking go kart sitting on the ground beside a Jr Dragster.
After studying it for several moments, trying to piece together what I was seeing in my head, the owner with a bemused look on his face asked me if I knew what I was looking at. My short answer was no (my long dumb answer was jet).
Would you do 12s on this?
The Kart you see above is said to have been built early to mid 1960s by now defunct company known as ‘Turbonique’. From my research it seems that this company only existed to strap rocket motors on cars and go karts to see how fast they could go down the track.
The rocket kart above is made up of the following vital components: two oxygen tanks, two capacitors, two spark plugs, a fuel tank, and a 60s go cart frame with a drum brake.
The rocket propulsion system (words I never thought I would type) is a closed system which the owner says could theoretically run underwater and in space since it doesn’t require fuel from the atmosphere.
When I asked the next natural question ‘how fast is it’ the owner told me that each of the rockets put out 300 pounds of thrust and the car would rip down the 1/4 mile in around 9 seconds at about 150 or so MPH.
Sounds fun? Well it probably was if you stated on the ground. To quote one of the sites I read to get a little more info:
According to all accounts this kart went from zero to 150mph in 4 seconds before becoming airborne and sliding out of control.
600 pounds of thrust no safety gear
The owner went on to say that the motors were on or off and that they were designed to burn all of the fuel in one 1/4 mile pass. The drum brake the kart is fitted was more or less for show and so you had to make sure that the track you were running on had enough run out to keep you from pancaking into something.
The drivers wore a flame suit,helmet, and gloves and tossed their common sense out the window and held on for the ride.
So I believe those are the 2 oxygen tanks on either side with the capacitors in the midde which spark the plugs
Here’s the real kicker about this whole thing, the now owner says that he got it at a garage sale after several people passed it up, and while he wouldn’t say how much he payed I am guessing it was a lot less than what it’s currently worth considering they sold for about $1500 back then and there were only 5 or 6 said to have been built with only 3 or so remaining.
It’s been pretty quiet week. I’ve been slowly rolling out slight functionality/seo tweaks to the over all site but other than that nothing to out of the norm has happened.
I’ve sent a draft off to a photographer for approval and scoped out a photo shoot location for an upcoming featured ride yesterday was well.
Basically just keeping it rollin.
Flashback Friday
While not anywhere near as crazy as the kart posted above the last twin motored vehicle I posted was the Evolution Racing Twin Motor VR6.
Other than the amount of motors the only real similarity here is that I have never seen either move under their own power in person.
Since I added the Facebook ‘like’ button to the post pages last night I figured today would be the perfect time to do another edition of ‘Readers Rides‘ from the facebook fan page.
The fan page has been really active lately so it you are not a fan already take a look as I often post things on there that don’t make it here, and generally try and be just as interactive on there as I am here.
Anyway, enough plugs, let’s check out some of your rides.
Preston Tallhamer’s Del Sol
I saw this car on the fan page, saved the picture and now can’t figure out who it belonged to because its always it’s nice to see a clean Del Sol.
I can't remember whos ride on Facebook this was but it's clean
Andrews 318ti
A work in progress, Andrew has started in the right place with his 318ti by dropping it low
Andrew hails all the way from Sweden
Wills Mazda 3
Will is a member of a few of the same Mazda 3 message boards I am and was sitting on a set of OZ racing rims all winter before the summer came around and he could bring it all together with a drop, rally armor mud flaps, and red accents.
Wills Mazda 3
Phillips Mustang
Phil’s 2003 Cobra sits on 18×9 and 18×11 CCW Classics, and as you all already know I am big fan of CCW rims. I am not adverse to Mustangs either.
CCWs FTW
Nelson’s M3
Currently in Calgary Nelsons home town of St Catherines, isn’t too far from my current location.
Lots of nice cars in both St Catherines and Calgary.
Nice plate Nelson!
Frankie’s widebody 350
Frankie’s got a fairly aggressive widebody kit on his car which has me curious about what the wheel and motor setup is I’ll have to hit him up about that.
Can probably catch this car at Battle at the border
Johnny’s Rx-8
Johnny’s RX8 is sitting 18×10 +24 Mustang rims with 265 40 18 tire, as of right now he has plenty of rubbing but he is working on sorting that out and I should see some side shots soon.
Any guesses on what wheels he is running?
Ian’s VW
Holding it down for the United Kingdom Ian has built a clean dumped VW Golf.
Ian at a vw heretics meet
Jon’s Lupo
More euro flavor, this time Jon comes through with the small hatch we only wish we got here in N/A.
Red and green is a risky combination with Christmas an all but Jon seems to be pulling it off
Michael’s VW Caddy
Rounding out the UK VW crew, Michael’s got a clean VW cab that is sure to make a lot of people on this side of the pond jealous.
Clean as hell, this car could stay as is and I would rock it
It’s been awhile since I have posted Honda Fits, a long while, and I know I have not posted many fits of this generation.
These cars take a certain type of finesse to pull of properly because of their compact but high profile silhouette, when done clean and simple they don’t look bad, and real Volks never hurt anything.
Love the dropIf those fins in the middle of the bumper were smoothed I would like it even moreDon't mind the exhaust tips though they conflict with the clever no power plateHmm looks like something nice in the background there also might have to look into that
You guys can thank Ollie for this weeks Theme Tuesday as he is the one who introduced me to the crazy world of Citroen 2CV’s which ultimately lead to today’s post.
Despite the unique (odd) suspension design of Citroens, the 2cv specifically, people drop them just the same.
Further proof that if you build it someone will slam it.
Rat, meets Cali, then FranceAnother Cali/rat collaborationI ran across this one quite a bit, it could almost pass for a bugSame car small changesNo fender gapThis truck conversion is sickHard to tell what wheels those are but they are a perfect fitSick trio, the build of the olive one is an interesting readLaying, frame, rocker? Not sure with these lol
Video of the above in action:
American trends alive and well in this carAnother one I came across quite a few times while lookingJust cuttin the lawn
Racing
Just as people will drop anything you build people will also race anything you build.
Some CV's battling it outNot sure how much of this is actually original anymore but sure looks wildWonder how fast these are...I am guessing the original suspension has been tossedThe areo gives them a real wagon/panel van lookOff road!!
Other Citroens
After knocking around on some Citroen forums I came across these other Citroen’s which were are not 2cvs but still interesting.
Low DynaSlammed DyaneLove the one air brushed panel on this oneChillin with a 2CVLow pair of Cits
V8
Some crazy person is even trying to put a v8 under the hood of a 2CV which I think is a whole lot wilder (and less sacraligious to Ferrari lovers) than the Ferrari 2cv.
Reminds me of Herbie the love bugOh man, this looks like a crazy amout of fun
Chicks dig em
Or at least get em stuck.
A little reward for those of you who made it all the way down here haha
