Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

it does have it - but it might be better to use my new phone tomorrow. thanks

Make sure you AE lock on the section of the photo you want to expose correctly. That'll brighten up the interior shots a lot.

anyone know why my pics are so shit?

• Incorrect metering points (a lot of pics) - meaning the light level is set for the background or lit area rather than the bit you want to emphasise. i.e. in your last pic the light levels come from the lit fence and wall in the background rather than from inside your car. Putting the dark part as the centre of frame would've helped.
  
• Light bleeding in from the side (some pics) - meaning you've shot the car side on to the sun and the sun is flooding the front of the lens with light which washes out the photo... i.e. the one with all the lens flair
  
• Incorrect white balance (1 or two pics) - if you've snapped raw images (not jpg) then you can adjust these, but I think the camera assumes daylight for some, but then things like the engine are actually shaded.
  
  

Decent composition, but just need to fight with the light. You could've let the DSLR owner take the photos you know :)

thanks. i need to do a bit of reading to understand how to fix the first point, but the second two i understand.

get me - david fucking bailey:

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Looks ace @BRM

I hear you on the shit-jobs-close-to-the-finish-line front but you're close and you've got this far. I'd imagine the satisfaction when its all buttoned up and you are sitting on the grid waiting for your first race will be even sweeter knowing you did the majority of the work without sending it to a garage.

So handsome. Amazing work mate.

bingo

and looking ace as always.

love how the new wheels have brought the sun out for @Aroogah too

good work fellas

Yes, because your average dealer (yes, this was an "approved" used Mini) won't check that. My mate thought something was up and used a service tool to interrogate the ECU. On a Mini there's about 6 or 7 locations where mileage is stored, 2 of them did not match the main odometer, but they're not easy to find.

Its unlikely it was serviced correctly.

Let me come take some pics for you!

This looks great! That's a good amount of tyre.

Definitely needs lowering now, perhaps spacers?

Did he get it sorted?

Tried to have open conversations with them, they weren't interested, so sold it back to back to them. Can't argue about the value if you refuse to acknowledge there's an issue.

come down!

i want to get the dash, the windows and the doors done, then it will be looking like a finished car,

Swish! Do some pans and rollers too, be like a full blown thing.

Pans, rollers
YouTube channel
????
Profit

Doug is definitely marmite but this is a great little history lesson / review of the only Audi i actually like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oV0aOGq2t0s

Maybe. Coilovers are £1000 without being
shit or too track oriented. Bilstein make a road friendly full suspension change that drops things -30mm for about £800. Lowering springs are £200.

I am tempted by the full Bilstein kit as I am never going to track this car and just lowering springs on a car with 7 year old original shocks seems like a waste. Plus I have a swaybar and links upgrade ready to install.

So in for a penny, etc....

KW v3 or Ohlins or GTFO

Indeed. But the KWs are eye wateringly expensive and the aftermarket for this last Beetle variant is not nearly as good as the previous versions. So my choices are surprisingly limited for a VW Beetle. Plus Friday is my last day of work due to redundancy and I'd like to find a new role before spunking cash around. Shame no fucker is hiring now until Feb.

So much interesting information, I just struggle listening to it coming out of him. Definitely not for 34 minutes anyway. Rad car tho. Shame you don't get to see him rag it a bit more.

FFS. Least he's not out of pocket, but I find the fact the dealer didn't care fairly distressing.

Such sick wheels!

Jeez, what a beauty! Front end straight on is sublime.

Doesn't all the Golf stuff just bolt up? I'd assumed it was that platform, is that a mistake?

The beetle @Aroogah has is classed as an A5 beetle, which shares its platform (PQ35) with:

Audi A3 Mk2 (8P)
Audi TT Mk2 (8J)
Audi Q3 (8U)
SEAT León Mk2 (1P)
SEAT Toledo Mk3 (5P)
SEAT Altea (5P)
Škoda Octavia Mk2 (1Z)
Škoda Yeti (5L)
Škoda Superb (3T, 2008–2015)
Volkswagen Touran (1T)
Volkswagen Caddy (2K)
Volkswagen Golf Mk5 (1K)
Volkswagen Golf Mk6 (5K)
Volkswagen Golf Plus (5M)
Volkswagen Jetta Mk5 (1K)
Volkswagen Scirocco (13)
Volkswagen Jetta Mk6 (1K)
Volkswagen Beetle (A5) (16)
Volkswagen Eos (1F)
Volkswagen Tiguan (5N)

Although, there will be part variations across those models so @Dammit could be right and you might find Golf or A3 parts also fit, particularly in the world of coilovers.

You could probably figure some of that out through the VW parts catalogue online (i use https://volkswagen.7zap.com/) as the part numbers should be the same across the two models if the parts are actually identical.