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

Newly painted wheels definitely draw the eye to the bumpers, damnit.

Wurth bumper blacking stuff is your friend. Unlike the silicone based stuff you get at Halfrauds it's an actual dye and is matt so looks OG. It's plenty money but wurth it.

Car looks rad BTW.

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-Wurth-Black-Plastic-Dye-75ml-Bumpers-Rubbers-Cloth-Plastic-Trim-Restore-/252110494708?nav=SEARCH

Water it down a little bit and do 2-3 coats.

@Dammit have you tried a heatgun on them? I have not done this personally but my dad did and was v impressed with the results.

#Sorry

Use peanut butter.

I'm surprised ^that took seven hours.

Has anyone actually used PB? Or is it like Vegemite for drop bears?

The white colour on the bumpers is where the plastic has dried out, I imagine that if peanut butter works it's due to oils in the spread soaking into the plastic. Strikes me they £30 for the Wurth dye is going to be cheaper than a case of Peanut butter, and won't make my car smell like a bird table.

G techniq c4 is what I've found the only stuff that makes a difference.
Bit when you've got white spots it might not feed them enough to fully even them out.
Heat gun mostly fixed my mudflaps which were looking really bad before.

In other news, finally tracked down an r front bumper in the right color and with a brand new tc splitter on it. Bad news it's in Wiltshire in in Glasgow and won't be couriered. So have to wait until a mate is coming back from that way, or I fancy a long drive/ fill up with bla bla car folk

Drivethedeal are a good site to check out, you might even be able to get cheaper than mrs's client can.

My dad knocked off 8k from a 36k Audi A4.

Best deals are on finance.

VW offer Park Assist on Golfs so @Hefty 's suggestion sounds like a good one

Yes, I'll talk to him today. Not sure, I can ask about that.

Meth injection is great, but there's a lot of pros and cons that I know I can't answer fully.

I've listened to Gale Banks talk for hours and hours about turbos, size and boost, old and modern, cooling, water and meth injection, and and I don't think I can explain everything he's said concisely, nor do I think I understand it fully, but what I've taken away is that if he sells something, it must be a valid thing to do, so you can't go wrong with meth injection.

I can't remember how big you said your new turbo is but I think it's a modern turbo rather than a refurbed one from the 90s? Are you planning on turning up boost and cooling using meth? You could also go for a bigger turbo but change the housing to make it spool up quicker, then use external wastegate at high RPMs. Although you'd probably still need the meth too.

Sploosh

That's the one I recommended @tommmmmmm should buy before he said he wanted a modern hatchback :-/

Not used PB but have used linseed oil with decent success

Turbo is brand new 20T, TD04HL unit and tbh starting to get quite mis-matched in terms of compressor vs. turbine wheel size, the problem is that the second you move to a bigger hotside (which does significantly un-cork these engines) you are into custom manifold territory, or putting up with the turbine to manifold interface leaking like a bastard.

In an ideal world I'd have a 28/71 or maybe 30/71 on a custom manifold with an external gate.

Meth injection ups the octane rating whilst/which drops the temps, meaning more boost and more timing, its a bit of a band-aid for the current turbo really, although higher octane for an engine prone to detonate under load (as all high pressure turbo engines are) is never a bad thing.

I'd say that in my opinion, it's very driveable right now, and also very fast. It might not have 400+ in numbers, but it's enough power for the road.

If meth injection has no down side (other than needing a supply of meth), and it means you get a decent bump in power, without having to go all out and get another new expensive turbo and custom manifold made up and all that, then seems like a good idea.

I've been driving a company car that is coming to its end in 4 months. When they offer me a price to buy it what is the best way of benchmarking that price?

Look for similar model & mileage on Autotrader & Pistonheads, and/or buy the Parkers guide and look up your car and do the calculation to adjust the price for mileage as they suggest.

You will have a personal factor as well depending how much you like the car and how much you dislike the idea of shopping around to replace it.

saw this, thought of @Dammit

replacement estate?

He wouldn't have one of those - there's not enough fettling to do.

Depends if you're into all that Liberty Walk shit then there's tonnes of crap to rivet onto it.

I'll rue the day.

Would a Scimitar SE6B with the stock 2.8 Cologne swapped for a late-model 2.9 Cosworth be more appropriate?

Ex-girlfriends dad's car had the 2.9 Cosworth V6, kept flinging it's flywheel off at high revs, replaced it with the 6R2 V6 which was far happier, and usefully more pokey.

Yes I have. It works, hence mentioning it the first time. Tried things like vegetible oil but it did nothing, apart from make the plastic oily.

I even mentioned it first time round, I use the very cheapest peanut butter so that is the one that contains salt, sugar, and palm oil.

Having tarted cars up, the white bit is supposed to be UV light affecting the plastics like it does to the paint. Have used lots of water and those magic erasure you can get, that works well at cleaning but really need to keep the plastic wet as the sponge can scratch the plastic and leave marks.