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

shit now I know about Seasucker roof bars. that's going to cost me

When I was researching this a brand called Cruz came up, their Airo bars use the same aero design as the previous gen aero Thule bars iirc. A full new set was the same/cheaper than 2nd hand Thule. And they are well reviewed.

That said you only need the cross bars, so have more options.

Not knocking the aero benefits of Thule/similar, but if the main use is moving a surf board then based on my limited experience of surfboards on roofs I'm not sure aero bars are going to make any difference to fuel or noise. Altho if they're not removed there is an obvious benefit.

Cut the ends down on universal ones if you don't want to fracture your skull and put yourself in A+E when you get out of your car and forget they are there.

Also noisy roof bars, wrap thin (3-5mm) nylon or dyneema (climbers always have this stuff on their person) around them tightly in a spiral, shuts up just about every noisy roof bar ever.

I’ve looked at all of the brands I can find in NZ and all of them are over $400 new, I haven’t been able to find any much cheaper 2nd hand either.

I’ll see if the brand you mention is a thing here

That's a great idea. Same reason tall thin industrial chimneys have the spiral around them... Well not noise, but turbulence and vibration.

I think i'm going to get a set of these made by Curve, they do a soft rack for use with roof rails which suits the Subaru.

Annoyingly the ones i can get locally, don't seem to work nicely with cars with no door frames (like subarus)

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Went 'round all the car shops in a 20km radius today, was dead set on getting a Sony head unit til the crazy Subaru kid at Supercheap Auto told me to forget it, he installed one and ripped it straight out again... Decided on getting a Kenwood, Repco had a 25%-60% sale on starting today so grabbed it there and as many harnesses as I could get... Pretty good price...

My mate down in Logan is gonna install it for me, should be pretty straightforward... It's gonna be fully sick...

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Won't that scratch the hell out of the roof?

Ten year-old Lexus IS250. Easy to drive. Fantastically cheap for the quality, last forever. ULEZ compliant despite being V6 petrol. Not that costly to insure cos driven mostly by old folk.

Me and my mate have got a bone on for knackered Vauxhall vivas

I'm not particularly bothered if it does, the Subaru we have is rough to start with.

I could wrap the roof in clear though maybe to avoid making it worse

Weld one. Firenza drop snoot biaches

Or are you talking about modern vivas

Do you remeber when Vauxhall were cool?

Me neither.

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I remember when Vauxhall were cool.

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I loved the Vauxhall Viva, it was a sexy little thing in its day...

https://youtu.be/eVkNvQow8tE

ok, a vauxhall velox but close enough

Nightrider levels of cool. Had one of these in my MK2 Cavalier 16v conversion bitd.

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Wasn't that from the mk2 gte astra?

Chevette hsr?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DVzH9wXvGFI

I've got a Kenwood bought a couple of weeks ago. Nothing as big as that, but Bluetooth, DAB etc. I couldn't believe how much better the speakers could sound.

And it changes colour by itself while you're driving around which is ok too.

That's nice to hear, I'm not that impressed with the OEM Clarion thing that's in there atm... My mate was a bit non-plussed when I told him I'd bought a Kenwood, "It'll sound about the same as what you've already got in there" which made me a bit sadface but when I sent him a link to it he was straight back on the phone "BUY IT NOW!! THAT'S AN INSANE PRICE!!"... So I'm hoping I get the same reaction as you!

Matey wants to put a couple of tweeters in the dash, apparently the XV only comes with a couple of mid-range drivers in there and then woofers everywhere else... I might take him up on it, in for a penny, etc...

Well if you have run cabling to tweeters and crossovers then you may as well cable in an amp, a sub, etc.

Actually the best thing you could do is make sure the stock speakers are mounted solidly. That makes a big difference.

Was indeed, but they ended up in allsorts of Vauxhall's in the end!

Yeah, he was talking about adding more baffles/damping in the doors... I'm gonna be there for a while, I'll let him do whatever he wants as long as it doesn't cost me a fortune...

Tidy Volvo spotted today (ignore the bird shit).

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