Vass

The hell... You're right, that set of control arms is saying $83 for shipping. I then tried the H&R springs I was looking at and shipping on those is $193... Springs shouldn't be that much more bulkier/heavier than a set of control arms, would they?

Shipping might be a killer though. Was looking at some lowering springs, shipping was like $220 US in itself.

No, absolutely nothing like the state they're in now, looked close to immaculate when I took the valve cover off. Wouldn't it come all rough as guts from factory if that were the case?

Bought my Macbook Pro back in 2016 I think. Right after they announced the new version ones with the light strip, no magsafe and no ports, I walked in and bought the older version with all the ports, a maxed out 13" with i7 16GB ram and 512GB SSD. Was a great wee machine for a year or two whilst I was travelling for processing photos and videos. Then after a couple of OS updates it all went to sh*t. Using the same software I'd used all along, when editing photos, it would take 5-10 seconds to reload a single picture every time you did any tweaking. Rendering a 3-minute video went from 1.5-2 hours to 6+ to the point I had to leave it running overnight. Battery life went out the window too until a couple of years ago it stopped holding charge altogether. Not gradually either, one time overnight just stayed at 0% and shut down the moment you disconnected the charge cable. Fair enough, had a brand new battery put in. Nowadays just use it occasionally for light browsing or watching DIY's in the garage and have a full tower PC for more serious work. Even with a brand new battery, it now holds just 3-4 hours of charge with just a browser running. Love the design of it but would never buy a new one, especially with all the idiocy of having no ports and endless dongles and adapters. Feel like Windows has caught up of late too with 10 & 11 where it's actually aesthetically minimalistic and pleasant to use once you turn all the crapware off whilst having all the functionality you need. Considering just installing Windows on it now to see if it would liven it up at all.

After a very long "one to two weeks", I got the call yesterday telling me the head work was done. Jumped straight on it and went to pick it up. Great to see some shiny parts. Work done: Even got a bit of a discount for the long wait. Was pretty happy until I got home, flipped it over and, umm... really don't know how to feel about this. I took it straight back to the shop to see what that's all about, the guy was completely unphased and assured me it's nothing to be worried about. The head gasket surface is of course the one that has to be absolutely perfect, and it does look to be fine. The valve cover, thermostat, exhaust manifold won't be under anywhere close to the same pressure as the head but damn, they're still sealing surfaces and to have score marks that catch on the nail and all sorts of chipped edges all over the gaff surely isn't ideal? Changing valve covers and thermostats previously, I've always been super careful not to scratch any of the surfaces, always stopped short of even using scotch-brite out of fear of damage, this just looks like it's been dragged along a gravel road. Had a chat with a mechanic mate of mine who also thought it shouldn't cause sealing issues but definitely would have expected a tidier finish from a professional shop. I guess I can live with it so long as it works and seals fine but am I right in being concerned at all, or is this just purely visual?

Yeah I should have a few spares as well, or just scavenge Pick-A-Part. Not much point buying new.

Sort after

Wonder what the actual differences are with a regular Msport wheel, flappy paddles aside. Bottom tri-spoke trim looks to be bullet grey or something as opposed to black. Apart from that... 🤷‍♂️

The incentives baked into the system that have driven social media to what it is today? The drive for higher profits hijacking and weaponizing basic human psychology? The over-commercialization and commodification of literally everything? No semblance of any sense of a moral good, only what's good for the bottom line? Decisions, legislation, actions that are objectively necessary to curb any of that never being taken or implemented because they're "bad for the economy"? When you take a bigger picture view and look at the core incentives baked into the foundation of the economic system, it all becomes painfully inevitable.

Fixed it for you.

It's all video games' fault...

Honestly, I was shocked by the driving culture when I first came to New Zealand. Or not even so much the culture as just piss poor driving skills, basic knowledge of road rules and borderline criminal lack of attention. In one instance, I had to slam on the brakes three times within barely half an hour. One person straight drove out of a driveway onto the main road right in front of me; second was driving in front of me, randomly started pulling over to the left side of the road, without indicating, then proceeded to turn straight around by chucking a hard right, cutting me off as well as a car in the opposite lane; third I was standing at an intersection, going straight, lights go green, I accelerate and the dude in the opposite lane obliviously proceeds to turn right straight in front of me, with a cop car right in the front row of the side road, who just sat there like a muppet and did nothing. To me the whole licensing system seems idiotic. There's nowhere near enough oversight when it comes to actual driving education. You could very easily turn up to a driving test with absolutely zero prior driving experience, then luck out with passing a test and be set to drive for the next 50+ years. After what, barely an hour of actual supervision? Short of police intervention, that's literally all the oversight you get. How low a bar is that? No wonder so many clowns with decades of driving under their belts still struggle to grasp the proper use of indicators or a f**king roundabout. In my native Estonia, it's mandatory you do a minimum of 40 hours of driving with a licensed driving instructor before you're even allowed to sit a theory test. Then within 2 years of getting a license, you have to do a "Slippery Driving Course" before you get your full license. That involves doing an obstacle evasion drive on a skid track. It's wild how difficult it is to keep even a tiny front-wheel drive car pointing straight doing as little as 30km/h. Humbles you right up. There's still hordes of idiots on the roads, but at least they've been given a set of basic skills and knowledge by a competent operator prior, so you don't see as nearly as much stupidity on the roads. All the dedicated exam cars are manuals as well. It's an annoying and expensive process when you're in it, but damn it, looking back, I'm very glad I had to go through it. I got lucky with my teacher as well who used to be both a police man and a rally driver. He was very harsh at times but was a great teacher and really knew his sh*t. Similarly to what @Jacko touched upon above, there was also a great sense of professional pride and even competition amongst the instructors. The main criteria they were aiming for is to get the highest percentage of students passing the state exam on the first go. My instructor was sitting at something like 96%. All that meant that there was a high bar of entry to even be allowed to register for a state exam. It wasn't unusual for people to rack up as much as 80 hours of driving before the instructor deeming them ready. As opposed to here where all the driving education you could easily get away with is a quick sesh with your dodgy uncle in a New World parking lot. Makes me cringe every time I hear of another speed limit getting lowered or all this crap about millions being "invested" into Mission Zero or whatever the f**k. How about investing in proper education instead? You won't legislate away stupidity, but what it would do is instil at least some basic tenets of a driving culture in new drivers before they're allowed to independently hit the road for the first time. Wouldn't make much of a difference for a number of years or even decades due to the sheer number of cretins already grandfathered in, but it'd be a start. Either that or make every single road 40km/h I guess...

At it again those parasites. The absolute bloody guile of these people... Never even mind the convertible was in far better condition with a third of the mileage.

Interesting that they still kept the original gearbox. Wonder how it works, clutch and all. Did they bolt the flywheel up to the electric motor?

I found the Karcher snow foam bottle thing a bit faff. Doesn't make the foam nearly thick enough to do its job, way too watery and the foam runs straight off. A proper foam lance would definitely make a difference but a good one is something like $150+ compared to $40-50 for the Karcher...

Yeah will know better for if there's ever a next time. The Beisan stuff did already arrive yesterday so at least the turnaround was quick. Wouldn't think S50 ones are the same, I took the screenshot of the shipping details at the bottom of the page and those just crept into the picture. Also received the stuff from Bruce Perkinson today. Much more complete kit for a fraction of the cost, minus the rattle rings. Not sure of the quality but seems legit, he claims to have tested quite a few different suppliers and settled on these. Would recommend. The DISA unit with the aluminium flap looks mighty fine too.

Good stuff! Where'd you source those for lights? Looking awesome.

Absolute porn this. That car has a better life than most people. Top effort mate!

Yeah will be giving X8R a go if I ever need to do it again in the future. Seems significantly cheaper as well. I actually ordered a set of seals (as well as a rebuilt DISA) from this fella called Bruce Perkinson up north. Not sure what supplier he uses. Unfortunately he didn't have any rattle rings, hence me going with Beisan. Figured I'd get an extra set of seals as well whilst I'm at it and maybe do the ones on the daily as well.

Hit them up about it. Could have maybe started with that and offered it as an alternative option instead painting it as if it's that or nothing? Not impressed.

Ordered a set of VANOS seals and rattle rings from Beisan Systems yesterday, 2 x $60 + $39 shipping. Wake up to this. f**king seriously?

I've seen quite a few. Here's one. What the hell is that front bumper even?

The 323's came with a 3.15 iirc? Will keep an eye out on those being parted out. Are you throwing the LSD into the 2.93?

Got a few missions ticked off on the daily 330. Ditched the old clutch and AC fans for an electric one and wired up the fog lights that the PO had cut off. Retrofit a multifunction steering wheel panel I'd gotten a few months back, all working and functional. Handy having cruise control in time for a local club outing next weekend. Never going to be a show car this thing but great to finally get it to where I want it - all major oil leaks taken care of, no obvious bits missing and overall clean and functional. Also hooked up and tried out the old laptop I'd set up for INPA, NCS etc. Reading all the data as it should so will be a suitable setup for when I'll need to code and flash the touring post the engine-gearbox swap.

Hot damn! What did that LSD cost you? Looks a decent bit of kit.