Sunday, April 21, 2013

A whirlwind month of Activity...

First off, my apologies for being so delayed in getting a new blog entry up here. We knew March and April would be a busy month, but it has surpassed our expectations. With Tiff leaving for Singapore and Jakarta shortly after we wrapped the Aston, we were down a person and missing out on some awesome lunches. March and April are always busy as the sports cars come out of hibernation and the normal bunch all want their summer tyres on and service performed before the weather turns nice for vacation. Rather than posting a bunch of small blog entries with certain jobs, I am going to just highlight a few fun jobs that have come through over the past month or so. 

The day we delivered the wrapped Aston Vantage S, we were contacted by a client who wanted to sell his Mercedes C63 and put it back to stock. I LOVE the C63 (fantastic car that is a blast to drive with all its power and neutral handling when drifting), and this version was nicely upgraded over stock. We had lowered the vehicle with some H and R Sport Springs, added some serious rubber with 285 rear tyres on Yokohama Advan F15 forged wheels, and of course increased the power. With downpipes, race cats, an x-pipe, and an upgraded tune from Jailbreak Tuning, this C63 was putting down about 550bhp (450 is stock) and was a monster in terms of acceleration and sound. To sell it, the client wanted it back to stock so we had to remove all of these in addition to a quick detail and cleanup. 

Badge of honor on these engines. 6.2 liter engine is a gem

Shot comparing the stock exhaust left to the upgraded downpipes and x-pipe we had to remove 

 
Say goodbye to the HR springs :,-( 
 
 
Back to stock and ready to head to dealer... we will miss you C63

And Then the Details Started Coming In:

As soon as the weather broke for the better here, the calls for details started coming in. Since our details usually take 2 days at a minimum due to our discerning standards and processes, we tried to squeeze a couple in each week between larger jobs. Many weekends were spent polishing...

2010 Range Rover Sport Supercharged:

2010 Range Rover Sport Supercharged- 2 step Zymol Titanium Detail along with Klasse aplication for more durability. Lot of klay used on this lady along with a one step machine finishing polish...


2010 BMW M3 ZHP:

2010 BMW M3 ZHP: 2 Step Zymol Titanium Detail (Klasse, 1 Step Machine Polish, klay, etc)


The things you find in a race car driver's trunk (Arai helmet, Louboutin heels), even broke his heel practicing heel and toe techniques: so he says...

BMW's new trend of carbon fiber roof always looks fantastic clean...

2013 Porsche 991 C2S:


2013 Porsche 991 C2S: 2 Step P21S Wax (Klasse, Klay)

Such a gorgeous car and shape...


2008 BMW M3:

2008 BMW M3: 2 Step Zymol Titanium  (3 bars of klay!, Klasse, Optimum)


2002 BMW M5:

This one need some TLC on interior and exterior, terrible fading and swirls. Unfortunately client only wanted minimum cleanup, so only was able to do a one step machine polish which worked quite well given the circumstances.

Still one of the best interiors ever created in my opinion...

 What a 1 step Final Polish can accomplish, needs a lot more polishing to meet our usual standards...


2000 BMW M Coupe: 

Just an interior and leather restoration on this beauty. Will be back in a few months for a proper polish and paint seal. 

2000 BMW M Coupe: interior and leather restoration (Leatherique, Zymol Treat, Optimum)

Love the retro dash gauges.  Leather really came back well with some treatment.


2001 BMW M5: 

Another leather treatment process on this dried out leather.

A nice comparison shot showing how well the leather came back after some Leatherique and Zymol...


The Repairs Continue As Always:

As usual, we continued to do service and repairs on a daily basis. A couple "fun" repairs included a nice and annoying valve cover gasket repair on a 2008 BMW e92 328 with only 47k miles! BMW's quality has really fallen off over the past decade. Sad to see such a great marque go the way of VW. These 2.8 liter engines like to leak out of their valve-tronic gaskets and soon cause the whole valve cover to leak. A very tight and annoying repair if I must say. There is almost no room to get the valve cover on or off against the rear cowl...

Valve-Tronic leaking seal that causes this whole mess...

BMW inline 6 in all its glory, can see how tight it is on the back near that cowl. 


The next repair that I won't forget anytime soon was this 2001 BMW e39 M5. I love these cars but this job turned into a nightmare quickly. Thanks to New England's salt issues, this car's central exhaust and transmission cross braces were rust city. To the point where 7 out of the 8 exhaust studs on the manifolds broke in half. We spent a fun 3 days of pounding, heating, soaking, grinding to get the broken studs out. But thankfully, our work paid of and the car left with a new driveshaft guibo, complete service 2, and all engine codes remedied. 


One proper exhaust stud, that is whats left of the other 3 next to it... Sore arms for a week after this job...

With some major potholes around these parts after such horrid winter weather, one of our client's was unfortunate enough to hit a crater that touched Shanghai on the other side it was so deep. His 2011 Subaru WRX STi took the hit but not without bending his aftermarket camber plates in half. The plate did its job and took the brunt of the impact saving the car's shock tower but required an immediate replacement. After receiving the new camber plates, we had to reinstall the suspension and set up some new alignment specs to try to make the car more neutral in its handling at the limit for autocrossing events. 

Hunter Alignment setting out custom specs for this STi suspension...

And finally after a long wait of over 5 months, our 2012 BMW 335xi client's Hood and diffuser arrived from Duke Dynamics. While the quality looks decent on the products, the wait was far too long and left a sour taste in my client's mouth. With the diffuser finally arriving we vinyl wrapped it in some 3M carbon fiber vinyl and installed his Eisenmann Quad Exhaust. 

2012 BMW 335 rear diffuser wrapped and installed around an Eisenmann Race Quad system...


Lastly, as a teaser to our next entry, our beloved Audi R8 owner showed up with a new ride. Expect more on this toy over the next few months, and hopefully more regular blog updates...




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