Oil Change

My first time doing an oil change myselft and couldn't believe how easy it was. The entire process took about 20 minutes tops. I used a Bosch premium oil filter and Castrol GTX, SAE 5w-20 oil.

I raised my car up with a jack stand on the right side to undo the plug then lowered it back down so all the oil can drain out. The oil filter is the easiest because it could be found underneath the hood behind the engine. With the Corolla that I used to drive, it was located underneath the car.

Spray painted my chrome strakes

Started spray painting my chrome strakes today because I didn't like the chrome on my RX8.

First thing I did was I used a can of black spray paint and put multiple coats on it, then I used a can of clear coat to make it a little shinier to match up with the body paint. I chipped a little part of one of the strakes and didnt have any more of the black spray paint i had used earlier so I used a little bit of the factory touch up paint tocover it up. It turned out pretty good.

Wednesday Night Drag @ Infineon Raceway Best time 15.009 @ 92 mph

Went out to the Infineon Raceway today to see what the best time I could get for my stock RX-8. My first practice run was horrible, I messed up on the launch and bogged out at the beginning and ran a 15.814.

My second run, I didnt have enough time to maintain my RPM at 5000 for my launch and ended up spinning my tires out, so I let go of the pedal all the way and stepped back on it as quick as I can to regain traction. Ran a 15.311, trap speed at 90mph.
My third practice run was the best, I deflated my tires to 25psi, got a decent reaction time, good traction and ran a 15.009 with trap speed of 92mph. So for my elimination round I dialed in at 14.89 and thought I could run close to it.

Elimination round was my fourth run, and was horrible as I got a slower reaction time and missed third gear. Ran a 15.3 @ 91 mph.

Some pics of my car and other cars that I went with.

Messing around with HDR

Was messing around with some HDR images. I tried Photoshop CS4 and Photomatix 3 Pro and it seems Photomatix is better. PS is a lot more complicated. Photomatix is VERY easy to use and the images all turn out very nice. They turned out alright for my first time making these.

This image I messed around with the color a little:

Meguiar's NXT Generation Tech Wax® 2.0

Based on a video on meguiars website, this wax is supposed to remove fine swirl marks, darken black paint and protect the surface.

Testing out Meguiar's NXT Generation Tech Wax 2.0 liquid wax today and I'm pleased with the results.

Product Description (www.meguiars.com):

NXT Generation™ Tech Wax 2.0™ is a scientific breakthrough that introduces a new dimension of gloss and protection. This better-than-ever formula produces unbelievably deep, vibrant color and a dramatically clear wet-look. New Hydrophobic Polymer Technology™ provides relentless water beading and protection against oxidation, corrosion, UV rays and surface degradation. “Hydrophobic” means “water-fearing” and this new breakthrough technology builds such incredible protection and surface tension that water beads up and just glides off your paint finish, wash after wash!


I put a piece of tape there it out on the RX8 just like on their website.


Here are the results:This picture doesn't show it as good as I wanted it to, but if you look on the bottom part of the picture, it will show it pretty good

Fat ass nail in my back tire

I dont know how this shit happened but it did, i ran over a nail like a month ago and my tire was slowly leaking air over night but it was still drivable, then one day after work my tire was completely flat, luckily there was a tire shop near by so I brought it over. After they took my tire off, they said it cant be repaired.

If your look at the picture of where the nail is sticking in, that is where the wheel covers the tire so I dont know how this could've happened.

Back tire leaking

A nail or some shit stuck in there making my tire lose 12-15 psi overnight

Tools I used to fix it:
Making the hole a little bigger:
Stick the repaire refills in there:

ICE

It started hailing on the way to the house. This doesnt happen around here often

Advanced Automotive Concepts "Demon Eyes"

I bought some halo rings that goes inside the RX8 headlight about 2 months ago from aacstyle.com's eBay store, at first they sent me the wrong color and so I shipped it back. After shipping it back with my note on the inside with the persons name I spoke to, they forgot to ship it to me. A week later when I call back, they said they were out of stock on the color that I wanted and it wont be another week until they can send it. A week later I had to call a couple times to get my tracking number, and after tracking it they still havnt sent my item, UPS only got electronically notified.



Ballasts with no Halos










Epoxy for the inside of t he headlight to keep the rings on

Hot Import Nights San Mateo 2009

Hot Import Nights 2009 @ San Mateo 4.4.09

Went out to HIN this year and it wasn't what I expected, the show was pretty small this year, wasnt a lot of cars out there compared to last year but it was still fun.

These are just some pictures, got more on photobucket