Booked up hotels and blocked out my work calendar to be out of office tomorrow afternoon. Why? Taking the ferry over to Vancouver Island and going motoring up Highway 4 (with the MINI of course) to Tofino and do some storm watching.
I stopped at the Griots exhibit at the Barrett-Jackson auction a few weeks back, and got a demonstration of that buffer with some of their polishing products. It is a nice polisher. I have a Porter-Cable 7424 DA polisher. They are very similar, IMO. Like Dave said, don't get a high-speed rotary polisher unless you don't mind some "learning experiences" that may not be pleasant. You can really mess up your paint if you don't use it just right. CD
This tool and detailing is like a Dremel and Gunsmithing. Very handy if you know what you're doing, but in the wrong hands, a disaster.
I bought my Griots random orbital from the guy doing a demo for them. It was used just for that one demo. I got it for pennies on the dollar. I'm happy with it, pretty good quality.
The Porter Cable Dual Action (PCDA) polisher is a great tool. I've been using it for years, but I'd never trust myself with a full rotary polisher. To easy to burn right through the paint.
I don't have a front plate on two of my Minis. Quite a high percentage of cars here don't have a front plate, although officially state law requires it. My son is too young and the car is too red to dare to go out without that plate
Went to the car wash with the electric blue yesterday night. Hosed it down nicely, no brush touching the Gyon Mohs as the dirt happily beaded away. Bent down to wash underneath, then stood up to rinse down one more time from the top, but shot a good load of water inside the car because the DAMN AUTO WINDOW DOWN opened the windows and sunroof while I was bent down... love the feature in the summer, but $!@#$%!!! not in the car wash in winter!
I found my 5mm wheel spacers that I bought a while ago and never installed. I would like a 'tad' wider stance, but still un-decided. I have heard spacers are very hard on wheel bearings. Anyone else using wheel spacers?
Maybe in Mad Town it's like that, as for the rest of the state, not so much.... I grew up in the north woods, near the Mercer/Woodruff area 1st then later the Beaver Dam area, and got pulled over within 2 days each time I tried to go without the front tag, once in the late 90's then again in 08'. The folks without a tag will get pulled over and the percentage w/o is FAR less than cars with the tag. Wisconsin cops will pull you over. For any reason.
I think super crazy offset coupled with larger diameter wheels are harder on bearings than a small spacer will ever be, unless you get like a 20+mm, that seems like it would stress the bearings. I have the 12mm spacers and bolts from Outmotoring.com. For me they're the perfect size spacer for OE wheels, not too wide but it pushes them out just enough to really help the look of the car.
They are hard on them because it moves the tire center off the center on the wheel baring. This causes a torquing moment that the baring is not designed to have on it. 5mm is not much so it would take a long time before you had to replace the baring.
Hmm 31 years in this state, split between the Green Bay and Madison area, no tags on my Mini, no tags on my Eclipse in the 90s (240,000 miles with that), and never pulled over for missing front plate. Seems like these days people who are texting easily fills their traffic stop quota.
4-5 inches of snow last night plus 48 degrees outside today equals outdoor car wash today. The car is all nice and clean to drop off at Helix tomorrow for a few upgrades. Dragon time is around the corner. Whoo hoo
I have 5mm spacers on my dark silver Mini. Filling the fenders better without going crazy. Hard on bearings? All depends how wide you go. It adds leverage to the wheel beyond spec, but unless you go 25mm out, I can't imagine this being more of an issue than a few percent. I just put new bearings in when I added spacers, so there's going to be plenty of time before I have to do new bearings. I think I'll be adding 12mm spacers to the electric blue this spring, because stock ride height with the stock wheels just looks a bit dorky next to my other car. The thing I learned is that you really need to measure three times when the car is lowered. The 12mm spacers I bought first were too much for the lowered car. At least visually, I was pretty sure a good bump would mean a big rub, unless I went with an idiotic stancer camber to tuck in the tires. 12mm spacers on 40ET rims with BC coilovers about 1.5" lowered, 16x7.5 and 205/50 tires - too much. The 5mm I replaced them with are not enough, but ther's a dead zone between 7mm and 12mm you can't really get any decent spacers in - you'd lose the centering lip. On the much taller stock ride height with the stock 17 inch rims (ET 45?), I think the 12mm spacers will be fine. Will know more later in spring when I get it back on the jacks.
So, I have to ask, are people using spacers to make their cars handle better, or just to get the "stance" they want? If there is a setup that performs better than what the MINI engineers came up with, then by all means, go for it. If it is all about the "stance," then I'm thinking a ricer would be a better choice of cars. CD