Come one, come all, to Taylor's second ziptie. Do you seek pleasure? Do you like adult beverages? Do you enjoy being tied to someone you may or may not know while dressed in nice clothes? Do you like loud music and getting your ass kicked at beer pong? If you do, you're probably in college... and you're in luck! My house will be the place to be for said activities!

Same as last year

Location: 502 Snowberry lane, Copper Beech

Time: 9:30 or later

Here's the thread to last years shenanigans. <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.mmsports.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=11333">viewtopic.php?f=13&t=11333</a><!-- l -->

I'll make a facebook event to RSVP to.

Here are the details.

This is a semi formal event, so button down shirt, nice-ish pants and shoes.

Bring a date. If you absolutely can't find a date, bring a friend, but there's no promises no one will laugh.

Bring a fifth (of your favorite beverage). Get something low proof if you and your date don't want to wake up naked in a alley somewhere (or get something high proof if that's exactly what you want to happen). BRING A MIXER UNLESS YOU ARE AS MANLY AND HAIRY AS JACK MARTIN.

You'll be ziptied together when you arrived and I won't cut you loose until you finish your bottle, or die.

Read the thread from last years to get a sense of what will happen. It will be a rager. If we end up having too many people, I'll see if my neighbor will let us use their house. We'll also open the basement this time so people can play various ping pong table related games and have more room for the drunken peeps.

Long story as to how I acquired this. Short story is that it's for sale and I'm going to be pretty flexible on the price.

2000 Pontiac Firebird Trans AM
LS1 V8 (305 hp?) and 4L60E automatic transmission
158k miles

Newer tires (about a year old), new front brakes. Good heat and AC. T-tops seal well. Black leather interior that's in fair shape aside from the torn driver's seat bolster, which has been repaired with tie-dye duct tape.

Asking $4200.

Pix and more colorful commentary here: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/cto/4855131309.html">http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/ ... 31309.html</a><!-- m -->

I used to use eBay more often years ago, had almost all good experiences as a seller and buyer. Now I'm trying to unload some old computer stuff, I do everything you're supposed to do, and then someone with good feedback wins... and they don't pay. Don't respond, nothing. This has happened 3 times now, and I'm only trying to sell two things!
And eBay customer support... well they don't even have an email anymore, it's just a pre-scripted help tree. And as I'm finding out, when someone doesn't pay, there's no method of giving them negative feedback or anything, they just go on and you get to start over again.

Craigslist works pretty well for larger things that are worth selling and negotiating over, but for small stuff I find responding to multiple people and their "offers", and exposing my location as not worth doing. So for selling common things with a pretty well established value on the market that are shippable, what do you guys recommend? These other auction sites pale in comparison for traffic:
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Or do I just stick with eBay but only do buy-it-now?

I was hoping to wait 3-4 years to do this, but totaling the old beater truck MIGHT be forcing my hand. I’ve got a hook up with a local dealer (not Jeff) on “used” trucks… $100 over auction/trade in… I drive 20 miles/day to the van pool, I haul wood/motorcycle/stuff on the weekends, and I probably should get something that can haul the integra around (bonus if I can haul the Jeep… these are wife bonus points, so they are usually worth at least double). I don’t really care about gas mileage… nor should you if you get a truck.

Currently I’m looking at Tundras, F150/250s, and pimpy DJ trucks… BUT I want bed room over crewcab BS, so that really limits the Tundra search. I swear they were only made in 4 door. Is there anything I need to worry about other than making sure I get the 5.7?

There is a WIDE variety in the F150/250… but they are usually higher miles trucks. I’m looking at 5.4 or ecoboost F150s… but other than a 7.3L (and not wanting a 6.0) I know absolutely dickola on ford diesels. And as you know I’m not paying $20k for a 250k mile 7.3l. I can buy the diesel additive in bulk via amazon prime lol

DJs 2006 6.6/Allison are the “new” 7.3L… everyone wants them and it has driven the price up to a crazy high level. I’m pretty sure DJ got a good deal, but 150k miles and $25k don’t float my boat. Are there other GM/chevy options I should keep looking at? I know they offered the 6.6/Allison for a couple of more years from my research… but I think 2006 and newer is the best bet. Any ideas?

There have been a couple of Dodge Cummings (yeah I said it) with the manual 6 speed I’ve noodled. But mopar kids are so loyal its hard to find the ground truth here.

What say the great hate!??!?!

Ps – my budget is cheap but my hook up is good enough to get me some pretty good options. I’d like to get educated and FAST. I might get my new whip this weekend. reliable 4x4 that can haul shit is the main requirement

Hey Everyone, just going ahead now to make the thread for suggestions, and updates on the event. Currently date is TBD, but working on it.

Will post here for any updates

I bought a set of OEM cadillac rims that I was using to piece together a better looking set than my own ones, and these came with these tires on them:

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They are 225/40/R18. I checked them with my calipers and it looks like they have an average tread depth of 4.7-5.1mm depending on where you check. As far as I know they all hold air fine but I didn't do any leak down tests on them since I was getting them dismounted to put my new tires on the rims. I can deliver around nova-ish or you can pick them up at my house which is in WV about 10-15 mins from summit point if you happen to be in that area

$250/OBO for the set of 4? Throw me a number - I just didnt want to deal with the hassle of shipping if I go the ebay route.

Yeah, I said I wouldn't, but I missed having something to write about in the MP forum, and in the week I've had this car I've fallen truly, madly, deeply in love with it, so I want to share it with yyyYYOUUUuuuuuu.

Details:
Millenium Silver Metallic exterior
Black leather w/ gray piping optioned interior
Heated seats option
Moon roof
Auto/manumatic 5 speed
77.8k miles

Firstly, for anyone still mad I bought an auto trans version for a NoVa daily driver, please see below



Pics:







It's..nice. Scratch that, after 4 years, 3 months, and 7 days (and counting) of owning/dd'ing a XJ, it's really nice. I turned on my heated seats at 8am this morning on the way to the DMV and almost had to pull over to weep.

I found the car locally through CL for a very fair asking price so I just couldn't pass it up. I bought it from the wife of a retired Coast Guard admiral in the McLean/Tysons area, who was the only owner from new. She kept it in excellent shape...all paperwork from day 1 shows lots of regular service and general care. Thanks lady!

So...plans. Plans are very minimal and straightforward, so consider this a "project thread in a post". Firstly, the TB/WP service is due at 90k, but I figure I'm close enough in mileage, and with still having a 2nd vehicle to drive, I'll have it done. Rock Auto relieved me of many monies (but, awesome magnets) for the TB/WP kit, and I decided to do the more thorough job - cam/crank/vc seals, plugs, drive belt + tensioners, all that. I also have a stockpile of fluids to do oil, coolant, trans and diff at the same time.

I'll also do tint by the summer...I have 50% on the front of the XJ (legal) which isn't enough, and had 30% on the Miata which was nice but always had me on the lookout for the popo. 40% should be a happy medium:



Also, a thorough detail that would make Dan proud. There are a few knocks and bruises here and there, I got another Dr. Colorchip kit (great results on the Miata) and will give it a thorough going over when it's nice and warm out.

That's the immediate future...down the line I will want to get winter tires for the stockers (I will keep the XJ through this winter), which would give me a nice excuse to get a 3 season wheel/tire package. Funnily enough, I don't think the IS300 suits 95% of the wheels out there very well. It's just one of those cars I find looks best on the OE equipment or similar looking aftermarket options. I do love the look of this car however (Volk GT-M):





But won't be spending megabucks for my needs. Current front runner are these (TR house brand) in 18's as they look kinda like the OE 11 spoke optional wheels that I like:




I also need more 2JZ noises in my life...the sweet, sweet straight six sounds it emanates are reduced to a mild thrum by the factory catback. Everyone seems to love this stainless ebay special, and honestly for a few feet of pipe and a muffler I am inclined to try it. Looks sharp too:



With 80k of seasoning I'm sure it wouldn't hurt to replace the struts at some point, and I might do some comfy, very minimal drop springs at the same time to rid some wheelgap but this is all conjecture at this point.

Oh, MIHS in da house....light smoked clear front signals came in. I hate you die amber!



I think if I could DD a XJ for 4+ years (honestly it was fine, just a bit too agrarian at times), I imagine I will be able to drive this for approximately....forever. Stay tuned for "what's that smell" and oil change updates!

I figured I would get this started because 1) I'm bored at work 2) It's at VIR (instead of Summit Point) and 3) It's a different weekend.

This year it will be May 2nd at VIR
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I have heard (through FB) that NASA has booked all of the lodge/villa/garage rooms already. I reserved a camping spot for me and a few buddies today. We got a spot in the North Paddock w/ water/electricity as we are bringing a tow behind camper this year to stay Friday and Saturday night.

Who is going? Should be a much different crowd down at VIR (I'm hoping).

join me, won't you, on my adventures to complete one of the ritualistic tasks ascribed to all adult male car enthusiasts: acquire and customize a space in which cars can be safely parked, wrenches can be turned, parts broken, and great quantities of beer drank. not necessarily in that order.

so here's the ongoing saga of my attempts to build a kickass garage and/or place of automotive hoonery.

we bought our first place in extra-crispy July here in GA and after a decade in apartments, one of my non-negotiable criteria was that the house had to have either a double garage or an outbuilding that I could build into a garage - option 1 preferred. we ended up finding a great little place (that I came to find was owned by a local autocrosser) with a pretty nice double. i lucked out with a few bonuses, one being that the PO hadn't trashed the garage or bolted too much stuff to the walls, and that he also ran line to, and installed a flatscreen up on one wall. we negotiated the TVs into the closing (we threw out our old busted one when we moved) so its nice to have a big screen out there.

the blueprints:

floor space is approx. 23x21 with a 2x12 foot deep outset section on one wall. compared to the space in our last rental home its like having the whole deck of an aircraft carrier to myself.

after spending an unhealthy amount of time on garagejournal.com, first thing i did before we even moved was plan on a floor covering. i always wanted a garage with a nice coating for aesthetic and cleanup purposes. i wanted my son to be able to go out and play in an open garage sometimes and a nice floor would allow me to keep it clean and free of dirt and oil. i knew my only chance to do this right was before we brought everything in...there was no way i was going to find time to pull everything out of the garage for possibly days while i either installed a floor or waited for it to cure.

i settled on epoxy coating with a $1,000 budget. it was either that, or Racedeck, and the decking was out of my budget, plain and simple...although i love the way it looks. There are a ton of pros/cons to any flooring but I was plan on this being a "working" garage and i felt that between my 2 "finalists", for the money, the epoxy coating would work the most easily for general grungework, cleaning, and maybe even welding later on.

additionally i had a second challenge - whatever coating i got had to be able to be applied and cured in a day. the wife and i planned to head down from NC during closing and stay for a few days to do some projects in the house to make it move-in ready, like painting walls, top-to-bottom cleaning, decorative crap and garage stuff. neither of us could take much time off from work or get babysitting help for more than a few days so we had about 4 days to get down and out, and most epoxies are a full-time 5 day process between cleaning, etching, applying and curing if you're doing it alone or with a helper.

I settled on a Polycuramine base color coating with a Polyaspartic Clear Coat for extra protection. both the polycuramine and polyaspartic products are supposedly just as strong as regular epoxy but cures in a single day which is exactly what i needed. there seemed to be only 2 companies that could supply what i needed in small quantities (< 750 sq ft), which was either Rocksolid or Legacy Industrial. I like Legacy's product a lot and they have kickass customer service, but they could only do larger quantities than i needed, and their polycuramine + color chips + clearcoat came out over budget. that left Rocksolid for the polycuramine, who is carried only by Menards (sort of an Ace hardware of the midwest). I had to order it online - 3 kits total at 250sq ft. each - which was a PITA but it was still the most cost effective solution.


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here is a laundry list of everything that i got a hold of to do this. total spent was around $900, and my dad had a few things lying around that i used so realistically it would have been close to $1000 if i bought everything straight up. some things are pretty obvious (like a hose, or old shoes) but i figured i'd list everything i could think of. I also painted the cinderblock apron which is what all the brushes are for.

Coatings
- RockSolid Polycuramine Grey Garage Coat (the color main coat, comes with acid etch and color chips)
- RockSolid Oil Destroyer degreaser
- Legacy Industrial Xtreme PolyAspartic 80 Clear Coat
- Legacy Industrial HDgrip Anti-skid Additive, standard coarseness
- Legacy Industrial Salt and Pepper Designer Flake chips

Supplies i had a 3 man team: apron painter, floor painter, and chip thrower
red items are "optional" depending on your floor construction and coating goals
- hose for rinsing floor after acid wash
- (1) pair of spike shoes to allow walking on coating to spread texture chips
- (1) 3 in. brushes
- (2) 4 in. brushes
- (2) 1-1/2 in. brushes
- (1) roller extension handle
- (3) 9 in. roller frames
- (2) paint trays
- paint tray liners
- (7) 3/8" nap paint rollers for the frames
- (2) paint mixer paddles
- (lots) box of latex gloves
- pair of old sneakers
- stiff bristle floor push-brush to scrub the acid wash
- stiff bristle hand brush (for concrete apron, optional)
- floor squeegee
- shop vac
- work lights
- safety glasses
- 1.5 to 2 gallon cheap plastic mixing bucket/container to mix the clearcoat in
- 20" box fan

Prep and Cleaning Day 1
PREP IS KING. IF YOU DON'T PREP RIGHT THE COATING WILL FAIL.
try to do this at a moderate temperature. above 60 and under 80 is great if you can manage it.
- use your vac and get all the crap up off the floor
- go over the floor with your degreaser...use all of it. we did 3 rounds of cleaning with the stiff brushes and plenty of rinse water.
- mix up your acid etch. if you get it in your eyes or on your hands you're gonna have a bad time. pour out acid per instructions and watch it bubble up as it eats a small layer of concrete away to give the coating a biting surface.
- rinse super thoroughly not only to remove it but to dilute it enough that the runoff doesn't destroy all the grass at the edge of your driveway.
- set your box fan(s) to VTEC and get a good hurricane going with the garage door cracked to evacuate the humidity and dry out the concrete. takes longer than you'd think especially in the summer.
- try not to walk all over your clean floor with dirty-ass shoes
- put down a layer of duct tape on the part of the garage entry where the door seals, as a mask when you run the paint up to it. past that point there is no coating and you don't want it under the rubber seal where it can risk pulling up if the rubber gets hot and tacky in the summer.

drying out:


Main Coating Day 2
make sure there are no distractions. you really can't start and quit halfway to watch the last 5 minutes of the game or whatever. once you mix the coating it will auto-harden in about 20 minutes so be on point.
- put down a layer of plastic or a tarp under where you plan to mix paint. this is kind of a big deal if you do it in your driveway, since that stuff is never coming up (hopefully) if you spill it.
- mix your coating according to directions. for Rocksolid this means squeezing and bursting the pouch so the components can mix, a lot like a first aid cold pack.
- cut open and pour mix into a paint tray and get to work on the cinderblock first if you wish to paint it, with the brushes.
- once you are ready to start on the floor, have your roller ready and start at a far corner, working in about a 3x3 space at a time. do not be afraid to put it on heavy but be aware of how much you use so you don't run out, or else you done F'd up real good.
- if you did not fill in any concrete cracks, just be aware this coating will not fill them in either. its thick but not that thick. be sure you get coating way into the cracks though, so that the coating has minimal opportunity to chip away from the edge due to a good uniform coat.
- go until you run out, then slap on your spike shoes because you need to throw the chips down while the paint is still tacky
- get your chip bag and toss them underhand way up in the air. if you chuck them sidearm like you're skipping stones the chips will land in a clump.
- don't drag your feet in the spike shoes. they are designed so that if you walk carefully the tiny spike points won't leave a trace

insert Tab A into Slot B waaaaaitaminute..... this is what the burst pouch looks like. also what a sweaty guy dressed in yesterday's clothes looks like.


letting the base + chips cure. needs 24 hours.


Clear Coat and Non-Slip Additive Day 3
- don your spike shoes again and go over your floor with the shop vac to remove any loose chips. don't be afraid to put pressure on them to work any "hangers" loose, you wouldn't believe how much they stick to the floor.
- pour out clear into paint try, carry on just like the previous coat
- my manufacturer recommended adding the non-slip (basically silicon powder) directly to the clear, mixing it, then pouring it into the paint tray. my opinion is that its a waste, all the grit sinks to the bottom and never sticks to the roller so you end up seeing piles of it in the bottom of the tray, wasted.
- as a result i switched up halfway through and broadcast the grit onto the tacky clearcoat just like i did with the color chips. worked awesome and the grit is so fine that it spreads very uniformly in the air.
- i did not put clear on the apron due to the clear being used primarily for wear protection and as a medium to hold the non-slip grit on the floor and seal down the color chips.
- same deal when done...needs 24 hours, so walk away and get many beers

Day 4
finally, all done! coating looks just OK up close (aesthetically speaking), i suck and throwing the chips evenly so its really on me for that, and i'm picky. that said, its just all the more reason it feels like "i did this!" for better or worse. very happy with the color, its very bright and not too mundane while still being practical for not showing dirt and grime.


getting to finally walk on it, pictured here with my nephews who were very satisfactory slave laborers. you can see some of the gloss sheen under the bikes and stool that the clearcoat provides.


stuff i learned
- BE VERY CAREFUL HOW YOU DISPOSE OF THE COATING. when it cures, the chemical reaction causes it to get VERY HOT and the denser the quantity, the hotter it gets. i balled up some of the bust pouches with some coating still in them, and tossed them in a plastic garbage bag on the driveway. i came back out 2 hours later to bring the bag inside and almost gave myself a bad burn. the pouches were curing inside and had gotten so hot they almost melted through the bag. i'd be concerned they'd catch on fire especially with all those chemical soaked things in a closed-up bag. leave ALL COATING material outside in open air, preferrably on dirt so you don't have to worry about leaks or drips as much.
- you really only need 1 pair of spike shoes
- BUY THE BEST QUALITY ROLLERS YOU CAN AFFORD. i used the kit supplied rollers and they disintegrated twice during the coating...as it got tacky it literally pulled them apart. changing slippery, tight fitting chemical-soaked rollers in gloves while the clock is ticking sucks big time. i switched over to some backup Wooster rollers and never had another issue.
- don't paint a concrete block apron. the concrete sucks up the coating unevenly and looks like crap. i'm considering paint over it all in white paint.
- they say this stuff is low VOC, but whatever, the fumes are awful. get air often and never shut the garage door, even if its windy. if stuff is blowing onto your coating then all i can say is tough luck. if those fumes come into the house you're going to hate life for days and you probably won't get laid for a month at least.
- get the non-slip grit. stuff is awesome and when the floor is wet it would be an utter HAZARD if that stuff wasn't on there.

The ZX6R I just picked up has some matte black finishes on some of the fairings. I know any surface abrasions would be more obvious on this finish, so I'm wondering if anybody has had any experience with a specific product for cleaning/caring for these finishes. I think that products made for cleaning black plastic trim pieces would make some magic happen, but I am a bit hesitant to give that a shot. ZX6R forums have a few suggestions, but most say soap and water. Thoughts?