Day 6: New Model!

Got a new model yesterday. Pretty big deal, because the last time I actually bought a car model for myself was last Summer Blog Challenge.

1 year I've been holding off, but this one is the one that breaks the streak for sure. I've wanted this model for over 10 years. It came out 10 years ago and a very limited run was made only for the Japanese market. Quickly the prices on eBay climbed to the $500 mark. It was definitely out of reach. Even winning the lottery would be hard to justify spending $500 for this model.

But AUTOart has listened and they have re-released an AE86 from Initial D in the "Project D Version". I will have a full review up for you guys tomorrow possibly!

Here's a sneak peak:

Day 5: Board Game Cafe!

Hey hey, So I don't have anything interesting today, I just had a pretty bad start to the day,

Broken figure, deleted entire dev environment database and possibly damaged my wheel.

Hmm... But my night was good. Ended up going to the fringe and got to go to a new Board Game Cafe. It's called Hexagon Board Game Cafe and for $2.50/hour you get an hour to utilize ANY of their board games they have there. They have a TON of board games that they have brought entirely out of their personal collection. I strongly recommend it and the drinks are excellent. They have spent a lot of time and money to get some top notch drink machines and it sure delivers.

 The two owners started out as architectural designs by trade and after working for a few years decided to fulfill their dream and open up Hexagon Board Game Cafe on whyte. Because of their original trade, the interior of the cafe blew me away. It looks great and immediately you'll feel like you're in a quality environment. I'd say it's a huge bargain for the price you pay per hour and the drink selection they have.

Here's a pic of the game I tried tonight. It's called Carcassonne, and its based on the city Carcassonne which was a giant mess. But heres a picture of our final map when we completed.

Of course, I won. Redemption for my shitty day.

Day 4: NOISE VIDEOS

So, I had made a video the day before I changed all those pipes and this is with just the front pipe and catback:

Finally got my video edited and posted up. Check it out below.

Day 3. Better Day. More NOISE

Today, I made the decision to get one of my first big power mods. I had been applying more cosmetic and suspension based changes on my car to increase the handling/cornering ability of it. 

I felt that I hadn't had enough time behind the wheel on the track, so I wanted to make sure I was up to snuff on the current power the car had before starting to get too juicy with it. The header is a relatively small step, but for me it was definitely needed...kinda. 

Quick rundown of the exhaust system on my car:

Last time, I had changed the Midpipe/Muffler to a BLITZ NUR-CTi Quad Tip catback system. Additionally, I changed the Front Pipe to a Tomei titanium piece. 

Unfortunately, during that time the bolt between the overpipe/frontpipe broke and resulted in my having to come back later for a new overpipe. The rest of the bolt is seized and jammed in the flange of the over pipe, so my woes are never done. 

Today, I went to get my new overpipe and coincidently, the overpipe/header pipe was also very snug. We tried and it seemed the bolt was probably going to break on this one too, so I took the leap of faith and decided I'd just change the entire thing. 

That means 100% of my exhaust system is now aftermarket. It adds quite a bit of noise, but hey, bit more power and sounds great. Pics below:

Day 2. Not a good day. But a normal day.

So, promised you guys today that i'd update you guys on the bumper.

Woke up at 9:00AM and spent a lot of time priming and filling in. Doing not bad, and around 2:30 I finally had it SUPER smooth. Couldn't even notice the 3 dings/scratches I had to fill. Thought I was doing super good and picture of the smoothness:

SO SMOOTH. man. I was so proud. So I lay down the paint and decide to go enjoy my sunny afternoon. 

Come back. Guess what? Primer was only on there for 1-2 hours and didn't air out good enough, so it started cracking the paint outside.

I hate body work. So much. So now I gotta sand it back down and prime it and let it air out more before I paint. Lost my super smoothness. Really disappointing. I sanded it down and gonna let it air out overnight and spray a coat of paint on it before I leave tomorrow morning for work. 

Found out a few important lessons. 

1. Body work sucks

2. When things are "smooth", it doesn't necessarily mean the rest will go smooth. 

3. Let paint dry properly and air out before trying a different kind of spray paint on it. 

WEAK. Oh well. 

Summer Blog Challenge 2014!

What up. Another year of Summer Blog Challenge.

Normally I start the blog challenge by doing a short intro about myself for new comers to Liam's annual Summer Blog Challenge.

What is the SUMMER BLOG CHALLENGE?:

30 days. 30 posts. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Not really. It's pretty challenging. 

Quick intro about myself:

I'm 24 years old and work at Telus as a Software Developer on Optik TV. I met Liam as a co-op student when we were working together for a company in downtown and during that time Liam introduced me to the 30 Day Blog Challenge and I've been participating every year since.

People and family aside, there are 3 things that are extremely important to me and probably what my blog is going to revolve around:

1. Cars

2. Collectibles

Okay. Just two things. 

Since it's a daily post I guess my activities today would best reflect the things I'm into. 

This morning, I woke up pretty early. 8:00 AM to work at the aftermarket parts shop I help out at every Saturday. I consistently do wheel video reviews there and help to sell and install parts:

Check out my channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4TxX6nFQdOU741BPNouoBg

Today's main agenda was my buddy David had bought some wheels and we finally received the tires to mount onto the rim for him. I opened up this morning so that he could come pick them up.
Personally, I love this color. Brands, Engineering and Materials aside, it's aesthetically one of my favorite wheels. The Magnesium Blue color looks dark in the shade, but ultra bright in the sunlight.
Normally this color is reserved for "Volks" which are their higher end line-up of forged wheel, but they produced a limited edition run of "Gramlight 57DR" in this exclusive color, so my buddy was pretty lucky to snag a set! I was very happy to personally help him load them into his car today.

I then took David to AutoObssessed to pick up some items to protect and clean his wheels. I made a video last year to help people learn how to apply the Gtechniq C5 Wheel armour and so far YouTube says I've helped 8500 people. Sure YouTube. Sure.



Coincidently at AutoObssessed, it was a Caffeine and Octane meeting where several super car owners in Edmonton brought out their cars to have a chat and enjoy both the weather and a cup of joe:

Additionally, the photographer there also got a few shots of my car as well! If you guys have never seen it, here's the money pit:

Another thing was last week I was able to take the car on the track to open'r up a little bit. I cut out a snippet where I was chasing one of my favorite cars on the track, the E92 M3:

After a bit of cleaning up and packing some orders, I had to blitz home to start working on a repair I had promised my cousin. She had recently scratched her Altima coupe on a concrete pillar and I told her I could help her do a backyard repair. I probably spent 3 hours and I still needs a bit more work tomorrow, but here's a single progress pic:

I've filled, flattened and primed it. Tomorrow just some more smoothing out with higher grit, the paint and hopefully it'll be dry enough for me to polish a bit. Success or fail, I'll keep you guys updated tomorrow!

It was then 2:00PM and I spent the REST of the day with Miss Wong, so you guys can guess what's really important to me currently.

So hope that intro wasn't too long for you guys and I hope to learn more about my fellow blog challengers during the next 30 days!

BALLINTAINMENT

HELLO TELUS EMPLOYEE IN MY LOTTO POOL

You actually googled Ballintainment to see if I made this word up?

Welcome to my blog. EXPLORE MY LIFE.