more pics

some updated pics. new doors, seat covers, seat heaters, grill mesh inserts, short antenna, new hood latches upgraded speakers, lots of easy stuff. wheels and lift next!

new jeep

the bmw met an unfortunate end. long story involving cat sitter. but the silver lining is that we got a  jeep. this is day 2 after we got the top and rear doors off.

Old Porsche Wheels

4 wheels & tires from a 2000 996 cab.
Never tracked/raced or crashed.
18" OEM solid turbo twists

7.5Jx18 ET50
10Jx18 ET65

Bridgestone Potenza SO2 (N3)
225/40 ZR18
265/35/ZR18
with Porsche painted center caps & Porsche crest valve covers
with Porsche OEM lug bolts
some minor curb rash (see pics)
tires have approx 1/4" tread left (see pictures)

Rear Wheel #1

Rear Wheel #2

Front Wheel #1

Front Wheel #2

New Wheels

I have finally got my car cleaned up. I finished painting the brake calipers, put some new wheels on and got the rear plastic window replaced. Followed that up by spending the day washing and waxing it and now it looks like a new car (except for the fact that the paint is covered in scratches when you get close).

Here's the front view parked just outside some rich guys house up in the foothills. Used the 50mm prime, the flash and the polarized filter, which gave some OK results.

Side view - pretty impressive backdrop! This is my favorite shot of the dozens that I took today.

rear view - showing rich dude's driveway.....

And this is what it looked like 3 weeks ago.....

The list of potential future improvement projects includes.....

• lowering suspension
• new front lip
• side skirts
• new spoiler
• professional paint refinishing

Alternatively I could do nothing, which is more likely.

Night Lights

Finally got a round to taking some night shots of the BBQ. I was too lazy to get the tripod out so they are blurry. This shows the three LEDs under the seated counter, and the two under the standup bar.

This shows the one under the end counter, and also the cool blue lights on the grill and side burner.

Seated counter closeup....

This gives a better view of the whole island.

Overall the lights add to "cool factor", cost nothing to run, and were very easy to install.

Clean Car

So inspiration struck and I cleaned, and waxed my car. I don't remember when the car was last waxed (to be honest, I am not sure it has ever been waxed). It literally looks like a completely different car. I was so impressed I went out in search of some good spots for photos. Here's what I got.....

Obviously the rear brakes still need painting, which will happen as soon as the paint gets delivered. I am also thinking it may need to be lowered, although I will see what it looks like when I get the new wheels on.

From the back it looks OK, and with the 19" wheels and larger tires (295 vs the current 265) it should look a little more aggressive. Still not sure about a fixed spoiler. They have some pretty cool ones available, but that means getting stuff painted.

Next up will be the rear brakes, then the replacement rear window.

Done w Kitchen, onto the Car

Time to get the car fixed up. It is looking pretty poor right now. The back window (lame plastic thing) is finally cracked so I can't take it to the car wash, which means it doesn't get cleaned all that often.....

First step is painting the brake calipers. So far I have just done the front ones. They look OK if you don't get too close.

aaa

More Shots

The plumber hooked up the gas yesterday and I managed to get the TV up and running and the beer tap working. I will be picking up a keg of beer at 9am this morning, which will give me a couple hours before the USA football match! And right after that it is time to burn the first food!

Here's a few shots to show it finished off taken just as it was getting dark last night.

I have these little LED lights under all the counters. They look really good when it is fully dark. I'll try to get some pics of that later on.

Here's the grill all lit up! It has fancy blue LEDs on the knobs, which look really cool in the dark. Inside it has two very good lights for night time grilling.

Artsy shot showing some closeup of the detail work and the TV behind.

Side view of the island. The kegerator didn't want to go i all that easily. I think it expanded while I was building the island as the hole seemed to be too small!

And here's the standard, full island shot!