Well, if she does get her to take you along.

 

This weekend I finally had a chance to clean my salt covered car and try out the new Auto Armor that is now a ceramic coating. It has a very different application process now. It used to be a wax that you applied and wiped off. Now it is almost like an oil that you spray on and use a clay bar while you apply it. I made the mistake of using the clay bar in our detail shop instead of my synthetic clay bar and once the car dried I had clay bar streaks all over the car. It took another 2 hours to get all cleaned up, but I don't think the car has ever been so shiny.

I am curious to see how this new coating holds up and if it works to prevent rail dust. I thought it would be easy to see how shiny it was in low light with all of the shadows, but this picture does not really do it justice. I might try again tomorrow in the sunlight.

 

Here is a slightly better pic in the sunlight with some shadows so you can just start to see how glossy it looks on the hood- almost like it is wet or made of glass. I am pretty impressed. I hope this new Auto Armor holds up well.

 

Wow. You did an amazing job on your paint!.

 

Thanks, but it's nothing I did. Just a little elbow grease with a pretty cool product. I'm very curious to see how it works with rail dust.

 

Waiting for your review. If it prevents those orange speckles from appearing I'll give this a look. Clay barring that crap off every month gets old real fast.

 

No kidding! The old version of Auto Armor worked pretty well. I could usually go a full year without having to clay bar the car. The warranty does pay the labor to have someone else clay the car for you if you prefer. I am curious to see if this new ceramic version works better.

I think the original issue with rail dust is that it is hot brake dust that melts into the clear coat. Original Auto Armor worked a lot better because it worked to about 400 degrees whereas a normal wax will melt off at under 100 degrees, or basically the surface temperature of your paint on a sunny day- even in winter. The new ceramic Auto Armor is supposed to last up to about 1,000 degrees. We shall see.

 

I'm doing my brake ducts finally: Did you get rid of your OEM brake baffle when you installed it?

 

Good question. Are you talking about the black rock guard behind the rotor?

 

European vacation update- Big news today. I just booked a hot lap of the Nurburgring with a racing driver in a Porsche 911 GT3 RS! This is one of the few street cars to break 7:00 at the Ring. I am super excited about this and I am paying extra for an in car video of the lap. We have to drive 4 hours each way to get there, but it should totally be worth it.

 

You're going to ride shotgun at the ring in that car? Wow! That should be an experience of a lifetime.

 

Yes. In your pics I don't see it, but they aren't super clear.

 

VERY much looking forward to that video being posted

 

Well, some huge upgrades today. Last weekend I installed the passenger seat occupant weight sensor emulator. It does get rid of the light on the dash for the airbag. However, it also creates a light on the dash for the seatbelt unless it is buckled in the passenger seat. So I picked up a fake seat belt buckle for $6 off of amazon. Problem solved.

Next step is ordering Bride seat rails for the passenger seat and than another Sparco seat. It's funny to think I originally got the Sparco driver's seat to save weight and hold me in place. Now I am just excited to get rid of the factory seat because it looks heavy and ugly compared to the Sparco seat.

 

I changed my oil last night and when I went to snug down the Z1 magnetic drain plug it split in half. Of course it happens the one time I only brought the 2 wrenches I need instead of my whole tool box with my oem drain plug in it. So I went home to get the oem plug, but when I got back to the shop I realized I would need a flat head screw driver and a needle nose pliers to get the crush washer off. Luckily, I found one of my tech's tool boxes open and fixed everything. Phew! I got very lucky since those tool boxes are usually locked up tighter than Fort Knox.

I called Z1 this morning to ask if they had any sort of warranty and Jon said he would ship one right out. Maybe he remembered that I have bought a ton of stuff from them or maybe he remembered the disaster of trying to tune my car, but either way I thought that was good service and not what I expected. Thanks Jon!