Dan@Adams

Yeah, I guess I got it mainly to match the larger barstool chair at my workbench, ha. I think it actually ended up costing around $40 or $50 after discounts. It's listed at $79.99 on their website.

I'm a little late to the party on this reply, but I've been using this Craftsman seat for about 2 years now. It was given to me as a gift to match some of the other Craftsman equipment I have in my garage, but unfortunately like a lot of their products now, I doubt that it was made in the USA. The plastic trays in the bottom are removable, and I think one or two of them have magnets underneath to keep screws/nuts/etc from rolling around. The height is adjustable, but I wish it would go a few inches lower than it does. Sears usually has it on sale for $30 off or more on that certain day-after-turkey-day shopping insanity One more shot of me on the mechanic seat set to the lowest position, back when I was just starting to restore the truck I bought off of my dad last winter...it's come a long way since this picture!

This is awesome news! Congrats buddy

Cool! My brother has great birthday company now. Happy belated b-day Adam!

I've been to San Diego and PH several times and to Yokosuka more than 20 times, working on software and hardware for the DDG's and CG's floating around out there with you finding those submarines As everyone else has said, thank you for your service!

The first 3 teams into the Finish Line on Day 2, my old co-driver Donny and his girlfriend, my friend Dan and his girlfriend from Pittsburgh, and myself and Terry. We took 2nd, Donny took 1st, and Dan in Team Impr335ive took 3rd. Southwestern PA cleaned up! Once I got home, I had to snap a few photos with both of my #57's together before I began destickering the GS. As you can tell from some of my pictures, there is a very diverse range of vehicles that run in RNA events - supercars, trucks, minivans, sedans, and everything in between. Our events are more about raising money and having fun than going fast. It is a rally, not a race. We strive to adhere to all of the rules of the road, and to enforce that, all teams that wanted to be trophy eligible had to run the app Glympse for the entirety of the rally. It's a GPS social tracking app that constantly monitors your location and speed. This added a new fun factor to me, as it was interesting to see where all of the teams were at on the map. A handful of teams were disqualified due to excessive speeding, because that is not what RNA events are about. Good people, great cars, socializing and eating at good venues after the finish line each night, and the main purpose: raising as much money as possible for very well deserving charities and organizations...that is what it's all about If anyone is interested, the next event is July 2015, the Smoky Mountain Rally. We will be raising money for Hope for the Warriors. You better believe I have big plans for the little blue Sonoma this winter...based on the charity and my profession, I'm feeling a military theme is in the works. Thanks for looking and stay tuned! -DT

Nick was nice enough to work with me again on donating a kit to auction off at the pre-rally charity auction for the Ohio Valley 700. I was already traveling to the Carlisle area to apply all of the sponsor decals onto the Buick, so I stopped over at Fall Carlisle. Nick worked with Adam and Dave to put together this nice kit! I can't even make this up, but my bud Donny ended up with the winning bid on this one too, so I think it's safe to say that I got him hooked on Adam's Polishes as well Rally North America tries to promote a fun and safe atmosphere. Teams are encouraged to make theme vehicles and wear costumes and awards are given for best dressed vehicle, best costume, and so on. Here are just a few from this past rally. Team Community Chest (they ended up driving around and making their own checkpoints on day 2, finding as many different monopoly locations as they could...and they were a huge hit when they stopped into a local Mcdonald's for lunch!): Wayne and Garth even showed up to tell Scott, RNA President, "We're Not Worthy!" Other random pictures from the rally: Plastidipped Donny's wheels for him: On our way to Dayton: Some of the cars at the Day 1 Start Line: Uh oh...not even an hour in and four of us got pulled over and got warnings. The officer was very respectful and mostly wanted to know "what was going on with all of these cars with the stickers on them". After the finish line on Day 1, many of the teams made the 15 minute drive to the now closed but haunted Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum for flashlight tours, zombie paintball, and a haunted house. Good spooky times were had. Scott even took this picture inside the Asylum, no joke!

Last weekend, I had the pleasure to participate in the second annual Rally North America Ohio Valley 700 Road Rally, benefitting the Epilepsy Foundation of Western Ohio. RNA is a not-for-profit organization with the goal of bringing auto enthusiasts together with a common objective for each rally - driving for a cause. Both Ohio Valley 700 events have benefitted the EFWO, in memory of Cody Converse. He passed away unexpectedly from an epileptic seizure in 2013 when he was 17 years old, and his father now participates in the rally with us in memory of his son. 50 teams took part in the two-day rally event last weekend, and we were able to raise over $26,000 for the Epilepsy Foundation! To date in 2014, Rally North America has raised over $140,000 between Rally US 50 for the Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis and the OV700 for the EFWO. I am extremely proud to be a part of this wonderful charity organization. First, here's a little background of my rally history. I've participated in 4 rally events with RNA now, starting back in summer 2013 for Rally New England, where I served as Navigator/Co-Driver for a good friend in his GTO. From there I got hooked. Here is a shot of Terry and I, Team Angry Goat, taking some hot laps around Watkins Glen: We took home a 2nd place finish on Day 1! Rallies with RNA are set up such that you can only place in the top 3 on one day of the rally, so as to give more teams a chance to win. Next up was last year's Ohio Valley 700. I had so much fun being a Navigator in the Rally New England rally, that I wanted to try my shot at being a driver for this one. So I took my TBSS and turned it from this: To this in plastidipped rally trim, with a former Miss Ohio for good measure My good friend Donny served as my navigator for this rally. Team Stealth SS did great for a newbie driver and a newbie navigator, but a torrential downpour combined with a very thirsty SUV ensured that we didn't get any podium finishes Beginning in fall 2013, I began my next project - a dedicated rally and autocross vehicle, so that I didn't have to keep beating up my daily driver. I purchased my dad's 2002 GMC Sonoma work truck off of him and proceeded to rebuild the whole truck, with the help of a lot of great friends and two outstanding performance shops. This truck and its story deserve a whole separate thread on here, so I'll post that tomorrow if I have a chance. I had plans of having the truck up and running for May, so that we would have two solid months of shakedown and working out any bugs...that didn't happen exactly according to plan...we fired up the truck for the first time with the new engine and everything else literally the day before Rally US 50. Team Blue Steel was born. Nearly every day and night of this rally, Donny and I faced obstacles to overcome - overheating issues, tire rub issues up front bending the fender lip and slicing the sidewalls, power steering lines bursting, no air conditioning in 90+ degree days, electrical issues with headlights/radar detector/stereo, running out of gas twice...the list goes on. But we made it through the entire rally - all 5 days from West Virginia to Colorado, and then another 3 days back home to Pennsylvania...and despite all of the odds, we managed to take 1st place on the final day of the rally into Pueblo! Nick and Adam's Polishes were nice enough to donate a Basic Car Care Kit for the pre-rally charity auction. It auctioned for just under the retail price, so someone got a nice deal on some amazing products and we helped out the Accelerated Cure Project for MS too! That someone being my codriver With Rally US 50 over, I started planning for the Ohio Valley 700 the very next day after we got home. I had big plans of overhauling the entire cooling system in the little blue racetruck (I knew a stock 4.3 cooling system would never be enough for a heads/cam LS1 but we just simply ran out of time to finish the truck properly), adding air conditioning, putting on the C6 Corvette front brakes, and getting all of the electrical gremlins sorted out. More and more people kept bringing cars over for me to detail though, and that combined with work travel to Japan kept me from getting much work done on the truck. I traded in the TBSS in September and got a new daily driver, and I decided it would be great to serve as a temporary rally vehicle for the two-day OV700. My navigator Donny had enough fun being navigator after two outings, so just like me he was hooked and decided to give driving a shot...this meant I needed a new navigator! lol. So my nearly brand new '14 Regal GS went from this: To this: My good GTO buddy Terry decided to change roles to navigator for this rally, so now the roles would be reversed from my first rally with him in New England. Since it was close to Halloween, and since there are a lot of GTO owners in Rally North America (including both of us), we decided to poke a little fun at ourselves and others, and Team Goatbusters was born

Awesome! I just took advantage of that Daily Special More sturdy and tougher are welcome improvements. My friends finally won't be able to give me a hard time anymore about bringing all of my Adam's gear to their shops and homes in a bunch of Grabiak Chevrolet plastic bags...ha! And I'm pretty sure the Fedex guy is going to think I'm crazy with all of the orders I've been putting in lately!

Awesome! I've been trying for a while to find one of the old ones for sale. I have the compact travel bag and take it everywhere, but I've been wanting the large bag to carry more supplies in an organized manner instead of just throwing everything in plastic bags

Thanks Adam! The Brembos sure do haul it down quick! Oh, I wasn't joking when I said I wouldn't wait long to start having fun with it. Baseline pulls at 768 miles 236awhp/267ft-lbs...not bad at all for bone stock on 93 octane, considering it's rated at 259/295 at the engine! And one more quick shot I took tonight, Patriot Wax on almost the whole car now. I really like the clean but aggressive lines of this ride

Thanks! I'm loving mine more and more each day I drive it. To me the GS blends the perfect amount of luxury, tech, sport, and power for a daily driver. I'm very satisfied in choosing it over the much more expensive ATS 2.0 turbo awd...when building the ATS with comparable options to the GS (lane departure, adaptive cruise, heated steering wheel and seats, sunroof, rear spoiler, 18" wheels instead of the GS's 20" wheels, black chrome grill, etc), the ATS ends up about $8,000 more!

Ah ok! I missed that post. I just sent a reset request and all is well in the world now Thanks! Edit: I should add that the new website is outstanding! Job well done, excellent

Maybe there are still isolated issues, as I'm unable to log into the new website with my email and password as well? I've tried Chrome, Firefox, and IE on my desktop and Chrome on my phone.

Incorrect actually. You can still get them in a 6 speed manual, no cost option, but only for the front wheel drive GS, not the all wheel drive. GM doesn't seem to like manual transmissions on their awd cars Edit: When the GS first came out, it was ONLY available as a manual transmission for the first 6 months or so...pretty cool I thought

Yeah, the transmission is a little bit lazy, but I'm guessing that is just the factory tune and torque management. In manual mode it upshifts pretty hard! This one stickered at $45,475 since it was fully loaded. If I were to order one, I wouldn't have picked all of those options, but this one was on the lot for 3 months, where I did recon work spying on it, and it kept saying "buy me..." I waited for the right deal to come up and got over just over $6k off with a GMS certificate and the current rebates, plus another $15k trade-in on the TBSS, so that helped me justify it some And yeah absolutely the girl would have to like cars and tolerate the loud exhaust and raw fuel, but I wanted a "normal" car too, haha. I usually don't even tell women about the GTO or the racetruck until later on. Thanks, I think so too! Woohoo! lol Thanks buddy! I'll try to keep it clean to your standards Yeah, I did my homework for many months between the GS, the Chevy SS, ATS, A4, S3, 3series, etc.

Thanks, the rally was incredible to say the least, and to take 1st place on the last day, in a truck that the build was literally less than a week old...let's just say it felt awesome to prove everyone wrong that said I was crazy or that the truck wouldn't make it across the country and back. When I have time I'll make a thread about it on here

Thank you much! Thanks bud! I do plan to be around on here a lot more often now...I'll find time somehow I was thinking about getting the Opel badges for it, but with the big Buick badge up front, it has the built-in radar and I'm not sure if the Opel grill works the same way. Thanks. I agree somewhat. Just shy of 300ft-lbs of torque is impressive to me, and when this car came out, it was GM's highest horsepower per liter engine they had ever built up to that point. The Grand National and GNX were always above the GS anyway, and a Trifecta tune should bump this bad boy up 70hp to around 350hp out of a 2.0 liter turbo Thanks, the IP is one of my favorite things about the car too. Thanks buddy! How have you been man?

My dealership knows how particular I am with my GTO and was with the TBSS (in fact they told me that the TBSS was the cleanest black vehicle they've ever received on a trade...I told them that was sorta my goal), never letting them wash either. They said they at least had to wash the GS for me to look it over, so I told them only to wash it the night before - no wax or junky shiny stuff inside, and that I would take care of the car myself since like all of you, I'm obsessed with detailing cars to perfection. They put some tire shine on as well that flung all over, but I'll remedy that with SVRT. I already started to claybar the car, polish it with Paint Finishing Polish with the Cyclo and white pads (didn't need Paint Correcting Polish, as there were only a few very fine swirl marks in the clear in a few spots), seal it with Liquid Paint Sealant, then Brilliant Glaze, and finally Patriot Wax. The hood and entire driver side are done so far. I've detailed dozens of vehicles now, and it always amazes me how much dirt and rail dust gets pulled out with the claybar, even with a brand new car. This was from just claying the hood. Lookin pretty all alone as I like it, at the Arby's parking lot at lunch yesterday And finished the hood off with the good stuff last night. Tonight I got the trunk clayed, polished, and sealed. I'll move onto the passenger side, roof, and bumpers on Sunday, as tomorrow I'm detailing a friend's BMW and his wife's Acura! I'll get better pictures once the whole car is complete. Oh, and I'm already looking into the Trifecta tune, Weathertech floormats, and some winter wheels and tires, lol. As always, thanks for looking!

Hey gang, I know I haven't been on the forum much lately, but I'm hoping to change that again. I'm warning you now that this will be a long post, so I'll throw a lot of pictures in between my babbling Last Friday, I said goodbye to a truly great friend, my 2008 Trailblazer SS... It went home to a good friend of mine who purchased it from the dealership for the same price I traded it in for. I absolutely loved the TBSS, but I felt it was time to change things up some and get more of an adult car, even if it really is a 'pretend' adult car that happens to be an incredibly fun sport sedan too! This ain't your grandpa's Buick... 2014 Buick Regal GS. I'm not sure how many people know about this car, so if you don't, it's essentially an Opel Insignia - built in Germany the first two years of production and now they're being built in Canada. White Diamond Tricoat finish, 2.0 Ecotec turbo, 259hp and 295ft-lbs, all wheel drive, 20" wheels with Pirelli summer-only 255's, Brembo brakes, and just about any feature you can imagine. The car is fully loaded with the exception of one option - $140 all weather rubber floor mats, lol. Driver Confidence 1 and 2 packages add things like blind spot detection, lane departure warnings, and something that really freaked me out at first but now I'm really starting to like it - adaptive cruise control. I got over $6k off MSRP, then $15k trade-in for the TBSS, so I ended up financing $25k at 1.9%...not bad at all. My friend picking up his new TBSS, in his G8 GT: I've never been in a car with adaptive cruise control before, so this thing put me in awe, lol...it can do all of the braking and acceleration for you, so basically all you have to do is steer! Heated steering wheel and seats, moonroof, and the awesome new 8" LCD configurable gauge cluster, very similar to the C7 Corvette. It even has a G-meter and lots of other cool screen options. Putting the car into GS mode firms up the shock valving, tightens the response on the awesome steering wheel, and also plays around with the fuel mapping and shift algorithms. The turbo can make up to 24psi of boost from the factory, and the all wheel drive system can put up to 95% of the torque to the rear wheels when it needs it. I absolutely love this thing. It's going to make a great, fun daily driver. For all of you scifi nerds out there like me, 42 miles at purchase, no joke. Build quality has a very Euro, bmw-like feel to it, which I think is a very good thing Panel fitment is tight, no rattles, and very little hard plastics. The touch-controls for the HVAC and heated seats are very modern and cool to me, but I guess some car mags don't like them. I've never owned anything this premium feeling. I sure miss the TBSS, but I do not regret this purchase one bit! Love the design of these massive 20" wheels and nice wide tires The Brembos. 60-0 stopping is supposed to be about 104 feet...I wouldn't argue that one bit! Holy brakes Batman...especially for a 4,000 pound car. LED Daytime Running Lights are pretty sweet, and the HID's are fantastic. LED tail lights too, with a redesign for 2014. For a daily driver, ideally I wanted something classy that I wouldn't be embarrassed to take a woman out on a first date without making her go deaf or smell like raw fuel like my other two rides I wanted comfort, style, all wheel drive, decent gas mileage, geek toys, decent power, and awesome handling and braking - and I knew it would be hard to find all of those things in a new vehicle for a decent price. A BMW 3-series or an Audi A4 could have given me all of that as well, but for much more money for a similar feature set, and who am I kidding, I'm a GM guy and always will be!

And one shot of the nearly finished truck. I have a few more decals to put on in the morning

It's been quite a while since I've posted on this forum unfortunately...life happens - work was chaotic the last year, family members got sick, and so on, but I'm not here to complain about that or look for sympathy. What I am posting about is that I'm participating in the Ohio Valley 700 Rally taking place this weekend, October 4-6th - pre-rally festivities are on the 4th and the rally itself takes place on the 5th and 6th. The purpose of the rally is to support the Western Ohio Epilepsy Foundation, in memory of Cody Converse. Cody passed away in early 2013 from a condition known as SUDEP Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy. Cody was larger than life, and very wise beyond his 17 years. All the proceeds raised in this event will be given to the Western Ohio Epilepsy Foundation. The 2 day event will take us from Beavercreek Ohio, to French Lick Indiana, and Back. Our team name is Team Stealth SS. I decided to enter my TBSS in the rally instead of my GTO, mainly to give the GTO a break and the SS is still a lot of fun. I'm not begging for donations in any way, but if you would like to support the Epilepsy Foundation of Western Ohio by making a donation through my team, please send me a PM. I am not sure I am allowed to post any donation links on this forum. Since I'm always a little different and get bored, I decided to spray the entire truck in Anthracite Grey Metallic Plastidip for protection, and I thought it would look cool, lol. I know some people out there despise the product, but I think it turned out quite well. I then started putting on all of the sponsor decals. A HUGE thank you to Adam's Polishes for sending me some goodies and some decals to put on the vehicle for the rally! I ended up putting one on the hood, one on each front fender, and one on the rear glass - my thoughts are those are the areas people will see most Oh, and Waterless Wash works fantastic for cleaning the Plastidip Anyway, onto the pictures! Before: First I did the wheels in satin black as a test: Then I prepped the whole truck: After, Satin Anthracite Grey Metallic: And a sneak peek of the vinyls. Thanks for looking! For more general information about the OV700 and Rally North America in general, here's the website: http://rallynorthamerica.com/node/13"]http://rallynorthamerica.com/node/13

Yeah, I have the detailer's tape packed up in a big Rubbermaid container with all of my other Adams products...sort of my mobile detailing kit. We're doing the detail at the shop, so I will be sure to grab some before and after pictures if he's ok with it.

That's what I was thinking too, just pull it off and let me get it perfect with the 3 stage polishing, quick sealant, brilliant glaze, and then patriot wax

One of my friends recently purchased a Nissan GTR. He wants me to paint correct it tomorrow morning/afternoon. The previous owner neglected the paint finish somewhat, but I shouldn't have too much trouble taking care of the roof, doors, trunk, rear quarter panels, and rear bumper with the Flex and some swirl&haze and fine machine polish; however the front bumper, front fenders, hood, and mirrors are completely covered in clear bra and they're in pretty bad shape. I've detailed many cars now, but since I've never worked on paint correcting a car with a clear bra, what are the recommendations for buffing over it? The owner of the car was told not to buff it since it can't get any heat to it, but I was assuming something like the Flex with a white pad and Fine Machine Polish might be safe enough? I'm assuming little to no pressure with the Flex at speed 4 or 5? Or is it really advised against buffing the clear bra? The owner also has a performance shop, so I'm thinking of finishing off his Godzilla car with some Patriot Wax goodness to really impress him and maybe get some recommendations to detail some customer cars Any input is greatly appreciated. Thanks, Dan.