AudiOx

Spent all day on planes yesterday getting back from Svalbard, Norway, a few hundred miles from the North Pole. Longyearbeyn, Svalbard-->Oslo-->Amsterdam-->Atlanta. About 21 hours with layovers.

It sure was nice seeing my clean car in the deck at the airport. Everything in Svalbard is caked in dirt; there are only a couple of paved roads.

Today I was able to sleep in, unpack, run some errands, and spend quality time with the family.

That is sexy looking.....very Indiana Jones. You ARE going to get a matching leather fedora and whip to go with that I hope?

designed by

Got sent to Svalbard, Norway (an island about halfway between Norway and the North Pole) to fix one of my antennas. I got here night before last, worked 12 hours yesterday and spent most of today trying to get software downloaded from home to finish my work.

I cringe at the cars here. There are very few roads, and even fewer that are paved. Most of the vehicles are covered in a thick layer of road grime. Since I was missing home, and my clean A8, I put in a Labor Day Adam's order that I can enjoy when I get home. Can't wait to try out my MSS with the Flex on the A8!

Well, let's count the weekend, if you'll oblige me. It was a productive one.

Friday after work I trimmed all our bushes up front.

Friday night I changed the front rotors and pads and rotated the tires on the A8. I've done pads before but never rotors so this was a new learning experience for me. I took an extra 90 minutes or so to clean up the barrels of the wheels and all the suspension and brake components. She's a daily driver with 100k miles on her so I didn't go nuts cleaning, but the aluminum suspension arms did clean up pretty well. I wrapped up about 3am.

Saturday I cleaned up the trimming from the bushes and then tackled the rear rotors and pads and cleaned up the rear components of the A8.

Today I mowed the yard and help cleanup the house for a 9yo girl's birthday party at our house (my daughter's friend). Cupcake wars! Yay.

Then after getting everyone off to bed, I got the A8 washed and detailed in the dark....as usual. This time went quickly as the wheels were already spotless. (I'm in process of doing a mid-year FMP on the whole car. Boy this goes a LOT faster the second time around. Got the hood and roof done so far.)

P.S. I changed to EBC Red Stuff pads on the front and Akebono pads on the rear. Both low dusting. I put the Akebono pads on the front of my wife's A4 a couple of months ago and WOW what a difference. It takes about 3-4 weeks now before the dust is really noticeable compared to a few days with stock pads. (Akebono didn't make front pads for the A8 but the EBC have a good reputation too.)

really love those wheels. VERY nice choice.

Played badminton and hide n' seek with my 6yo daughter for a while.

Inadvertently took a 2hr nap waiting on my computer to update my iPhone iOS, which didn't work by the way.

Then from 7-12 tonight I detailed both of our rides. Ahh, feel so much better now getting them shiny again.

I hate detailing my wife's white A4 at night because that's the only time you see the swirls on it...when the streetlights hit it just right. I corrected the hood and trunk, but the sides are making me cringe.

The A8 is holding up well. She could stand a single FMP pass me thinks.

zzzzzzzz

Doin a little sprucing up around our humble abode:

 

 

 

Neat looking house. Nice.

Ooh, my wife would Luuuv that pool!

:drool:

 

You sir have my dream house, Gorgeous man! loving the cedar eves

 

:drool:

Thanks. We love it, too. The original spec plan was stucco which we didn't care for and it didn't fit the neighborhood. So I redesigned a lot of the house inside and out; I'm sure the builder got tired of me.

I updated the facade with the stone, siding, and cedar shake, plus added the third garage and front porch.

Then we added a bunch of tweaks to the inside and redid the entire kitchen layout.

Here's my initial kitchen sketch and some of the near completion shots:

(My wife and I basically scanned through a bunch of kitchen design magazines and made notes of features we liked.)

p.s. folks always ask: what's that raised up next to the sink?

That's the dishwasher. We raised it a foot for easier load/unload. It's very convenient. I moved the cooktop off the island to maximize island counterspace since we were losing some by raising the DW.

This is ours right when we moved in Christmas 2004. No window treatments...nuthin! The landscape has since filled in. As you can guess based on our move in date, we're underwater despite paying off a ton of it. We dropped another 7.5% in the last 30 days. So we're around $71/sqft now (down 51% since '06) not including the unfinished full basement. But fortunately we have jobs and love the house.

Finally got to change the oil and detail both cars this weekend. I had to wash both cars twice to minimize grinding the build-up into the finish, and rinse in the second bucket a lot more often.

It's been since just before Christmas, and I was getting the jitters looking at the brake dust.

We've had so much rain since Christmas and I've been unusually sick twice since then so.....it's always somethin'.

I kept repeating to myself "Dirt doesn't ruin the finish, bad car washing technique does", but it only helped so much.

Of course brake dust on the paint finish is a different story....can't leave that on too long.

The cars looks so much better, and I could tell they were happy and content in the garage. I sure missed hanging out in the garage surrounded by the smell of Adam's products. ahhhhh.

We had 2 samoyeds: Milo and Jasmine.

Jasmine passed in '09 from old age, so it was just Milo for a year.

Then our cat, Gracie, adopted us Christmas '09 by showing up at the front door. We're not cat people, but she's pretty cool.

We got a beta fish over Christmas for my daughter. No pics. He's named....Red. Guess what color he is?

Thank you. Looks like you found a nice D3, love the color, I bet it looks different almost every day, depending on the sunlight?

One of my D2's is a similar color, amethyst gray mica, and it changes from a deep purple in sunlight to a dark grey, almost black in flat light.......

 

 

..........

Oooh! Love the look of the fat-fives on the D2.

Yes, the Oyster Gray can look gray, blue, or purple depending on the light and viewing angle. Love it.

My favorite money shot of the trunk after my first night of paint correction:

Thanks. The race-deck is good.......... but sometimes, just okay.

 

Pros: Floor feels warmer compared to concrete. Looks good. Easy to install. Endless opportunities with patterns and colors.

 

Cons: A little noisy when you walk on it, ( some of the tiles are not in 100% contact with the concrete). Kind of a pain to keep clean. Tiles buckle when the sun hits them in the summer, (garage facing south), even though there are plenty of space on the sides for the tiles to move. Too much friction I guess.

Excellent input. Thanks. I may just go for the garage floor paint and make sure all the proper prep work is done.

Love the S8s. I wish my D2 held up. I should've paid more for a nicer example, but love the D3, so it all ended well.

Meh, she's alright I guess.

 

And I know those are D2's, remember your talking to an Audi nut if I would ever do an a/s 8 I would only buy used since they depreciate so insanely fast. He deff did his s8 right with the D3 rims. And Yeah, yours looks fantastic.

 

incase your wondering ....I knew

 

.....

Well, I figured, but if you can afford a Mini, you can DEFINITELY afford a D2 S8. No a D3 S8, that's still pretty pricey, I think a '07 or so would still be $40k. Ouch.

And, some of the history was for the others that might be interested. This board is understandably American-make-centric. I've learned a ton about the American makes being on this forum. I think it's neat that of the imports on here, Audi above all has a bit of a foothold.

Add this to the list of items required to start a detailing business...CHECK.

 

Make money and afford an S8...CHECK

 

Marry Sophia Bush....CHECK

 

Life=complete

 

 

I am super jealous of your lift, that is beyond AWESOME. That looks like a fun project, i would have dug that out a few more inches, do some insane rebar work and fill with high PSI concrete...cant risk an audi like that Im sure your good though!

 

MOM/DAD!!!! i want this for Christmas

It should be pointed out that both of those are D2 Audi S8s (as seen in the movie Ronin) but with D3 wheels. The D2 S8s were only '01-'03 model years, and while rare, can be had in the low teens. There's a guy (BruceM) on some of the Audi forums that has ties to the auctions and has tracked down many of the 'unicorn' D2 S8s for the members.

Similar with my '05 D3 A8, I got it for 1/4 of the new price and it looks almost brand new thanks to Adam's. Only those 'in the know' would know it's an '05 since the body style was the same until '10. When you take a classic design and take care of it, it looks MUCH newer. I find the Corvettes similar in this regard.

Now, regarding Sophia, I'll take Vergara.

IDK, I would have to look at the product description, but something would have to be in place in case of failure. A simple blown hose and the car comes crashing down, doubt it. Probably has some sort of locking pins like you said. It looks extremly mobile, even if you didn't want to mount it in the floor. Hmmmmm.

Every one I've seen has safety locking points every several inches or so. This one locks at 26", 32", 38", 43", 48", 52".

Scissor Lifts | TCPL6 6,000 LB. Mid Rise Lift / Portable Pad Lift

I've seen several others with similar locking points, one as low as 20". The ones that go up to 61+ inches make me nervous as the two legs start getting awfully close together. I like how they all run on 110V, not 220V.

This Mohawk one is made in the USA and looks super nice, particularly the unrestricted under-access and 6' lift height, but it's also ~$6000. Again the close legs when fully lifted just looks scary.

Mohawk Lifts USL6000 - purchase scissor lifts, scissor car lifts & truck lift contracts | Mohawk Lifts Consumer Site

Dang, that is ultra sweet!

 

After seeing the lift setup on that Gallardo, I'm so drooling for a mid-rise lift.

I would hesitate to inset it into the floor as I like to work in the middle of the garage for maximum room on the sides. I just pull the other car out of the way. Once you pick an inset location, you are pretty married to it.

They are 'portable' too, so I guess you could use it that way for a while to test your habits.

Oh man, would this be nice for detailing wheels/exhaust, polishing lower panels, wheel and brake maintenance, oil changes.....

Ooh, be still my coveting heart.

Detailed the A8 last night til about 1am. Then I detailed the A4 this afternoon. I'm thinking of starting the paint correction on it tonight.

Finally got a chance to watch this video.

As usual, the production and material was professional, thorough, and entertaining. Thanks Adam.

Now I'm just glad in Atlanta I can usually wash in my driveway. I've never used a car wash like that. Hmmmm, might have to try that out in Jan-Feb.

Awesome save! Very thorough detail and an enjoyable read. I appreciate the time it takes to do all those before/after shots.

Great work on the microscratching from the sunroof deflector too.

What was your process on the B-pillars? Mine are very similar on the A8: black plastic and similar size/shape. It's one of the few places I haven't corrected on the car yet.

Put up the tree and wreaths on the windows. We still have to do ornaments.

I also met up with a couple of my closest highscool friends (class of '89) for one of their 40th bdays down at the Varsity in downtown Atlanta. (I got my oil changed as they say)

So why didn't you sing at the clinic yesterday?

I'd hate to get something thrown at me and risk damaging that perfect spot on the Kia or the fixed scratch on the trashed S4.

P.S. I've known that S4 for many years as it used to belong to another aquantaince. I couldn't believe how trashed it was. Made me cringe.

I was just wondering about a blank label for the bottles, and sure enough, the topic has come up before.

Any intent to go through with this?

At first I though a label with the Adams logo but a blank area would be cool, but then I foresee potential issues.

What if someone's strange concoction did some damage and got linked to the Adam's name. Not good.

Perhaps the logo could have the same color/stripe layout and even a disclaimer.

Anyway, for us anal types (and who on here isn't?), the aesthetics of the detailing supplies are important too. I'd love to have Shampoo/water, APC/water, IPA solutions, etc available in the awesome bottles.

Just sayin'.....

Thanks for everything. LOVE the products.