EricB

iTrader: (7)

thanks guys for the input, it really didnt look right to me either, way more galaxy gray, and thanks pico for responding

Heres what you get: A teaser of my eyelids. Installing them on my birthday on the 17th.

Paint looks great, ordered on the 29th and came the 8th but i was at school so i signed for them today (the 9th)

I havnt compared them on the car yet but I will tomorrow, or later i dont know. My friend has these same eyelids from the same company on his VR and they are spot on. Much cheaper than the alternative from RR/Kei/EvoR/JT/. Painted from ebay is less than half the cost of unpainted from RR.

After i washed and waxed a freak snow storm came out of no where when i was working late at school and covered my beautiful car with snow, so i have to re wash and wax for my birthday, and when i do ill make sure to post pics!

I also blacked out my emblems with Plasti-dip and it worked great, i used a mechanical pencil to get into the tricky spots, the graphite doesnt scratch the paint and can be rubbed off easily, opposed to using a exacto knife and marring your paint. Ill make sure to take pictures of my exhaust, eyelids and emblems when shes nice and clean again!

EricB

iTrader: (7)

alright, got some pics. The color of the eyelid is slightly more blue, unless your a foot away you cant tell the difference, actually the pic i did with my camera makes it look even more blue. Add in sunlight when looking at it and you cant really tell.





And what do you think about Plasti-Dip'ing the 40thAE rims???

mrl84

just buy some black wheels. it will end up looking better in the long run. my 40th wheels are under my stairs in storage to never see the light of day again (till i sell the car i guess)

EricB

iTrader: (7)

I plan on buying varrstoen 3.3.1 but people plastidip their rims anyway

pistonhater

Really? Are the wheels in ok shape? What about selling them to me??

I bought my 40th AE used - but with low miles. The first owner apparently didn't know how to park, so the wheels had scratches (more like curb rash). It almost became a deal breaker when I bought the car, but then I realized the price of the car was right, low miles, excellent condition otherwise, so I went ahead and bought the car anyway.

The wheels don't bother me anymore, and I can live with it. I called some of those places that fix alloy wheels, but around here in NY is about $100 per wheel plus tax. I then realized if I am going to spend 400 plus $$$$ fixing scratches, I might as wheel put the money toward aftermarket wheels.

- or -

Paint them flat black or gun metallic (similar color to the R3 wheels)

- or -

Buy a used set of 40th AE wheels from somebody here. I've seen a few sets of Series II wheels for sale - which are very similar to our wheels - but somebody pointed out in a different thread that those are lighter in color.

Let me know if you are interested.

pistonhater

Looking good! Can't tell the difference from here. Pretty cool you got them at a decent price online

Plus, remember the the color might give the impression of being slightly different in that area since you are comparing it to three three different surfaces.

If you look at your hood - for example - under direct sunlight, it might look slightly different in tone than other parts of the car because it's aluminum. I only notice that when it's very sunny outside. I've noticed it in other RX-8s as well. Plastic parts sometimes might the impression of having a slightly different tone.

mrl84

2 of them are perfect, the other 2 have scrapes on the spokes cause im an idiot. the first time i change the the wheels for the winter i scraped the face with a cheater on the breaker bar... had a quote of about 75 bucks each to fix them, never did it.

thought about selling them when i got my rpf1's but figured id hang on to them for the total package down the road.

mrl84

if you are planning on buying rims anyway why waste the time with your current ones? you are gunna have to clean the hell out of them to get the plastidip to adhere well. i was going to plastidip my winter wheels red this year but i no longer have a garage to work in and didnt want to get brake cleaner/dust and plastidip in my apt. not to mension i figure it would take the better part of a day to do it properly.

Pico

iTrader: (2)

Eric

You should look into getting a pair of clear corners.

Don't know how I feel about going with a darker color wheel thou. I think the colors would clash. Darkest I would go with would titanium

mrl84

if you go back a page you can see the pics of my car with my black wheels on it. they are all action shots so you cant see the wheel but it gives you an idea of the color combo.

im not disagreeing with pico ( your car looks awesome all the time btw) but i think pulling off the black wheel depends on what other accents you have, ie i dont have strakes or the front/rear accents, all my badges minus the 40th are black, and i have dark window tint, and i think the black wheels look really good.

Wingznut

iTrader: (1)

Nooooooo! The 40th AE rims are beautiful! Turning them black would make them entirely less unique.

EricB

iTrader: (7)

wow so many responses! haha. i plan on getting varrstoens but once i get my fd they are being swapped over. I was just curious because no one has done them before, i see it all the time to s1 stockers but never to our rims.







pico, i was either going to get clear corners or front mudguards for my birthday, some of my local rx8 guys are pitching in to get me something cheap for my birthday.

my rims are also pretty shot from the previous owner, i only have curb rash on my passenger front wheel but my driver front has tar or something black on a portion of it and all of the rims have pitting and black spots. its not noticeable unless close, thats not why i wanted to paint them though.

EricB

iTrader: (7)

here are the pics of my exhaust. I know alot of people hate single setups but i love it, i never liked dual exhausts, they never made sense to me and always liked the look of a single more than a dual so i went ahead and got RaceRoots single exit exhaust, its basically the same as the HKS except for half the price. I love the exhaust to death and its exactly what i was looking for, its slightly louder than the AP dual.

If any of you guys ever take your exhaust off, take your cat off too and drive around the block, i didnt uninstall mine and i regret it, my exhaust setup ended at my cat and the car was still loud, like ravaging banshee loud. I tried to call my friend while driving so he could hear my car but i couldnt hear **** over my car lol and that was with the windows up.











oh hey bilstein, silly what are you doing there?

Rotary-RX8

iTrader: (1)

Sorry if i missed it but what eyelids are those ?!?!

EricB

iTrader: (7)

ebay ftw. 38.99 shipped and painted. ordered the 30th and came the 8th. if you pm me i can link you.

EricB

iTrader: (7)

as promised, i got out of school last night at 6, realized it was still raining and didnt want to install my eyelids on a dirty car after i drove home in the rain. So i went to my car and got my fedex box with eyelids, went back to studio and went to town cutting the tape for it. If anyone was curious, i cut the tape square into long strips and i used that to cover the edges and then filled in the middle. I recommend doing it this way so you dont get flappy edges that you can pull up.

pistonhater

i guess i better keep mine

EricB

iTrader: (7)

oh i would have thought someone might have liked my eyelids happy birthday me, i love them, thankyou girlfriend.

pistonhater

hahaha, eyelids look great!

and happy b-day man.

BTW, I see in your sig that you used to have a 2009 sport. What happened? How is it that you landed with a 40th AE

Rotary-RX8

iTrader: (1)

looks really good bro. BTW Happy birthday as well. HOw come they didnt come with double sided tape already?

EricB

iTrader: (7)

Ha...that car.... yeah, well.....let me set the scene before i begin the tale. Just got my rx8 maybe a month and a half before.. the incident. Had the choice of a 06 galaxy gray and a 2009 white, the 09 was 2k more than the 06 and had 20k less miles than the 06 aswell, 50k vs 29k. I really hated the front bumper (and still do) of the 2009's though i liked everything else about them. I also really didnt like the white color on a stock white rx8( i am buying a rx7 as my track/car for dumping obscene amounts of money into) so pouring money into the rx8 wasnt a option to make it nice. Out of necessity for a car for school i settled on the 09 being less milage and was in a 10/10 shape minus a ding in the paint the size of half a penny in the rear for i think around 18k. btw important fact, the 06 was traded into the dealership with blizzaks and the 09 had nexens(god damnit).

Well i was driving my friend home from school one day and it was barely raining, not enough to keep the wipers on continuious mode. I turned right onto a road with just me and a female camry driver infront of me. She was repeatedly pushing on her brakes while traveling up a hill in a straight line. I decided to pass on the left lane, we were traveling on a....i guess country road? It was 2 lanes wide with 2 lanes the opposite direction aswell, no shoulder on left or right. As i approached a bend in the road we proceeded to go downhill at the same velocity ( me and the camry driver ) I was going about 35-38mph. To set the scene again, the county road is still 2 lanes wide, now about to go downhill to the right, concrete divider on the left and guardrail with trees behind it and an incline on the right, shoulder now exists on the left by the divider but it is 3ft wide. I havnt applied brakes yet and let the car coast to this point in speed, as i start to make the corner (mind you this takes place for about 4 seconds)going downhill i see the camry start to exhibit why it is such a cheap *** pos and see the camry slowly creeping into my lane (the left lane, towards the outside of the corner). I move to the outside now within 2 ft of the concrete divider and brake. I then proceed to hydroplane, i hate to call it a drift because it really wasnt that, more like a bird who is franticly trying to fly for the first time and doesnt want to die so its flapping its wings but nothing happens. I... hydroplane sideways to the right, the camry driver brakes, i hydroplane to the left sideways, i hydroplane to the right, i hydroplane to the left, i hydroplane to the right, i hydroplane to the left and as im counter steering i smack the front driver side at about 60 degrees sideways in relation to the wall, airbags go off, car lifts in the air up and to the right, lands. (feels like im motionless, or stopped at this point) then what feels like 8 seconds later i smack into the metal guard rail on the right.

The speed limit was 30 and the cop said that the speed limit should really be 15 and that there are atleast 5 accidents a month on that road. Yes, i was probably going too fast and didnt realize how wet the road was, my driving experience was limited and did not have much experience driving in the rain either. I understand that there is alot of... feelings on rx8club about new drivers and 8's and i unfortunately experienced this but still wish to be part of the community and eventually be accepted in the community, i know many of you are older and to be treated as a equal brings a joy to me.

At this point i was carless and after the car was totaled due to the frame being bent we went to our insurance, from my impression they would cover the price of the car lost, yes but not exactly... I forget the terms they used but the way they calculated how much they were going to give me was determined by recent sales in the vicinity, or comparables. The list was fishy to say the least, they had a automatic on the list with 5k miles grand touring 09 going for less than a 09 sport with more miles, i even recognized one of the cars i went prior to purchasing my 09 as being a rx8 that had its airbags deployed and all 4 tires were different. They said that they wouldnt and cant change any of the cars on the list unless it was listed as totalled, which that rx8 was not. They then told us that if we were not happy with the list all we had to do was go around to dealers and get details on rx8's they had for sale and give evidence to progressive that we went to different dealers and negotiated on prices. After we had traveled over 100 miles in 3 different directions to pennsylvania and delaware and upstate ny, we returned with the evidence to progressive and they were shocked we actually did this they changed their story. they would not increase the check for 16k because we needed to submit this evidence to corporate and could take 6months for them to make an investigation and then more time to receive the funds if any change was to be made. Progressive wanted me to go out and buy a car for "wholesale" dealer to dealer price essentially, yeah right....

I found it interesting when they examined my car as having pitting on the windshield, as i know it did not and when i asked for pictures of this i was yes'd and never provided proof of this, this did not lower the value of my car, but since it was not perfect i did not gain any money. The investigator also failed to find anything else wrong with my car (because it was in amazing shape before, and i had actually just waxed it the morning of the accident. The only other thing the investigator marked down as a negative was having some dust in my engine bay, well no fricken way, how does that happen.

At this time my choice was a 09 R3 with 40k miles on the car for 23k, or a 09 sport base, both black ( i hate the color black ) or a 40th anniversary 08. Previously, finding a rx8 was difficult for me because i am tall and i sit in a bucket type position, my method of thinking is that i need to get used to sitting straight now so when i get my bucket seat in my fd i wont have to adjust and it would be natural to sit straight. Therefore my head would touch the roof of the rx8's with a sunroof. When i went to see the 40th i loved it to death as gray was my favorite color, and even nicer than the galaxy gray i had originally seen, the red seats enthralled me and i couldnt get enough, so when i test drove it with my mom i made sure to sit lazyboy style so she wouldnt notice the headroom, she refused to allow me to drive a car with my head so close to the top, incase i was in an accident she didnt want my neck to snap. Long story short i picked up my 40th with an additional 2k and the check from progressive. I enjoy my 2.5 finger head clearance and i love my 40th anny to death.

I drive like a granny around corners now too! and i havnt revisited that road whilst driving again, though at 30mph from when i started to slide to when i crashed i counted 9 seconds, though it seemed like minutes when it actually started to slide.

Originally i had wanted my fd to become a drift car but unfortunately i will never see this happen as i still see my self driving at night and losing control and i cant sleep sometimes. It was very traumatic for me and i dont think i could participate in drifting after this, which is disappointing since i had been enthralled with drifting since 07. I plan on tracking my future rx7 at englishtown and other tracks in the area and leaving my 8 as my daily driver, never to be sold and washed and waxed once a week.

oh and remember those nexens? yeah my 40th came with the same tires. Im never buying nexen again, ive never seen their tires have any usefulness other than drifting, because they are cheap budget tires. A quick internet search will result the same, as many people unhappy with their performance. My next tires will be Yoko S.Drives for next summer.

sorry about the narrative..... its really a long story.



oh and Rotary-RX8....they did come with double sided tape, those 2 squares, they just didnt apply them for you, i looked at it for a second, and then my eyelids and said to myself, they didnt give me enough... but then i realized I R COLIGE EDUKATE and figured out the best way to put them on.

EricB

iTrader: (7)

Ha...that car.... yeah, well.....let me set the scene before i begin the tale. Just got my rx8 maybe a month and a half before.. the incident. Had the choice of a 06 galaxy gray and a 2009 white, the 09 was 2k more than the 06 and had 20k less miles than the 06 aswell, 50k vs 29k. I really hated the front bumper (and still do) of the 2009's though i liked everything else about them. I also really didnt like the white color on a stock white rx8( i am buying a rx7 as my track/car for dumping obscene amounts of money into) so pouring money into the rx8 wasnt a option to make it nice. Out of necessity for a car for school i settled on the 09 being less milage and was in a 10/10 shape minus a ding in the paint the size of half a penny in the rear for i think around 18k. btw important fact, the 06 was traded into the dealership with blizzaks and the 09 had nexens(god damnit).

Well i was driving my friend home from school one day and it was barely raining, not enough to keep the wipers on continuious mode. I turned right onto a road with just me and a female camry driver infront of me. She was repeatedly pushing on her brakes while traveling up a hill in a straight line. I decided to pass on the left lane, we were traveling on a....i guess country road? It was 2 lanes wide with 2 lanes the opposite direction aswell, no shoulder on left or right. As i approached a bend in the road we proceeded to go downhill at the same velocity ( me and the camry driver ) I was going about 35-38mph. To set the scene again, the county road is still 2 lanes wide, now about to go downhill to the right, concrete divider on the left and guardrail with trees behind it and an incline on the right, shoulder now exists on the left by the divider but it is 3ft wide. I havnt applied brakes yet and let the car coast to this point in speed, as i start to make the corner (mind you this takes place for about 4 seconds)going downhill i see the camry start to exhibit why it is such a cheap *** pos and see the camry slowly creeping into my lane (the left lane, towards the outside of the corner). I move to the outside now within 2 ft of the concrete divider and brake. I then proceed to hydroplane, i hate to call it a drift because it really wasnt that, more like a bird who is franticly trying to fly for the first time and doesnt want to die so its flapping its wings but nothing happens. I... hydroplane sideways to the right, the camry driver brakes, i hydroplane to the left sideways, i hydroplane to the right, i hydroplane to the left, i hydroplane to the right, i hydroplane to the left and as im counter steering i smack the front driver side at about 60 degrees sideways in relation to the wall, airbags go off, car lifts in the air up and to the right, lands. (feels like im motionless, or stopped at this point) then what feels like 8 seconds later i smack into the metal guard rail on the right.

The speed limit was 30 and the cop said that the speed limit should really be 15 and that there are atleast 5 accidents a month on that road. Yes, i was probably going too fast and didnt realize how wet the road was, my driving experience was limited and did not have much experience driving in the rain either. I understand that there is alot of... feelings on rx8club about new drivers and 8's and i unfortunately experienced this but still wish to be part of the community and eventually be accepted in the community, i know many of you are older and to be treated as a equal brings a joy to me.

At this point i was carless and after the car was totaled due to the frame being bent we went to our insurance, from my impression they would cover the price of the car lost, yes but not exactly... I forget the terms they used but the way they calculated how much they were going to give me was determined by recent sales in the vicinity, or comparables. The list was fishy to say the least, they had a automatic on the list with 5k miles grand touring 09 going for less than a 09 sport with more miles, i even recognized one of the cars i went prior to purchasing my 09 as being a rx8 that had its airbags deployed and all 4 tires were different. They said that they wouldnt and cant change any of the cars on the list unless it was listed as totalled, which that rx8 was not. They then told us that if we were not happy with the list all we had to do was go around to dealers and get details on rx8's they had for sale and give evidence to progressive that we went to different dealers and negotiated on prices. After we had traveled over 100 miles in 3 different directions to pennsylvania and delaware and upstate ny, we returned with the evidence to progressive and they were shocked we actually did this they changed their story. they would not increase the check for 16k because we needed to submit this evidence to corporate and could take 6months for them to make an investigation and then more time to receive the funds if any change was to be made. Progressive wanted me to go out and buy a car for "wholesale" dealer to dealer price essentially, yeah right....

I found it interesting when they examined my car as having pitting on the windshield, as i know it did not and when i asked for pictures of this i was yes'd and never provided proof of this, this did not lower the value of my car, but since it was not perfect i did not gain any money. The investigator also failed to find anything else wrong with my car (because it was in amazing shape before, and i had actually just waxed it the morning of the accident. The only other thing the investigator marked down as a negative was having some dust in my engine bay, well no fricken way, how does that happen.

At this time my choice was a 09 R3 with 40k miles on the car for 23k, or a 09 sport base, both black ( i hate the color black ) or a 40th anniversary 08. Previously, finding a rx8 was difficult for me because i am tall and i sit in a bucket type position, my method of thinking is that i need to get used to sitting straight now so when i get my bucket seat in my fd i wont have to adjust and it would be natural to sit straight. Therefore my head would touch the roof of the rx8's with a sunroof. When i went to see the 40th i loved it to death as gray was my favorite color, and even nicer than the galaxy gray i had originally seen, the red seats enthralled me and i couldnt get enough, so when i test drove it with my mom i made sure to sit lazyboy style so she wouldnt notice the headroom, she refused to allow me to drive a car with my head so close to the top, incase i was in an accident she didnt want my neck to snap. Long story short i picked up my 40th with an additional 2k and the check from progressive. I enjoy my 2.5 finger head clearance and i love my 40th anny to death.

I drive like a granny around corners now too! and i havnt revisited that road whilst driving again, though at 30mph from when i started to slide to when i crashed i counted 9 seconds, though it seemed like minutes when it actually started to slide.

Originally i had wanted my fd to become a drift car but unfortunately i will never see this happen as i still see my self driving at night and losing control and i cant sleep sometimes. It was very traumatic for me and i dont think i could participate in drifting after this, which is disappointing since i had been enthralled with drifting since 07. I plan on tracking my future rx7 at englishtown and other tracks in the area and leaving my 8 as my daily driver, never to be sold and washed and waxed once a week.

oh and remember those nexens? yeah my 40th came with the same tires. Im never buying nexen again, ive never seen their tires have any usefulness other than drifting, because they are cheap budget tires. A quick internet search will result the same, as many people unhappy with their performance. My next tires will be Yoko S.Drives for next summer.

sorry about the narrative..... its really a long story.



oh and Rotary-RX8....they did come with double sided tape, those 2 squares, they just didnt apply them for you, i looked at it for a second, and then my eyelids and said to myself, they didnt give me enough... but then i realized I R COLIGE EDUKATE and figured out the best way to put them on.

gwilliams6

Thanks for sharing your story with us, and being so honest about what happened. It will be a help to all those who might get in over their heads on a wet road. I am on my seventh rotary RX since 1973. I have a 40th Anniversary edition also, bought new in 2008. The OEM bridgestone Potenzas wore down around 22,000 miles. (I keep them now for later track use as they are now almost slicks). I did research about ultra-performance all-season rubber and I purchased a full set of Continental Extreme Contact DWS tires from Tire Rack. The DWS in testing outperformed the Michelin Pilot Sport AS and the Pirelli P Zero AS. I have used them in snow, sleet, heavy rain and the dry and I love them. The grip is fantastic when the road is wet or dry. They are quiet and have a 50,000 mile tread warranty, and get this, they even have a 12,000 mile road hazard warranty (almost unheard of today in a ultra performance tire).

Decades ago in my first RX7, I attempted to pass a slow poke on a twisty road during the rain. (The first RX7s tended to be tail happy if you let off the pedal or suddenly lost power to the rear drive wheels in a turn ). Well my RX7 lost traction in the wet, and with a sudden loss of power to the rear wheels, that car snapped around, doing a complete 360 degrees, with traffic behind and guard rails on either side of this two-lane road. The gods of young and foolish hotdoggers must have been watching over me, for the RX7 never hit the guardrails or the other cars and everyone stopped in time to avoid a chain-reaction crash. Embarrassed but relieved, I gathered the car, and proceeded on my way.

So don't knock yourself too much. Luckily you were ok and you got another great car. I think the 40th anniversary edition is the best of both worlds, the style of the series one, with the enhanced suspension and perks of the series 2, and yes that interior is so special.

You certainly can have fun at the strip and on the road course with that FD (I owned a 1993 model). Best of fun to you.

------------------------------------
RX3, RX4 both coupe and sedan, First gen RX7, Second gen RX7 Turbo II, third gen FD RX7 twin-turbo, 40th Anniversary RX8, and Mazdaspeed3 GT

EricB

iTrader: (7)

Yeah, the airbags were very nice, almost like Egyptian cotton exploding in my face, it was a rather.... pleasant experience

I cant wait to purchase my fd, i dont and have never had any experience modifying/fixing cars myself so i really cant wait to dive in. I had a ton of fun doing my exhaust on my 8 even though it took me a while. I cant wait to get into more difficult things. My plans with it are stock power, with the most upgraded suspension i can afford hah. I want to even turn down the boost if my engine mods increase power. Im looking to keep my motor as healthy as possible for as long as possible.

pistonhater

Hey, that was quite a story you shared above!! Glad to hear you were ok, and that at the end you found a car that you really like. I had a similar experience, once I saw a 40th AE for the first time I knew that was my car!!

BTW, if you have never had any experience modifying cars, a this point I'm sure you know what are you getting into when purchasing an FD