m

There's really only two things Cerritos is known for -- the Cerritos Auto Square and the Cerritos Library.

My sister says that while she was going to UCSD some students would drive north an hour and half to go to the Guppy House, one of the local teahouses in the city, whose specialty is bing shui, also known as Taiwanese shaved ice. So, I guess the Guppy House is also fairly well known.

The Auto Square is on Studebaker and South Street, right next to the shopping mall, the fire station and Guppy House. The Library is one street away on 183rd. It's a pretty small city, so it always feels a bit strange when they manage to make national news. This time the national news isn't something the town should be proud of (like rolling out wi-fi throughout the city or having a contestant on Nashville Star). This time, it's about one of the new car dealerships in Cerritos (don't buy cars in my hometown, there are better deals elsewhere in Southern California) providing an arsonist to torch cars.

Investigators found the arson-for-hire ring involved a new-car dealership in Cerritos, California. Debt-weary SUV owners contacted the finance manager, hoping to trade in their gas-guzzler for something cheaper. They were then put in touch with an arsonist who told them to leave the keys in the ignition and $300 cash in the glovebox. An arsonist would then take the car to a remote location and set it afire. After the car was torched, the owners would then contact their insurance company and report their vehicle stolen, expecting their debt to be cancelled. Instead, they were investigated for insurance fraud.

Posted by Michael Huang at 07:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

With 300 horsepower and 362 lb-ft of torque, it's still powerful by today's standards, and everytime I take it out for a drive, I have to remind myself that 60mph is only 6 seconds away, and that without very much effort at all I could be at 110, and not even feel like I'm going faster than 70.

Running a V12 engine along with all the electrics in this car requires not just one, but two car batteries. Every year around this time (because the registration notice for this vehicle arrives) I get into the car, put the key into the ignition, turn the switch, and instead of hearing the soft purring of a 12-cylinder engine, I hear silence. The batteries are completely devoid of charge, and I'll need to recharge the batteries before the 8 can thunder off onto the highway. Of course, having a dead battery presents a problem, as the car normally uses the LAN to signal to the trunk that the doors are unlocked, and that the trunk should open if the doors are unlocked. Without power, you can press on the latch all day, and it won't open ever. Every year, I forget about how I go about solving this problem. The first time the batteries died, I used the other car and jumper cables to supply enough power for the doors. This year, because of how I had parked the cars, this wasn't an option to me.

Instead, I turned to the low-tech solution: the car key. It seems that next to the trunk latch on the underside is keyhole. The directions for opening the trunk get complicated here, and I'm not sure why they didn't just have the standard turn the key, trunk is unlocked method, as the procedure is as follows:

1. Insert Key.
2. Push Key up into the keyhole.
3. Turn Key Counter-Clockwise
4. Stop Pressing Up and Return Key to Normal Position.
5. Remove Key from Keyhole.
6. Push Keyhole Up.
7. Trunk is now unlocked.

Posted by Michael Huang at 04:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Gasbuddy has a national map of average gasoline prices. It's interesting to note the deep red areas seem to be primarily isolated to the coasts, and the green areas are all around Montana, Utah, Idaho and Wyoming. You can zoom in and get more detail on the price of gasoline in that area.

According to the recent story on CNN drivers in Southern California are deliberately running out of gas on the freeways and waiting for rescue to arrive.

Lujan's 20 trucks roam the busy freeways of Orange and Los Angeles counties as part of a publicly funded patrol that gives a free gallon of gas to drivers who have run out of fuel. It also offers other basic assistance to drivers whose vehicles have broken down. "You say to some of them 'hey, you've run out of gas' and they say 'yeah, it's too expensive.' I think the percentage is going to increase," Lujan said. Moshe Ben Dayan, whose TipTopTow company performs a similar service in Los Angeles' affluent west side, said some people were taking advantage of the freeway service patrol. "There was one guy a while back who was stopping every morning and trying to get his one free gallon," said Dayan. "I think it is going to be more drastic when the price of gas is closer to $4 a gallon."

Posted by Michael Huang at 02:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Givens is the "ultimate road warrior," according to Midas Inc. (NYSE:MDS) and drove home with its first-place prize in the nationwide search for "America's Longest Commute." Givens out-drove thousands of other entrants to take home $10,000 in gas money and a range of maintenance services and products.

Posted by Michael Huang at 09:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Darth Vader/corkscrew, Yoda/wine stopper, C-3PO/foil cutter, R2-D2/bottle opener.

I'm not so sure about the Yoda wine stopper though -- he didn't work too well on Luke.

Posted by Michael Huang at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

When the Infiniti G35 came to the US, it marked the first time a Skyline had been officially brought into the United States. Hopes for the GT-R version to be brought over was high amongst enthusiasts, in fact, the biggest uncertainty seemed to be over which brand the GTR would more likely to arrive under -- Nissan or Infiniti? Today that question is answered by the president of Nissan, announcing at the New York Auto Show the car as the Nissan GT-R.

Posted by Michael Huang at 01:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mazda showcased a Hydrogen powered version of the RX-8 back in October of 2003 at the Tokyo Motor Show, and just this past February, Mazda received permission from Japan’s Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport to begin leasing the RX-8 Hydrogen RE to two corporate customers. The RX-8 RE can run on either hydrogen or gasoline, and Mazda plans to have 10 lease contracts by the end of the year. When the RX-8 RE is running on hydrogen, it won't release carbon dioxide or nitrogen oxide, and runs at 107 horsepower. The monthly lease payments are 420,000 yen -- about $3600 a month.

We all knew saving the planet was expensive, but at that price, those corporations leasing the RX-8 RE are making a pretty loud statement.

Posted by Michael Huang at 09:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The study, first reported in Friday editions of The New York Times, found the greatest benefit in design changes when a SUV strikes the side of a car. In such a case, the risk of a fatality dropped by 47 percent to 48 percent. For side crashes involving pickups and cars, the death rate dropped by 1 percent to 9 percent.

In front-end collisions involving SUVs and cars, researchers found car drivers wearing seat belts were 18 percent to 21 percent less likely to die with SUVs meeting the guidelines. For car drivers failing to wear a seat belt, the risk was only reduced by 2 percent to 3 percent, showing the benefit of wearing safety belts.

When a redesigned pickup struck a car in a head-on collision, the number of deaths of belted car drivers declined 9 percent to 19 percent. For unbelted car drivers hit by pickups without the changes in a head-on crash, the death rate was about the same.

I think the lesson of the story is 'wear your seatbelt'; redesigned bumpers will do little to save you if youre not buckled in.

Source: Detroit News

Posted by Michael Huang at 07:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Posted by Michael Huang at 08:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The M5’s complexity reflects automakers’ overly literal interpretation of America’s favorite shibboleth: freedom of choice. Carmakers clearly believe that the more their products cater to each owner’s personal preferences, the better. You only have to count the number of motors underneath a S-Class’ seat-- or tally-up the number of ways it can massage, heat or cool its occupant’s hindquarters-- to see the philosophy in action. And it’s not just the luxury playas kissing ass. Even a humble Hyundai Elantra offers eight-way adjustable seats. This sort of multi-variable “feature creep” is spreading through the automotive landscape like electronic kudzu.

Car Reviewer Robert Farago, The Truth About Cars

I think there is a fair amout of feature creep in cars -- particularly the high-end luxury ones, but adjustability is a good thing, it's there for the ones who need it and ignored by the ones who don't. If I'm going to spend the kind of dough one drops on a luxury sedan, you can bet that I will spend the time to read the manual and learn all the functions, while most other people will not.

It's when options are locked in strange combinations that are frustrating -- for instance, why does having side-airbags on the Toyota Corolla remove the option to have an auto-dimming mirror? Why should the customer have to make a decision between the two different unrelated options? Why can they have both? They end up deliberating the choices: do they choose side airbags or auto-dimming mirrors? Do they choose safety or convenience? Or does Toyota just lose the sale because they don't offer both and they'll look for one that does?

I've noticed that people tend to choose both rather than go without something.

Posted by Michael Huang at 07:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This project sort of happened as a result of needing a S-Video to Composite Video (for my Project: Apple PowerBook in a Car). In the United States, the current trend is to make the car more like a living room. With that in mind, what living room can be considered complete without a TiVo?

I want to point out that while this does work, it could have been any device that I could have chosen to plug in, I just happened to choose the TiVo because it has S-Video in and it allowed me to evaluate my PowerBook's performance and utility in the car. This could have easily have been a PS2 or Xbox360 or any other piece of electronic goodness one can find hooked up to a living room television.

For more thoughts and pictures about this project read on.

Continue reading "Project: The Real TiVo to Go" »

Posted by Michael Huang at 08:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've never really understood why people make such a big fuss everytime someone installs a Mac mini in a car. It's really not that hard, and it shouldn't cost $5,000 for a custom Mac mini install (and trust me, any Mac mini install in a car is a custom job). My best guess estimate for a do-it-yourself job would range from $1,300 to $2,500, which would include the Mac mini. If you happen to have a lot of parts lying around, or have done previous car stereo installations, the cost may even be less -- like maybe just the cost of the mini.

I don't have a Mac mini, but I have a PowerBook, so as a proof of concept, I attached my Powerbook to my car. After seeing how the PowerBook did in the car, it made me realize that I will never spend the kind of money people do on Mac mini'ing their vehicle -- a laptop is much more cost effective (and you can take your computing area anywhere).

For those curious about how to install a computer in the car, read on.

Continue reading "Project: Apple PowerBook in a Car" »

Posted by Michael Huang at 08:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Because the Chinese language has a lot of homonyms, a number can mean several things because they may sound alike to more than one word. Numbers can be combined into phrases, with each number having a different meaning, such as 1666 -- "has easy smooth road".

1 - "will", "has/have" 2 - "guaranteed"
3 - "prosperity" or "life"
4 - a homonym for death. Not Lucky.
5 - can mean 'I' or 'me'. When used in front of another number, it can also mean 'no' or 'not'.
6 - means 'easy' or 'smoothly' or 'road'
7 - "gone"
8 - "fortune" or "money"
9 - "everlasting", "long"
13 - "must be alive"
14 - can mean "I will die" (when read as 1-4) or "accident" (when read as 14). Unlucky

Some number combinations are unlucky due to the way they combine. For example, the number 626 you would think means "easy guaranteed easy", but 6+2+6 = 14 = accident or guaranteed death.

Posted by Michael Huang at 11:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Posted by Michael Huang at 03:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Flickr: San Francisco Auto Show.

Posted by Michael Huang at 06:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Michael Huang at 07:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I just wish I had my camera. Prius vs. Suburban. The only thing that could have been better would have been if it was a Hummer instead of a Suburban.

My co-worker told me after we arrived at our destination that when he is driving his wife's Prius, there are times where he's driving in the fast lane, going 90, a car will come up behind him, pass him before he has a chance to get out of the way and then drop to 80 in front of him. But this whole incident got me thinking about how just as much as there is anger and resentment about SUVs, there's probably an equal amount of resentment toward the Prius. So, if there are any Prius owners out there, leave a comment, I'd love to hear your stories.

And just for kicks, here's a video of an aggressive, annoying driver who get his due.

Posted by Michael Huang at 04:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of the problems with Motorshows these days is in the onslaught of press releases, there are no longer any surprise unveilings -- everything is announced days or even weeks again to ensure that journalists are there to cover the "official premiere event". The Pivo, one of Nissan's concept cars was previewed almost a month ago, and I suppose that's why it's refreshing to see the VW EcoRacer, a car very un-VW, environmentally friendly and fast. Hopefully in the days to come we'll see a few more surprises.

The Mazda Senku is the first rotary hybrid and looks far too futuristic to see production anytime soon.

A car with a cool story is the GG50 Ferrari. In 1955, Giorgetto Giuiaro began designing cars for Fiat. Over his 50 year career, he's designed some truly exceptional cars such as the Maserati Ghibli and the VW Golf, and while he was at Bertone, he designed 2 custom Ferraris. Last year at the Paris Auto Show, Giuiaro asked Ferrari if he could design a Ferrari to celebrate the 50 years he's been working as an auto designer. Ferrari said yes, and this one-of-a-kind car is the result.

Major Auto magazine coverage:
Road and Track
Motor Trend
Car and Driver
Automobile Magazine

Posted by Michael Huang at 04:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's been 4 years since I've picked it up the lot. I've gone through 3 sets of tires, a water pump, and countless oil changes. The car is still as fun to drive as it ever was, but I feel like I want a change.

Posted by Michael Huang at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I think the take home lesson about BMW's European Delivery Program is this: Make sure to get Wheel Locks.

Posted by Michael Huang at 06:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

NPR talks with *Wall Street Journal* Detroit Bureau Chief Joseph White about hybrids (specifically the Prius) vs. his current Subaru. The verdict is that unless gas prices really skyrocket, the savings just don't compute. I don't quite agree with that, and my numbers in the extended entry show why.

Newsweek has also done a story on the reluctance of Americans to turn in their SUVs for hybrids. One of the really interesting statements made is by the research group J.D. Power: *By the end of this decade, J.D. Power predicts hybrids will account for less than 4 percent of total auto sales.* Presently, hybrids account for 1.4 percent of total auto sales.

*Next year's blingy new Cadillac Escalade will get 20mpg—what GM hopes is the new magic number for social acceptability.*

In my mind, the greatest thing about hybrids is that at city speeds, they reign supreme, which is where the most wasteful use of gasoline is -- take the Lexus RX400h, which does 31 mpg city and 27 mpg highway, which is is just phenomenal for a SUV, since mileage wise it's very close to a typical economy sedan.

I like hybrids. I wish more cars had a hybrid drivetrain. But the Prius and the RX400h just aren't the right cars for me.

Hybrid vs. Celica numbers in the extended entry.

Continue reading "Hybrids vs. Cost of Gas" »

Posted by Michael Huang at 06:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

His claim that it reduces pollutants entirely should be a big red flag.

The idea of putting in distilled water and some reactants in a container and then feeding it to the engine is an interesting one. To me, his idea sounds similar to what racers do when they inject nitrous oxide into their engines, except that he is adding hydrogen instead of nitrogen. Nitrogen has a cooling property on the engine, I'm not sure what Hydrogen would do.

Distilled water breaks into two pieces when a current passes through it: H+ and OH-, 2 H+'s bond to form H2 gas, and four OH-'s bond to form O2 gas, water and 4 electrons. That's basic chemistry - electrolysis.

The oxygen generated from this aids in the combustion of the gasoline (in essence filling the space in the combustion chamber). Gasoline is basically a long chain of Carbon and Hydrogen. When you add oxygen, what results is Carbon Monoxide, Carbon Dioxide, water vapor, hydrogen gas and some carbonization of the engine. The addition of Hydrogen to the mix basically means that you end up getting chains of other hydrocarbons (some which will combust early). A small amount of Carbon Dioxide and Carbon Monoxide will always result (because there is oxygen in the system and gasoline naturally has carbon in it). In addition, having the Hydrogen there is sure to produce Methane (another greenhouse gas)

If it were as simple as just putting in hydrogen into the system to increase fuel efficiency, wouldn't someone have done that already?

Posted by Michael Huang at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I heard rumblings of 60 Ferraris Thundering Across The Golden Gate, so I arrived early and scouted the bridge for a good place to take photographs. The day was overcast and foggy, which made for a nice backdrop.

Unfortunately for me, the Ferraris were headed Southbound, which meant that as a pedestrian on the east side of the bridge, I had to shoot over northbound traffic and over the guardrails. (I'm SOOO going to add a stepstool to my camera gear). The official event photographers were on the west side of the bridge, decked out in bright orange construction jerseys with the videocamera crew right beside them.

The first thing I noticed before the Ferraris showed up was that the Southbound lane had just suddenly cleared. It's an eerie sight when there's no traffic in one lane of the Golden Gate. A lone motorcycle cop, followed by a truck and then a procession of Ferraris. They arrived, one after another, and then, 5 minutes later, they were gone.

I knew where they were headed, of course -- the St. Francis Yacht Club. I walked back to my car and drove down there, finding parking across the street (I love my car -- it's the perfect size for pesky San Francisco street parking). I saw a couple of Ferraris turn into the parking lot just as I was crossing the street. The cars were parked in front of the St. Francis Yacht Club, where dozens of people, photographers and passerbys were looking upon these exotic cars with marvel. There were just a couple of the older ones -- most were the newer models, but the few classics there really stood out. I overheard one guy say into his cellphone "I took as many pictures as I could before I ran out of space on my camera". I used the philosophy of "take pictures of everything". I stayed until the Ferraris started up and began to get arranged for their trip down South to their next stop: Los Rios College.

Flickr Photoset: Ferraris crossing the Golden Gate Bridge

Posted by Michael Huang at 09:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The batteries are accessed through the trunk and located above the driver and passenger side rear wheel wells. In most cars, swapping out the car battery is a simple procedure -- pop the hood, unhook the connectors and pull the battery out, put in the new battery, hook up the connectors and away you go.

My car, the 850, not so convenient.

As I mentioned before, the battery is accessed through the trunk. An interesting feature of this car is that almost everything is powered. Trunk included. So before I can even open the trunk, first I must power the vehicle, which means hooking up a pair of jumper cables from the Celica to the 850. When I do this and power up the BMW, I discover a feature not mentioned to me by the previous owner -- a car alarm.

Yes, the 850 was honking its horn and flashing its lights after having power. After disabling the alarm, I opened the trunk and started disassembling the interior to get to the battery -- trunk mat, driver side interior panel, passenger side interior panel, portable jack, cd changer all have to be removed before I can even access the batteries. Since I've done this before, the procedure is fairly quick, and the batteries are removed. The batteries are still under warranty, so I will get them replaced.

I notice that some of the paint on the car is starting to crack and chip (It's an 14 year old car with the original paint -- I suppose it is time)

Posted by Michael Huang at 11:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

One of my Celica friends is featured in this article in the SF Chronicle on girls in the import car scene.

Posted by Michael Huang at 07:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I started off the morning by picking up the car parts that had been delivered yesterday. I'm going to try and get that stuff installed and out of my apartment as soon as possible. I'm not sure if I'm going to ask them to keep the stock parts for me or not.

After that, I spent most of the day today shopping. Because today is Free Comic Book Day, the comic bookstores around me also were having sales. Needless to say, I found some nice bargains -- the crown jewel of bargains being a brand new anime DVD (which was released 6 months ago) for $6.25, so I'm looking forward to the next big comic book sale. After that, I hit up Best Buy and Staples. At Staples, I managed to get a nice confetti maker (paper shredder) for $20.

Which leads me to Best Buy, where I throughly suspect them of being part of the great CD case conspiracy. So, what is the great CD case conspiracy? Quite simply, it's this: CD holders usually come in set numbers. You can get CD holders that hold 12, 16, 24, 32, 36, 48 quite easily. But the really interesting thing is that they price accordingly, so almost no matter which count CD case you buy, the cost is still about the same. So if you buy 2 24 count cases, it costs the same as a 48 count case, and a 96 count case is about twice the cost of a 48. So there aren't any real bargains in buying CD cases unless you can find something that breaks out of the mathematical series. It's a curious little math problem. Anyways, I ended up buying two 264 count CD cases. I'm glad I can still do a little bit of basic arithmetic in my head. Hopefully that should be good enough to convert my stacks and boxes of CDs into something a little neater.

If anything, I want a PDA just to use as a calculator/inventory device when I go to best buy. You see, usually, if I'm going to Best Buy, I know exactly what I'm looking for. The danger comes when I hit the DVD section, because I know there are bargains to found if I look close enough. (For example, I bought the Neo Ranga DVD w/ Box for the same price as the standalone DVD). Sometimes, it's cheaper online and I don't need to pay sales tax or shipping. So if I had a PDA I'd just load in a list of DVDs, the cheapest price I found for it online, and compare the two.

Posted by Michael Huang at 06:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Highway related deaths are up. Rollover deaths account for about a quarter of the deaths, while not wearing seatbelts accounted for 59 percent of the deaths. Unbelted SUV fatalities is 72 percent. So basically, if you drive a SUV, buckle up.

Posted by Michael Huang at 03:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just because it's been sent to me by 3 different people this past week:an UK commercial for the European Honda Accord Wagon. In America, such a vehicle would be called the Acura TSX Wagon. Yes, in case you didn't know, the new sports sedan from Acura meant to compete with the BMW 3-series and the Mercedes C-Class is really just the European version of Honda Accord. What's truly funny is all the car reviewers know this, so they inevitably mention this fact in their reviews. Call me crazy, but I don't see them selling very many of these cars, given that for the price, one can buy almost two Honda Accords.

Posted by Michael Huang at 09:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is the first weekend I've had in a longtime where I've actually had time to myself, where there's nothing pressing to handle, and it's actually warm and sunny out and I can relax. If I get back from church before the sun goes down, I think I'll just head to a park, find a nice spot on a lawn and just lay down and watch the clouds roll by. That'd be a nice way to spend the afternoon.

Well, things didn't exactly go as planned. I ended up at Bean Hollow Beach along Highway 1, and just sat there on the beach for the rest of the afternoon, taking pictures and delighting in the beauty of the landscape.

Coming back, I got a ticket from the CHP. But I took advantage of the situation to ask the officer to show me how the radar gun works, and to waste his time for like half an hour. So now I know how radar guns work.

So about half an hour later after I let the CHP officer go, on my way driving back, I hear the screech of tires losing grip -- it's another car, losing control over a tight turn, I swerve to the right to avoid being hit head on.

Anyways, I'm sure this is all a sign. You guys be careful out there.

Posted by Michael Huang at 06:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I would like to say that I spent a nice quiet evening reading and writing, but that would be a lie.

I went out to eat at a sushi restaurant with the other single Nor Cal Celica members in Sunnyvale (aka Singles' Night) Then we Karaoke'd for three hours before doing a short cruise and calling it a night. Much fun was had. It would have sucked if it rained. It was nice to be able to just be carefree and with friends if only for a night.

Posted by Michael Huang at 02:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What is it about the rain that makes Californians drive like complete idiots? Things that really tick me off about drivers in the rain:

+ people who slow down too much

+ people who don't slow down enough

+ people who drift into lanes without signalling

+ people who drive with their high beams on all the time

+ people who tailgate

Today's the kind of day where I just want to just sit in my chair listening to the rainfall, while drinking hot chocolate and curling up with a good book.

Posted by Michael Huang at 10:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Alias: I started laughing when Syd was racing through the streets of "Zurich" (looks a lot like So Cal to me) in the Ford Focus. Of course, a few seconds later, they show the SVT badge on the back of the Focus. The SVT Focus has 170hp and supposedly better handling, but it's still a Focus. If I had 20k to spend on a car, it wouldn't be the Focus SVT. The Focus SVT, by the way, is a manual only car, so either Syd was driving in one gear the entire time, or was shifting off camera, or the only thing SVT about that Focus was the badge. I'm sure it's the latter since they do have a stunt driver. Every car that Syd passes is a mid-size Volvo or Volks and the footage is cut such that they use the same 10 cars. Not only that, but shouldn't the cell phone they took from the guy have the last incoming calls anyways? Ok, enough nitpicking. I'm glad to see Marshall and Dixon back in the show though. It also appears that we have returned to the Rambaldi story arc. What did they do? Read my blog? Ha. I must be having delusions of grandeur again.

Posted by Michael Huang at 06:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This Saturday was another car day. This time, instead of putting more things on my car, I took it for a drive up to San Francisco to meet with other Celica owners. After meeting with them and going to lunch, we went for a cruise around the city, following all the traffic laws (a group of 40 Celicas moving together is quite noticeable). The weather was perfect for the drive, and the scenery beautiful.

Posted by Michael Huang at 08:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It was sunny when I woke up, so I spent this beautiful morning putting in the new taillights. I've been looking forward to doing this the entire week, as the parts arrived on Monday, and although I was hoping to make the installation of the taillights my lunchtime activity, once I looked at what was involved, I realized it just couldn't be done in an hour. You see, the installation of new taillights requires the removal of 3 bolts that hold the taillights to the back of the car. Easy, right? Remove the 3 bolts, put in the taillights, put in the light bulbs, and bam, you're done, right? Wrong. It seems that 2 of the 3 bolts are easily reachable. The third bolt is blocked by the plastic trunk lining.I decided to take all the plastic moldings out, remove the old tailights, install the new taillights and put it all back together again. It was an interesting project. I certainly learned alot about how the car is put together, and I have enough cuts and scrapes to prove it. I think there's just a few more modifications I want to make to the car. Some of it will involve professional painting, but I think I can handle most of the installation of those changes by myself.

Posted by Michael Huang at 11:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

New Digital Character in LOTR

I ordered some new parts for my car today, new door sills and taillights. Purely cosmetic modifications. I still want to purchase a GPS, some side skirts, and a condenser grill. Is this the start of a new hobby?

Posted by Michael Huang at 05:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)