Ongoing General Automotive Thread 2.0

[Bill Bumface]

You can buy this stuff and DIY. It's a bit finicky, but doable. Seems to last pretty well. Or yeah, probably tint shop.

https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/t...-0410475p.html

[cam_wmh]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

I was out in the AM today, driving through Mission to get some dinner and I saw the greatest thing ever turn south from 17 Avenue onto 4 Street.


It was an E36 BMW 3-Series...

That's it?

... with 5.0 badges on the side.

That's lame.

It had the full 5.0L V8 powertrain and T5 manual drivetrain out of a Foxbody Mustang GT in it. And it was turbocharged. Also, the hood wasn't fitted so you could pull up beside it and see the whole thing. So. F--king. Rad. That would have been the sort of project that we would have gathered around at parking lot meets back in the day.

Give this a read, Pat's an old pal. Page 10, things get interesting.
https://www.eurodrivers.ca/forums/fo...to-come/page10

[TorqueDog]

Interestingly, that doesn't look like the same car. Does he have a second one in bright silver that he just hasn't posted about?

[Nufy]

What the general go to for online parts these days.

I need pads and rotors for one of my kids car.

Rock Auto ?
Autopartsway ?
Partsavatar ?
Amazon ?

Others ?

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Nufy

What the general go to for online parts these days.

I need pads and rotors for one of my kids car.

Rock Auto ?
Autopartsway ?
Partsavatar ?
Amazon ?

Others ?

I like Rockauto but shipping can kill a deal really quick especially if you are ordering multiple items and they ship from different warehouses. On Rockauto sometimes you have to play around with available parts to find stuff that will ship together to avoid a big bill. I've been buying more stuff from Amazon recently not necessarily because it is the cheapest but because it arrives the quickest.

Depending on the vehicle brand you can also look up dealerships that sell parts online. Sometimes you can OEM parts from those dealerships pretty cheap.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

Ehhhhhh. I feel like the "black out everything" look is getting a bit played out, and I say that as someone whose car has all the standard-issue chrome bits replaced with black and carbon fiber from the factory.

Man, 100% this. Blacking stuff out is easy but it makes things look so… generic. There was a short window where the “murdered out” kind of look was eye catching, but now everyone is blacking out chrome on everything from luxury to junkers and it makes it all look like a Samsung phone or something. Not that it matters if you’re driving a Porsche or a Versa, but cheap black out stuff has a way of making everything look closer to the latter.

Embrace the chrome. Maybe a little bit of blackout to make some certain pieces pop more (I hate chrome window trim), but that’s it.

[btimbit]

It's just about what looks cheaper. Chrome was fine, until it started to look and peel like aluminum foil. Blacked out was a nice change from that, until it started to look like it was half-asses spray painted or filled in with a sharpie. Either can look good if done well

[Table 5]

It stopped being cool about a decade ago... but the trend really jumped the shark when manufacturers began offering it directly on everything from crossovers to minivans. Nothing quite as bad-ass as a blacked-out Chevy Equinox...

Personally I just never really got the appeal. It flattens out all curves, you lose definition and details, and overall it has a tendency to give many cars that clapped-out "3rd owner" look. That Caddy looks like something you'd find in a college/high school parking lot. It's trying too hard.

Nobody wants the chromed out 50s Chevy look these days, but all cars (especially black ones) need a little bit of brightwork to pop.

[nik-]

I like blacked out trim on lighter colored cars. I will never like black wheels. All black everything is lazy and boring.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by btimbit

It's just about what looks cheaper. Chrome was fine, until it started to look and peel like aluminum foil. Blacked out was a nice change from that, until it started to look like it was half-asses spray painted or filled in with a sharpie. Either can look good if done well

Part of the problem with chrome was manufacturers cutting corners and using the cheapest 'chrome' solution they could find.

GM used to make absolutely gorgeous chrome wheels for the C4 Corvette and 4th Gen F-Body, the chrome application on those was amazing (I know because I owned a set of chrome ZR1 wheels and a set of chrome 5-spoke 4G Camaro wheels). Then Chrysler decided to bring out chromed 20" wheels on the Dodge Ram and thought "You know, this whole business of finishing the actual alloy of the wheel and then chrome-plating the metal seems like too much work and money. How about we make a plastic cover that goes on top of the wheel alloy, and chrome the plastic cover?

It frankly looked like sh-t and aged about as well. But everyone started doing it because "WeLL tHeY'rE sTiLL cHrOmE wHeEls!!! ". European manufacturers had largely began to move away from chrome by that point anyway, but North American manufacturers kept going until the option finally fell out of favour with buyers.

These days, you're not seeing the brightwork on premium cars come in 'chrome', but in high-polished aluminum. No chrome-plating to peel, and you can restore it using a high quality alloy polish.

[photon]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Embrace the chrome.

Something like this maybe.



Maybe not, Vossen wheels look really expensive.

[Erick Estrada]

Black wheels can look good but it depends on the wheel style, and color of the vehicle. I don't think it's going away anytime soon though as plenty of vehicles are offered with OEM black wheels and it's still a standard color offered with aftermarket wheels which always come in base colors of silver (differing shades like bright silver or anthracite) and black. I understand why people don't like it but it's not going anywhere. Chrome is pretty well finished until it becomes trendy again but I don't anticipate that anytime soon.

[nik-]

There are tons of cars still available with chrome/aluminum trim.

[dammage79]

Well, the options just never were around right? Before getting dealer option black rims or carbon fiber or anything you had a choice of Steelies or aluminum rims. Body colored mirrors were a luxury and literally everything was chrome.

Now here we are complaining that everyone is using options never offered prior, and that it's overused. Of course it overused, it's a pendulum swing the other way.

I still say the blacked out styling is still heavily outweighed by chrome on the roads.

We should be celebrating having options. Blacked out, chrome, matte, semi Gloss base coats. Metallic teals , candy purple, all dealers options. How much money do you save getting it out of the box vs 3rd party applications. Granted if you're a true gear head you're doing all your work yourself but I love seeing less chrome. You know the cheap gaudy thing that's been around since the dang 50s.

But let's have a real discussion about these billion lumen headlights and how to possibly deal with that whole blinding can of worms.

[browna]

Originally Posted by photon

Something like this maybe.



Maybe not, Vossen wheels look really expensive.

Definitely stick with something silver for Cadillac.

Cadillac Ct6, and now the newer CT5 have the same bolt pattern as yours with 19's as offered.

Kijii may have something there in 19, or 20's if you want to stick OEM...if they are just summers, can even go with 20s.

[nik-]

Two piece, polished lip, slam that #### to the ground.

That's my vote.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by dammage79

Well, the options just never were around right? Before getting dealer option black rims or carbon fiber or anything you had a choice of Steelies or aluminum rims. Body colored mirrors were a luxury and literally everything was chrome.

Now here we are complaining that everyone is using options never offered prior, and that it's overused. Of course it overused, it's a pendulum swing the other way.

I still say the blacked out styling is still heavily outweighed by chrome on the roads.

We should be celebrating having options. Blacked out, chrome, matte, semi Gloss base coats. Metallic teals , candy purple, all dealers options. How much money do you save getting it out of the box vs 3rd party applications. Granted if you're a true gear head you're doing all your work yourself but I love seeing less chrome. You know the cheap gaudy thing that's been around since the dang 50s.

But let's have a real discussion about these billion lumen headlights and how to possibly deal with that whole blinding can of worms.

BMW purposely puts chrome on standard offerings and make black trim as options in M-packages. It's a smart way to make money as so many people will pay more for what's essentially just black plastic that didn't cost any more to BMW to source than the chrome trim did. I recall when my wife got her GV70 that base models got chrome trim and the higher line models got black chrome which looks much better. Chrome is basically entry level nowadays on most vehicles. There's a reason "chrome delete" searches will give you thousands of results as it's seen as kind of a low level or Buick type of trim for older people.

[btimbit]

To hell with both, bring back wood paneling I say

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by dammage79

We should be celebrating having options. Blacked out, chrome, matte, semi Gloss base coats. Metallic teals , candy purple, all dealers options. How much money do you save getting it out of the box vs 3rd party applications. Granted if you're a true gear head you're doing all your work yourself but I love seeing less chrome. You know the cheap gaudy thing that's been around since the dang 50s.

I don't think anyone is decrying having the option. We're saying it's an overdone trend that doesn't carry the cachet it once held as this sort of cool, bad-ass custom look. A lot of the time it makes the vehicle look kind of basic and cheap, or -- to borrow a phrase from across the pond -- 'chavved out'.

The second CTS-V that photon posted looks friggin' beautiful. The first CTS-V with the blacked out elements looks like a retired rental car that was modded by Bo from SuperStore.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

I don't think anyone is decrying having the option. We're saying it's an overdone trend that doesn't carry the cachet it once held as this sort of cool, bad-ass custom look. A lot of the time it makes the vehicle look kind of basic and cheap, or -- to borrow a phrase from across the pond -- 'chavved out'.

The second CTS-V that photon posted looks friggin' beautiful. The first CTS-V with the blacked out elements looks like a retired rental car that was modded by Bo from SuperStore.

Nah, there are good ways and bad ways to do everything. I've been blacking out wheels since my first car - 1984 Pontiac Acadian in 1990. I was 16, took it over to my uncles garage, removed all the wheels, masked the tires, prepped the #### out of them and then sprayed them with matte black paint. They looked 10x better.

I agree that trying to diy your own blackout situation typically fails miserably. I've left my Mercedes totally chromed out...kinda goes with the Buick-beige (TM you&me) vibe. Would I like it better blacked out? I guess not really because I don't think it would suit the car. Plus I just think wrapping chrome - while a notch or two above plasti dip - is still just too boy-racer cheese that I feel is beneath my sensibilities.

My wife's nightfall (basically factory black package) Telluride looks a bajillion times better than standard tellurides. It's a great vehicle to walk up to.

Daughter's Sportwagen is all black with all black tinted windows, but summers are on the factory chrome wheels. Winter wheels I bought her are a charcoal grey that look pretty bad ass. Couple that with her black snowboard pod and she has a totally sick ride.

So long story short, more options the better. For as much as I just don't like Subarus, I love those kinda bronze or gold wheels you see on STIs sometimes. It's okay to have fun.

One other thing on chrome - I don't enjoy detailing it and I'm a car-detailing freak. I always find chrome to be underwhelming when polished. Much prefer clean black or even putting some gloss product (depending on the black) to make it pop.