AudiOn19s

If you haven't used anything after the compound and white pad you really need to find a finishing polish to use with the black pad first and then move onto the Zaino sealants. If you've got the Z-PC polish you could use that with the black pad. If not you need a finishing polish with a little bit of cut still which the Z-2 and Z-5 do not have. Then your best bet is to apply the zaino by hand. I've had OK results with it on an orbital but the one time I tried it with a finishing pad on a rotary I didn't like the results. I don't think it liked the heat that the rotary generates. Andy

haha...small world. I'll be down this afternoon to have a listen. Where's the best place to park near the store?

No chance in hell he'll fix those water spots on GM paint with a PC 7424...unless he started with a 3000 grit sanding disk on the PC as his first stage. Don't get me wrong...I love my PC, carry two of them all the time as a matter of fact, but it's not fixing his issue.

Progressive Audio down on high street. I spoke with them on the phone the other day and they carry a few from the line-up and they can be demo'd in the store. I was pretty set on the SR125's or SR225's but they only come with a headphone jack for home-audio equipment and you have to use an adapter to get them to work with an ipod or other portible device. Maybe the SR80's will work for my needs though. Only way to know is to go have a listen.

I've got a couple sets of ear buds for working out / running but I prefer over-the-ear for settings of work and airplanes. I'm not necessarily a huge fan of noise canceling technology either, but most of the over-the-ear units isolate noise well enough for my liking anyhow. I actually own the bose ear buds that my wife bought me as a christmas present a couple of years ago and they're horrible. Sound qulaity is worse than the units that came with my ipod. I've also got a pair of Philips that I've found to do a pretty good job (not outstanding). So I'm squared away on that front. Andy

I'm looking for a good set of over-the-ear hadphones and wanted to hear experiences from others. Background. I sit at my desk and listen to music 3-4 hours per day. Mostly trance / techno but really I listen to just about everything from old schol rap to Latin music. For the last 4 years or so I've been using Bost Tri-port headphones. I generally don't care for Bose products but when I purchased the Tri-ports I found them to be the best mix of tone quality, clarity, crisp highs and good bass without muddling together everything in-between. Sadly they broke and I'm in the market to see if there's anything better out there for the same money. I looked at the Beats by Dre (Monster cable company) and they're cool but the big ones ($299) are the only ones that I think sound worth a damn. The smaller on-ear units ($170) I thought were horrible. Big bass that muddles the sounds together, no crisp highs, they were just a mess. Even though I liked the bigger beats I'm not convinced they sound any better than the tri-ports that I was previously using esp at twice the price. Combine that with reports of issues with the head band breaking (both display units at best buy were broken) and I'm out. Best buy carries Sennheiser who makes like 150 different models from cheap to expensive. I really wanted to listen to their 485 HD or 585 HD models but the only ones that best buy carries in the stores is the 285HD. That said I think they blow away the beats and every other unit that best buy had for demo and at only $65, but I really still want to look into their higher end units instead as the 285's are on-ear and not over-the-ear as I'd prefer. The 285 HD's were a touch muffled in the middle due to the amazing bass they produced on the low end. It wasn't bad, but wasn't quite as crisp as I'd like to hear. Tomorrow I'm going to go demo a local Grado dealer so hear the SR80's and SR125's. As I understand it these units are hard to beat for sound quality but aren't the most comfortable for extended wear. They're also suprisingly affordable for all of the accolades that they get in reviews. With that said, what 'cha wearing and what are your experiences with them and where can I listen to them locally. Sound is soo subjective sometimes that I really have to hear something before blindly buying and hoping I like them when they arrive. Andy

A couple of questions / points. 1)Is the buffer a rotary or orbital buffer? A rotary should be really difficult to bogg down unless something's wrong....and / or if you're bogging a rotary you're likely doing more damage than good. (doesn't look to be that way from the pictures). But most orbitals dont' have speed dials like you mention so I'm guessing rotary. 2)Are you using 3M white pads or black pads? Should be White ones for cutting if I remember their pads correctly 3)Could be you just need a more agressive product too. Zaino's polish isn't going to be enough to cut those. Not really sure how agressive the rubbing compound is you got...most of those consumer products are still meant to be used by hand so they're not super agressive still. I'd try to find a meguiars dealer that will get you M105 and M205. Despite my love of some of my high end finishing polishes if I could only own two polishes based on what's currently on the market M105 and M205 would be the ones. 4) How's it look in the sun after this attempt. With a rotary, heavy cut compound, and cutting pad you should be able to cut through stuff pretty quickly...then when you look at your results in the sun think you completely f'ed the car up. It'll be ugly after a cutting stage but you'll quickly see what's holograms from the polishing work and what's still defects in the paint. You'll then need to follow with probably 2 more stages of polishing with less agressive product / pad combinations. 5)Sometimes on hard paint (GM) if the etching is bad enough sanding is the only solution.

Megs Ultimate Quick detailer is hands down the best over-the-counter QD I've ever used. Spendy and not available in gallons though so I haven't purchased any more.

...my daily driver for the last 9 years.

We were going to participate but we'll be out of town for it this year.

I don't disagree, but I can't find what I want, where I want it. Ironically I'm looking for something along the lines of what truckin built. 2500 sq/ft ranch minimum of 4 car garage There are a few homes out there that fit the bill that I've found but they're dated inside and would require quite a bit of work to make them what we want. When you start figuring in costs to remodel what's already there we're basically in the same price range only with an older construction.

Who's built with a custom home builder: Who did you use? What was your experience like? Would you do it again? It's time for me to get out of suburban hell. We bought our current home as a starter home in a starter neighborhood and it's a great place to call home but it's time to move on. Too many little children and annoyances that go with living in this setting. We've already scoped a couple of lots that are pretty much what we're looking for and now we're shopping for builders. Andy

fixed

Option C) DIY your own maintenance and most cars are stupid cheap to own.

Horrible

dig it.

I'm busy as fook lately but if you need any help after you get it feel free to call or PM me. Andy

Correct. Driving from morse towards 161 it's on the Left just after E. Lincoln. Been a couple years since I've been up there but I'd have to imagine it's still there. Got a backing plate for my rotary and some 3M pads there the last time I was in.

I heard all Audi's are Junk and are always breaking. My stock short block, stock turbo, stock f'ing everything except for a chip 1.8T has over 181K miles on it and it's had the same electrical issue since i got the thing. Every single week, at least once a week this loud buzzer goes off and a yellow light on the dash lights up with a picture of some gas pump. Does it every fucking week and I can't get it to go away until I put more gas in the car. Other than that my car has been trouble free. In all seriousness, my two timing belt services (which I did myself) have been the only big $$$ I've ever had to dump into the car. As Chris stated, it's not been a completely trouble free car (Wheel bearings, a couple of coil packs, and other little things have been needed along the way) but it's not the nightmare that others make it out to be.

I usually go to a shop off of Sinclair between Morse and 161 but the name of the place escapes me right now.

Paint and Body shop supply stores but generally you'll find a pretty limited selection and mostly 3M pads. They're not bad pads I just prefer others.

For a first buffer there is no other than the PC 7424...might as well get the new XP model while you're at it as it has a little more power and ability. As far as the purple wool pads they're a life saver and huge time saver for me...however they're best used on a rotary polisher not an orbitle. I've used them on my PC with mixed results in the past. No harm in trying as every car is a little different and they may work just fine on your car via a PC. Generally if I need the wool I'll have the rotary out anyhow. I wouldn't suggest a rotary as a first buffer though unless you've got a junk yard full of scrap parts and tons of time for practice before using it on your own personal car. Even then it's very hard to cleanly finish with no remaining holograms when using a rotary. Andy

I started using it on my A4 a few oil changes back and have seen no negative effects, not real positives either I suppose maybe a bit smooter running initially after the treatment. Can't hurt much on a car that's got 180K+ miles on it and is notorious for oil sludge issues I used it via all 3 methods. Through the vacuum tube as a top end cleaner, in the oil as a sludge reducer, and in the fuel tank as an fuel system cleaner.

I'll come put some shine on the tires just to have the pleaseure of seeing it on your car!...then hearing you bitch about it.

Looking good Tim. Your hard work paid off!