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Old 04-16-2019, 10:35 PM   #85
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That had to be fun!
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Old 05-20-2019, 02:01 AM   #86
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Here is another long and complex story. Some parts are embarrassing but I'll share it all because that is what life is all about, mess up and have your friends laugh at you...

This all started over a year ago when I put new tires on my car. At the time I didn't pay any attention because I assumed that the mechanics working right next to the race track would be pretty competent but the more i think about it the less I am happy. First, they lost one of dust caps. Its not a big deal but I like consistency and it really bothered me having one dust cap different than the rest. Fast forward to 2 weeks ago. I took my car into get an oil change at my friends newly opened shop. I mentioned that there was some vibration and asked to get the wheels balanced and aligned. the mechanics at my friends shop discovered that when I got my tires replaced they put the front wheels on the back and back on the front. Then we discovered that the front wheels rims were bent. They probably put them on the back to minimize vibration.

After calling around I found some replacement rims on Taobao (Which is kind of like a Chinese ebay) and had them shipped to me. The replacement rims cost nearly $300 a piece. I though that was pretty high because they are all manufactured in China anyway. When they arrived I was really shocked what I received. They were not the same color, weight or even casting. The stamps on the back of the rims has the same markings but the font and size of the letters were really off. I had no choice but to send them back.


So I was very upset, my car was shaking like crazy at anything over 45mph and my mom was coming in from the US to spend a week with me. I didn't want to be messing around with my car while she was visiting me, and I didn't want to drive her around with my car driving like it was.

Fortunately I have a friend who has a lot of friends in good places. On the day my mom was going to arrive I went to a friend of a friend's shop. He is an aftermarket wheel specialist and he looked at my rims for a few minutes and discovered that one of the rims was bent, but the other one there was a defect with the tire that was making it shake. He took off the damaged wheel, warmed it up and got it back into shape in about an hour. He also found a new tire for the other side and in just a few hours my car was driving better than it had in over a year. Not only that, but he only charged me about $80 to fix the rim. I went from spending over 4000RMB to just about 1700RMB with the rim fix and a new P-Zero. I picked my mom up at the airport, the car drove beautifully and we had a great week together.

I had a lot of hassle up front but buying some obviously fake rims, not noticing that the wheels were put on wrong and worrying on what to do but in the end it worked out really well. The guy who fixed my rim also gave me a brand new matching dust cap so I would have a matching set. Thats another thing I love about China, almost everybody treats you like a life long friend after just meeting you.
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Old 11-11-2019, 01:14 AM   #87
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I have not posted in a while, but all has been well in China. This fall has been amazing, the weather has been perfect and pollution has been nearly non-existent. I recently have finished the divorce process so I now have more time to do things that I like to do as well as be free to spend my money on my car too!

It is not a necessary modification, but I found a good deal on ZL1 side skirts. They were manufactured locally and after I put the order in they made a pair for me as they don't keep anything in stock. They were communicating with me through the whole process which made me feel pretty good to get updates on what step they were at. The work they do is very good, the finish on the skirts was smooth and while I can't compare them to the real thing they seen to be very light weight and the side skirts are a perfect fit. I wasn't sure on what color so I just had them wrapped in some inexpensive carbon fiber vinyl. I'm don't think that this color is best so maybe when the vinyl starts to degrade I'll try having them painted to match the silver.

Speaking of paint, I bought a small cover up pen and fixed a few rock chips and parking lot scrapes on the bumper. I also put on new black out gills I bought off of amazon but I don't think they are as good as the first set I bought in China from Taobao. Fortunately for me the seller accidentally sent me two sets of gills so I'll probably have someone help me the second time around.

The last thing to update is my keychain. (Once again on Taobao) I found an unpainted 1/64 scale 5th gen Camaro body keychain. I was surprised when I opened the package there was a split bumper Camaro keychain added in as a freebie.

With the new side skirts the wheels look too hidden so I will be adding some spacers some time soon too.
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Old 11-19-2019, 01:16 AM   #88
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I am very happy that I finally put on wheel spacers! I have been going back and forth on the benefits and drawback of having spacers but after putting on the new rockers the wheels needed to be pushed out. I went on Taobao again and ordered 2cm spacers for the back and 1.5 spacers for the front wheels. Because the stock wheel studs on the front wheels needed some adjustments I took it to a shop that doesn't look like much but I really trust the owner. He is the one who repaired my bent rims in the spring. After just a bit of grinding he had the spacers on and tightened up in no time at all.

With BC coliovers and wheel spacers the tires fill out the fender so much better now. After going over some big pot holes on the way back there is no scraping or rubbing at all. Whats more is that the owner of the shop was really impressed with the spacers that I bought. His whole business revolves around wheel and tires and he felt that the price of the spacers and quality was fantastic and asked me to introduce the seller of the wheel spacers to him. That really set me at ease because I can never be too sure about the quality of things I buy from Taobao.

I'm not sure about any more future mods. I am leaning toward painting the side skirts the body color, I think that the faux carbon fiber makes it look a bit too busy.

Finally, even though I have only driven just a little while with the spacers, it does feel more planted and turning seems lighter. On my BMW I also have wheel spacers but didn't notice as much difference as I did on the Camaro. But then again the spacers on my BMW are much thinner that what I have on the Camaro.
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Old 12-09-2019, 06:49 PM   #89
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Last weekend I attended a Niche Car meet, which happened to be at my friends garage. It was very fun to talk with people that have the same passion and I can tell that they are truly interested and knowledgable about cars. Which is very different from other meets I've attended where I knew more about the location and cars than most of the others in attendance, which shouldn't happen because I'm not that smart. This time I felt like I was in my place. There were a few people who do car reviews, some touring car drivers and an announcer for the races that are broadcast here in China. There were some nice cars, a few Alpina BMWs, RX-8, Saab and a Peugeot as well as a Red Challenger that the owner ordered in Canada to his specifications and sent to China. According to him its the only one of its kind in China.
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Old 03-31-2020, 09:54 PM   #90
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RIP Camaro5 sticker. I washed my car yesterday, the first time since January because of corvid-19, and the Camaro sticker fell apart. I looked on the Camaro5 store and is seems like they aren't making them any more so now I have an empty spot in my heart and on my window...
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Old 04-02-2020, 09:24 AM   #91
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Glad you are safe! Sucks about your sticker though
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Old 06-14-2020, 10:32 PM   #92
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I bought a 4 point harness and installed it myself this weekend. I'm not sure that I did it 100% correctly, I will be taking it in to the shop to double check my work before I use it. I used the child seat anchors in the back seat for the shoulder straps and used the supplied brackets to affix the lap belt under the seat using the original bolts, at least now it looks good.

Either my pants are too slippery or I use way too much leather conditioner on the seats, but every time I participate in an event, I end up with my legs and knees getting bruised and really sore trying to keep myself planted in the seat. I really hope that this solves the problem.

In the near future am planning to buy a racing seat as well, if anyone has any suggestions I'd be open to what you know works for our cars. I saw an OMP seat that I liked, however, the problem for me is that I am in China (I don't want to sound like I am making a stereotype about asian's being small but...) I went to my friends shop to try out racing seats that he had and I couldn't fit my western body into any of them, I can only fit half my butt into any one of them... I wish I took a picture of me trying to get into the tiny seat of their fully caged Honda Fit. It was a Top Gear moment for sure.
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Old 06-15-2020, 09:53 PM   #93
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Do you know if the zl1 rockers you bought are available on eBay. Ive seen a few but was worried about fitment. Yours look nice.
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Old 06-16-2020, 10:53 PM   #94
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Quote:
Originally Posted by StingrayblueSS View Post
Do you know if the zl1 rockers you bought are available on eBay. Ive seen a few but was worried about fitment. Yours look nice.
I am very please with them as well the quality and fitment are great, the rockers came in primer, I just had them vinyl wrapped because I couldn't decide what to paint them. I bought them locally (on taobao) and they made them for me after I put in the order.

One cool thing about doing stuff in China is the connection to people is very close and communication is very quick and easy. As I started typing this I was asking questions and got an immediate response. He says that he doesn't have an eBay shop and can't use paypal, he uses alipay and other local apps for buying and selling. Also the cost of shipping the items to the states is very high so he only does business in China. Sorry about that! I'm not sure about the other eBay shops.
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Old 06-17-2020, 12:46 AM   #95
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Gotcha, I know a lot of the parts on ebay come from China so I thought I would ask. Thanks anyway.
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Old 06-21-2020, 11:03 PM   #96
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In the midst of what is happening here and across the world, we still need to take some time to get away from it all. Even though the temps were in the high 90's yesterday my girlfriend and I drove an hour out of Beijing to go hiking on the Great Wall. There was a partial solar eclipse visible here, unfortunately I didn't have the equipment to take any pictures of the sun, but when the eclipse started the air cooled down and it was actually a comfortable temperature.

Normally, regardless of the weather, this part of the great wall would be packed and people would be shoulder to shoulder, as you can see in my pictures there were only a few cars in the parking lot and we only saw 3 people during our 3 hour hike. It was good to be out in nature, to experience a solar eclipse while on the Great Wall of China and spend time outside of my home in a safe environment.

P.S. sorry that I parked outside of the lines, I thought with 3 cars that my poor parking would be forgiven by most.
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Old 06-30-2020, 05:15 AM   #97
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Bad news. I felt the steering was a bit off, I thought I needed to get an alignment yesterday. When I got to the park we were going hiking at I jacked up the car in the parking lot and took off a wheel just on a whim and noticed that there was fluid gushing out of the steering rack. When I got home I noticed 2 small puddles in my drive way so it was only dripping for the past two times I drove my car.

I thought the power steering pump had gone out but when I took it into the shop today they diagnosed it as a steering rack failure. Thats the first big problem that has happened to my car since I've owned it and I feel pretty down about it. Now I am waiting on the parts. At least labor is super cheap here in China... I'll write up the costs in a few days.
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Old 06-30-2020, 01:02 PM   #98
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Wow I just went through this thread....almost reads like a book. What adventures!
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