Stutopia

The BRZ is in the shop for a couple of jobs, one of which was a sump baffle. Upon inspection of the oil strainer it appears an amount (sorry no photo) of sealant was present. If you’ve had your recall done, I guess an inspection at a subsequent service may not be a bad decision.

Sump is £70 from Subaru. It’s in for 10 days for an exhaust tweak and whilst the headers go off to Zircotec for coating, so will have plenty of time to dry. Peculiar that you’re diff needs attention, mine’s totally clean back there. It seems to be the joins on the subframes that suffer.

Whilst the BRZ was in for unrelated work, spotted the sump was sporting a fine coat of oil with no apparent source from above and a suspicious amount of bubbling on the sump itself. Not sure if mine is a one off or there’s been some minor historic damage that’s let water at the surface or if it’s common, but thought it worth sharing. Mine’s a 2013 on 80k. Having inspected it with mechanic, it’s definitely the corrosion that’s caused the weep. Naturally it’s being sorted ASAP, but it brought a mixture of shock at finding it and relief that it’s been spotted before it squirted out onto the exhaust and caused a lot of horrible smoke and potentially worse.

I did not know there was a 60k/6 year undercarriage requirement. I’ve been keeping my eye on the whole underneath the last few years, whenever it’s been up in the air, it’s actually pretty clean and certainly solid (once the sump goes!). It’s ripe for doing now, as it only needs a wire brushing & treating in a few spots. Regarding sump replacement, I’ve got a like for like to collect from Subaru on Monday and I may slip a Cosworth baffle in there too. Coincidentally, the heat of the headers is already being addressed in an unrelated mod, as it’s going in for ceramic coating shortly (the heat wrap looks tatty and gets on my tits). I’m not concerned about any of it, as I don’t mind spending on her for long term benefit, but just wanted to point it out as something to keep an eye on for anyone else having a look under theirs.

Not in my ownership and I can't imagine the PO would have, just to put it back on again for sale. Can't really see what advantage there would be to running with it off, it's not like it weighs much.

Yeah, the proximity of that heat source is on my to do list, the hot/cold cycles will not help.

😂 I did drive a red one, which I really liked, but couldn't agree a price. Glad I missed out on it now because this has 20k fewer miles and PTV and the Sport Chassis options. Also the black plastic bits on the bumper specific to the GTS look much better against black paint IMO.

It’s been hard to say, as she’s been on god awful Pirelli P Zeros until a couple of weeks ago and also in need of an alignment, which I sorted on Friday. The good news is that now that’s all done, I can spend more time driving and less time spending. I had a glorious run over snake pass after the alignment, with only one other car in sight, which was easy to make short work of. Which is the single biggest difference, the amount of power on tap is a giant step up and paired with the PDK on manual, it makes slipping past traffic so much easier. I’m still loving the reduced inside noise and increased comfort. Nothing squeaks either! The most difficult bit to tell is the balance. It takes so much more to break traction that it’d be irresponsible for someone of my talent level to try at anything other than very low speed, on the road. In some ways, I miss really pedalling the BRZ hard and moving it around (which is why I may well keep it for the track). In every other way, it’s not really comparable and that’s no slight on the BRZ, it has 1/3 of the budget to work with.

I know it's not BRZ or even GT86, but I am so pleased with this work that's been done I wanted to show it off and give a shout out to Revolve Automotive and I know there's fellow detailing nerds like me on here too. If you're in the North and thinking of getting some paint correction and protection, look no further. Usually I like to get my hands dirty when it comes to keeping my car clean, but sometimes a job needs indoor space and professional skills, way beyond my own. I've known Paul at Revolve for a few years via a 350z club and a while back he struck out to follow his passion for detailing. I have been watching his work online ever since. After letting him practice on lesser marques like Maserati, Aston Martin and Ferrari, I've been looking forward to having the right job to send his way. I wasn't expecting perfect paint when I purchased on a 6 year old black car, but one of my first visits to the petrol station revealed just how bad things were. As well as correcting this horrorshow, I also booked in to have some protection applied and a "little" job that's been on my list for a while. I've never really liked the black badges. First the easy bit. Then the template. All done. I'm super pleased with the result. I know chrome is not for everyone, but it is literally the only non-black part of the whole car, so I think it's not too bling. The spacing and alignment are absolutely spot on. Onto the paint. As you can see, he had his work cut out. But he was more than match for the hard Porsche paint. Two stages of correction has given it a beautiful depth, removed all the minor marks and a lot of the big ones too. Where they've not been eliminated, they've been softened so much as to make them almost unnoticeable. Also the wheels came off for some love and protection on them and the callipers too. He cleansed the leather and alcantara, leaving a layer of protection inside and a nice little signature that my ass has since dealt with. He also stocked me up on the good stuff from Envy. I am a big fan of all the Envy products I have used to date, not tried Iron Awe yet so looking forward to that. As well as the Envy gear, I left with some SC-MIST to keep the ceramic protection topped up. As well as making her look almost perfect, Paul's done his best to lock it in with a couple of layers of Envy Futureproof+. I'm impressed just by the gloss and I hope I'll be the same for many months to come, perhaps even years. After all that, now for the glamour. She came up alright. Looking ever better outside in the sunshine. Delighted doesn't come close to how pleased I am with the outcome. From following Revolve Automotive on Facebook for years, I had really high expectations but Paul's manage to surpass them with his skill. It's almost a different colour, much more like the 'Jet' black that Porsche call this shade. On top of doing amazing work on the car, the process of booking in, discussing what work was needed, talking through options for coatings, agreeing a price and even throwing in a lovable courtesy car - the whole service was superb and I'm really, really pleased. If you want to do something special for your pride & joy, this is a pretty good option. I'd be taking the BRZ over if it wasn't for the fact it needs paint on the front bumper and the Cayman has blown my budget for a few months. On top of this fantastic work, it's recently been in for retrofit of cruise control, had new rubber all round and a minor oil leak sorting. The good thing is, all the interesting mods I might usually think to do, involve adding bits from it's bigger GT brothers - which makes them so expensive I'm not even entertaining the idea

I've been a bit quiet on here as the last few months I've left the BRZ alone and been on the prowl for something slightly different. It's taken a while and a couple of disappointing trips to dealers, in between stinking lockdowns, but last month my new 'practical daily' arrived, Klaus. Klaus (we might rename later) is a 2014 Cayman GTS and fits the 'practical daily' category because it's a PDK 😉. Since lockdown, most of my driving has been city based and motorway cruising, so I've been wanting to try out one of these fancy autos for ages. Needless to say, after an initial test drive on some very pleasant A & B roads in North Yorkshire, I was hooked. A quite different drive to the BRZ and although I'm a big defender of the BRZ from the 'it's not got enough power' brigade, I must admit it's nice to have a bit more oomph on tap for the odd overtake and occasional motorway burst. Other than that, it's quite a bit smoother on our less than perfect tarmac (even though it's on 20s and has the lowered sport chassis) and a lot quieter indoors too. So far, this added refinement is a bit alien to me, it has the effect of feeling less knowledgeable of the surface beneath you, which has plus and minus points, depending on what you're up to. Currently it is totally stock and the only possible change to that might be to drop down to 19s, to further relax the ride and perhaps a cheeky little ducktail to jazz up the back end. I genuinely have no intentions of doing much else, as it is pretty much sorted right out of the box (and much more capable than I am). Annoyingly it was not spec'd with Cruise Control, which I might get Porsche to retrofit - I miss it on the motorway in the ever increasing number of average speed area, but it had all of my other shopping list of extras; PTV, black dials, black alcantara interior plus the usual GTS refinements of the sports exhaust and sport chrono. Perversely, it sees about 4mpg more than the BRZ, for a similar driving mix, but other than that, I don't expect to see many cost savings, other than no mods. The only gripes I have are the paint is in bad shape, so it needs a correction in the new year and I really, really do not like the Pirelli P Zeros. Maybe it's because I've got more grunt and carry more speed than I'm used to but the grip in the wet and dry does not inspire confidence at all, they also make the most horrible noises and judders manoeuvring in car parks. Annoyingly they have about 6mm left on them. If I can't make up my mind on 19s soon, I'll stick with what I've got and get some lovely Michelin rubber on ASAP. Where does this leave the BRZ then? As it's only cost me about £135 a year extra to go mutlicar on the insurance, I'm very tempted to keep hold of it and scratch my modifying itch by adding some lightness, maybe some coils and having a dedicated track car that I am not worried about needing for a daily. For the time being, I'm keeping my powder dry to see if this stinking pandemic is ever going to end...

phwwooooaaar, gorgeous colour that.

Dealers don't make much on the recall from central Toyota, so this seems like the perfect opportunity to make the job worthwhile for them. The baffle plate in particular seems steep, even if it were two hours work, that still works out at over a hundred quid an hour labour, with VAT knocked off. Unless you're desperate to only have dealers hands on the car (which would be daft if you're doing mods) personally I'd make them do the bare minimum required to get the recall done, at no expense to you and then get your aftermarket bits done by a good indie. It's not like manifold, overripe or baffle require specialist knowledge of the model.

Been to Wales twice and the Lakes once in the last month, desperately needed a wash, in and out. Still scrubs up ok.

Is there any need for that kind of dick move on a track day? Loved the rest of it though Will.

RB is not really my style, but the work, effort and love that you've poured into making this happen is real a credit to you. Love the colour!

I have used the same superb mechanics at Grinspeed in Leyland for years but find myself working in Sheffield for the foreseeable. I’ll be going back there for big mods, but I need a local for other things. Does anyone have any recommendations in the area for either a decent indie or specialist for my BRZ? Happy to drive a bit for one. Thanks for your help.

Thanks and yes. Got them from @Adrian@TORQEN cracking service.

Well I don't like to pic whore, but if you insist 😄

Why the ceramic coat on top of the wrap?

Replaced the defective OEM one 3 years and 3 months ago with a Bosch S4025 (60Ah/540A CCA), that gave up on Friday (bad cell). It has been on the way for some time, cranking was taking that fraction longer prior to Covid, apparently driving once a week for 10 miles has broken its spirit. I've decide to raise the game this time and go AGM, LF069 Lucas (75Ah/720A CCA). 260W x 172D x 220H does fit with a good few MMs to spare.

Due to the start of what is now 'the crisis' and a spare day a few weeks back, I was lucky enough to get access to a friend's garage space and set my mind to paint correction. I'd seen some minor defects (and one major one) when I was recently getting some strange goop off the passenger door and have been itching to spend some quality time with my new toy - a Rupes LHR 75E Mini. For detailing perverts like myself, the Rupes is the little Bigfoot offering for smaller areas and confined spaces. I used one for a few days a couple of years ago and fell in love, I finally convinced Santa to sort me out last winter. It's too small for most cars and people, as your only polisher, but despite that, I went for it because it's so light and low vibration that the drawbacks of larger areas taking longer, did not outweigh all the upsides in the trickier bits of our small and intricate panels. I will regret this decision if I ever own a Range Rover, but, lets face it, I will probably just use that as an excuse to buy a big Bigfoot anyway Back to the task at hand, exploiting an indoor workspace to go after this sort of thing. Nothing really offensive, just the stuff you notice in petrol station, filling up at night under the lights. The bonnet is a bit of a head scratcher as I have no idea where this has picked up so many defects from. I can only assume it's from washing, but I do try and observe a very gentle wash process. You can see on the spot, the swirls radiating out, accidentally the overhead strip shows what effects this has on larger reflections - they just look dull and dirty. This was only meant to be a single stage job (I only had 10 hours of time) so it was a small test patch to see what got a reasonable improvement and then blanket job all over. The yellow pad and polish combo from Rupes was fine, expect for one stubborn area on the rear bumper where I have gotten too close to the brambles in the work car park - SHAMEFACE - I know, it's unforgivable. Really hard to photograph this but there were three distinct scrapes all on the crease. The only 50/50 I took - not so easy to see the difference in the photo, but it is night and day in the video below. And this is the bonnet... ...which is miles away from the horror show I started with. Having access to an indoor workspace is an amazing treat for me (especially as it rained most of the day) but having a ramp as well? HEAVEN. My back was her so grateful for this. As a Johnny Pencilpusher in my day job, a day of physical effort is no minor undertaking After all the polishing, I laid down a coat of AMMO Reflex, which I am increasingly impressed with. It's so quick and easy to work with and has literally none of the pitfalls of the super strength ceramic stuff that I am yet to be impressed with - sorry I know I'm a dinosaur. Naturally after all that effort I could not resist a very quick glamour shot or two. If you've stayed with me this far, you may as well lose 90 more seconds on the movie too.

Mica blue paint, gold wheels and red callipers - that's an absolutely perfect combination. You have exceptional good taste

I'd love to do that kit (but in body colour for me)

It's on my shopping list, but so is a Cayman S - so mods are on hold!

Gave the paint some much needed TLC with the machine and a coat of AMMO Reflex - looks alright, if I do say so myself. Some behind the scenes action https://youtu.be/b_WOSZKKfhE