@shop-teacher usually differential ground settlement wouldn’t cause a full, unpredictable collapse. Plus there’s a good chance the building is on piles (note: I don’t know this, but right on the water line the shoe fits). This looks like a flat plate concrete building, it’s right on the ocean, rusting of rebar has to be a concern (which could happen to an old building) or questionable construction (which could happen to a new building). I would immediately suspect either a column blow-out or what’s called a two-way or “punching shear” failure. Basically the slab is overloaded, rips a hole and slides right down one of the columns. Like if you have a piece of jello on a toothpick, if the piece of jello is big enough, eventually the friction between the jello and toothpick will give way.

Those sorts of failures are super dangerous in concrete buildings because the slab typically falls onto the one below it, which is then overloaded, which falls on the one below it, etc. it’s called pancaking. They happen extremely rapidly and with very little warning. How often do you think the put holes in the ceilings to inspect the slab-column joints at every column and every floor? Would “never” be a good guess? It only takes one bad spot. Everyone knows this so the connections are typically very over designed, but with that sea air... like I said it only takes one.

@notsomethingstructural it is not lost on me that this is the first-worldest of first-world problems, and i am incredibly lucky to be a whiny bitch about something 95% of people would never entertain.

@mastermario from the headline I figured you were talking about Oppo, which is a question I find myself asking all the time

so I kept the bottomless G35 money pit around for god knows what reason (which mysteriously developed an alternator issue as a result of sitting a couple months, apparently) and decided to take a stab at touching up some of the many, many paint defects. Seriously pick your poison. Junkyard fender? Yup. Scraped a gas station bollard? Oh we got that too. Ice scraper marks on the trunk lid? You bet. Blistered clear coat from sitting in one spot too long? Oh yes we got that. Did I mention it also got keyed up by white supremacists? Really sick looking ride.

Anyways, I bought a quart of ready to spray urethane base coat, some one-part primer and an acrylic lacquer clear coat (I know, I know...) and a $40 1.4 HVLP gun just to fuck around and see if this was a fun hobby. “It’s impossible for me to make it worse” I told people.

Verdict?

Not bad! The big issue is the gun seemed to have a hard time atomizing a fine and consistent enough mist, let alone making a nice fan... I know, who’d have thought for a $40 gun and like $100 of shitty paint. So tint coat would go on a bit blotchy and you could see the gun strokes. It/me had a somewhat difficult time wetting out a panel, especially as I didn’t want runs. Solution? Mist down the whole car!

The clear coat was a similar issue - it wanted to almost bead up as it came out of the gun, which probably was half the product and half the lousy gun, half a lack of proper surface prep, but definitely 100% user error. I also wasn’t trying to fully wet out panels or the touch up areas, but if I was, trying to feather out would have been difficult to impossible. So I’m just going to tell people it was topcoated in a satin finish. A half-gallon let me put down two very light coats on the whole car, with a heavier coat or two in the areas that needed more attention.

Not bad, but if I ever attempt something similar, it will be with more modern paint systems, and a gun I didn’t get out of a Cracker Jack box.

I haven't talked much about it because I don't have anything in my garage, and really, who gives a shit about the cars someone "says they're really (no really) going to buy". SR20 I say, that's the rule.

Going back to about 2018 I said I would treat myself to something nice once I sold my house. Proportional to the sale price. Back in late 2019, and into very early 2020, I entertained moving things up a bit, and had a series of near-misses on Maserati 4200's, which was 90% of the car I could ever ask for, for about 20% of the price. I couldn't refuse that. I called 3 times to put 3 deposits on 3 different Maseratis, and 3 times was told they sold a couple hours earlier. Couldn't close a deal, then pandemic happened, then lost my job.

OK, no biggie, I'll go back to plan A, get the house sold, get something nicer. If I'm gonna YOLO send it, fuck it, R8 5.2 6MT. Which at the time were still easily found in the ~$90k range. A fuckload of money, but as I told my wife, still considerably less than boarding a horse for like 15 years like her long-term goal. But then proceeded to knock her up, which was not in the plans, and watched 5.2 6MT's go up to 150-170k. Fine, I can't fit a kid in that anyways, and honestly I really should have been looking at 2+2's this whole time.

I'm a simple man. At this point I've learned not to ask for much. Just an affordable, built-by-hand European V12 manual transmission 2+2 grand tourer with a working stereo so I can listen to Pavarotti between downshifts in the New England countryside while the leaves change. I don't see why that needs to be hard, but apparently it is.

So, with a pretty relaxed set of guidelines, I was left with two options - Ferrari 456's, since 612's in manual are just collector's decor and have been for a while, and [redacted], [no fuck you i wont tell you what it is].
On the 456 front, one of these things is not like the other:

I would care so much less about this if it wasn't the car with the highest mileage, the worst service history, the worst color pairing, and most importantly a non-functioning radio, which on a 456GT is about a $15,000 fix since you have to rip the OEM setup out completely and fabricate something custom, which involves removing literally the entire interior from the car. There was just a black/black 456 on C&B with lower miles, the stereo retrofit already completed, and fully documented service history. RNM at $65k, which was about market to me.

So, yeah, at least two jerkoffs with more money than brains decided this was the car to drop $88k on, despite that virtually the same car, except a much much better car, was $65k less than a month ago. And now, every jerkoff seller who's idea of "market history" is "the most recent BAT sale" is gonna think their driver's grade / Hagerty's 2 is worth $120k because some guy hit the lottery on a good day on BAT, despite that cars in the far nicer Rosso Monza sat for 18 months at $68k for all of 2021. Fuck this shit.

I have no idea why I made this


[Binghamton, NY]

A freggin SENNA!! In a tunnel!! He liked the acoustics. I went past the guy like he was standing still, mainly because he actually was. Like a true genius he would randomly stop for a good 15 seconds then romp on it for 300 feet. Sounded quite good, but not top echelon.

Then I got my J&J and fortunately as someone with a good deal of anxiety over shots, I’m done.

@dogisbadob upvote this post to downvote smh

@italianjobr53 they are very affordable to maintain when you sell them and buy something else

@trivet I thought everyone knew this. Gas is a great de-icer so just spray a few squirts around the gas door area and give it a second to melt out and boom you’re in

@100percentjake I’m holding out for a DB9 but that thing is sick

@notsomethingstructural and give me imperial jade. Yum

@dr-zoidberg wonder if you can call Lexus and ask. I can’t imagine there’s more than 100 left absolute max.

@dr-zoidberg theres one on BAT or C&B right now too. $17k might look like a steal in a few days.
Edit: can you get production numbers for the color?

@100percentjake hey I saw you got a shout-out for doing some shoots for a V12 Vantage on BAT. You driven that bad boy?

@wbizarre have a few:
My wife’s RX300 was Clifford - the big red car (totaled)
At the time I had a SVT focus which was red car (sold)
and my RX-8, which was / is black car (still have)
After Clifford she got a G35x sedan, which we struggled to name for a month or so, at which point the exhaust rusted through and collapsed, so it was / is “zoomy” (waiting to go for sale, long story)
When we found out she was pregnant with our son, who at the time was nicknamed “egg” we got her an upgrade, our Elantra, which we named “eggshell” before actually finalizing the deal on a car, which fortunately, was white.
And last I got my S3 somewhat surprisingly at auction like 3 months later (I had been using eggshell to that point) and promptly named it “[nss] junior” since it was the only name I was 100% certain I wouldn’t name my son.
So, currently have black car, zoomy, eggshell, and nss junior in the stable.

@akioohtori Datsun 510. Chop the roof, do some flares/wide body, paint satin black. Yum.
Or
2ZZ swap CDM echo RS hatch (JDM vitz) or just supercharge it i guess

@highlander buy it and put it on BAT pocket like $34k in profit

@tripper I have made peace with my Italian gods if I buy a rarri