Bimmerfest 2011

[krnnerdboy]

Originally Posted by l4zy

Just checked the IE site to find out it's in Diamond Bar...I was going to just meet in Pasadena but this changes things. I'll see you there!

btw aren't you closer to the LA meeting point?

nope I'm in chino hills..about 5 mins drive from the caravan

[l4zy]

Originally Posted by krnnerdboy

nope I'm in chino hills..about 5 mins drive from the caravan

Ah ok, for some reason I thought I remember you mentioning you live near AutoTalent.

[krnnerdboy]

Originally Posted by l4zy

Ah ok, for some reason I thought I remember you mentioning you live near AutoTalent.

that was relative to the people up north making the drive to get their tunes, see you tomorrow in the AM!

[l4zy]

ohhhh no wonder. see you tomorrow! i'll probably look like a zombie...lol

[Palantirion]

I was there for the KTLA event this morning, which was a blast. Gonna be displaying my Z4 Art Car tomorrow.
http://www.zpost.com/forums/showthre...59#post9595359

[krnnerdboy]

Originally Posted by Palantirion

I was there for the KTLA event this morning, which was a blast. Gonna be displaying my Z4 Art Car tomorrow.
http://www.zpost.com/forums/showthre...59#post9595359

OH wow!!, thought you were a bit quiet...thaT'S PAINT?? nutz!! amazing

[Palantirion]

Pics of Scatha at Bimmerfest...

Arrived at 7am, set up between the Bimmerfest tent and BMW NA:


Markseven's cool S52 conversion E30 was in Bimmerfest's "special display area" too:


People were circling (and touching) the car pretty much nonstop all day. I made one circuit of the grounds before the gates opened, but otherwise was sequestered near Scatha to answer questions.












I was surprised how many people, even couples, posed next to the car:


I only took a couple detail shots, because I was so busy all day:








The end of the show, which always comes too quickly:

[Palantirion]

Today I made an update to MyArtCar.com, adding a Tools page if you are interested in what went in to making the project: http://www.myartcar.com/tools.html

Note that updates and showing notifications will be sent out via Twitter, so follow MyArtCar to be kept in the loop: http://twitter.com/#!/MyArtCar

[Palantirion]

This weekend was a busy one for Scatha. On Saturday we went to BMWCCA LA's Tech Session at Specialized Coatings in Huntington Beach. It was fun and informative.




On Sunday we went to BMWCCA SD's Clean Car Contest, her first SD chapter event. I got to meet Roundel Editor-In-Chief Satch Carlson and columnist Mark Jon Calabrese, which was awesome! Everyone at this event was very laid back and approachable. I look forward to the next one!

Scatha also caught the eye of Jesse from Just A Car Guy and now she is featured on that blog with some great pics: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011...lar-piece.html

Pics of Scatha are below, pics of other cars are posted in another thread: http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...00#post6085200

(rolling shot courtesy of IMZ4N)

[Palantirion]

For those of you who may have doubted that Scatha would still be a daily driver, here are two shots from running errands last week.

Home Depot


Sams's Club


Her next scheduled showing will be at Savage BMW's Clean Car Contest on Sunday 6-5-11.

[krnnerdboy]

amazing EARL! I'll be down at savage after church...it's right on the way home

[Palantirion]

Originally Posted by krnnerdboy

amazing EARL! I'll be down at savage after church...it's right on the way home

-Only if you bring your Z4 M too!

[Palantirion]

*UPDATE*
Scatha finally saw the track this past weekend with OCRC. For pics and vids, click here: http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=561512

[Palantirion]

My copy of Roundel arrived today. Some quick pics:

[Hairballs58]

Awesome, congratulations on the cover and story! I can't believe you track it, I'd be too scared. :P

[bucko521]

Awesome cover and story...... can that grin of driving that car get any bigger? Congrats!!

[Palantirion]

A couple months ago an artist by the name of Ann Scott (http://www.fiberdesignsbyann.com/) emailed me and asked if she could use part of a photo her son took of Scatha at BMWCCA SD's Clean Car Contest in an art piece. I said "of course" and I went to see it a the San Diego Quilt Convention. I know (knew) nothing of quilting, but the show was very interesting - a lot more variety than I expected. Ann had a whole series of fiber art using photos her son took, then incorporated and interpreted through stitching and painting. Pretty cool stuff I think!

Here is her piece on Scatha. You can't truly get a sense of how intricate the stitching is from these pics, or how impactful it is on the viewing experience.

[krnnerdboy]

amazing Earl Just finished reading the article on your car, and major congrats for making the front the page of Roundel! Any other magazines lined up for the future?

[Palantirion]

Originally Posted by krnnerdboy

amazing Earl Just finished reading the article on your car, and major congrats for making the front the page of Roundel! Any other magazines lined up for the future?

-I believe Total BMW will be running a feature sometime soon, written/shot by by Zach Mayne who did the articles on Scatha that appeared in Bimmer and Performance BMW.

[Palantirion]

This past Saturday Scatha returned "home" to Willow Springs International Raceway for the first time since incorporating Willow in her new paint job. My brother-in-law Ken brought his "looks like stock" Mustang and helped out with photography duty. It was a very good day for both of us. I re-thought my approach to turn 9 and think I have it pretty much nailed now, with more midcorner speed and an extra 1mph at exit. With street tires I was turning in the 1:36s, which is only slightly slower than previous trips using NT-01s. Ken apparently had only been to Willow once before, for his first ever track day years ago. Since then he's tracked a lot but never had gotten back to Willow. His was the biggest improvement, dropping from over 2 minutes to a best of 1:39.6! So, a great day. Now on to pics...

Dawn:


One of the few times the light caught the bronze metallic in the "sticker" paint just right:


Willow. In the background, Willow:


On location at turn 8...


...to taking pics of Ken's Mustang:


Setting up a pass on an M3:




Me, driving the Mustang on the front straight:


Chasing down various Z06s (My best lap in the Mustang was a 1:36.5, with a passenger):


Scatha, apex of turn 1:


Between turns 1 and 2:


Up the hill in turn 4:


Down into 5A:


Apex of 5B:


Setting up to pass an M3 going into turn 9:




Turn 9:


On the front straight:

[Palantirion]

A recent development for my Z4 has been treating the paint. After testing a 540 fender (that I painted with acrylic) at Meguiar's I decided to treat the paint on the Z4 using what I learned from that night. The acrylic clearcoat is much more resilient than I expected.

The process I used was red pad with Ultimate Compound, usually two (heavy) applications, followed by black pad with #7 glaze, followed by Tech Wax applied and removed by hand with a rough microfiber applicator (closer to terrycloth) and microfiber buffing cloth.

The interesting thing about this paint is that it requires a long tooth on any towel to really get into all the texture of the paint. Conversely, the paint is so elastic that it's very hard to scratch. So this is a rare circumstance in which a terrycloth rag is better than microfiber.

Here are a couple before/after pic sets that show the effect of this work. Note that the goal is not to eliminate the brush marks, but to bring a more even gloss to the paint.

Before:

After:


The trunk half the blue area has been treated, the roof's half has not:


Before:

After:


Before:

After:


Overall the paint colors are more vivid and the finish is more glass-like. To describe using Home Depot's interior finish chart I would say it's gone from a 3 (satin) to a solid 4 (semi gloss).