uncategorized07.07.2010

It only took 216 hours, 4 guys, 2 cranes, and a bunch of dirt but we are back up and running.  I’ll be spending the next few days updating customers on their orders and trying to get caught up.  I’ll be working overtime for the next week or two trying to get all outstanding orders up to speed, so feel free to email me (matt@ocarbon.com) if you have any questions or concerns about the status of your order.

Once again a big thanks goes out to all my customers that have been very supportive and understanding through this difficulty.  It is appreciated more than you know.

I came to the shop this morning after being told everything would be up and running by noon.  I arrived to find the hole filled up, but no one working on restoring power.

After a few phone calls and several hours, a crew finally showed up.

It would take two cranes to lift the concrete block and get the transformer back in place.

After four hours of steady work in 110F degree heat, they finally had everything back in place and the power back on.

I would learn from the crew afterwards that the plumbers responsible for the water main break had done a spotty job on repairing the pipes.  It had taken several attempts which is why the hole was not filled up until yesterday.  Had the pipes been fixed properly the first time, I would have had service resorted in 2 days.  Having the break happen right before a major holiday weekend didn’t help speed anything up either, but at least it is finally fixed.

Total estimated repair bill: $18,000 (thankfully I don’t have to pay for it).

uncategorized07.01.2010

Just wanted to make a quick blog post to give everyone a heads up on why I’ve been so hard to get a hold of this week.

I went out to lunch a few days ago and when I returned, the street was completely flooded with muddy water. After a little investigation, I found the source of the problem. It seemed as if there as a broken pipe at the rear of the shop.

I called the property manager and he sent some plumbers out to take a look. As you can see from the photo, the break is right underneath the power transformer for the building. None of the plumbers wanted to shut off the water until the power company came to shut off the power to make sure no one would get shocked. Unfortunately the power company didn’t make it out to the site for several hours, so the water just flowed and flowed.

With the water finally shut off, it was determined that the water main from the fire sprinkler system was the culprit. It is located directly inside of the corner of the building where the break had occurred.

From there once the water had settled, a sinkhole started to form. You can see that the transformer is already leaning into the hole a bit. At this point, I was told the hole would be filled and the transformer would be propped up and everything would be good to go in a day or so.

I returned to the shop this morning hoping everything would be back up and running, only to find that the sinkhole is now HUGE, the transformer has been removed, and I still don’t have any water or power in the shop.

I have no idea when this will be fixed, but until it is I will still be tough to get a hold of. I hope this will get fixed quickly, however at it’s current pace I suspect it will be at least another day or two.

If you’re waiting on an order or need a status update, I’ll do my best to keep you up to date but I legally I’m not allowed to be at the shop until the fire system is back up and running because of the flammable nature of the materials we work with. So I can’t ship finished orders or complete nearly finished orders until I get the okay from the fire department.

Feel free to email me at matt@ocarbon.com if you have any questions.

audi06.25.2010

B8 A4/S4 Trim Removal Guide

Tools needed:

• Flathead screwdriver
• Hook tool
• Socket set
• Hex keys

Time required: 1 hour

Difficulty: Moderate

Start with the door pieces.  Using your screwdriver, gently wedge it between the door and the trim and slowly pry the tabs free.  Start at the rear of the piece, working your way towards the doorhandles.

To reinstall the door pieces, stick the end with the two teeth back into place.  Guide them into the door handle plastic.

Work your way to the rear of the piece, pushing back each tab into place before moving onto the next one.

Be mindful of the hook tab on the rear of the piece.

The dash piece is the easiest piece, using screwdriver like you did on the door pieces, pop out the three tabs.  Reinstallation is just as easy.

Now comes the fun part.  The center console seems difficult, but it is just time consuming.  If you take your time and do it slowly it will be a breeze.

Start with your hook tool and wedge it under the climate control unit.  Carefully pull this edge free.

Once you get this edge free, do the same on the other side.

Now pull the climate control unit free.

Set the unit off to the side.

Next, press your finger onto the tab located here, and use a pry tool to work the shifter surround up.

Do the same on the other side.

Slowly and carefully work your way down the shifter until it’s free.

Lift it up until you expose the two screws that hold the ashtray in place.

Remove them with the socket wrench and pull the ashtray up and out.

Up next are the screws that hold the center console in place.   Be sure to get the screw on the drivers side as well.

Life up the shifter surround.

Now get the screws at the base of the shifter piece.  Again, there is one on each side.

Move to the backseat and wedge the screwdriver to pry off the rear vent cover.

Pop off this clip on the right side of the vent.

There is a screw on the opposite side of the clip that needs to be removed.

There are also two screws in the top of the vent that need to be removed as well.

The lower ashtray can be pried off next.

This exposes two screws at the base of the console that need to be removed.

Pull off the base of the armrest.

Remove the two hex screws and pull the armrest free.

Lift up the console.

Last but not least, once the console is off, flip it over.  All you have to do now is remove the final 8 hex screws.

That is it.  Seems a lot harder than it is.  Do the exact same thing in reverse and your interior will be back together in no time.

audi, carbon fiber06.18.2010

I’ve been anxious to see what this setup would look like for a while now, so I was happy to finally get some decent photos.  I think it fits pretty well with the two tone interior and adds a nice contrast.

Rest of the gallery can be found here: Barry’s A4.

production06.14.2010

Sorry if this is a bit of a boring post, but it should have a pretty big impact on the photos we have here in the blog.  When we moved into the shop last year, it was outfitted with some super cheap florescent light bulbs.  These bulbs were a problem for a couple of reasons.  The biggest problem was cheap florescent bulbs make paint correction (wetsanding and polishing) extremely difficult.  If you’ve ever seen a high end detailer work on a car, often he’ll use a “sun gun” on spots to replicate daylight as florescent lights can trick your eyes and not show some imperfections and exaggerate others.

I’d have to polish a piece and step outside in natural light to see the what the piece looked like in daylight to catch all the imperfections.  Obviously this meant I could only polish during certain hours and took up quite a bit of extra time stepping in and out of the shop to eyeball the pieces.

The other problem was the photos I took for the blog.

Under the old bulbs, no matter what settings I used on the camera, they always turned up with an ugly yellow hue.  I’d have to adjust the colors in Photoshop.  This meant a lot of the time the colors in the photos weren’t always fully accurate.  We’d also get some weird reflection lines and some haziness that can’t be seen on the pieces in person.

These next two are completely untouched (they are resized and watermarked) photos of the same pieces under the new bulbs.  As you can see there is a drastic difference in the end result.  Now I just need to get a decent camera so I can start taking better photos.