For nearly an entire decade, I have maintained and written articles for Grand Mighty. I wrote on a couple of similar websites prior, even, but those have since been dissolved and the material is long forgotten. While this was all a great exercise in my commitment to a task, the time has now come to head towards a new horizon.

Although I still enjoy doing it and probably always will, writing on a website or blog is losing its luster and falling behind with the times. The reward feedback from it is relatively low. Aside from the comments that are left by readers, there is little interactivity and the reach is certainly lower. If I am going to invest the effort to document my projects, I want to do so on a medium that will provide the greatest yield and prolificness.

So to keep up with the times, I am migrating to YouTube! I just picked up all of my camera gear and filmed my first “episode” today. It is certainly a different experience than just sitting down and typing out words, but hopefully you all will find it interesting.

I will be posting on a channel called “Corner Balanced”, which is a collaboration project with my buddy Tommy.

Here is the link: http://youtube.com/c/cornerbalanced

The name might sound familiar, because it comes from the forum/community startup that I tried around this time last year, which eventually ran a brief course and was deleted.

HOWEVER – the Corner Balanced forum was resurrected and redeveloped through a different set of lenses a couple months ago, and has been kicking ever since. I have been spending much of my time on there as of late. Check it out and join if you can, it will be the best way to contact me going forward. I want to utilize it as a platform to fill in details pertaining to the videos and engage in related discussions.

http://cornerbalanced.com/

I intend for the forum to go hand-in-hand with the YouTube channel. With the RX-7 sold… I have speared off into a new direction. I will try to explain the motives and reasonings behind my choices in the upcoming videos. But to cut to the chase, I will be keeping busy with a couple new projects, namely this AE86 GTS.

And as a longer term and higher emphasis project – this Classic TurboDiesel Mercedes G-Wagen.

I thank you all for reading Grand Mighty over all these years, it really means a lot. I am scheming up plans to convert Grand Mighty into something else… so keep an eye out in the future. If you’d like to stay in tune with all of my continued shenanigans, I will see you on the Corner Balanced YouTube channel and the forums.

Cheers!

We all know how poor the visibility is from the Ganadors, being that they are aimed for RHD vehicles and the surface area of the mirrors are undersized. This was another issue I wanted to improve. These new mirror lenses are both CONVEX on the left and right side for the widest possible viewing angle. This should help add back in the much needed visibility. It won’t be perfect, but it will be as good as it gets for LHD adaptations.

* If your original glass is already Convex, then these will not yield an improvement as it will be the same. Verify if yours are convex or flat to be certain.

They are also Blue Tinted, which is the more expensive option. Whether or not you’re trying to add back in more angle with the convexity, these lenses will be a worthwhile replacement if your Ganadors did not originally come blue tinted.

Specifications:

• Direct Copies that fit ALL Ganador Mirrors
• CNC Precision Cut in the USA
• Seamed Edges
• Convex / Wide Angle
  • Increases Vision by 30-40%*
• European Sourced Glass
  • Thicker than Original Glass
• Blue Tinted

*In comparison to Flat glass.

This will also be a LIMITED run, so if you just want to stock up on a spare set, now is the time.

After going through the design phase, I received the first sample set of the lenses, which is what the production run will look like.

The lenses were traced off of the backing plates.

A look at the thickness and side profile.

It’s hard to show the amount of curvature in the convexity in pictures, but this should give an idea.

NOTE!

These lenses will fit ALL Ganador Mirrors for ALL Makes & Models. The actual mirror portion is identical for every application, it is the cast bases that are bespoke. This is why, although subtle, the driver side mirror on the FD3S RX-7 is physically tilted inwards more than the passenger side. Most likely a cost-savings measure, but this is how Ganador fits and aims the mirrors.

So again, it doesn’t matter if you have a set of RX-7 or Civic or Prius Ganadors, these replacement lenses will work. The original lenses are stuck on to the plastic backing plates with double sided tape and is easily removed. The tape can be peeled off with your fingers after. Given the curvature of the new lenses, I recommend using silicone to attach them to the backing plates, which will help fill up the gaps.

I am about to push through a small production run of these lenses in pairs with the manufacturer. I need to know how many people are interested to get an idea of the numbers.

If you want a set, I am accepting Prepayments now.

They will be $110 Shipped for a pair. Production time will be about 2 weeks. I will update this post accordingly.

To get in and buy, please send payment to:
paypal@grandmighty.com

So why do I keep trying my hand at forums, when in this day and age, everyone is fleeing to social media? It’s because of that very reason. I’m not the most candid when I say I hate social media. I hate it for all its shallowness and dumbing down of content. I miss the days of lengthy technical discussions and detailed write-ups. Now, it’s all about like-counts and internet memes.

When it comes to the subject of cars, I think forums still offer a viable and ideal platform for exchanging thoughts and ideas. Cars are inherently complex and engineering oriented, which benefit well from deeper dives. On the contrary, I am in agreement that all of the large car forums that have been around since the turn of the millennium are becoming antiquated and long in the tooth. As rarely as I post on social media, I also spend equal time away from engaging in these larger boards. So finding that middle ground and place where I can actively assume the role of a participant, rather than an onlooker or lurker, is something that I miss.

This is what compels me to keep making forums, because I myself see a gap that needs filling. With 7TUNED being RX-7 specific, the target audience just wasn’t there. Being too broad and general doesn’t work well either, because there still needs to be some sort of focus.

This time, the idea is to make a small-sized forum with a “private” appeal and a goal to coalesce a special blend of like-minded individuals that are on relatively the same level of thinking and experience. Having car people that operate with similar perspectives will undoubtedly offer the best relevancy and interactions, and also lends well to the fact that this forum can remain contained and does not need to be widespread. The difficult part is convincing such people to join and participate in this. The name “Corner Balanced” should speak for itself and imply the ethos…

Needless to say, if you read my website, this forum is for you.

CornerBalanced.com

After going through a life cycle of feeling enthusiastic and energized to dismissive and apathetic, I’ve resolved to close down the 7TUNED Forums. It was a valiant effort and I invested a fair amount of work into it, but ultimately, 7TUNED was an exercise in futility. It carried commendable momentum in the beginning stages. Unfortunately, it reached its peak and plateaued shortly after. The justification and potential for another RX-7 centric forum just isn’t there. I’ll suck up my ego and admit it. The combination of a minority car segment with the decline of major forums in general proved fateful. No matter how hard I tried to spin a new-age concept to 7TUNED with modern software and an appealing design, people are reluctant to adopt change. RX7Club.com, no matter how stale it has become, is too established to overthrow.

Automotive forums just are not like they used to be – actual communities backed with helpful and insightful members. Now the crowd leverages social media like Facebook and Instagram, which I believe is a shame and a sign of apathy. I still think a discussion forum is the prime platform to truly compliment the automotive genre, with its inherent technical and media oriented subject matters. There is little community aspect to simply clicking a like button on social media. Having people who are interested in a common topic and are willing to type paragraphs to each other strikes the best balance, in my opinion.

This is why I choose to continue to persevere with another forum. Although I did my best to keep 7TUNED as clutter free as possible, my sights were set too high overall. If I’m going to kill off 7TUNED, I figured it’d make sense to throw up a quick forum here on Grand Mighty instead. The idea is to keep the forum as simple as possible… when in doubt, go back to the basics. I want its purpose to be niche and close-grouped. I’m assuming people who visit Grand Mighty are like minded individuals, and it’d be a great opportunity to interact with them more than just through the comments section of my posts.

Long story short, to anyone reading this post, give the new Forum a try… I promise it’s about as simple as a discussion board can get. Even if you don’t really feel like it, I would appreciate it if you just humor me on this idea and join, otherwise I’ll probably be in there talking to myself… no big deal.

Grand Mighty Forum

For one reason or another, the shifter surround seems to clip in better than before and sits flusher with the console. And on the flip side, the OEM armrest ashtray now doesn’t fit properly. Its fitment was never perfect, since the armrest is a RHD only part so the contours were slightly mismatched, but now it’s so off that the driver side edge will not even seat. Strange, because all I did was have the panels repainted and then reinstalled all the components onto them. Either way, I will be going back to the regular USDM ashtray.

I’m still waiting on the gauge cluster surround… it had to be repainted a couple more times.

Breaking away indoors has allowed me to work on a new idea that I’ve recently become enamored about – and that is a new website. Before I got into cars and before I could even drive, my childhood hobby was playing with Photoshop and creating websites. I still fondly remember my days in Junior High when I read books on HTML and CSS. I used to pump out websites serially, they were all mostly nonsense, of course, but offered valuable practice. And now I’ve come to a realization that Grand Mighty had become my sole domain and my rate of experimenting with new websites had come to a standstill. I think now is a good time to give something else a go.

All the countless forums and random websites I made in the past were mostly vague and general, with no specific topic. If you recall, the Grand Mighty Forums didn’t exactly bloom. And a product of no purpose typically dissolves.

Now I’m actually, finally, attempting a website aimed at a niche… and that is RX-7’s! While there are quite a few large RX-7 related forums out there, they all seem unattached and cumbersome. I’ve noticed that the community aspect on RX7Club, for example, is quite segregated and remote. This is partially the reason why I seldom post there, aside from classified ads and other necessities. My goal is to bring in a new flavor to the RX-7 community, one that is smaller scale but emphasizes quality. I think the key to a worthwhile enthusiast community is that it should remain with the enthusiasts, for the enthusiasts. Many of these large automotive boards are owned and operated by Internet Brands, a corporation that inherently prioritizes making profits. It’s also funny to note how outdated (forum software wise) and bland the boards are.

So with that, I bring to you 7TUNED.com!

Although it is RX-7 and Rotary car specific, I implore you to give it a try regardless, especially if you have any interest in these cars at all.

The next goal is to add on a Wiki / Knowledgebase section where FAQs and Guides will be listed. There are a lot of useful information on these cars scattered around the Internet, it should be beneficial to funnel them into a more centralized and easily readable hub.

With fast internet connections and computers being the norm nowadays, concerns regarding page loading speeds do not carry as much weight, so I’m going to bump up the size of images in posts. They should hereafter fill up the body to the edge.

One day when I pushed the power button, it would start to boot up normally for the first couple of seconds and then recede back down to an idle. It doesn’t quite turn off, but it doesn’t fully boot either. My monitor has no connection and it never makes it to the BIOS screen. I thought the problem was either the power supply or the motherboard. Since the former is technically an easier fix, I went over to Best Buy today and bought a 600W Corsair power supply and hooked it up. I did the connections hastily because the chassis inside a computer is sharp as hell and I didn’t like messing with all the wires. I wasn’t really expecting it to work, anyway. When I went to power the computer back on, nothing was booting but this time there was an addition of an ominous burning smell lingering in the air.

So… let’s just ignore all that and assume it was the motherboard. Yeah. I plucked out my hard drive and I’m going to dump this Gateway. I guess 2 years is an adequate lifespan in the computer world.

I should have more time and hopefully a new computer soon… and a great deal more content to talk about. Hopefully said content will be more interesting than a post about a dead PC, but no guarantees ;-)

Another key feature of this new layout is in regards to it being Responsive, in other words scalable across virtually all resolution sizes. Try grabbing your browser’s window and shrinking it down. The elements of the site will adjust accordingly, which is great for optimized use on mobile platforms. Responsive design has been fairly popular in 2011, but I feel that it will become a sort of trend in the coming year.

I’ve also added in the Thunder Bolt logo, which I hope will make Grand Mighty more recognizable by it.

Rather than pull the plug on everything, I stepped back and gave everything a second thought. For 2 years I’ve maintained this website, why should I stop now? It’s always mainly been a personal blog-type site, and I was never particularly critical about how much traffic I received. This also means that I don’t really care about what I write, since I’m mainly just writing for myself. So screw it, I’m going to keep things going the way they are. It would be great if people found what I post to be remotely beneficial, one way or another, and if not – not my problem. With 2012 on the horizon, here’s to another year of Grand Mighty!

With that said, I didn’t completely pull the plug on the forum idea either. The board is still there, and will just be an addendum to the site. Hopefully it works and becomes active, but we will see as time goes. Help the effort, JOIN THE FORUMS TODAY!