I Would like your opinion and your expertise... - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

lino · #1 06-05-2005, 04:25 PM

I need to redo my driveway. It's currently plain concrete. I was thinking of trying something that is durable and a little nicer. Anyone have any suggestions?

There is one driveway that I like. I lost the phone number of this person, but I have pics of his driveway. He's somewhere in Ontario. Anyone know what this kind of driveway is called?

boneheaddoctor · #2 06-05-2005, 04:34 PM

Stamped concrete is what you want....they stamp any sort of patterns in the still wet concrete....and even dye it. Durability and cost of concrete with the look of pavers....

Botnst · #3 06-05-2005, 06:08 PM

Kind of hard to tell with that Mattel toy thingy in the way.

lino · #4 06-05-2005, 07:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Botnst

Kind of hard to tell with that Mattel toy thingy in the way.

It's real. That car was for sale. That's how I found out about the driveway. I was calling about car at first.

boneheaddoctor · #5 06-05-2005, 07:16 PM

Yes thats a very familiar sight.....try and replace the starter motor without pulling the engine...it can't be done. Not that I could determine anyway.

Ara T. · #6 06-05-2005, 07:26 PM

How'd you get into fixing supercars, Bonehead?

boneheaddoctor · #7 06-05-2005, 08:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ara T.

How'd you get into fixing supercars, Bonehead?

An Ex-friend of mine owns a 1984 Lamourghini 5000S and a 1978 Ferrari 308GTS.....currently in the past he has owned a Miura and an Espada...and I forget what the other was.

He knows I know my stuff and begged me to fix it becasue he didn't trust any of the local shops............

Well now I understand...they were losing their minds....

He pulled all twelve plug wires off the car along with the two throttle linkage rods....never marked where they came from....calls me asking me where everything fits...so I called a Lamboughini guy found out the firing order and such and got the lambo running.....then when I was upgrading the cams and valve springs on my honda he comes to my house every day begging me to fix the Ferrari.......it was running like crap and 3 of the four carbs leeking gasolene like a sieve..... asked him when the timing belts were replaced last and he told me never......26 years old and the belts that Ferrari specs to be replaced every five years were never replaced. so did the work for him in 1/2 the time the labor books call for...got job offers from 2 Ferrari shops becasue of that......(I got my info from other Ferrari mechanics online) I did my research before doing it.....well the nut overfills the Ferrari by 8 quarts the week after I finished it....thats right he had 18 quarts of oil in the motor after he "changed" the oil. well after that they blamed me for the resulting oil leak and things got nasty....they accused me of being paid to fix an oil leak...(I wasn't) My lawyer told their lawyer to drop the issue or he had a large fraud suit getting filed against him.....greedy SOB got his car fixed (carbs and timing belts) for 1/4 what Ferrari charged and that wasn't good enough for him....he wanted a major service for free that takes $2,500 in parts alone....

I no long speak to the SOB and if there is justice in this world one day he will have an accident and I will tell him..sorry find someone who cares.

Idiot has neglected both of these cars so bad being cheap its not funny......they are garaged since new but NONE of the service these need has been done outside of oil changes....its sad someone can neglect a car so bad when they have the money to take care of them...

THose lamorghini Countach's look good from a distance.....but crawl under it...and look close at the wiring.....it looks slapped together by amateurs....poor quality.

dtf · #8 06-05-2005, 08:12 PM

That's my favorite car, the Magnum PI 308GTS. But on the one in the pictures here: Where do you put the groceries? I can't take my trash to the dump in that either.

boneheaddoctor · #9 06-05-2005, 08:19 PM

these Lambo's actully have the motor mounted backwards and the transmission in in the middle of the car and has two drivelines along side the motor to bring power back to the axels....

and yes visibility is horrible on these......

THe 308GTS...nice looking and better build than the Lambo...but it has a slew of issues , they all have.....was not impressed when I drove it.....my honda was quicker....true the prancing pony is a chick magnet...something a honda isn't....but my Civic would eat one of these alive.

The 308 and the Lambo both are far simpler engines than a Vtech honda engine......as neither of those even had a computer....the Lambo had dual Boscsh mechanical injection pumps....I was actually underwelmed by those two cars......

cmac2012 · #10 06-05-2005, 08:47 PM

Back to the driveway,

TA - DAHH!!! Bonehead and I agree on something.

I think that is indeed the stamped-on concrete work, though I'm not positive. In the first picture, you can see the edge, clearly there's the concrete, but it looks a bit like you can also see the edge of some tile. Another aspect that makes me uncertain, I can't see the pattern repeat itself anywhere. Then again, in the second photo, you can see the straight line in the middle, wider than the other joints, and this makes it look like it is the stamped type. Looks quality. I don't know how they escaped the repeating pattern syndrome.

That's one of the drawbacks with this stuff. A recent job I did, a friend of mine did the lady's driveway in a cobblestone pattern. It was OK but each stamp was identical, they had about 4 of them, about 2' x 4' -- I don't know why the manufacturer couldn't have had four different patterns available. The repetition of the pattern was so obvious, it detracted from the effect for me. Still, not bad.

There are many styles and colors available; they use a dye powder, really dry, like talcum powder, that serves a dual purpose: it imparts the color and prevents the stamp from lifting up wet concrete. Another job I was on, they used a black powder and a stamp that gave the look of slate, but w/o any seams. They managed to overlap it so that each one blended into the next. Looked really good.

This stuff is a bit tricky, and getting a good job might be a bit spendy. It's not something for the do-it-your-selfer, not the first time anyway.

And BHD, interesting story on the Ferrari/Lambo guy. Long on money, short on good sense. How does that happen? I'd heard that on the older Ferraris, you need to pull the engine every 10,000 miles to redo the timing, etc. Oh boy.

This underscores for me again, that we need to talk cars and other trades only, and put the politics aside. We're just going to give each other headaches, not to mention everyone else.

boneheaddoctor · #11 06-05-2005, 08:52 PM

The testarosa is one.....the timing belts are against the firewall behind the driver and yes you need to lower the entire drivetrain out from under the car....I atualy saw one they were doing at Ferrari of Washington last summer...there are a few others that have to be done that way too but I am not knowledgible enough about all of them to say which they were.

cmac2012 · #12 06-05-2005, 08:55 PM

ps: The rich doctor I worked for; once we were talking cars, I said my Beemer was like a poor man's Ferrari to me and he said every friend of his that's owned a Ferrari has regretted it, and I'll bet that's not a small number of friends.

boneheaddoctor · #13 06-05-2005, 08:59 PM

They are a car for people with more money than brains....someone that feels a strong need to compensate for a small penis.

Far better cars out there......faster cheaper to maintain....and who needs women who are only attracted to you becasue you have a flashy car. Becasue thats what a ferrari is great at doing.......flushing every gold digging woman out from under the rocks they live under.

Botnst · #14 06-05-2005, 09:18 PM

It is provably possible to create a non-repetitive tiling. Google "Penrose Tiling" and you'll find everything from mathemaitics to how-to.

Bot

http://www.stephencollins.net/web/penrose/

lino · #15 06-05-2005, 11:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cmac2012

Back to the driveway,

I think that is indeed the stamped-on concrete work, though I'm not positive. In the first picture, you can see the edge, clearly there's the concrete, but it looks a bit like you can also see the edge of some tile. Another aspect that makes me uncertain, I can't see the pattern repeat itself anywhere. Then again, in the second photo, you can see the straight line in the middle, wider than the other joints, and this makes it look like it is the stamped type. Looks quality. I don't know how they escaped the repeating pattern syndrome.

That's one of the drawbacks with this stuff. A recent job I did, a friend of mine did the lady's driveway in a cobblestone pattern. It was OK but each stamp was identical, they had about 4 of them, about 2' x 4' -- I don't know why the manufacturer couldn't have had four different patterns available. The repetition of the pattern was so obvious, it detracted from the effect for me. Still, not bad.

There are many styles and colors available; they use a dye powder, really dry, like talcum powder, that serves a dual purpose: it imparts the color and prevents the stamp from lifting up wet concrete. Another job I was on, they used a black powder and a stamp that gave the look of slate, but w/o any seams. They managed to overlap it so that each one blended into the next. Looked really good.

This stuff is a bit tricky, and getting a good job might be a bit spendy. It's not something for the do-it-your-selfer, not the first time anyway.

So what do you think is the best way to redo a driveway? I'm looking for nice and durability. I don't want to do this job again. I really have no experience with this at all.

Here is a site I found with some options:

http://www.coloration.com/slide.htm

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