Greetings folks! Long time no see! I've been away for awhile because of school, work, and GF, but things are starting to come in alignment and I'm having a bit more time, so I'm going to be dropping by more often.

One of the first things on my list here is to finish a project, my friend and I began almost 2 years ago: www.abunchofcars.com. I'm working on a redesign right now and should be done in a week or so, then begins the transfering of all the DIY guides over. The new design probably won't go alive until I have a few of the DIY guides up.

The new abunchofcars.com is going to be more user/forum based. What I mean by that is that people here will no longer have to wait for me to post or update the DIY guides. Each of the DIY guides will have commenting open so if there are mistakes, misspellings, better way to word instructions a person can do so to help others who visit. That way the DIYs are always up-to-date. The DIY guides will also be printable, and maybe in the near future, accessible via PDAs and handhelds.

There are three levels of users: Admin, Editors, and Contributors. When you first sign up and join, you're only available access will be posting comments. When Dennis (co-admin), me, or any of the Editors decide that your comments are worthwile and contribute to the learning of others, we will grant Contributor access. Contributor access will allow for submissions of DIY guides and/or news for moderation. Contributors cannot post live to the site. Editors will have post live power, moderation over the Contributors, and generally manage the site to ensure it stays in order.

Essentially what I wish to achieve with the site is participation from forum members to contribute and keep the information up-to-date basically like Wikipedia. We are not looking to become a forum as AcuraZine is, but rather be a database that supplements AcuraZine in terms of DIY guides. We'll also have Featured Rides, amongst other stuff.

Abunchofcars.com is free to register and will probably most likely remain free, this has always been a project that I wanted to do and give back to Acurazine for all the help it has provided me in the past.

 

Nice! I've used a few of your DIY guides and have saved myself a few hundred $$$ in the process. Thanks! I'm sure many people will be looking forward to this!

 

Peiqinglong, just a want to thank you for finding the time to breath some new life into what has been and continues to be such an informative site for DIYers. Your site has come in handy a few times! I am very much looking forward to the revamped site and I'm sure others are too

 

Thank you both for your kind words! I didn't know the site was still being utilized! I had always wished it was and had wanted to do updates for soooo looongg.

 

Oh yes, links to your DIY's still circulate around AcuraZine; I've seen links to abunchofcars.com referred to on numerous occasions.

 

That definitely makes me want to get the new design live even faster =)

 

Nice, i'm looking forward to some of the DIYs, will you be having one for a brake flush and such?...



props to you for taking time and doing this.

 

You know it's funny, we never actually got around to getting one done. I'm sure some people have done it already it and hopefully will contribute it. =)

 

Props to you and the DIY pages. They are used ALot by members here!

 

Sounds like an awesome idea, only thing I noticed is that you have to get approved status before posting a DIY, if we want to post one before we get to that status, can we email it to you, and have you post it?

 

Thanks! Any chance I can get a temp sticky so people see this thread?

 

Of course! But I'm going to be quick and liberal (at this moment anyways) in granting status so we can get a group in, so it doesn't become like the old site where everyone is dependent upon me posting up the DIY.

 

i agree. Your DIY saved me a lot of money. IM sure it has done the same for everyone else here. You should go to heaven in my books

 

Thank you for your kind words! I hope the new design will better suit the needs of everyone and be more correctly semantically layed out.

 

Awesome, I've got a few things that I have done, and they are all prettymuch 1G TL specific, but I'm sure they will help the site out.

 

We'll take any and all DIY guides for any and all cars. That's why the site was named abunchofcars.com =)

 

The design of the site is essentially laid out. I'm working on finishing touches. Next items on the agenda:

1. Install Gallery.
2. Put up the DIY guides into the new templates.

 

 

The Gallery is installed, some of the DIY guides have been posted. Below is a teaser of the new site, some designs may still change...

 

Oh, here's another one showing the commenting system...I'm sure some people have been curious how that would work like. I've also added a rating system also. I haven't added the pics into the guides yet, in case some of you might catch there are no pictures in the guides.

 

Those are looking good, can't wait to get started posting to it.

 

^^ Looks great

 

Thank you both! I can't wait to go live on it either. =)

 

site is looking great. cant wait till its done.

 

Site Update: FTP on the ABC site is down, I'm unable to make some further updates. Hopefully this won't push things back too far, but I'm looking towards this Friday or next Monday as the launch date.

 

Thanks!

 

when can we become members??? i didnt see any way to get to that.

 

It's in a non public location right now, I wanted to get a majority of the functions up and running correctly before opening it up for mass registration. Friday is when I will hopefully make the swap between the old site with the new one.

 

im looking forward to it i have a few mods that i plan on doing DIY instructions.

 

I can't wait to get them added!

 

Well hurry up already

 

=)

 

ive used your site alot....the console install saved my ass a few times!!

 

That's great to hear! I'm glad it's been helpful!

 

Well my webhost has been having some inordinate downtimes lately and I have not had much opportunity to update the site...so there is a good chance that the new site won't launch this Friday. =(

 

New Design Launched!

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by peiqinglong

New Design Launched!

Hey bro, just to let you know, I just registered and there was a bit of a problem. I tried to register under my current username here at Acurazine, and the system would not accept my entry. So, I removed the hyphen and voila, success. Just as suggestion, you might want to insert guidelines for the creation of usernames on the registration page to inform users of acceptable and unacceptable characters. Second, after registering, it said I would be sent an e-mail with my password for my new account. I never received an e-mail with my password.

 

When will the center console/radio removal dity be back on? I got my iPOD blitzsafe cable and am waiting to install.


Thanks

 

That's good to know! I'll look into it, thanks!

 

You mean this? http://www.abunchofcars.com/2006/04/...le-removal.php