Category: accessories

Is your vehicle in need of repair? Learning more about auto repairs will come in handy, even if you do not need repairs right away. You probably also know what it feels like when you just don’t know what to do if a problem occurs. So, what do you do? Read on to discover some great tips to help you with dealing with auto repairs. There are some essential best car wash products that are needed to achieve the shine and glossiness of your vehicle. The most basic of these are car soap and car wax.

Get a reliable battery charger and be sure it is always in your car. Having a dead battery can leave you stranded in some pretty terrible places. It is important to not only have the battery charger but to know how it works as well in case you are alone.

Ensure your car has an emergency kit. This kit should consist of tire changing tools, jumper cables, and an empty container that is appropriate for re-fueling your gas tank. Bring a blanket and flashlights too, in case you are stranded.

You do not have to call a mechanic every time you are having car trouble. Many things can be easily fixed. If you want to take a chance, you can go online and do some research to pinpoint what the problem is. If it’s a quick repair to make, you can save yourself some cash by doing it yourself.

Read the manual for your car and make notes of important pages. During auto repair visits, your mechanic will probably need to gather some information from you, about your vehicle. After reading the manual, you might just find that you have an easy fix on your hands.

Always keep a record of any maintenance done to your car. If you have problems later, it may help the mechanic to see these notes. The records can help the mechanic determine the problem.

Make sure you replace old parts with OEM parts. These are original parts direct from the manufacturer. Generic parts may cost less, but they are not as good. What is a cheap option now could be an expensive option later.

If you do not have headlights that are shining bright enough, you may need to clean them. Sometimes the road’s greasy residue can get on a light and reduce the output of light. You will be able to see well when using a reliable glass cleaner.

Have a DIY kit for auto repair in your car at all times. For instance, if anything dealing with tire changes came with the car, have this in your car. If the necessary lug wrench and jack are missing, replace them. You should probably get a few screwdrivers with various shapes as well as different wrenches like for this kit. Don’t buy poor-quality tools. Instead, you should obtain solid tools that don’t break whenever you really need them.

You do not necessarily have to go through your dealership if repairs are needed. There are good mechanics all over that can fix your car. If you feel comfortable with someone, use them.

Take a second to read the manual and learn about the different components within your vehicle before visiting a mechanic. There are three conditions: salvage, new, and rebuilt and re-manufactured. Obviously, “New” components are those recently created. Refurbished or reconditioned parts ate those that have been restored to working condition. Salvaged parts are used parts that have not been repaired.

Most people don’t look at the manual in regards to their vehicle. But, reading it can give you a lot of helpful information. Your manual contains everything you need to know about maintaining your vehicle and performing small repairs yourself.

One of the trickiest ways that shady mechanics rip customers off is by adding repairs that weren’t agreed to in the beginning. They do this to make it look like you are getting a good deal from them. Tell them you have to think about it before accepting the deal.

Call the manufacturer for serious issues on a new vehicle. They may already have recalled the model, or may need reports like yours to do so in future. Many times, the manufacturer will repair it for you.

When you find a mechanic you like, stick with them for all of your auto repairs. Try to use a trusted auto repair shop and avoid hopping from repair center to repair center. Different shops won’t have records of the previous work done on your car. Prices will also vary, which can lead to a higher overall cost for car repairs.

Get yourself an AAA membership. Joining them can help you when you need a deal at a body shop or a tow truck. In fact, you’ll find that many times, AAA has set discounts to lower your out of pocket expenses.

It actually isn’t that difficult to figure out what to do when your car needs a repair. Just use the information included above. Continuing educating yourself on auto repairs to keep up with current pricing and gain a better understanding of your vehicle’s needs. Being knowledgeable about your car can save you money and stress in the long run.

How to Calculate the Best Letter and Graphic Sizing for the Street, Road, or Highway Where You’re Advertising Your Business with a Sign or Banner.

Original Question: We are designing some banners for our business, and are discussing what colors to use on them. What input can you give us regarding contrast and overall banner color design. Planning to put up a business? Why plan first for your business adverstisement signs Sydney? Advertisement can attract customers and it gives them information about the services that you are offering.

Continuing Answer: As stated in part one of this series, I am borrowing heavily from the USSC publication “Sign Legibility Rules of Thumb” in order to show you, dear reader, that you just can’t slap up a cheap, poorly designed sign and expect the world to beat a path to your business’ door.

If this were the case, the big corporations would not have huge signs with huge letters beckoning you from three counties away. They do it for a reason, and this article will continue to elucidate to you why it is important to have your outdoor business signs and banners professionally designed by designers who actually understand the “rules” of color, distances, contrast, and size.

The USSC has developed a “Legibility Index” (LI) which is a number value which represents the distance (in feet) that a letter can be read. The LI for a one inch capital san serif letter would be 30, meaning that you should be able, with normal vision, to see that letter at about 30 feet, or a ten inch letter at 300 feet. Surprisingly, all capital letters need about 15% more height than do upper and lower case lettering combinations.

The chart was developed by the USSC to help illuminated sign and graphic designers determine viewing distance with factors such as the type of illumination, letter style, background color, letter color, and size of letter.

The calculation for your sign’s viewing distance, using the chart above, combined with our previous VRD formula (Viewer Reaction Distance), to create the letter height formula by dividing the VRD by the LI to calculate the letter height needed for a sign.

Reviewing our terms so far –

VRT = Viewer Reaction Time

VRD = Viewer Reaction Distance

LI = Legibility Index

To illustrate this, let’s say your target driver needs to see your sign at 600 feet away, based on our previous calculation (VRD = MPH x VRT or 1.47), and the LI is 30, your letters should be 20 inches in height.

The calculation for this would look like this – VRD (600′) divided by the LI (30) equals 20 feet. In strictly numeric values, 600/30 = 20. In word form, VRD (in feet) / LI = Letter Height (in inches. Yeah, it’s a bit complicated, but it takes the guesswork out of your sign design.

And most of the time, by the way, the LI used is 30, which keeps it simple if slightly less accurate. In our design, we simply err size-wise about 20% larger than what the index states, so that if it says we need a 20″ letter, more often than not, we’ll prescribe a 24″ letter. With exterior signs or banners, bigger IS better (if allowed by your local sign codes).

So, to review everything in Parts 1 and 2 that I’ve outlined, we’ve learned that your prospective sign viewer is affected by –

1) Number of Traffic Lanes

2) Speed of Traffic

3) Viewer’s Reaction Time (based on the previous two factors)

4) Viewer’s Reaction Distance (also based on the first two factors)

5) Type of Letters Used on Your Sign

6) Colors Used on Your Sign Letters

7) Background Color of Sign

8) Type of Illumination Used – or not used

And you thought it was just a banner!?

There are more exact legibility calculations put out by the USSC – the “On-Premise Sign Standards” – which provides more precise formulas and guidelines for complex areas. However, for most exterior banners or signs, in our opinion, these guidelines suffice quite well.

Of course, we cannot leave the design simply at six words with letters that contain 24 inch letters. We need to design your sign so as to be maximally readable. That means that with your 24 inch letters, we also will need to calculate the “negative space” – or the area between and outside the letters – to properly calculate the overall size of the sign.

The first consideration you have, fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your view of signs in relation to the beauty of an area or in relation to the utility of the sign (in other words, a big sign is more useful to commerce and a healthy economy versus a large sign is an eyesore and unnecessary), will be your local sign codes and ordinances.

For most sign professionals, this is simply an evil that goes with the territory, and some territories have more “Sign Nazis” than other areas. The wealthier an area, we’ve noted, the more restrictive the sign codes. Exclusivity seems to flow outward from wealthier neighborhoods.

The 2nd major factor will be cost. What type of sign can or will your business afford. It is my opinion, after over two decades in this industry, that most companies will spend too much money on the interior of their store, and too little on their exterior advertising, particularly their main identification signage (MIS).

Your sign, I like to say, is your business suit and tie, your first impression. A sign that is too small and/or poorly designed is like your great uncle Theodore who still wears that horrible polyester suit he bought when he was at USC in 1973!

So, having insulted badly designed signs and your uncle in the same sentence, let me tell you how a sign should be designed – properly.

As we’ve already covered, viewing distance and size of letters is very important, but so is the negative space around those letters and/or logo. This is, in some ways, just as important as the size of your lettering. Note that channel letters or dimensional letters do not fit this description, as general rule, because the negative space is the wall that they are mounted on. The letters themselves then, are the sign, so if you need 24 inch letters as determined by your VRD calculations, 24 inch individually mounted letters should be effective.

So, back to negative space. We have decided, for this discussion, that we’ll be using a panel sign, so the above paragraph is not of interest to this sign. With a flat panel sign, wherever the letters are is called the copy area. The area outside of this area is the negative space, and the same applies between lines of copy. It is this area that comprises the background of the sign, and contributes to the readability of the sign. By combining the size of the copy area and the size of the area of the background, we can now calculate the overall size of the sign.

You can refer here to view the USCC legibility table mentioned above.

In PART 3 of this series, we’ll discuss how to calculate how much negative space is needed in relation to the copy.

You can view Part 3 in here: http://ezinearticles.com/?Part-3:-The-Science-of-Outdoor-Signs-and-Banners&id=7979879

Barry Brown has been in the Sign, Banner, Decal and Display Business for over 20 years. It isn’t what he thought he’d do with his life, but he says he knows too much now to do anything else!

He has been marketing these products online since 1998, and the company he was general manager of in 1998 was the first sign company to be listed on Yahoo!

Barry is a great resource for information regarding Signs, Banners, Decals, and Displays, and is also an outstanding source of information on how to shop online without getting ripped off.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Barry_K._Brown/1216482

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7977484

Vehicle paints can now be safeguarded with coverings making use of nanotechnology. Scratches and dents on automobiles are any automobile owner’s problem. Nanotechnology is becoming significantly popular in Melbourne. This service is perfect for paint protection coverings and car paints. In reality, when it concerns car paint protection Melbourne is ahead of many other cities.

Kinds of paint protection:

Nanotechnology based automobile paint protection can be divided into 2 classifications, i.e., innovation incorporated within the automobile paint formula and that which is utilized as a covering on traditional vehicle paint. The 2nd variety is more versatile. It is also a true blessing for secondhand car purchasers. Such coverings even more vary in their compositions. Examples of nanotechnology based finishes consist of ceramic polymer coatings and some nanoparticles including coverings. The composition of the finishes ultimately figures out the efficiency of the coating.

What nanotechnology based vehicle paints and paint finishings provide:

For starters, these paints and finishings securely attach the automobile’s existing paint to the body of the vehicle. Therefore, scratches and swirl marks do not establish on the paint as quickly as they would without such innovation. Breaking of paints is also not likely with this innovation in the paints or thanks to the coating over the paint.

The nanotechnology based paints and coatings are likewise weatherproof. For that reason, water, heat, ultraviolet light, contaminants and some strong chemicals are not likely to harm the existing paint on the car.

The car’s paint generally begins looking faded after a time period. With this finish, the vehicle looks as shiny as a brand-new automobile.

Cleaning the car ends up being really simple, and less time consuming too. Bird droppings can also be cleaned extremely quickly and will not damage the underlying paint. Similarly, some of these paints and coverings protect the vehicle from scratches.

White paint on automobiles has the tendency to turn yellow-colored in time. A few of these finishings are specifically developed to avoid this.

Traditionally, waxes and sealants were utilized for keeping water off from the automobile’s body. But these subside within a year approximately, and they need to be used once more several times throughout the lifespan of the vehicle. Unlike such waxes and sealants, nanotechnology based automobile paints and paint finishes last for a very long time, virtually for the lifetime of the automobile. Water, contaminants and some severe chemicals are accountable for the rust on the metallic frame once the paint subsides. Gunk likewise makes the car appearance filthy and cleaning it is not that simple either. But with nanotechnology based vehicle paints and paint finishes, cleaning gunk and dirt is considerably easier.

Paint Protection in Melbourne

In Melbourne one of the most popular nanotechnology based paint coating is the Ceramic Pro. The maker of this paint finishing, makings the automobile’s outsides gleam like a brand-new vehicle, offers a lifetime service warranty also. As the name recommends this paint finish includes a ceramic polymer.

Conclusion:

Nanotechnology is reasonably in the market of car paints. It will quickly discover its method into other paints and lower the have to often paint vehicles. New techniques are still being studied to make the technology much more efficient and individuals from Melbourne will be ahead of others in embracing such technologies.