Nice pics of what I refuse to call a "rex". you're getting there with that d40 and your engine bay is awesome. How long have you been in DSLR photography?
The day pics are fine but there is a small exposure problem with the ngith pics. Most of them, if not all, aren't metered for the car. To better meter (these is a MUCH easier way to do this on my Canon but I don't know how Nikon's focus and exposure lock work so this is gonna be a bit difficult for you to pull off), Put your camera on the tripod in "P" mode, compose the shot and autofocus (or manual if you do so anyway). then switch it to manual focus mode. Take it off the tripod(leave the tripod where it is) and walk right up to your car. go to the side of the car that is facing the camera when the camera is on the tripod, and without shadowing your light source, FILL the frame with the solid red from the car, at an angle so that the lighting still hits the spot, then hit the shutter halfway down and take note of the shutter speed an aperture(what you're doing is telling the camera "Things in THIS light need to come out looking perfect, so tell me what speed and aperture I need to be using to make everyhting in this light come out properly exposed" i's called metering). Attach it back to the tripod and switch to manual mode then dial in the shutter and aperture. Take the picture. The car should be properly exposed.
Now if your picture comes out like this where the car is exposed properly, but the ground or other surrounding elements are blown out or too dark, you can slightly adjust the shutter speed to help.
but it's still better than:
where the cieling is beautifully exposed (actually a little underexposed still) and the car, the subject, is WAAAAY underexposed.
Hope this helps.
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