Pics are overdue and someone needs to post SOMETHING in the MSP section.. lol its been quiet this week.
I never showed this.. When I bought the car, my MS emblem looked HORRIFIC. I was having a lot of other problems and was so caught up in freaking out over that, I totally never showed this before/after. I first had tried to tape off around the edges and sand it down to clear it up, but after some vigorous sanding, it heated up and the corner started coming up. I spent WAY too long, with my thumbnail just chipping away at that crap until I had basically chipped off the entire clear/amber laminate (or whatever the hell it is) When I was completely done.. I took 1000 grit, and a small block.. then I carefully gave it a horizontal "brushed" aluminum look around the edges and on the lettering.
The before and after is pretty staggering in my opinion for a "restore" that was completely free.
This is the only "before" that exists.. i wish I would have gotten closer to show how gross it really looked
"after" - if it wasn't for that tiny little bottom right corner issue, this thing would actually look almost mint
Lets see.. what else.. OH.. yeah. Here's the DOOR I've been waiting on for almost 3 weeks. It looks really nice, now if I could just get the person I bought it off of to SHIP IT, that would be great
OH YEAH! my shifter issues are OVER. It is PERFECT now. I got a stainless steel, 3.5" extension.. using the factory shifter now.. and I used these pieces of hard foam, with holes in it (packaging from those hood struts) to fab a spacer under there. Got it pretty damn flush if I do say so myself. (and it stays there)
Need a new boot though, I know.
Lets do a walk around on these wheels, since this stuff is getting attention next.
From the passengers side walking around the back of the car:
The good news (if you noticed) is I have a complete set of center caps now. You undoubtedly noticed that I am driving around like an idiot with 1 red caliper, and on that wheel I have a missing wheel stud. At some point, after I got that lock lug off the cross-threaded wheel stud, I lost the lug key. SO I can't actually just easily take the other wheels off... unless I chisel or with other methods, remove those lock nuts. That would be perfectly fine, except that I don't have any extra lugs.
Well.. thats not entirely true. I have 18, 6 notch lugs.. and no lug key for those either. LMAO.
so I have a whole wheel (rash) / lug (missing/matching) / caliper (unpainted) / rotor (pads starting to "cut" in) / brake pad (30%) situation here. I (thank you Jesus for autosave) am gonna get some cross drilled, slotted, and zinc coated rotors and new brake pads. I need to just get 1 MATCHING set of lugs. lol OR 4 new locks and keep the acorns on there. IDK yet. But with fresh drilled/slotted rotors and fresh painted calipers... its gonna be super fresh in there. I am back and forth about the color.. but in order to fix that wheel rash DIY, I need to use a tiny bit of filler and sand. Which means I have to paint. COLOR is a choice I haven't even begun to think about. Opinions are welcome, but keep in mind the rotor will be zinc colored silverish and the calipers red. I might just get a can of matching paint..
Anyone know the paint color code for the 03.5 wheels?
One last one.. this is after the initial spike I get to about 10psi.. It holds here at 8 easily till about 4500 RPM and then it will fade off a little into the 7.5 - 7.0 psi range. Everything else about it feels good though.. so IDK if maybe its the WG starting to think about failing? Either way.. I like seeing 8psi with the mods I've done.
