Jazzman442

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Car is Looking Great . Good Job will be a new car soon.

Im with you on the OEM wheels. Factory or nothing. There are very few wheels that will pass the factory specs.

I love to see the wife's get into the ar hobby as well. She's a keeper LOL

GrnT

Your car is looking sexy good. Cudo's to the wife and you on a fine job.

austinkli

Thanks

Thank you sir! I'm getting excited about the car. Her brake pads just came in from American Muscle so this Sunday I'll be teaching her how to replace her brake pads. She can now; change a wheel (had her replace one of the wheels on my car when I bought new wheels), change an alternator, paint calipers, replace a battery, remove corrosion from a battery, and soon shall be able to replace brake pads.

Much appreciated!

austinkli

Need some help guys. What should I use to get this stuff off of my door panel? I want to get the red vinyl put on soon. In the mean time, I need to get this fabric and sticky stuff off of here. It's the backing that was on the factory vinyl.




Here's a few close ups so you can see what I mean about it. It's not just a sticky residue, it's got fibers all over it.

pmbss396

I used rubbing alcohol and a brush, it worked pretty good.

houtex

Yep, they sell these welding brushes in kits of three. Then rubbing alcohol, and elbow grease.

I'd use the brass and nylon ones. Just be careful around that pebble grain...

I also used a wall scrubbing brush with a handle (stiff nylon brush) and also some red scotchguard while I was at it. You might use green though.

austinkli

Well I haven't updated in a bit. Car was out of commission for a bit. Wife took it in to get the new wheels balanced, dropped the car off at work Tuesday last week. I get a call that my cellphone has come in, so I start driving home, and realize I'm cruising on battery power. Alternator is bad.

So car sat in the Publix parking lot for a few days until I went on vacation and could get up there to repair it. Didn't really take any pics of replacing the alternator because well, it's literally 3 bolts, 2 wires, 1 tensioner.







Somebody remarked that my engine bay was disgusting so I decided to finally clean it up a bit. Red clay all over it. The girl that had it lived on a dirt road. I've found this dirt ****ing everywhere!

So I got some of this


And sprayed it all down. Cover up the alternator and coil pack.




I let that sit for a while and moved on to buffing the car.



The goal was to get these parts that looked like somebody took a scratchy pad to the car fixed. I was incredibly amazed by how well the rest of it came out.

Disclaimer: I'm not very good at this. This is like my 3rd time in 10 years buffing a car.






So I took a couple pics of the changes, but it was a little time consuming so not a lot of pics here. Unfortunately some of the most amazing changes, I didn't get before pics on because I didn't expect the scratches to come out.





I was incredibly shocked this came out.


Figured I'd go spray the motor down some more.


All this and more came off my motor


Got the roof




Shining up




This looks like a burn in the paint. Anyway, it's much less noticeable now. Still there, but doesn't jump out at you as bad.



Buffed but not waxed yet


All waxed up. Feels so smooth.







Next on the agenda is to take some "back to black" to the trim pieces.

lowblustang00

Looks great man. I just used a DA polisher for the first time today myself. I now don't know why I ever polished a car without one. :-)

austinkli

Sorry I forgot to post my last update on here. Had some changes.

My windshield looked like someone had stuck sandpaper under the windshield wipers and let it go for an hour. Plus it developed a crack so time to replace the windshield.







New windshield

austinkli

Decided also to work on my headlights. Little more clear.

austinkli

It's coming along




Got some louvers for it. I wanted the MMD style ones, decided to go with the longer 05-14 style louvers.



I like these, intend to get some for the rear windshield as well.


Decided since I'm going to daily this now I should probably get the brake pads replaced, turns out the rotors were shot too. Also ran into some trouble with these piece of crap awful lug nuts. One of them was so unbelievably hard to get off when the cap on it broke, and I ended up putting some dents in my wheels.

Still upset about this piece of ****.






Having a garage is so nice! Didn't know what I was missing out on. Special thanks to my wife who bought me some jack stands for xmas.



Old rotors were so shot


Also, it turns out my old hub cap makes a nice wall decoration.

austinkli

Now let's get back to that hood that we had a sneak peak of. Came off a stang that was in a front end collision. Fortunately my step dad is a master at body work.






Getting started on the front end repairs.








Time to be primered




getting the bottom done


Dat cervini's!


Ready to be painted





Last time it'll see this hood hopefully.





Time to get this thing installed



Turns out the inside of the hood was stripped out a bit, and it was impossible to find a good size bolt.

Had to go with these.


And covered the screw in jb weld to hold the striker bar in.





Hard to get the gap just right, when you have a hood that was in a front end collision and a car that was used as a bumper car by the previous owner.



But we were able to get the fender unbolted and pulled out a bit, and got the gap lined up better.

Gabe

Nice hood but it looks quite out-of-place on a V6 base model car ...

houtex

I like that hood on the V6. Why the heck not? That car is turning out to be quite fun, looks like to me.

Plus... supercharger's next. Watch.

Austin, looks great! Keep up the updatin', man!

hobojack

Foolish remark

stupidgenius36

While I've never been a big fan of that hood, I don't think it looks out of place at all...regardless of the engine or model. Overall, it's looking really good!

What was going on with the original paint on the hood? Is it metallic? Or is that some kind of damage from the wreck? Also, what the hell did you do about the broken lug nut??? Are they even two pieces? The "key" to my wheel locks came apart the other day, and I almost freaked out. I don't know what I would've done with a lug nut like that.

Automatic 5.0

Hood looks great on there!

austinkli

I don't think it looks out of place really. And $12 is the approximate cost of that hood for me. Why not make my car look much more aggressive and replace my crappy hood for $12.

Thank you very much.

Bondo dust all over the hood. It was regular black color at first.

The broken lug nut was the biggest pain in my *** ever. I spent over an hour trying to get one lug nut off. Vice grips, flat head screw drivers, and other sharp object were involved. I basically had to cut as much of the cap out as possible, them ram a smaller socket onto it. I replaced all of my lug nuts and locks.

austinkli

Now I have another fun update!

Got some birthday presents! Thanks to my wife for picking me up a Pypes mid muffler true dual exhaust system! My stepdad for repairing a GT bumper to go with it!

Final pic of the ugly bumper








Had to take the tail light out to get the new bumper to fit in right


But it's on!





And now for the hard part


Cutting off the old exhaust


Good bye nasty old clay covered and rusty exhaust


It fits! Well kinda. Ok actually not at all, this was actually one of the worst fitting exhausts of all time imho.


I'm relatively certain this was me cursing out American Muscle/Pypes for sending me the wrong size exhaust clamps. Had to go to Advanced auto parts to get the right size.



dem mid muffler though...


I don't know who snapped this pic or when, either my mom or wife but a pic of me and my stepdad trying to fit the exhaust in.


Wanted the tip to stick out just enough to notice it, but not enough to be tacky. I think I achieved that. Thoughts?


Finally done

houtex

You are having way too much fun with that ragged ol' beater, Austin.