I know that feel

Until i get an apartment/house of my own it will probably stay that way. i just dont have the luxury of a garage to put all my things right now lol. i live in a single right now, and I do have a loft... but its full of tires and even more parts and tools lol

 

Same here. Mine has two spare tires, a fire extinguisher, a chain and some spare heater hose.

 

 

That right there is the dream people

 

My younger cousin helped me make an excellent discovery a few days ago



So even though I haven't installed the X2s or the bumpsteer kit yet (this weekend was my grandmothers year memorial, so there was not much tinker time, and now its finals) I just ordered a bluetooth OBDII adapter so I can run the Torque app on my Nexus7

Got the OBDII adapter, cigarette lighter to USB adapter, and a charging cable for less than $20 shipped. Working with someone on a local board to get a new radio bezel so I don't have to cut my stock one (only cutting small holes for wires, not sure about the mounting method yet..)

The Torque app gives things like accelleration, speed, CEL codes, and real time gauges for various things that the computer normally handles. Can't wait to get this setup up and running. I'm debating also wiring the audio in, but I don't even have any music on my nexus, so I'm not sure its worth it yet lol.

In any case I want to keep the Mach 460 in place now because I don't plan on permanently mounting my nexus. I use it everyday for school and it might be a pain to only be able to use it in the car lol. I'll update with more pics as things arrive and I work on the mounts.

 

I saw another Nexus 7 install in a Ford Escape where they made a slot to sit the Nexus into out of fiberglass, and used magnets to hold that bezel to the stock bezel. Was pretty neat. I'm sure you could find it on Youtube.

 

In other news, I absolutely hate you for making me want a Nexus 7 even more than I did before...

 

this it? cuz thats an edge

but thats actually pretty sweet, especially the super clean and easy install/removal. Magnets might be a better choice than velcro..

 

-_-

I thought it was pretty freaking cool. How hard would it be to make a mount like that now that you actually know how to do fiberglass?

 

not that hard, just time. might look into it when i get that second bezel so i can use it as a mold

plexi and velcro are definitely cheaper though

 

I have the torque app on my crappy phone and a cheapo obd2 bluetooth adapter and just love it. It's cool that you can customize the different gauge styles, sizes and displays to your liking. I also have the "alOBD" app, but haven't figured it all out yet.

 

Bumpsteer kit installed today. That was actually amazingly easy to do. took about 15-20 min each side..

But the balljoints... The removal tool I rented (with a $120 deposit! WTF )was not long enough to actually manage to get the ball joints off. So I decided to give up for the timebeing until another day, only to realize minutes later I can't put it all back together

The nylon lock nut for the lower ball joint just spins the whole stud the moment thhe nylon comes into effect. Luckly the bullitt is parked in a (mostly) warm garage until tomorrow. My plan is to go to home depot or something tomorrow and get two regular non-locking nuts of the same size. That way the first nut can tighten the ball joint down all the way, and the second one can be a lock nut.

I will NOT be keeping it like that; the idea is just to get the car to a state where I can limp to firestone. there, I can just ask them to install my Steeda X2s as well as realign the car anyway.

If anyone has any more input, warnings, advice or if you just want to laugh at Arin for once again taking his front suspension apart and having to leave it that way overnight, its all appreciated.

The help is appreciated more though

In the end I kind of enjoyed the frustration. Today last year at around this time actually is when we found out we lost my grandma. So hanging out with my cousins, working on their IS300 and my bullitt (both the good and the bad) kinda helped us in another way.

and merry (belated) christmas TMS If it weren't for this place, I'd have lost what little sanity I had long long ago

 

Um... tow it? A flatbed might be a good idea instead of jeopardizing yourself/car with that juryrigged system... but hey, I'm way way too conservative when it comes to messin' with high stressed suspension things...

If you've ever seen a '66 Thunderbird's front springs compressed in the car... and the compressor spring rod then bends almost 60 degress from center... and someone has to cut that off so they can get the spring out and recompress it (and those are *serious* springs...)

Yeah, you don't mess with suspensions... but again, that's me.

Good dang luck with that Arin, and be safe! And Merry Holidays back at cha, belatedly!

/They stuffed the wheel well of my car with a bunch of tires, and then someone got on the engine from the other side with a torch, and cut the nut off the rod... PWAANNNGGG....
//They were seriously lucky nobody got killed, and I truly mean that. If you've ever held a compressed car spring in your hands... it is seriously scary stuff. I have... *shudders* It feels like it could escape the compression tool while you are gingerly, slowly, moving it to the back yard away from everyone else, just in case... like a coiled snake... man, I'm gettin' goosebumps...

 

Never had experience with thunderbird springs, but everytime I work on my front end I'm thankful I converted to coilovers. Just makes that whole step easier/safer. What you described is the jankiest thing I've ever heard of lol, glad no one was hurt.

As for the solution, I ended up getting the original lock nut on there (because OSH doesnt have 18mm nuts..) with a few washers. When it comes to my cars I'm usually the biggest chicken in the world. It took a solid 2 hours of sitting in the garage staring at the balljoint before I decided limping to the shop was a plausible choice of action. I'm also saving my AAA tows for a real emergency, as those seem to creep up on me all the **** time. Not ideal at all, but I drove slower than I ever have in my life. 25mph all the way to the firestone...

who wouldn't install my X2s because "we only install our parts because of liability" Went to a smaller, Indian own shop a few blocks down (thanks to my uncle lol) but they recommended this other shop in the area that is much more aftermarket friendly. Only issue is they don't have time til monday, but until then the Bullitt is going to remain parked. Borrowing my dad's 328i for the time being to get back in forth between berk, rwc and work.

On the plus side, my cousin's IS300 looks sick now that some key elements are blacked out lol. Gotta find the positive somewhere

 

So I decided to have a little fun since the Bullitt's parked

 

You do the rear side markers too?

 

It's pretty funny, but as I was taking these pics today, I realized despite all my blackout, I've neglected to do anything to them lol. I still have a lot of that VHT tint I used on the tailights left, gonna go back in there and get em soon.

And unpictured, since it got dark, I did part of the lip of the front bumper. The lower foglight opening area on mine is cracked, broken, chipping and ruined. so to hide some of the flakiness of the paint, I sprayed that as well. The car is still at my cousins place, but he's gonna shoot me some pics tomorrow morning.

I've also started thinking about doing the spokes on the bullitts and possibly stealing Evil_Capri's awesome hood paint scheme If I don't like it I can just tear it all off lol. I also love that over spray just rubs right off.

 

Not bad! I was thinking about doing some flat black on my hood too just for the heck if it but I've never gotten around to it.

 

doooeoeeet

At $6 a can, its probably one of the most satisfying per dollar things I've ever done lol. I'd always just been too afraid I'd screw it up and need to redo, or wouldn't like it. This eliminates those issues entirely lol.

 

My taping skills leave much to be desired, sadly.