Man I know the feeling!!!!! My car has been in the shop since Sunday for vandalism repairs and wont be ready until next Friday! Until them I'm having to drive a 99' Brown Taurus and its killing me lol

How Ive been coping: worked 75 hours this week so far lol

 

Got a call from Ford and calls from TWO people at the dealer that the Taurus rotors have arrived and the car should be ready tomorrow. I have to wonder if it actually took a call from the GM or they got there on their own... but the bottom line is that I get my Mustang back. Yay!

 

It's going to be a good Friday because I have confirmation that my car will also be ready tomorrow afternoon!!

So I picked up a rental car today (to take one-way tomorrow to pick up my car, which is almost 2 hours away). What did I end up with? A 2010 Focus SES. It has Sync & Sirius, with the same display as my (non-EP) Mustang. But overall it's a fairly bland car.

INTERESTING NOTE: These seats in the Focus are HORRIBLE! The same idiotic non-adjustable forward tilt to the headrest as the 2011 Mustangs but without the lumbar support!! ARRRRGH!

INSIDE TIP: Here's a rare spy photo of the Test Engineering Manager who approved the design of the Mustang and Focus seats:

 

Bad news – Body shop owner called me this morning to tell me MY CAR WON’T BE READY TODAY AFTER ALL! He said he discovered a hairline crack in one of the headlights during his final inspection (after it was all cleaned up).

- And OF COURSE no one near him has a headlight in stock that he can get today.

- And OF COURSE the shop is closed on Saturday

- And OF COURSE I’d already gotten the rental car to use for the one-way trip to pick up my car.

- And OF COURSE it was going to be sunny this weekend

- And OF COURSE it’s supposed to rain cats-n-dogs again next Monday thru Thursday.

The one spot of good news is that he caught the cracked headlight before I did, and 2) he said he’d gladly keep it indoors until whatever day was sunny enough for me to come get it. Now my fear is getting overspray on my car while it hangs around there day after day – I had a bad experience with that years ago, but not with this guy, who is rather thorough.

 

So the 2010 Ford Focus I got as a rental smelled SO bad (think rotting vomit or pee, or maybe both), I took it back to Enemaprise (who never seems to be able to "pick you up"), and got a Jeep Wrangler "sport" instead. The Jeep smells much better, and I've already unzipped the top & sides!

Anyhoo, one observation: the headrests on this 2010 Jeep are just about as obnoxious as the headrests on the Focus and on my Mustang, and are hard as bricks too (waterproof aspect I guess). Apparently Quasimodo must've approved Jeep's seats too.

 

YAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

FINALLY got my car back today, after 3-1/2 weeks! Final tally was $4900!! UN-figgin-believable. Felt like $50, looked like $500, actually cost nearly $5000!! Stupid expensive venison.

All I can say is that it felt REALLY good to get back in my ride. It looks great and power is once again no problem!

On top of all that, a friend at a machine shop (local to my body shop) fixed my overly aggressive headrest angle. It's barely perceptible to the naked eye, but feels SO much better now. No more Quasimodo!!

Also - I have a second virginal front bumper. Will be buying the Craig no-drill mount tonight.

 

$4900

 

I'm very happy!!! for you.

 

OOPS! Sorry to have exaggerated, was working from memory - the exact total was: $4767.97.

They say memory is the second thing to go, but I can't remember what the first thing is.

 

So much better isnt it


:b anana:




Now what exhaust.........

 

The headrests are angled forward for whiplash, but everyone is a little different, you may have just needed it an inch further back. I actually rather like the stock one. It was a little awkward at first, I was used to my old one, which was leaned back, but after a day I got used to it and kinda liked it. It was about where my head was usually tilted with my old car. I've adjusted the seat a few times since then, mostly because I don't know jack about where I'm supposed to put the lumbar support, and I had to change things a number of times to get my left foot somewhere comfortable (or usable, it took some training to get the muscles to use the clutch with finesse).

 

Man, I gave you a 3-1/2 week head start on selecting "our" mufflers!

I find myself thinking Rousch now. 409 & $399 is a nice combo.

One irritant - I was outside just now applying a new coating of Zaino polish to everything, and I noticed that everything they DIDN'T re-do had a very slight coating of overspray or something on it (most likely body shop dust that got moist with condensation and then dried), including all of the glass. The paint wasn't PERFECTLY smooth as it was before. So I clay-barred the whole thing (including all glass) and applied a new coating of Zaino #2 to everything. I guess when I get done hand-buffing off the polish it will be as good as it can be.

I did notice that the gap between the hood & new fender, while straight, is almost 2x what it used to be (it was darn tight before). Sigh...

 

I fully realize why they are like that - some bureaucrat found some test data indicating that reducing rearward head travel on rear impact MAY reduce the brain slosh energy by a square of the speed (or something like that). All I needed was about another 1/2" to 3/4", which i now have and am good. I am one of those who resents the Feds mandating my safety to that extent. That and reducing my shower flow to squirrel pee flow rates.

 

Glad to see you got it back..any pics of the repairs???

I'll finally be getting mine back on Friday from the body shop...cant wait to see me new paint job!

 

You and Eric should get together and drink a few cold Mol's to celebrate the return of you beloved 5.0's. Now we need to get a few photos of the before and after the accident, otherwise we'll just have to call it a day and close this thread. Are you freakin' kidding me, seriously $4700 for your repairs.
That is a steal.

 

THANKS! I took one photo with my cell phone, but actually there's really nothing to see other than it looks new again, and I posted a bunch of photos in the 2010+ colors/Performance White section back when I first got it. I considered a few changes (C/S Valance, stripes, etc.) but eventually decided to just have it restored to original configuration.

THe only difference is now I don't have a front license plate (YAY!).

After applying one coat of Zaino the paint is once again awesome!

 

The vast majority of flow restricted shower heads use a simple ring inside to reduce water volume. You can usually take the shower head off and pop the ring out before re-installing to restore full water flow. (I sure hope the water police aren't reading this.)

 

Great.

Now get out a drive that beast. Before we have to have your screen name changed to "Garage Queen Sally"


And then get us some after pics

 

Eric, if you want to save some money on your mufflers you could do it the 'Hillbilly' way. Drill several holes in the mufflers

I really did this to a car i had when i was young. I thought it sounded so good LOL!!!

 

How did it feel after the clay bar?