I'm trying to post more-or-less in chronological order, mostly from EXIF data on photographs. Exhaust sat in the garage until Christmas when I had time off and inlaws in town to keep my wife from giving me 1000 things to do.

 

If you don't mind me asking, where did you get the all-black grille? I've seen them on ebay and was wondering if that's the source or is an OEM midnight black grille, or did you paint it yourself, etc.

 

Ebay, about $180 shipped if I recall. Came nicely finished, painted not just gloss plastic. Put my emblem on it, it was 100% the same shape as the OEM chromed grill and was installed in maybe 10 minutes.

From what I've seen, the OEM midnight black grill has the uppermost and lowermost horizontals in chrome still. I thought about it, but the goal is a total blackout car.

 

Thanks man that's exactly what I wanted to know.

 

So I had the car aligned after putting on the Coupe 19s. Old alignment:

Spec R L
F Caster 4.3* 4.5*
F Camber -0.7* -0.7*
F Toe 0 -.15*
R Camber -1.6* -1.6*
R Toe -.10* -.10*

New: R L
F Caster 4.3* 4.4*
F Camber -0.7* -0.7*
F Toe 0.05* 0.05*
R Camber -1.3* -1.3*
R Toe 0.15* 0.10*

Still squirrelly as hell. Tramlines and hard steer towards low side when transitioning over anything - road hump, painted lines, literally anything even on smooth pavement. Pretty sure it is front suspention because if I flog it and get weight transfer to the rear it handles fine.

Taking it back in today because it feels like it is seriously toe-out. I printed the FSM spec pages (FSU-23 and RSU-25) to give to the tech but right now I wouldn't let anyone else drive it.

 

So I found a large part of the problem in regards to the alignment.

When I bought the car, it had aftermarket 20s on it with acorn lug nuts - with about 4 threads of engagement, and they were muscled down too tight - I bent my four-way getting them off. I was afraid to use the impact gun as I thought I would break studs. Car came with the oem duckfeet but no oem lug nuts.

Got some Coupe 19s, painted them up, added rubber, time to mount, right? Well I had ordered lug nuts on amazon that were supposed to fit.

First lug nut on right, new ones on left.



The longer ones were bottoming out on the bottom of the lug wells on the wheels, and tightened up OK to the torque spec. But the contact point was just the bottom edge of the shank and the hole in the wheel - let the whole thing wobble and flex under load. The washers were touching the seats but not supporting all the clamping force.

New lug nuts, the shank doesn't go all the way to the bottom of the lug recess so the shank washers are exerting the clamping force, not the edge of the nut. MUCH better handling. Still a little witchy but tolerable until I can get her to someone that doesn't think toe-out is proper for the street.

 

So, March, new job, new income.

Look what shows up at my door...

 

Is that a car mustache for your new job as a Lyft driver? Looks kind of big.

 

But alas poor Betty, t'was not to be.

I think their mold shrank.

 

While dealing with the seller, I went ahead and ordered another one in urethane from another dealer:




The first one is bottom, new one on top. The first one would not even remotely fit on my bumper without cutting it apart, although it was the right general shape.

The second on snaps on like a charm. Need to prime and paint and attach it, but so far I'm much more pleased with this. I'm thinking bumper paint with flex additive and then plastidip to match the wheels.

 

I mean, kinda...

 

LOL. Touché

 

That's the witty repartee I was missing, not being able to internet for pleasure.

I feel like a lot happened in the last two months that I was totally oblivious to.

 

 

So I started work on the front lip. And decided to pull the entire nose off, work on headlights, projector fogs, and eyeball the radiator support airflow openings. Oh and install at least the sender for my oil pressure gauge.