Shiny new toys
So yeah, I roasted a good bit of my year-end bonus (not all of it - yet!) on my new exhaust and matching wheels!!! Yes, I'm that lame that I had to space out my wheel purchases over the course of a year. Odd thing is, I bought all the tires at the same time, good thing the Goodyear place didn't lose them after all this time.
Random stuff:
Exhaust was a bit of a bitch, mostly because I only had one side of the car lifted while I was installing it.
PROS:
- Beautiful craftsmanship, excellent welds, very well assembled.
CONS (nitpicky, but what the hell):
- the provided grade 4.5 hardware for the flange got tossed immediately - I had some spare 8.8 allen heads I used instead.
- header reducer adapter (also from IE) wasn't flanged to accept the donut provided with the exhaust. Some time with a grinder fixed this, but was a bit annoying.
Overall: Worth every penny.
Muffler - man are those welds pretty:
Adapter flange had to be opened up a bit to fit over my Stahl. Some time with a hammer and a punch did the trick. Here it is screwed to my bench while I "persuade" it to fit
Adapter flange and the bracket I modified to hold up the header. This was (close to) how Metric Mechanic does things with the stock exhaust, except that the Stahl hangs about 1" lower and is about 1" thicker than stock. A few new holes, a little bend, a rubber isolating bushing, and a new U-bolt later and volia:
Finished... it was dark outside and the back of my car faces the garage door, sorry for the piss quality:
In showing my center console, I recall someone asking where I'd relocated my hazard switch to. Wonder no more! (Oh yeah, column back together and new MOMO wheel mounted too)
e30 M3 mirror with map lights all wired up and ready:
Carpet is installed, along with all belts but the driver's, no seats but the driver's, and center console minus the shift lever/boot. I also took this time to wire in my speakers in my kickpanels and tweeters in my dash. For those of you about to yell at me for mounting these tweeters here, I drilled these holes in my (totally serious here) near-flawless dash back when I was 15 and didn't know any better. This was also just after sending a very rust-free shell with ANOTHER perfect dash off to the scrapyard. This was also 10 years ago, when prices were lower, but live and learn huh?
Kickpanels were from Bill Williams' group buy. 6.5" are Rockfords, and the huge magnets made spacers necessary. Tweeters are kickers - I've never owned Kicker equipment before, but with Circuit City going out of business, the price was right. Not sure if I like them yet - they're really metallic sounding.
Besides, if you're gonna get mad at me for drilling holes in my car, get mad the ones I sunk into the hood. Nothing like drilling a few 9.5mm holes in your fresh paint. Then again, after the sunvisor debacle, I know all about that... I dunno, I think the results are worth it:
While we're on exterior shots, how about those MATCHING WHEELS huh? Can't wait to see how she looks once the suspension settles down...
I can't think of a segue into this... LED gauges and plate lights! Ooooooh, exciting.
...stay tuned...
Random stuff:
Exhaust was a bit of a bitch, mostly because I only had one side of the car lifted while I was installing it.
PROS:
- Beautiful craftsmanship, excellent welds, very well assembled.
CONS (nitpicky, but what the hell):
- the provided grade 4.5 hardware for the flange got tossed immediately - I had some spare 8.8 allen heads I used instead.
- header reducer adapter (also from IE) wasn't flanged to accept the donut provided with the exhaust. Some time with a grinder fixed this, but was a bit annoying.
Overall: Worth every penny.
Muffler - man are those welds pretty:
Adapter flange had to be opened up a bit to fit over my Stahl. Some time with a hammer and a punch did the trick. Here it is screwed to my bench while I "persuade" it to fit
Adapter flange and the bracket I modified to hold up the header. This was (close to) how Metric Mechanic does things with the stock exhaust, except that the Stahl hangs about 1" lower and is about 1" thicker than stock. A few new holes, a little bend, a rubber isolating bushing, and a new U-bolt later and volia:
Finished... it was dark outside and the back of my car faces the garage door, sorry for the piss quality:
In showing my center console, I recall someone asking where I'd relocated my hazard switch to. Wonder no more! (Oh yeah, column back together and new MOMO wheel mounted too)
e30 M3 mirror with map lights all wired up and ready:
Carpet is installed, along with all belts but the driver's, no seats but the driver's, and center console minus the shift lever/boot. I also took this time to wire in my speakers in my kickpanels and tweeters in my dash. For those of you about to yell at me for mounting these tweeters here, I drilled these holes in my (totally serious here) near-flawless dash back when I was 15 and didn't know any better. This was also just after sending a very rust-free shell with ANOTHER perfect dash off to the scrapyard. This was also 10 years ago, when prices were lower, but live and learn huh?
Kickpanels were from Bill Williams' group buy. 6.5" are Rockfords, and the huge magnets made spacers necessary. Tweeters are kickers - I've never owned Kicker equipment before, but with Circuit City going out of business, the price was right. Not sure if I like them yet - they're really metallic sounding.
Besides, if you're gonna get mad at me for drilling holes in my car, get mad the ones I sunk into the hood. Nothing like drilling a few 9.5mm holes in your fresh paint. Then again, after the sunvisor debacle, I know all about that... I dunno, I think the results are worth it:
While we're on exterior shots, how about those MATCHING WHEELS huh? Can't wait to see how she looks once the suspension settles down...
I can't think of a segue into this... LED gauges and plate lights! Ooooooh, exciting.
...stay tuned...
My god, this car is coming along gorgeously.
Posted by
Anonymous |
February 4, 2009 at 9:16 AM
I hadn't noticed reading through things...has it been started yet?
Posted by
Anonymous |
February 4, 2009 at 10:55 AM