Build thread - new paint and body for 220K mile SC400
09-23-11, 06:52 PM
#62
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So Tinypic wouldn't let me upload pics the other night, but I got the car cleared on Wednesday! Four coats, and it's definitely shiny. It's also orange-peely as all hell; the p-sheet said to lay it down slick, but when I adjusted the gun to lay it down that heavy on my test sheets, it ran like crazy. Hopefully I've got enough depth on there to wetsand the living crap out of it, because it's going to need it. Aside from the texture issues, I think it turned out pretty well. Not real happy with my masking lines in the jambs, but I guess that comes with practice. Those will need some touch-up in a big way.
Fender:
Aerial:
Had a little base left over last coat so it went on the hood:
Shiny:
See?
Fender:
Aerial:
Had a little base left over last coat so it went on the hood:
Shiny:
See?
09-25-11, 01:38 PM
#63
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Got some wheels on and dropped the car the other day, and rolled it out of the garage. Was pretty curious to see how it looks in the sun. The orange peel is driving me nuts but I think it'll be swell once I can get it all back together and start wetsanding.
Rolled out:
This cleared out some room for the second iteration of painting. I ended up setting the wing on a trash can for primer, and then ran out of primer before I could get it all done, so it's stashed for now and just the hood, deck and doors are up.
Primed - adios, green door:
Green door? What are you talking about? These doors are red!
I put down my third and fourth coats of base this morning and am planning on spending a couple hours tonight and dropping four coats of clear. Hopefully I get time this week to bolt things back on, at least so everything isn't spread out so much and the car isn't sitting outside. It's a good thing there aren't many people around where I live, because the car has been sitting out with no doors or hood for several days.
Rolled out:
This cleared out some room for the second iteration of painting. I ended up setting the wing on a trash can for primer, and then ran out of primer before I could get it all done, so it's stashed for now and just the hood, deck and doors are up.
Primed - adios, green door:
Green door? What are you talking about? These doors are red!
I put down my third and fourth coats of base this morning and am planning on spending a couple hours tonight and dropping four coats of clear. Hopefully I get time this week to bolt things back on, at least so everything isn't spread out so much and the car isn't sitting outside. It's a good thing there aren't many people around where I live, because the car has been sitting out with no doors or hood for several days.
10-02-11, 01:54 PM
#64
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Made some progress over the last week, although I've been working a lot more so not much happened on weeknights. With the help of my lovely girlfriend, I got all the sheetmetal put back onto the car. Gotta appreciate Lexus engineering - if you've ever bolted a hood on a Fox Mustang, it's an hour job trying to line the damn thing up. This car has self-centering bolts - genius!
So this weekend, like the last several, has been devoted to car stuff. Yesterday I busted out the new bumper cover and got it all cleaned up with soapy water. This is the first step in getting all the mold release crap off/out so the paint can stick.
Brought it in, hit it with SPI Waterborne Wax and Grease Remover, then scuffed it with a grey Scotchbrite pad and did W&G again. Scuffed:
Sanded down the black rear bumper with 220 grit and a red Scotchbrite pad:
Sanded the side extensions and left the (mostly primed) wing alone:
Everything ready:
Note the ghetto front bumper rack. It actually puts it at just the right height and I can get almost everywhere I need to, plus it's very stable. Work with what you have, I say.
Car with sheetmetal!
Parts in epoxy:
And first coat of base!
I've got two coats of base on there right now. Coverage is solid except for two tiny spots on the front bumper that are hard to reach. I'm running a little low on color so I'm not sure what my plan is going to be. I may mix up a tiny bit to spray those spots and then call it good so I can clear the parts tonight. Weather looks good for the first part of this week but it's supposed to rain Thurs/Fri and be kinda coolish next weekend so we'll see what happens.
So this weekend, like the last several, has been devoted to car stuff. Yesterday I busted out the new bumper cover and got it all cleaned up with soapy water. This is the first step in getting all the mold release crap off/out so the paint can stick.
Brought it in, hit it with SPI Waterborne Wax and Grease Remover, then scuffed it with a grey Scotchbrite pad and did W&G again. Scuffed:
Sanded down the black rear bumper with 220 grit and a red Scotchbrite pad:
Sanded the side extensions and left the (mostly primed) wing alone:
Everything ready:
Note the ghetto front bumper rack. It actually puts it at just the right height and I can get almost everywhere I need to, plus it's very stable. Work with what you have, I say.
Car with sheetmetal!
Parts in epoxy:
And first coat of base!
I've got two coats of base on there right now. Coverage is solid except for two tiny spots on the front bumper that are hard to reach. I'm running a little low on color so I'm not sure what my plan is going to be. I may mix up a tiny bit to spray those spots and then call it good so I can clear the parts tonight. Weather looks good for the first part of this week but it's supposed to rain Thurs/Fri and be kinda coolish next weekend so we'll see what happens.
10-02-11, 06:51 PM
#67
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I ended up putting one more coat on this afternoon. Being a n00b, I forgot when I was spraying earlier that I can adjust the fan pattern on the gun. For the third coat, which required getting into some tight spots that I'd missed both times before, I adjusted the fan so that it was shooting just a round circle, basically the smallest fan pattern I could do. Tuned the fluid control to suit and away I went. It was kinda like shooting a little blast of paint into the one spot where I needed it, rather than fanning eight inches of paint all over the place. Definitely helped me get into the nooks and crannies of the front bumper's lower openings, where there was still exposed epoxy. I got a couple small bits on the rear bumper edges and the wing, then widened the fan out again and shot for general coverage until I was out of paint. I'm satisfied with the coverage it has now so I'm gonna go with it.
Worked out tonight so I'm cashed out, and it's getting late enough that I don't want to spend three hours laying down clear and then go to bed at midnight when I need to be up at 0530 tomorrow, so I'm going to plan on shooting clear tomorrow as soon as I get home. I also need to pick up a couple of the attachment pieces for the bumpers and extensions from the Lexus dealer. The front bumper has a little piece that's riveted in that has two studs on it; IIRC, they go into the fender and are nutted in there. Both of my old ones are rusty and have snapped studs, so I need new ones to rivet on before I can install the front cover. The extensions have similar deals that are nutted inside the trunk, and one that attaches the extension to the rear bumper cover, and I need those too. I also need to get the multitude of clips that hold both bumper covers on, since I busted most of mine when I pulled the original covers.
Here in a few days, I'm hoping to be reassembled completely with the exception of door moldings, sideskirts, mirrors and door handles, which will comprise my last batch of items to paint.
Worked out tonight so I'm cashed out, and it's getting late enough that I don't want to spend three hours laying down clear and then go to bed at midnight when I need to be up at 0530 tomorrow, so I'm going to plan on shooting clear tomorrow as soon as I get home. I also need to pick up a couple of the attachment pieces for the bumpers and extensions from the Lexus dealer. The front bumper has a little piece that's riveted in that has two studs on it; IIRC, they go into the fender and are nutted in there. Both of my old ones are rusty and have snapped studs, so I need new ones to rivet on before I can install the front cover. The extensions have similar deals that are nutted inside the trunk, and one that attaches the extension to the rear bumper cover, and I need those too. I also need to get the multitude of clips that hold both bumper covers on, since I busted most of mine when I pulled the original covers.
Here in a few days, I'm hoping to be reassembled completely with the exception of door moldings, sideskirts, mirrors and door handles, which will comprise my last batch of items to paint.
10-10-11, 09:21 PM
#69
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Made some progress over the weekend. 
Last week I went to the Lexus dealer nearest one of my jobsites and ordered up the bulk of what I thought I might need. This included pushpin clips, the metal studded retainers for the side extensions and the front bumper, etc. They came in on Friday so I went in and picked up what I foresaw needing this weekend. I held off on the front bumper retainers, at $30 each, to see if I could fix the broken stud on one of mine. Picked up the side extension stud bits and as many of the pushpins as possible. On the way home, I grabbed a multipack of pop rivets at Home Depot, and I knew I had a rivet gun at home somewhere. Most of the metal pieces with studs on them that retain body plastics to the sheetmetal are riveted onto the plastic piece, and many can be reused from the '92-'96 body to the '97+. I drilled out the rivets for the front bumper retainers and the old side extensions; I could have reused the ones from the rear bumper but my new rear bumper was used so it had them already. However, it was missing the lower retainer for the side extensions, so I had to buy those and rivet them on.
Re-riveted side extension:
Rivets:
The variety pack I got had three lengths in both steel and aluminum. The short aluminum ones are the ones that work best for this application.
The last few times I drove the car, the "Lamp Out" light was lit and I couldn't figure out why. This is the plug from the passenger front marker light, the one in the front bumper.
If anyone has that pigtail lying around, I could really use it. If the wires were longer I could solder them together no problem, but there's just not enough residual wire there.
Saturday afternoon, while it was snowing sideways outside, I was puttering around getting things mounted, and was getting closer to mounting the front bumper. I happened to get a glimpse of something white under the upper intake and when I looked closer, I discovered this:
It's hard to see, but it's mouse bedding. When I calmed down I fashioned a hook out of a piece of stiff wire and jammed the shopvac in there and started raking. I'm not even kidding - I bet I pulled the equivalent of two shredded rolls of toilet paper out of there, if not more. There are still a few bits remaining, but I got it pretty good. Next, I had to prepare for the return of the "residents":
What I found when I got home around 2am:
I've since gotten two more. Little ****ers. I guess the car really does need to be driven again.
The other damage I found:
Not sure yet if I've got enough wire length to solder those ones or if I'll need a new plug pigtail for that one too.
Got up on Sunday and the weather was much nicer, so I headed out and started trying to sort out my retaining brackets.
Really wanted to get the bumper on, and also avoid another trip to the dealer and another thirty bucks spent, so I focused on repairing the broken retainer. One of the studs had snapped off when I was pulling the old bumper, so I first tried beating it out. All this did was distort the hell out of the sheetmetal. Finally got it to the point where I could see the spotwelds holding it in, so I drilled them out and beat on it some more. It did not come out looking very pretty, but I figured I could still make it work.
Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
A little welding action, some angle grinder action, and some flat black spraypaint later:
Can you tell I'm kinda proud of my handiwork there?
Last week I went to the Lexus dealer nearest one of my jobsites and ordered up the bulk of what I thought I might need. This included pushpin clips, the metal studded retainers for the side extensions and the front bumper, etc. They came in on Friday so I went in and picked up what I foresaw needing this weekend. I held off on the front bumper retainers, at $30 each, to see if I could fix the broken stud on one of mine. Picked up the side extension stud bits and as many of the pushpins as possible. On the way home, I grabbed a multipack of pop rivets at Home Depot, and I knew I had a rivet gun at home somewhere. Most of the metal pieces with studs on them that retain body plastics to the sheetmetal are riveted onto the plastic piece, and many can be reused from the '92-'96 body to the '97+. I drilled out the rivets for the front bumper retainers and the old side extensions; I could have reused the ones from the rear bumper but my new rear bumper was used so it had them already. However, it was missing the lower retainer for the side extensions, so I had to buy those and rivet them on. Re-riveted side extension:
Rivets:
The variety pack I got had three lengths in both steel and aluminum. The short aluminum ones are the ones that work best for this application.
The last few times I drove the car, the "Lamp Out" light was lit and I couldn't figure out why. This is the plug from the passenger front marker light, the one in the front bumper.
If anyone has that pigtail lying around, I could really use it. If the wires were longer I could solder them together no problem, but there's just not enough residual wire there.
Saturday afternoon, while it was snowing sideways outside, I was puttering around getting things mounted, and was getting closer to mounting the front bumper. I happened to get a glimpse of something white under the upper intake and when I looked closer, I discovered this:
It's hard to see, but it's mouse bedding. When I calmed down I fashioned a hook out of a piece of stiff wire and jammed the shopvac in there and started raking. I'm not even kidding - I bet I pulled the equivalent of two shredded rolls of toilet paper out of there, if not more. There are still a few bits remaining, but I got it pretty good. Next, I had to prepare for the return of the "residents":
What I found when I got home around 2am:
I've since gotten two more. Little ****ers. I guess the car really does need to be driven again.
The other damage I found:
Not sure yet if I've got enough wire length to solder those ones or if I'll need a new plug pigtail for that one too.
Got up on Sunday and the weather was much nicer, so I headed out and started trying to sort out my retaining brackets.
Really wanted to get the bumper on, and also avoid another trip to the dealer and another thirty bucks spent, so I focused on repairing the broken retainer. One of the studs had snapped off when I was pulling the old bumper, so I first tried beating it out. All this did was distort the hell out of the sheetmetal. Finally got it to the point where I could see the spotwelds holding it in, so I drilled them out and beat on it some more. It did not come out looking very pretty, but I figured I could still make it work.
Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
A little welding action, some angle grinder action, and some flat black spraypaint later:
Can you tell I'm kinda proud of my handiwork there?
10-10-11, 09:22 PM
#70
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All of this nonsense was basically groundwork leading up to the piece de resistance, the focal point of the body swap, the main purpose of this entire venture - the front bumper.
*light shines down from heaven; angelic chorus in background*
Rear bumper is on as well, but it's hard to get decent pics in the cramped, dark garage:
I have a couple of reassembly questions as far as the front bumper and inner fenders go, though. I don't remember from disassembly how this fits together.
Does the lip of the bumper overlap the fender liner? If so, how do the plastic speednuts go on? Seems to me like the speednuts clip onto the fender liner, which then goes behind the bumper lip. The screws can then sandwich the bumper lip between their washers and the speednuts in the fender liner. The holes don't quite line up this way, though, and it doesn't feel like it's snapping together quite right.
Also, I don't have holes aligned under here for pushpins. All of the upper mounting holes are lined up perfectly, and the smaller plastic cover bolts up to the subframe and the bumper perfectly, so it seems to be spaced correctly. However, I can't get any pins through these tabs and into the bumper bar. Is this a vagary of the early body/late bumper combination or do I have something spaced out wrong?
Any tips or wiring plugs/pigtails would be very handy.
*light shines down from heaven; angelic chorus in background*
Rear bumper is on as well, but it's hard to get decent pics in the cramped, dark garage:
I have a couple of reassembly questions as far as the front bumper and inner fenders go, though. I don't remember from disassembly how this fits together.
Does the lip of the bumper overlap the fender liner? If so, how do the plastic speednuts go on? Seems to me like the speednuts clip onto the fender liner, which then goes behind the bumper lip. The screws can then sandwich the bumper lip between their washers and the speednuts in the fender liner. The holes don't quite line up this way, though, and it doesn't feel like it's snapping together quite right.
Also, I don't have holes aligned under here for pushpins. All of the upper mounting holes are lined up perfectly, and the smaller plastic cover bolts up to the subframe and the bumper perfectly, so it seems to be spaced correctly. However, I can't get any pins through these tabs and into the bumper bar. Is this a vagary of the early body/late bumper combination or do I have something spaced out wrong?
Any tips or wiring plugs/pigtails would be very handy.
09-02-12, 03:31 PM
#74
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Back from the dead...
It's been a while since I've updated this; almost a year, in fact. Let's rejoin the tale.
I didn't get a whole lot of work done over the winter; winter is cold, and cold sucks.
Wasn't about to try to paint anything in that crap, even if I'd had the parts to paint, so I got a little bit of wetsanding done and tried to reassemble some stuff. Orange peel has been my nemesis on this whole project. I clearly (ha) need to practice some more on spare parts or something, because so far I haven't been very good at laying the clear down smoothly. I ended up with quite a lot of orange peel in the clearcoat on pretty much the entire car.
The only remedy to this is wetsanding, also called color sanding. A bucket of water with a few drops of dish soap mixed in, a squeegee, a sanding block and lots of sandpaper were my best friends and worst enemies for a good long while. The squeegee helps to get the water off so you can see the texture underneath; you don't want to sand too hard and burn through the clear into the color or primer. DAMHIK.
The wetsanded surfaces are smooth, but the clear still has a bunch of tiny scratches in it and these need to be buffed out.
For this I borrowed a buddy's adjustable-speed Makita rotary buffer and got some foam pads for it. I used Meguiar's compounds in two stages to get the sanding scratches out and then polish the compound scratches out. When you've done all these steps, you realize why you ladled four coats of clear on there initially; you're taking what feels like a lot off the top.
Unfortunately it is easy to take just a little too much off and burn through to color or primer. I've got a few tiny spots where there's white primer showing through, and a couple where it's red but not cleared. Not too bad in the overall picture, but still. Using a rotary buffer can also be a dangerous task, like when you're going along and the edge of the foam pad decides to catch and dig, burning into the clear. I have a couple of those too.
This is not a show-quality car, but to the average observer it looks damned good and even I don't notice the flaws anymore (and that has taken some doing because I've been such a perfectionist on this project lol). Overall, though, it did turn out rather well.
Anyway, after I got the car sanded and buffed, it was time to start reassembly of lights and trim. Those headlights are a ***** to get back in with a new, unstretched bumper cover! Quarter window trims are no easy task, either. But, with those in/on, it was starting to look like a car again.
I had begun this project without even having all the body parts that I needed, and due to lost motivation and lack of funds over the winter, I had not made any further progress on that front. In order to finish the car, I needed to acquire and paint just a few more finishing touches. The new acquisitions were sideskirts and door moldings, and I had to paint the door handles, mirrors and gas door that I already had. I was running low on base coat at this point so I wanted to do all these in one batch so as not to waste paint.
Prepped and ready to go:
White:
Red:
Bein' goofy (paint fumes getting through the respirator?)
Finally, I managed to lay down some glassy-smooth clear, and on no better part than these!
Time to start putting stuff back together. Had to pick up some bits and bobs from the dealer:
Some of the '95 pieces work, but there are a couple spots where you need the '97+ bits:
Side skirt with all clips/studs in place:
25 images per post......
It's been a while since I've updated this; almost a year, in fact. Let's rejoin the tale.
I didn't get a whole lot of work done over the winter; winter is cold, and cold sucks.
Wasn't about to try to paint anything in that crap, even if I'd had the parts to paint, so I got a little bit of wetsanding done and tried to reassemble some stuff. Orange peel has been my nemesis on this whole project. I clearly (ha) need to practice some more on spare parts or something, because so far I haven't been very good at laying the clear down smoothly. I ended up with quite a lot of orange peel in the clearcoat on pretty much the entire car.The only remedy to this is wetsanding, also called color sanding. A bucket of water with a few drops of dish soap mixed in, a squeegee, a sanding block and lots of sandpaper were my best friends and worst enemies for a good long while. The squeegee helps to get the water off so you can see the texture underneath; you don't want to sand too hard and burn through the clear into the color or primer. DAMHIK.
The wetsanded surfaces are smooth, but the clear still has a bunch of tiny scratches in it and these need to be buffed out.
For this I borrowed a buddy's adjustable-speed Makita rotary buffer and got some foam pads for it. I used Meguiar's compounds in two stages to get the sanding scratches out and then polish the compound scratches out. When you've done all these steps, you realize why you ladled four coats of clear on there initially; you're taking what feels like a lot off the top.
Unfortunately it is easy to take just a little too much off and burn through to color or primer. I've got a few tiny spots where there's white primer showing through, and a couple where it's red but not cleared. Not too bad in the overall picture, but still. Using a rotary buffer can also be a dangerous task, like when you're going along and the edge of the foam pad decides to catch and dig, burning into the clear. I have a couple of those too.
This is not a show-quality car, but to the average observer it looks damned good and even I don't notice the flaws anymore (and that has taken some doing because I've been such a perfectionist on this project lol). Overall, though, it did turn out rather well.Anyway, after I got the car sanded and buffed, it was time to start reassembly of lights and trim. Those headlights are a ***** to get back in with a new, unstretched bumper cover! Quarter window trims are no easy task, either. But, with those in/on, it was starting to look like a car again.
I had begun this project without even having all the body parts that I needed, and due to lost motivation and lack of funds over the winter, I had not made any further progress on that front. In order to finish the car, I needed to acquire and paint just a few more finishing touches. The new acquisitions were sideskirts and door moldings, and I had to paint the door handles, mirrors and gas door that I already had. I was running low on base coat at this point so I wanted to do all these in one batch so as not to waste paint.
Prepped and ready to go:
White:
Red:
Bein' goofy (paint fumes getting through the respirator?)
Finally, I managed to lay down some glassy-smooth clear, and on no better part than these!
Time to start putting stuff back together. Had to pick up some bits and bobs from the dealer:
Some of the '95 pieces work, but there are a couple spots where you need the '97+ bits:
Side skirt with all clips/studs in place:
25 images per post......
09-02-12, 03:32 PM
#75
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Swapping clips between door moldings:
Done up and looking legit!
It was time to turn my attentions to the interior, so I cleaned up and fiberglassed the rest of my door panel and put it back in:
Turns out I forgot to plug in the seat position buttons so it's gonna have to come out again at some point
Painted my badges satin black - they're not plugged into the holes all the way yet here so they look like they're floating, but I like the overall look. Beats the hell out of gold.
Now we get to a few months ago.
I took it out of the garage and drove it up the driveway, and realized that the power steering system was pretty fubar'd. Horrible feel and noise when turning, although quiet when stationary. Between that, the rear tires being all jacked up, an overheating issue, and wanting to sell it in favor of another motorcycle, not much happened on the car for a while. Last weekend I decided that I should figure out the power steering so I flushed the system - no difference. I pulled the solenoid and cleaned the (clogged and filthy) screen - big difference. That got me inspired enough to get two new rear tires mounted, the spare put back, ride height set, and a shakedown run planned. I did most of that yesterday morning and headed into town. Within a hundred yards down my dirt road, I figured out two things: one, the power steering wasn't as fixed as I'd hoped, and two, that the rear end was about to fall out from under the car. The whole *** end of the car was swaying and shimmying so badly that I had to actually countersteer to keep the car straight. Figured out quickly that it was massively misaligned from the subframe swap (*cough* two years ago *cough*) so I limped it in for an alignment. Due to my power steering rack being shot to hell they wouldn't align the front, but they got the rear toe (all two degrees each side of it) and negative camber dialed in so I won't wear out these new tires in 500 miles and can track straight down the road.
Getting gas in town for the first time in over two years. Did I mention I lived on a dirt road?
Headed to the car wash after gas and alignment. Sprayed down the engine bay and rinsed the dust off the car, shined up the tires and went across the road for some quick pics. It's been a long time since I've taken pictures of cars, so forgive me for the crappy composition and lousy phone pics. Plus, due to the steering being hard and loud as hell, I didn't exactly want to move the car a bunch of times.
After that I headed into Denver to meet up with a guy for a couple of SC parts, got food, etc., and ended up doing about 140 miles total. Not bad for literally the first time the car has left my driveway in two years. The power steering is completely shot and the rack will definitely need to be replaced, and I'm going to put mufflers back on it due to the drone and redneck cackle of the open X-pipe, but aside from that it seems to be in fairly decent shape. I almost want to keep it now.
So now is the dilemma - keep it and do stuff to it now that I can actually drive it and it looks pretty, or sell it so I can buy another bike? I'm looking hard at the '08-'10 Buell XB12X Ulysses, which is essentially a sportbike with a comfy riding position that can handle mild offroad (like my road) and carry some luggage (which I need if I'm going to be able to commute or make useful errands from home). After yesterday I'm half tempted to slap a rack and pinion and a radiator (oh yeah, it gets hot at a standstill) in the car, drive it on weekends and occasionally to work, and look for some wheels, redo tint, maybe a mild system, etc. But, I'll have to wash it every time I even leave my house if I want it even halfway clean, and it doesn't get the kind of mileage I'm looking for from a bike, nor is it nearly as fun as being on two wheels. I think I'd use the bike a lot more than I will the car. Decisions, decisions.
Done up and looking legit!
It was time to turn my attentions to the interior, so I cleaned up and fiberglassed the rest of my door panel and put it back in:
Turns out I forgot to plug in the seat position buttons so it's gonna have to come out again at some point
Painted my badges satin black - they're not plugged into the holes all the way yet here so they look like they're floating, but I like the overall look. Beats the hell out of gold.
Now we get to a few months ago.
I took it out of the garage and drove it up the driveway, and realized that the power steering system was pretty fubar'd. Horrible feel and noise when turning, although quiet when stationary. Between that, the rear tires being all jacked up, an overheating issue, and wanting to sell it in favor of another motorcycle, not much happened on the car for a while. Last weekend I decided that I should figure out the power steering so I flushed the system - no difference. I pulled the solenoid and cleaned the (clogged and filthy) screen - big difference. That got me inspired enough to get two new rear tires mounted, the spare put back, ride height set, and a shakedown run planned. I did most of that yesterday morning and headed into town. Within a hundred yards down my dirt road, I figured out two things: one, the power steering wasn't as fixed as I'd hoped, and two, that the rear end was about to fall out from under the car. The whole *** end of the car was swaying and shimmying so badly that I had to actually countersteer to keep the car straight. Figured out quickly that it was massively misaligned from the subframe swap (*cough* two years ago *cough*) so I limped it in for an alignment. Due to my power steering rack being shot to hell they wouldn't align the front, but they got the rear toe (all two degrees each side of it) and negative camber dialed in so I won't wear out these new tires in 500 miles and can track straight down the road.
Getting gas in town for the first time in over two years. Did I mention I lived on a dirt road?
Headed to the car wash after gas and alignment. Sprayed down the engine bay and rinsed the dust off the car, shined up the tires and went across the road for some quick pics. It's been a long time since I've taken pictures of cars, so forgive me for the crappy composition and lousy phone pics. Plus, due to the steering being hard and loud as hell, I didn't exactly want to move the car a bunch of times.
After that I headed into Denver to meet up with a guy for a couple of SC parts, got food, etc., and ended up doing about 140 miles total. Not bad for literally the first time the car has left my driveway in two years. The power steering is completely shot and the rack will definitely need to be replaced, and I'm going to put mufflers back on it due to the drone and redneck cackle of the open X-pipe, but aside from that it seems to be in fairly decent shape. I almost want to keep it now.
So now is the dilemma - keep it and do stuff to it now that I can actually drive it and it looks pretty, or sell it so I can buy another bike? I'm looking hard at the '08-'10 Buell XB12X Ulysses, which is essentially a sportbike with a comfy riding position that can handle mild offroad (like my road) and carry some luggage (which I need if I'm going to be able to commute or make useful errands from home). After yesterday I'm half tempted to slap a rack and pinion and a radiator (oh yeah, it gets hot at a standstill) in the car, drive it on weekends and occasionally to work, and look for some wheels, redo tint, maybe a mild system, etc. But, I'll have to wash it every time I even leave my house if I want it even halfway clean, and it doesn't get the kind of mileage I'm looking for from a bike, nor is it nearly as fun as being on two wheels. I think I'd use the bike a lot more than I will the car. Decisions, decisions.