I've owned her for about 3 years now. When i first bought her, she was in horrible shape. Being a full time college student, i didn't have the extra funds to give her a beauty change but simply a step by step remodel is what i can give her. She had horrible paint and the interior is like a dump. Cd player did not work at all, missing parts here and there.

My main goals right now is having a good/reliable motor and work on the exterior of the car. Once i get that done i will start on the interior. I had the timing belt, water pump, tune up done on her when she had about 200,000 miles. She is currently at 248,xxx.

I don't have any pics of her when i first got her but these will do.

Starting her for a paint job. A lot of sanding. I didn't know it involved this much sanding over and over again. Paint on her was so horrible so i decided to prime the whole car. It will involve two layers of prime, 2 layers of paint, and 2 layers of clear with metallic pearl in the clear coat.









Masking her.





She getting Primed.







This is just the rear end with a single coat of primer.



At this point, the painter backed out of the job so i got screwed. I'm now looking for a body shop that will finish up the job. I have all the supplies, paint, thinner, activator, etc. Pretty much all they gotta do is supply the labor. lol easier said than done.

While in the search for a shop that will do the paint job, i started with changing out little things.

Changed out the coolant temp. sensor (btw i haven't notice any difference in gas mileage) and transmission mount. These are the old parts, new parts were already installed before i could do a compare.







I got a set of eagle eyes. purchased from lilcelsior. They got damaged from shipping but i'm not too worried about it since it still could have been installed.

Test Fit



I changed out her tint job as well. the last owner did not take of it at all (my uncle). Tint was purple with the back windshield bubbling. I spent a good whole week to remove the tint. I started with the windows then windsheild. I didn't take any pictures because it was just a pita to do. I used a steamer which helped removing the tint a little. I then took it to a shop and had them tint 20% all the way around except for front windshield.

This is what she looks like today.













Im currently changing out all of the leds. Those pics coming soon.

 

good start so far, good luck with the search for a painter.

 

Nice! I'd even consider painting hert yourself at this point. All the hard work is done.

 

nice work, but it would haven been worth it to remove the emblems before priming eh? i say paint it yourself if you have all the necessary goods. worst case is to take it to a one-day paint place, and i've seen decent work come out of them before. of course the saying applies "you get what you pay for". good luck.

 

Looks really good. you should shave off the emblems or paint them black. either way, i cant wait to see how it turns out.

 

i think you dodged a bullet when your painter left. i mean seriously; headlights, tail lights, bumper lights, grill... not taking that stuff off is just being lazy.

 

good primer job what color r u planning on doing it up with?

 

I agree.. having done autobody for a few years, that was one of the first things taught. Anything that you don't want painted, don't just mask it. If it can come off, take it off! I'm gona paint my car myself the first time, second time ima have a pro with a downdraft spray booth do it.. second time will be after she has the Junction Produce wide body kit. Untill then, my skills are enough.

 

update: I found a body shop that will paint the car. They will finish the car for $500 so I'll just drop it off. I believe it'll be another layer of primer, 2 layer of paint, 2 layer of clear with pearl flakes in them.

my shocks finally gave up at 250k. I'm going to have to pick up a set of coilovers. Most likely the Megan ez , how long do you think they'll last? I have a friend that is a mechanic but how hard do you guys think it'll be to install them? Are they straight forward as in just taking out the old ones and putting the new ones in? How about dialing them in as well? Sorry for the questions but I'm very new to coilovers and wheels.

 

Someone did a write up for the fronts, and someone did a write up for the rears. Off the top of my head removing the upper control arm from the front knuckle is the biggest pain in the front.

The cover behind the rear seats needs to be raised or removed to get to the upper nuts on the rears. The official way involves removing the axles but there's just enough room to get them out without removing them if you get a little creative. I think the end looks on the stabilizer bar had to come out.

My coilovers are shorter than OEM and went right in place.

 

UPDATE: I finally got the car painted. It turned out a little better than i expected because it was a cheap paint job. What i need to do now is wet sand the paint and then buff it to get the orange peels out. Any recommendations on wetsanding and buffing?

I got hooked up with a buddy that is sponsored by BC Racing so hes getting me a set of coilovers installed for 1100, I think its not that bad of a deal.

Here she is as of today.

 

dont you need the front licence plate to drive in US?

 

Nice progress man! It's gonna look great on coils!! Keep up the good work.

 

Looks good although it could use some new badges in the back.

 

Only in certain states. It doesn't require one where i live at.

Thanks. I will update as soon as i get them installed. It sucks living in alabama, having to drive to atlanta to get anything done. I can get it done here too but they always charge you an arm and leg for any work done.

Thanks bro. Don't worry i'm going to change out the badges once i get all the big things done first. The badges were faded so i told them to paint them too for the time being. I'm wondering if i can get those chrome strips on ebay and replace the faded ones i have on there now. The ones that run around the whole car.