Richee3's Progress thread., Wilwood BBK installed. Options

[Tigawoods]

Since somebody busted me out in a Podcast last night *cough* DUSTIN METCALF *cough*, I suppose I can release a second teaser pic as to why I haven't touched this car in over two months.

Check out that shiny coat of fresh black paint. That's fancy!

That friggin JERK!!

You fooled me! I thought it was going to be white!

OR! are you doing the black roof??

This post has been edited by Tigawoods: Jun 23, 2013 - 5:16 PM

[richee3]

That friggin JERK!!

You fooled me! I thought it was going to be white!

OR! are you doing the black roof??

Let's just say if I make it up to the Colt State Park meet, I'd love to borrow some of your time with your camera.

[njccmd2002]

ooh ooh i want to pics too, shiney!!!

[Batman722]

hehe busted.

Purple.

[Celisauras16]

My car is going to look so pretty when it's finished!

[Ted95]

we want more, we want more , like we really like it we want more!

[SwissFerdi]

You fooled me! I thought it was going to be white!

Spoiler alert, look at the edge of the hatch lid and roof, they're visible...

[Tigawoods]

we want more, we want more , like we really like it we want more!

[richee3]

Spoiler alert, look at the edge of the hatch lid and roof, they're visible...

Well the cat's out of the bag now...

ooh ooh i want to pics too, shiney!!!

we want more, we want more , like we really like it we want more!

Ask and you shall receive.

[SwissFerdi]

Sorry to ruin the surprise element, but fantastic choice of scheme.

[Box]

Pandica?

[The_enD]

Moar pics

Love the color combo.

[richee3]

Alright, alright, last one for now.



While the car has been in the body shop, I've picked up a few things. Nothing special, but I'm looking forward to installing them. We had the antenna hole shaved, so we bought a Metra 44-UA200 window mounted antenna, black "GT-FOUR" decals to go on the riser blocks, then we picked up some clear sidemarkers for the front fenders. We have Wolfie clear front turns, so orange OEM sidemarkers would look a little odd and out of place. Then the body shop told us that it would only be $30 to delete the front sidemarkers, the new Ebay sidemarkers cost $25... Needless to say we opted to delete the sidemarkers and will have the clear brand new sidemarkers for sale very soon. We also picked up some JDM door sills from Culp, some LED strips for the footwells, and we're ditching the "I Love Dinosaurs" license plate frame in favor of a TRD license plate frame.




Now for storytime... Took us quite a while longer than we thought it would to save up the cash for the paint job. The guy that owns the body shop is a family friend of Brigette's, so he's giving us an excellent price for all the work he is doing. Once we finally saved up the cash, we made an appointment to drop the car off with him. We paid him the cash, up front, before even handing him the keys to the car. He estimated 3 weeks to get it finished. That was April 7th. Well, two weeks go by and we decide to stop by and check on the car to see how it's coming.... It was still exactly where we parked it. Untouched. Third week goes by, he finally moves it inside the shop. Two months go by, it's sanded, but that's it... Tomorrow will be 3 months to the day. You can see that I'm still missing front fenders, splitters, skirts, mirrors, spoiler, front bumper is painted but can't be installed yet... We had to call the shop Friday to clear some things up, and just politely asked when it might be finished. He said he'll try to have it done by the end of July.... Key word, try. That's nearly 4 months for a simple paint job... We aren't doing anything special or extravagant. Certainly nothing custom or original. I've been extremely patient so far but after being told he'll try to have it done by the end of July, nearly 4 months in the making... Now I'm pissed. I know we're getting a good deal on the work but seriously... I gave him cash up front so he has no out of pocket expenses, he's already been paid for the work... There's no excuse for this. Anyway, moving on...

After the car was at the shop for two weeks, I decided to go pick up my projectors and do the cutoff mod. Talk about being nervous, all I could see was putting a new set of projectors on the credit card if I messed up. Turns out that mod is very simple. We all know how it goes so I'll just leave some pictures here.




I used that fancy Nissan butyl rubber sealant to reseal the headlights. It's very easy to work with and very cheap in the grand scheme of things.




Then I got thirsty. More tea.


Moment of truth...





I didn't get as fancy as other members who used pop rivets. I just went for a few self tapping screws in each one.


Final result.


That's about it for now. I'm keeping an open eye for a set of the JDM rain visors but otherwise, I'll be just about finished with the exterior. It'll be lowered again at some point but I'm in no rush.

[Batman722]

haha reminds me of this



This post has been edited by Batman722: Jul 6, 2013 - 10:08 PM

[Syaoran]

I know how you feel. It took my last body shop to replace a bumper that I brought him, a fender that I brought to him, and paint those around 1 and a half months... a week of work in over 45 days...

[The_enD]

Mine is a daily driver and I can't have her be away for that long. 4 months is just crazy. And that's why I do my own body work. It is not perfect, but it meets my needs and it's cheap, paid just for materials.

I do this all the time. Put it in a bottle, add some sugar and then in the freezer - ice tea.

[Keiri]

Great progress Dan - that tea looks mighty tasty.

Can't wait to see it all together and spiffy lookin'; small question though, did you go with GT-Four decals for the blocks because you'll be running a GT4 front end?

PS: I'll take those clear sidemarkers off your hands when you and the missus are readying to let them go.

[enderswift]

Damn this car is gonna be sexy

[richee3]

haha reminds me of this
(snip)

What seemed to be the issue at hand here? Swapping JDM clear lens onto USDM housing?

I know how you feel. It took my last body shop to replace a bumper that I brought him, a fender that I brought to him, and paint those around 1 and a half months... a week of work in over 45 days...

Wow, really? At least I'm not alone in waiting far too long for a simple job... Fortunately I don't have to pay for the amount of time the car spends there, just for the work performed.

Mine is a daily driver and I can't have her be away for that long. 4 months is just crazy. And that's why I do my own body work. It is not perfect, but it meets my needs and it's cheap, paid just for materials.

I do this all the time. Put it in a bottle, add some sugar and then in the freezer - ice tea.

My original plan was to rent a car for a few weeks while the Celica was getting painted, then last November Brigette and I agreed to buy an SUV to cruise around in winter months, haul the dogs around with, for me to drive back and forth to work (regrettably I do not work in a clean place, nor a sports-car friendly place.) Turns out that buying a third car was a great decision, I would be walking to work by now. I couldn't afford to rent a car for this long. The ice tea is actually a great idea. I've never considered freezing it. That would be great for me to take to work.

Great progress Dan - that tea looks mighty tasty.

Can't wait to see it all together and spiffy lookin'; small question though, did you go with GT-Four decals for the blocks because you'll be running a GT4 front end?

PS: I'll take those clear sidemarkers off your hands when you and the missus are readying to let them go.

The tea was indeed delicious. Or I might have burned it. I don't remember. It's been too long. We actually couldn't care less about having the riser blocks labeled as "GT-Four" riser blocks, nor do we intend to lead people on to believe that this car is more than it actually is. We couldn't decide if we wanted to go for the decals or not, but eventually decided we wanted a small black accent somewhere to complement the roof and license plate bezel. So we didn't buy the decals because they say "GT-Four," but instead because they are simple and black and will hopefully be visually appealing. We put way too much thought into that. The sidemarkers are yours. We just need to pick them up from the body shop.

Damn this car is gonna be sexy

I hope so. My patience for driving a slow SUV that doesn't even have a real transmission is wearing thin. I can't wait to see your car with a set of Enkei's.

[BonzaiCelica]

why don't you get the ss-3 decals for riser blocks?

so all looks good so far. nice choice on color.