What Did You Do To Your Car Today?

[k31th]

Unfortunately it's just barely resting on the plastic of the bumper, so the new bumper can't go on until it's adjusted about 5mm to the right... that's ok, should be easy work for someone with a oxygen torch & sledgehammer which I don't have (just a heat-gun and a hammer and some exhaust-wrapping underneath some ratchet straps around a nearby pole for me haha).

 

I know the stock tip doesn't get that hot anyway as it didn't even melt the damaged bumper when sitting on it since the minor damage when driving for hours, but it's paint is rooted in that area now so I obviously don't want that to happen to the new/old-but-re-painted bumper.

[Puffwagon]

Oi I don't wanna be a bad influence but isn't this a sign from the heavens telling you that it's time for a brand new shiny hectic exhaust? Then you just fit it up and away you go

 

What you can do though is chuck a pole down the exhaust so you have a fark off lever to bend it. I'm sure the missus can get under the car and heat it where you tell her to.

[k31th]

Exhaust already has a dump & cat, but stock from there back... I like the sleeper/quieter look and the car doesn't make heaps of power anyway... oh, I had plenty of leverage haha forgot to mention the crowbar... but not enough heat in the right locations is my weak point now. I was clearly doing it by myself with the ratchet straps haha

[Puffwagon]

Sounds like you just need someone to help. Where's all them Melbourne folks at?

 

Or maybe a better blow torch, or two blow torches

[hjtrbo]

@k31th these are good. BROMIC Map-Pro Swivel Brazing Torch Kit 1811648 | Total Tools

[k31th]

cheers for the tip @hjtrbo... the man-cave will get an upgrade eventually for stuff like a welder, torch, bench, etc etc, you know how it is  

[k31th]

On 11/12/2022 at 4:40 PM, k31th said:

Exhaust already has a dump & cat, but stock from there back... I like the sleeper/quieter look and the car doesn't make heaps of power anyway... oh, I had plenty of leverage haha forgot to mention the crowbar... but not enough heat in the right locations is my weak point now. I was clearly doing it by myself with the ratchet straps haha

Following on from this... here's the damage from the "spin" at the snowies cruise... might edit that video together tonight/tomorrow etc.

 

It easily buffed out of the wing and boot where it had a tiny mark (just paint transfer).

 

Obviously I mentioned the exhaust got pushed to the side and the rear bar plastic got cracked near the boot there and also down in the bottom-left.

 

So I got this rear bar 2nd hand at a wrecker:

 

 

Off comes the damaged rear bar and on with the replacement painted one to ensure the positioning is ok:

 

 

 

Here's my attempt with the ratchet strap & heat-gun + crowbar with the new bar on:

 

 

Gave up after moving it about a centimetre... needed more heat... took it to an exhaust shop and voila:

 

 

Good enough The only problem now is the damage to the rear bar broke the plastic clips that hold the rear bar just behind the spare-wheel-well area, so that bit of the bumper is not mounted and looks wobbly...

 

 

 

 

so bought some plastic clips online and that's fixed today, finally:

 

Happy enough with the repaired rear bar, but I chose to go to a different place than the front-bar repainting and they did a shit job in comparison... oh well.

[Puffwagon]

Hey at least you know where to go in future. Looks good man

[k31th]

 

As you can see in the above shot from the Snowies cruise, the rear window tint that was on my car, when I purchased it, was bubbling like crazy on the back and annoying me every time I looked in the rear-view-mirror... plus the tint on the interior windows had some scratches and blemishes that needed fixing... plus the difference in darkness between the front and back was annoying me at night and for my dashcam footage.

 

Finally got around to getting the tint fixed (early February was when I actually got it done). Got rid of all of the old tint and put this new high-quality tint on there done by Twilight Auto Tint in Ringwood

Went with 35% 3M Ceramic IR all around (the old tint was 35% on the front windows and 20% on the rear-side & rear windows). I was always bothered by how the tint was obviously darker at the back than the front... here's how it looked (you can see the bubbling here as well as the obvious darkness difference from back to front):

 

 

And at the tint place with the new tint:

 

And at the gym that same afternoon with nice conditions for photos outside:

 

 

The tint specifications:

 

After a few months of driving around in sunny, high glare situations etc, it's a LOT better performance tint (heat rejection etc) and looks of the car is much more even across the windows.   It even motivates me to clean the windows quite often, which is something I always hate to do as I can barely avoid streaks while cleaning 'em without taking my time and being careful

[Puffwagon]

Much betterer