Where do you stop? When to draw the line?

A/C vents were among the worst I've seen, even given the example photos posted here and elsewhere. Now they look better than new! Thanks to www.stickynomore.com Amazing results!

Before and after pics:
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Some of my interior is in amazing shape, given the age... some is, well, not so. Specifically, there was a bit of a tear on the driver seat that was fairly small, but in a spot that made it jump out at you. Also, the "stereo cover" was in seriously sad shape with a number of nicks, dings, and scuffs in it. I pulled the leather off of these pieces and recovered them. The seat came out perfect. The stereo cover, however, was not an exact color match. It's close, but not quite the same. Oddly, now it perfectly matches the center console, rather than the rest of the dash, so aesthetically, it still works. Heck, it is a HUGE improvement over the way it looked before. I wish I had a before pic of it.

There is also a note of a fabricated panel in these pics... more on that next post. Apologies for fuzzy pics.
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When I first got the car, it had ALL KINDS of electrical problems. All the A/C related problems seem to be fixed with the fuse upgrade posted above. Pretty much all the other problems were related to a stereo system installed by a previous owner. HUGE power amp in the front trunk wired directly to the battery. Even when the car was off, the battery was being drained. No wonder it would go flat after 3 days. Anyway, all the stereo wiring was shockingly bad, so I pulled it all out... including the sub-woofer that was down in the passenger foot well. Seriously... do you REALLY need a sub-woofer in a cabin this small? Hell, the only time I've even turned the stereo on is when I'm on a 2 hour plus drive on the interstate. With the wiring corrected, all my electrical problems seem to have disappeared, but this did leave me with the problem of the big hole in the passenger foot well.

I found a piece of scrap that was a wee bit shorter than the original interior panel, but would still extend behind the fuse cover under the passenger's feet, so it would work. It just took some time to cut it to shape, find a matching carpet, cover it, and install. Again, like the stereo cover in the previous post, the color isn't an exact match, but unless you have a spot light on it, I don't think it can be easily noticed.

Oh yeah, also note that the replaced panel had an extension added to make it a bit "taller." This did hide some wiring of the stereo head unit (which is still installed, just sans amp and woofer) so my new fabricated panel retained this extra "height."

Quick pics:
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Painting FINALLY started! The first part to experiment with were the door sills. Yes, that's right... the door sills. Mine were all scuffed up with a few scratches and the quasi-flat black just made them look dull and rather unattractive. I thought I would experiment and see how they looked in a super gloss black to match the rest of the car. They are so reflective, all you can see in the pictures is the junk in the background from the reflections. I'm really curious to see what they look like once re-installed, but I figure if I don't like it, it will be easy enough to revert back to the originally look. Anyway, more pictures:
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Well, it is coming up on 3:00 am here, and I'm hoping to get another extended day at the shop in the morning. Errrr... later this morning. In a few hours, that is. It's the plan, anyway. With that in mind, I'm to get some sleep, but will continue with the picture parade tomorrow evening including: work so far on rear grill conversion, bumpers, headlight buckets, mirrors, and side strakes.

The actually car itself is sitting mostly masked up just outside of the paint booth. Hopefully it gets the treatment early next week. We shall see...

 

Paolo,

I your climate control is giving you ANY issues, I would highly recommend this change. Mine NEVER really worked. At least, in the time that I've had it, which has been almost 2 years. After making this change, it seems to be working consistently. I'll PM you the document that led me to make this change. Please forward to Pap if you think it is valid (if he doesn't already have it. lol). Seriously though... HUGE change. Huge!

 

8 years! Nice! You gogo! I seems that leukemia is one of those things that is never cured, but is either maintainable (acute lymphoblastic?) or not (acute mylologenous?), and managing 55 hours work weeks plus private life sounds like you are more active than me! I know I'm seriously generalizing with ALL vs. AML comments, but there does seem to be a basis there. My father is 71 years old, so my understanding is at that age, almost all cases are acute, rather than chronic. Generalizing, yet again... and from my limited knowledge (but learning fast), chronic forms seem to be more common in "younger" people, that is 35ish or younger? Is this true, or am I misinformed? Again, please forgive me if my information is bad... I'm still seriously trying to educate myself.

 

Car was in reasonable shape to begin with, but for better or for worse, I was hellbent to try and correct all "issues." The issue here: door gills/strakes/scoops.

The paint was in fine shape, but each panel had one small crack in it. I HAD to get these cracks removed. ><

Bodywork underway: (photos below)

These panels have been by far the biggest PITA of the entire project. Gah!
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Ok... I know some in the 348 crowd feel that the slatted rear grill perfectly matched the slatted deck lid and side strakes. While I agree that the OEM grill was a good match, the slats fitting over the tail lights, and the amount of effort to keep that grill "spot free" was driving me nuts. I mean... if I breathed on it, it spotted. So yes, I fell prey to one of the "355" conversions for the tail lights. However, that said, I had to be different from how Husker's 3rd party grill shipped.

Pic 1: Exactly as it arrived.

Pic 2: My very last picture of the OEM tail lights (with slatted grill removed)

Pic 3: The first test fitting of the aftermarket grill (reshaped) into what will be the permanent placement for it. It was felt that the "swoopish/curvy" upper edge clashed against the harsh corners and edges of the rear hood deck lid. Soooo... it was reshaped to match...

Pic 4: Right side (DX side) of the upper edge of the new grill to show the customization.

Pic 5: Left side (SX side) of the same thing...

Pic 6: Lights on the shelf. New grill on the upper shelf, older grill on the lower shelf... it is what it is. Opinions?

Pic 7: Underscores every reason why I want to update rear lights from 348 t0 355... am I wrong?
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The only other thing I seriously got done today was draining the old gearbox oil, and replacing with the premium Redline stuff. For the record, My drain plug appeared in relatively good shape (picture belowe):

Next task: motor oil (not just gear oil). Also, tons of other painting to get done!

 

Here's a shot of my magnetized gearbox plug after draining my gearbox oil earlier today. I'm seriously trying to help out tomorrow's custodians of today's exotics. I say this as I try to maintain the integrity of a Japanese katana dated to 1450. "Yes, it is my responsibility now... but I'm only the current custodian of this blade. Tomorrow is another day."

Ok, pic attached:

Any other kendo/kenjutsu aficionados out there?
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Bah! 3:00 am again. Where does the time go? I SERIOUSLY need some sleep. Off to bed... ni ni all! <3

 

OMG! My back-to-back-to-back post mongering is almost as bad as Pap's! In this thread, anyway... It isn't intentional... really...