Had my rear bumper resprayed. Rear a-spec was painted and installed.

Paid 500 for everything, dropped the car on tuesday, picked it up thursday night. There is some light orange peel, I'll give it a good compound and polish in the spring to make it shine a little bit more.

 

Nice - not a bad price too, all things considered. I'm wondering how much a front bumper respray will be come summer ... or I might just go with an 07-08 bumper. Decisions decisions

 

Great job so far Eddie... I wish that I documented the progress on my car... Glad that the waffles worked out for you. Keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing more progress

 

can't wait to see the whole kit finished!

 

Yeah I went with the lowest price I found since the guy was recommended to me by someone I trust. He had the nicest shop too which was surprising. The next lowest price I got was 625$ from an old school looking place. Im happy with what I paid.

Yeah it's pretty nice seeing the (slow) progress going on, I just wish I had more time/money but life gets in the way sometimes

Yeah it's gonna be about time lol, I think I had the rear laying around for over a year, the sides aren't going on before spring too so I wont be enjoying the complete kit for a while

 

cool thread, cool car.

 

where'd u get orange peel at on the bumper? When I had my car respayed I didnt get orange peel on any of the plastic but on one door I did

 

that's all dependent on the painter's technique and product used.

 

Thanks! I'm glad you like it

The orange peel is very, very faint. You can only tell by looking at it from real close or by shining a light at it and watching the reflection. It's not even worth wet sanding it, a good compound and polish should take care of it. There's no way I can get it to show on a picture.

 

You'll be there for a LONG time trying to know orange peel down!
A good painter will try and MATCH factory orange peel, not give you a totally flat surface that'll be obviously better quality than the rest of the car.

Keep on keepin on, man...I look forward to your future updates.

 

I had it on my door and never ever noticed for like the first 2-3 months. I posted a pic of my car on here and J actually pointed out lol. I brought it back to the shop, not sure what they did but its totally gone now

 

my bad, man...I shouldn't have said anything! Ignorance is bliss!

They probably 2K sanded it, then rotary compounded and polished it.

 

nah man im glad you did. I said before I went there that I want NO orange peel or fish eyes or any of that bullshit lol

 

i want to make another trip to montreal

 

You don't think something like menzerna pg1000 or meg's m105 on a yellow pad would make any difference using a DA? Like you said, not trying to get a perfectly smooth surface but simply minimizing the orange peel, it's already pretty mild, you can barely tell.


Sorry for my ignorance, what's this fish eye thing?

Yeah man, some pictures in the snow would be sweet, we could meet halfway or something!!

 

thats fish eye...keep a eye out for solvent pop afterwards too but I doubt you'll have any problems with that. How long did they tell you to wait before waxing?

 

No, I don't think it will make a difference, if you're happy with the orange peel, leave it alone.

Actually, it will make a difference but you'll be compounding with a DA for weeks.
I had some mismatch peel on my trunk after losing my spoiler...I went at it with 2K paper aggressively...then compounded with a rotary multiple times and BARELY knocked it down.

 

I forgot to ask how long the cure time is. I might call him but I figure waiting until spring should let the paint do its thing long enough. Thanks for the fish eye pic, good to know what to look out for.

Wow and I thought I had to watch out not to cut through my clear when compounding with my harsher set ups . I guess I'll just give it the same treatment I'll give the rest of the car when spring comes. Just a good 2 step, might go a little harder on the bumper area. The orange peel is so subtle, I can't even tell for sure if there's more than on the rear quarters.









Cell phone pics, best I can do while at work

 

I was told 3-5 months so spring will be long enough!

 

lets see some daytime pics of the aspec and tail lights!

 

It's already dark now though

 

Yes sir...looking great, Eddie.

 

^^^ +1

 

Springtime we definitely need to all head up to Ottawa or Montreal. And I'll bring an extra tire just in case this time lol

 

id be able to do mtl in july prob lol

 

 

Continuing my original thread in order to have everything in the same place, can a mod change the thread name to : "EddieOnAZ's AM progress thread" please?

I bought this TL at the end of 2016 with a little over 45k miles on it, this is how I got it:


It's a 2006 with manual and navi.

in 2017 and 2018 I pretty much just maintained the car and added some small accessories. Did the timing belt and water pump service in 2018, found matching original floor mats and trunk liner, switched the DRLs to yellow halogens, removed the old crusty clear bra, etc.

What I'm missing before I'm 100% caught up on maintenance:

• Spark plugs (didn't do them when doing the TB and WP since mileage is still very low)
• Brake, clutch and transmission fluids
• LCA bushings

Summer 2019:

I sold my first TL because Canadian winters eventually did their thing and rust was showing in multiple places. It was also an automatic 05 with higher mileage and a slight engine knock so it wasn't worth fixing up.

This car has never seen winter, has a manual and mileage is quite low. As such I plan on keeping it for a while and keeping it very clean and modding it lightly. Ever since I got it I've wanted to check every inch of the car for possible rust and rustproof it. I'm also storing it every winter so that salt doesn't get to it. I removed the inner fenders and rocker panel guards in order to inspect, touch up any chips and rustproof the whole thing. I used Fluidfilm which I find did a very good job.

I focused mainly on the fenders (front and back) since that's where rust often starts. This is what it looked like:


Front wheel well

Side

Rear wheel well

I couldn't really manage to get a good picture of the insides of the fenders. They were just as good as the other pictures above. I didn't have to touch up anything so I went ahead and applied Fluidfilm (after a quick cleaning and drying):





I tried avoiding rubber parts and connectors although I'm sure some product got on them anyway.

All that's left is front and back, under the bumpers. I've already removed them once or twice while working on the car and there's no rust there either so I wasn't in a rush to do those areas. I should probably also get the car higher up in the air to get to the harder to reach areas directly under there.

 

I've been wanting to lower the TL for a while now. As you can see from the previous post the car was at stock ride height for a while.

I went with Tein STechs on Koni yellow shocks. I didn't want coilovers because I only wanted a slightly lower ride height and I found the spring rates of every coilover system was very high. I feared the ride would be too harsh (Montreal roads are trash).

It was my first time installing shocks and springs on any car. I followed some DIYs from members of AZine and the install went pretty smoothly, although I did mess up by breaking something in the back and having to wait days on a replacement part before I could drive the car again.. lol, rookie mistake.




Also, one rear shock was defective and rattled/knocked around when going over bumps at moderate speeds. So I had to reinstall the stock shocks in the rear for now. Doesn't feel too bad but still sucks having to do the rears all over again.



Next up was wheels. I would've liked to find some nice Type S or Aspecs but they're pretty rare and the ones that pop up are often pretty beat up and people are asking high prices for them. I considered going for some Enkeis or other good aftermaket wheels but the options that clear the brembos are limited. I ended up finding some Type S replicas on wheelership.com for 115$ each. The company was responsive and after chatting with a representative I was pretty confident in their product so I ordered them. I also bought some OEM center caps from a local dealership and the color match is spot on. I weighted the wheels before mounting new tires on them and they're right around 22-23 pounds which is in line with OEM Type S wheels. Time will tell if they hold up but for now they survived Montreal potholes just fine. I got some Falken Azenis FK510 to replace the Michelin all seasons that were on the original wheels.




Will need spacers in order for everything to fit nicely with the lower ride height.

Also, I had an issue with the rears where both sides weren't even. Followed a DIY on relaxing the bushings and it fixed everything right up. Thanks AZine.

 

Get yourself some 15F/20R spacers and you'll be set! Looks great.

 

+1 on the spacers. They'll make a big difference!

Good progress so far! Simple and classy

 

Thank you. I see you're a mod, are you able to change the title of my thread?

 

Done

 

Much appreciated, thank you

 

What issue were you having? I feel like my rear passenger side is wider than the drivers side and its been driving me insane not even knowing where to look.

 

Ohh it wasn't a difference in width. The issue I had was ride height being unequal between both sides. I can't think of a reason why width wouldn't be equal from one side to another.

 

make sure you get an alignment after throwing the spacers on

 

Get the alignment as soon as the springs settle...a week maybe.
Spacers don't change a thing for alignment.
Looks great...
I would love this precise project...05-06 aspec clean and anthracite.
that's hot shit.

 

Alignment is done already. Only thing is I have 2 degrees of camber in the front and 2.25 in the back because of the drop.

Also, thank you I shopped around for a while and this car really was perfect for me although arguably slightly overpriced at the time.

 

That's my problem...I'm always at 4 or 5 cars while selling off one or two I can't justify spending much on
ANOTHER car...especially when it's a model I've owned twice before.

2 degrees of camber is perfect...don't bother with camber kits...natural camber is fine as long as your little piggies are pointed straight down the road.