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It's been long overdue, but I finally put around 6-7 hours into the ETH FO's paint. A buddy of mine does detail on the side and we split the work after he showed me some pointers.
Honestly, the paint didn't need much. Definitely had some light swirls but it didn't even need a claybar .. Keeping the car garaged has certainly helped a LOT.
Washed:
This is a untouched fender - some swirls, but nothing crazy.
I'm trying to get the product list we used, but this is after a 5 minute pass .
It's literally like glass.
At this point, bumpers were the only thing left .... next is a pass with some polish
Complete - paint POPS in the sun and has a lot more depth ... I would say the color changed a tad especially in the shade:
Also attended Big Socal Euro the next day and ran into my twin. My buddy's car is so clean .. it hurts. Full nogaro alcantara interior, custom laser etched metal shift surround, 104,000 miles, BW K04 turbos .. not a single connector out of place
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Also, I am trading up my current intercoolers to the best on the market for an additional 100 bucks.
Here's a pic of them installed ... they're big MFs
Easy application and worked great with microfiber pads. You really don't need much product ... prime the pad with a decent layer and add occasional touch ups:
Polish:
This stuff was icing on the cake .. brings a lot of depth & gloss back into the paint:
I didn't bother doing a ceramic coat since the car is garaged most of the time .... I think I can make this detail last another 6 months / 1 year.
I need to get the VeeDub done before winter hits...will probably do Wrangler too. Wife doesn't GAF about the Subaru.
I didn't bother adding any additional sealing considering the CarPro Essence adds a layer of SiO2 Quartz protection. The best protection? No ... but considering how often the paint is touched it'll do just fine.
If the car sat outside and wasn't garaged, I'd be more inclined to seal it and maybe ceramic coat.
Originally Posted by rockstar143
I'll recommend throwing on some Meguars Gold Class...polymer with a touch of carnuba to feed the paint.
back to basics.
Looks so hot, Tyler...makes you fall in love all over again!
Noted - I think I will add a layer of wax once the protectant starts running a bit thin.
Maybe you don't need it...
what made me reconsider is that I was parked right next to this buddy of mine's Rio with like 40K miles and his paint looked fucking wet and DEEP rich yellow.
I was like man...I guess it was sun fade over the years. Then he tells me that he put a bunch of gold class on it. That reminded me because before power tools and megs I did Zaino and before that
I did gold class. I still remember the first time I put it on the black TL...my ex stepdad used to get that thing waxed once a month and I could instantly see depth in the black paint when I applied. I found
an old crusty bottle in my stash and threw some on the Odyssey and J was like wow...it looks like a fresh paintjob. Decided to do the Audi with it too and holy shit...50/50 comparison on the hood and it
was DARK burnt orange in contrast to almost a hazy superficial orange. I was like what the fuck...I had been doing wolfgang religiously on it...I couldn't believe that keeping it simple might be the answer.
Anyway...goes on easy and comes off easy in full sun even...I plan to maybe do polymer for the protection and alternate to the Gold Class every other time or something.
Finally got my intercoolers fitted - I'm at the home stretch of the install but ran out of time
AC Drier relocation - had to drill out 4 rivets to remove the bulky OEM bracket. Doesn't sound too bad, but trying to fit a drill in between the frame rail, core support, AND moving the AC drier to the side was a pain in the ass.
0/10 would not do again.
Big MFs:
Size comparison vs my existing Wagner ICs.
There's a guy who's on AudiZine who does flow bench testing and compiled these results - he hasn't done a test on the V3 but apparently they're a tad bigger / flow a bit better than the V2s.
As you can see in the test, the Wagners flow less and have a higher temperature delta between pulls.
From what I've read, more flow = faster spool ... all turbo cars appreciate lower IATs!
Work area:
Quickly test fitted:
I should have the install wrapped up this week. I also found a 034 Carbon Fiber heatshield that will work perfectly with my intake setup which should keep most of the exhaust manifold heat out of the air filter.
I'm hoping to see at least a 20-30 degree drop in intake air temperatures with this new setup, I'll definitely post logs when the car is up and running again.
I love quiet clean work like that...alone in the garage.
Curious, hows that floor feel on your legs or ass after
sitting for a bit? I actually use a sacrificial wool blanket to put
down before laying in the driveway...amazing what being
comfy does to clear your mind to tackle an issue.
I love quiet clean work like that...alone in the garage.
Curious, hows that floor feel on your legs or ass after
sitting for a bit? I actually use a sacrificial wool blanket to put
down before laying in the driveway...amazing what being
comfy does to clear your mind to tackle an issue.
If you're on your knees ( ) it's not comfortable at all, but laying down and sitting isn't terrible .. maybe I'm just big boned
Once it comes time to pull the motor again, I am definitely removing a 14'x20' section ... the flooring traps oil / fluids and it would make clean up a nightmare for a job like that.
How difficult is to pull a tile? Do you start at the edges and work your way in? I'm thinking about tiling my garage once I make the FR-S disappear. I'd epoxy it but really don't want to deal with hot tire pick up. Plus the tiles look cool.
How difficult is to pull a tile? Do you start at the edges and work your way in? I'm thinking about tiling my garage once I make the FR-S disappear. I'd epoxy it but really don't want to deal with hot tire pick up. Plus the tiles look cool.
Yup - They snap together and pull apart pretty easily .. no real technique is involved. We have around 15-20sqft left of all the different colors so in case any of them crack I can swap them out.
They are very durable but do not play nicely with jack stands. In my experience, will take the load of a jack for short periods of time. I'd recommend getting 4x8 3/4" piece of plywood and stripping it into various squares / rectangular shapes - it will save the flooring quite a bit of abuse.
If you prep the floor properly and buy a solvent based epoxy you won't deal with hot tire pickup. Shit, even having it done professionally might not
be that pricey. If I were to do it all over again (and have a garage to do it in) I would have rented an industrial floor grinder to prep instead of relying
on acid. The only thing that I didn't like worry about about the jack rolling across it with a car on it but again...my floor had a dusting on it that didn't
allow great adhesion.
A shiny but gritty epoxy is still my favorite...clean up of oil is literally 1BT/VAG (D) (read: one bounty tile for the entire German car parked on it per day.)
Yeah my floor would need to be diamond ground, and renting the grinder is about $150 for 24 hours. The epoxy that I was looking at was going to run about $900 not including rollers and shit like that, it took three passes for a solid coating, and required 7 days of dry time in ideally 70* temps with low humidity before you could drive on it or put anything on it (it wasn't Home Depot or Lowes stuff, it was about three times as thick once cured). Epoxy looks sweet and cleans up really well, but with all the prep and the possibility of things going wrong during the steps...it just isn't worth it for me. I'll spend $300 more to limit any complications and still end up with a "pretty" garage, even if that means I need to lift a tile to clean up any spills that may occur.
Oh, and the big reason I'm looking at the same stuff Tyler has is that it's vented. So when it's raining or snowing here, and we drive onto it, the water will fall under the tile so you won't slip on it (which has happened to me on the bare floor). You can add grit to epoxy to limit that chance, but grit doesn't look as cool.
Install is finished. From start to finish, I would say it took around 4-5 hours.
The AC Drier bracket was definitely one of the bigger pains.
Next up was trimming the core support - I have a nice Makita grinder and it cut through it like butter:
Passenger side:
Drivers side:
Passenger side in - headlights barely clear
Passenger side was very easy to fit - coupler worked like a charm.
Driverside on the other hand ... I wanted to scream
Such a pain in the ass - the OEM Bi-Pipe design are plastic and attached to a silicon boot .. makes for easy adjustment.
Since I have a metal single piece pipe, there was no give and it put the coupler at an awkward angle. You guessed it, intercooler didn't move much either ...
After some hairspray / elbow grease, finally got it on.
Complete:
I did one quick pull and the car felt pretty brisk last night ... I'll put the bumper on and do some 3rd / 4th gear logging once I get my heatshield.
Yeah my floor would need to be diamond ground, and renting the grinder is about $150 for 24 hours. The epoxy that I was looking at was going to run about $900 not including rollers and shit like that, it took three passes for a solid coating, and required 7 days of dry time in ideally 70* temps with low humidity before you could drive on it or put anything on it (it wasn't Home Depot or Lowes stuff, it was about three times as thick once cured). Epoxy looks sweet and cleans up really well, but with all the prep and the possibility of things going wrong during the steps...it just isn't worth it for me. I'll spend $300 more to limit any complications and still end up with a "pretty" garage, even if that means I need to lift a tile to clean up any spills that may occur.
Oh, and the big reason I'm looking at the same stuff Tyler has is that it's vented. So when it's raining or snowing here, and we drive onto it, the water will fall under the tile so you won't slip on it (which has happened to me on the bare floor). You can add grit to epoxy to limit that chance, but grit doesn't look as cool.
One thing I've noticed ... the floors are GREAT at trapping debris ... but they're also really good at hiding it lol.
If it's raining / winter, it'll easily melt through and the floors provide decent grip. Oil on the other hand ... the floors can get slippery.
Neither of the cars leak any oil at the moment, and if I'm doing work, I'll probably put down a sheet of cardboard, like I do now - but that's good info!
The car looks great though! Sucks that the coupler fought you but fingers are crossed it doesn't blow off. Were the old coolers that much smaller that they lined up without issue?
Neither of the cars leak any oil at the moment, and if I'm doing work, I'll probably put down a sheet of cardboard, like I do now - but that's good info!
The car looks great though! Sucks that the coupler fought you but fingers are crossed it doesn't blow off. Were the old coolers that much smaller that they lined up without issue?
Cardboard is a good idea - you can still do oil changes over the flooring but, once you spill once .. you'll learn real quick to be careful
Yeah - these things are gigantic ... one thing about my old intercoolers is the fitment was much better and utilized the OEM hoses. Fit like a dream.
I looked at some logs back in June and I want to say the ambient temperatures were around the same judging by the cruising temps. I allowed for a bit more recovery time than I anticipated .. only way I can really explain the 2nd pull being lower temperature than the 1st is because my car was sitting for maybe 2-3 minutes getting my laptop setup.
As far as performance goes, it knocked a few tenths off my 60mph-90mph times, but my boost oscillation / idle seems a bit messed up. I don't know if it needs to be adjusted in the tune or perhaps I have a very tiny boost leak...
Either way, I am ecstatic. My car went from sucking in 140F IATs to just barely touching 112F.
My heatshield arrives on Wednesday and I'll see if it makes any difference .. hopefully the small issues are addressed by then.
I would assume I would wait until my warranty period ends? Or would the mothership be fine with this?
Generally speaking, Piggybacks operate in-line with your ECU ... to my knowledge, it doesn't really qualify as a "flash". Then again, newer cars are getting clever and maybe could detect it over time?
I would take a look through that thread .. I'm sure warranty was brought up.
In addition to that, it solved other issues I've noticed that the car has developed over the last 3-4 months, some longer
My brake booster hose was loose - clamp was tight, but the plastic straw / hose wasn't pushed in and eventually backed itself out causing some unmetered air coming in. I don't think vacuum has improved any (held -20hg prior), but things I've noticed that are improved / fixed all together:
- No more misfires at idle - would happen on random cylinders .. not frequent enough for me to pull a fuel rail / inspect injectors.
- Idle holds steady
- AFR bounces between 14.5-14.9 .. used to be 13.9-15.6 in some cases.
- Fom what I can gather, boost comes in 200rpm earlier. Intercoolers may have an effect on this.
- Rear calipers are no longer dragging and brake pedal is much firmer than what it was before.
- Boost oscillation seems to be improved. Usually, my boost will touch 26-27PSI and come down to 24 and move back up to 25 - I did a few pulls from 60 and it held 25psi to the line. We will see how it does on a log.
It's been hot as hell lately so hopefully I can take it out tonight / tomorrow for runs and compare data.
Thanks for reading a man in his 30s keeping a 20 year old turd healthy.
08-19-2019, 10:31 PM
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) it's not comfortable at all, but laying down and sitting isn't terrible .. maybe I'm just big boned 
and 
has a piggyback on his 6GC, not sure if he's had any svc issues with it, or if he just pulls it off before going in?
