I am sooooo excited about my car that I am taking the liberty of posting LOTS of pictures so that you guys can see what I did and how it turned out. Here's what I had done:

1. Full buff out and detail by Lustr Auto Detailing This is what Ivan calls his "Light Polish Detail." My car didn't have a lot of deep scratches, but there were a lot of swirl marks that he took out COMPLETELY. You will be able to tell from the mirror-like pictures that I took. Cost $255.

2. Dent Removal - by Dent Magic (the guy didn't have any business cards, but he promised he would email me something.) This guy is a magician. There were 8 or more outdents in my hood. Obviously the PO wasn't careful about what he put in the frunk, and when he pushed the hood down on it, he left outward dents in the hood. This guy removed them ALL, without any damage to the paint, and left me with a hood that looked NEW. Cost $150.

3. Clear Bra installation by Umbra Window Tinting. Well, I thought that I was getting a great deal for $700. It was too great a deal. They insisted that I didn't make it clear how much of the car I wanted covered. Honestly, they ended up covering more than I I had planned, but it was probably the right thing to do. Full front and rear bumper - Full Hood - Full front fenders, both driver and passenger side - Exterior mirrors. Cost $1,000.

So, that being said, here are some pictures. First pictures of the final product, and also pix of the interior.

 

I have, over the many years of my existence, come to realize that the size of a business' facility bears no resemblance to the quality level of their product. Ivan does a fantastic job of detailing. He is a true fanatic. You can see it in the mirror finish of the car. He is currently working out of a 2 car garage behind his house. He's starting to look for a space to house his business in the city. Certainly the location of his business had nothing to do with the quality of his work - as you can see.

larry

 

I don't know if you have ever seen someone do Paintless Dent Removal. This is truly an art. Using a small hammer, and a variety of round tipped tools and bars that he can pry under the metal panel with, they carefully, one small tap at a time, remove just about any dent. If the paint is undamaged by the dent, you will NEVER see where the dent was - if they do it right. When Umbra looked at the hood of my car, they said, "don't you want to remove all of those dents before you pay to have a clear bra put on your hood? Because once the clear bra is in place, you can't do the dent repair."

So, I said yes, send the dude over. I was a bit concerned about the price for the 5 dents I saw - the 11 dents that he saw, but I thought that his price was really reasonable for the quality of the work that he did.

It is really difficult to show a before and after on this, but here's the guy in action.

larry

 

I decided that I wanted to have a full hood coverage. It seems that no matter what part of the car you have covered, you're going to end up with rock chips just over the edge of the bra. So, I decided to cover the entire hood. They needed to order an extra wide piece of film so that they could do the hood seamlessly, so I'll have to go back in a week or two, when they get it in. In the interim, they covered the bottom third of the hood, just to protect it until the other came in.

Here are some pictures of the clear bra installation. They weren't too happy about the black bumper pads on the car. It just made it that much more difficult for them. I thought about having them taken off, but then I was told that you had to remove the entire bumper to get the pads off the front. Not interested in spending a couple of hundred $$ to remove them. Here are the pix.

larry

 

Nice job Larry. FYI-It takes about 10 minutes to remove the front bumper cover. I'll bet those bumperettes come off with one screw once you take the bumper cover off. You could probably get a couple of "bumper plugs" from Eric to fill the holes. It would really help the look of the nose.

 

Tim:

That might be the case, but I'm committed now. Even if it took only 10 minutes to remove the cover, and a few screws to remove the bumper pads, it would cost me plenty to have them recover the entire front bumper. Not worth the expense.

Also, I'm kind of a purist when it comes to things like that. This is the one visual thing that separates the 2001 Turbo from the other years. It is the "badge" that says it's a 2001. So, I really don't mind them being there. call me crazy.

larry

 

Nice hat.

 

I've used painless dent removal on two cars. The way to go for dings.

 

Thanks, Pete, but I wasn't fishing for a compliment on the hat. THE POST WAS ABOUT MY CAR!!! Boy, that was a lot of work to get a nod about my hat. (but I do like that hat a lot.)

larry

 

Larry, I'm sharing your enthusiasm regarding your car. It's nice to see that you ended up with a car that puts a smile on your face and one that you are making even better than when you bought it. Thanks for sharing!

 

Your ride looks fantastic, enjoy putting miles on it!!

 

Wow: Looks fantastic, enjoy it!

 

Larry, looks great. Congrats again on the new ride

 

Love the seat backs,center console and self portrait.

 

Your car looks great! Nice color too.