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I spent the last few weeks putting my car through a minor makeover. It took much longer than necessary because I work 60-80 hours a week, so I really can only work on my car (and/or transport my car between shops) on weekends. So if I need to leave my car at a shop for 2 days, I actually have to leave it at the shop from Saturday to Saturday. In any case, here are some pics, followed by an explanation on what all was done.
1) KI Studios stripes, applied by Exotic Vehicle Wraps in VA; went with matte black, w/ red accents, to match the brakes. My old car was red, w/ black accents. So, I guess I like that general color palette. Exotic Vehicle Wraps was great to work with. I left my car with them for one and a half weeks, and I was paranoid the whole time; but Tami from their team sent me texts along the way with pics. They made a minor mod to the stripe at my request, to make sure the red accent reached all the way to vent. I highly recommend this shop if you’re in the DMV area; great experience, friendly and attentive service.
2) 19” Forgeline GS1R + RE-71R (265/35 + 285/35); tires mounted and balanced by my local shop (Radial Tire), owned by my friend Paul Moorcones who races and is heavily involved in PCA. Got a red pinstripe on them to tie the theme together. I found out that Forgeline uses “1Shot” paint to do the pin striping, and they have 3 shades of red that seem like true reds. They suggested I go with “Bright Red”, but I was paranoid/OCD, so I went to my local art store to see the 1Shot reds first hand. I compared to the red on the stripes (Avery Dennison Fire Red) and the red on the brake calipers (supposedly Guards Red, but debated by folks), and lo and behold, 1Shot’s Bright Red was a near-perfect match.
3) 3M Crystalline Tint (50% sides/rear, 90% front), applied by Sunshine Control in VA. You can’t see the 90% in front, yet it magically still blocks 90% of all heat transfer, so hey! Sunshine Control did a great job; hand cut.
4) Topped everything (including wheels) off with a Ceramic Pro “Silver” coating, applied by Exotic Vehicle Wraps in VA. Should make it much easier to keep this thing clean. I live in a condo building, and park in a garage under my building, so it’s kind of an event if I want to do a full wash (i.e. I can’t wash my car every weekend). This gave a bit of a deeper look to the matte black stripes. I was worried the matte black stripe wouldn’t look good afterwards, but in the end, I like the black slightly more after the coating, but it's not a big difference. I can post a before and after, if any one cares.
5) MSI wheel studs, purchased from Wray @BGB Motorsports . Should also make my life easier, as the track season has officially started. Also, I think the studs look really nice on Forgeline’s open lug layout. Also, Wray is an extra helpful guy for anything related to these cars; really high class guy.
6) OMP GT4 Clubsport tow straps from BGB.
7) Sold my grey-stitched 18-way sofas (to an RL member) and purchased red-stitched LWBS (from @911therapy ). It’s pretty challenging to find LWBS aftermarket at a palatable price, and the ones I found had red stitching; I was a little worried about the red-stitching contrast, but after I decided on the red accents for the exterior, I thought it would work out OK. You can be the judge!
8) Bought @Crazy Eddie's Bespoke Auto 's LWBS Bolster protectors…in grey stitching. The color decision here was more because a fellow RL member was selling them NIB at a discount, but in the end, I was pleased with the result, as it served as a bridge between the red stitching on the seats and the grey stitching on the doors.
Coming soon:
9) In the next week or so, I’m off to my local friends @ ASG (Auto SportServices Group) to install front camber plates + rear toe links + 2.5/2.0 camber.
10) Schroth 6 point harnesses + Brey Krause R-1046 shoulder mounts. I tried long and hard to find silver harnesses to match my factory belts, but they discontinued those a year or two ago. After many phones calls to vendors and messages to RL members, @Mech33 finally put me onto HMS. Brady from HMS was very knowledgeable, and was able to custom order the silver ones directly from Schroth. Looking forward to installing these.
11) Musicar’s Stage 2 audio upgrade (ordered from @12v Nick , which upgrades the Sound Package Plus (base audio for GT4s) by replacing the amp, dsp, and tweeters. Maybe content for another post soon.
After that, I think I’m done with modifying the car for the year, depending on how the HPDEs pan out. Also, I’d like to get more comfortable with the car before adding any power (or making the car rev faster ).
I’d like to give a big shout out and thank you to @benben01 , who was the first person I met via RL, and asides from becoming a good friend, helped me with a lot of the above, including installing my seats and wheel studs, and was a sounding board for my mindless mod contemplation.
Looks great Anu - and I think the seats with red stitching look awesome (of course, I might be a bit biased)!
The entire package is really exotic looking - thats might only complaint with my GT4...its a bit too pedestrian. I need to find a stripe package that works as well as yours.
Looks great Anu - and I think the seats with red stitching look awesome (of course, I might be a bit biased)!
The entire package is really exotic looking - thats might only complaint with my GT4...its a bit too pedestrian. I need to find a stripe package that works as well as yours.
Danny
Haha, thanks Danny.
Originally Posted by venom51
I was with you up until the wheel stripes.
Of course now I have to change mine. Can't be two GT Silver cars with that same Black and Red stripe down the center.
Hah, yea wheel pinstripes are pretty polarizing. Nice stripe, though! The shape of our stripes are a bit different, though I'm sure there are folks who wouldn't notice that nuance. Our overall looks are quite different IMO, despite having a similar stripe over the top.
Hah, yea wheel pinstripes are pretty polarizing. Nice stripe, though! The shape of our stripes are a bit different, though I'm sure there are folks who wouldn't notice that nuance. Our overall looks are quite different IMO, despite having a similar stripe over the top.
Oddly when I bought it the stripe was the first thing I wanted to take off of it. However everyone else seemed to like it so I left it on. I got burnt out on the wheel stripes in the bike world. The wheels I like though. I do like the side stripes more than I though I would though.
04-18-2019, 09:15 PM
Minor Makeover (stripes, wheels, etc.)
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