ESP J's 2005 LS

[ESP J]

decided to make my Car thread for updates and such

i been drooling on an LS for about 6 years since the first time i was gonna buy a car , i went from a graduating gift 96 Dodge intrepid, then bought my first car 99 Mitsubishi galant ,then my baby a 02 grand am GT and finnaly got my hands on a Lincoln LS fell in love with them when i test drove one prior to buying the galant

this is the first picture i took of the car
1-17-12

after seeing cars on here with tinted tail lights i did the same ^_^

then i had a fender bender , none of my previous cars have been RWD and thus i didnt take into consideration the power of backing up lol , i hit a walmart pole , didnt think anything of it until i saw and was like FFFUUUUUUCCCCKKKKK

i had just picked up the rear chrome strip from the dealer that day

good thing i had a spare light lol cause the one i had at the time i hit the pole basically exploded lol nothing left

after a week bada bim bada boom

i been looking for an LSE grille but after seeign how much they actually cost i think ill hold for a while ,

sooo instead i decided to rattle can the grille

before

after

and finnaly today 3-9-12 i painted the chrome surround on the trunk

this pic is prior to the fender bender

and chrome painted

ill take better pic tomorrow when the sun comes up

and of course , that time you see your car and you still cant believe its your ....yeah i had a moment yesterday lol

as far as future plan

darker window tint
and talk to my opthamologist and see if i can get windshield tinted (not just for looks but i been wondering about it for a long time and after reading throught the forum i see that it is possible with a prescription, glare kills me)
lowering car
new wheels
maybe a magnaflow to make it purr (hence i said PURR not FART)
and a touchscreen in dash WITH REAR VIEW CAMERA haha so i dont have another fender bender lol

 

[Shredicus]

Nice LS, I really like what you did with the back tails/rear surround. I plan on doing that myself in the near future. What sort of paint did you use on the chrome?

 

[ESP J]

dupli color perfect match black, about 3 coats after wetsanding the chrome , and using 2-3 coats of dupli color clear coat and finnaly a polishing compound for good measure lol

exact same procedure with the tailights except obviously instead of paint i used Niteshade on the lights lol

 

[dNyce LS]

Looks good. 'cept for the spoiler. I really like the grille

 

[mastan]

Looks good. Nice job on the repair. Nothing good ever happens at Walmart. I like your enthusiasm.

 

[ESP J]

rear surround in the daylights , gotta say thing looks nice

 

[Shredicus]

That came out really good. How does it detach and reattach? Just bolts on the backside?

 

[ESP J]

5 bolts on the back side , 2 are the bolts to the lights and one right behing the emblem the other two at on the bottom corners , then just give it a nice tug and bam it comes off , just be careful with the plate lights they dont have much wiggle room

 

[ESP J]

San Antonio

Austin TX

 

[ESP J]

so been a while since i updated here, so i guess ill add something

as i mention in the "What have you done to your LS today" thread , i took off the Spoiler, and well its bittersweet



cleaned as best as i could and well...... scratch galore ,

;_;

for whatever reason whoever installed this , added an extra hole for safe measure to the left side >.>

 

[msgtusmc]

Tail lights buy law have to be visible 500 ft. away. Covering them reduces this distance. If I was an insurance agency and you got rear ended at night, I wouldn't pay a dime! Why reduce the safety factor for cosmetics. This should be illegal in all 50 states.

 

[msgtusmc]

A little Bondo, sanding, prime paint. Good to go!

 

[msgtusmc]

Want to sell the spoiler? How much?

 

[ESP J]

well debadged it earlier, (no pic )

and cleared my headlight thanks to four_t_one and the awesome link he passed on to me

before


front, seemed like the corner was still foggy dont know why it showed like that on pic


but here is a corner shot

 

[ESP J]

Tail lights buy law have to be visible 500 ft. away. Covering them reduces this distance. If I was an insurance agency and you got rear ended at night, I wouldn't pay a dime! Why reduce the safety factor for cosmetics. This should be illegal in all 50 states.

well as long as my insurance keeps taking my money and not saying anything about it , even after my first wreck..... at night .....to the rear bumper shattering the taillight, and my great state keep allowing it i shall keep on doing it , Geico was even nice enough to re shade it for me and paying for it, they were so nice ,i luvs my gecko,

plus what the 3rd brake light for just for the free ride oh heck no , that light better start pulling it own weight around this biotch , NO FREE RIDES!!!!!!

lol


yeah i think ill bondo it or just pull the trunk from the car at my sisters lot

as far as selling the spoiler, well its pretty scratched up , some very deep scratches on it, and the LED light on it has some chips around the edges like if someone tried to break the plastic cover, it was never connected since i bought the car so quite frankly i have no clue if it works

 

[Four_t_one]

Looks great, been thinkin about pullin my spoiler too but prob gonna have the same issue so it stays for now, want to plasti dip the whole car in the spring so maybe then.

 

[ESP J]

well after a few hours of searching and reading, i finnaly got the remote start to work again, im very pissed that it was that freaking easy to just pu8t the damn key where it was suppose to be, and even more P.O that the shop where i had gone basically wanted me to buy a brand new alarm ,

next things to do it eventually bondo the holes on the bumper (another new thing for me)

and fix my broken door handle

 

[Upstairs Chris]

After reading the title of this thread, I thought it was about extended service plans....

 

[embe]

Looks better without the spoiler. If you're looking to fill those holes on the cheap (and I'm not by any means recommending this), but I've heard you can hot glue a dime (or something) from the inside to block the hole, tape it off on the front, and then use your favorite bondo or JBweld to fill. Sand, prime, and paint and you're good to go. Black is a good color to hide the imperfection and most people wouldn't notice unless they were looking for it.

If you didn't already 'Helmsman' urethane the headlights, it would probably take care of any left over swirling

 

[1LoudLS]

for whatever reason whoever installed this , added an extra hole for safe measure to the left side >.>

is that 3rd hole not for the wires to the brake light in the spoiler?

 

[ESP J]

is that 3rd hole not for the wires to the brake light in the spoiler?

doh, yeah >.<

 

[1LoudLS]

Lol

 

[ESP J]

im starting to think my car is a hypochondriac , everytime i read someones problems on here it gets them too, new problem , the door ajar dash light wont go off and the puddle lights or any light inside the car wont go off eighter, sometimes its fine but other times its annoying , i WD-40'd the crap outta the door latches but to no avail,

i narrowed it down to the driver side and the trunk that are causing the problem,since those are the only 2 doors i opened , hopefully the light turn off over night

if its not the latches sticking what else could it be, the latch itself?

 

[1LoudLS]

well if your sure that the doors are fully shut, then its probably a problem with one of the door triggers (which are located inside the latch/actuator). since this cars trigger wires are normally closed circuits, you could have a short in one of the wires.

the trunk has a plunger pin on the left side of the lid, you can easily xcheck this to make sure it is working, also check to make sure that the trunks rear most trim piece in the center is attached right. if its not, its possible that the plunger is not being pressed in all the way

 

[ESP J]

the trunk pin is ok, and since im the one thats gotten in and out my car the last few days i think the problem is the driver door, i WD-40 the crap out of the latch but still the lights stay on inside the car, another thing i noticed is weirdly enough they do shut off after about 15-20 minutes just to come back on later on, causing my alarm to go off at random times, what can i do know , what exac tly do i look for