My turn for LS upgrades

just bought the borla tips. Total of 109.90 with shipping for right and left. Also bought the smoked and blacked out corner markers and turn lenses from alax. No more money spending for me for a bit.
 
Its been a while since an update. I did get the tips in and they look great. The paint process should be starting sometime next week. Need to finalize the price and transport the pieces over.

It has been raining here for the past few days so painting myself have been out of the question. I did manage to snap a few pics between the rain clouds. Don't mind the dirt and such as it will be getting a good cleaning Monday morning. :D If I have the time it will get a clay bar and a nice coat of wax.

On to the pictures!! First are the 2001 Fender Badges. I have always liked these. I have never been a fan of de-badging a car. I am proud of what I own and want to show it off.

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Next is the Grille and a new emblem painted by Manoli. I like the way the Gen 1 LSE grilles look with the matte finish. Not as flashy but says "I'm different". May go with a McClaren if alax gets around to it but in no real hurry to drop $400 on a real one :rolleyes:

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And last the rear surround. I need to redo this one. I ran out of the clear that paintscratch sent me and used some that I had bought from pepboys. Bad idea :mad: It turned out to be rough and matte instead of glossy and smooth like everything else. That and it has a few spots where something rested against it. Someone moved it, either my girlfriend or my roommate, either way it needed to be redone.

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Looks good. I never did realize that the 02 didn't come with the fender badges
 
Update time. Finally got my parts from the body shop yesterday. That was a process and a half. In one of my pictures above you can see a crack on the rear bumper, the shop said they would fix it for no cost since I was having so much paint work done. Went and looked at all the pieces last Friday 6/15 and the crack was never fixed... They just painted over it. He gave me some bs excuse about the product they used not working correctally due to the humidity. Anyways he did fix it this time and it looks great. Got them all into my garage last night around 6-630.

Put the Side skirts on today. Drivers side took forever since I had never even messed with them before. I took the two OEM sides off and found lots of rust :( but not surprising. It was a NY car for most of its life.




Took a few quick shots at work with the skirts on. Plan on doing the rear tonight. Not looking forward to taking all of my connections out of the front to change it. They color matched it very well. I was worried at first but nothing a good buff can't take out of the original paint.

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Coming along well! How did you end up with a New York car?
 
Nothing wrong with that, looks great, good progress.
 
Ben's LS said:
Coming along well! How did you end up with a New York car?
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Thats where I grew up (syracuse) and went to college in FL. Now I have a full time job in FL so the car needed to be registered (don't get me started on that topic:mad: ). It just so happens that there are no emissions testing and very lenient laws regarding cars here. :D
 
Forgot to add that I did manage to get the front and rear on tonight. I just got done, time for a few more beers then back to the grind tomorrow. Might be able to work some pictures on my lunch break.
 
Looking really good Kaball emblems look good on there as well :) Def going to look diffrent all done and put together.
 
Thought it was time for an update. Debby is still pissing on us here in Florida so no pics:( Everything is on and it looks great! I need to locate two sets of fog lamp bolts. The bumper didn't come with them and I was under the assumption that my old ones would work...WRONG! stupid me:rolleyes: I also need to find a fender attachment bolt and nut. We had to cut one out since it was rusted on there.

On another note all future mods and upgrades are on hold as my DCCV died on me this morning. My short commute to work at 6AM required AC since Debby graced us with rain today and right as I pulled in the main drag the drivers side started to blow hot air. At first I thought it could just be from me slowing down but sure enough i put my hand on the passenger vent and it was ice cold. :sigh:

I feel bad saying this but, I was actually waiting for this to happen. And to be honest I am glad it happened now and not in 2 years. The car only has 69xxx miles on it and it has an ESP on it from when I bought it. It sucks right now because I am quite broke from car registration and the paint for the LSE kit.

In the end this just means that I can't put my exhaust on for a month or so and the search for wheels has to stop for the moment. I am hoping that the dealership breaks the rest of the plastic while replacing the DCCV so I can have a new HVAC system in the process. :D Is that wrong to say?
 
Moar pics!!!

Shes so shiny:cool: Not clean but shiny. Product of a Meguiars paint restoration kit. Wash, clay, and carnuba wax.

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Thought I would share these as I think it is my biggest accomplishment so far on my car and my self-confidence. This was my mirror before

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this is the mirror after. Included sanding, priming, painting, clear-coat, and polishing.
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It was a perfect color match. I did need to repaint/clear the edge since I missed it the first time but overall it was a very easy process.
 
Wow looking good man. Good shots too. That LSE body kit looks sexy...Makes me want to run to my paint guy so i can get my skirts on quick!

did you say you painted teh mirror yourself? how? spray can? i didn't get any of those sparkles when i painted my grille and rear surround with a spray can from paintscratch.com. Maybe they sent me the wrong paint :(

ATrom said:
You should paint the upper grille black to match the lower
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+1

ATrom said:
Then you should paint both black :p
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+1 again

try plastidip
 
Looks amazing! She is really coming into her own that is for sure.

Gen I LS represent!
 
mlara1129 said:
Wow looking good man. Good shots too. That LSE body kit looks sexy...Makes me want to run to my paint guy so i can get my skirts on quick!

did you say you painted teh mirror yourself? how? spray can? i didn't get any of those sparkles when i painted my grille and rear surround with a spray can from paintscratch.com. Maybe they sent me the wrong paint :(


+1


+1 again

try plastidip
Click to expand...

Yes the mirror I did myself. I posted pics earlier on the damage that it had. It looked like it came factory that way since the car has never had any work done to it (I'm the third owner, my dad was the second). I did get the paint from paintscratch. It really depends on what color code you have and if you are supposed to have them. I know most LSs have a metallic look to them but I'm not sure about them all. When I put the paint down it wasn't that impressive. After I cleared it (from paintscratch) it poped and after I used some rubbing compound it really stood out. Next would be to wetsand/colorsand but I am happy with it now. I used some clear from pepboys, I think duplicolor, and I had to go back and redo it. Looked like trash. Dull and no amount of rubbing compound would buff it out. The stuff from paintscratch is quality. I also used a gray primer to help it stand out. Black would have made it to dark and white to light.

I really like the look of the LSE grille. Its not chrome but it adds a nice offset. Now if I had a McCalren that would be a different story :rolleyes: I really like black on white cars but I can't say that I am a fan of black on blue or red.
 
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