Build Thread 1978 Fairmont. I bet somebody back home’s thinkin’…I wonder why he don’t write..?

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Actually,…I’m still gonna veer into the other lane every now and then…especially when the oncoming car just needs a head on to put it back in ITS lane.
But for now, I’ll just focus on going forward.

And at one time it was 12-15 I was talking to, but because it’s today, and not 5 years ago…
For the 3-5 who are still here:

The wheel powder coating fell through…,
Tuesday, it’s supposed to get 5 windows tinted, but After trying to just clean the rear glass, I can’t see how any tint guy is gonna want to contort himself into some bent up pretzel just to make my 5 back windows dark.

I mean,…,I’d remove both seats, I’d even remove the LJK if it made things easier for him,…And I was planning on taking the car to him tomorrow to have him tell me whether or not he wanted me to do any of that sht… But it’s gonna rain tomorrow.

If It’s not, I’ll take it to him, I’ll remove the whole rear seat delete if he tells me he wants it out,….but I think he’ll tell me that he can’t do it. Just like wheel dude.

Batting 1000, I take the car to upholstery dude on Thursday to confirm that the 1000 he quoted me on my seats will hold as a solid quote.

And,…I’m down to 4 wheels. I sold the extra pair of 17x11’s with the NT05’s mounted.
The Toyo’s seem to serve my purpose.

Lastly,…I sat in the car for about 30 minutes tweaking the LJK’s audio settings…He sounds about as good as I can expect him to sound.
Unlike a lot of systems that are nothing but sub, I’ve got it pretty well balanced out now. Not afraid to put anybody with an ear in the passenger seat and let them listen..
The LJK has has Mike Tyson punch Bass…Not boomy, and hits 80-100hz hard on a kick drum, with bass blended in the 250 hz up range guaranteed to buzz or rattle the hell out of anything not tightly anchored.
Which is 300% better than any “ stock” audio system will ever sound.
 
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For what it's worth I think it looks absolutely stellar in post 2517. I can't see how you'd improve on that. Changes sure.. but improvement? :shrug:

I was definitely intrigued to see how it was gonna end up looking with those revisions but I think it could look a little too 'Gangsta' for my tastes!
Exhaust could perhaps do with looking shiny I suppose.. :coff:
 
For what it's worth I think it looks absolutely stellar in post 2517. I can't see how you'd improve on that. Changes sure.. but improvement? :shrug:

I was definitely intrigued to see how it was gonna end up looking with those revisions but I think it could look a little too 'Gangsta' for my tastes!
Exhaust could perhaps do with looking shiny I suppose.. :coff:
Thanks for that..I can’t see how I’ll be able to improve on it either, but I’m always trying to come up with something.
 
For what it’s worth, which probably isn’t much, I wasn’t looking forward to seeing bronze wheels on that car. I just couldn’t picture it in my head where it was going to look right against the orange and black. :shrug:
 
I don’t know if I should say anything for fear of jinxing it. But Tint guy is supposed to attempt the tint job today. I spoke with him at 9 and he said he’d be back in town at noon ( now). I told him I’d remove anything that he needed me to remove to make doing this easier, but he said that the “ struggle came with the job”.

I’m thinking He don’t know what kind of struggle he’s in for…

Here’s to hoping.
 
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I don’t know if I should say anything for fear of jinxing it. But Tint guy is supposed to attempt the tint job today. I spoke with him at 9 and he said he’d be back in town at noon ( now). I told him I’d remove anything that he needed me to remove to make doing this easier, but he said that the “ struggle came with the job”.
I’m thinking He don’t know what kind of struggle he’s in for…
Here’s to hoping.
Looks like I was right.

They cannot satisfactorily get the diamond shaped quarter glass tinted “ in place”. They want me to remove them and bring them in separately. This will require removing the entire rear seat delete, both interior quarter panel trim pieces, the 6-8 nuts that hold the quarter glass’s in, and then I gotta pry them out of the the black fungoo rope sealant that they are bedded in.
Surprisingly, none of this bothers me.

The rear package tray needs to be redone, one of the quarter windows leaks a little, the black paint around them needs to be redone, and….I gotta plan for an overhead console to match the one on the tunnel, so, I kinda need to pull that heavy assed headliner out of the car to add mount structure to support that mod. I made the headliner board out of “ hardboard”…it’s freakin heavy as hell.

So,….I got a project after all. The console overhead will look just like the one on the tunnel, but instead of being made out of thick wall 1.250” DOM chromemoly tubing, will be made out of 16ga. Mild steel exhaust tubing, and mandrel bends.
 
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You know....you can tint windows on the outside. That's how they do them in Dubai and the middle east. I'm actually getting my quarter windows tinted on the outside so there aren't any imperfections from the window dots. It does age faster in the elements because the UV protection is on the opposite side for normal US tint. Your car is in the garage most of the time and it's easy to replace tint on the outside.
 
I get there yesterday to pick up my car, and he’s not done when I get there. He is fitting the rear glass film before installing it. They do this on the outside, and spend a fair amount of time heat shrinking it with its backing still on until they get it to fit right. Then they remove it, put it on a vertical surface, peel the backing away, wet the film down, re-apply the backing, roll the whole thing up, and take the rolled up tube into the car and unroll it onto the back glass.
This was after he had to get in there, and scrub the glass with one cleaner, then squeegee that dry, then wet it down with something else, and squeegee that dry too. Then finally, they wet it down and roll out that film, while separating the backing one side at a time. And that is followed up with more squeegee action, until the thing becomes one with the glass it’s attached to…..all while laying on his back, arched over the rear seat delete and LJK.
Then he still got in there with a heat gun, and again with a razor knife to trim the excess.

You couldn’t pay me to do that sht.

But as with all horror stories that come from leaving your car with a shop,…I got mine too. ( Mine’s just not as bad as some others)

When I get there, dude tells me the battery‘s dead. But not to worry, he has a jump box. I open the trunk for him. In casual conversation after that, He asks me How much I had in my audio system. The hood is up, but the trunk was closed, it was obvious that Dude had been looking for the battery, and he couldn’t find my hidden trunk release to open the trunk.

Why do ya spose my battery was dead when the only reason he needed the battery was to crack the front windows down?

Why Dude was letting the LJK do his thing while he was working,…and that battery went dead on him.

There we’re SO many things I coulda told dude NOT to do with this car, but I didn’t think about it after I put the car in his work bay and left him the key.

I coulda told him:

Do not leave the key in the run position for a long period of time as you will run the risk of overheating jy ignition driver circuit.
Be careful how many times you “ key on” the switch, as each time you do, you’ll dump fuel into the engine.
The LJK is a power hungry little SOB. Running the car audio system without a battery charger, or running engine will drain that battery to dead fairly quick.
If you open the trunk, it has to be closed carefully, as just letting the lid fall will cause a chip when the gasket compresses too far.

I didn’t tell him none of that, because I figured that all he’d need to do with the key, was switch it on once to roll the windows down once, and roll them up once. And because I didn’t,……

I get 3 outta 5 windows tinted, a dead battery, probably some fouled oil and a paint chip. I watched as he let the trunk lid fall, but by the time he let it go, it was too late to say anything.

My fault though,…I shoulda spent a minute talking to the guy yestready.

But since the hood was open when I got there….
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The final add-on to add even more confusion..
 
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As much hassle as we give 5.0 owners for hot air intake kits, have you thought about an appropriate sized (huge) pipe to the fender with a remote filter? Or, how about an OEM looking custom air box?
I used to have the filter in the fender, but after getting caught in a torrential rainstorm, there’s no way I’m sticking any air intake in the same area that water spray from the tires would soak through the element. There’s room for a box in that corner, but that covers the fender skirt.. ( one of the 200.00 cosmetic add-on fender skirts) So that will also probably be reason enough to pass on that too.
I have the other hood. I could come up with a scoop/ sealed box/ filter if I need a project after this interior thing I’m getting ready to start.
 
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I used to have the filter in the fender, but after getting caught in a torrential rainstorm, there’s no way I’m sticking any air intake in the same area that water spray from the tires would soak through. There’s room for a box in that corner, but that covers the fender skirt.. ( one of the 200.00 cosmetic add-on fender skirts) So that will also probably be reason enough to pass on that too.
I have the other hood. I could come up with a scoop/ sealed box/ filter if I need a project after this interior thing I’m getting ready to start.
The cone in the fender does get scary in a torrential storm when a jerk in a lifted SUV tries to drown oncoming traffic. And I have stock fender liners.
One of these days, I’ll find an idea you like or have not already done.
 
The cone in the fender does get scary in a torrential storm when a jerk in a lifted SUV tries to drown oncoming traffic. And I have stock fender liners.
One of these days, I’ll find an idea you like or have not already done.
keep trying…Believe it or not, a lot of what is suggested or recommended is current in the Monster.

Starting with the 2jz.
 
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I spent the better part of the day undoing things.

like I undid the rear quarter windows.
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That required that I undo the rear seat delete, undo the LJK, Undo the interior trim pieces…
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Not pictured is me straightening out that mess of cables, and removing the HD foil type insulation in favor of the sound deadener that I had laying around.
I had to get the quarter windows out so dude could complete my window tint job. I decided that since they were out, I’d repaint them after i get them back from tint dude. That led to a case of “ Since i’m repainting the window trim,I may as well just go ahead and….”

Remove all of the rest of the trim.
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The trim doesn’t hide what you can see around the perimeter of the windshield,…namely the interior structure. So, this time around, i’m going to find some 1.0-1.25” wide vinyl tape, and lay that down before I reinstall the trim.
 
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I don't know if tape would be the best for that. Next time you have the dash out paint an edge on the inside of the glass with a foam brush. That windshield gets hot as a fat man's balls in Arizona. That tape don't stand a chance. :leaving:
 
I don't know if tape would be the best for that. Next time you have the dash out paint an edge on the inside of the glass with a foam brush. That windshield gets hot as a fat man's balls in Arizona. That tape don't stand a chance. :leaving:
3m vinyl Scott..
The same stuff that’s on the sides of my car. The same stuff pinstripe tape is made out of.
 
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