Hi Club4G,
I bought my Eclipse new in '06 and remember on my way down my street, the day I drove it home, there were a couple of kids riding their bikes (they were probably about 10 or 11). Anyways, they stopped when I drove past and one of them yelled "Hey mister, your car looks like a spaceship!"... I knew right then I had picked the right car.
Being the first year of the 4th generation body style, it was really rare for me to see another eclipse (especially with the Razzi body kit on it) for at least the first 6 months or so after I bought mine. People were asking me what it was in drive thru's and I just loved the attention and this was my first truly brand new car.
So I drove it, and I drove it, and I loved it. After 13 years, I still see her across a parking lot and think "I'm so lucky, I have the sexiest car on this lot." Being together so long, you don't notice the little age lines, the creaking when you take a turn, the straining like an old lady, trying to go up a hill. But I swear, she's kept her looks...
So, in November I met someone new. I bought my first new car in 13 years, a chubby little SUV (2018 GMC Terrain) and as many have done before me, I forgot about my first true love... and she sat.
It's true that I would jump in her and go for a jolly little romp around the block (to make sure the battery stayed charged and the brakes didn't rust) but let's be honest... after 6 months in a brand new vehicle with touch screens and leather... I found my smelly old 4G was loud and just not as tight as I thought, which was exactly why I went out looking for something new.
Almost exactly one year earlier, I had been living with the 2nd cat on my headers clogged up (or at least the ECU thought it was) and the power I was getting was horrible (it felt like 220ish hp). I got fed up and decided to remove the cats (Arkansas has no vehicle emission tests) and installed a set of RRE stainless steel headers... bingo, great improvement. I mated that mod with an AEM cold air intake (although I haven't quite figured out a good way to use the long pipe and still be able to clean the filter easily, it's so low).
I eventually added an RRE Magnaflow axle back exhaust and my car never felt so peppy. I figured I was easily getting in the 290HP range, only there was one problem, it became very loud.
So I went and bought the GMC. And that's where we were until last month...
I finally decided, since it's not my daily driver anymore, why don't I just do all the things I wanted to do when I bought it but didn't have the money (or was afraid it would void my warranty). My main goal has been to make the car look as good as it possibly can (without making it look rice, and without spending a ton of money).
I know that's a really long introduction but here we go... let's make my GT great again!
Project 1: trim restoration
My rubber trim was horrible. At first, I thought it was just some discoloration or really old tree sap residue, but after my first tests with various "trim restore" products (yeah, I'm looking at you, black magic) I came to realize the shiny patches weren't the problem, they were what was left of a clear coat that apparently gave up sometime when Obama was in office. Whenever I run across a plastic or rubber part that has discoloration or damage my #1 go to is always, medium to high grit wet sandpaper... with lots of water. I went over them carefully with 2000 and 3000 grit sandpaper and they look 100% better.
It's been about a month and they still appear to be holding up. No signs of fading or other discoloration. My original plan was to plasti-dip them (and use the glaussifier) but I'm not sure I need to. I want to make sure they are protected from the weather, so I'm considering just treating them regularly with 303 protectorant. I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts about this.
Project 2: Spoiler modification
I noticed that my stock rear spoiler/lip was discoloring (the chrome inside) on both ends and was holding water more recently. I had honestly always thought that spoiler was designed to let water pass through it, since as long as I could remember it would get partially filled with water inside when I washed my car and appeared to drain very quickly out what I assumed were drain holes on the bottom. After removing it, I can now see that was just the seal and glue had broken on the unit years earlier and the discoloration I was seeing was mold and mildew inside, attacking the chromed plastic.
Yanked it off. (there's a really nice write up on the forums on how to do that)...
Once I got it apart (it's actually 3 pieces, not including the LED 3rd light) I discovered the chrome was not going to be saved and just focused on cleaning it up and removing all traces of chrome from it. I then sprayed 5 coats of VHT nightshade on the clear outer coating (I made sure the very edge above the 3rd light was not as dark as the rest), the reason being that I planned on hiding a 48 inch "flowing LED" strip inside it.
I'll show more of that later, but the spoiler being that dark really required the tail lights to be tinted, or else this was going to look terrible, so I ordered some Vivid vinyl tint wrap (smoked, not blacked out) and pulled the tail lights...
Cleaned them as much as possible...
Applied the tint and put them back on.
I really liked where this was going...
I bought my Eclipse new in '06 and remember on my way down my street, the day I drove it home, there were a couple of kids riding their bikes (they were probably about 10 or 11). Anyways, they stopped when I drove past and one of them yelled "Hey mister, your car looks like a spaceship!"... I knew right then I had picked the right car.
Being the first year of the 4th generation body style, it was really rare for me to see another eclipse (especially with the Razzi body kit on it) for at least the first 6 months or so after I bought mine. People were asking me what it was in drive thru's and I just loved the attention and this was my first truly brand new car.
So I drove it, and I drove it, and I loved it. After 13 years, I still see her across a parking lot and think "I'm so lucky, I have the sexiest car on this lot." Being together so long, you don't notice the little age lines, the creaking when you take a turn, the straining like an old lady, trying to go up a hill. But I swear, she's kept her looks...
So, in November I met someone new. I bought my first new car in 13 years, a chubby little SUV (2018 GMC Terrain) and as many have done before me, I forgot about my first true love... and she sat.
It's true that I would jump in her and go for a jolly little romp around the block (to make sure the battery stayed charged and the brakes didn't rust) but let's be honest... after 6 months in a brand new vehicle with touch screens and leather... I found my smelly old 4G was loud and just not as tight as I thought, which was exactly why I went out looking for something new.
Almost exactly one year earlier, I had been living with the 2nd cat on my headers clogged up (or at least the ECU thought it was) and the power I was getting was horrible (it felt like 220ish hp). I got fed up and decided to remove the cats (Arkansas has no vehicle emission tests) and installed a set of RRE stainless steel headers... bingo, great improvement. I mated that mod with an AEM cold air intake (although I haven't quite figured out a good way to use the long pipe and still be able to clean the filter easily, it's so low).
I eventually added an RRE Magnaflow axle back exhaust and my car never felt so peppy. I figured I was easily getting in the 290HP range, only there was one problem, it became very loud.
So I went and bought the GMC. And that's where we were until last month...
I finally decided, since it's not my daily driver anymore, why don't I just do all the things I wanted to do when I bought it but didn't have the money (or was afraid it would void my warranty). My main goal has been to make the car look as good as it possibly can (without making it look rice, and without spending a ton of money).
I know that's a really long introduction but here we go... let's make my GT great again!
Project 1: trim restoration
My rubber trim was horrible. At first, I thought it was just some discoloration or really old tree sap residue, but after my first tests with various "trim restore" products (yeah, I'm looking at you, black magic) I came to realize the shiny patches weren't the problem, they were what was left of a clear coat that apparently gave up sometime when Obama was in office. Whenever I run across a plastic or rubber part that has discoloration or damage my #1 go to is always, medium to high grit wet sandpaper... with lots of water. I went over them carefully with 2000 and 3000 grit sandpaper and they look 100% better.
It's been about a month and they still appear to be holding up. No signs of fading or other discoloration. My original plan was to plasti-dip them (and use the glaussifier) but I'm not sure I need to. I want to make sure they are protected from the weather, so I'm considering just treating them regularly with 303 protectorant. I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts about this.
Project 2: Spoiler modification
I noticed that my stock rear spoiler/lip was discoloring (the chrome inside) on both ends and was holding water more recently. I had honestly always thought that spoiler was designed to let water pass through it, since as long as I could remember it would get partially filled with water inside when I washed my car and appeared to drain very quickly out what I assumed were drain holes on the bottom. After removing it, I can now see that was just the seal and glue had broken on the unit years earlier and the discoloration I was seeing was mold and mildew inside, attacking the chromed plastic.
Yanked it off. (there's a really nice write up on the forums on how to do that)...
Once I got it apart (it's actually 3 pieces, not including the LED 3rd light) I discovered the chrome was not going to be saved and just focused on cleaning it up and removing all traces of chrome from it. I then sprayed 5 coats of VHT nightshade on the clear outer coating (I made sure the very edge above the 3rd light was not as dark as the rest), the reason being that I planned on hiding a 48 inch "flowing LED" strip inside it.
I'll show more of that later, but the spoiler being that dark really required the tail lights to be tinted, or else this was going to look terrible, so I ordered some Vivid vinyl tint wrap (smoked, not blacked out) and pulled the tail lights...
Cleaned them as much as possible...
Applied the tint and put them back on.
I really liked where this was going...