rreimund
06-15-2007, 08:26 AM
Ok, so it's a terrible picture.. I've been itching to get these on the car and I could finally do it last night. I just dropped more than I paid for the car to buy it on a bunch of upgrades/parts, etc. $950 in labor costs later - and it's like a new car.
Yes, I know I could have done a lot of this myself, that was the original plan - but I just didn't have the time - and the money went to a friend who has opened up a new shop - so I don't mind supporting a friend..
In any case I just had the Thrust Arms replaced, Control Arms, Idler arm, Upper strut bearings, rear shock mounts, tranny mounts, guibo, and center bearing replaced. I also had installed the Sachs Sport Kit (Thanks Patrick @ BMA!) and I installed the Racing King Delrin subframe inserts myself (Thanks Bruno!). Just got the car back on Wednesday night, so last night I zaino-d the new 18" staggered M-Parallels and threw them on the car in anticipation of the alignment tomorrow morning. WOW.. what a difference. It's like it was new again - feels like a different car. Besides getting rid of the shimmy at 50-60mph (still there, but not as bad - chalking it up to alignment issue at this point) the shifting is also much smoother - I'm guessing the combination of the new guibo, center bearing, and tranny mounts account for that.
Only issues thus far are that I seem to be getting a bit of rubbing on the front passenger side wheel when I hit a particularly bumpy stretch of road at high speeds. We'll see how that goes once it's aligned and see where the cards fall.
Without further ado - the first pictures of the M-Parallels:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1376/549797388_ee73a49933.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=549797388&size=o)
Larger picture available if you click on it.
Sorry - I know that camera phone plus low light = crap pictures. But I'll be taking more in proper day light with my good camera shortly. Next weekend I'm planning on clay bar-ing the paint, and doing a full buff and polish treatment on it (using the full Zaino catalog). More pics to come after that. It'll look like a new car then too.
** edit ** - Got one more new picture.. this one hits the opposite end of the spectrum.. too bright.. I can't win..
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1088/553894368_eed28c7167.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=553894368&size=o)
Larger picture available if you click on it.
Yes, I know I could have done a lot of this myself, that was the original plan - but I just didn't have the time - and the money went to a friend who has opened up a new shop - so I don't mind supporting a friend..
In any case I just had the Thrust Arms replaced, Control Arms, Idler arm, Upper strut bearings, rear shock mounts, tranny mounts, guibo, and center bearing replaced. I also had installed the Sachs Sport Kit (Thanks Patrick @ BMA!) and I installed the Racing King Delrin subframe inserts myself (Thanks Bruno!). Just got the car back on Wednesday night, so last night I zaino-d the new 18" staggered M-Parallels and threw them on the car in anticipation of the alignment tomorrow morning. WOW.. what a difference. It's like it was new again - feels like a different car. Besides getting rid of the shimmy at 50-60mph (still there, but not as bad - chalking it up to alignment issue at this point) the shifting is also much smoother - I'm guessing the combination of the new guibo, center bearing, and tranny mounts account for that.
Only issues thus far are that I seem to be getting a bit of rubbing on the front passenger side wheel when I hit a particularly bumpy stretch of road at high speeds. We'll see how that goes once it's aligned and see where the cards fall.
Without further ado - the first pictures of the M-Parallels:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1376/549797388_ee73a49933.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=549797388&size=o)
Larger picture available if you click on it.
Sorry - I know that camera phone plus low light = crap pictures. But I'll be taking more in proper day light with my good camera shortly. Next weekend I'm planning on clay bar-ing the paint, and doing a full buff and polish treatment on it (using the full Zaino catalog). More pics to come after that. It'll look like a new car then too.
** edit ** - Got one more new picture.. this one hits the opposite end of the spectrum.. too bright.. I can't win..
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1088/553894368_eed28c7167.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=553894368&size=o)
Larger picture available if you click on it.