The Red Coupe - Return of the Spring eye

couple weeks ago

Star Wars reference, sorta? Welp, that ol' groundhog in PA did us a favor and looked for his shadow on an overcast day. Next thing ya know, we got a 70 degree Friday out of nowhere. I didn't even sandbag the post this time, this was last Friday! This preview of Spring was all I needed to break out the wash mitt and bucket. And the microfiber towels. And a little quick detailer.

Mmmhmm. As you can see, the coupe did a pretty good job surviving the Winter and rock-blastings by those gd salt trucks on I-95. The amount of wax that was on the car previously didn't hurt as getting the grime off the back of the car was relatively painless. I only have a couple minuscule chips on my mirrors, so I'm glad I didn't go through the process of swapping them out. My front apron wasn't so lucky though ha. My exhaust cleaned up well too, but much like I feared from it's appearance while filthy, there's some mild tarnish/rusting that took place on the very ends. I'm confident some baby grit (1000+) and some metal polish should put it back to new.

In another couple weeks I'll take the steelies off and hopefully some new daily wheels will take their place. Along with picking out a nice one-piece wheel that'll look good, be functional (lightweight) and have a multitude of cheap tire choices (15"), I've been trying to work out what will be budgeted for this year in the form of restoration, repairs and upgrades. I snagged a spare front bumper during the off-season and I plan on getting that sprayed zinnobar along with the front apron since it ain't much metal at all. I also plan on respraying the rear bumper finally so I don't have to constantly polish the discolorations as well as get new side trim to freshen the rear. I need to get much of the engine bay wiring cleaned up as it all looks like a wilting mummy currently and I need a new set of headlights; as you can see in the first shot I had a low burn out and once I went to change it I realized on rigged up my smileys are. Some of the patchwork wiring got so brittle that the power wire was broken completely; I had my stereo shop fix and improve upon what was there. Furthermore the light output has always sucked on this mismatched set that came with the car and I want to have functioning city lights as well. On a related note, independently operating fog lights would be nice too.

The biggest question mark over the past couple months is the engine bay. I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place; I want to partially rebuild this trusty ol' 230k M20 of mine, but the cost of rebuilding rivals the price of more powerful motors that could be swapped in. And if I go too far in that department, I could've just bought another car all together (on to the next one). After much soul searching and sound-boarding with the inner circle, I think I'll be doing a mild power upgrade and refresh the motor so it's nicer to look at in there. The budget is even tighter this year because I got a vacation planned that aint getting put off. I guess the knocking noise from the front suspension while turning needs to get sorted too...and those rusty brakes. Uh yea, I guess power can wait.

The Red Coupe - Winter strikes back...

...again. Many friends and strangers gave me blank stares when I told them this was my daily driver, given the winter we had last year. Even more so when I explained I'd be driving this car through the 2011 winter as well. There were a few things I had to do to get the car ready for this Winters' ice, sand, salt and rock chunks the highway vehicles shoot out at on coming drivers in the name of safety for all. A$sholes.

 

I washed the car a few times after the Fall rolled in, but once December rolled around and the 40 degree plus days left the weekly forecast, I decided to start my typical 'no more car washing until it's above 50' policy to allow the dirt building up on the car to act as a de facto shield until Spring (or the freakishly warm winter day). In this plan lies the beauty of not spending a lot of money on paint/bodywork; I did the same with my golf over the years with original paint. The only thing I'm mildly bummed about running this winter is my recently acquired, throaty & polished Stromung exhaust, which will be thrown to the environmental wolves. Meh, it had to happen at some point.

As you can see, I took off my color matched IS front lip and beat up bottlecaps; trust in the fact I could care less about my bottle caps being exposed to the Winter, but the tires had to be ditched so I can control the car like I want on ice and snow. In come the steelies of doom, wrapped in the sweetest winter tire I've ever run, Hankook iPike W409 Winter tires. The bad thing is now that I have coilovers, I have to run spacers up front AND raise my coilovers to keep these tall skinny tires from destroying my inner fenders on bumps. I've now done something I've never done to date; raising coilovers after setting them (two hrs in the cold that I'd like to have back). I didn't really have a choice in the matter; these Maryland Winters done got legit and replacing tires before they're worn doesn't make cents.

look in the hole

Another surprise that arose during the rear coilover perch adjustment was diagnosing a light clunking that's been coming from the back of the car since putting the bottlecaps back on. I wasn't quite sure what it was, but my suspicions were pretty dead on; driver-side rear rotor was loose, with the lock screw backing itself out enough to give it play during rotation, acceleration, etc. I looked through the tool box and didn't have an Allen head that quite fit the bill. Thankfully the elliptical I bought for the house back in 08' had an assembly tool that fit right in there (YUS). It's a good thing too, I didn't feel like walking a couple miles in the 20 degree weather to AutoZone to get one.

i bet you know what the next project is



after playing in the snow

My winter adjustments were painstakingly performed with excellent timing, because I had to drive home during the second snow of the year a week later (if you couldn't tell). I plan on doing a full review of these Hankook iPike W409 Winter Tires in the near future, so stay tuned.