Tsmith
10+ Year Contributor
- 223
- 1
- Jan 23, 2010
-
Colo Springs,
Colorado
My first ever car journal. I have owned this car for about 1.5 years now but was deployed for almost 10 months during that time. This first part will be catching everyone up from purchase to today!!! Thanks for looking.
This is the car as it sat the day after I bought it. A little rough looking but it actually ran well (or so I thought).
So knowing that I was deploying soon I didn't really plan to do much to it before I left. I drove it around for a while and then parked it at my Fathers house while I was in Afghanistan.
After the deployment I had plenty of time to plan my build. I had $15,000 worth of ideas on about a $3,000 budget. So I started with some of the things that bugged me about the car when I first got it.
The headlights were very faded and yellowing and my Dad told me he had a fix for it. I think they turned out great.
Before
After
I couldn't believe how well the wet sanding kit made these look. Next on the list was the bumper.
Before
After
Unfortunately I hit a Lady that started to pull across an intersection and decided at the last minute she was going to wait for another car to pass. Since two vehicles cannot occupy the same space I needed a front bumper again.
Instead of making the bumper a priority I decided I didn't need to go Off Roading in my AWD Eclipse and wanted to lower it. I found a great deal on some Koni Yellows and some Tein springs on Craigslist. Sorry for the night pics but it was late when we finished it all.
Next on the list was the Bumper again but I decided that since I was missing a side skirt and wanted a full kit, I would buy the whole setup. Again Craigslist hooked me up.
At this point I wasn't able to get the front bumper on without cutting it for the Intercooler and I really wanted the VRSF kit. Since I was wanting the Intercooler kit I waited to put the front on until the new IC kit was installed.
This is the car as it sat the day after I bought it. A little rough looking but it actually ran well (or so I thought).
So knowing that I was deploying soon I didn't really plan to do much to it before I left. I drove it around for a while and then parked it at my Fathers house while I was in Afghanistan.
After the deployment I had plenty of time to plan my build. I had $15,000 worth of ideas on about a $3,000 budget. So I started with some of the things that bugged me about the car when I first got it.
The headlights were very faded and yellowing and my Dad told me he had a fix for it. I think they turned out great.
Before
After
I couldn't believe how well the wet sanding kit made these look. Next on the list was the bumper.
Before
After
Unfortunately I hit a Lady that started to pull across an intersection and decided at the last minute she was going to wait for another car to pass. Since two vehicles cannot occupy the same space I needed a front bumper again.
Instead of making the bumper a priority I decided I didn't need to go Off Roading in my AWD Eclipse and wanted to lower it. I found a great deal on some Koni Yellows and some Tein springs on Craigslist. Sorry for the night pics but it was late when we finished it all.
Next on the list was the Bumper again but I decided that since I was missing a side skirt and wanted a full kit, I would buy the whole setup. Again Craigslist hooked me up.
At this point I wasn't able to get the front bumper on without cutting it for the Intercooler and I really wanted the VRSF kit. Since I was wanting the Intercooler kit I waited to put the front on until the new IC kit was installed.