About a month I picked up a 2001 camaro ss, black on black, t-tops, ~55k mi. Engine was replaced at ~25k mi under factory warranty in 04. Poor thing was covered in hard water spots, swirls, light scratches... even throwing a code (p0300, whomp whomp). Overall really clean car and the price was definitely right.
Well it didn't take long to get my first ticket. That weekend I'm sitting first at a red light, turning left onto a 4 lane highway, with a line of cars to my right. Green light, I put put into the left hand turn and then GET ON IT! I'm in third going about 80 or so when the light start flashing in the rear view. It's an undercover, brand new ford taurus. He get's out and tells me he was sitting at the light, to my right, saw me and knew exactly what I was gonna do. He flew up on me and pulled me over. All he could do without his ears (or vascar) was a "not obeying the 45 speed limit" (yeah it was still 45 right there at the end of the strip of lights on this 4 lane highway).
The next day I picked up an escort passport max and hard wired it up on the windshield just below the mirror. Looks nice. Works great. That plus the Waze app on my phone are a great combination. I haven't tried the escort live service yet but think I will give it a try.
After a couple days of "spirited" driving I settled down and picked up a meguiar's dual action polisher w/compound, polish, wax. After a thorough washing I clayed it. Then twice with the compound. Once with the polish. Skipped the wax and went with the meguiar's nxt tech wax which is a sealant. At that point I was seriously regretting the color choice (j/k still love it). I still have some swirls that rear their ugly faces in the sunlight. Thinking I might upgrade to semi-pro da right angle polisher and try some more pro compounds. That little three incher from meg's is nice but is killin me slowly.
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From there I pulled out the factory head unit and speakers, no amp. I found some crazy cabling and the best I can tell, I kid you not, the po had a computer back in the spare tire well. There was usb cable and a vga cable extended back there. He was a computer nerd (like me) so it kinda fits. Anyway, I did all new ofc wiring for the speakers and the amp. I put in an alpine head unit, alpine components in the front, and have tweeter pods on order (thanks 6le!). Alpine coax in the sails. Left the trunk speakers disconnected. Used a custom sub thump 10" box on drivers side trunk where the cd changer would go w/Alpine sub. That's enough for me, I like having ttop storage. A Alpine 5 chan amp was mounted (simply using sticky backed velcro to bottom of amp) behind backseat in center. Cables routed through each side, under carpet, and up through slit behind back seat into amp. It's definitely theft bait but where I live it won't be a problem. No particular reason I went all Alpine other than they had what I wanted and the prices were right. I did get a dynamat extreme kit and used it to seal up the front door inside skin. I also got some peel and seal and did the outer skin. Wow, those suckers are solid now! I also stuck as much peel and seal in the sails (where I could reach). Oh, and the steering wheel control kit for the hu. Sounds amazing!
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Next was the SLP lid, smooth bellows (ya, i know), and skip shift delete. OMFG, skip shift, die die die skip shift!! The nitto 555 extremes arrived today in 275/40/R17's. I have the 17" wheels now but am going to switch over to the gloss black c6 z06 wheels, all 4 17". I won't see the strip/track but I do a lot of spirited driving around these back roads. I go out as often as I can day or night and just cruise around for hours, most of the time listening to the sweet sweet sound of that ls1 more than my new stereo :) Anyway, blacks been done to death even around here. I only care about what I like, not about being original, and that's what I like :) Too bad they're on back order from OE Wheels for 3 weeks. Whomp Whomp. Later this week I'm going to go to the tint shop and get 35% on the windows and rear. Then probably some smoked out rear lights and halo's in the front.
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My overall goal is first to solve this damn p0300 in cylinder 2/3 (which I'll post more about later). Get the rims and tires mounted. Do the 35% tint. Sub frame connectors. Koni shocks w/strano springs. Kooks stepped 1 3/4 - 1 1/7 to kooks true duals. 9" rear fab'd w/4.10's. Then top end (cam, valves, etc..). The result should be #1 an anvil, #2 good in the turns, #3 mid rpm powerband, #4 good looks. Not an, afraid to drive it out of town, kill me in the rain, crazy lopey, so loud every statey within 20 mi is gonna swarm me; kinda car ;)
