I used their stuff when I painted my grill and it was great; matched the color perfectly and still looks really nice. Only complaint is that the spray can had a crap top that made the process more of a pain, but otherwise it's quality stuff 👍.
I used their stuff when I painted my grill and it was great; matched the color perfectly and still looks really nice. Only complaint is that the spray can had a crap top that made the process more of a pain, but otherwise it's quality stuff 👍.
I was reading similar reviews, too. I'm really hoping with some hand polishing I can make the most of the clear coat. Otherwise, it'll be another larger expense for some 2k urethane clear coat.
For today's installment of Garrit's Car Woes, we install headlights and wire in fog lights! The headlights came in after work today, and my oh my do they look good!
Even the "Made in Taiwan" stickers look to be high quality! I brought these outside before cleaning them up with some rubbing alcohol and putting a couple layers of sealant on them. Hopefully they'll stay this good looking for as long as I have the car.
I pulled the old headlights out and noticed something very handy: the fog light wires are easily in reach to hook them up without pulling the bumper off. Ideally I wanted to use briefcase clips to splice the fog lights into the parking light circuit, but I didn't know of any around. I figured I'd wait for my dad to get home and then talk to him (an electrician would know best). With nothing else to do, I took a quick trip back to work to get a bolt and washer to use to mount one headlight on fully since one of the headlight bolts got broken in the accident. Soon after I was home my dad got home, and after dinner I asked him what would be best to splice the fog lights in. He walked over to the workbench and pulled out four briefcase clips...
A little bit of wire extending (thanks again to spare airsoft gun parts for wires) and some clips installed, I found out that both of my fog light bulbs are junk. Oh well, lights from a junkyard bumper aren't exactly expected to work. A little while later I got the headlights installed and adjusted, so here's our end of Wednesday results:
All in all, I'm very happy with my progress. I'll get a new pair of fog light bulbs tomorrow, and after that I should just be waiting for my paint to arrive.
Alright, so all painting is done on Reginald, and my oh my what a difference it has made!
Last Saturday my dad did a lot of wet sanding on the hood and on the front bumper when I was gone at work, so when I came home we finished up all of the wet sanding.
We got out rig pretty well set up on the clothesline for priming, so we primed both the hood and the bumper Saturday night.
Unfortunately, it started to rain on Sunday after I got home from work, so we moved all painting operations inside the garage and got right to work. The urethane basecoat from Automotive Touchup went on really well and seems to be a really high-quality product. It was expensive, but the color is about a 95% match to my pearl tan, so I figure it's as good as we'll get.
We let the paint set over dinner and then went back at it with the clear coat. Having spent $20/can on paint, I opted for the cheaper acrylic lacquer clear coat instead of the 2k urethane clear. This might be a decision I'll regret in the future, but we'll tackle that hurdle when we get there.
With the clear coat applied, we let it all cure for about a day. On Monday I did a light hand buff with some Meguiar's compounds, cleaned them well, and put it all together. Tuesday I washed Reginald and got him looking all good, and after a working hiatus to spend the afternoon with my best friend and his wife while he's on leave from the Coast Guard, I got the tires all shined up today.
The only finished pics I have are ones my mom took from Tuesday night, so here's the finished product:
All in all, I'm extremely happy with how well Reginald has recovered from the accident. The paint is a very close match, and the clear is about 80% as shiny as the rest of the paint. I don't think I can get it any better without a machine polisher, but that's okay. With this done, I'd say we can look forward to more updates with Reginald in them!
Well it's been a minute since I've updated the thread. I see only broken pictures now. *sigh* I need to find a better way to host these than Facebook.
Alright, full updates on Reginald now. The following winter I hit a chunk of ice after getting called into work and killed the radiator and put a nice crack in the front bumper. The clear coat on the bumper and hood did NOT like winter in the slightest and it's not looking very good. Wear and tear along with rust have taken their toll, and I managed to hydroplane and spin the car on the highway last September. Front and rear bumpers were scuffed up pretty good and somewhat broken on the passenger side. Also, the car either has a bad head gasket OR the head is warped on the engine, both are common issues. It's drive able as long as I keep the heat on and keep an eye on the temp gauge. It's only overheated a dozen or more times in the last six months or so, so it's totally fine. A new exhaust leak has also appeared.
All this being said, Reginald is NOT going to make it too far into spring. Once temps get above 35°-40° F it's nearly impossible to keep the car from overheating without tossing it into low gear and driving around everywhere just under redline. Doing this seems to force the coolant to flow at least a little bit.
So I'm used car shopping this spring! I made a promise to myself after I started my new job that I would wait until spring 2019, and being that's only 11 days away, I'm getting very serious about replacing Reginald.
I had decided on maybe a 2015 Volvo V60 or a 2016 Mazda 6. The Volvo was great on my test drive, but there's just one problem: insurance.
You see, I'm a 20 year old male with an accident and a ticket on record, AND I live in Michigan, so insurance companies don't like me very much. My quote on the V60 was akin to $3000/year after Allstate did their best to get me the lowest rate possible. The Mazda 6 came in at a much more reasonable $2900/year. There's no way I'm paying nearly twice as much as the Stratus costs to insure ($1600/year). I'm back to square one, and apparently I'm very picky when it comes to used car shopping. I like to think of it as me not wanting to play the "give up and settle" game. I got a much more reasonable $2200/year quote on a 2007 Saab 9-5 Aero, but similar mileage to the Stratus and paying for premium fuel is a little off-putting. Same story is true for a Saab 9-3 or a Volvo C30, but I haven't gotten insurance quotes on them.
So without further ado, here's my current "requirement" list:
Similar or better mileage to the Stratus (18 city, 28 highway, 21 combined according to fueleconomy.gov)
I'd prefer a wagon, sedan, or hatchback
Ideally more power than the Stratus, but that's only 150hp
Most importantly, something that won't cost an arm and a leg to insure. My best bet is probably something older than 2010 or 2012
Budget will probably max out around $15,000 for something that I'd finance through a dealer; Probably under $10,000 for a cash purchase
I'm content to compromise on one of the first three for vehicles that are simply fun to drive or just plain interesting. I'm also willing to spend the top end of my budget for an extremely well-sorted older car out to the mid 1980's. The advantage here is they probably couldn't lose much value.
So far, the best I've been able to come up with is a 2005-2006 Saab 9-2X Linear with a manual transmission. I think it's interesting, stylish, and (hopefully) decent to insure since I'll be staying away from the WRX in a suit 9-2X Aero. Bonus points for being AWD.
Now I'm here to ask you people of GT Planet if you have any more ideas of cars that would be decent daily drivers to replace Reginald. If you have a feather in your cap that I haven't though about, let me know!
You can get away with some of the earlier SUV/Crossover models, but if you want a good sedan you can't go wrong with a Subaru Impreza from that time period (~2011).
I might suggest staying away from the Subaru/Saabaru since I've heard the EJs are prone to eating head gaskets. On the flip side, something I would suggest is a '97-'04 Buick Regal GS (or a Grand Prix GTP of a similar vintage, they're basically the same thing); they should be fairly common and not cost more than ~$5000 for a decent example, while also fulfilling all of your other requirements.
You can get away with some of the earlier SUV/Crossover models, but if you want a good sedan you can't go wrong with a Subaru Impreza from that time period (~2011).
Thanks Obelisk, I'll definitely take a look around at Imprezas of the era. The good thing with Subarus is they won't lose much value over the few years I'd own it.
I might suggest staying away from the Subaru/Saabaru since I've heard the EJs are prone to eating head gaskets. On the flip side, something I would suggest is a '97-'04 Buick Regal GS (or a Grand Prix GTP of a similar vintage, they're basically the same thing); they should be fairly common and not cost more than ~$5000 for a decent example, while also fulfilling all of your other requirements.
It seem the Saabaru is back on the table. The Regal GS does make me think in another direction, too. A fine piece of turn of the millennia GM mediocrity! In all seriousness, I'll take it into consideration and do some more research in that direction of car. Those also remind me of the soft spot I have for the '95-'99 Riviera...
A car I ran across yesterday has also piqued my interest. Apparently you could get a 2012-2013 Mazda 3 with a 2.0 Skyactiv engine. I've found one on the upper reaches of my budget a couple hundred miles away and am pretty interested. It'd have similar power numbers to the Stratus, but could weigh up to 400 lbs less and have Mazda's fun to drive nature. A big kicker for being a daily is also the excellent 27 city 38 highway mileage it can offer. The wild card here will be what insurance thinks of it.
Did someone say C30?!? It'd be the best, worst mistake you'd ever make . Unfortunately, it'd be expensive to insure, although what isn't expensive to insure in Michigan? Also, give your price point you'd need to venture to Chicago to get one since their pretty much non-existent in Michigan (although mine old one is still kicking around somewhere).
The Saabaru would be cool too, but finding one in Michigan might be a bit difficult. Actually finding one at all might be a little hard. I don't think they were all that popular, but if you could find one it'd be pretty awesome.
Did someone say C30?!? It'd be the best, worst mistake you'd ever make . Unfortunately, it'd be expensive to insure, although what isn't expensive to insure in Michigan? Also, give your price point you'd need to venture to Chicago to get one since their pretty much non-existent in Michigan (although mine old one is still kicking around somewhere).
The Saabaru would be cool too, but finding one in Michigan might be a bit difficult. Actually finding one at all might be a little hard. I don't think they were all that popular, but if you could find one it'd be pretty awesome.
My idea right now is the car I get will carry me over until insurance is a little less stupid. I WILL have a car that I can proudly display the prancing moose on someday!
As of right now, I'm looking at travel regardless to get a nice, clean, low-mileage car. There's a nice Saabaru in Massachusetts and a cheaper one in Virginia last I looked. As it is, the Mazda 3 I'm interested in is in Oshkosh, WI. Oh the things I'm willing to do to think I haven't given up on a fun car!
Thanks Obelisk, I'll definitely take a look around at Imprezas of the era. The good thing with Subarus is they won't lose much value over the few years I'd own it.
It seem the Saabaru is back on the table. The Regal GS does make me think in another direction, too. A fine piece of turn of the millennia GM mediocrity! In all seriousness, I'll take it into consideration and do some more research in that direction of car. Those also remind me of the soft spot I have for the '95-'99 Riviera...
A car I ran across yesterday has also piqued my interest. Apparently you could get a 2012-2013 Mazda 3 with a 2.0 Skyactiv engine. I've found one on the upper reaches of my budget a couple hundred miles away and am pretty interested. It'd have similar power numbers to the Stratus, but could weigh up to 400 lbs less and have Mazda's fun to drive nature. A big kicker for being a daily is also the excellent 27 city 38 highway mileage it can offer. The wild card here will be what insurance thinks of it.
First, thanks for your suggestions. I was definitely on-board with @Aerocoupe and his idea of an early 2000's GM car. That probably was going to be my way to go until I discovered the '12-'13 Skyactiv Mazda 3.
Without any further ado, here's Reginald's replacement:
A mostly tidy 2013 Mazda 3 with the 2.0 Skyactiv engine and a 6-speed manual! It's got just about 82,000 miles on the clock and is a total joy to drive! Driving back to back with the Stratus at home made me realize just how much better driving can be. The Mazda rides better, has sharper and quicker steering, feels much faster to drive, and has a huge amount of engagement with the manual. The clutch is comfortably light in traffic, but doesn't sink to the floor without any effort. Another plus is it looks much better than the Stratus and is very uncommon in the land of SUVs and burgers.
The Mazda 3 in Oshkosh turned out to be listed wrong on AutoTrader and ended up being an auto, but this one was about two hours closer in Schaumburg, Il. Schaumburg Toyota was great to work with and made it a really nice experience to buy the car. It was listed on their website for $8600, and I was quoted just over $9500 out the door. Some shrewd negotiation on my part got them down to $8700 for the car and a full tank of gas. Someone better at negotiating could have done better I'm sure, but both parties are happy and at the end of the day that's what matters.
Money-wise, it's going to cost more than Reginald to run. Insurance is right around $2500 or so, but the fuel savings should make it only about $50/month more expensive. For a nicer, newer, better looking, mechanically sound car with stick shift and bluetooth, I can live with it.
I'll make another post in the next week or two showing it off and showing what repairs and modifications I hope to do.
First, thanks for your suggestions. I was definitely on-board with @Aerocoupe and his idea of an early 2000's GM car. That probably was going to be my way to go until I discovered the '12-'13 Skyactiv Mazda 3.
Without any further ado, here's Reginald's replacement:
A mostly tidy 2013 Mazda 3 with the 2.0 Skyactiv engine and a 6-speed manual! It's got just about 82,000 miles on the clock and is a total joy to drive! Driving back to back with the Stratus at home made me realize just how much better driving can be. The Mazda rides better, has sharper and quicker steering, feels much faster to drive, and has a huge amount of engagement with the manual. The clutch is comfortably light in traffic, but doesn't sink to the floor without any effort. Another plus is it looks much better than the Stratus and is very uncommon in the land of SUVs and burgers.
The Mazda 3 in Oshkosh turned out to be listed wrong on AutoTrader and ended up being an auto, but this one was about two hours closer in Schaumburg, Il. Schaumburg Toyota was great to work with and made it a really nice experience to buy the car. It was listed on their website for $8600, and I was quoted just over $9500 out the door. Some shrewd negotiation on my part got them down to $8700 for the car and a full tank of gas. Someone better at negotiating could have done better I'm sure, but both parties are happy and at the end of the day that's what matters.
Money-wise, it's going to cost more than Reginald to run. Insurance is right around $2500 or so, but the fuel savings should make it only about $50/month more expensive. For a nicer, newer, better looking, mechanically sound car with stick shift and bluetooth, I can live with it.
I'll make another post in the next week or two showing it off and showing what repairs and modifications I hope to do.
So all in all it isn't all that bad. The paint isn't perfect, but it's WAY better than the paint on the Stratus. It needs a healthy clean up, especially with the sloppy wax job the dealer did. Also, as you can see, the headlights and tail lights have some pretty common oxidation and seal problems.
The interior is overall very nice and clean. The cruise control buttons have some wear on them, but it's not that bad. The homemade shift knob on the other hand...
As it sits, my list of things to do should be:
New headlights
New tail lights
New reverse lights
Floor mats (none in it)
New shift knob
Remove the front license plate bracket
A thorough clean inside and out
A preventative maintenance run-through
If anything else comes up, I'll be sure to update the thread!
I replaced the wiper blades on Monday, picked up a hatchback cover from craigslist on Thursday, and did an oil change and put in a K&N filter tonight. Looking forward to floor mats coming in next week and some more odds and ends to take care of!
All kinds of new things! Lots of little improvements and small projects.
Starting from where I left off, floor mats! Brand new OEM straight from ebay. I couldn't beat the price.
So much nicer having these, especially to cover the stained carpet on the driver's side.
Following the floor mats, I removed the front license plate mount (huzzah for living in Michigan!). Unfortunately, the preferred method of mounting the license plate bracket is using two self-tappers right into the plastic bumper . To fix that problem, I drilled the holes out to about 1/4" and countersunk them to make things nice and flush. Two plastic body rivets filled the holes and it almost looks OEM.
Two more goodies came in the mail a little while later. 1st was a pair of caps for the windshield wiper arms:
So much better. Small details like this are way too important to me.
Next up was the most exciting new thing for the Mazda: a new shift knob! I spent way too much time shopping around for one before finally settling on a middle of the road price point.
So JDM, bro!
Old vs. new. The sorry excuse for the old knob weighed under 50 grams, so the new one coming in around 340g made the shift so much smoother and the car even more enjoyable to drive! Another bonus is how good the new one looks in the car.
I really appreciate how much it blends in with the rest of the interior. The only thing I'd change if I ordered it again would be to opt for the non-perforated leather to it would blend in just a fuzz better. Still, the leather feels great and the aluminum looks good without being able to freeze and/or burn your hand during summer/winter.
Ebay came through again for me, as I was able to order some new rubber plugs to fill the holes in the passenger side rocker panel.
On top of this, there was a plastic plug missing from the passenger's rear door.
Luckily, I did some quick thinking and opened the door to the Stratus. Aha! One minute with a screwdriver and I was in business!
To those of you who are as anal as I am, yes, I did clean the car underneath the new plugs on the rocker and in the door sill.
You still with me? Good, because we're almost done with my odds and ends.
The rubber door protectors, even though they somewhat blended in, still had to go. I couldn't help but only look at them and think of how I didn't like them every time I looked at the car.
Some elbow grease, WD-40, a plastic razor blade, and rubbing alcohol made all the difference!
Also along the way I got myself a sticker:
Finally, my dad was looking on Facebook Marketplace early April and found a guy selling Mazda 3 wheels for a really cheap price. The only issue was they were in Elkhart, IN, about a two hour drive from home. Road trip it is then!
If you ever find yourself in Elkhart, stop by Heinnies. Take a look at this monster burger they made.
Mmmmmmmmmmm, love me a beautiful plate of 'Murica.
Here they are after being dismounted. Once I sand the corrosion off of them and repaint them (I'm thinking white, try to convince me of a different color), they'll get the winter tires from the Stratus mounted on them and then I'll be ready to go once snow flies next year!
So there we have it, a month and a half of updates on the car! It's still a blast to drive around, and the shift is just so good that I love rowing through the gears any chance I get. I have to say, when I'm ready for this car to go, the new generation Mazda 3's are going to be really tempting...
Since the last post, not a whole lot has changed. I got a Griot's Garage 6" polisher and played around a bit before putting on a ceramic coating. The whole process went pretty well, and it's outrageously easy to keep the paint clean compared to before.
I didn't take any pictures of the process because I'm lazy, but trust me, it looked pretty good once I was done.
Next up was installation of a Curt 1-1/4" receiver system so I could tow my boat behind the Mazda. I've got nothing but good to say about the whole process. The receiver easily bolted to the rear frame and the included tools made it very hard to do it wrong. A plug and play trailer light wiring system from Curt also took about ten minuted to hook up to the car.
Even though it's only a little hatchback, it pulls my little Daysailer without a problem!
After the trailer hitch install, I decided to change the gear oil in the transmission. The Mazda manual says it's life of the car oil, but I wanted to be safe, especially with the harder loads that towing can put on the transmission. I went to my local auto parts store and picked up a few quarts of Amsoil Severe Gear 75W-90 gear oil.
Rated for extreme use on commercial vehicles, it should manage to hold up to the extreme wear and tear of occasional light towing.
My gear oil change also coincided with a new set of tires for the little Mazda. I was happy to move the well-worn Goodyears out to the dumpster while installing a nice new (and cheap!) set of Cooper CS5 Ultra Touring tires. (Tire buying pro tip: ask your supplier if they have blemish tires available. 9 times out of 10, you can't tell the difference between a blemished and non-blemished, and you can save a nice bit of money!)
New vs. Old
Unfortunately, though, not all is good news. Last night my dad was taking down some trees in the yard, and while we were taking one down it didn't quite fall how we wanted it to. Error on both of our parts made it so the tree fell perpendicular to how we wanted, and it damaged the front of our travel trailer and halfway landed on the back of my Mazda.
I was fortunate that the tree trunk grew in such a way that, when it fell, it wrapped up, behind, and over my car. Had the trunk been straight, the rear end of my car would have been crushed. I'm also lucky that there are no new dents from the tree fall, and that none of the windows were damaged.
My game plan is to wash and clay bar the damaged areas today so I can get a good assessment of what's dirt, what's sap, and what's a scratch. Then I can start compounding with a medium foam pad and M100 and hopefully get most of the scratches out. It look like the weather will cooperate for reapplying the ceramic coat after the compound and polish, so hopefully it will be mostly fixed in a week's time.
I brought these outside before cleaning them up with some rubbing alcohol and putting a couple layers of sealant on them. Hopefully they'll stay this good looking for as long as I have the car.
. To fix that problem, I drilled the holes out to about 1/4" and countersunk them to make things nice and flush. Two plastic body rivets filled the holes and it almost looks OEM.
