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Now, I also have some cosmetic updates as well. Neither of these projects are actually completed yet, but I will post photos of where they are up to.

First of all, I decided to respray my front bar. 2 years of being about 30mm off the ground had taken their toll, and I also wanted to modify it a little bit. First up, I cleared around the damaged areas with an angle grinder to give the new fibreglass something to grip to:

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Doing this actually revealed how poor quality these cheap copy front bars actually are. This one is actually so full of bog rather than fibreglass, it really is very poor. Time to make it a bit better!

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I actually wanted to build a lip up around the inside of the bottom of the bar, simply to give me something to screw into so I can install a front diffuser later on. So first I wet up where I wanted to build the lip:

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I then layed up 5 layers of 6oz fibreglass cloth.

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This is it after curing:

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Also patched up the damaged bits in the process

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I then cleaned it all up a bit using a rotary tool

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And then these mounting tabs on top of the bar had actually giving me quite a lot of trouble in the past, being very flimsy they were always snapping off. Enter 4 layers of carbon fibre

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Like to see ya snap off now ya jerks :glare:

I am now in the process of smoothing it all out more and getting it ready for paint. This is where it was at after the first coat of filler-primer last night:

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But wait, there's more!

This project was a bit of fun really, but something I have wanted to do for a long time. Standard GT non-xenon headlights, extra condensation:

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Place in oven at 100 degrees for 8 minutes or until crispy and golden!

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All disassembled:

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Will give this a good polish while it's off!

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Now for the main course. I want to take this:

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And fit it inside the stock reflector, like so:

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Which will require a bit of this:

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But first! I need to do this:

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Bit of dremel work gives me this!

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Rinse and repeat

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That is as far as I have gotten with those. Undecided how I'm going to finish them, but I think I will paint the stock reflector and E46-R shroud satin black. I was going to paint the cut-off shield behind the projector red to give it a very aggressive look, like this (credit for this work goes to EvoXenon)

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but I don't think I will do that. I wanted a classier look, not necessarily a more aggressive look. I don't think the red would suit my car very well.

That's almost more aggressive than red! Haha. Does look awesome though. I think I'll just leave them clear for now and see how it all looks put together. If I don't like it I can paint it, but if I paint it and don't like it then I'm pretty screwed.

Shinobi how's are your headlights going? Does the paint cope with the heat ok? Do you get any bits of light coming out from the side reflector next to the projector? I sorta suspect these projectors will leak a bit of light out the sides, trying to figure out how to seal them. Might chat to Steve again.

Edited by Hanaldo

Hmm maybe try a lighter colour like a turquoise or something.

The headlights are all finished and on my car now and work a treat. Light output is so much better!

Yeah the paint is still fine. Just make sure it's high temp that you paint it with. My projectors are mounted a little further back so the shroud can sit flush with the reflector. And cause of that the only light that you see is the light coming out of the projector.

I'll try get EvoXenon in on here so he can share some of his insight

Edited by shinobi_s14

Sprayed them satin black last night, takes the chrome edge off them, makes them look a bit more factory I think. I like them. With any luck I should get them finished today or tomorrow.

Well they are done and ready to go on the car. But I've just finished spraying my front bar and some other bits, so the car is currently covered up. Don't want to risk putting dust in the air by moving anything, so I won't do any more tonight. But everything should be done in the next couple of days!

So, car is finally all finished. Spent today wiring the bi-xenons and then tucking the headlight wiring to neaten things up, 4 HID ballast gets pretty messy! Looks much better now. Also decided to remove the eyelids. Anyway, some photos:

First, another one of the front bar:

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Another thing I fixed up while I was at it, some of you might remember this damage I picked up at Powercruise last year:

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Fixed and sprayed:

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And blended in:

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Then, here is the final product with my headlights:

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Also took the car for a drive for the first time since I started. Drives totally fine, can't tell that I've touched the cam timing. Of course I'm not boosting at all, so will need to wait until Tuesday to see how the car goes on the dyno. Only mayyyybe issue is that I drove 46 km's tonight and the car stayed very cool, never reaching normal operating temp. Water temps only just reached 70 degrees by the end of my trip and the oil temps never went over 60 degrees. They are normally both up around 80-85 within 10 minutes of driving. So I'm thinking perhaps my thermostat is stuck open. I'll check that out.

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