Mad tyte KDM build

[Dudermagee]

looking good as always man

[96CD7]

ewwww

[1fastdad]

Looks really good man. Love how kdm is starting to really become popular.

[06RawRsx]

love it. Nice work on the lips!

[244Brick]

Looking good sir!!

[andybob]

Crazy amount of patience for sitting there that long buffing the lips out. Epic attention to detail. Fucking well done sir. Well done.

Thanks a lot man! I'm a very meticulous person when it comes to my car. I think it really shows through in this build.

Took a little video of my cold air intake. That's pretty much the only performance thing I've done on this car. Eventually (I don't plan on selling soon) I'd like to do headers and a mellow exhaust and maybe a piggy back fuel controller. We'll see.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSpk4ggIoow"]06 Spectra CAI - YouTube[/ame]

I need a new clutch pretty bad, hence the kinda shitty shifts, plus it's a bitch trying to drive and take video. lol

All my OEM mudflaps are broken, so I ordered some new ones straight from the motherland:



.....



Too bad the rears don't fit. When I bought them they said they were for an 06-09 Spectra but I think they're actually for an 07-09 Spectra. In 07 they did a facelift to the front and rear of the car with slightly different bumpers, fenders and quarters, trunk, and lights. Oh well. They were only $25 so I'm not going to make a big fuss about it.

Also, I went up to Syracuse last week and took some pics with a friend. Neither of us are photographers, but here are a few snaps:







On the hunt for an OEM front lip (super hard to find) but if I can find one I am going to pick it up. Other than that next week I plan to take apart the headlights to get rid of the amber pieces and I might look into doing a 35% tint all around. Other than that, that'll be all this year. Need to start setting money aside for a house.

Next year though, we go lower and wider. Already have my wheel specs figured out and I'm looking into a different set of coilovers. Only other thing I need to figure out is the frame notch. Then save up some money and do it.

[aeok18109]

Crazy amount of patience for sitting there that long buffing the lips out. Epic attention to detail. Fucking well done sir. Well done.

[244Brick]

Damn, your car is so clean!!! I need to get some detailing stuff BAD

[rice4life]

...

so few dents, I am so jelly...

If I did this, the paint would just show all of the dents where people hit my car with their doors better than it already does.

looks great man

[andybob]

So I decided to wash my car today to get it ready to clay bar and wax it. After hitting a few panels with the clay bar, I got looking at it an decided it was really time to give the paint some love.

I ended up clay barring the majority of the panels and then buffing the whole thing with my 3M compound by hand.

It took 10 hours to get it all done and waxed, but good lord I couldn't be any more happy with the way it turned out.

Here is a little spot before, you can see all the little scratches and huge key marks from the car being key'd long before I owned it.



After:



Whole right side done:





Roof:



Left side done (after wax):



Here is a really good comparison pic. To the left is done with the rubbing compound, to the right isn't. You can see the line pretty easily (its about mid-door):



All done:



Then, I gave the lips of the wheels some more love:



Then I went around the whole car, waxed the windows with detail spray (works really good), cleaned all the crud out of the panel gaps, wiped out the inside of the doors, and called it a night.

Hoping to get some pictures done pretty soon.

[rice4life]

Get a stack of paper and put it between the wheel and fender while at full lock, then turn wheel lock to lock. Make sure you start thin then work thicker.

The magical Korean metal is very easy to work with on the fenders and you can pull them a little by using this method.

Remember to heat up the paint so it doesn't crack too.

Or just wait till they are wider o: Looks great though, I cannot wait to see the wheels widened

[andybob]

Little update.

Feels good to be driving on these wheels again. Front is rubbing really bad on slow speed turns. I can turn the wheel about half way and that's about it. lol

Since the fenders are already pretty fucked, I'm gonna leave it the way it is. Once the wheels are widened and I have the 9's up front it wont be nearly as bad since I'll have more stretch. Hoping next week it will be nicer so I can clean up the outside and take some pics.

[andybob]

Waxed my centercaps last night, then threw the bolts in:



Then did this:



And put everything on:











Added some preload to the rear coils. Found out the bodies are froze (rust i think) in the mounts, can't turn them at all. Even with a lot of WD-40 and some heat, they wont budge.

When it gets nicer out (raining atm) I'll wash, clay bar, and wax the car and take some more pics. Pretty happy with the way everything turned out, wheels look really good on the car.

[1mellowkid]

finally some progress....

[andybob]

Update.

Woke up this morning, polished the front wheels, waxed them, then took a little break.

Here are the wheels:





I then had to go to the store and get some new rubber washers for my valvestems, and some more wax.

Once I got back, I got to work. Laid everything out:



I waxed the faces and also waxed the lips again, then started with assembling.

Started by taping off the lips to keep from scratching them up when dropping the faces.

Found out I had to do this to make the faces drop in. Made them pretty much slide into place. Had to whack them just a little with a soft faced deadblow.



Once the face was on, I flipped the wheel and started with the bolts that threaded into the spoke area first, that way it would draw the face in (if it wasn't quite where it needed to be yet) and align everything else. Used locktite on everything.





Made them snug, but not overly tight. Tightened them in a start pattern like you would with a 5-lug wheel.

Then did the valvestems, pic of the new rubber washer and old dry rotted one, I'm amazed they didn't leak air.



Then did the nuts and bolts:



Once all the hardware was in, I snugged everything down. I'd tighten a bolt, go a 180 degrees, snug that one, you get the idea. I was going to torque them, but my wrench only went down to like 40 flt pounds and they felt like they were going to snap. Instead I just went by feel. They aren't overtight, I think I got them good, at least I hope like hell they are fine. lol

I think with the locktite though I'll be fine, no way in hell the nuts are going to back off the bolts.

Anyways, 2 wheels done:



And of course, it wouldn't be a proper project without fucking something up. Pulled a complete newb move and cross threaded one of the nuts. So I had to go back out to the store and i found one that would work:



It has a nylon o-ring thing on it, but I locktite'd it anyways, just to be safe.

Boom, all 4 done:



While all that was going on, I also took the cosmetic bolts out of my centercaps and gave them some love in the brass tumbler, turned out good:



Then while helping my dad with some stuff, I noticed my headlights were getting pretty cloudy, so I buffed them quick.

Before:





After:





Ate some porkchops, came back out, and cleaned up my centercaps all nice. Then threw a coat of wax on them:



Then loaded up the car to be at the tire shop tomorrow morning by 8:



The inside of my car is pretty clean and I want to keep it that way, hence all the rags. lol

So tomorrow once the tires are on, I'll come home, add some preload on the springs in the rear coilovers, adjust the height, and be done for now. Depending on the weather (supposed to rain off/on) I'll start cleaning the outside of my car (wash, clay bar, wax, etc.)

I gotta say, today was a good day. /icecube