The Red Coupe - Bodywork Confidence

Since the last update I was pretty much burnt out on sweaty sun-baked weekend work until I got some actual bodywork confidence. I wasn't getting a whole lot of body work, but as stated previously, some panels were in need of alignment and repair. I dropped my car off with my body guy Jason in Catonsville, MD (Performance Collision) and went on vacation. GD my trip to San Diego was awesome...I really gotta get back out there...but I digress. A few weeks later my car was returned to me with the following things done:

- hood alignment (past functional adjustment)
- repaired rust from battery tray area and lower rear valence
- refreshed body line texture
- painted mirrors and other bits
- new painted 'is' front lip (lost the last one to a large tire carcass after dark on I-95)
- replacement front apron painted

The hood is just about dead on (without metal work) and the valence rust repair was outstanding. I was still waiting on a replacement 'is' decklid spoiler I could have painted and install and I ended up getting my hands on one a couple weeks later. Since the rear end finally looked presentable, I moved quick to get my stashed Stromung exhaust installed with all new mounting hardware. Unfortunately my buddy Tim had an accident messing up his thumb pretty bad so instead of doing install with him, I dropped my car off at Euromotive to get the install completed while I washed my other car that had been on road duty during the repairs. At the end of the afternoon, I got the call that it was ready.

It sounds very throaty and deep, not annoying at all, really a great compliment to this old straight six. Over-run burble is nice, but will be much better once I throw some headers at this thing down the road. In the meantime I'm more than pleased. With this weather I get the pleasure of hearing the pipes sing for a couple of hours a day. Mhmm.

After a few weeks passed, VAG Fair 2010 came around. I saw a few e30s there and I was pretty disappointed I didn't get a chance to get more done before then. With H2oi around the corner I had all the motivation I needed. It also helped that my work schedule was getting back to normal and I'd have Fridays and Saturdays to allocate for the next few weeks. First things first, I'd need to make an updated to-do list and order some parts.