I dropped my car off at Ming on a sunny Thursday afternoon and headed over to McDonald's for more cramming while I waited. Although I was quoted 3 hours, it was almost 4 before they called telling me it was good to go. Apparently even though I was quoted for only 3 dents to be removed, they found 7 dents and pulled all of them out, at no extra charge. What a bunch of champs. As a bonus, they gave me a significant discount for knowing Gerick (@d_d0ubleg, aka the man with the White Rocket Bunny RC350) as Ming sponsors his car. Score! The manager even gave me some discounted rates for work I may want done in the future. I'm sold!
At this point, it was all cramming from here on out. After completing both days of the written test, I had some downtime to bring the car to Autoglass Soutions for a new front windshield. The Alberta winters and the constant back and forth between Edmonton and Calgary was not kind to it, and there were easily more than 5 big chips. The rest of the front end was still pristine thanks to the paint protection I have. A worthwhile investment. In the downtime I also tackled the roof, which I had been putting off for more than a year. When I first performed the paint correction, I was too tired to complete the roof and it was too high to reach comfortably. However, every time I get out of the car or fill gas, I always see the scraches and holograms on the paintwork and it was aggravating to say the least. Now, the roof is pretty damaged as it is, and has a few rust spots at the front from the years of previous neglect. However, with all paint-related projects, I became obsessed with a perfect paint correction and spent something like 3 hours on the roof alone. The finish came out really well as I had paid Auto Obsessed a visit and picked up some Meguiar's 105 cutting compound, which far outperforms the stuff available at Canadian Tire, which I had used previously. I also spent some time hand polishing the door handle wells, which had deep scratches, and touched up most of the car with some paint and a fine brush.
After completing the practical exam, I was off to San Francisco for some downtime and good food. Upon returning, I installed a K&N Intake on the car for a bit more noise. I know that this is a bit of a controversial modification because the intake air is generally warmer than before, possibly reducing performance. However, it definitely sounds better and my butt dyno believes that it has more mid and upper range power. I also had an appointment later that week to have my rear bumper repainted in the spots that had flaked. The shop I used honored the warranty, but really didn't do a fantastic repaint job. I could still see fine sanding marks and some imperfections. However, I had planned on getting a different shop in the future to do a repaint anyways, so it was enough just to touch the bumper up, even if it isn't perfect.
Which brings me to the coilover install. Yesterday, I brought my car in to TT Automotive for the install. Now before I get started, I have to say that this is one of the friendliest shops I've ever been to. It's almost as much of a meetup and chill spot as it as a shop, and they welcome everyone with wide open arms. Apparently Terence and Teresa (the shop owners) were out on an errand when I arrived, so Alan (Terence's brother) was running the shop. He went over what he was going to do, asked me about ride height, and wrapped up some odds and ends before getting started. We decided on a ride height that resulted in about a 1 finger gap between the tire and the fender so that it was low but not to the point that there would be excess rubbing. We also decided to run the coilovers on the lowest damping initially to let the springs settle and then I could increase the damping as needed.
