Started to sticker bomb the wink.

Started to sticker bomb my Wink 5 Panel Panoramic Mirror.  

Made a lot of progress...then hit a snag.

Well, I think I made a lot of progress today. In 3 hours of work I got the JDM radiator support separated, and the drivers side mocked up.  The snag I hit was on the passenger side.  The oem hid ballast won't fit with the ABS unit in place.  So it looks like I'm removing ABS earlier than I planned. 

Here's the JDM radiator support with everything removed right before i started spot weld drilling...again.

 

Here's the driver side of the JDM support with spot welds drilled.

Here's the JDM radiator support separated from the rest of the nose cut. 

Here's the JDM radiator support bolted in place.

View of the two bolts holding it in place for mocking up purposes.  Corresponding two are holding the other side up.

Here's a view of passenger side headlight hitting the ABS unit.  Notice how far the headlight mounting holes are from where they are suppose to be.   =(

Closer view of the HID ballast hitting the ABS unit.

And a teaser shot.  The drivers side mocked up.  Everything looks lined up so far the headlight and fenders meet perfectly! =) 

 Here's a photo with everything minus the passenger side headlight mocked up.  Everything is lining up perfect! 

 Front shot. 

I hate drilling spot welds.

Got some work done today.  I was able to remove my USDM radiator support.  Took about 4 or 5 hours to drill out all the spot welds and get the support completely off.  I bought two 3/8" Double Sided Rotary Spot Weld Cutter's from Harborfreight.com and with a 3/8" Reversible Air Drill With Keyed Chuck and Key from Harbor Freight as well.  Drilling out the spot welds was not fun.  There are way too many of them.  There are a few that are not on completely flat areas so keeping the bit steady was a little difficult.  After I drilled all the welds out I to a chisel and 3lb mallet to the areas that I couldn't pull off by hand.  Some areas of the radiator support just popped off after drilling the spot welds out.  Others needed some encouragement from my chisel and mallet. 

I'm only half way there after removing the USDM support.  I've gotta drill out all the spot welds on the JDM nosecut.  I'll continue that another day.

Here's the USDM support right before I started on the spot welds.  Everything basically removed.

Passenger side.  After drilling a handful of spot welds out. 

Drivers side.  You can see where the drill bit walks. 

The USDM support finally off after quite a few hours of work! 

My front end without a radiator support.

Drivers side without the support.  Got some cleaning up of the metal to do. 

Passenger side without the radiator support.  More cleaning off to do. 

Benen Tripod front strut tower bar

Spending spree

Ack!  So I kind of went on a parts spending spree.  I"ve got a 4040 prop valve coming in, Spoon Style power mirrors, a Benen Tripod Front strut bar and some welding gear (auto darkening helmet and some gloves) coming in. 

Now to actually do some wrenching and work on that front end!.

Meguirs Headlight Restoration Kit

Decided to use Meguirs Headlight restoration kit for my headlights.  Wanted to use them on my USDM headlights to increase "sell-ability". My JDM ones didn't really need to be restored but I used it on them anyway.  This product definitely did a great job.  It requires a lot of elbow grease though.  The sanding pads (1000, 3000) were to be used on a hand sanding holder.  Only the buffing pad was made as an attachment for a drill.  The kit came with a polish as well as a protectant to be used after the buffing process. 

Passenger side before.

Passenger side after.

Driver side before.

Driver side after.

Driver side before.

Driver side after.

Passenger side after.  (no before shot, sorry.)