quote Originally posted by exoticse: Did the florida delivery arrive yet ?

Yes. It arrived around 12:30 today. I hope to pick it up on Tuesday.

Last week I stopped by WFC's and bought re-tweaked spare tire. I've been driving for nearly decade w/o a spare to fit over the 13" rotors.


This is how the tire will fit inside the compartment.



A tight fit, but it'll be okay for now.

[This message has been edited by madcurl (edited 06-15-2009).]

quote Originally posted by madcurl: Yes. It arrived around 12:30 today. I hope to pick it up on Tuesday.

Since the front clip was 50-miles away, I decided to multi-task.



I stopped off at Greyhound to check out the front nose and make sure I had enough room to fit in the convertible. Right off the bat, the lady behind the counter informed me that the package wasn't properly packaged. Greyhound wouldn't allow me to go around and see so the pics are from 10-15 feet away.



The nose didn't appear to have any visible damage from where I was standing.


After taking a few pics headed to the alignment shop 8-blocks away.





After the alignment, headed to the movies to see, "Terminator Salvation" and around 16:30HRs I was back at Greyhound to pick up the part.


They asked me to pull around back for pick-up.








Like whoredom... everything seem to fit.

[This message has been edited by madcurl (edited 06-16-2009).]

It seems my front bumper has gotten around. I counted at least 5-different tickets. Sweaty men touching my bumper!

[This message has been edited by madcurl (edited 06-17-2009).]

The drive back was beautiful






except for trucks passing another truck going 1-mph faster than the one he/she's trying to pass.



Yeah, the speed limit is 65-mph and I'm going how fast?



Get this, I've seen it go slow as 25-mph while passing another one.

Beautiful mountains with train tracks dug into the mountain side.

[This message has been edited by madcurl (edited 06-17-2009).]

quote Originally posted by exoticse: Glad to see you got your part from Jimmy O.K. You left out a couple of important things however. First,......how was the movie,..and second what's up with the wheel gap on the daily driver !?? You know how the old saying goes,...it's (the wheelgap) too big, it's too big !! hehehe

The movie was great. Spoiler alert: There's a reason why there was only one terminator inside Skynet's HQ.

As for the daily driver I've gone through two sets of after market springs... Eibach is one of them. Come to find out, nobody makes a true correct lowered springs for the Eclipse GST Sypder. Do to the added weight of the conv. (300 pounds I'm guessing) the spring are okay at first, but even with camber kits the freaking suspension drops way beyond the 1- inch drop down to 3 inches and the ride get worse.



The only way to correct the problem is to use coil overs @ 600-700 bucks. I'm cool just the way the car sits and my $220 tires don't wear out as fast.


Finally home and with the concrete hardened I have room for tweaking;

[This message has been edited by madcurl (edited 06-17-2009).]

IMO the front bumper is near 99% perfect and quality appear to 100%. The thickness and non warping is what I expected. Granted, nobody expects it to be "paint ready" so a little bit of massaging will be needed. As to be expected there are a few dib-bits here and there ( counted three) but nothing to complain about. I'll have my glass guy fix that up.





Upon inspection I found a dip in the bumper caused by the shipper. I didn't notice it first, but I suspect it was a weak spot where a air bubble was created and it gave way when pressure was applied. Like I said, nothing that my glass guy can't fix. You'd be a moron to expect the part to be 100% perfect.


The dip or crack isn't present on the back side so no doubt it was a weak spot in front.


The backside is nice and evenly coated.


Over-all, the bumper is all-good. My only suggestion is to use bubble wrap on long hauls to the west. Otherwise, one or two transfers might be okay, but in my case it was nearly 5-bus exchanges.

[This message has been edited by madcurl (edited 06-17-2009).]