I should also point out that negative camber isn't the main culprit when it comes to excessive tire wear - toe is. I mean yes, the more extreme example I posted earlier (the green sedan) probably eats through tires as a result of extreme camber, but a car with a few degrees of camber shouldn't have issues as long as their toe is aligned within spec. I actually had my alignment shop zero out my toe to prevent tire wear. Having a few degrees of camber (up to about 3 to 3.5 degrees) actually helps with performance oriented driving (I can go into detail if need be) but admittedly that's not really the reason my car has a hair of camber.

 

I think your car looks great and makes you happy. Happy is good!!

 

Thanks, and it makes me happy sometimes....lol. I've had somewhat of a string of bad luck with this car so it's still not where it ought to be given the amount of time and money I have sunk into it thusfar. I've even contemplated selling it a few times. But it's a few thousand dollars away from being "good enough" so I suppose i'll continue slugging it out.

 

Just a heads up, my wheels are for sale. I'm asking $900 for the set. Message me for details. Please note however that I only login here about twice a week so if I don't reply right away that's why. Thanks!

 

[QUOTE=HOT FIYA;856223]Just a heads up, my wheels are for sale. I'm asking $900 for the set. Message me for details. Please note however that I only login here about twice a week so if I don't reply right away that's why. Thanks. Message sent

 

[QUOTE=Djo;856227]Replied.

 

I've been making some progress on my car so I figured it was time for an update. I finished painting my valve covers & intake manifold plenums. I used VHT high-temp engine enamel. Did a few coats of their primer, then a few coats of silver and topped it off with a few coats of their clearcoat. All in all I'm very pleased with how they turned out. They're loads better than the dingy, stained mess they were before. I'm currently in the process of reassembling everything. My roommate is a technician for Mercedes-Benz so he has been a huge help throughout the process. I decided to upgrade to the NeedsWings cork gaskets for my intake manifolds too. I'm actually just waiting on my new throttle body gasket to arrive and then I can pretty much finish it up. I also installed my new R1 Concepts slotted rotors and ceramic pads. You can see the front rotor in the picture below but unfortunately the rear rotor has a bit of glare. But you get the picture....slotted rotors are slotted rotors, lol. Oh yeah and the NeedsWings oil catch can I've had laying around for over a year is finally mounted/installed too. I lost the hardware to it a while back which is why it never got installed. But I messaged Rob at NeedsWings a few months ago and he was able to come through for me on some new hardware. Finally, my new front lip/side splitters arrived yesterday. No, they are not specific to the Crossfire. I am dropping the car off at the bodyshop as soon as I have everything under the hood back together and buttoned up. They will be installing and rolling my new (to me) fenders, moutning & modifying the new front lip/side splitters to fit the car and then respraying the entire car. For anyone following my thread you'll know that I had the car resprayed last year and that whole situation turned out to be a nightmare. The paintjob turned out terrible - it's ridden with fisheyes, tape marks, runs....you name it. I am not changing the color however as I have decided to stick with Obsidian Black Metallic. I love the color because it's kind of gives the car an "OEM Plus" feel and it pays homage to the Crossfire's sister car, the SLK. But the person that I am having paint it this go around is extremely reputable, I've seen a lot of his work first hand and he came highly referred by my detailer. I also have new wheels that should be arriving mid to late March. So yeah, I have a lot of things going on at the moment but am hopeful to have everything done by late April. As always, thank you reading and stay tuned for more updates!


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Got everything buttoned up under the hood. Below are some before & after pictures. Also got the Needswings oil catch can mounted too. Only part I have laying around that I still need to install is my OEM SRT-4 boost gauge. Otherwise, the car is ready to head to the bodyshop for it's exterior makeover which will consist of two new (to me) front fenders, a new front lip, new side splitters and a fresh respray of Mercedes-Benz Obsidian Black Metallic. After that my only other plans for this summer are to delete the resonator, which I should've done back when I had my custom axle-back done.


Before


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After


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Before


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After


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Engine looks great! Nice work!

 

Looks nice, great job! Boy you have a beautiful car.

 

Thanks!

Appreciate it.


So little update. Car is still at the bodyshop getting the finishing touches done on it's winter makeover. It's odd to think that I've only driven the car 3 times since December. While it's been down I've been busy ordering some new parts for it. As I had mentioned earlier in this thread, new wheels are coming. It took a little while to get everything sorted with the wheel company but I'm happy to report that everything finally went through and they should be on their way to me shortly. The issue was that the company is brand spankin' new and they had to fulfill all of their vendor orders before they could sell me a set. Additionally, they are currently selling the wheels in the US market so I had to persuade them to sell me a set without raping me on shipping......lol. Thankfully they were happy to oblige to my requests and we struck a deal. It's exciting because i'll have the first set of these wheels in the US. I also went ahead and ordered the European market clear side markers. I've wanted a set since I bought my car, and now that I found a new place to inspect my car that seemingly doesn't care about anything (they didn't even mention anything about my Lamin-X redout taillight overlays) I can run a set of them without worrying about failing inspection.


Anywho, stay tuned for updates. Everything should be coming together later this month at which point I'm sure I will have tons of new pictures to share!

 

Figured I was overdue on providing an update. I should be getting the car back this coming week no later than Thursday. Here's an overview of what I've been up to since I took the car out of commission in November '15 to save everyone the trouble of skimming over my thread.

• Painted valve covers & intake manifold plenums (VHT primer/paint/clear)
• Needswings cork intake manifold gaskets
• New OEM valve cover gaskets
• Needswings oil catch can
• R1 Concepts slotted rotors (front/rear)
• Centric C-Tek ceramic brake pads (front/rear)
• Custom front lip/side splitters (new setup, different from my previous)
• Full exterior respray in MB Obsidian Black Metallic
• Front grill painted OEM gloss black
• *New wheels (will reveal once I have pictures of them on the car)

And here's what I have sitting around waiting to go on the car upon it's return home.

• European market clear side markers (front/rear)
• DressUpBolts titanium valve stem caps
• Moddiction titanium bling bolt fender washers

I also need to fix my headliner again. I had a suede headliner installed about a year or so ago and like the OEM one, it too has begun to come unglued and is starting to sag.


That's it for now. Hopefully i'll have the car back in my possession in the coming week and will be able to throw some pictures up of the newest look. Thanks and stay tuned!

 

YOU have a very discerning eye for making the most of the Crossfire design! Are you in the business?

 

Thanks. I've never been one to leave any of my cars stock. I view my cars as an outlet for me to express myself and let the creative juices flow. Given the limited aftermarket for our cars, I've had a lot of fun going the custom route for numerous things.


And I'm not quite sure I understand the question. In what business?

 

Automotive design, engineering or own a body shop? With your talent you could be in the field somewhere.

 

Nope. I'm a sales supervisor in the cable/internet/phone/home security industry......lol. Cars are just a hobby for me. As much as I love cars, I couldn't really see myself working in the automotive industry. I find that mixing work with play often makes for a bad combination. I'd love to do sales for a speed shop of some sort but the pay is generally pretty awful. There is a local shop near me that I've done business with numerous times over the years. They sell aftermarket parts, have an in-ground alignment rack, do dyno tuning and even counter-balancing for road course cars. A friend of mine worked there years ago as a front counter sales consultant and barely cleared $35k a year. That kinda money won't even keep me afloat in Northern VA.

 

Finally got the car back together. The paint and bodywork turned out excellent! I'll have a bigger rear spacer on by next week and my painter still has my front grill for the moment, but otherwise it's officially back on the road. Here are a few pictures I've taken so far on my vacation in the Outer Banks. Also check out the videos I took of the road for the beach house I'm staying at on my Instagram if you want a few good laughs. (@osshwa)

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Wow.....that's a nice look!

 

Really nice job, I hope you get that headliner thing taken care of. Now what are you going to do for fun? I am wondering if the color black has anything to do with failing liners due to heat build up. A survey might be useful. Anyway, that's a really sharp looking car and I'll bet more than a few owners will be looking for those wheels/

 

Looking great Josh.......Rims look awesome! Thanks for the pics.