[clg82]

Originally Posted by gtfoxy

How’s the ride compare?

The new look…

[Smokin19]

Replaced engine cross braces with refurbished and painted new ones.

[gtfoxy]

Originally Posted by willzilla

Nice! Haha, and yeah... I guess it's good I already have 5 kids so I don't need anymore anyways! Lol.

The big console overlay piece started to come up a bit right around the knee bolsters so I peeled it up and ended up adding a little adhesion promoter (which I wanted to avoid as it can potentially damage the plastic underneath). With the adhesion promoter the overlay went down and it was 100x stickier, lol, and has not budged since.

I also pulled up the shifter trim piece as it was kind of floated up a bit in the back by the parking brake and I added some additional 3m adhesive and re-installed it and it's now nice and flush.

Yesterday I went ahead and installed the infotainment screen piece as well as the piece that goes around the start engine button

Did you pop off the knee pads when you put the console piece in?

Originally Posted by clg82

Honestly i can’t tell a difference, i can tell that i need an alignment tho. The stance looks so much better now! Will post some pictures later today after i get her all cleaned up. Install was no fun with just a floor jack and some hand tools.

It does look nice. Let me fix em for ya.

[gtfoxy]

Originally Posted by hotlap

Xpel appointment finally arrived. There was a 3 month waiting period.

First pictures from the installer

I’ll have to look in to that.

[hotlap]

Originally Posted by gtfoxy

I’ll have to look in to that.

Xpel is worth the money regardless of how often you drive your car.

The film will absorb 99.9% of the stone hits. Occasionally, it will get a slight nick. My 13 ZL1 got a 3/8" gash on the front fender but the paint was not harmed. The ppf did its job.

You can drive without fear and the ppf can be replaced. Your original paint stays perfect and you can't tell the ppf is there if applied by a pro.

[s346k]

i put myself through the ppf debate. ultimately i decided

1) the car is not and never will be a show/collector car
2) the original gm paint is cheap & simply terrible
3) once i get tired of the rock chips ill repaint with quality products and then ppf it

i refuse to spend very much money trying to protect the worst paint in automotive history

what did i do to my camaro today (technically yesterday)? it competed its second long haul hot rod power tour, although this years tour was just a little guy.

[nancygrl]

Got left front rim damage fixed and back on the car.

[hotlap]

Originally Posted by s346k

i put myself through the ppf debate. ultimately i decided

1) the car is not and never will be a show/collector car
2) the original gm paint is cheap & simply terrible
3) once i get tired of the rock chips ill repaint with quality products and then ppf it

i refuse to spend very much money trying to protect the worst paint in automotive history

Don't #1 and #3 contradict one another?

I've spent $20k on paint ...for a show car.

[clg82]

Originally Posted by hotlap

Xpel is worth the money regardless of how often you drive your car.

The film will absorb 99.9% of the stone hits. Occasionally, it will get a slight nick. My 13 ZL1 got a 3/8" gash on the front fender but the paint was not harmed. The ppf did its job.

You can drive without fear and the ppf can be replaced. Your original paint stays perfect and you can't tell the ppf is there if applied by a pro.

Did you ever have that repaired?^^ I have quite a gash from the last track day I went to and want to get that repaired but don't want to spend the cash to have the whole thing redone. Can they just "patch" it?

[JKSully]

Originally Posted by clg82

Did you ever have that repaired?^^ I have quite a gash from the last track day I went to and want to get that repaired but don't want to spend the cash to have the whole thing redone. Can they just "patch" it?

The film itself cannot be repaired - you might be able to slap another piece over where the gash is, but it will be visible and the edges of the new piece will pick up dust and dirt because they are above the rest of the original piece. You could, in theory, cut out around the gash and put another piece of exactly the same shape in its place (kind of like patching drywall), but you're going to notice the line and more than likely damage the paint in the process of cutting it out.

Your only real solution is to remove the damaged piece entirely and replace it.

[hotlap]

Originally Posted by JKSully

The film itself cannot be repaired - you might be able to slap another piece over where the gash is, but it will be visible and the edges of the new piece will pick up dust and dirt because they are above the rest of the original piece. You could, in theory, cut out around the gash and put another piece of exactly the same shape in its place (kind of like patching drywall), but you're going to notice the line and more than likely damage the paint in the process of cutting it out.

Your only real solution is to remove the damaged piece entirely and replace it.

This. ^^^^

That gash happened early into my first Xpel job. When I showed it to the installer, he said "the ppf did its job". The paint wasn't damaged. Based on the size and shape of the gash, whatever it was had mass and a sharp edge.

[willzilla]

Originally Posted by gtfoxy

Did you pop off the knee pads when you put the console piece in?

Yes.. Probably can install without doing so but removing them gives you more room to work and you can adjust everything easier.

[3.8TransAM]

Originally Posted by s346k

i put myself through the ppf debate. ultimately i decided

1) the car is not and never will be a show/collector car
2) the original gm paint is cheap & simply terrible
3) once i get tired of the rock chips ill repaint with quality products and then ppf it

i refuse to spend very much money trying to protect the worst paint in automotive history

what did i do to my camaro today (technically yesterday)? it competed its second long haul hot rod power tour, although this years tour was just a little guy.

I was at Indy and Champaign sections, were u the guy with the 18(i think) 1LE and bolt on mods and E85 I talked to? I had my crush orange 21 1LE there with me.

[willzilla]

Last night I installed a couple more pieces of carbon fiber to the interior... window switch trim cover as well as carbon fiber door trim surround cover...



And a quick comparison (top is a stock photo but shows the OEM interior)...