Kevin's 1990 745ti DD

I like it. I am gonna do mine a few shades darker my paint looks like crap.

Inspires me to Plastidip it in a wine red...

Ruined

But I like it

Thanks guys I'm really happy with how it turned out. It's not dip believe it or not, it's Behr premium outdoor paint from Home Depot. About $20 total and maybe 3-4 hours invested. It's got its minor imperfections here and there but from 5 feet away it looks fantastic. I toyed with the idea of dipping it for a while now but I didn't want to drop that kind of money on a 'removable' paint job, and I don't have the money for a professional paint job so this is what I went with. It may be 'ruined' to some of you, but the he stock paint was beyond ruined to me, especially on the roof, and it had scratches all down the sides so I just wanted something quick and easy to take care of it, and this is easily repairable if need be.

More pics to come later, and I plan on making another stripe kit for it but this time with matte black vinyl, and I'll stick the badges and everything else back on for the final product.

Olive drab works pretty well with the gold wheels actually.

did you roll it or spray it?

masswrecker said:

did you roll it or spray it?

Click to expand...

Sent ya a PM. Shoulda mentioned before, it was rolled on with foam rollers. Used less than half a gallon for the whole car.

Consider doing the rockers green also. It'll make the car look lower. Maybe even part, or all, of the bumpers.

I'd almost say no stripes, but add some block style military stencil letters/numbers on the fenders or, if you do the stripes again, on the lower rear doors. The guy that put those numbers on his dipped 780, I thought it completed the look.

Edit: added some before/during pics:










Here's a few updated pics with the stripes on. Went with matte black vinyl this time around. I'm contemplating painting a section of the bumpers green too, like the SE model 7/9s had. Also planning on painting the underside of the hood as well, probably just black.

My denso alternator finally gave up a month or so ago, so I swapped back to the stock one for the time being, and just replaced it with another denso last week. While I was doing that, I also wired up a glowshift boost gauge which looks much better than the Autozone gauge I was previously using. It lights up fully all the way around and is much crisper and easier to read. In the hour it took me to do both of those, it really made me despise just how hot it gets down here in central Florida at about 3PM.


Like I think I've stated before, the wagon is running great. I'm not having any real mechanical issues with it. Just looking forward to tidying up the last few things on the exterior and then taking it to some local meets and shows.

Green bumpers would look cool

How do you like the glowshift gauge? I'm on the fence about getting one (since I can make it match my red dash lights) or a vdo gauge

I got it for cheap so it's hard for me to complain about it. It looks great, it's the non-tinted one so you can wire it to only come on when the lights come on, but I have mine wired on at all times.






Also, picked a pair of these up recently. They're the et0 set, and I've been meaning to test fit them with my adapters to see how much they'll poke. For the amount of work I'd have to do to get them on and looking right (find two more wheels and adapters, fit a full set of tires, adjustable panhard bar, cut the springs more, redo exhaust so it won't scrape). So I'm most likely going to sell them. Let me know if you're interested.


And finally, I always enjoy a good before & after comparison.

I dunno man, you might want to grab the adapters and do a quick test fit, those GTA's would really set it off!

Edit: My GOD you really transformed that car.

Thanks! I'm still happy with how well it came out for the minimal effort and money I put into it. The other day someone in my parking lot must have bumped into it with something they were carrying because I noticed a few red and white scuffs near the drivers rear wheel well and on the gas door. I'm honestly not really bummed about the fact that it's scratched so soon (because it's so easy for me to just touch up the area), but I'm more disappointed that whoever it was didn't leave a note or anything. I had gotten gas that day right before I went home and the scratches weren't there, but I went down to get something out of my car a few hours after I got home and they were there. The car parked next to me (a newer black SUV) had numerous scratches and dents all down it so I'm assuming with the obvious lack of care they have for their vehicle it was probably them. Oh well, such is life.

Anyway, I'm definitely planning on test fitting the wheels before I sell them. Maybe I'll love the look enough to just put them aside for now until I can afford mounting them properly, who knows.


For now I think it's safe to say I'm at a power:reliability ratio that I'm happy with. I only have a couple upgrades/changes/maintenance items I'm considering now, so here's a list to look back on and help keep myself organized:

- Turbo. I'm happy with the 16t on a daily driver basis. However there's a bit of oil still blowing through the intercooler. I'm not sure if it's from the turbo itself or if it's blowby coming from the catch can through the pre-turbo hose. I've been meaning to clean it out and just vent the catch can to the atmosphere briefly to see if that makes a difference and then go from there.
- If I stick with this turbo I may eventually switch to a straight or angled flange with a better downpipe and call it a day. Or I may try to go with a different appropriately sized turbo in the future. We'll see.

- Cam. The Stg 2 cam is fun as hell and a 2nd gear pull from 40 to 100 puts a smile on my face and is enjoyable enough to keep the cam based off that alone. However the lack of low end torque is a little annoying at times, especially in city traffic. The cam doesn't really wake up and get going until +3k rpm, and that's at 6? advanced. I'm considering picking up an IPD turbo cam and giving that a try to see if its powerband is more enjoyable on a DD basis. Then I'll just sell whichever one I don't stick with.

- Oil pressure gauge. I have a Volvo 5 bar gauge, just need to find a sender for it. Or if I don't stick with this gauge, I may just get an aftermarket gauge and sender and get the appropriate block adapter for the sender.

- Lower chassis brace. I'd like to come across a lower chassis brace eventually. And I also have a set of the lower subframe braces off of a 960 that I need to get around to installing.

- Exhaust. I enjoy the side pipe and wouldn't be opposed to keeping it, however I either need to have it redone and tucked up better so it doesn't scrape over speedbumps, or just have it redone as a rear exit. Either way I'll probably get a better muffler too, my temporary autozone one is already sounding like it has a minor leak.

- Seats. The stock seats are trashed and I'm using the same seat covers I've had since my first car, a '91 Jetta GL, that I owned back in 2006. I'd love to eventually get some better seats in there eventually.

- Stereo. Hoping to get a better aftermarket stereo so I can stop using my ipod with the cassette adapter. I never listen to the radio so anything with an aux input would be preferred. The door speakers sound good enough for me for the time being, maybe I'll upgrade them in the future, but I may just add a small subwoofer as well.

- In-tank submersible fuel hose. I can't go below 1/4 of a tank of gas otherwise the car starts sputtering.

- Possible +A/C. I removed it before because it didn't work, and while my girlfriend loves riding in my car and says she doesn't mind that it gets hot, I still wish on long drives I could have some a/c. I've been considering trying to piece the system back together and get it charged up. The evaporator core is fairly new, however the ends of the lines that come through the firewall haven't been capped off for the past year or more, so I'm not sure if it'll still be good after being somewhat exposed to weather.


That's all I can think of at any rate. I've been meaning to make a list like this to keep myself from forgetting things. I may add more in the future.


TL;DR - I say I'm happy with the wagon for now but in all reality there's still quite a bit more I want to do

850 seats are super comfy and are nearly bolt in, you just have to redrill the mounting holes on the tracks.

A/C is fairly cheap depending on what parts you need to buy and it's easy to fix

Are they really? I thought 850 seats didn't work but S70 seats did. Maybe I read incorrect info before. I've been keeping my eye out for manual S70 seats this whole time, and last time I was at the yard I passed up on a pair of nice 850 seats because I didn't think they would work.

850 & S70 seats are the same iirc

Good to know, thanks for the tip! I'll definitely be keeping my eye out for 850 seats now as well.

I have been bouncing back and fourth between IPD cam and the RSI stage 2 myself....I really like the low end grunt of the T-cam, but just wish it didn't die at like 4500. My RX-7 revs to the moon and makes power up there since this is my daily I'd prefer a more usable power band.

Well if you get the urge to fabricate, you can have those Audi seats for some consideration on that future graphics package we discussed.

Looks awesome, man!

Any intentions on painting the hood to match later on?

My iPd Turbo Cam at +5* is OK, but still would prefer more low-end grunt.

Then again, I should probably fix up my tranny first too.