Member Profile - Beanbag Brad (Gen5 GT)

[Beanbag Brad]

Just reserving this until I have time to fill in my plans, but here's a quicky:

(I classify "mods" as anything I've added to the car since purchase.)

Current "Mods":
HKS180 Full Lighting Pack
Window Tint (Darkest Legal)
Remove Boot Bumper Protector
Remove "AWD" badge
Opti-Coat Paint Protection
Black Number Plates (White Text)

Future "Mods":
Full 3" Exhaust (Damn you guys, I wasn't going to do this! Getting quotes next week.)
Subaru Front Grille (Expanded Metal variant)
STi Front Lip Spoiler
STi Short Shift Kit
STi Flexible Tower Bar
Tune

MAYBE - STi Springs
MAYBE - Some sort of shoes

Stock as a rock:

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[Beanbag Brad]

Reserved.

[Sh4wry]

I have a feeling that you will end up doing more mods than this... Throw up a pic or two when you get a chance

[Jack_Keaka]

yes i also predict a good build thread coming of this.

[Beanbag Brad]

I'm trying not to fall too far into the trap.... but I do feel the mod bug stirring downstairs....

With pressures of KiDo coming to town in February I need to get started!

[Gen5is]

looking forward to some pictures

badge removal should be pretty easy, hair dryer and floss. Paint protection imo is not worth it. When we got our 2006 Civic brand new from the dealership we paid about 1k for paint protection and about 3 or so years later i found a small speck of car cancer on the left A pillar... on the A pillar out of all places!! But thats just my story, it could be different with you and since im assuming your getting it done by professionals it might be worth it.

[Sh4wry]

I would kind of agree, i would however make a trip to hamish(elite_finish) and get an Opticoat done.

[Beanbag Brad]

Getting it Opti-Coated which is apparently the best in the country, so hopefully it's worth it!! Also paying pre-tax so I get it quite cheap compared to normal. (Opti-Coat getting done by the only approved guy in Canberra, but his results look great, has done a lot of black subies before too!)

Never heard of using floss! Was just going to hair dry it and rip it off.. How do I remove the glue (that I assume is going to be there) after the badge is removed?

[Sh4wry]

I always used to use eucalyptus oil to remove glue on things..... But just check if it will affect you paint b4 you use this.

[Jack_Keaka]

Floss or fishing line (which I used). Any degreaser should work, goof off, and elbow grease

[SegR]

How happy are you with the 'darkest legal' tint? Is it dark enough?

[Beanbag Brad]

Yeah It's fine, matches the privacy glass 100% (which is great as it costs half as much!)

I'm not much into super dark, I like my field of view and if it was too dark there could be a safety risk! Been in some mates cars with 15% and yeah, can't see anything at night, with the amount of road trips I do I couldn't imagine animal spotting if it was too dark! Plus on a black car it looks darker anyway.

I'll organise pics at some point, as I said she's getting opti-coated in the first week of January so I'll hold out till then!! I'll put one of my original pics up as a stock reference though!!


Also added: Black number plates (+10kw.) - should be arriving any day now!

edit, added: There's some damage under where the boot protector used to be, and a bit of touch up paint above the door handle. Lucky the paint protection guy said he'll sand it back and fix it for me for free!! (He also added he will do my new grille I get for free, and wheels at almost half price!) - Lets just hope he does a good job.

http://www.obsessioncardetailing.com/ - That's his site if anyone in Canberra is interested, only opt-coat approved detailer in town I was going to get it done in Sydney, but the trip and half a day without the car would've killed me. Timing was all off unfortunately!

[Beanbag Brad]

Debadging of the "AWD Symmetrical" badge completed!

Used some string, bug stuff remover, water and a cloth. Nails help to get leverage on the glue though, checked the results with a keen eye, no scratching evident! Not that it matters, whole car is getting paint corrected in 2 weeks

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[Beanbag Brad]

How happy are you with the 'darkest legal' tint? Is it dark enough?

It's been a day since the tint! It's lightened up a bit so doesn't 100% match the privacy glass (more like 80% now) which I'm slightly disappointed in.... Guess the "could be darker" is really true!

added: could've been the overcast day it was done on that caused it to be darker than I thought! Now the suns out I can compare it a lot better.

[Jack_Keaka]

why not just completely debadge?