by peadya100 » Mon Jan 18, 2016 2:26 pm
Been a looooong time since i made an update!
Lots of things been happening.
Made the decision to make a few aesthetic mods to the wagon.
Firstly, i got some of Leo's halo's and blacked out the headlights - see photo below
Secondly, i thought the car would look better with tinted tail lights to match the blacked out headlights. I don't love night shade, so spoke to a few shops about film tinting. They want $250 to do the tail lights!! So i swiftly refused that, and decided to try it myself. Bought the tint off ebay (around $20) and a heat gun ($50). The end result was an epic failure and after trying twice, i'm convinced that its not possible on the wagon tail lights. I can get the whole bottom half of the light perfect, but as soon as you go over the ridge into the top half you end up with way too much tint and cant avoid it bunching up. So long story short, scrapped that plan for now haha
Thirdly, i bought a strut brace. I've heard mixed reviews about them and many say they don't feel a difference. So i wasn't expecting much. But i have to say its by far the best handling mod i've done. Its like it was the missing piece that tied it all together. My theory is that the stiff sway bars increased the amount of flex of the strut towers due to there being no give in the lower half of the car. As a result the car has significantly less body roll, the steering feels much more direct, and i'm finally feeling the slight under steer at turn in, followed by miles of grip that i've heard is a result of stiff front sway bars.
Lastly, have been looking into some wheels. I really want 19's as i prefer the look of bigger wheels, but have just read about the physics of increasing your rolling diameter. An increase of 25mm is a torque loss of approx 3.5%. Although i probably wouldn't feel that... its a tough thing to come to terms with. Im looking at 8.5" wide wheels, which depending on whether i go 225 or 235 wide tyres, will result in a rolling diameter increase of 13-20mm. That is unless i can grow a pair and get 35 profile tyres, but the ride quality of that scares me.
I really like these wheels on the black liberty... Rays 57xtreme. I cant justify buying genuine ones of those, but you can get replicas by reputable manufacturers at a very reasonable price.
- Attachments
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- Halo's.jpg (120.64 KiB) Viewed 5221 times
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- 57son_resize_zpsc78be197.jpg (118.34 KiB) Viewed 5221 times