Welcome a new member of the family: Balto!

[98blackbeauty]

Balto looks great becareful today!

[MP81]

Thanks Larry, and I was - we took the Vibe

[MP81]

Never thought I'd be so happy to see the car covered in snow Took some pictures, mainly to mess around with my Atrix 2's camera...definitely came out really nice, quality wise.

Just drove it to work for the first time since the accident a couple weeks ago now, definitely missed it.
2012-02-24_17-54-56_851.jpg
2012-02-24_17-55-10_310.jpg
2012-02-24_17-55-32_586.jpg
2012-02-24_17-55-43_321.jpg
2012-02-24_17-55-57_751.jpg

Winking! (Fixing the driver headlight tab on the bottom, JB Weld FTW)
2012-02-25_21-26-37_977.jpg

Misc engine shots - they cleaned the engine bay, so much better than before (though it took a lot of the already-flaking SC paint off). Looks like it'll be requiring some new paint soon...need something that doesn't fall off so easily...

2012-02-26_20-36-11_390.jpg
2012-02-26_20-34-57_978.jpg
2012-02-26_20-34-47_512.jpg
2012-02-26_20-35-10_493.jpg

[meissen]

Holy snow! Where'd all that come from?

[MP81]

Up in Flushing. We only got about 2" of snow during that "huge" snow storm, haha

[meissen]

Ohh haha what we got already melted

[MP81]

Yeah, I took those pictures on the 24th, most is melted up there as well, haha

And I melted most of the rest in the garage using a pair of flood lights

[MP81]

Got another pair of the Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS Pole Position tires, so I finally have four matching tires for the first time since I bought the car.

The tires, all together now, make quite the difference in handling and traction. Some impromptu quick autocross-like turns in a Flint parking lot at speed were met with a distinct lack of the screeching I was used to, and very sharp handling. It just turned where I wanted it to. Finally, a tire that can seem to make the most of my suspension (at least for the 60-series tire I have to run on my 15s). Straight line traction was much improved. With my previous tires (three different kinds) up front, I was rewarded with tire spin at full throttle at anything under 40mph on a dry day - so matting it from a 20-roll would undeniably lead to a downshift and a exciting tire spin until it shifted to the next gear. Spinning isn't winning, though. Tried enacting the same scenario yesterday (dry, but very cold roads) and was met with zero tire spin, and pure traction. Quite the difference.

Not to mention - having four of the same tires looks a bit better too. Always was something that bugged me before.

2012-03-03_17-06-47_459.jpg

New tires on rear
2012-03-03_17-06-58_980.jpg

Rears rotated to front
2012-03-03_17-07-14_582.jpg

[MP81]

New tires make a world of difference on a launch too. Still spins, but hooks much faster than before. Hope I can get to the track this year.

2012-03-06_18-51-27_155.jpg
2012-03-06_18-51-40_782.jpg

Stance.

2012-03-15_16-26-04_705.jpg

Can't wait for this enjoyable experience...
2012-03-16_06-31-51_229.jpg

[MP81]

Haven't had to install the thermostat yet - it's been at proper operating temp all of a sudden - maybe it had some weird air bubble that made it stick or something...monitoring as best as I can with the intermittent coolant reading (still gotta figure that one out). Got 28 mpg which is much better than the 23-25 I've been getting.

Also, found out my front left tweeter and front right woofer decided to stop working, not sure if it just happened yesterday or for a while. Just noticed the tweeter yesterday...

Pulled the door panels off and it turns out that I'm a moron. When I installed the speakers, for some reason only known to God or something (maybe he doesn't even know), I thought it was wise to mount to crossovers to the bottom of the inside of the door...right where they could get the optimal amount of corrosion...luckily my dad has another pair of a/d/s crossovers - this time, they're going in the damn car.

2012-03-19_18-28-00_850.jpg

[MP81]

Hmm, what could be in these boxes?
2012-03-21_17-59-04_712.jpg

Leather/Vinyl rear seat bottom
2012-03-21_18-24-24_756.jpg

Leather/vinyl rear seat, bottom and seat backs
2012-03-21_18-30-05_5.jpg

Perforation on the insert
2012-03-21_18-30-39_634.jpg

Figured it was about time, and now I can sell my stock seats as a set.

[MP81]

Put the leather rear seat in last night. Quite the visual upgrade, and it feels very nice. Actually more leather on it than I expected there to be for a rear seat in a cheap car.

Took about two minutes to completely remove the entire rear seat. Then spent some time vacuuming this area now that the seat was out.
2012-03-22_18-42-12_935.jpg

All installed
2012-03-22_19-03-44_303.jpg

2012-03-22_19-04-28_975.jpg

Vacuumed the interior too, since I had the vacuum out in the garage.
2012-03-22_19-23-28_85.jpg

Now I just have to remove the stock headrests, since A) they don't match and B) I don't really need rear headrests.

[BP_Z28]

Nice seats! Those look great

[MP81]

Thanks!

And I think since I finally have all leather, I'm going to order myself up some Lexol (convenient 3-pack: http://www.amazon.com/Lexol-Leather-...2507632&sr=8-2) and clean and condition it.

[MP81]

Removed the rear headrests as soon as I got home on Friday, definitely like the look. Very clean - and they don't block part of my vision out of the rear window anymore.

2012-03-23_18-30-16_304.jpg