build diary

December 19, 2004: I had to stop in to the garage this morning to see how the wheels look.
It took a fair bit of time last night to take off the masking tape (it wasn't easy to put on either!) and then give a final swipe at the wheels. But a couple of thin coats of clearcoat and now they're done! They look just like I expected which is almost a little disappointing. I expected some radical change but really, they're just black with polished rims. Okay, not a big surprise. I suspect that I would have been more impressed if I'd gone with graphite instead. I think this combination will look better on the Seven though. The finish looks good - I would have been a little upset if a new set of $300 SSR Competitions looked like this, but for a set of wheels that were all banged up and looked fairly crusty it's a major transformation. The biggest problem is the join between the paint and the polish. The line isn't quite razor sharp on about one spoke per wheel despite my care in masking. But I'm the only person who will ever know (well, I was...) because you have to be looking very closely. Overall it was time well spent and I think the car will really look good. It's one step further away from having a recongizable donor. Now all I have to do is order some tires.

One thing I noticed last night when flipping through an old issue of EVO - their R400 was orange with black front fenders and black wheels with polished lips. Sounds familiar although they did paint all the body. And that suspension lift last night seems to have made the car ride better although I'm not sure how much of that is psychological.

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