AUGUST
The car was still an open diff, so I picked up a VLSD that reused the factory 6 bolt axles.
Up until now, my A/C had been working great. On a few occasions, however, when the A/C clicked on, the car would stall. I assumed the compressor was seized so I had the refrigerant drained and I took out the compressor.
Since the sway bar was out, I put in the ST Sway bar I had, along with fresh hardware and ES bushings.
SEPTEMBER
My all-time favorite side skirt is the Type X, so I had to put it back on. The car didn't look as aggressive, but it paired very nicely with the G-Grow valence.
I also had the lingering worry of the car catching fire, so I finally picked up an extinguisher and built a bracket for it to sit just in front of the passenger seat. I don't have a picture, but it clears the factory seat sliding forward.
OCTOBER
By some miracle, I had a coworker with a Sileighty ask me if I wanted to trade front ends so he can get a Type X front--I didn't hesitate for a moment.
We traded cars for a weekend so I could swap front ends: my hatch's pop ups onto his, take his front end off to put onto my coupe, then put my coupe's front end onto my hatch. Follow? lol
This was an amazing moment:
...Until LITERALLY my first drive with it , I sprung a major coolant leak getting onto the freeway--just my luck
NOVEMBER
The car was out of commission again, so I had to daily my hatch. Despite both being 240s, driving the hatch felt different, in a good way, and very nostalgic for me. Maybe because it was my first car and everything, but I just felt so at-home driving it again.
The culprit this time was a hose that was missing a clamp completely. No idea how the car lasted a whole year without it if I did indeed forget to put one on during reassembly.
Thankfully that was a simple fix, but I drove the hatch some more so I can keep working on the coupe to sleeve parts engine harness to renew some of the components.
Ordered the Wiring Specialties kit and sleeving of every diameter available, and got to work.
Only a portion of what I did are pictured, but it's a nice closeup of my sleeving:
The coupe was back in action
DECEMBER
Just daily driver things
R.I.P.
I drive the 605 freeway a lot in the early mornings that have a lot of gravel trucks; I assume it was a rock that came hurling onto my windshield, but from my dash cam video, it came from WAY up--very peculiar.
Luckily a buddy of mine had a new windshield on-hand and hooked it up with installation that same day.
You would think a California car would be relatively rust-free but...
I originally planned to paint the car at the start of the year, but the pandemic hit and that plan fell through. Now I absolutely needed to paint the car ASAP.
On the bright side, the HUD still works even with an aftermarket windshield
The grille I had was pretty beat up: lots of chips, runs, and some parts were flaking off.
Prepped and painted it a metallic grey from Hyundai, and finished off with matte clear.
It was a little unique and almost OEM-ish
