This ain't no build thread!

[—Bryan—]

Interested to hear how both work out for you!

[chiefmg]

Couple of pictures of the completed film application. First two are how they looked after being put on, if you look closely you can see the four tabs that Laminex puts on to make it easier to handle.

Driver’s:

Passenger’s:

Using the supplied razor knife I trimmed the edges of the film. This thing is sharp and cut right through the film with no problem (likely helped by the film being thinner than what X-pel used). Here is the final result:

Driver’s:

Passenger’s: [/url]

There are still a couple of small spots where all the moisture hasn’t evaporated yet, after another couple of days if they are still there I will use a needle to pop the hole. I’m happier with this result so far, no big lifts like my last set. The slight bit of haze you might see is from the inner painted reflectors gassing off. This has happened before, I remove the headlights and swish some alcohol around inside to get rid of it.

Still waiting on my exhaust hangers to arrive, Rock Auto use DHL Commerce for some reason and they are being slow. Hoping I might get them tomorrow.

[—Bryan—]

Thanks for the pics. I've considered doing film covers, but ended up just having them re-cleared when I had the front end painted.

[chiefmg]

Thanks for the pics. I've considered doing film covers, but ended up just having them re-cleared when I had the front end painted.

That'll keep them clear for you, but the film also serves to protect against stone chips/damage.

Weather wasn’t too cold here today and the exhaust hangers arrived so dove into that job. Once I had her up in the air and had a look, I figured I’d be able to replace them all without removing my lower diffuser. As it turned out, of the five hangers total (four on the muffler, one on the midpipe) three were urethane and two were rubber. One thing that can make this job easier is an exhaust hanger removal tool like this one:



I was able to use this for most of the hangers, it makes a possibly frustrating job better. I also use WD-40 as lubricant both for removing the old hangers and installing the new ones.

Started on the passenger side of the muffler and got both of those off without too much difficulty. Here is a picture comparing the urethane hanger with a new rubber one:



Next moved to the driver’s side. The rear muffler hanger was rubber but was hard to get off due to a very small clearance between the end of the chassis hanger and the body. A little finagling got that out. The forward muffler hanger on that side was urethane, after some struggling I decided to just cut it off so did that. The hanger on the midpipe was a little bit of a struggle as there is not much clearance for the removal tool so I ended up doing the old-fashioned way with a large flat blade screwdriver (it was rubber so not too bad).

One thing to note, if one of the metal hangers has a bend in it, put the flexible hanger on that side first. You will save yourself some headaches.

Took me about an hour all in, long enough to listen to most of the latest Candy Dulfer album and for my toes to get slightly numb.

[chiefmg]

I figured out the ringing noise I was hearing was from the new shift knob. I was able to slightly move the wood overlay over the insert. I tried a couple of ways to remove it entirely without success. Looking down inside the bottom opening it looked like there was a space where I could get something in to seal it up. Mixed up some two-part epoxy and put it down in there using a 3 ½” nail. That worked well except that I put too much in which kept the knob from going onto the shift lever as far as it should. I checked different drill bits until I had one that would fit inside the hole without touching. I put that inside the old knob to get the needed depth and put a piece of tape on the bit to let me know when I got the that point. Easy does it with drilling, didn’t want to punch through the top of an expensive knob. Here is how the bit looked in the new knob showing how far I needed to drill:



That’s all done, knob screwed on just fine (it’s nice and tight too). No apparent movement of the wood relative to the insert so should be good to go.

[—Bryan—]

I'm jealous of how handy you are, man.

[chiefmg]

I'm jealous of how handy you are, man.

There is nothing I do that anyone else can't. Just have to put your mind to it and press on.

[— Agent☣Orange —]

How long have you had this car, Chief?

[chiefmg]

Bought her in September of 2010 so about twelve and a half years.

[chiefmg]

So, after all was said and done with the new shift knob installation, there was about a ¼” gap between the bottom of the knob and the boot. I couldn’t recall how much there was with the original knob, but I got to thinking about how one of the stock shift boots from one of my Mazdas had a plastic cup-shaped piece on the bottom of the boot that sort of took up a gap and kept the top of the boot in shape. That piece came off one time when I was moving stuff around and I never got around to replacing it. Since my brain was working I decided to get some nylon washers from Ace and use them as a spacer/shape holder for the boot. I measured the shift lever and top of the boot and came up with 13mm and 29mm diameters. Went up to Ace today and picked up the washers. Ones I ended up with were 25.4mm OD (1”) and 11.4mm ID (0.45”)/14.3mm ID (0.56”). All were around 1/8” thick. Here they are side by side:



Put them on smallest one first and put things back together. The smaller one didn’t allow a lot of engagement of the knob on the shift lever so I tried the bigger one. Here is how they sat on the shift lever:





The bigger one did the trick. Here is the final result:

[—Bryan—]

Attention to detail, man.

[chiefmg]

Some might call it being anal retentive.

[—Bryan—]

Well, I appreciate it

[HarryB]

Neat! I use a zip tie on mine. Fit the boot on the lever, put the knob on, lift the boot up so it turns inside out, put a zip tie and tighten on the shaft, lower boot so it turns the correct way in. Dead easy, but I prefer your solution

[chiefmg]

Harry, I've seen the zip-tie fix before. I couldn't use it with my shift boot due to how it is made.

Been seeing some jerking on light-throttle tip-in, when that happens (usually in the cold months) it means the supercharger bypass actuator needs adjusting. Easy enough to do, loosen two Allen-head screws (bottom one is located out of sight in the picture) and move the actuator around until the flapper sits on the stop screw completely in the closed position.



Before anyone asks, the screws are always nice and tight so the actuator isn’t walking due to vibration. Not too sure what’s going on, I pretty much had to do it every winter with the M45 but have only done it a couple of times with the MP62. Test drive afterwards showed smooth throttle operation.