My 1st Gen LS Project "thre3N9NE" (due, August 2013) + PICTURES!

[lincolnlogs]

Decided to do a write up for anyone that wants some ideas, how to's, or advice from the upgrades list i've got planned from now until August 2013. Bear with me, I'm a full time student and work full time as well, but i'll post everything up until the finished product. i'll accept ideas, and i love feedback. even if your being honest.



spending limit: $3200


First off, a little background on my car.

2002 LS8 all options besides sunroof. (even came with the Motorola "Lincoln" flip phone.)

bought it used from Georgia back in October from a 68 year old man. it had 93,000 on it at the time. I've had VCG's done, coils done, battery, as well as both timing chain tensioners.

so far to date (not part of the project) I've installed 6k HID highs, 8k low's, and 10k fogs. i've done a resonator delete with Flowmaster 40's. (new tips and bumper cutouts scheduled for Friday (3/8/13) and just installed a cheap JVC radio to use until August. (6disc changer took a crap) i installed a set of 05 (i believe) LSE rims and tires to replace the ugly 1st gen rims. Also tinted the windows (i'm Madico Certified) 20% all around.

anyhow, here's my list,and a few pictures of my car with random pictures. I'll try to post pictures and projects i get done every weekend.

follow along!


The beginning of "Thre3N9NE" as it sits now.

ugly amber corners :X tinted the fogs and side-markers for now.

was able to catch it for a picture. this only happens once in a cars life. lol

now, onto the list. providing that i don't lose my job, or have any major expenses this list WILL be completed. I'm sure there's a few things i forgot.

1. Rims 18"-20"
•Jaguar Sentas?
•Minimal/No Chrome
•No smaller than 42mm offset.
2. Custom Intake
• Aluminum/Plastic?
•AICV and PCV reposition to intake
•black/silver/red
3. Wood-grain Delete!
•Burgundy
4. Two-Din Touch Screen install
•Kenwood Combo? 2-10's? something neat, small, lightweight.
5. Interior Work
•Paint speaker grilles - Black - TOO MUCH TAN!!!
•Re-cover center counsel
•White gauges
•Paint defrost vents
•Replace door panel bulbs with 360 degree LED bulbs (red), MAP light bulbs, etc
6. Exhaust
•replace tips
•bumper cutouts
7. Tail Lights
• Tint them (FILM TYPE) - remove emblems.
• front Side Markers Clear - Amber LED conversion
8. Headlights & Foglights
• Angel Eye Install - factory match paint inlays.
• Amber lens delete. convert to amber LED
• White LED accents inside. (running lights)
LED turn signal install on side mirrors
9. Vinyl
• create vector logo for "Thre3N9NE"
• get ahold of a LVC decal? moderators?
10. Chrome Delete!
• Grille - sand, paint chrome to match body color. black mesh overlay?
• Rear over lay sand/paint chrome to match body color.
11. Black carbon fiber vinyl wrap
•chrome trim around windows - match body color? or carbon fiber?
•chrome pillers (bye bye chrome)
Engine bay - paint and pretty it up.

answers to the question marks are appreciated, as well as any feedback or ideas! :headbang:

 

[lincolnlogs]

start off simple.

day one of the project i realized its too EFFIN cold out to do anything when you live in an apartment complex. (miss my parents house a 40x64 heated garage) so for now, its gotta be easy stuff, and stuff i can take off the car.

first up, engine cover. probably the easiest thing to remove from the car besides the side defrost vents (they fall off automatically)

simple for now. just outlined the raised stuff in white. VS. faded silver. thinking of another idea to spice it up. (body color?)

BEFORE:

AFTER:

 

[lincolnlogs]

day 2

up till 4am thinking about this dang list, and everything i could possibly do...
up at 8am. figured it was a good day to recover my center counsel. not sure if anyone else has had this problem... but mine was junk. cracked up, broken stitches, junk. literally the only thing that was flawed inside this car.

now you can see why i was annoyed.

for this project i made my first trip ever to Joann Fabrics, surrounded in line by 20 old women, i bought 3 yards (in case i fudged up) of marine heavy duty leather. black, and dark burgundy. spray glue, heavy duty thread, (white) **going with small white accents throughout project** and large needles.

i went back to moms lessons on sewing pillows for this one.

removed the plastic from underneath CC, and pulled out the plastic mold, foam mold, and the cracked leather cover. cut it down its seams (just one long one) you will have two separate pieces. side, and top.

after that, i traced the old leather to the new. leave about 1/4 inch excess (just make sure leather sides are both facing down because one side is taller.) once traced, i labeled each side so it was all put together the same way. then, just sewn together like a pillow. (inside out sides together, and aligned)

in this pic, there's my rough cuts of new vinyl, just to practice i half sewed it together. along with the foam piece.

once you get the full shape, and all the edges sewn together, just spray some tack, and install the new cover over the foam. i did it inside out, and folded it over. (forgot to take a pic) glue was drying to fast.

here is the finished project:

turned out better than i thought for first try. mind you Ive never hand sewn a thing in my life. simple task, just make sure you have an extreme attention from old, to new. measurements, etc.

hardest part was installing the plastic cover again well stretching the leather under it.

cost me a total of 27$

if i can do it you can!

better than the 80$ for a new one :shifty:

one more item off the list.

 

[lincolnlogs]

white guages.

i bought the white gauge overlay kit on ebay, and thought to myself, shoot that will be the easiest project ever!



what a PITA. i've never had my cluster apart before, so i looked around for removal instructions, but everyone said you have to drop the column down.

if your just doing a gauge overlay install, you don't need to even take off the cover under the steering wheel. BUT, I WOULD RECOMMEND IT. another tip, do it during daylight. i dropped a torx bit into my dash, took me about 25 minutes to find.

just take off the black gauge sight, (2 screws) unscrew the gauge cluster, (2 screws) then remove the torx bit screws that hold the cluster together (6 screws) pretty simple.

easier done with the gauge plugged in, and parking lights on to align the overlays. took me about 2 hours. i like them, but im going to look into to doing a 3rd gen speedo design using only the flexible plate from the 3rd gen speedos.

night shot: needles look much brighter.

 

[lincolnlogs]

woodgrain delete, interior sprice up

IMPO - woodgrain reminded me of my grandpas 88 Buick.

not happenin. not to mention, stock, everything was TAN in here. headliner, seats, EW.

i went with a burgandy Krylon paint (pics make it look pinkish) with a black overspray. did the door panel moldings, tweeter grilles, dash moldings, and center counsel moldings. also the shifter panel, and shift knob (fabric and vinyl paint) turned out better than i expected. nothing more than removing the panels (or taping them off good) and shooting them.

 

[dNyce LS]

Looking good man
Looking forward to seeing the whole thing come together

 

[RollinLS]

Going to be an interesting thread. See your LS evolve. I wish I had done a topic like this.

Give you few ideas:
1. Mustang Mach 1 front lip spoiler. Cost you about $100. You could color match it(example 2nd pic)
2. BMW M5 style lip spoiler on Ebay. Cost $20 to buy. Have to paint it.
3. Roof spoiler. Group buy $124. Have to paint it.
4. Delete the chrome trim around the windows. I used half black striping. $20
5. Get rid of the chrome "B" pillar pieces.
6. Color match the rear surround.
7. Front grille & rear surround Lincoln Star emblems. Remove and custom paint your own. Manoli does them for members. I did my own(last pic).

Some the cheap and easy mods you can do.
Pictures of some of them.

 

[M4rk]

Those wheels are off an 2006. Best looking OEM wheel for this car, IMO.

 

[RollinLS]

Just give you a few more ideas:
1. Painted and shaved plenum cover.
2. Paint gen1 grille.
3. Other engine bay pieces painted to match.
4. Gen2 mirrors

 

[lincolnlogs]

Going to be an interesting thread. See your LS evolve. I wish I had done a topic like this.

Give you few ideas:
1. Mustang Mach 1 front lip spoiler. Cost you about $100. You could color match it(example 2nd pic)
2. BMW M5 style lip spoiler on Ebay. Cost $20 to buy. Have to paint it.
3. Roof spoiler. Group buy $124. Have to paint it.
4. Delete the chrome trim around the windows. I used half black striping. $20
5. Get rid of the chrome "B" pillar pieces.
6. Color match the rear surround.
7. Front grille & rear surround Lincoln Star emblems. Remove and custom paint your own. Manoli does them for members. I did my own(last pic).

Some the cheap and easy mods you can do.
Pictures of some of them.

thanks a bunch, I'm stuck between color matching the grille, and surrounds, or going black:/ what does everyone else think? any photoshop guru's on here?

 

[lincolnlogs]

i can only really do small stuff during the week, so i did my vents this week. they were ugly tan, now they are black. ordered my angel eye kit, and LED's today. as well as my MACH1 lower lip spoiler

before:

during:

after:

also a shot of my engine bay. plan to paint most cover to match body.. besides that and my CAI, is there any other ideas?

don't mind the zip tie it's currently holding my maf sensor down tight. somehow one of my screws broke will be replaced when the CAI is done, possibly this weekend.

 

[lincolnlogs]

Ordered.

Ordered.

i need ideas for rims guys. i don't want all chrome. and I'm thinking 20's look best. but what about width? and tire ratio?

 

[RigsLS]

...
don't mind the zip tie it's currently holding my maf sensor down tight. somehow one of my screws broke will be replaced when the CAI is done, possibly this weekend.

Had the same problem, one of the torque screws came out of the housing, new fresh MAF solved that problem.

 

[lincolnlogs]

able to make it home to my fathers shop, got my exhaust done. mind you these welds arent perfect but it came out great! video clip too

mounted on some nice hangers this exhaust is more firm with than stock!





VIDEO CLIP




http://s1111.beta.photobucket.com/user/04GT1/media/5CAF5044-57B7-44D3-B37B-A8EFB09164BA-15770-000007DCE388096B.mp4.html

my setup is both cat's still there, resonator delete, H pipe, 2.5'' back to dual flowmasters.

 

[lincolnlogs]

finally!

chrome delete on grille AND rear surround!!

grille, piece of cake.. decided to paint the lower half of the grille gloss black (instead of matte plastic finish) also did the lower grilles gloss black!

surround, a little more tricky to get off, but all went well. nothing broken, thankfully.

honestly took me longer to find a factory match in a rattle can.

all in all, i cant wait to show you what it looks like on the car! (saturday afternoon) here's pics!

used 800 grit for the little chips in the grille chrome, and sanded them out with 1000, and 2000.

takes some thinking to get apart. there is an order to it.

base coat on the chrome. was a little worried about the color. at first i was like, WTF?! but i came around.

already shining, and this is before clear!!
looks much better!

close up, after clearing. there's some small chips in the Lincoln badge, i didn't want to sand on it.

rear surround

finished!

i'll post pics of the rear surround finished, and everything installed this afternoon!

 

[lincolnlogs]

:feedback:feedback:feedback:feedback:feedback

:wave:wave:wave:wave:

 

[soundwaves454]

Looks real good. What color is that? Where did you get the paint from

 

[jolinc01]

The grille looks great! Duplicolor perfect match is some of the best paint you can get from a parts store IMHO. I have to order it when I buy it, but it's always worth the wait. Did you use an adhesion promotor on the chrome after sanding?

 

[RollinLS]

Grille looks great. The OEM Lincoln star shows good contrast. I think you should have painted it too. Just my $.02.

Taped off above or below the Lincoln star. Use flathead screw drver to left it enough to get some fishing line up it. Work the line back and forth till you can pull it off. Some guys use chemicals to get the black paint off the back. I used a light grit sandpaper. I didn't want to have the chrome come off too. I used touch up paint for mine. Your rattle can stuff would probably work better.

:feedback:feedback:feedback:feedback:feedback

:wave:wave:wave:wave:

The rear surround looks fantastic. Not sure about the black Lincln star thou.

Looks real good. What color is that? Where did you get the paint from

Autumn Red.

 

[lincolnlogs]

The grille looks great! Duplicolor perfect match is some of the best paint you can get from a parts store IMHO. I have to order it when I buy it, but it's always worth the wait. Did you use an adhesion promotor on the chrome after sanding?

no adhesion promotor, i've honestly never used it unless im doing a bumper that might flex or something. hopefully this holds up...


:shifty::shifty:

 

[lincolnlogs]

The rear surround looks fantastic. Not sure about the black Lincln star thou.

what about now

 

[M4rk]

Wasting no time, me likey.

Was it a huge pain taping off the surround? My vinyl wrap has shrunk so I might just paint mine as well.

 

[lincolnlogs]

the grille and rear surround couldn't have turned out any better, i love them! totally gave the car a different look!!

:L

got 5' of carbon fiber vinyl today, did my pillers. just need to find some thinner stuff for the thin chrome around the windows...

before:

after:

really can't wait to get rid of these terrible orange lenses :runaway:

:headbang:



:feedback

 

[lincolnlogs]

Wasting no time, me likey.

Was it a huge pain taping off the surround? My vinyl wrap has shrunk so I might just paint mine as well.

the only thing i taped off was the black part where the license plate fastens, and the Lincoln emblem. everything else came right off. not hard at all

 

[RollinLS]

what about now

The rear surround looks good. Just think Autumn Red Lincoln stars would look better. Just my $.02.

De-badge the rear taillights. The "Lincoln" and "LS V8" need to go.

Paint the front lower grille black. Would look great with the black upper grille and the blacked out foglights.

LS is REALLY coming along fast. Looking forward to seeing the chrome window trim done too.