I bought this car in William's Lake June of 2001 and she had 114,000 kms. All that was needed to be done was have the hatch repainted. I had that done locally for cheap, because at teh time I was low on funds from graduation and buying the car. I got a new "GTS" decal made for the hatch. I recently found out that Canada's models were the GT and GTS, US's were L-type and P-type. I like the Canadian model names better.
Since I have owned this car, I have sunk a fair amount of money into her, whether maintenance or upgrading, or fixing. Only 2 fender benders so far, luckily ICBC covered the pricier one. The other I had to pay out of my pocket.
This is the damage caused by a local redneck. He was hauling what looked like a temporary road sign support (right angled steel), like 4' dia base and 5 feet tall. I was comin up over a hill, saw this truck pulled onto the shoulder, so I moved into the left lane to pass (2 lane road). Was almost dusk, his tailgate was open and the steel not tied in, and had no marking of anykind. I couldn't swerve either way, oncoming traffic and he had pulled over realizing it fell out and was standing on the one side of the road. I slowed as much as I could, then too much pressure and the tires locked up, still smoked the front of the car. These are after damage, and after the body shop fixed it, crappily my badge fell into like 12 pieces when it was removed. Finally found one this year (2 years later), but kinda liking the shaved emblem look.
As you can see from this picture, that even with the 20+ year old paint, she still shines up nicely. And is has been about a month and a half since I have put a good coat of wax on by hand. Props to Meguire's gold class, has really stood up to the elements. When I give her a good cut polish and double coats of wax, she shines better than new car paints from a dealer. I am still not sure whether i wish to go all body color (terracotta or burnt orange) , or keep it the 2 tone, of orange and black.
Tint is a cars friend that doesn't have AC. I got the tint put on in Edmonton. Even the shop said I was pushin it, because I used limo on the front. Meh, I went 2 years before a officer in Kamloops gave me 2 weeks to get it off. I think somethin was up his butt, because I was in Kelowna basically all year for 2 years in school, and was never bothered, I even drove past a cop in his car and he just glanced at me and kept going. I'm contemplating retinting the car someday, depending on if I fix my AC or can have the extra money from fixing other things like clutch, suspension, etc.
Here is my car when I has tint on the front signal lights and foglight/running light combo's. I really liked the look, shoulda blackened the trim ring holding in the fogs though. But the RCMP didn't agree with me, they said it dimmed the light output and the signal lights werent' visible, I beg to differ, I had higher polished reflectors in and could be seen even with full sunlight on the lenses. The foglights they did dim, but I didn't care much, because my reflectors were old and flaking chrome. I have since converted lenses for the fogs making them more of a spot driving light (I"m switching back since I found a mint pair in Kelowna), and the signals I converted to clear lenses. The winter destroyed the fogs and the signals, but I am making new lenses for the signals out of 1/4" lexan.
Page 1 Exterior
Page 2 Mods
Page 3 Maintenance
Page 4 Stereo
Page 5 Other Pics
