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Alright, I have done the following things:
- Changed the steering fluid
- Replaced the air cleaner hose
- Defogged the headlights
- Buffed out some of the larger scratches and flaking clearcoat
- Washed and waxed
The old air cleaner hose had gigantic rips in it. I lucked out and picked up a brand new one from Amazon (last one!) for $20. Compared to Rockauto's ~$50.
I then defogged the headlights with toothpaste and a brush. While the immediate results were okay, they quickly dried out and went back to looking meh. I think I'm going to take some 1000-3000 grit sandpaper to them later, some polish, and apply a clearcoat, because they really need to be done since they make the whole car look new.
Then I got a stuck bolt out of the valve cover. Replacement bolts are M6-1.00 x 55mm with flange head. I couldn't find a flange head at a local hardware store, so I went with a machine screw and a washer.. Maybe not the best but it's temporary! Some penetrating fluid left for an hour made quick work of the stuck bolt.
I took some Ultimate Compound to the scrape on the front of the car next. Made quick work as well, but it didn't take the entire scratch off.
The clear-coat on the hood and side panels of the car was coming off. I thought maybe I could fix it with K2 clear coat, but now I am having second thoughts. I think that it would require painting the entire panel, which would then make the entire panel look a bit different then the rest. A wrap would take way too long to do on the entire car. I decided to chip off the existing peeling clearcoat, polish, and apply a liberal amount of wax. I'll go over the chips that got down to the primer/metal with a touchup paint I ordered later.
A quick wash and wax and it looks way better! Gotta say these hatchbacks look much better from the rear than the front.
Also, I changed the cabin air filter recently too. Looks like the old one was never changed...
Lastly, I got the rest of the kit this morning. Next steps:
- Change the oil, transmission fluid, and top up brake fluid (gotta figure out the level mark)
- Change the transmission filter and gasket
- Replace the front brakes
- Replace the serpentine belt
- Fix a small chip in the windshield
- Replace serpentine belt tensioner and idler pully (don't want this belt to fail anytime soon)
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