What did you do to your GT350 today?

SVTinAR said:

Finished up installing my second round of Xpel to the hood & fender front areas, rear fender flares and mirrors. If you have some patience and the time it's definitely a do-able project with the pre-cut kits from Xpel.

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I was curious how hard this was to do, my local installer wants $1900 to do it.

Ks5.0 said:

I was curious how hard this was to do, my local installer wants $1900 to do it.

Click to expand...

I don't know how much interest there might be in this but I'll create a thread with post some hard-to-find XPEL instructions and lessons learned. The kits are pricey - I spent about $950 to do the bumpers, lights, front 1/3 of hood and fenders, mirrors and rear fender flares. But the XPEL material is pretty fantastic. If you have patience to sit and massage the material down then anyone can do it. Some of the bigger pieces, like the bumper front took about 2-1/2 to 3 hours to get down and smooth. But I started on them early and didn't fully appreciate how the alcohol/water solution can help speed things up. The two hood sections (I got the kit cut around the racing stripes) took about 2 hours to get both sides down and smooth.

SVTinAR said:

Finished up installing my second round of Xpel to the hood & fender front areas, rear fender flares and mirrors. If you have some patience and the time it's definitely a do-able project with the pre-cut kits from Xpel.

Click to expand...

Any tips? I did my trunk lid to test id out a few months back.. worked out pretty well. My slip solution wasnt great though.. probably didnt use enough baby shampoo in the distilled water. When pulling to readjust.. I had to pull like crazy which resulted in a number of stretch marks....

What did I do for my GT350 today? Well, I got the last spot for steering wheel option 1 on the group purchase!

Ordered the Caliperfexion studs for the front brakes. :cheers:

I did my first oil change today at 1400 miles. Decided to change the oil as it was over a year old.

Some observations.... I like how simple the oil drain plug is to get in and out but man it just doesn’t seem snug when all the way screwed in. I guess I am just used to the old style bolt types were you really wrench it down. Also replacing the screw on type filter was kinda a pain especially with trying to get the torque wrench into position to tighten it.

Despite my best efforts I still had some oil drain onto the belly pain when I swapped out the filters. After getting things clean up and completing the oil change I took the car out for a drive. When I got back I noticed oil leaking under the car, my first thought was crap, the new filter is leaking. After jacking the car up and checking things out I was relieved to see the oil filter was dry and it was just oil that had spilled onto the belly pan draining down the back of the pan. For some reason I did not get all the oil cleaned up after what I thought was my best effort to get it all.

Doing a little catch up here, I've had the car nearly a month and 850 miles. Today I went to the DMV to get the license plates. I walked in at 1:45 PM to find the chairs empty, one customer at the counter and three clerks chatting. One waved me over and I was out of there in 5 minutes, plates and title in hand. Its never taken less than 25 minutes in the previous visits.

Other things I have done on the car so far:
Hood struts
Rock stoppers
Jacking rails (to be installed tomorrow)
BMR alignment bolts ordered
Llumar clear bra on full front clip, A pillars and 8" on the front of the roof.

crazymayhem said:

Any tips? I did my trunk lid to test id out a few months back.. worked out pretty well. My slip solution wasnt great though.. probably didnt use enough baby shampoo in the distilled water. When pulling to readjust.. I had to pull like crazy which resulted in a number of stretch marks....

Click to expand...

I posted my lessons learned in a separate post. I kept my stretching to a minimum because I've seen those marks in my wife's Highlander PPF and I was pretty certain that was what caused them. The only place my pre-cut kit was a bit short was on the sides of the hood - with the film nestled up against the stripes the edge fell about 1/4 inch short of the edge of the hood. Not good but I didn't want to try to stretch it that much for that length and decided to live with it. Fortunately the edges are nearly invisible on the Race Red.

Yes, I found a bit additional shampoo in the water worked better for me.

Put it in storage till April.

SVTinAR said:

I don't know how much interest there might be in this but I'll create a thread with post some hard-to-find XPEL instructions and lessons learned. The kits are pricey - I spent about $950 to do the bumpers, lights, front 1/3 of hood and fenders, mirrors and rear fender flares. But the XPEL material is pretty fantastic. If you have patience to sit and massage the material down then anyone can do it. Some of the bigger pieces, like the bumper front took about 2-1/2 to 3 hours to get down and smooth. But I started on them early and didn't fully appreciate how the alcohol/water solution can help speed things up. The two hood sections (I got the kit cut around the racing stripes) took about 2 hours to get both sides down and smooth.

Click to expand...

Great job.

Pulled a screw out of the back tire. I have barely passed 200 miles on the car and have a flat tire. Damn!

Went for a drive then found this leak.....:frusty:

^^ Easy fix ill take that any day

New clamp....

Yeah, just can't decide whether to mess with the dealer or just fix them both myself