So I ordered a bunch of Kip Ewing carbon fiber parts and a custom made mac relocation kit from Shelby last week and got them all Thursday. Unwrapping them made it feel like Christmas; I was both excited to see them and nervous knowing that it all had to be installed. I have no mechanical skills at all, I can like to detail and drive the car, not work on them.
First to go in at 10pm Friday night were the steering wheel spokes. Easy and look great.
Second to go in at 10:15pm were the door rings. Popped the metal rings off and could not figure out how the carbon fiber ones attached. Shelby said if I had any questions to call him or Eric and they would walk me through it. I sent an email to Shelby and he responded right away. I also sent a text message to Eric and he responded right away. I called Eric and he walked me through. 10 minutes later both carbon fiber door rings were in and look great. I took pictures and sat in the car and admired the look.
Saturday was going to be the instrument panel install. While the kids were out of the house with the wife and toddler was sleeping FUBAR came over and showed me how to remove the panel and disconnect everything. I swapped out the gauges and FUBAR put the panel back in for me and everything worked. Panel looks amazing and couldn’t have done it without FUBAR (thanks again). We did get a chance to cruise around a little when the wife and kids came back. Good times. By the way, I have never met FUBAR before and he was more than happy to come over and help like every other forum member I have chatted with. This forum is a great resource.
Sunday while toddler was napping again, I stared work on removing the center tunnel and center trim piece to figure out how the new carbon fiber tunnel and mac relocation will go in. I had everything covered in tape. Followed the instructions I read on the forum (Thanks Shadowman) and everything came out as expected. The day got away from me and I found myself on the phone once more with Eric at 5pm talking about the process to put everything in. Starting around 9:30pm I began the process of installing the center tunnel. Got it in no problem. I realized that the Velcro pieces that hold the side panels in place didn’t fit. I didn’t want to remove the tunnel so enlarged the holes while installed. Little dirty, but got the shop vac out and cleaned it all up. Time to bolt in, same issue, needed to enlarge the bolt holes. Not a problem. Another shop vac and everything clean. Installed and looks great. Really. Put the exoticare shift bezel and painted knob all in and looks great.
Next was the mac relocation kit. Wired it all in and tested it and sounds amazing. Probably will never listen to it, but wanted it to work anyway. The biggest problem I had was putting the center trim piece back in. The bolts didn’t want to line up and I was frustrated. It was midnight and I gave it one last try. Got four of the six bolts in and was happy.
Very happy with everything. Thanks for everyone’s help. Now just waiting on carbon fiber A/C vents from Kip and carbon fiber door sills.
