Wstar, that may not have went through the clear. It might just need a buff. I would take it to someone that knows how to buff paint on cars, and have them buff your bumper. I bet that would come out.

As long as they are legal in GA, you are fine. I just wouldn't use one personally.

sorry about the stains, but at least you were able to pass on some valuable info to the rest of us.

That sucks about the paint man.

I'm pretty sure it's through the clear, and down inside the paint itself. I started out with a little alcohol on a paper tower and that did very little good (did remove a little at the surface though). Then I moved up to a microfiber cleaning rag, and then a toothbrush, and then finally a slighty-rough (but fabric-based) scrubbing pad. Basically the purple never goes away until the paint goes away. I could see the clearcoat gone first (paint gets dull in that spot), and then the actual paint, and then you see dark bumper material underneath, but it was always purple until I got to the bumper plastic.

Yea then you did go all the way through. Might have a guy see about the rest of them though. :(

Some dealers, like Infiniti, Audi and so on (mostly luxury ones) have a guy that comes out and touches up paint on cars while on the car and does a really good job usually too. I had to get my rear bumper on my G35 fixed and he did this and you couldn't tell. Might be worth looking into.

Changed the oil again today at 9150 (2150 oil change interval), since Blackstone recommended keeping it down to 2K for now (I had to wait on parts to show up, hence the 150 over).

I also swapped in the Mocal 180 degree thermostatic sandwich plate. I didn't even end up using some of the adapters I thought I would. I attached the Mocal-recommended -8AN to 1/2" BSP Male:Male unions to the sandwich plate, and then screwed the -8AN 45 degree swivel ends of the hoses from the Stillen kit straight onto those. It was a little bit of a stretch to get the hoses to cover the extra 1.5" or so, but I had slack elsewhere in the hose routing so it fit fine once I shifted them around a little.

Oil change was 3 cans of 300V (so 6L, roughly 6.3qts) and came out just about perfect on the oil level afterward - but then again compared to a regular oil and filter change, I lost a little bit extra from the sandwich plate swap (the plate itself and the lines both drained a bit when disconnected, but I didn't intentionally try to flush anything out of the cooler/lines). On the other hand, I did this oil change on ramps instead of level, so I may have left extra in the bottom of the pan too :)

So I suspect when and if I ever have one of those "regular" oil+filter changes that doesn't involve other work, it will probably come out somewhere close to exactly 3 cans of 300V, we'll see.

I also switched to K&N's HP-1010 oil filter this time around. It's identical to the HP-1008 in every way, but longer, so you get more filter surface area out of it I would hope. Fits fine, even on top of a thermo sandwich plate, with plenty of headroom around it.

I've found a small leak along my new oil pan gasket (from when I put the spacer on). Either I didn't get the Ultra Grey on perfect, or didn't torque it perfectly, or perhaps I even slightly warped the pan's mating surface during removal, who knows. In either case the leak is so tiny you'd hardly notice it. Made an oil stain on the plastic undercover, and the oil level dropped about half the range of the L:H on the dipstick during 2150 miles.

So probably next oil change, given the paint stripping incident with the pan anyways, I'll just order a new pan to be extra sure and swap that on with some fresh Ultra Grey and give it another go. The spacer should stay in place anyways with its own Ultra Grey, so it will be much easier this time around than trying to get them both up there perfectly at the same time.

Also on the Veil Paint mishap around the headlights, I've decided to postpone fixing it even though I hate looking at it. I've got more projects coming up in the bumper area anyways (which could lead to more damage which might as well all be fixed at once), and there's always a chance I'll end up falling in love with some (aero/cooling-functional) aftermarket bumper replacement for that matter too. So I figure I'll wait it out a little before I call a paint guy.

good progress, good update... re bumper cover, i'm leaning towards eventually the zele with a separate splitter (APR maybe)... very porsche-esque

Then you clearly haven't driven down 71 to Cincy. Once a month they speed trap on 71 with 7-8 cruisers in a 2 mile stretch. The literally sit in a line and pull out and then circle back down and do it again.
Cincy uses 60/40 Radar/Laser. The motorcycle cops ONLY use laser and they are damn hard to see because the bikes are so small. And you frequently see cruisers parked perpendicular to the highway on the shoulder with a laser gun on the window.

I love my V1 but I think its more important to just learn smart speeding, ie not excessive and only in places with good visibility of the shoulders.

You are right, I haven't driven down to Cincy ever. I pretty much stay in the Columbus vicinity.

Today was a shitty day for my Z.

Started off with picking up a nail on the passenger rear tire while driving around town somewhere. In the sidewall no less. Luckily the hole doesn't leak much, since it's one of those funny angle holes that mostly slips between layers. Even after I pulled the nail, there were only some very tiny bubbles at the hole (when wet), but it was maintaining pressure fine. I went ahead and deflated it and patched over the outside of the hole with some permatex silicon gunk and then reinflated after it dried, and made an appointment to get the tire replaced at the dealership tomorrow (since I bought their road hazard program for the factory tires).

Then I went out to dinner down in the Clear Lake area. Had a half-decent steak at Outback, and came out to find my car had been broken into in the parking lot. The ******** smashed in my passenger window, rifled around in the car a bit, and settled for taking my Valentine 1 and the Glock 26 I keep in the center console. The cop who took the report said the same guy had been doing this all over town this evening for hours (driving around random parking lots and doing smash+grabs on the contents of the cars) and they had a make/model on his truck already from earlier calls. Given that my incident netted him a loaded weapon and is well past the felony line in theft value, at least they responded quickly to take the report.

Nothing else was damaged on the car though, so I'll get an estimate and a scheduled date (I assume I'll have to wait for them to order the glass) to replace the window when I'm at the dealership for the tire tomorrow and take it from there. Still gotta file an insurance claim or two, and dig up the pistol's serial number from my records for the cops. What a day :icon14:

Thats a real sh*ty day.. At least the steak was good.. I love outback! I had a Great day. I went to the casino to play poker which is very rare but had some family in town and wanted to check it out. So Im at the table that it had a bad beat which means that the hand went heads up to the end with 2 royal flush hands at the end.. the pot was at 72k-ish the loser got the most money like 35k the winner got like 15k and eveyone else got 3k. I was just sitting theere.. so got the 3K! I never win anything.. to bad i wasnt the loser.

Dude sorry to hear that!

Wow, that sucks man.

gosh, that really does suck...

if you can figure out a way to ship them without breaking, i just pulled both my side windows