What did you do to your Emira today?

[Blackthought_]

Swapped out the wheels. Black wheels are the winter setup

Bronze wheels are the summer setup

 

[mr.suntorytime]

New Set of wheels are mounted.

 

[tankski]

Took the car over 10k miles on the odometer! 5.5k miles of that are under my ownership.

 

[seriously]

Visited GVBC in Angeles crest this AM. Good roads and good people.

 

[SocketMonkeyGarage]

 

[virtualmacho]

Left to get an ice cream and returned to find this beauty beside me.

 

[Thirdgen89gta]

Dropped it off for a full body PPF since I intend to drive the crap out of it and don't want to worry about rock chips and other damage just from driving.

Full Body PPF.
XPEL ULTIMATE PLUS 10 on all forward facing parts and roof. Regular XPEL ULTIMATE PLUS on the rest of the car.

I won't see the car back for a week now. Sad is me. The garage seems lonely now.

 

[Thirdgen89gta]

View attachment 64392Went looking for @JaviLM at Daikoku.

Hah, I also went for some Ice Cream too. Local place makes it in house, so good. I try to go once a month.

 

[MAX FPS]

Did full PPF and ceramic on everything, including wheels and windshield. I got Xpel 6mil all over, with an extra Xpel 10mil patch to replace everywhere the factory PPF was.

And because the @GRP washer fluid cap looks so good, and lonely with the standard engine surround, I added the GRP carbon fiber surround. I liked the look of the gloss CF better than the matte, but ordered matte because I was worried the rear view reflections would be even worse. GRP sent the wrong set and sent all gloss, but I figured I'd give it a shot instead of just sending it back without seeing if I liked it. I'm glad I did, because the reflections aren't bad and are much lower than the rear view so you look past them. Pix below are "worst case" with the sun directly overhead, which is still acceptable and has the bonus effect of making the CF weave glow.
It also makes the rear view much more interesting as the carbon fiber is angled towards the cabin and you see the weave every time you look back.

 

[Thirdgen89gta]

Part of me wants to just remove the plastic engine cover completely. And let the engine be completely exposed.

The only reason I don't is it really doesn't save that much weight, and it does keep water that comes in from the lid from splashing down on everything.

I want my car back lol. I dropped it off Friday, and already I want it back.

 

[Thirdgen89gta]

For everyone who had full body PPF. I am trying to find out for sure. Are the badges bolted in? Or just stuck on with double sided sticky tape?

Reason being, if they are sticky taped, then I'll have the PPF guys remove the badges and then have no seams around the badges. Then just put them back later.

 

[MAX FPS]

For everyone who had full body PPF. I am trying to find out for sure. Are the badges bolted in? Or just stuck on with double sided sticky tape?

Reason being, if they are sticky taped, then I'll have the PPF guys remove the badges and then have no seams around the badges. Then just put them back later.

My PPF guys asked me to get a replacement "LOTUS" text for the rear, as they said they'd likely get damaged when they came off. $75 for that but the new one is over the PPF just perfectly now.

 

[geoffbland]

My PPF guys asked me to get a replacement "LOTUS" text for the rear, as they said they'd likely get damaged when they came off. $75 for that but the new one is over the PPF just perfectly now.

Your PPF guys may just be being over cautious here. Just get some dental floss and "saw" through the black double sided tape holding the letters on. Doing this gets the letters off with no stress on them & they won't get broken - very easy to do this yourself. Also it might help to know that the "silver" letters are made from metal whilst the black letters are plastic.

 

[geoffbland]

For everyone who had full body PPF. I am trying to find out for sure. Are the badges bolted in? Or just stuck on with double sided sticky tape?

Reason being, if they are sticky taped, then I'll have the PPF guys remove the badges and then have no seams around the badges. Then just put them back later.

Boot letters are held on with black double sided tape. I'm not sure about the bonnet badge.

 

[ADC]

For everyone who had full body PPF. I am trying to find out for sure. Are the badges bolted in? Or just stuck on with double sided sticky tape?

Reason being, if they are sticky taped, then I'll have the PPF guys remove the badges and then have no seams around the badges. Then just put them back later.

They are all just stuck on, though the front nose badge has a couple of locator nubs sitting in holes for alignment.

Absolutely get your installer to remove them and put them back over the top... the result is way cleaner (both figuratively and literally).

 

[Nick Sticks]

"I added the GRP carbon fiber surround."

Does the small access panel feel like it locks in place better than the original set up?

 

[netsinah]

They are all just stuck on, though the front nose badge has a couple of locator nubs sitting in holes for alignment.

Absolutely get your installer to remove them and put them back over the top... the result is way cleaner (both figuratively and literally).

Attached is a photo of what's underneath the nose badge: it shows where the "locator nubs" that stick out from the badge itself, go:




Credit and thanks to Forum member Mateo, who took/posted the photo back in June 2024.

Then we've got a photo of the back of the replacement badge itself, showing the "locator nubs" that stick out (credit/thanks to Forum member Lots_of_Trouble, who posted photo back in January 2022):


The white layer just peels off, for install. Hope this helps.

 

[RoryBellows]

My shop pulled the LOTUS letters off and replaced after PPF. That said they are a PITA to clean. I'm going to inquire about getting them replaced with Vinyl letters possibly having them put them under the PPF for an extra smooth look.

 

[Nick Sticks]

For everyone who had full body PPF. I am trying to find out for sure. Are the badges bolted in? Or just stuck on with double sided sticky tape?

Reason being, if they are sticky taped, then I'll have the PPF guys remove the badges and then have no seams around the badges. Then just put them back later.

For the rear badges they removed them and stuck them back on after doing the PPF using a template.
For the nose badge they left it in place and just went into the dip surrounding the badge. Unless the light catches it and you are specifically looking for it you wouldn't know it was done that way.

I recently changed my stone chipped yellow nose badge for a black and silver one.
Here are photos with the badge removed and the sticky pad left behind and with it left behind.
Also photos of the rear of the new and old badges.

 

[MAX FPS]

@Nick Sticks to your question on the carbon fiber surround: "Does the small access panel feel like it locks in place better than the original set up?"

I'd seen one other poster say they couldn't get theirs to fit right, but mine went in as easily as the original. The only fitment issue is you need to tweak the "posts" that plug into the grey rubber grommets under the glass at the firewall by not screwing them in all the way on the right or left. This shoves the CF piece rearwards a few mm on the right side or left side as needed so there is less of a gap between the front and rear CF pieces. You can see in my picture the right side of the CF surround is a bit tweaked towards the engine. Sadly just a defect in the carbon fiber, and nothing to be done about that.