So, I wanted to get a real V-Limited lip for a long time. Mostly for the aerodynamic benefits, but I really think the lip completes the look of the car’s front end. Also, since my car is already dropped about an inch (actually a bit more than that in the front because of all my additional camber from my camber plates), I don’t have a lot of clearance. I figured it would be a waste of a nice $450 V-Limited lip if I got one for the streets.

In order to save some money and frustration, I got a polyurethane lip for $175. They look like crap out of the mold, so I went to Home Depot and grabbed some 600 grit sand paper and then to Schuck’s to grab some Duplicolor plastic adhesion promoter and then some flat black bumper paint.

I then wet sanded down the lip with the sandpaper, wiped it clean and then looked for imperfections. There were a lot of cracks and scratches in the lip so I gave them a college try but couldn’t get most of them out; none of them are too serious though. I cleaned the lip again and then sprayed on about 3-coats of the adhesion promoter. I let that dry about 10 minutes. Finally, I applied about 6 coats of bumper paint. Lighter, faster arm-movement coats and then the later coats were slower and thicker. I think it turned out really well.

So, now that everything is finally back in order, I think it’s time to recap this story.

This story actually starts way back in 2006. I had my STI for about 4 months and one day took a small rock to the top of windshield from one of Washington’s notoriously uncovered dump trucks (remember kids, don’t speed, but it’s OK let cargo hit cars at 60 MPH). The chip wasn’t even really a chip. It didn’t spider web or anything, I couldn’t even see where it hit until I left my car in the garage for a weekend to find a giant crack down my windshield. So, being that it wasn’t in my way visually and I knew Washington State Troopers would rather pull over well equipped sports cars to generate revenue than enforce dangerous things like uncovered dump truck loads, I opted to not fix it until something else happened.

Fast forward to March 2008 and I’m working from home most days because I’m “on the bench” at work. I decided this would be a good time to get my windshield fixed that I’d been putting off for 2 years. After a lot of research and unanswered queries to people who claimed to have a “great windshield guy”, I gave up and just went with Safelite. Their windshield paint pattern was exactly like OEM glass and everyone was out of the PPG glass that I wanted.

So, a few weeks back a guy from Safelite comes and replaces my windshield. When he’s done I come out and do an inspection. John the install guy asks if I have questions. Naturally, I do because everything looks weird. The glass looked like it was mounted too low. The bottom seal didn’t look like it was on right and the grooves for the glass weren’t sitting right. He said that the “glass was just a little smaller than normal” but that it was OK. He also told me that the sun and natural wear and tear would make the bottom seal sit back into place. I said ‘OK’, paid him, and then he was off.

After he left, I walked around the car to pull it back into the garage. Then I noticed a shit ton (that’s an official metric unit) of scratches. The roof line, A-pillar (really bad here), and hood were all scratched pretty badly. That pissed me off. I left my car in the garage for almost a week. Next time I drove the car, I adjusted the mirror; it was completely loose and wobbly. Awesome, I couldn’t even see out of it because it was vibrating so badly. I filled out an online complaint form and heard nothing back. I tried to repair the scratches as much as possible with Meguiar’s ScratchX and some elbow grease, but I was only able to minimize the look of most scratches. My friend Nick also managed to reattach the bottom seal. Also, I took apart the rear view mirror and assembled it properly.

Fast forward another week and Safelite sends me an online satisfaction survey. Still pissed, I filled another online form. This time I get a call from a Safelite corporate representative. She put me in touch with the local Safelite, who sent out a damage control guy. The damage control guy completely agreed with me (windshield was mounted an inch too low, sloppy work, and the paint was scratched).

Today they sent out a different glass technician and a paint repair guy from Same Day Auto Scrach and Dent Repair. My car feels whole again. Scratches are 95% gone, windshield sits right, and the seals all line up. Hooray! Without repainting the car, I’ll never get the deep scratches out of the paint, but the paint guy did a good job of cleaning up what he could.