12/7/11

Happy… wait, no that probably isn’t right. Dang youse, Pearl Harbor Day! I don’t know. Whatever. So, you know how I'm always doing dumb stuff? Well, today was no different. I ordered a set of Tein S-Tech lowering springs for Fiona just now. They will hopefully be here in time for me and John to install them on our mutual vacation time next week. I called Kevin to see if we could use a lift and alignment stuff rather than trying to do it on the floor of the shop. He said we probably could but that after hours would be better. I'm not sure how much after hours John is going to be allowed by the high command so if we can't get in, we’ll suck it up and install them at the shop. I just read a few threads on the Genesis forum about the install and it appears that the whole thing shouldn’t take more than a couple hours… so a full day needs to be allotted. I can hardly wait. I wonder if John is going to try and talk me into painting the wheels black while they are off. (Looks around conspiratorially) Psst, here’s a little secret, he won't have to try very hard. Tee hee. Anyhoo, so there’s that going on. Hmm, I guess since it is now approaching 1120 h, I think I'll go hang out with Larry until lunch. I'll be back to ‘splain why I chose the Teins later. Feh, I ate way too much at lunch. I should not have had the bacon wrapped meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and spinach. I definitely shouldn’t have had the cookie. Bleh, I feel like crap. I'm going to have to eat very light for dinner tonight. Anyhoo, why did I choose Tein over Eibach, Megan, or any of the other springs for Fiona? Well it’s like this, I did a little research, damned little to be honest, and found that the Tein springs were probably going to be the smoothest riding of them all. The Eibach Sportlines would be the lowest and roughest riding while their Prolines would be probably just a tad more aggressive than the Teins. As for the Megan and others, I read nothing. Apparently no one runs them for some reason. As for price, the Teins came out ahead by several dollars whereas both Eibachs were the same price. So, I asked John for his opinion. His only question was, “Tein is at least an inch drop, right?” or something like that. I replied that the drop was listed as 1.1” in the front and 1.5” in the rear. We agreed that that sounded backwards but further research confirms it. The picture on the Tein website looks good, nice and level, so I'm not skeert… much. He convinced me that it would be enough so I went to order a set. I found the cheapest ones on e-Bay were in… um, well I don’t remember where they were but it wasn’t Texas… but I don’t mean in Not Texas either. Anyhoo, there was another set for one dollar more in Austin and a third set for yet another dollar more in Lewisville. I called the Lewisville auction’s number as asked if they had a storefront I could come visit. They did not. However he did make me an even better deal, I got them for about ten dollars LESS than what he had them marked on e-Bay, or $8.00 less than the cheapest ones. Now, I just had a thought that it is possible that it was a scam and I've been hoodwinked out of $154.00, but I won't make that paranoid leap until they don’t show up. Well, I've been looking for information about alignment settings. It appears that 2.5° up front and 1.5° out back for camber, and 0.3” front and 0.0” rear toe in are the numbers for which I otter be shoosting. I'm sure I'll settle for, “Meh, that’s pretty close” to those settings. I've been thinking about painting the wheels black. The more I think about it, the more I think he IS going to have to convince me. I'm just not so sure after all. Yes, they would look awesome in black, but could we get a good enough finish which will last? I just don’t know. I can see them looking like hammered dog shit and being stuck with them. Yeah, I think I'm going to forget painting the wheels for now, maybe next summer. We’ll see. And on that note, I think I'm going to call it a rant.