So does this mean that Ford will start carrying XM as well? This is amazing news for all satellite radio fans. The big question now is which one to install in my car. I will modify this post later tonight and try and expand a little further.
What will this do to the auto industry that has been siding with one or the other? Stay tuned for my case study.
So my clear corners came in from Jegs on Saturday. That is pretty impressive seeing as I had just ordered them on Thursday and did not pay for any kind of special shipping. The box came with both clear corners (left and right) as well as all four yellow bulbs so I can stay legal.
The installation was super easy and the only tools I needed were a phillips head screw driver and a pair of channel locks.
Start off by turning the wheel towards the opposite side of the car then the one you are working on. The first thing you do is obviously remove the bulbs. There are two bulbs in each corner (as marked in the picture below). To remove them, simply twist them counter clockwise and let them hang while you remove the lens.
The easiest way to remove the lens is by taking off the three screws in the mud well so it will open up a couple inches. To get the lens to pop out, pinch and squeeze the prongs (see below) while gently pushing in on the light from the outside of the car. The lens should pop out with little trouble.
To install the clear corners, just reverse the process. It is a tight fit so you may need to wrestle with the new part intil you get it right. When you get it in properly, you will know it. It will take no effort to get it over the white prongs. The trick is getting the inner tab to go in just right.
Now that you have your clear corners installed in your mustang, you need to go out for a joy ride. I absolutely love the clean look that the clear corners give the mustang front end, especially on a black Roush with those extra fog lights.
I love knocking off another mod from the laundry list!
For all you RSS feeders out there - come check out my new theme.
The time has come for me to focus on the niche that has been the major focus of this blog lately. As we have taken a shift towards Mustangs and search engine optimization, I felt the need to design a look and feel that is more geared to the subject matter. I had to go with red and black (obviously) and I wanted a clean template that would load fast and pass W3C validation. This theme will go through some minor modifications over the next few weeks as I start getting my old code monkey habits back.
Anyway, I hope you like it.
Mustang Clear Corners from
Jegs Performance Auto Parts
Check out the Installing 2006 Mustang Clear Corners post
My brother in law bought a 6 banger black convertible mustang about a month ago. Like me he picked it up from many miles away and got to know her with a great road trip. he passed through on his way home and our two cars had a chance to hang out for a bit. Needless to say we spent some time that evening going over all our mod ideas and what we wanted to do. On the list - him tossing on some break caliper paint and me getting tint (swapping pre-existing options). A few things we both planed on doing were sequential break lights, clear corners and chrome handles and a laundry list of others.
He had chrome handles within a week and ordered the sequential break light mod soon there after making me drool for my next wrench job. Well last night I got a text from him about clear corners on specials at Jegs for about 50 bucks. I logged on first thing in the morning and ordered me a pair. Stay tuned for the “how to install” post here in a week or so.
If you don’t know what Jegs is, it has tons of performance parts for just about any car including dragsters. I have been following prices through all my paper media and was expecting to pay between $75 and $119 for the clear corners. $50 was a no brainer. They were listed in their “Mustang & Ford Racing Specials” category which was real easy to find.
My first experience with Jegs was from a catalog my neighbor gave me when I got my Mustang. The Jegs Catalog has pretty much every part you need to build or restore a car from the ground up. I was very impressed and honestly a bit overwhelmed since I am still fairly new to the self modification scene. Anyway my buddy down the street has a kick ass 69 Nova that is louder then a tornado and oh-so cherry. He has been my mentor if you will and the only place he buys his parts is from Jegs. That recommendation alone is pretty much all I needed. If you can see what he has done to his classic you would understand. Anyway…it wasn’t hard to get me to log on to their site to grab me some clear corners.
Their website is laid out real well and their listings are structured almost like a directory site making it easy to find what you want. The transactional part of their site is straight forward. You add to a cart then have 2 additional screens. I love that they are not selling out to the online marketing punks that fill the web today. Their checkout is not filled with endless cross sales and the site is not wrapped up in Google Adsence. This is an old school site that loads fast, is clean and to the point. They don’t use flashy animations or cheep consumer behavior tricks to make sales. It is refreshing to do business with a brand that stays focused on their customer. They want you to find your parts and check out then get on with your life. I guarantee that I didn’t spend more then 2 minutes on the Jegs site and I accomplished what I set out to do. I can see how you can spend hours daydreaming about your next modifications and browsing their HUGE inventory. Thanks guys! I guarantee that I will be back…and send more people your way.
Discount Tire
You get more then you pay for
Let me start out by saying I love Nitto Tires. I have 20″ rims on Black Sunshine and want only the best performance possible. Before you all start yelling at me for grouping 20″ shoes with performance on a sports car, let me tell you that I don’t care. I like the aggressive stance that the larger wheels give and if I sacrifice a small amount of power then it is my choice. Anyway, I wrapped the rims with Nitto NT555 high performance street tires and I couldn’t be more happy. The side wall is short and the grip feels great (as long as the road is dry). It is easy to get my baby sideways in the rain with the 4.10 gears but these baby’s were not optimized for Seattle.
Anyway, to the point of this post. Not many tire stores keep the Nitto NT555 in stock let alone give good pricing on them. I had the option of ordering them through parts stores or paying $10 more to go through Discount tire. I decided to go with Discount Tire since they would do the mounting and balancing along with the other stuff that I just don’t have the tools for. The mounted all the tires quickly and the guys there were very helpful. Being a gear head, I had a blast browsing through their showroom of different tires and got a chuckle when this lady came in and wanted the cheepest tire possible for her little Toyota. Tires are not the part on your car to go bargain shopping on!
So when my tires were finished, the salesman at Discount Tire gave me the usual sales pitch on “hey do you want the warranty on your tires?” I usually shy away from add-on sales and cross-sales but we are talking about my freekin tires. At about $25 bucks a piece I was able to buy tire insurance for the tread life of each tire. This is one hell of a deal for anyone with performance tires and I will back this up.
Last week after getting my warranty service, I noticed my tire was running low (very hard to tell with such a short side wall). At 15psi I knew something was wrong. I was even more disturbed when I could hear air escaping after tossing in some air. I called Discount Tire and made a appointment for my lunch hour. They did not have any Nitto NT555 in stock (no surprise) but they would take a quick look at the problem. I got there right on time and they brought me right into the bay (make an appointment people…walk-ins always wait longer). Sure enough there was a nail in the middle of my tread. The guys there patched it right up and I was out the door in about half an hour. I was in and out and did not pay a dime thanks to the tire insurance.
Long story short, I would send anyone to Discount Tire and almost force them to get the insurance for their tires as long as they aren’t buying the cheap non-matching used rubber erasers for their Toyota. Thanks guys!
—- EDIT/Addition 2008-03-12 —-
It looks like my boys over there at Discount Tire are getting some love from Google. It seems that their first week using Google Analytics gave them a %14 boost in online sales. I have always been an advocate of GA and I am glad to see some of the places I like to shop get some love (especially in online transactions).
As promised, here is my laundry list of things to do to Black Sunshine
I will post about each of these when I install them with pictures and my shopping analysis. Of coarse I will give credit to the people I shop with (good or bad) and inform all you on the process and costs involved.
Cleaning your air filter with
K&N Recharger Filter Care Service Kit
As you can see from the image above, my air filter was in dire need of a cleaning. I have a beautiful cold air induction system in my Mustang so I decided to buy a CAI cleaning kit. This process was a lot simpler then I imagined it would be. The kit itself was around 10 bucks and the only other tool I needed was a flat head screwdriver to remove the filter. After that it was full steam ahead.
Once I had the filter removed, I removed a lot of the loose debris by lightly tapping the end of the filter. I then simply sprayed on the K&N Air Filter Cleaner (it goes on like windex). I coated the entire filter liberally and let it sit for about 20 minutes. I then ran warm water through the inside of the filter and watched the gunk fall right off. I ran low pressure tap water from the kitchen sink and it did a perfect job. I let the filter dry for an hour or so and repeated the process to make sure it was spotless. I let it dry in the sink over night. The next day when it was completely dry I applied the K&N Lubrication Oil. It went on like a thick spray paint and you can easily see the spots you miss. Do this outside over some cardboard as it is messy and will stain. The oil is very toxic as well so make sure you wash your hands. The night I applied the cleaner, I think I got food poisoning but I am not sure if I cleaned my hands very well after cleaning the air filter. Do yourself a favor and wear rubber gloves just in case. It hurt pretty bad.
Anyway, once it was all said and done, I definitely noticed a difference in my ride. A clean cold air intake makes a world of difference and I definately have to give the boys at K&N a huge thanks.
Charlotte Radio
95.7 The Ride
So I had a realy bad day today and on top of all of life’s events I was forced to listen to local radio on during my commutes. Let me start by saying, I like listening to local radio about as much as driving a ford focus (had to toss that in there). Anyway, I was almost home when I got stuck behind this huge black Ford 250. I love pulling up behind these huge monsters because if the angle is just right, I can see my headlights and the Roush fog lamps smiling back at me. So after my long annoying day I start to smile. John Mellencamp busts out a live version of “Pink Houses” as I stare dead into the huge blue oval on the back of the 250. “AIN’T THAT AMERICA?” For some reason the song was right for the mood I was in. I cranked up the Shaker 1000 and lived every second of the song.
I love my car. My wife calls her my other woman and it makes more and more sense. She may not be perfect but I still enjoy laying into her full throttle and hearing her engine scream at me. She loves to keeping me smiling no matter what life brings my way. I get an hour and a half alone with her every day and we enjoy every second. This is the first time in years that I have listened to local radio. I still doubt I will return for a long time once I get my CD player fixed. However, for 3.5 minutes today 95.7 The Ride changed my tune.
I got home and tried to find out what CD the live version was on. I found the home page for 95.7 The Ride. It is not pretty by any stretch of the imagination. They definitely need to work on their web presence. They do however have a neat little search tool that allows you to see what was broadcast that day (see screen shot below). So as the day draws to anend I need to say thank you to 95.7 The Ride and sorry to Todd at DJF. I know it will all be better soon and I will be rolling around to the music of my choice.
New Blogroll Addition (aka Important People)
Krissy Miller
Designs by Krissy is a new site being built by Kristina Miller. Currently she has joined the ranks of WordPress loyalists and like most smart people is beginning her web presence. The main transactional side of her site is still being developed however her personal blog is up and running. Krissy will be showcasing her custom jewelery designs on her site as well as maintaining her blog.
Krissy is a fellow search professional who manages paid search campaigns for a major retail brand. Keep an eye on this site as it grows and make sure to stop by from time to time and see what she has in her inventory.
REFLECTION
“We should learn, by reflection on the misfortunes of others, that there is nothing singular in those which befall ourselves.”
– Thomas Fitzosborne
“At the end of each day, you should play back the tapes of your performance. The results should either applaud you or prod you.”
– Jim Rohn
“All of us are watchers — of television, of time clocks, of traffic on the freeway — but few are observers. Everyone is looking, not many are seeing.”
– Peter M. Leschak
“Evaluation of the past is the first step toward vision for the future.”
– Chris Widener
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