Well.. my buddy Todd and I didn't get totally done today with all the bits and pieces I wanted to take care of, but we got a lot of it complete, and my car is fully drivable for the first time in over a month since I started.. whee!
At this time, I'd like to thank (in no particular order), DMNaskale. ChrisM, JBort, Stuart in MN, Todd, Clayton... uh.. and if I forgot you, Thankyou! So many people helped me out with advice and pics etc, it's hard to remember them all.
Two things can be learned from my experience:
1. If the studs inside your M-tech are broken, don't screw around trying to glue them, you have to drill them and tap in an M6 thread. I lost a LOT of time trying to epoxy, re-epoxy, trying different junk.. different bolts.. etc etc. Total waste of time. The metal stud bases inside the M-tech are beefy enough if you just grind the threaded part down flat, to get about 4-5 thread depths in there and it'll hold really well.
2. For christs' sake, get STRAIGHT Euro bumpers. I bought cheap mangly ones... only to have to repurchase 5 of the 6 pieces. I ended up buying two new.
See if you can spot the differences -- there are quite a few! look sharply! (The 97x sticker doesn't count)
The leading edge of the back end doesn't quite sit where I'd ideally like it, but I'm using brand new bumpers and the factory holes and factory hardware.. so not much I can do about that. The front end went on nice and straight, though. Woot!
Are you bringing it to 5erFest?