Rear diffuser installation
 

Has anyone here installed aftermarket rear diffusers from eBay that sell for a couple of hundred bucks?

I jacked up my car and tried to install them after I got them and I'd barely get one bolt in the top (far too close to the muffler) and then I could not get any of the other bolts in place... it looks like the bolt receptacles in the diffusers are not placed in the right places.

I drilled a hole in the bumper where I thought one was off, and then had a look at it and I don't think they're placed properly.

The eBay listing said removing the bumper was highly recommended. Now I see why!

Anyone have any pictures of how to remove the back bumper?

Sorry Randall,
..can't help ya with this one. Haven't done that mod. Maybe one of the other guys could help out here. Good luck! :cheers:

Randall -

I did mine, pain in the butt if you do not take off the bumper but can be done.

Also good idea to fit them prior to painting, mine required a bit of sanding so they would fit "somewhat" flush with the bumper.

Give me a call if you like, always willing to help

Well, Ive got a pdf of how to remove the bumper. I cant figure it out though, maybe you can. PM me your email if you want it.

Randall,

Just wondering where you're at on this. I thought of going this route so your post got my attention. Hope you're having some luck getting them on.

I've done nothing yet... if I have to take to a body shop to remove the bumper and put on the diffusers, I have to put it off. The BMW 545 priced renovation work I'm doing in my home is sucking all the available cash we have in the bank.

Here's a pic to show the scope of the work. Sorry for the bad shot. I cleaned the lens and it still looks like this when I shoot a dark room with a flash (anyone know what I should do to fix it?)

Randall,

Is that the noose with which you were going to hang yourself
for ever thinking about tearing your house apart???

Forutnately, those loose wires are gone now and the sheetrocking has been done, as well as some of the crown moulding. Next comes the cabinetry work, of which there is a enough to buy my boxster all over again, including the repairs and mods I've made to it!

A happy wife is a happy life. I keep repeating that over and over in my head these days.

Looks like my first house. My wife and I bought a perfectly good house and proceeded to renovate the entire thing at one time. Took every crack in the plaster down to the first (and even second) concourse of bricks. Removed every single piece of wood and stripped, filled, and refinished them. I was buying around 50 lbs of plaster every couple of days. Dropped electrical, CAT-5E, and Coax everywhere. What a mess. Then when we finally got the place to the point where it was beautiful - we moved.

Eh.

Ed, I hear this story a lot... renovate then move. That aint' gonna happen to us.

We've lived in this 107 year old home for 18 years now. We are renovating it as we have saved up enough to do it right (complete gut and remodel with over the top woodwork (extensive crown moulding, window and door casework and custom bulit in cabinetry), new drapes, furniture, pictures, etc.)

When this is done we'll be 65% complete. The last bit is the two bedrooms and a bathroom we want to add between them.

If the house wasn't purchased for $56K and worth $350K and $500k (hopefully) in the years to come, we wouldn't do all this. But my wife really doesn't want to hear my loud, long griping for all the crap she accumulates from garage sales so she never talks about moving to a newer home in a nicer neighborhood.

You should buy a CrackHouse appartment, You'd never sell it cause it would be a never ending project. :D When i was in High School, i had afew friends that lived in "projects" and they are basically the same as a crackhouse or a CVS Pharmacy... nothing ever stayed fixed for longer than 3 months before breaking again.... only thing that never broke would be the cement steps that lead into the front door lol. The thing that would be most likely for me to see brand new atleast every 3 months would be front doors cause either the police are kicking them in or a theft is. :rolleyes:

Our neighborhood is experiencing radical changes right now. We have a double lot (which isn't saying much... lots are 25 x 130) and our house sits on both lots. However, most all the bungalows are being bulldozed or moved off the lots around us and they're taking each 25 foot lot and putting in a skinny shotgun 2 story house in its place with no yard and 36 inches on each side to uphold the building setback requirements. This makes for a 19 foot wide home that is 100 feet deep. :barf:

The crackhouse apartments are across the freeway now. The drug dealers used to rent (or squat) here in the Houston Heights for a long time because the owners of all the homes moved to the suburbs and rented cheap to illegal aliens and trashy people. Then a bunch of us smart people starting buying houses and fixing them up in the 80's because it was so close to downtown and so cheap!

So, the cranked up drug addicts come down late at night and try to break into our homes while we're asleep inside. It's happened two times to my new neighbors living in those skinny, poorly built freestanding townhomes. I pity the fool who tries this on me. I'm locked and loaded.

For you, Randall :p

Nick

Isn't renovation fun? Ellen and I wanted a nice place on the water (which there was no way we could afford) so we bought this...

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k2...ginalHouse.jpg

Over the next two years, we turned it into this...

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k2...1/DSC00027.jpg

When it had been substantially completed for one day, Hurricane Isabel came and completely destroyed it. We had to do the whole project again.

Renovating twice is much more fun than renovating once.

Oh that sucks.

Wow.

Did you at least have the insurance worked out before the storm hit? How did it turn out the second time?

Grizz,
Did you renovate that Nissan in the "before" pic into your Box?

First, Randall, I'm sorry I ruined your thread. I have diffusers on my car but the guy who painted them put them on, so I'm no help to you whatsoever.

Now that the thread is already ruined, this is what your kitchen looks like after a hurricane comes through (photo by contractors):

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k2...rricaneKit.jpg


My flood insurance was in place, up to the maximum amount you can buy. But, of course, the insurance companies have rules for their rules, for their rules, all designed to beat you out of as much money as possible. We came out six digits in the hole, and the first number was not a one. Also, we had to live in the house throughout the entire process. There were no shelters or FEMA trailers, and I can assure you no Feds showed up in my neighborhood with a credit card for me. My neighbors and I discussed rioting, looting and blaming the government for the actions of Mother Nature, but we voted against it.

This is how it looks now. Please ignore my large pile of unread mail and my Blunderbread.

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k2...1/DSC00443.jpg
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k2...1/DSC00018.jpg

Oh yeah, that Nissan wasn't mine. It belonged to the guy across the street.

Lol, I thought you were kidding. I thought it was one of those, we turned this

http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thu...doned_barn.jpg
INTO THIS
http://finance.ky.gov/NR/rdonlyres/9...illMansion.jpg

I wish I was kidding, dude...I wish...

Since we are highjacking...here is our home both before and after a nightmare renovation...thought it would be fitting given the direction of this thread.

However I am glad we did not have to go through it twice!

Before
http://home.comcast.net/~jmpfleet/2.JPG
http://home.comcast.net/~jmpfleet/2homeside.JPG
with the old Land Rover, Volvo and first German vehicle under the cover (74 Super Beetle sold to make way for the Boxster last summer)

After
http://home.comcast.net/~jmpfleet/2home.JPG
http://home.comcast.net/~jmpfleet/2home2.JPG

Really nice.

I like how the corner lot allowed you to have the garage around the corner as opposed to dominating the front of the house, as most do. I hid my garage on the back side as well. I could really use more garages, but our only available space would be right in our water view, so that ain't happening.

Thanks Grizz,

Interesting that you pointed that out...the garage location (not dominating the home) is one of the things I loved about this particular lot when we picked it up 10 years ago. Given our relative location to NYC the lots in this area are commonly 100 x 50-100, so a corner lot and a garage in this layout really work well.

All across America, land has become so precious that floorplans dictate that the houses all be "Garage with a 3 bedroom attached home".

I hate it. The elevation looks like crap, but worse, within a few years the garage is full and the cars are forced to be parked in the driveway. Then the kids grow up and they get a beat up car as their first car and park it in front of the house on the street...

Now drive down that street and all one sees is mass of cars... that's what really turns me off from attached front facing garages in new middle class subdivisions. In Houston, you have to pay an extra 75k for a much larger or older home to get a detached garage that is situated behind the home itself.

(no offense to anyone who lives in one of these homes... it's just a strong personal opinion)

At least you guys have LAND....

I live in a 10,300sqf home that is on a 7,441sqf LOT. When you buy a home in California thats exactly what you get....THE HOME.

I've got family in Jersey and they freakin have 1.5Acres...

10,300 square feet? Did I read that right? You live in a friggin' palace compared to my 2100 square foot bungalow.

Sorry, TriGem... being able to afford that kind of square footage does not make me feel sorry for you. :dance:

I ain't envious of your property taxes though. :eek:

Randal my parents bought the home in 1999 as a forclosure for just over $700k, so our property tax isn't nearly as high as it would be if the house sold at what it was worth.

So, since this thread is totally about homes now :eek: , just curious....who's got the biggest home and lot on this forum?? I know it's NOT me, but just wondering...

I have a little over an acre, but I also have square footage comparable to Randall. I love my little acreage that still has trees, wild birds at times, and rabbits..etc.. When the nieces and nephews drop by they can easily go camping and I don't have to worry about where they are. Plus, I do like having the space between the homes as Randall was talking about.

Anyway, it sure looks like TriGem's folks, Boggtown and Grizzly's place are up there....and I know that one of the folks out there has an approximate 6-8 car garage...pretty sweet!!

BTW, TriGem....don't you get lost in there? How do you guys communicate at home??...via intercom??? Very nice!! :cheers:

Dude your place is big LOL but my question is, how do you fit 10,300 sqfeet on 7441 lot? is that cause theres a 2nd story?

My aunt had a 4125 sqft house and its freaken huge! if i could the upstair its 8250 sqfeet but it looks like 2 houses side by side. Do you have a large number of family members living in the household? that can make any size place seem alot smaller than it really is.

Cmon man, TriGem could put my house in his garage and still have room for the Porsche. I'm at 4,600 sq ft and the lot is only about 1/3 acre. It's hard to find good sized waterfront or waterview property on this side of the bridge. They line the homes up like dominos. Then there are strict impervious surface restrictions in the Critical Bay Area.

Hey Grizz,
...LOL, looks bigger than that! Anyway, still very nice!! Did you do all the work yourself?? Or were you required by the insurance company to use their guys.

BTW, I recall you did the work in your pool table room (at least, I think that was you).......that was real nice too!

I used contractors for most of the work, mainly because I don't have the time to do it myself. If my wife waited for me to rebuild, we'd still be sleeping in mud. We've decided to take the two decks off the back and build a sunroom on the first floor with a deck on the roof of it. I'll probably do that myself. We also want to build a large cuppola in the center of the second story, with a spiral staircase from the second floor family room. I'll need an architect and a good contractor for that one. :eek:

The pool room wasn't me. There have been a couple of guys' pool rooms on the board. Super66 comes to mind. If you really want to see something outrageous, check out the kitchen that Urotrash built from scratch. I think the post is titled something about his summer vacation. Unreal.

dcporsche99 - We don't really get lost....anymore. When we first moved in the house felt HUGE! The pervious home we lived in was 2300sqf so a jump of 8000sqf just felt insane. After almost 7 years in this house it feels normal. Oh and I don't know about anyone else on the board but those NuTone intercom systems are worthless, we have never used it.

CJ - It is 2 stories, the ground floor is just over 5400sqf that includes two bedrooms and two bathrooms. The 2nd floor is all bedrooms and bathrooms and a laundry room.


Randall - How are those diffusers coming along?

i think the issue with the NuTone intercom system at our place was that it was so old that the buttons that make the microphone connection would get dirty and cause LOTS of static!

TriGem, check my other thread... they're not sticking to the sides of the car. Grrr.

The trick is to have a super basement. It doesnt count in your sq footage because its underground, so you dont have to pay such a high tax on it! :)

Randall, are these the ones from ebay seller Maxspeed Motorsports?

Bogg - I have never seen a home in SoCal with a basement. It would be awesome to have one though