Jordan's 2013 Taurus SEL

[jrdnhsqwlmcbzndjkt]

Not much has changed with the car. Winter tires and wheels are on and running like a champ. The green will be going away in the spring for a new liquid wrap design. The whole car will be semi-gloss black with a special design on it. It will be substantially less gaudy than the green and a bit more low-key, but extremely unique still!

[chithead]

[jrdnhsqwlmcbzndjkt]

Installed an aftermarket backup camera this weekend. Bought the camera, wireless transmitter/receiver, and display off Amazon. Going cheap on the display bit me and the display went up in smoke... literally. Oh well, Amazon is sending me a new one. In the meantime, I tested everything with an old flatscreen with RCA inputs.

The license plate was slightly bent already, so I simply drilled a small hole where the wire came out of the camera itself through the plastic bumper cover, then drilled another hole in the trunk right above the spare tire. I then sealed the hole into the trunk with expanding foam and powered the wireless transmitter and backup camera from the existing switched 12V in the trunk for the amp power signal.

Now, the wiring up front got interesting.

To do it as cleanly as possible, I basically tore apart the whole center console entertainment system. I ran the wires and mounted the wireless receiver behind the touchscreen module, and hooked power for the receiver and display to one of the switches I already had wired in for the lights on the pushbar. So now I still have two switches, but instead of both of them powering separate lights one of them powers all the pushbar lights and the other powers the receiver and display. The display will be mounted to the dash above the right LCD and to the left of the center channel speaker.

[jrdnhsqwlmcbzndjkt]

80% of the wrap is done. We had hoped to have it completely done today, but temperature constraints kept it from drying in a timely manner. However, I will give a very major hint to the end goal.

Day 1 - lots of prep, a few coats of black.











Day 2 - more black and peeling of masking. Finished laying black.



Now, for the hint...

[jrdnhsqwlmcbzndjkt]

Well, other than very small touch-up spots and a good cleaning, the liquid wrap portion of the car is done. Now to get vinyl ordered, cut, and applied!

[beak81champ]

Wow!

[jrdnhsqwlmcbzndjkt]

Well, I have a wheel bearing going out. A very slight, almost unnoticeable hum started last week, and has steadily grown worse. Got it up on a hoist and wiggled each wheel - passenger rear has a very slight click when pushing & pulling on opposite sides of the wheel. The noise sounds like it's coming from the front though, so I ordered two and will be replacing both passenger hubs when the parts arrive. Later on this spring/summer when I upgrade the brakes I'll replace the drivers side hubs as well. I am up to just shy of 120k miles at this point so it's not surprising.

[jrdnhsqwlmcbzndjkt]

So, that wheel bearing replacement sucked. It was rusted into the hub, and was not about to come out. Had to pick up a hub buster to get it off, but eventually it did. During the week and a half that it was down the fuel pump driver module went, so when I finally got the car off jack stands, it wouldn't start. A $80 trip to Ford and 30 seconds later it was back on the road.

Finally got all the stars on the car, too!



Now, I have put over 55k on this car since I bought it, and have never touched the brakes. They have a bit of life left, but it's time to upgrade. I bought a set of slotted rotors and premium semi-metallic pads. In the process of replacing the hub I discovered one of the slide pins was seized so I decided to replace all brackets and slide pins while I'm in there. Cleaned them off and masked off sliding surfaces - paint to go on tomorrow.

[jrdnhsqwlmcbzndjkt]

I was in an accident on Sunday night. Brittany and I were headed home from picking up takeout. We were in the center of 3 lanes with a car on both sides and a green light, when a car coming from the other direction turned left in front of us. I saw the car to my left slam on the brakes, then a car in front of me. Slammed on the brakes and horn but couldn't avoid it - I hit the other car on the passenger side rear quarter panel. The other car spun a full 180.

The other driver had a yellow blinking turn arrow and failed to yield. I simply was unable to avoid her. Her car was most definitely totaled on the spot - Ford Tempos weren't produced after 1994 model year. The push bar took a lot of damage, as did the hood and structural bumper. Turns out the front frame rail crumple zone did exactly what it was designed to do, and in doing so, made the cost to repair more than the car was worth. My Taurus is now totaled.

None of us are majorly injured - I was able to brace myself, but Brittany has some soreness in her shoulders, back, and chest. Other driver thinks they have a concussion and is very sore.

Time to remove two and a half years of work from this car and find something new.









Taillight stuck in my grille



And the other car

[BigAl205]

Dang, sorry to hear that...