Well, the tax return is on the way and it is time for the TE Magna to get some mods installed. Sitting at home all wrapped up awaiting installation is a set of Pacemaker mandrel-bend extractors that need installation...been drooling over them for a while but couldn't get them installed because of two reasons: lack of cash flow and the fact they would put me over the performance limit on my insurance policy. The cash flow has been fixed and Shannons has given me a pre-emptive OK on getting it insured with them.

Will also be looking at a number of cosmetic mods (budgeting for) as well to the car, including:

GET CAR RESPRAYED!!!


Also going to investigate getting the car dropped by 20-30mm, but I'll talk to my exhausts and suspension guy when I get the Pacemakers installed...get his opinion on it. If I don't get it lowered, I'll probably get larger rims instead. Attached is an image of the car as it currently stands.

Cheers,

OzWolf

Well thank you Mr. Taxman for taxing me $1024 last fortnight out of my pay... I better get a decent amount back!!! lol

Lowering it would really make a difference with that kit I reckon. Hey it looks like you have tinted tailights? am I right? If so, how have you done it?
The rest sounds great. good luck with it all!

No, the tail lights aren't tinted...just the way the afternoon light showed 'em up in the photo.

Time to get to work on some quotes and a spending plan.

larger rims would look alot better. i like the 3rd gens with larger rims on them. 17's or 18's look really good. they add so much to the look of ur car, its hard to go past a larger set of rims.

Who were you insured with?

I'm insured with AAMI. They count the sports exhaust, the body kit and the current non-standard rims as performance enhancements. They allow 3 on my current policy. Put the extractors in and I'm over the limit.

Something else I realised while looking at my car this afternoon is that the paintwork needs a bit of TLC. Mainly, as most cars do, it has gained a number of small imperfections to the paintwork (such as small chip marks on the front of the bonnet) that a DIY cut 'n' polish doesn't seem to have removed. Is it possible for a professional machine buff to reduce these imperfections?

Where do you live? You could try NRMA. They are fine with extractors as unless it's a turbo or supercharged car, they don't boost performance.

Actually, I tried NRMA. Their response was:

"We cannot insure you as the total value of the modifications you have made to your car exceed one-third of the book value of the base model car itself."

Had NO idea that type of restriction existed!

Yeah, they have that restriction however they have said to me that I can pay more to have it covered. It's also possible to have an agreed value policy. I found they had the cheapest prices.

Well, the price they quoted me was $695...for $674 I can get Shannons to insure me without the hassle of voiding the policy by notifying them of a mod. Damn this Rating 2 stuff...hehe...teach me not to pay attention when backing out of my drive.

The crappy little Holden Nova parked across the street was happy with their new paint job on the drivers side though.

Gee, that's a lot. Mind you, I've now paid $390 for full comp. I swear it was closer to $300 last year.

lucky bastards, my insurance cost me a touch under 1k a year...

Disadvantages of being 21...

Well you are all lucky compared to me.....
1300 a year for full comp.... :cry:
still, it pays to have it in the end

my tax BILL is going to be about $660. Sooooooo i didnt get taxed anything on $5000 worth of youth allowance. my bad :cry:

good thing is though that i wont have to pay it till novemeber (putting forms in oct 30)

I got back $77.49 :mad: This is the smallest refund I have ever received; usually around $1200 or so. Found out due to a mixup I had claimed the taxfree threshold from 2 employers at the same time and so my refund was eroded by insufficient withheld tax.

I got back $77.49 :mad: This is the smallest refund I have ever received; usually around $1200 or so. Found out due to a mixup I had claimed the taxfree threshold from 2 employers at the same time and so my refund was eroded by insufficient withheld tax.
Dang. I got about $1700 back once. I was over the moon. Then I realised where I should have claimed 20% of medical expenses over $1250, I'd claimed 100%. Whoops, quickly fixed that up. Still ended up $400 bucks better off. Last two years I've had to pay a bill as I couldn't be bothered getting my second job to take an increased tax rate out and I've picked up several hundred dollars in interest.

Well, all my grand plans have disappeared out the window for one simple plan...get my car resprayed. :cry:

On Sunday, I spent close to four hours doing a major cleanup and touch-up of the car. The ultimate conclusion: the car needs a respray.

The front has about 1000 more stone chips than I thought and now that I know they are there, they stick out like dogs balls. I also have chips elsewhere from stone strikes that are pretty hefty. Took it to a touch-up guy who said the only way to make it look decent is to repaint the entire panel otherwise I'd probably end up with an obvious two-tone paint job because of the amount of area needing touching up.

Along with this, I have about three imperfections in the paint (spider webbing) that are under the clear coat that would need sand back to get to. Once again, best results are achieved by respraying the entire panel for each imperfection because there would be a slight degree in shade. So now I'm looking at the bonnet, the boot and four panels resprayed to remove stone chips and imperfections. :cry:

Might as well get it resprayed completely with that much having to be done. There are definitely times when dark cars are a bane...imperfections and chips and scratches are so much more obvious.

i hate the tax man, i paid nearly $12000 in tax and got a whole $260 back! YAY!!...

There are definitely times when dark cars are a bane...imperfections and chips and scratches are so much more obvious.

I feel your pain. :cry:

i hate the tax man, i paid nearly $12000 in tax and got a whole $260 back! YAY!!...
17700 here :(

Although Ill be getting quite a bit back.. (around the $1500 mark i believe)