The old 1-2 project... shocks and rear protection plate installed this afternoon!
All jacked up & ready to remove the OEM shocks. There's quite an apparent difference between these and the QA1's!
Had some trouble with the install at first. Bill from Hahn RaceCraft was very nice, took my call and everything went easily from there. Hahn's video on YouTube was helpful as well.
With the front end done (45 min), I moved on to the rear.
Disassembly of the rear panels took about 30 min, but all came off without any big problems. I was installing a rear protection plate at the same time, so I took the plastic pieces aside to get 'em cleaned up.
Tuff Stuff foaming cleaner from O'Reilly's did a great job cleaning the road grime off, Mother's Back to Black followed by Turtle Wax Spray Shine got the plastic looking great. I did not polish or wax the area where the rear plate mounts, the 3M tape needed a pristine surface to bond to. Cleaned that with rubbing alcohol.
Drilling holes and getting the plate mounted was easy, putting in the plastic anchors was a bear. Holes too small, predrilled more than once. Flexing the anchors caused paint to flake off. 🤨 Finally got 'em in place. This all took about an hour.
Reassembly of the back end was okay, a couple false starts, but eventually everything snapped back together and all the screws and anchors snapped home snugly. I must say the 20 mph wind didn't help! Could have used an extra hand! Reassembly took about 45 minutes.
Short drive, about 2 miles was nice. Going to put on a few more miles and dial in the adjustable shocks to where I want 'em.
Very satisfied with my project and my improving wrench skills!
Hey, don't I get a merit badge for this one!? 😉