What did you do to your connect today?

[LostinTransit]

Update:

just got an email form the sign shop,. they said they are willing to make an exception to their no refund policy and for us to come and they'll remove the wrap and issue the refund.. fortunately, the wife and I were eating dinner while the van was sitting in the sun. we thought to make this quick and easy and as painless as possible. we took the warp off ourselves.. came right off and we drove to the sign shop and handed them the mangled up wrap vinyl.. our refund is in transit..

basically what this sign shop did was the ole bait and switch.. they showed us a sample of the wrap with was very dark glossy black . But what they put on the van wasn't black at all. More like a dark flat charcoal. lesion learn.. never take your car to a sign shop to do a vehicle wrap.. they specialize in vinyl signs.. not wrapping cars..

[LostinTransit]

Today, driving 2 hours to our powder coater's shop to pick up the newly signal red powder coated custom front coil springs.. then driving back 2 hours to our performance shop to have them take a look at the spring and set up a date to get these installed..

yesterday, had the shop install 2 new trans mounts on the van. All that's left is the coil springs, and rear camber plates.. amazing after nearly 4 years of finding parts for the van, some successful while most not so successful, we've nearly and almost come to the end of our build.. The only thing left is the front air dam and put the van on at least 2 racetracks that will allow us to drive the van on their tracks.. even with all the negative and very few positive comments.. we've struggled to get this completed.

As a reminder and not sure you blokes would be able to order a set of our springs, but just in case you can, here's how you go about doing that.

log Coil Spring Specialist (https://www.coilsprings.com) and submit and email or "request a quote" form there and within the drop down.. type in "flord Performance" coil springs for a 2019-2023 transit Connect. These will arrive as either powder coated black or powder coated grey.. the front springs are stock ride height, but are 20% stiffer than the factory springs. The rear springs are 2'' shorter and the same 20% stiffer. When replacing springs, you will need to also replace the upper and lower rear perch mounts and perch bushings, which will run you 200.00 USD for the full set. The springs will run you 1,000.00 USD for the set (shipping not included).

The best way to describe these springs is that they are like preset or preloaded springs or are like coilover without the center mounted shocks. Our main objective was to create a leveling spring set that retains the towing and hauling capabilities but at a lower ride height.

[LostinTransit]

wow I just realized, it's been 4 long years since starting the build and even longer owning 2 Transit connect and wanting to do something with them and you see my account date.. 2015 till 2025.. But in a few months and after installing the new front coil springs, camber plates and finishing up the sound dampening.. we've finished the build. there's nothing more to do other than regular maintenance.. the build is official over and we've done or completed everything we wanted to, on the van.

[LostinTransit]

didn't happen today, but yesterday. frantically searched for someone willing to cut custom sleeve for the Monroe shocks.. I order this sleeve material off amazon and it came next day.. we have a deadline of Tomorrow morning to get the Monro 66608s on the van. The issue was all though who said they would cut these sleeve for me ended up not having tools or magically disappearing even after I contacted them. Foruantally I was driving home and stopped at a shop along side the road the guy there is a welder and crafter. i asked if he could cut these for me and he agreed.

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He saved the day as i made it home to make sure everything fit before the installation. The issue is, with lowering springs, the stock shocks have too much up travel and when the van is placed on a lift or hits a bump the springs can dislodge or even fall out. 3 weeks+ or driving local and taking the smoothest roads possible till this is corrected. The sleeve measure 5/8'' to 1/2'' and are 2 3/16 long and is made of cold rolled steel. These fit perfectly into the monroe 66608 shock loops but we've had to locate something to use as spacers to keep the shock centered between the "U" brackets.

The other thing about these shocks is that these are listed as being for class 3-6 trucks.. so they will have a slow recoil up/down travel and some say the ride could be stiff or harsh. I selected these because I was given a list of all the shocks that fit into our up travel range of 16.50 to 16.88. These 66608 are right on the cusp of being too long and we'll see if these work tomorrow morning.

However, in the event that these do not retain the spring within the upper and lower seats, I have 1 pair of shocks remaining to test.. The Bilstein B8's are not designed for the Connect but again we'll make alterations to make these work. I contacted the coil spring people when the springs first started falling out.. they feel bad about this and want to help. they gave me 3 options, but option 2 is off the table.. Option 1 deals with giving the springs back for a refund even after 7 months of use. Option 3 is a bit more in-depth.. The spring people contacted a custom shock guy who said he can design a custom shock just for the van. the only trouble is I'm just not willing to keep paying money for things that don't work. The spring guys said they would split the bill with us and that's option 3.

Finger crossed that these 66608's will fit with all the work we did to make this fit and that they articulate like they should. We have to get these one tomorrow to meet a deadline and be on the road to another location by Tue. which could turn into a track day set for middle of May or middle of June..

[LostinTransit]

handed off the damaged (fro the second time) wheels to our trusted powder coaters.. this time around, it will take 5 weeks to have these wheels stripped, sanded and repowder coater. correcting what another shop attempted to do and wrongly did. That other shop didn';t even sand the wheels and simply powder coated over the damaged areas.

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Although the color is spot on and eastwood company is happy that I've selected their hotcoat silver.. I just need a professional to correctly strip, clean and recoat these wheels.