Kizashi Club

Thought I might as well tell the epic story of a man and his Kizashi

The date was the 9th of May 2012. I was giddy with excitement and anticipation as I arrived at the Suzuki dealership to collect the car that was to replace my trusty-but-humble 94 Ford Festiva.

Kizashi just about to leave the dealership:


Me showing friends the car's features:


My introduction thread is here if you're interested: http://www.kizashiclub.com/forum/viewto ... 093#p15093

One of the first things I did was fit my personalised plates. In case you're wondering, that's my real name on the plates



So after about 7 months of enjoying the Kizashi's road-handling abilities, the sun shining through the sunroof, and the thumping beats from the Rockford Fosgate system, I had the unfortunate experience of being rear-ended by an inattentive uni student in her Toyota Echo



(There's a detailed thread regarding the accident here: http://www.kizashiclub.com/forum/viewto ... =19&t=2131

A month later, she was all fixed up and looking like new again

Very cool to read. I love the plate.

Nice Kiashi . Wangara dealership by any chance?

Yes Wangara Suzuki indeed! My car was the last Prestige-spec car available in WA that was manual (or so they told me )

Wizzbang wrote:Yes Wangara Suzuki indeed! My car was the last Prestige-spec car available in WA that was manual (or so they told me )

Oh awesome, your original licence plate was registered just days after mine . Yeah I can believe that it was the last manual in WA; I originally wanted a black manual but there were none at the time, so I settled with the mineral gray (touring). The service guys tell me they almost never see any manuals at all.

I don't drive the car much nowadays because I catch public transport to work. But hey, the Kiz still gets some love. I got her a set of slimline plate protectors.





I reckon it sort of gives the car a slightly more premium look with these on.

Looks like I'll have to get the bumper blackout kit now!

Last weekend I decided to take care of the kerb rash afflicting my rear left and driver's side wheels. Thanks to Dad for helping me out

Off with the driver's side wheel.


Up on the bench where the scratched area was attacked with an electric sander. I didn't have a good 'before' pic but you can sort of see it here.



My chihuahua Alvin supervising the work. Good boy!

On went the filler...



Once filler had hardened, it was sanded back with wet n dry



All masked up for paint

At this point I should acknowledge I loosely followed this thread.
http://www.kizashiclub.com/forum/viewto ... f=32&t=844

I say 'loosely' because you'll see I missed some pretty important steps such as not properly cleaning the wheel beforehand (although I did get some thinners on the area before painting); masking too close to the repair area which caused a nice big contrast line between my paint job and the rest of the wheel; and choosing a paint that had a much different texture to my wheel....

Laying on the primer.



And the basecoat paint...then the clear coat