After getting the car home I was pretty anxious to dive in and start throwing all the new stuff at it. In addition to the new fender I had sprayed at Performance Collision, I also ended up getting a used OEM passenger fender and trunk lid that were freshly resprayed as part of a favor for a friend during the time the car was in the shop.  

I started with the trunk lid, which was a fairly easy swap. Took some adjusting to get the gaps right, but I got it dialed in pretty well.

After that I took some time prepping the car for its new fenders. There were a few spots of surface rust on the unibody that i sanded down and hit with POR-15, as well as the driver's side pinch weld area. I was concerned it might be in bad shape considering how rusty the fender was in that area, but I lucked out. Some scraping and sanding revealed it was fine, but i buried it in POR-15 to be safe anyway.

The factory sealant that bonds the fenders at the top by the cowl area had to be removed to get the fenders off, which left some areas of exposed metal. I took some time to tape things off and hit them with some paint and clear, then wet-sanded and compounded them. The goal wasn't hi-gloss, just an OEM type look, I'm happy how it turned out.

Finally, I ended up having to retexture the bottoms of both freshly painted fenders, both body shops painted them full gloss, which wouldn't match the rest of the car.

Both fenders are now most of the way bolted onto the car, but I'm waiting on a package from Tischer with some new hardware before they are fully installed.

The final stage was installation of the carpet.

This is pretty much exactly where I am right now, not a ton of big stuff left for this year, just some small odds and ends. I've got an iS rear lip I need to refinish and install, and I still need to throw some paint or powdercoat at the RSs.

The goal is H20 at the end of next month, hopefully I can get it all done. 

-Ethan