Alright so over the recent weekend, quite a lot happened. The clamshell spring compressor came in from eBay so I, with some assistance from my Dad who, even if I didn't ask to help, is the type to help anyway, removed the driver's side strut in 105 degree weather.
Or rather, I did. I didn't mind the blast of vitamin D and skin cancer, or the biting mosquitoes because I was on a mission: Fix the VT's damn sloppy suspension once and for all. Once off, we tried the clamshell compressor and surprise! It was still too large for us to use comfortably and safely for the VT's baby suspension. So I said, Dad, thanks, but let's put it all on and just take it to a shop. That evening, we got a quote of $80 for a suspension shop to reseat the poorly assembled Mobis driver's side shock and to mount the passenger Mobis shock. Great. Not bad. I still had time to get to work on my new mesh grill from Custom Car Grills.
I bought a Chicago Electric rotary tool for $20 from Harbor Freight (My bae hardware store. They are a goldmine for affordable go-kart engines!). I spent from 7pm til 3am cutting out the OEM grill, slag flying left and right in my bedroom (bless my parent's hearts). At one point, the cutting wheel broke and in the middle of a storm at 1am, my father drove me to Walmart to buy more cutting wheels as I wasn't keen on driving bumper-less in heavy rain. Did I mention that my dad rocks?
Anyway, after cutting out the frame, I dozed off for a few hours before dropping Doyun off at the suspension shop. Back home I PD'd the frame, glued the mesh with all purpose Goop into the frame, zip tied it, waited. A few hours later, it was time to mount. That was a pain, honestly, but going slowly the stiff mesh gracefully bent into place into the bumper. At this point, I retrieved Doyun from the shop, returned the bumper with the new, awesome grill and finally, placed the Hyundai logo. It was all done. And let me tell you, holy shit does Doyun handle much better. The bounciness is all but gone and the ride is more comfortable.
My VT will never have a comfortable ride, I accepted, but with each suspension mod the ride does become more compliant. The remaining harshness is from the worn front tires and the VT's inability to fully settle on it's suspension after meeting road imperfections. I ordered less aggressive, less stiff rubber in a taller profile, so we'll see how much of an affect it'll have on comfort. Handling wise, Doyun's a dream. It can take turns at speeds that belies it's FWD dimensions, its light rear end quickly following the lead of the front during turns that normally induced mountains of understeer and body lean. Also, the car turns even more heads now because of the awesome new grill. Huzzah, thanks for reading, I'll share photos eventually xD