The Genesis of Revelation!

Grad school is goddamned hard, especially when you're working full time throughout, even more so when you're doing it in a second language and even-even more when you blunder into a class taught in your THIRD language. One of the ways I stayed motivated through the 80 hour work/study weeks was a promise to myself that, when the class work was all finished, I would buy something pretty and irresponsible. In other words, I'd go shopping like I was an 8 year old with a $6k budget. Well, I just finished my coursework.

Maybe it's just me, but damn that's a pretty car. 

Yes. Yes, it certainly is. What it is, I don't know. 
 

Edit: looked again after looking at the title of this thread. Oh, yeah...

I've got to get more sleep. 

So, details. 

This is a 2009 Genesis Coupe 2.0T with a 6 speed, 95K miles and all the fancy options. Those options include some things I really like: LSD, Brembo brakes, a ludicrously extroverted red interior. They also include some stuff I don't particularly like: sunroof, power motorized headlight thingies, a complicated navigation/infotainment thingy that was dated 12 years ago and is about as intuitive as punch card computing. 

The motor is stock except for a pod filter, a noisy blow off valve and a bigger intercooler (stock BK1 intercoolers are notorious for heat soaking). 

The suspension is - special. More on this later.

I'm 99% sure this thing has poly bushings for the transmission mounts. Either that or every other Gen Coupe I've driven had shot bushings. Regardless, this is the only Hyundai product I've ever driven that wasn't plagued by a wobble-matic drivetrain mounting strategy. That said, the shifter bushings are shotshotshotshotshot and need to be replaced yesterday.

In the back, the previous owner installed an expensive looking shock tower brace that blocks my pass-through seats. (I'm totally okay with this.)

The wheels are "Road Hart" brand totally-not-Racing Hart knockoffs. 

The chassis is clean and rust free, though the same cannot be said for the rear subframe. 

Interior wise, the driver's seat bolster is going to need a leather refresh in a year or so, there are some ugly holes where some sort of aftermarket electronic dohickey was mounted and remounted and remounted on the plastic next to the driver's right leg on the transmission tunnel. The shifter boot is torn.  The red dye on the door pulls is worn off.  

Exterior wise, I really like the aftermarket grill and de-badging. I even like the little side skirt things, mostly because they're subtle. We'll see if I ever learn to stop kicking them whenever I get out. The car appears to have originally been gray and then spray painted black. I have reason to suspect the rear bumper skin will need to be replaced eventually, though this is mostly my OCD speaking.

I paid about $4,800 US for it, going up to about 6K after tax, registration and a year's insurance.

I'm smitten.

While some of the GRM community busy themselves with trivial tasks like cutting apart Ferrari V12s, shoving Atlas I6s into Studebakers or building 1930 Datsuns from washer machines, I have chosen a harder path for the Genesis. 

You see, there was a hole in my shifter boot. 

Boo, hiss, etc. 

First step to fixing this was to cut the boot open along one of the seams in the hope that it would lay flat in two dimensions. It did. Good luck. I then took my specialized office stapler and affixed the original boot to a 2016 Korean Advertiser and PR Practitioner's Society memorial tote bag. I also cut off the little snap ring from the top for later use.

I then used the original boot as a pattern to make this:

Dimensionally it looked good but, in my wisdom, I didn't notice the 2016 Korean Advertiser and PR Practioner's Society Memorial tote bag also had a hole in it. Boo, hiss, etc. Time to try again. 

What you see above is a 2020 Pura Dak Premium Chicken bag, given as a special collector's edition for take-out customers. I could have easily turned this inside out to hide the premium chicken logo but, after consultation with some friends, decided that it sort of looks like I'm in charge of the fried chicken branch of the Illuminati now. Obviously it had to stay. 

I also realized that there was no real reason to separate the original shifter boot, which I was using as a pattern, from the new Premium Chicken boot. As such, I sewed it all together with the original inside out and facing the shifter mechanism. The thought is that hopefully doing so will act as a liner and guard for the outer layers. 

The 2016 Korean Advertisers and PR Practioner's Society memorial tote bag donated its handle in order to make this nifty little seam reinforcement/concealer. Now, I just had to get the boot re-attached to the plastic base it came from. Sadly, this proved beyond the capabilities of even my deluxe office stapler and so I had to channel my deepest, most refined ghetto skills. 

Yep, those are used staples. They came out of the plastic originally and were probably triple the thickness of the office staples. I straightened them with pliers and then squeezed them back into their orignal holes with more pliars. 

Not perfect but plenty strong and just as tight as it had been when I pulled it out. 

Sewed the snap ring back on and installed the base in the bezel. 

And here it is in the car. 

I'd like to thank the 2016 Korean Advertisers and PR Practitioner's Society Memorial Tote Bag and ...

2020 Pura Dak Premium Chicken bag for their brave sacrifices. 

It's possible that we have peaked with Chicken Bag Shift Boot.  

nocones said:

It's possible that we have peaked with Chicken Bag Shift Boot.  

I can see the responses now in the unicorn thread-- "But did it have a Chicken Bag Shift Boot?"

nocones said:

It's possible that we have peaked with PREMIUM  Chicken Bag Shift Boot.  

Ftfy.

This is awesome.

I think we all know where I fall on this topic...

The Genesis is generally really clean and this is good, but it also stimulates the hell out of some OCD I never knew I had. As such, the tiny screw holes in the plastic that nobody but I will  ever see have become the ethical and deontological equivalents of Mongol hordes on the horizon, nuclear annihilation and losing the remote control all at once. 

I didn't take a very good picture of the holes, but you can see them in the top left corner of this photo. ^

The previous owner of this car was very enthusiastic about adding aftermarket electronic doohickeys and so I assume the holes were created for mounting some sort of microwave-powered butt tickling GPS or something. (Other random electronic stuff I've found includes a "black box" that records footage front and rear of the car, a navigation system that replaced the stock navigation system and, in the process, made it impossible to see what radio station you are tuned into and also doesn't work without dedicated sim cards and a subscription, some random thing dangling from under the steering column that appears to stream some sort of music service that's connected to Justin Beiber, etc.)

Regardless, these holes have to go. First, I tried heating the plastic and using a heated piece of metal to smear stuff into rough shape.

This is better but clearly not enough to satisfy my OCD. I think the hardest part is going to be restoring the texture. Not sure how to do that yet. Maybe a sponge?

Can you use hot glue to take a "mold" of the texture then emboss jb weld with that texture?  Sure the color is an issue once your done but you would have the texture.  

Could also make a stick on fabric pad for knees in that area?  Some nice suede or premium chicken bag pads would be pretty dope.  Some 1/4" neoprene covered in fabric sew up the edges and boom cool look feature.

I feel like I should crop that last picture so mazdeuce doesn't see how dirty your start button is

nocones said:

Can you use hot glue to take a "mold" of the texture then emboss jb weld with that texture?  Sure the color is an issue once your done but you would have the texture.  

Could also make a stick on fabric pad for knees in that area?  Some nice suede or premium chicken bag pads would be pretty dope.  Some 1/4" neoprene covered in fabric sew up the edges and boom cool look feature.

This is pretty close to what I am going to try. Thank you for your idea about the textures in particular, you gave me an idea. :)

 Behold, my chosen weapons. 

(The sticker and number pad thing are separate. I'll explain them later.)

In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :

I find it interesting that the Gen Coupe was available as a 2009 there and we got them as 2010's.

EDIT: I need to find out how to get cool stuff from there to here. 

Well, it can't be that complicated, right? You PM Daewoo with a list, money changes hands, he puts your stuff in a Pura Dak Premium Chicken bag and sends it over.

bobzilla said:

I find it interesting that the Gen Coupe was available as a 2009 there and we got them as 2010's.

EDIT: I need to find out how to get cool stuff from there to here. 

Whatcha looking for? 

I just want the chicken bag!

And now im going to lurk, and secretly brows for a smoking deal on one to replace the perfectly fine, paid for, and sorted mazda6 with....

DaewooOfDeath said:

bobzilla said:

I find it interesting that the Gen Coupe was available as a 2009 there and we got them as 2010's.

EDIT: I need to find out how to get cool stuff from there to here. 

Whatcha looking for? 

right now, nothing. But I will keep you in mind next time I need something for an oddball Korean car. If I could find an LSD for a first gen big block forte I'd get another one of those.

DaewooOfDeath said:

2020 Pura Dak Premium Chicken bag for their brave sacrifices. 

I'm planning to do the same with an American Flag-printed burlap bag that held a bottle of Tito's vodka. I just have to find an AMC first

In reply to bobzilla :

I'll keep my eyes open but we never got the 2.4 Forte here. 2.0 was the range topper.

In reply to DaewooOfDeath :

pretty sure the 6-spd manual was the same for both Theta's (2.0 and 2.4)

In reply to bobzilla :

My 2.0 Koup from 2010 was 5 speed only for the stick. I know they made a 1.6l stick six speed but that's a gamma.

Interior Update:
1. I melted black cable ties and used them to patch the holes in the interior plastic panel. This worked sort of okay at filling one of the bigger holes but I wasn't happy with the results over all.

2. The plastic water bottle I showed above had roughly the same texture as the original plastic and so, with a little heat, I rolled it over the softened original plastic/cable tie plastic. This worked sort of okay.

3. Used some steel wool to gently scuff everything. This worked pretty well. You can still tell there is some imperfections if you look, but it no longer bothers me.  

I didn't take a picture after using the steel wool and treating everything with polish, but you can kind of see what I was shooting for here.

So now that I've been living with the Gen Coupe for a while, there are a couple of engineering decisions I think the factory made that explain why people back in the early 2010s preferred Frisbies and Miatas on the low end and Mustangs and Camaros on the high end over the Genesis. 

1. The way the engine is tuned. So, first thing, I really like the fundamental bones of the Theta turbo so far. It's a lovely highway cruising engine, makes oodles of torque, spools quickly and makes enough power to be silly and fun. Mine is the early MPI engine, modified with an aftermarket intercooler. There could be ECU shenanagins and tuning as well, but I don't know and it's entirely possible the stock version of this motor is the dog everyone says. Regardless, I like it. However, it's got an annoying feature with the e-throttle and it feels like the people designing the engine were either not talking to or straight up lying to the people who designed the transmission. 

E-throttle thing first. I don't know the reasons, but all the Hyundai-Kia stuff I've driven from around the 2008-2015 era - two Genesis Coupes, a Sonata, my old Forte and a mini-car you guys don't get called a Morning - have horrible, terrible throttle control in two respects. a) They are spastic at light throttle. I can hold my foot perfectly still at 2 or 3% and the e-throttle will interpret this by cycling between totally closed and about 5% open at about half second intervals. This makes low speed driving awkward and jerky and I hate it. The only way I've found to get around it is to short shift at low speeds so that I'm always at higher loads and the e-throttle doesn't get confused. b) They rev-hang like crazy. This is the thing I can't really drive around. Any time I get the car above about 3,500 rpm and let off the gas, the e-throttle will decide that my secret, inner desire is to continue on at that exact engine speed for the next 5 seconds. Doesn't matter if I let off to shift or because I want engine breaking. The revs will hang FOREVER. Problem a) is annoying but managable. Problem b) is a pretty big obstacle to enjoying a Genesis Coupe as a driver's car. Luckily, I'm told this feature can be flashed out with ECU tuning. 

2. The  weird way the transmission and engine are matched. The Theta turbo, at least as it currently sits in my car (and once again I don't know what's been done to boost levels or timing etc), drives almost exactly like an old school, 5.0L Fox body Windsor. It makes about the same power, it weighs about the same, it can theoretically rev to 6,500 rpm but there's really no point going above 5,800 ish, it has passing power from about 2,000 rpm and does its best work between 3k and 5k. It even gets the same low to mid 20s fuel mileage the old Windsor Mustangs got. This is totally cool, I like Windsors in a vacuum. 

However, it's a problem here because the actual gear ratios in the car are just about perfect for a Honda S2000.
1st - 7kph per 1,000 rpm (48) 
2nd - 12 kph per 1,000 rpm (78) 
3rd - 17 kph per 1,000 rpm (110)
4th -  23 kph per 1,000 rpm (149)
5th - 30 kph per 1,000 rpm (195)
6th - 40 kph per 1,000 rpm (260) 

In mph, at redline:
1st - 30
2nd - 48
3rd - 68
4th - 92
5th - 121
6th - 161

None of this matches a torquey, turbo engine at all. The car is actually faster launching in second. I've heard, but want to verify, that a 3.909 rear gear came on all the 2.0T BK1 Genesis Coupes but that the manual V6 models had a 3.58 ratio. I've also heard they're all 3.909. If the former is true, I think swapping for a V6 ratio would be a massive upgrade.  

3. Engine mounting and packaging. I only really noticed this when I started researching V8 swaps, but the factory motor mounting is oddly high and forward. I dug around a little bit beneath the wiring harness and coil mounts and found that there's about 10 inches of empty space between the firewall the back of the cylinder head. The V6 Genesis Coupes are mounted even farther forward. 

I don't really know how this car handles (the suspension is a mess I haven't sorted yet), and I liked the handling on a coilover equiped 2.0T I drove earlier, but I can't imagine this helps, particularly when it's a 3.8 model with four heavy camshafts mounted way on top and all the way forward.