Hey fellas-

What can I say? I spent over 6 hours tonight trying to unlock my XP, but I failed. I had all of the supplies I needed, including hardcopy of exactly what to do. I got the superglue to fill the laser pits, and I shaved off the rest ok I think. At this point I'm pretty optimistic, and looking through the magnifying glass I line up the shipping tape to make my first bridge. I used thin strokes, letting it dry inbetween. After waiting about 5 minutes, I proceed to pull the tape off very slowly, only to find that I rip the paint right off of the bridge I made. 2nd attempt left the bridge, but it had also gotten underneath the tape and leaked over some of the other level 1 spots. I clean it off with alcohol and start over.

The long and the short of it is that this kind of thing happened all night. I always pressed the tape down very well with a toothpick at all edges (perhaps too hard) and invariably something went amiss. At one point I had three of the bridges made, but while making the 4th the paint on bridge one peeled away! hehe I guess it just wasn't my night. BTW, when applying the paint I probably made 5 thin layers, allowing it to dry before each one.

Still, there is a sunny side to all of this. After cleaning everything off several times, I decide to just give up. At this point I am praying that the chip will still boot up normal. I wash the hs/chip with alcohol, lap w/AC3 again, and line everything up. I put my rig back together in record time and everythings cool. The best part is that I must have better contact with my AX-7, because she idles now at 35 cel, where it was at about 38 before. I can live with that

I don't know if I'll ever have the guts or the nerve to try that again, but if you guys have any suggestions about what I could do differently, please shoot. Thanks for all of the advice so far!