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The Car Thread


MadManMike

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Thanks mike. The fact they were starting to creep up in price was a fair bit of the nudge I needed to buy mine. I wish I'd bought a less knackered one, but I'm glad I bought one all the same! :lol: 

Still not heard anything from gaz unfortunately. I'm eager to get an order placed and get some dimensions out of them so I can get some laser cut stuff ordered for the suspension arms. Hopefully they'll get in touch soon. 

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What state's it in these days Paul? If any bits off mine could be of use let me know as I'll be reusing very few original bits. Although most of my bits are pretty ropey there's a few that might be useful. 

I finally got my order placed with Gaz. I should admit I hadn't been chasing them much as I've been mega busy at work helping sort out our new building, and there's been some back and forth to decide on spec, rather than just one call to place an order. 

A set of their 'gold' coilovers with custom rears to ditch the torsion bars should be arriving in about 4 weeks (made to order). 

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Today has been a good day.. 

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Initial test drive went okay, checking for brake feel and alignment. 

Back in, nut and bolt check. Out for a blast down the carriage way to see if everything was good high up the rpm/mphs. I was met with huge vibration under acceleration.. suspected inner CV. I was right. 

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Must have come apart when removing/installing the shafts from car to car. Cleaned, re-assembled: 

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Passenger side hub assembly re-assembled. One more nut and bolt check. 

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Back out on the road. 

Result is smooth, clean acceleration with no drama at all. Perfect. Car feels stable yet nimble. Brake back plates are catching the discs (300mm EP3 discs with a different offset) so I’ll be doing away with those tomorrow night while I tweak the alignment. 

 

Looking forward to seeing what it can do at Cadwell on Thursday. 

 

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10 hours ago, RobinJI said:

What state's it in these days Paul? If any bits off mine could be of use let me know as I'll be reusing very few original bits. Although most of my bits are pretty ropey there's a few that might be useful. 

I finally got my order placed with Gaz. I should admit I hadn't been chasing them much as I've been mega busy at work helping sort out our new building, and there's been some back and forth to decide on spec, rather than just one call to place an order. 

A set of their 'gold' coilovers with custom rears to ditch the torsion bars should be arriving in about 4 weeks (made to order). 

Nice on on the shocks! What engine are you putting in now?

This is the last I saw of mine:

2018-02-28%2008.50.59_zpsxerz90y7.jpg

It starts and runs (roughly!) but that is about all it has going for it right now. The interior is falling apart, the paint is coming off in places, the steering is very wobbly and it just needs lots of love. What have you got going spare? I need a working WUR and AAV, door cars, carpets, rear cards, a hatch that isn't separating and several litres of Alpine white paint!

 

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Any of you workshoppy people got any experience with something like this:

F35EEF1F-C831-4AE7-A414-725A8C801BA6-lar

Ive had good success with another sandblaster i've got but thats not in a cabinet so makes a massive mess and is a grim experience.

It's to do suspension components and what not.

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Could you not just hold hands while pumping?

 

To answer your question Danny I've got a eBay special in a slightly bigger cab that's stand alone and it's really good. Could probably fit an get round a 16" wheel at most.

All parts are super easy to get and easy to fit if anything goes wrong. I use mine daily and have done for nearly 3 years now, couldn't be without it. The only issue is the amount of air it consumes. You'll need a big compressor to keep up with it.

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Drove this thing around the track yesterday. Didn't know much about it other than it being a direct rival to the M3 and C63, both of which I've driven and enjoyed. This though is the first car to have scared the living shit out of me. The way it builds boost and the punch it delivers is terrifying. The chassis copes with it just fine and so do the tyres (not so much the brakes) but you're constantly aware of being in a small saloon car that just shouldn't be able to do what it's doing. Honestly, I've driven a fair share of supercars as of now and the closest thing in terms of how the performance *feels* is the 12C. Hats of to Alfa for this one. It did end up braking down and going into limp mode but while it lasted, it was mind bending. And the feeling of driving this and a 991.2 Turbo S for a few hours yesterday, then stepping into rusty old diesel Citroen Xantro Picasso or whatever my replacement is called at the end of the day - priceless :D 

 

PpSItex.jpg

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If they carry on like that, they'll get a reputation for being unreliable!

My colleague has a standard one actually, that had to be replaced as it kept going wrong and they couldn't work out what was up with it. 6k miles on it, 6 months old...

Lovely car though, black with red leather - stunning to look at and sit in, but haven't driven one myself.

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Been a bit too long since the last update, but this what has been achieved since the end of February:

 

Started a wire tuck on the engine bay as the engine itself was well out of the way

 

Ran the cable through the indicator routing holes ( had to enlarge to fit the bigger multi plugs through ) 

 

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Engine bay before starting rust removal etc prep work

 

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Engine bay during prep

 

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Front hubs were looking terrible, so wire brushed them with the grinder and gave them a few coats of hammerite.

 

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After paint

 

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Noticed a fair amount of corrosion on the coils of the BC racing coilovers, so going to give them the same treatment to try and protect them.

 

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Stripped the rear lights down to do the halo LED ring mod, and add a red filter to both sides so the backend is more symmetrical.

 

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Bought a donor shell for the windscreen, rear quarters and some other little clips etc. £50 + 40 for the next door neighbour to transport it for me.

 

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Drilling out many spot welds.

 

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Some damage to the drivers side quarter

 

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Unfortunately found some rot too

 

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New gearbox also sourced from the same place for £30

 

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Grotty rusty calipers after wire brushing

 

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Painted the calipers purple to match the cam cover.

 

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Plenty more updates to come once i get some more pictures from my old phone.

 

Hopefully having a flurry of activity to get the car done for Summer!

15777461

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Civics first outing at Cadwell wasn’t a blinding success. 

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306 has popped its radiator. Hoping it’s just a result of it being old and  not something like a head gasket failure as a result of me winding more fuel and more boost into it. Attempting to source a reasonably priced replacement is proving difficult. 

The freebie 2004 1.9 dci Renault Laguna my Dad gave me is excellent. Used it to trip up and down the M62 to collect parts for the Civic and the 306 a few times. Averages 49-52mpg, cruise control, AC and decent climate control.. I don’t miss driving the other two on a similar journey at all oddly.. considering selling it and the 306 to fund a slightly newer and less French alternative. S Line 1.9 TDi A4 Estates are taking my fancy. 

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Mazda is sold, Lexus LS430 inbound friday. Ultraluxobarge life for 250 a year more insurance and roughly the same in tax. winnerwinner. 14mpg life

 

Air suspension fitted from factory and the full level controller is around £500 off ebay, but coming from Japan, does anyone know roughly how long stuff takes to arrive from there?

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Funny really, I had my hair cut yesterday and the barber was telling me how he's buying some Merc that's not quite an AMG but still 5.5 v8 or whatever...

He's around my age I'd say so late 20s. Was talking about insurance for it and how it's about 750 a year to insure and how expensive it was :lol:.

Old before our time. I'll stick with my fairlane at £180 a year haha.

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Pfft, £150 for the Porsche with loads of extras (Inc breakdown of course...)

Some very practical upgrades have happened to my van, pretty unexciting. It now actually works wonderfully, my crazy dash lights were a result of a dodgy accelerator pedal which I replaced with one from my spares van and I've also swapped over many of the best bits so mine is in really good mechanical order now. I'm saving to have it remapped soon and a new cambelt whacked on whilst it is there (sod of a job and I can earn more in the time it'll take me to do it than paying a garage to do it).

Additional spot lights:

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I was fed up with having to remove my racking whenever I transported larger items so I made some folding shelving which works a treat:

5acf0f246d29a_2018-04-0216_59_42.thumb.jpg.b742d640603b8bacbed09e95c4b35a04.jpg5acf0f2852734_2018-04-0217_00_52.thumb.jpg.f7925ae04ad3809e4ed0b090f2d12c56.jpg

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I need to make some for the other side now but at least it only takes 10 seconds to fold down and less to fold back up B)

Reflectors replaced with reflector/led units and very bright reverse bulbs fitted so I can actually see now when reversing

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I've also fitted an E46 leather seat upfront which is VERY comfy!

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Sounds like a winner, Paul. Shelves seem sensible too.

 

In Leon news:

Have been on a bit of a hiatus lately due to belated honeymoon. Left behind the UK’s spring snow and spent a couple of weeks cruising around California:

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Now back to a slightly warmer UK, with bonus longer evenings now the clocks have changed. Unfortunately, on our drive back from London upon landing, it seems a wheel bearing on the Golf is about to implode. I removed the knuckle from the car the other night and dropped it to a local garage yesterday morning to swap for a new bearing. Mechanic was pretty busy, but likely pick it up tomorrow and then just a handful of bolts to refit it all again. Could do with finding a new arch for the Golf too, really, as this one’s getting rather crusty. (I should mention that there's an axle stand under the car here, not just the widowmaker!)

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Seems to be becoming a bit of a habit really - a few days before we left Matt was in town as his dad sadly passed away and he had to sort things out. One thing that had been high on his priority list but then rightly got pushed further down was a dying wheel bearing, so while he was staying with us we got that sorted. Turns out that he’d killed several in quick succession, which suggests that there’s more going on than just an iffy item, so we swapped in one of the spare LCR hubs I had in the garage along with a new bearing. Seems to have solved things for now, and will keep an eye on longevity.

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Last night I had a bit of time to myself, so figured it’s about time to start dismantling the old car and get it off the drive.

I’d pulled some of the interior apart prior to going away, so decided it was time to start under the bonnet. I’ve not done a huge amount, but cleared a load of electrical/coolant connections and generally cleared the way to drop out the engine and box at some point semi-soon. With all the wiring issues I’ve had over the years, I’m not going to even consider selling the engine loom, so cut off a load of connectors to keep as spares since they’re bloody expensive to buy new!

boltelectricalbox.jpg

Lots more to do, but once the engine’s out the car will be that much lighter again and I can move it about a little more easily - photos are a little deceptive and there’s enough of a slope towards the house that it’s a bit awkward trying to move it around on my own at present. Once the lump/box are out, I can pull it forward from its corner and take the R32 wheels, coilovers, exhaust, ARBs etc off. I’ll likely replace suspension with old standard parts to the extent of keeping the shell rollable for collection at a later date. Will load it up with as much junk from the garage as possible, since that is in severe need of a clearout too!

Layin’ frame yo!

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Looking rather sorry for itself

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TIP arrived for the new car while I was out the front too. Sods law that I only got round to selling an identical one a few months ago of course. Will get this fitted once the old car is sorted.

tip.jpg

If anyone needs little odds and sods let me know - I’m struggling for time to send much via post at present, but if you’re able to collect then things can potentially go cheap to hook you guys up.

 

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New exhaust from the turbo back. Copy and paste from CS

 

Well today I picked it up from Flux Fabrication and I thought my smile was exhausted, it was not. It looked even better in person.
 
I then drove it from Flux to the nearest alignment centre and man... i'd forgotten how quick it was even not giving it some due to the lack of alignment.
 
I got it aligned to 12 minutes toe out each side and 2 deg negative camber. I then drove it back to my house giving it some now and again and it genuinely scared me at times. It's an absolute weapon. I think the lack of insulation and carpet etc combined with the power is just a scary feeling inside it's like all hell breaks loose.
 
Problems to note and things that will be getting sorted out.
 
- Its cutting power when gunning it in third, almost like a boost limit then cutting fuelling. Will speak to Chris when i'm at Efi in a few weeks to see if it's something in the mapping.
 
- The brakes feel great now i'm back to boosted brakes but....................... the car is fish tailing badly when braking hard, like one caliper is working much better. I think the seals / pistons need changing as I was looking into it a few months ago as one was seeping a bit. Overall they look worn and perished. So will buy a piston and seal kit I reckon.
 
 
Whilst the car was on the ramps for tracking I took some more pictures of the exhaust in place. It looks just.. perfect!
 
40556835075_1f5524c9d5_b.jpg20180414_105012 by dann2707, on Flickr
 
 
27579320518_987227b45a_b.jpg20180414_113121 by dann2707, on Flickr
 
 
27579261538_6d56aa86b6_b.jpg20180414_114540 by dann2707, on Flickr
 
26579468097_e3feac5f4e_b.jpg20180414_114544 by dann2707, on Flickr
 
41450655611_e5032c1834_b.jpg20180414_115016 by dann2707, on Flickr
 
27579203348_5557cf82f0_b.jpg20180414_115643 by dann2707, on Flickr
 
41450618471_0f50383db1_b.jpg20180414_120330 by dann2707, on Flickr
 
27579149338_a65991d1a6_b.jpg20180414_120345 by dann2707, on Flickr
 
27579160088_4c542d54c5_b.jpg20180414_121141 by dann2707, on Flickr
 
I really like the size of the tips
 
41414075522_f9487ae416_b.jpg20180414_120318 by dann2707, on Flickr
 
41414072192_c94e849929_b.jpg20180414_105036 by dann2707, on Flickr
 
27585690238_3352e6a929_b.jpg20180414_105028 by dann2707, on Flickr
 
Mapping in a few weeks time.. lets hope I can make a bit more power than 256bhp now i've sorted out the boost leak. Even if I don't and the fuelling is adjusted to account for the boost leak fix and new exhaust I will be very very happy at this power. 
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