Category: Cars

A little bit of progress today, i spent the morning at TKs machining out various things, including my stock rear discs, so i was able to completely reassemble the rear end:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29155-1/IMG_0842_s.jpg[/IMG]
Spring and shock is only in on one side, but ill pull the driveshaft and do the other side tomorrow.

I also dropped the tank again and squeezed in my little fuel filter:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29149-1/IMG_0840_s.jpg[/IMG]
Pretty tight up there between the rail and the tank, but it should be ok.

Plus i mostly mounted up my little power steering cooler, just have to make a crossbrace back to the central upright tomorrow.
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29158-1/IMG_0843_s.jpg[/IMG]

Thats about it, tomorrow i want to put the steering column back in, and finish the dash off. Then im just waiting on a tailshaft and i can start thinking about getting it to start.

Not much has happened as ive been away and sick, so its a bit of a double whammy, although i have managed to do a few little things.

Firstly, the one niggling little bit with the heater box has been solved:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29176-1/IMG_0844_s.jpg[/IMG]
The clip is where the Celica non-climate controlled dash normally sits and then because there isnt a post for the wire to clip over ive used a simple screw into the stock receiver to secure it.

Next up i added some paint to both sets of rims:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29188-1/IMG_0848_s.jpg[/IMG]
First up i painted one set with White Knight Metallic Charcoal paint, which i thought Babs was taking the piss about, but it as actually come out really nicely, im quite chuffed.
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29218-1/IMG_0859_s.jpg[/IMG]

The other set i decided to give a gold with a silver lip a go, just randomly, and this is how it came out:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29206-1/IMG_0855_s.jpg[/IMG]

Quite nice too imho, and i think i might go with that colour scheme for the other set of wheels, although im not sure which ill use as a daily set.

Next up i wired in the analog dash, a pretty simple exercise, although it appears that my previous spreadsheet was horribly wrong, and really only applies to LHD US cars, of which this isnt anything of the sort. So after a few panadol/telfast/codral/codine induced dramas with confusing a couple of wires it was all sorted out and everything that i can currently test works.
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29227-1/IMG_0869_s.jpg[/IMG]

Had a few dramas with the indicator stalk, but after “consulting” with some RA60s and other celicas yesterday at UPullIt i now have a small collection of good indicator stalks to use, and they are a piece of cake to swap over too. A circlip and repin 3 wires.

Up next on the agenda was wiring in the thermofans, and a fusebox for the thermos and my “hektic stezza bro”.
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29224-1/IMG_0868_s.jpg[/IMG]
All made quite neat by my friend 3mm alu bar, and a bit of forward planning.

During this time i also popped in the tailshaft, filled the gearbox with oil, filled the engine with oil, and then started on the brake bleeding. Which turned out disasterously, because the MX83 master was pissing brake fluid out the back of the cylinder. No matter, a quick trip to Power Brakes in Holden Hill (highly recommended) and i had myself a 1″ MX83 brake master kit. 1″ i hear you say, i thought they were 15/16″. Yes, well so did i, but it appears that the MX83s had a 1″ master by default, but it seems that quite a few over the years have had 15/16″s put into them by dodgy brake shops (as my MX83 seems to have had) with little detriment, but possibly some slightly spongey brakes.
Never fear, after a quick reseal of my master cylinder, a bench bleed (made easy by a pair of brake lines borrowed from my rather sad looking race car) and we were back under way.
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29191-1/IMG_0849_s.jpg[/IMG]
After getting it all back together i taught my wife how to do the pedal end of bleeding brakes, and we set about doing a quick bleed. The first round found 2 stuck bleeder valves, but after that we were all alright. Ill do another round before we get stuck into it more though.

Now you might say, what front struts are you using, as last time i updated there wernt any in there.
Well on Tuesday i ducked up into the hills and picked up a pair of stock front struts from an MX83, expecting to have to chuck the MA61 upper hats on and use that. Well it seems that you dont even need to put MA61 upper hats on, the MX83 hat is the same as the MA61 one, and therefore the same as the S13 one. Nice coincidence:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29194-1/IMG_0850_s.jpg[/IMG]

Other than that i figured out my fueling stuff, wired up the ECU and got pretty much everything else sorted, im now champing at the bit to get some fuel and a banjo bolt so i can see if i can get the car started now 🙂

Oh yeah, and i cant figure out which of the 3 4pin plugs this sucker uses:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29221-1/IMG_0860_s.jpg[/IMG]

Went on a bit of a spending spree today, and a whole bunch of other stuff arrived.

Firstly i headed off to Enzed to pick up some fueling bits:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29143-1/IMG_0835_s.jpg[/IMG]
Basically a nice M12 banjo bolt and banjo to suit, an easy solution for my fueling issues.

And then “while im out that way” i decided i would get the Cromo flywheel at the same time.
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29140-1/IMG_0834_s.jpg[/IMG]
Even though its completely unneeded for now as i have the 5M in the engine bay.

Next i ducked past a wreckers and picked up a set of AU Falcon rad fans:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29137-1/IMG_0833_s.jpg[/IMG]
Which will fit up nicely on the S13 radiator.

Then i came home to this:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29127-2/IMG_0829_s.jpg[/IMG]
A nice M16x1.5 alloy bung which was kindly made up for me by JP and sent down overnight from Queensland, thats what i call real service. Tops job mate, thanks muchly again.

I went off to work and found a BIG parcel on my desk:
Containing firstly my coilover kit:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29131-1/IMG_0831_s.jpg[/IMG]

And also my steering wheel:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29134-1/IMG_0832_s.jpg[/IMG]

Both rather nice pieces of work. Thanks to Grant at Otomoto for supplying me with these.

Thats about it for now, this weekend will be a lot of getting stuck into finishing off the 5M build.

Teeny update. All the interior is now back in:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29116-1/IMG_0826_s.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29122-1/IMG_0828_s.jpg[/IMG]

Need a new roof lining, as the one thats there is royally rooted, and it all needs a bit of a steam clean, other than that it looks good.

Fitted a lot more stuff into the engine bay too:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29119-1/IMG_0827_s.jpg[/IMG]

Just need a battery and a the power steering to be plumbed in and its all pretty right there.

Oh and who wants to play identify the connectors:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29113-1/IMG_0825_s.jpg[/IMG]

Waterproof plug one, and ring connector…

Tonights job is to get a battery and go to town with the analog dash conversion.

Got some more bling bling for the car yesterday, my Techno Toy Tuning MX83 RCAs arrived:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29104-1/IMG_0822_s.jpg[/IMG]

What are RCAs? Do i hear some people ask. Well thats a good question young Jimmy.
Basically when you design the suspension layout of a car you take into account the angles of certain components relative to each other at the usual ride height.
One of these is the angle between the steering arm and the tierod end, and this is quite important, as the tierod/rack end will travel in an arc with the rackend at the center of that arc. However, the steering arm while also travelling in an arc uses the LCA inner bush as the center of the arc. At various points on these differing arcs the difference in angle isnt overly great, and the car is designed to be operated within that range. However when you lower a car you take the operating range out of that designed area. We commonly hear the term “bump steer” thrown around, and this is exactly what it is. On a lowered car the steering arm is commonly in a different section of the arc to the tierod/rack end, and therefore during suspension travel the tierod/rack end and hence your steering is pushed around, and changes angle. You can commonly feel this as a jerk in the steering wheel as you go over rough ground.

So how to RCAs help this? Well the idea with an RCA is to help to push the steering arm down and back closer to the original arc of travel for both the steering arm and the lower control arm. “Hey what”, you say, “that sounds suspiciously like raising a car again, i want my car to be hektic and lowahed bruv”. Yes little Jimmy, it is like raising a car, only now you are basically pushing the axle upwards on the essentially lengthened strut. As this diagram helps to show:
[IMG]http://www.technotoytuning.com/media/rca_diagram.gif[/IMG]

Pretty spiffy huh.

And one gratuitous shot of one sitting in place:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29107-1/IMG_0823_s.jpg[/IMG]

I got these RCAs, and indeed a whole bunch of other stuff that i get regularly from [URL=”http://www.technotoytuning.com”]Techno Toy Tuning [/URL](free plug there Gabe), a company in the US which manufactures top quality gear, and are really nice people to boot.
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29110-1/IMG_0824_s.jpg[/IMG]
Ive bought a fair swathe of gear from them in the past, and never had any issues with any of it. Top notch.

Well between buying huge amounts of meat and salad materials, i had a bit of time in the afternoon to get stuck into the car. First up was filling the diff full of LSD oil, a nice boring and slow task.
After that came putting the fuel tank in, pretty easy and straight forward, excpet that i realised now that its in i cant get to the fuel feed fitting to connect the pump to the filter. EPIC fail for whoever designed it in that way.

Anyway, shortly after that Gav came around and procrastinated a bit, and then we got slightly worried about radiator to bonnet clearance (despite Rob’s assurances). A quick testfit of the bonnet revealed that Rob was indeed correct:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29013-1/IMG_0790_s.jpg[/IMG]
And nothing will foul there.

Then Rob, Miick and Nath arrived down from Sydney, after getting a little bit loose in Mildura.

With them they brought a 5M-engine.
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29019-1/IMG_0792_s.jpg[/IMG]
Hand delivered all the way from Sydney, for pretty much the cost of fuel. Thanks guys, you are champs.

And a set of wheels, which i didnt take any photos of.

After hanging around, drinking Asahi, and eating snags on the BBQ they headed off to find their caravan park for the night, and i set about trying to figure out where to store the 5M. In the end as it was already on the crane i decided to put it in the car.
About half an hour later, with much changing of engine mounts, and generally getting annoyed at the 5M, Gav and i had it looking like this:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29022-1/IMG_0793_s.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29040-1/IMG_0799_s.jpg[/IMG]

One 5M engine securely in the engine bay. Hopefully not there for any longer than it needs to be too. Over the next couple of weeks ill refit the interior and hopefully get all the fueling sorted out from the pump and filter, and then have it ready for going through Regency.
I also have to wait for a guy in Adelaide to swap over a set of stock MX83 struts for his new coilovers so i can buy them off him and take the Supra through with completely stock suspension.
Thats about it for now.

Got a bit more done tonight, notably i finished off the radiator mounts.

As some eagle eyes have noticed ive decided to use an S13 alloy radiator, courtesy of eBay for the job. It fits pretty much perfectly, and as a bit of a random bonus the MA61 has bolt on lower mounts, which means that i could very simply fabricate up bracketry for it. In addition the S13 came with both CA18 and SR20 so i could decide which side i wanted the top water outlet to be on for the task at hand. In this case ive gone with the SR20 variant which has the lower outlet on the drivers side and the upper on the passenger. All mounted up it looks like this:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28978-1/IMG_0778_s.jpg[/IMG]
Fairly simple alloy strapping with 3/8 wiring grommets for the top:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28981-1/IMG_0779_s.jpg[/IMG]
And there you can see the pretty much perfect width for the job.
On the bottom we can see the custom mounts made up to house the stock S13 rubbers:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28984-1/IMG_0780_s.jpg[/IMG]
And as an added bonus you can see how they bolt to the stock mounting locations. To make the new mounts and bracketry i ended up ducking out to bunnings to pick up my new friends:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28999-1/IMG_0785_s.jpg[/IMG]
A nice set of stepped drillbits which they had on sale for $25 (3 in the pack) and they cut through metal like butter. Made it all a breeze, from drilling out the spotwelds from the original rad bracketry, to drilling the 16mm hole for the rubber insert on the lowers, this ate through it like butter.

Next up i decided to pop a coat of paint on my calipers. I decided a while ago to use VHT caliper paint in black and that went on a charm. On the instructions it says to bake the item at 100deg for 1hr, which i dutifully did:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28969-1/IMG_0773_s.jpg[/IMG]
NEVER AGAIN, i should have remembered from painting my exhaust wrap that as the VHT cures it gives off this smoky fumes and indeed this one did the same, and the entire kitchen was covered in it. Thankfully with some fans and exhaust vents the kitchen cleared quickly and i roasted some garlic to get rid of the smell.
On the upside the calipers did come out quite nicely:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28972-1/IMG_0776_s.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28975-1/IMG_0777_s.jpg[/IMG]

While that was happening i turned my attention to the rest of the car. First on the list was cleaning and replacing the steering rack, which was a complete doddle:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28987-1/IMG_0781_s.jpg[/IMG]
Its amazing what a can of degreaser and a little elbow grease followed by the high pressure hose will do.
I then popped on the brand new TRW tierod ends, and struck a slight problem:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29002-1/IMG_0786_s.jpg[/IMG]
While the balljoint itself seems to be the right taper, the castleated nut is just way too thin, and in addition the thread of these new balljoints is different to the shagged ones i removed and so i cant just reuse the old nuts. Hm, kind of a problem.

Setting that aside i pulled out the next thing on the agenda, fitting up the high pressure fuel filter. This unit which you see here is an AE92 unit which ive had sitting around since 2003 when i built my GZEd AE92, and ive kept tryign to find uses for it and then misplacing it once ive found them etc etc. This time no more, its bolted in the car now:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28996-1/IMG_0784_s.jpg[/IMG]
That stepped drillbit above came in handy again too, popping 6mm holes in the chassis almost faster than you could say boo, this time i used it with my air drill rather than the electric and it ate it like butter. My new favourite toy.

Lastly while waiting for the calipers to dry and then for the kitchen to destink i put the dash back in, and finished off the heater controls:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28990-1/IMG_0782_s.jpg[/IMG]
The black vinyl dye came out quite nicely i think.
And one gratuitious interior shot:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28993-1/IMG_0783_s.jpg[/IMG]

The to-do list is shortening up quite nicely now:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/29005-1/IMG_0788_s.jpg[/IMG]

From now i wont get much time to work on it until Saturday when Rob is coming down from Sydney with both my new Poo engine and another set of AVS Model 6s which will fit better on the front (more on that later).

Nothing got done on it today, but i had to upload some pics for wheels im selling so i thought i would jsut add what i have bought for the car recently.

I went past JB today to remedy the situation with the stereo, and now i feel like a ricer. Bought a nice understated Alpine deck which was the cheapest one there with a USB input, and then had to sully myself with buying 6x9s as the holes in the car are ugly arse holes cut for 6x9s 🙁
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28939-1/IMG_0761_s.jpg[/IMG]

Ohwell, i then felt even more like a ricer to find that my cheapo off NS catchcan had arrived at the post office:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28942-1/IMG_0762_s.jpg[/IMG]

At least its 2L and fulfils the requirement for CAMS for a 2L catchcan.
Thats about it for now, hope to get a few more little bits done on Wednesday evening.

Did a bit of work on the car this weekend, after setting up the new computer in the garage, and dealing with guys coming to buy wheels i set about getting the rear subframe back in, so doing a fair bit of work fiddling with getting the rear handbrake shoes all setup correctly so that it all works nicely. I have decided that i completely hate handbrake shoes and especially the little ones which are setup for 167mm handbrakes under discs. Loads of nasty fiddling. Gav came aroudn as well to do his camber mod on the subframe.

Anyway i got all that setup and Gav and I popped it all back in, as so:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28918-1/IMG_0754_s.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28933-1/IMG_0759_s.jpg[/IMG]

We mucked around a bit with testing wheel fitment (i forgot to take pictures) before calling it a morning for lunch and got out of the hot garage and went to pick up some lunch and a set of Simmons V4s for the race car 🙂

In the afternoon i ended up welding up Gav’s subframe after he set it all up, and then replaced the MA61 rack ends with the MX83 ones:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28921-1/IMG_0755_s.jpg[/IMG]

After then having some issues finding stuff in the garage we called it a day.

Today i ended up having a couple of hours in the afternoon to do some work, and decided to get going on the interior. After sorting out where all the various bits were in the boxes i set to work at getting the new carpet in. After a couple of ours i had fit both the front and rear carpets, and cut most of the holes:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28924-1/IMG_0756_s.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28930-1/IMG_0758_s.jpg[/IMG]

I also installed my two lower harness mounts for the harness when it comes:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28927-1/IMG_0757_s.jpg[/IMG]

In adddition we have a nice new to-do list, with some stuff already crossed off 🙂
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28936-1/IMG_0760_s.jpg[/IMG]

Ive had a few minutes tonight before everyone gets home to quickly testfit the AVSs, and all i can say is OOOOOH yeah.

When i bought them i was intending for them to be basically track thrasher rims as i didnt think they would look that good on the car. But now im not so sure:

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28897-1/IMG_0749_s.jpg[/img]

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28903-1/IMG_0751_s.jpg[/img]

Fitment is great:

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28900-1/IMG_0750_s.jpg[/img]

I cant get them any higher in the wheel arch currently as im having to jack up off the lower control arm so far inboard (8″ rim) that part of the jack overlaps the engine xmember. That point there is with the LCA parallel with the ground (any higher and i start jacking the car up entirely).

I quite like them, and not sure if ill use them as day to day wheels or track thrashers. I still think some nice meshies would be good for daily rims.

Opinions are needed now on whether the fitment is good, and more importantly whether to keep them black or get them powdercoated some other colour.

Maybe something like this, a volk style bronze:

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28915-1/IMG_0749_s_bronze.jpg[/img]

Cant quite get the colour right in W7Paint.

But this type of colour:

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/28914-1/newvolk0051tl4.jpg[/img]