[berrie]

Wheels being built?!

i was initially surprised too, on more than one level

I am considering NUE lip over r package lip.

NUE lip would be cool, and exhaust!!

 

[Grumbles]

yeah im glad i got this car before i welded a bung into it for obd2 car haha. procrastination pays off sometimes

 

[Grumbles]

went to clean car today but it was gonna storm so that got cut short. removed busted soft top and replaced with hardtop, looks McBad.

smells like mold and rotting leaves in the car so started vacuuming, this car is fucking gross inside. found a floppy disk and panasport g7 center cap wrench in it though so thats cool.

 

[Grumbles]

i was gonna wait until i had real updates but i am bored at work. i ordered everything i need to do a complete engine front end job/tune-up, and managed to find a set of near-new megan ez streets for $100 locally! not my first choice but these will definitely be good enough for the time being. removed 85% of the remaining stink from the car after pulling the driver side seat and vacuuming under it. lots of mold and dead leaves and ****. I also replaced the busted tail light with a less broken one that came with the car and washed it. I was tired of having to wash my hands whenever i touched a body panel.

hopefully i have the front end of the car done and sealed by the end of the month, my wheels should be arriving shortly after. lots to do before i would consider this car road worthy, even more to do before it's ready for paint, but it should be ready by spring next year.

pic of car still wet to simulate shiny

 

[Grumbles]

no major updates, pulled apart the interior some more to clean and replaced the shifter as its about a 15 minute job. the original one was so far gone, i was missing shifts on my drive home from purchase, i wish i couldve gotten a before picture because it's always fun to have. oem speakers still lived in the doors, one very blown. i will be replacing them eventually, unsure on what exactly i want for audio at this time. the original door cards were toast so i tossed them, will likely be replaced with forever cards from that guy on etsy, not sure how I want to cover them. interior work is being saved for the winter because the car doesnt have to be in the air for that, and i can do most of it inside.

worked on getting the front headlights lined up, the alignment of the front body panels is crucial for na to look cool. the hood sits low in front, but I believe new bump stops and latch adjustment should remedy that. this upcoming weekend i will be doing the timing belt/seals/pump/hoses. once that is done i will move onto coilover install, hopefully by the time that is all done my wheels will be done at wheelflip. something tells me there will be a hold up on them with my luck. rev9 is also getting a nue lip for me, very excited for that piece! my fear is that the ride height i enjoy may destroy the frp lip on milwaukee roads, but you don't know until you try. the undercarriage of this car is actually quite nice and i would like to keep it that way, so i am going to install stainless steel frame rail reinforcements on this chassis as well. i am looking at the 'cobalt' frame rails, as they look like they hug the original frame rails the closest. a few mm of clearance at this location is important.

i have decided on 185/55r14 on 8.5j, i believe it will let me get as close to the look i am going for as possible. additionally, i really want to get a matching set of tires on this car to better evaluate how it drives. eventually i will be taking delivery of my old baby turbos from the new owner of black car, as they are probably my favorite mirror for this style of car.

all of my tools were stolen recently so that has put a damper on my mood/motivation/ability to work on na8. fortunately my dad is extremely accommodating and has let me use his tools since the purchase of my first na6 in highschool. inside of my tool bag I also had a full set of oem eccentric bolts, i was planning to replace them alongside the original suspension bushings. bushing replacement is not a job I am looking forward to take on, but i would like this car to drive well.

long winded post for no updates, but work is slow and i am bored.

 

[Grumbles]

had the pleasure of pulling the front of the motor apart to do the timing belt/etc this weekend. everything came apart with no real surprises, everything went back together reasonably well. all of the rubber seals were rock hard, so i felt like i had accomplished something. when i went to fill the car with coolant, it immediately started dripping out at the T on the water neck. there was a hole I hadn't noticed. I replaced hose clamps, tightened them, etc. no idea how it was still leaking at all, especially since the car wasn't even running, but it was. so i ordered a new water neck. dad is unhappy that the car is dead in his garage, im not thrilled that i have to re-time the car again.

filth

more cleaned up than it looks in photos

leak

hole

in an effort to make myself feel like i accomplished something, i spent the remainder of my sunday installing the coilovers. it looks like they should go low enough for my purposes.

hideous awful looking car. but wheels are supposed to be done in the next couple of weeks so thats something to look forward to.

 

[Grumbles]

that took way too long, but i finished the timing job today. the coolant leak was caused by a crack at the T junction, a new (used) water neck fixed that.

once I got that replaced, I had to reassemble the front end again, and when I went to start the car it ran like ****. Pulled off the valve cover and sure enough, there were 18 teeth between the I/Emarks on the cam gears instead of the 19. managed to slide the cam gear off, reorient, slide back under the belt without having to remove much. car runs really well now and the original hesitation is gone (plugs and wires babey). now i have to deal with the shitty sounding clutch and rear main to have this car very close to "mechanically decent". that being said, I am excited to put the joyfast exhaust on the car at the same time as the clutch job.

wheeled car back outside, now that it's lowered the difference between 186/65r14 rear and 185/60r14 front is hilariously obvious. wheels are supposed to be done and shipped out next week, hopefully getting those on will feel like some sort of progress.

 

[Grumbles]

lip delivered and test fitted. fitment is... okay. but i like how it looks a lot

 

[Grumbles]

car had a weird idle thing where it wouldnt idle in gear with clutch pushed in (would creep to 2000rpm). checked clutch switch and it was totally broken. swapped and issue is gone

got new wheels with good tires just to have something to roll around on that arent a death sentence. oh and baby turbos came in the mail, already painted red. still have no idea what color im painting this car lol

 

[berrie]

needs more shiny wheel

 

[Daggett]

ngl, I liked the oem wheels with that height 😶

 

[Grumbles]

ngl, I liked the oem wheels with that height 😶

it is legal to like bad things, hahaha. im dying to get my mkiii from wheelflip, it might feel like progress then

 

[99blkx]

You gonna actually get this thing low or nah?

 

[Grumbles]

You gonna actually get this thing low or nah?

thats mean, crying real tears. im probably gonna raise it .3" in the rear at least, i should still be able to have a tiny bit of 185/55r14 tucked. i prefer the car to have a little forward rake

 

[Grumbles]

no updates to NA at this point, still waiting on wheelflip, and its about to be winter so any work i do to NA is going to probably be interior work done outside of the car. i backordered moss/cobalt frame rails when they were on sale, those will get bolted up in the spring assuming they ship by then. really not comfortable driving a car that low with no skidplates. i feel like im getting close to figuring out what color I want to paint this car, i suck at making this kind of decision.

in other news i got some cheap craigslist wheels for ge8, should look pretty good when lowered. this car also needs a handful of little things done that i don't want to do out of laziness and cost.

 

[Grumbles]

allriiiight lowered the ge8 on megan coilovers this weekend. the process sucked and i broke an ABS sensor i guess but it looked cool on the GTCs until one of the tires went full flaccid.

so i put the enkeis back on:

also na8 wheels are done and being shipped out today

 

[Grumbles]

wheels FINALLY made it to me. all of my annoyance with wheelflip melted away once i had these wheels in hand. they look tremendous in person and fit the car really well. i test fitted them last night, super satisfying to finally see them on the car, even if the car has godawful paint and nothing is done on it lmao

(all of these pictures i took in a pitch black and very cramped space so they're kinda weird)

including this one because of the cool light trail of the plane:

 

[Grumbles]

bad photoshop planning

 

[Lake Miller]

bad photoshop planning

It's not that bad the choice of car color looks nice. The Tire looks flat though. LOL

 

[Grumbles]

not much has ben happening with the car due to it being under a few feet of snow, been mostly stockpiling parts.

i bolted up a wheel to a fresh rotor and 5mm spacer to see what my brake clearance would be like with new brake pads, not really ideal:

so i shaved that little bit of flashing down on the grinding wheel and called it good-for-now. i still have to paint the calipers before i start reassembling them. one of the rear pistons is screwed up enough to make me just want to buy a whole new caliper for that corner and be done, but we'll see.

i also ordered a 185/55r14 to see if i could mount it myself, tried using the inner tube method to stretch it on the wheel. fcked up a little bit aaaand the inner tube got pinched at the bead. i have to debead the tire and try again but it was funny/good learning experience.

lastly i bought a valve cover from bo, and a set of ae111 itbs with adapter from kazespec. henry said he was making 127whp with a ported head, from my research it looks like these will be good for around 120hp. power numbers are not too important to me, i just want them as a noisemaker. i plan on acquiring megasquirt2 and self-tuning the car once i am done with school.