Thursday, 22 December 2011

Merry Christmas all

Right, with Christmas around the corner, I figured rather than spend my money on unnecessary shit, I thought, what better way to waste my hard earned than buying some more car bits?

So here's the latest acquisitions. A new pair of rims and some Tein S Tech for the turbo. The wheels were too good to pass off at a whopping 15x10 -28 offset :) perfect fitment. Now comes the challenge of getting some rubber on there. I have dreams of filling a tire with propellant and somehow magically with a lot of bead seal fitting a 205/50 on there, but the odds of that happening are about the same as me becoming rich so lol.
Yes that is a family sized bar of chocolate!
A pic of my plate I got a looooong time ago for shits, giggles and meme reppin lol.
Here's a pic of the Teins. Apparently supposed to lower the the car by 50mm, but all I want is the monster spring rates from it.
The aim this weekend will be to take out the whole shed of parts and document as well as clean the obsessive hoarding that I do lol. Many have asked, why do I collect wheels? Think of wheels as my version of some sweet kicks, stamps, or whatever hobby you have. Eventually they will all get refurbished but it's being held back by funding. I guess I could whore myself out to 100 fat chicks for 50 bucks each, but I don't think so...

Things are getting exciting now. Keep an eye out for tomorrow's bit of the week friends.

Friday, 16 December 2011

Excitement level 2

So I was supposed to post up last night with build progress and my Friday LOL of the week but I ended up getting shitfaced and in a drunken stupor won a drill. Power tools fuckin ROCK! Check it

 Not bad for something that was free right? Best part of the night was getting hammered with workmates and suddenly going up on stage to get a drill I don't remember winning. In all my class when the mike was handed over all I had to say was "I got nothing to say...." DERP

 But I digress. I shall continue with build progress. So since the turbo had stopped working and I had taken it apart, I started noticing all the shit that was wrong with it. Cluttered home style wiring jobs, unsoldered joins, and just general mankyness got to me and I got stuck into it.
 Best way to wire in a turbo timer eh? Noobs. All of this has been redone with proper joins, solder and taped up.
Here's some of the wiring I removed. Since then I have also removed my alarm wiring to be redone as it was just pissing me off and was being generally untidy. It shall be rewired back in once the car is running properly.

Also decided to replace the stock strut brace with this beastly Ultra Racing one. I will be repainting it though, not digging the white finish at all.



I then got cracking on painting the heatshield and intercooler piping just to tidy up the engine bay a bit more but more importantly, make me feel like I was actually working on my car because at this stage, things were going very slowly and motivation was low. 
I then decided to fit my new at the time wheels to the rear of the NA. 3 piece 17x9 +38 Panasport G7s. Sadly because of how low the car is, I would need spacers to get it to the specs I want. That's still a work in progress for me as I'm all about the mexi-flush.
I also chucked on a numberplate from my old EG6 which I had bent for shits and giggles. Mad wangan styz.
Car then got involved in a hit outside my place and no one left a note or anything!!(#&%^! Fuckers.
I then rebogged and sanded (not very well I might add cos I was impatient) my front lip as it had taken a hammering both from me and the previous owner who looks to have driven into a towbar lol.
One of my fave pics of the car.

To try and motivate myself further I decided to put my wheels on the turbo. Enkei RP01 15x7 +35 front and Rays Sebring 16x7 +25 on the rear. Man it looked good (because in my mind it was the same height as the NA lol)
 More low will come as soon as this mong replies to my e-mails as I've since purchased a set of Tein S Techs that will be paired up with Bilsteins in this car (when I can afford them).

I got bored and then decided to despoiler the NA to save some weight and I personally like this look better anyway.
Some more of my shit bog work lol.
I then also flared my front guards in preparation for the 8 inch Panasports to go on. Was awesomely easy to do as I did it while I was hungover and it's now almost infinitely adjustable to any width of wheel lol.
Here's a side profile.
I then managed to scab some garage time from the rents and chucked the turbo in for some more much needed wiring fixing.I also bought myself another socket set cos it was too cheap to miss.
That will do it for this build update though. Stay tuned for more updates friends.

Thursday, 15 December 2011

The MR2s

Well to pop my cherry in terms of content related posts, I figured it would be a good idea to introduce my 2 current works in progress. The green car is a Gen 1 1990 SW20 with a 3SGE, while the red is a Gen 1 1990 SW20 with a 3SGTE. Both hardtop, both Gen 1, what a score!! For those who don't know, the Gen 1s are the cars that gave MR2s their notoreity for "snap oversteer" before they were toned down by Toyota in 1992 to understeer more and ran more toe in amongst other changes.





A scenic drive to Otaki Forks along some really nice twisties and a brilliant gravel road!











At this stage, I hadn't done anything except a service to the car and slapped on my Enkei RP01s. 15x7 +35 running some mega balloon tires.
The turbo with some totally tasteless bits on it. Pet peeves were the massive misfire, the shoddy wiring, the weird positive camber on the right rear, along with terrible stickers and my rear light mid console being painted silver. Poor car was in a right solid state before it came into my hands.                                                   
As luck would have it, after the car's first wash and wax (both in my ownership and what would seem like the first time in a very long time judging by the grime I removed), the car refused to start or idle properly. After much swearing, cranking of the engine and taking lots of deep breaths, I decided to persevere and strip the car down to do it some justice.

Before I continue with updating my progress to our current date, I must confess, I am a bit of a wheel whore. Currently, not including standard rims and associated steelies, I actually have 19 rims (yes lol five sets but sadly one is a set of three). Sometimes I find it relatively therapeutic to run some different wheels on cars just for a change, or going to the shed to admire and dream at the future specs of the rims.

But onwards with progress. After some messing around and faffing about (as MR2 parts are sadly hard to find and command a premium here in NZ), I managed to find a pair of Tein front and D2 rear coilovers for the cars. Sadly the fronts are boned in a major way, so what else was there to do but slam it. Naturally, they were wound all the way down and I chucked them in the NA for a bit of a giggle. BOOM! Rode like ass, was literally 2cm away from my driveshafts but man it looked good.

                                                  

In my time waiting for suspension and just my token hoarding in general, I found myself an SW specific bolt in rollcage and I test fitted it and ran it for a week for some shits and giggles (not bolted in of course, as it was a fully adjustable cage lol)

Stay tuned for more updates as a lot of progress has happened, so here's some teasers.

               

An introduction into one man's point of view of life

Remember back in the day when you could read a blog post on the internet and people would gasp at the cool shit that was being done, rather than tell you that it needs more stance or illest stickers? This ain't no ad for Pepperidge farm cookies though.

I want to bring back the good old days of automotive camaraderie and education. Along our ride, I shall share the insights, technical information, as well as build threads (both personal and otherwise) and car features that I have had the fortune to witness or be a part of in my journey thru life so far. Don't be fooled though, this isn't just a blog about cars, it's a place for sharing, celebrating good company and of course having a good old chuckle once in a while.

I'm just an old fashioned troll with beaters that I try to encompass what I've always dreamed while balancing the sad realities of modern life along with questionable legalities. From your rip snorting 351 Cleveland V8, to your ear splitting rotary engine, I've always been fascinated by cars. In my years I have come to learn that no one is better than the other, each has is niche and each should be celebrated for what was a technological marvel and an achievement for enthusiasts worldwide.

And yes, even though I may give my mates a hard time about their cars and their choices, at the end of the day, I will still respect them for giving a go, and I definitely am jealous of the vehicles they own and thrash on a regular basis.