Cut the red wire...NO the green one!!!

They let you know that every thing on your mode of transport is working as designed, whether you have danger to the manifold or if you're right about to hit the fuel cut on a cold night when you wind the boost up, but the spaghetti that makes up the loom of a modern car is the scourge to any car enthusiast doing a conversion. 

However, rather than be afraid of it, we should all accept the challenge of making it work to get that sense of great satisfaction when the machine finally purrs into life. The reason I bring this up is that the Party Wagon is almost complete, but now comes the most time consuming part of any conversion, wiring everything up correctly. The few hours you spend with some wiring diagrams and ECU pinouts could be the difference between something that runs like it should and a stuttering pig throwing CELs left right and centre.

While the engine is being wired into the non turbo shell, a minor wire tuck and fusebox relocation was done. 

The dash was removed and the wires were rerouted to tidy up the engine bay. The one piece of advice I can offer you dear reader, is that patience is key, and a fan is necessary if you would like to stave off the hallucinogenic experience you are about to have breathing in soldering fumes in an enclosed space. 

A tuck of the headlight wiring was also done and strapped to the inner fender to hide the mass of wires that make up your average headlight and radiator fan loom. 

 

As you can see, the Lush Garage crew take safety very seriously and always rock our totally appropriate safety gear. 

Let's be honest though, when we see a feature article, we flip through to the shiny bits and the turbos as they are invariably more interesting than a bunch of shielded copper strands...so feast your eyes on the flipped manifold setup that will be run on this car. Alas, once I had left the new blingy polished manifold turned up so you shall have to wait till the next update before you get to see it. Here's an indication of how it will look though

 

The boogie inducer

On a more personal note, I finally got my 10s back with tires fitted on em from the champions at Firestone. Now comes the fun part of trying to make them work this weekend haha

 

Hehehe

As and when money and time coincide, I shall be sorting out a matching set of 8s for the front of the car. Surprisingly enough for a wheel hoarder, I have actually sold another set of my wheels to a good buddy of mine. They should look brilliant on his Honda. I guess I am going to need to find another set of 15s to replace my Enkeis. I'm hunting high and low for a decent set of RPF1s. Time will tell if I end up lucky. 

Fingers crossed this weekend has fine weather (which would be surprising for a Wellington summer), so that I can do some more painting as well as wrenching on the turbo which has been sitting unloved for some time now. I'm really hoping I can  do a few more coats on my smoothies and hopefully start on the lips, but time will tell. Till the next instalment, I shall leave you with a parting video.

Tandemonium

Almost makes me want to get an S Chassis if it wasn't for the ridiculous and unwarranted price they command in NZ...

Peace.

Resanding

Well for once the weather was actually reasonable today so I took the opportunity to sand down my rims in preparation for their next coat of paint. So I proceeded to wetsand them with 800 and then 1000 grit sandpaper.

After doing all 4, I got cracking on painting. The main problem which caused me to rage a bit was the fact that I forgot to buy more paint and I ran out without being able to do a complete coat on all of my rims. Lol.

But I digress, here are some work in progress shots. See if you can spot which ones managed to get a coat and which ones didn't. The plan is for another coat to go on after this, making it a total of 3 coats before I sand down the lip in preparation for its colour. Then some clear on it and it should be ready for a sweet test fit on the turbo.

I really can't wait to see the finished product, but that will take some time due to money being tight, and the weather just being lame....I guess I should probably start figuring out how to fit these wheels without raising the car now before I chuck em on.....lol

World's most average photographer

In this day and age where everyone seems to carry some sort of camera around with them at all times, it would make sense that I would have the common sense to photograph what I see so I could share it with you, but I'm a firm believer in the old ways and would rather tell stories (and I just bloody well forgot I brought my camera up specifically to take pics...) of what I encounter.

Well today was a day full of interesting things. Started bright and early with a 5am start to get ready to fly up north to pick up a car and some bits to fit in said car, as well as talk to some mates who I hadn't seen since  had been up last.

I landed, proceeded to do the needy and fulfill contractual obligations as with any car sale. I then filled said car up with some guards, as well as an SR20 right in time for Race Warz. I tried to keep this car a secret till I could post it on the blog, but lol we all know what gossips we are so for some of you, this car comes as no surprise, but to others, this will be the first time you see or hear about it. So without further adieu, here it is, in all its dual 1st gear glory!

Guess which one is mine? Haha. Also here's a plug for my mate Anthony Wong who runs Wongs Kitchen in Hamilton. 99% of us already have had some or know about it, but if you are ever close by, drop in and say hi. No 3 Massey Street in Hamilton for what is arguably some of the best fried chicken in NZ!

If you were stumped, here it is. A 1995 Honda Shuttle Beagle 4WD Super Old Lady special. A miniscule 150xxxkms, all legal beagle (hah, the last of the lame puns hopefully).

Some interesting facts about this car, it has 2 first gears! 1 being Super Low, and the other being the normal take off first gear. It has a working sunroof that isn't totally boned (surprising for an EF), front headlight washer sprayers, a nudge bar for no apparent reason, a bucketload of interior space, and the awesome ability to go absolutely wild on gravel and dirt tracks haha.

First things first tho is giving this a good old fashioned scrub down and brush up. It needs a bit of loving, but nothing a bit of TLC can't fix. As this is going to be a daily/parts hauler, modifications will be held off for time being, but the first couple things on my wish list is a rear parcel tray, some flood/spotlights and a towbar.

Stay tuned for more updates on the fleet, but for time being, most updates will be boring as I need to sell my green MR2 before I can start doing proper work on the other cars.

R35 drifting

While the R35 that was supposed to be piloted by Nomuken never eventuated, here's a random vid I found with No One Better drifting (and spinning) an R35. Spot the clutch ;)

 

 Also, in other news, stay tuned for a new addition to the stable that is being picked up this weekend. Time to get hub adaptors haha

360* perfect

Finally, I've made a start on some of my rims. Some may remember I bought these badboys a while back. 

15x8 and 15x10 that looks to be about -5 and -25 offset. Well I finally decided to make a move on starting to create a much needed makeover for these solid pieces of awesomeness. 

From this

To

In the pic, you can spot my safety boots and a new acquisition, being some gold Blox nuts for some wank/rice factor.

 

The first few coats have gone on, now I have to wait for the paint to cure before I can sand it back down again and do a few more coats, before I get started on the lip and spraying on some clear. Its still a long way from where I want it to be, but not bad for a few hours of messing around right?

With stuff being moved around so much, here's the current state of the back yard lol.

While on a painting spree, I managed to make a start on getting the underside of my car recoated in black just to tidy up the lines a bit more. I also started and finished (1 door only I might add) wiring in a front speaker haha. I got bored and ran out of time for doing the other one. 

Here's a current work in progress pic of the recoating.

And here is a comparison picture between the precoat, and post coat which highlights how badly I need to redo the underside of the car. 

As a side note, we also managed to get Jono's engine and box mounted in the engine bay along with his rad and front mount. Alas I had grubby hands and didn't bring my camera, so you'll just have to wait till the next instalment. 

In the mean time, as with anything in the teething stages, Im going to have a play around with the blog settings in order to get things to where I want em to be. Till next time!

Doing the rounds

I thought I'd share a video (that is a bit old) but is still nonetheless cool. Alas as its not on Youtube, you don't get a cool pic like the GTR vid. Watch it!

Japan, y u so awesome?

Hellaflush Japan