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Suki - DaveR's ongoing single turbo project


DaveR

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I noticed yesterday that the label on my SRD rad' cap was starting to look a bit tired, so I thought it might be kinda cool to replace it with something custom. I went with my Avatar (seeing as I know to "never open when hot" :D ).

 

Before:

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After:

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It was just a case of measure (2cm radius, apparently), print, cut out, laminate, back with double sided tape and re-cut leaving an edge on the laminate. I think it looks good - it's the little touches. :) Time will tell on the longevity...

 

What do you think?

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Seeing as it's my last day of leave today ( :( ) I thought I'd get around to sorting some more niggling jobs that I've been meaning to do for ages.

 

Firstly, I wanted to do the same to my front wheels as I did to my rear ones the other day, namely drop them off the car, give them a thorough clean, seal them with AutoGlym alloy wheel sealant and re-paint the white lettering on the tyres. Before I could do this though, I wanted to address the wheel weights which were looking very rusty (why are they made from steel...? :conf: ) and tired.

 

With the wheels off the car and given a thorough scrub to get all of the winter brake dust off them, this is what the weights looked like:

attachment.php?attachmentid=168738&d=1367603226

 

So I masked them off:

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Got out the paint that I'd bought almost a year ago to do this very job ( :rolleyes: ):

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And very carefully painted them up:

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Masking tape removed, they looked much better :cool: :

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I'm quite chuffed with my choice of paint to do these, bearing in mind it was only an educated guess as to what colour would be a good enough match...

 

Next I turned my attention to the lettering on the tyres, which had faded badly since I first applied the paint:

attachment.php?attachmentid=168745&d=1367603256

 

Half an hour sitting in the sun later though and they were looking much more presentable (and, crucially, now match the rears once again):

attachment.php?attachmentid=168746&d=1367603256

 

With everything dry and the alloy wheel sealant applied, I gave my brake calipers a good scrubbing and re-fitted the wheels:

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Slightly out of sequence, but while the car was up in the air I decided to address the fitment of my front bumper lip. I haven't liked the way it was sitting since my single conversion was done due to the requirement to remove the front (C-shaped) engine undertray to fit the bigger FMIC required for the power meaning that there was less spacing between the bottom of the bumper and the top of the lip. I carried out a temporary fix a few weeks ago using some hastily constructed brackets and a few zip ties. Fine as a temporary fix but no good for the long term.

 

I only have an 'after' shot (there are plenty of 'before' ones in this thread), but I'm really chuffed with the results. I won't go into detail on how I actually did this, chiefly because it's quite hard to articulate. Let's just say it was quite involved and took most of my day to square away properly!

Anyway... The lip needs re-spraying to smarten it up again (an annual task that with any luck I'll be able to get done before JapFest), but angle- and amount-of-protrusion-wise I'm really happy with it and think it looks much better. It's also solid as a rock and is going nowhere in a hurry!

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I addressed a little issue in my engine bay as well, namely dealing with a worsening spot of rust that has formed on the fan shroud strut:

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A dab of Hammerite satin black later and it looked much better (the paint was still wet when I took this - it looks more natural now it's dried):

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Finally, I polished my exhaust tail pipe with some T-Cut metal polish and then got amongst my tail light clusters with some T-Cut as well. The tinted finish has been looking a bit tired for a while, regardless of what cleaning product I use on them, so a dab of colour restorer was in order and worked even better than I thought it would!

Before:

attachment.php?attachmentid=168749&d=1367603278

 

After:

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And the finished effect:

attachment.php?attachmentid=168751&d=1367603278

 

The whole car now needs a good clean (the eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed that, I'm sure...!), but the groundwork is now set that she'll look immaculate once again.

Time for a drive to the Pod, I reckon...!!! :eyebrows:

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Nice work....I did my fuel tank cover a good while ago and it drastically motives the look at the rear IMO

 

Yeah I first noticed that the cover was noticeable (if you see what I mean :D ) last year during the Miss Banzai London tunnel run, during which I spent some time following a Supra with a bit of a scruffy one. After that I checked mine and resolved to spray it as soon as the weather allowed me to!

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nice thread mate :thumbs: i have no idea how i missed this

looks really good bud

I like to fly under the radar... :D

 

Looks wicked bud, now don't break it and then buy a GTR!!

This is awesome!

No chance of that. I said it once before in a different thread (I forget which...) but the only way someone could take my Supra keys away from me would be to prise them from my cold, dead hands! There's always Supra love coming from this callsign. :love:

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So thanks to this happening, Suki's off the road for the time being until I can make a decision about / finance / get hold of a new diff. :(

 

I may or may not now make JapFest which I'm PROPERLY gutted about...

 

If you're reading this for the first time after the fact, hopefully there'll be a good news story further down the page. Watch this space.

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Right. I've sourced a diff! :clap: It's luxluc's stock one from this for sale thread.

 

My plan is to have that fitted with some new solid mounts for now then get my old case (assuming it's not damaged) rebuilt with an uprated unit later on when funds allow. Maybe coupled with a nice 1-piece carbon propshaft while I'm at it...! :innocent:

 

So hopefully Darren at Whifbitz can work his magic quickly enough so that I can collect my car on Friday and still be able to make JapFest on Saturday... :)

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In all the JapFest preparation excitement, I neglected to upload these the other day after I'd picked my car up from Whifbitz with my new diff fitted, but here is what happened to my stock one:

 

(Broken part circled in case you missed it... :innocent: )

attachment.php?attachmentid=169260&d=1368349504

 

Close up:

attachment.php?attachmentid=169258&d=1368349247

 

And the front of the housing cracked as well:

attachment.php?attachmentid=169259&d=1368349247

 

I was going to retain this diff and have the case rebuilt with uprated internals but seeing as I'd have to replace half of it anyway I left it. I'll get my current one done...!

 

This, by the way, indicates the outcome of the "good news story" I referred to back in Post 290 when things weren't looking so rosy. :)

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So as a result of being towed away from Santa Pod the other week, you may remember that my front bumper got ripped:

 

attachment.php?attachmentid=168891&d=1367861469

 

Despite how this photo makes it look, it's not actually that noticeable when you're standing looking at the car unless of course you happen to know what you're looking for:

attachment.php?attachmentid=169321&d=1368385542

Certainly no one at JapFest commented on it. Perhaps they were being nice and I'm kidding myself... :innocent:

 

Either way, I thought I'd revise my design somewhat to allow for more 'flex' and try my hand at cable tie "stitching", drift car stylee.

 

Firstly I extracted the tow strop out of the way and tucked it inside the bumper recess so that I could get to the damaged area:

attachment.php?attachmentid=169322&d=1368385542

 

Next I widened the tow strop slot to about 10mm:

attachment.php?attachmentid=169323&d=1368385542

 

Then gave it a bit of a tidy up with a sharp knife, including adding a chamfer:

attachment.php?attachmentid=169324&d=1368385542

 

And at this stage drilled some 3.5mm holes for the cable ties (committed - no pressure... :eek: ):

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I gave the edge of the slot a lick of silver paint with a touch-up pen:

attachment.php?attachmentid=169326&d=1368385596

And left it to dry while I got on with something else (see next post)...

 

Paint dry, I then needed to dodge the rain ( :rolleyes: ) to get the stitching done. With the car jacked up to allow me access I could push my chosen white (to be more subtle) 3.5mm cable ties through from the inside of the bumper and back on themselves in a cross-stitch pattern. It was then a very fiddly process to get them joined up behind the bumper and tightened fully with a pair of needle nose pliers before snipping off the loose ends. I think I did quite a good job really :) :

attachment.php?attachmentid=169327&d=1368385596

 

And with the tow strop all tucked away again:

attachment.php?attachmentid=169328&d=1368385596

 

I really need to polish my FMIC side tanks apparently... :confused:

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A while ago when I fitted my SRD coolant tank behind my n/s headlight, I forgot to refit the bumper opening sensor for my Clifford alarm.

 

Today I (finally) decided to put that right while I waited for the paint to dry on my front bumper tow strop slot.

 

With the headlight, coolant expansion tank and power steering fluid tank removed, I decided the best place for the sensor to go would be in the place of the now redundant battery tie-bar threaded hole. Since that's an M6 thread and I need a simple 12mm hole, I got the drill out with my trusty 12mm titanium-tipped bit and went to work... :eyebrows:

attachment.php?attachmentid=169329&d=1368386205

 

With 2 more flanking 3mm holes marked out and drilled for the self-tappers that hold the sensor in place, I could get everything fitted:

attachment.php?attachmentid=169331&d=1368386205

 

Before realising that the wire for the sensor wasn't long enough to reach the new position... :banghead:

attachment.php?attachmentid=169330&d=1368386205

This wasn't too much of a problem as it meant I got to use my soldering iron, which I don't get much opportunity to use... :innocent: With a new length of wire soldered in and some heat-shrink applied to neaten everything up, I could connect the sensor and route the wire through the bodywork so that it's out of the way.

 

Finally, after a bit of scrubbing and polishing of components / engine bay) I moved around some of the cup-washered bolts that I'd fitted the other day before JapFest to re-fit the coolant expansion and power steering fluid tanks. I've got some more on the way anyway so everything else (that's more easily accessible) can be put right in a couple of days hopefully. :)

attachment.php?attachmentid=169333&d=1368386205

 

 

Headlight re-fitted and bonnet release sensor tested (it works :D ), it's job done for another day. :thumbs:

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Edited by DaveR (see edit history)
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