Reconsolidating Thread!

Pics from beginning to present

When purchased


First Mod - Feels like yesterday


Cleaning and Painting engine bay





Battery Tie down


Wheels & Springs

Before:



After:




Rainguards:




Facelift & Projector/Clear Highs:









Well all in all, to this point i think progress is great. I've learned alot, spent tons of money I didn't think I had. Purchased many tools never expected needing, and of course, recieved tons of help and goodies from 6gc.net. My thanks to the community once agian, I couldn't have come this far without ya guys!

This post has been edited by rave2n: Nov 22, 2011 - 1:38 PM

that is awesome work, do like the shield.

Looking good man keep up the good work.

Well I won't be purchasing from Streesideauto.com anymore. Sent the wrong wireset, no where near what I needed....atleast got the plugs right.

Just gunna get the ebay 10.8 mm red set.

10.8 mm spark plug wires? WHY? It's not an upgrade and you won't gain anything by it.

Don't really care for the size, just want the color. It was the color I planned on having things looks under the bay, plus they are only 32 bucks on ebay.

Old plugs out! Wire plans changed due to cost and such. So now it will be just a cleaning of the bay, and alot of painting of this and that.

>

That looks like you're burning really lean.

Maybe try resetting your ECU, can't hurt anything.

-TC

Yea i've noticed that too myself. Smells like gas off the exhaust too. I reset my ECU when I put the intake on. I also have a issue with my oil disappearing, but that has been determined to be valve seals...so probally going to run the 7a-fe til it dies, or follow Griff's advice and turbo that bastid and replace it when it goes for 400 smackers.

Some cleaning begun, will finish shining up after she dries out a bit.

Beginning Supplies:



Not a real good Before shot, but gives you a idea:



some of the prepping:

First Thread!

The major grime is off now, finer detail once dry



This post has been edited by rave2n: Jul 5, 2010 - 10:26 AM

First Thread!

This post has been edited by rave2n: Jul 5, 2010 - 10:27 AM

Is that how it really looks? Damn I thought that was photoshopped. Do you have an angle that isn't so overexposed?

Yeaaa, I just checked on it probally a hour later and its still bright as hell, might have to acquire a darker red...thats to damn bright for me.

heh... looks a lot like my engine bay... well, color-wise. Yours is MUCH cleaner though. And this shot is like a year old



This post has been edited by GriffGirl: Jun 19, 2009 - 6:37 PM

Hah, yeap same red - Hopefully mine will darken out like that a little more. That pic wasn't even with the sun on it. All in all, a good base coat for whatever my indicisive mind chooses.

I hope she is clean, took me about 4 hours this morning. I just can't work on a any motor that is caked with stuff, which it was, and my plans to work on gaskets and such needed a clean exterior, yea it'll just get dirty agian, but its not 15 years of dirt now!

So gaskets next - Can't wait to take that valve cover off and see how much hate has been put on it, i have a sneaky idea alot, cause I pulled the PCV valve before I went to paint, and there was some severe crud on it. A dose of Seafoam is coming up as well, but that really doesn't leave much for the picture work =P.

After a morning drive, probally less bright now that the sun changed angle =P

I notice you painted over the nuts on the top as well as that plastic piece on the left side. Did you paint the valve cover in place then? Is there any risk of the paint cracking?

How'd ya get your heat shield so clean? Did you paint it too?

Wire wheel, then used a bunch of diffrent sand papers til I was happy with it, for the heat shield. That took a good hour.

Yea I painted it in bay, I think the clue to that is letting it cure. 3 Coats of primer, 10 mins in between, then let that cure for 3-4 hours. Then 2 coats of whatever color, 10 mins inbetween. I let it sit for a good 12 hours before I turned her over, its still on to this day, and looking like the original day I sprayed it. I think one way which would stop it from cracking, is leave the surface slightly scarred with sandpapper, gives the primer and paint more adhesive power. After enough coats its smooth, and sticking like JB weld.

Here is a pic of some of the prep, after a few coats of primer, but that gives you an idea.

First Thread!

This post has been edited by rave2n: Jul 5, 2010 - 10:27 AM

Made a battery harness today. Noticed I did not have one, and felt it would be a good idea to secure the battery. Just grabbed some aluminum 1/4 bar, rounded the edges off, drilled some holes, and wire brushed for a finer looking finish. Then drilled into the frame, and tapped, and secured with some long arse bolts. Secure as could be, and free!...well if you have that kinda junk laying around =P

Tools used to install...just incase your wondering, used the monkey wrench as a hammer cause i couldn't find one for the punch



Finished Product...sorry for the brightness, need to invest in a better camera then my phone

First Thread!

This post has been edited by rave2n: Jul 5, 2010 - 10:27 AM

Renamed the thread - Mainly because I have a hard time focusing on one thing at a time. So now its just general Progression, instead of simple engine bay work.

Working on quite a few things, but figured i'd drop a few pics to show whats going on.

Alot of stuff is a learning experiance for me, so please keep the comments constructive, instead of "WTF dumbarse, why'd you do that"

Fixing up the ugly Trim



Layers later - Will post the complete finish later this week when both sides are done.



Hood acquired from 6GC.net - In progress - Prep Work



Sanded and Primed - more priming and sanding to come - Learning that painting correctly is quite fun.






I do have a enclosed place to paint and such. I figured the beginning sanding and priming didn't really need that much closed quarters considering I have much much more to go.

Have a strut bar to install which will be done later this week. Enjoy.

Got some new parts in, time to get to work! There some riser blocks otw as well. Much thanks to Vincent, always delivers!

First Thread!

Could a mod move my thread to general? Seems i've strayed off since when I originally started this thread.

This post has been edited by rave2n: Jul 5, 2010 - 10:27 AM

Good progress

Everything installed shown above. Will post pics of loweredness when the sun starts to go down a little more.

Oooooh, coilover sleeves. NICE!

One word of warning, don't expect those GR-2's to last long if you're going lower than 1.5", which of course you will.

This post has been edited by SwissFerdi: Mar 7, 2010 - 5:30 PM

How she used to sit.



and how she is today, with the wheels, tires, axle, struts and coilover sleeves.



The back struts were HORRIBLE to get out. The endlink was almost amusing as to how easy it was considering it has 2 write ups. My issue was removing the strut bolts that attached to the hub. After beating at them for 2 hours, I jacked the hub all the way up, and put my rachet and wrench together, and pushed on it with my foot and back to the ground. That got'em released. PB blaster did nothing but make a mess =P. All in all, its done with the suspension atleast. Yea I have them set at 1.5 front and back according to the sleeve measurments, but it certainly looks alot lower then that. Rides nice, slightly bouncey on big dips, but nothing that will drive me nuts. Feel tighter on turns, and not a single noise. Half a can of grease later.

No pics of the passenger axle getting done, but that was fun needless to say. Came out easy, little harder to get back in, but all in all it worked out and is riding good.

Got a facelift bumper in the other day, as well some 404a skirts on the way as well, riser blocks..hopefully in the mail soon. Then will purchase some front and rear splitters and thats it for the exterior. Not going crazy with kits, just want a flashy mostly oem look. Then saving up for the swap. Which was sappose to be first, but decided to take care of these things first, research more and more then be fully prepped for swap, hopefully 3sgte but we'll see. Doing the figures shows that a 4agze swap is really not worth it when the 3s is only a little bit more.

This post has been edited by rave2n: Mar 7, 2010 - 6:23 PM

Goodies have arrived, the painting process begins agian!



an old one I need to finish..paint'em all at once...my ghetto booth is coming together as well, I only visit that transmitter site maybe once or twice a month, but I have a feeling I'll be there much more in the coming weekends.



Side note, like to thank the community for everything. Everything I've done so far is been due to the community either by the forums themselves, or the connection of finding goodies in the FS threads. Thanks agian guys, everything you see on her and soon to be, is from 6gc.net. Except the new things that just had to be purchased =P

Lookin' good!

More stuff has come in. Thank you to both the sellers here at 6gc.net


This post has been edited by rave2n: Jul 5, 2010 - 10:28 AM