HID's look good! Hopefully you get to use them longer than I did! I never had anybody flash their lights at me with them, and I was always worried about how the yellow fog lights looked with the white HID's, but I asked a few of my friends when I passed them and they all reported that the fog lights actually looked kinda white too, so don't worry about those. Everyone also said it was very easy to tell when it was me coming down the road because of how the lights are arranged on the car and the fact that I had the brightest lights, but not blinding. So you're all set

Looking good!

Wow. I need to update this.....

After my little oops over the winter, I finally got around to getting the new fender put on....

From this:


To this:


Finally!


I'll post up more when I'm not feeling so lazy.....

Alright, so I haven't updated this is a minute, but since the last time some stuff has happened....

On my way to my college graduation, the clutch went out on me.... So a clutch job in 10*F was fun....

My two babies in the same garage! (it doesn't happen often)


We pulled the motor to get to the trans since we were having issues with frozen cross member bolts. Harness unplugged from inside the car and pulled through the firewall.




Hood off, check. Though we put it on top of the car rather than on the floor for fear of our friend's Australian Shepherd.




Cherry picker, check.





I decided that 1 human power was momentarily better than a 5sfe's horsepower.





So the throwout bearing has been clicking for over a year, and we thought it finally grenaded itself. But once we got the trans apart, here is what we found.







Check out those awesome springs!






So, we come to find that the clutch disc threw a spring. The spring itself snapped into four separate pieces, which is what I'm holding in my hand. That was our problem. Surprisingly, the throwout bearing was still intact. In any case, it all got replaced.

This post has been edited by bloodMoney: Mar 13, 2011 - 2:41 AM

Okay, so two weeks ago, a friend came in to visit us and we decided to have a little winter photoshoot
















^Soldier Field


^This is on Lower Wacker Drive. (where the chase scenes from Dark Knight and Blues Brothers were filmed )






^I thought this was cool, it shows my 4300k lows and 3000k fogs



The next two were taken in front of the Field Museum











^I liked this one a lot, but it’s for celicatech lol

This post has been edited by bloodMoney: Mar 13, 2011 - 2:49 AM

looking good my friend

we need a photoshoot again too

Thanks buddy! We sure do need to get together again.... Especially now that its getting nice out!

i wanna come lol

>

lol

We probably won't actually meet up until the meet, but if we do, I'll send you a text Skyler

Got this done earlier today and all I have to say is that I'm in love.....





Now I just need new doors and front splitters and I'm done body-wise

I still want a cookie....

The splitters look great, Chris. Pictures don't do them justice.

>

agreed!

Thanks guys

But its time for a pre-dragon update.

After installing a godspeed radiator and fans, the fans pushed my alternator too far....

So, I replaced it with a 160A unit. It was relatively cheap, so if I get a year out of it, I'll be pretty happy.

After all that, it turns out that the heater core was leaking as well.... Looks like Stacy had some work to do!

I love this girl








She got this far in just over an hour.....

Last night, we got the car all back together and flushed the cooling system.

Tomorrow, we're going to try and get the rest of my presents in...

HPS pads are nice man, I like them. Good compromise for daily driving and a little weekend fun, however that first 1 or 2 cold stops....they don't bite so hard so be prepared.

^^ agreed good stuff right there

They couple well with ceramic pads in the rear with a more constant grab hot or cold, reason being you'll lock your rears up with a pad that grabs hard halfway into a stop. The HPS is... interesting. I can feel them heat up and bite down as they heat up in a stop, which is great in the front since weight transfers to the front..however with weight transferring away from the rear and the pads heating up and grabbing harder you'll get the rears locking up once you're into the stop already. If you're running around a track its no problem because the pads and rotors stay hot, even in the rear. However in a panic stop when you're just slamming on the brakes you could find that to be a problem.

Ceramic pads tend to have a constant coeff of friction hot or cold, so the rears grab the same no matter which will help to keep them from locking during a panic stop and keep you from sliding your ass around. ABS negates this problem. I know 7th gen brakes are not the same, but I can lock my rear with relative ease with the SS brake hoses even with ceramic pads (Wagner). HPS up front and Wagner rear are a good combo I think, but they're the only combo I know on my Celica...and I'll stick with them. On my old car I had Wagner ceramic up front and drum rear, so I can attest to how constant the friction is on that brands ceramic...they had the same exact grab no matter hot or cold...which feels funky as hell coming from HPS.

Thanks Jordan. I'll keep that in mind tonight after I get them installed.

I hope that they will stay hot while I'm on the Dragon...

Honestly you may never encounter a problem, just watch out if you're cruising on the highway and make a panic stop on wet road is all.

Well we hit a problem alright.....

Things are just a little too big for the front. After putting the fronts all together, they were too tight to allow any free wheel rotation. So were going to have to figure out how to modify them just a little so that im not burning the brakes up while I'm driving....

The rears fit fine though....

Hm? too tight? Aren't they all stock replacement parts? Slides all move? pistons not seized? brake hoses not damaged? etc? Quick test, when the wheels are not turning freely open the brake bleeder. if the wheel then spins free its a bad hose holding pressure in the caliper. One side or both? MOAR INFO! Don't make me go up there and sort it out for you.

The pistons on the clipers completely compress however, it seems like the pads are just too thick for the allotted space. We are going to take them apart tomorrow to try to figure out the issue. I'll post up more then....

Odd...did you double check the part numbers? Did you get the inner and outer pads reversed or are they all identical? Is the pad with the squealer on the correct side (inboard or outboard?)?

And the slides are moving totally free as well? are the pads binding in the clips? Rotors flat against the hubs totally and caliper brackets totally flush to the mounting ears?

This post has been edited by Bitter: May 18, 2011 - 7:55 PM

I think it might be the sliders... I'm about to head out to go check them out.

All the pads are equal thickness and I wirebrushed the hubs before putting the new rotors on and I also cleaned and greased the pad clips as well.

I'll let you know

same thing happened to me only with the rear brakes.. the pads were way to big, and didnt allow the wheel to spin free. i drove the car slow untill it went a way but it seams like that is a problem with the 6gc... no one can make brakes for them lol.

you guys need a real mechanic. Chris I might be up in the city this weekend near depaul, where are you? If its not too far I can swing in and take a look/assist trouble shooting. Shoot me a PM if you want my number or something.


If you do want me to swing by let me know, I'll bring some special lube with me. It's awesome for slides and stuff, 2200F temp rating, thick so it stays in place, and full of powdered anti-wear so it won't let the metal pins bind against the bores under braking load.

This post has been edited by Bitter: May 19, 2011 - 8:35 PM

Well, with the help of the Georgia Ctech crew, we were able to get the 3 frozen front caliper sliders moving again.

After figuring that out and putting in my kyb's, everything went back together smoothly.

I've put 2000 miles on Abby since last Monday, driving from home to ATL to Knoxvegas, down the Dragon and back home again....





















Now I need a new Throwout bearing.

Were the slide boots damaged? It would be wise to just get a front slide kit and replace the slides and slide boots or even just get a pair of reman calipers. Centric makes a good rebuilt caliper.

Meh... I figure I'll just leave it until I can scrape up enough for ST205 front brakes.

Yea, that's a great option as well!

forgot to ask you at the meet, how do you like the Hawk pads?