What an excellent thread!
Number plate light test.
And again but now with the garage lights off!
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Finally, got my MZ Style rear spats fitted! Used 3M tape and locking nuts and bolts. See how the tape holds, got tiger seal at the ready.
So the rear end is finally all coming together now. Once I've finished with carbon fibre bits and bobs, all the rear trim that's black will be switched back round to carbon fibre, woo...
Other side.
Split pic.
Next up I finally got round to sorting out my front parking sensors.
Off came the bumper and then lots of head scratching on working out where to place them and to get them in the same spot each side.
Next up, the dreaded drilling.
Pilot hole, then hole punch and relax, perfect clean matching holes.
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Fitted and then back on the car.
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Finally got back round to working on my interior trim again, first main coat is on, three more to go...
Short pre view vid.
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Left the centre console parts to fully cure over night, removed the masked off parts and now ready to start trimming back all the edges and get on with smoothing the resin out, so proberly another two to three hours left in them yet.
Anyway, here's a quick couple pictures in the sun with them fully harden from last night.
More to follow after I've done the above obviously.
Upgrading my suspension components some more.
I went with the Racing Beat front and rear anti roll/sway bars with a full set of adjustable drop links to go with them.
Now got my eyes on bushing kits etc...
More suspension upgrades!
Tein Mono Sport Coilovers.
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I also got the EDFC Active Pro GPS kit to go with this lots.
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Well here's my suspension saga, il explain a little to whom interested or for any future reference if someone is using the search function and finds them self here reading this post.
When I first got my R3 I was only looking for some fresh parts and to get my car lower without the issues that can be had with a spring kit. Since then slowly over time what I want from the car has changed some what and for what I have in mind and working towards. So a change out now sooner rather than later will help with what I'm building up to and be more suited later on.
My aim here is/was to put together a fast road but yet slightly competitive track ready combination, i.e. drive as if near stock ride quality but yet can instantly be race ready apex killer without any real need to go messing with anything bar wide open throttle. After a lot of research and few pm's and calls to people in the know how, I think I've got just about the right combination I've been looking for.
Il start with my roll bars, after a fair amount of researching roll bars are one of the best upgrades going so was a no brainier. After looking at various options it was a clear choice going with the Racing Beat bars, mainly unlike other brands because these was developed on the car rather than just a duplicate thicker bar.
Following on, drop links was my next issue. Known for being a weak point and usual MOT failing item it was a clear upgrade choice. There is a couple of options but I went with the Racing Beat adjustable drop links, mainly just for the extra strength I will get from them and also because unlike others adjustable links the Racing Beat ones aren't spherical steel on steel joints.
Next up was choosing what coilovers to get, which I changed my mind a few times. I was originally considering the Tein Flex with the EDFC 2 as it's a handy time saving feature, but then I was thinking how offen will I actually end up tweaking the damping with the EDFC?, l then decided to up my budget which then moved me to a lot more option and had me eyeing up the almighty Ohlins DFV coilovers.
Then when working out pricing I stumble across the EDFC Active kit which I don't know how I missed it first time round over the usual EDFC 2 kit, which now had me back at looking Tein. Futher to this, only Tein offer this Active feature and the fact I could get the coilovers and acvtive kit combined for the price of the Ohlins kit where I would need to manually adjust each shock dampening kinda had me sold.
So again I was back looking at the Tein coilovers options and after a lengthy call to Clive (Mazda Rotary Parts.), I decided on the Tein Mono Sports coilovers. With the triple tube structured shocks I can get near factory damping right through to race mode hard so to speak, so ideal for what I'm after.
Last piece of the puzzle was easy from here, the EDFC Active kit. There is a couple of versions, in the end I went with the full all singing all dancing top spec kit, Active Pro GPS. This thing is amazing, packed with features. It can adjust each corner dampening individually if needs be, also depending on things like speed it can automatically soften the ride to full soft for town driving then all the way up to full hard instantly should I go full throttle or suddenly sharp turns or hard braking even, and all without me needing to touch anything. It will work out for its self over and over again stiffness level on each corner depending on things like accelerating, speed, braking and cornering g force for example. Also with the GPS, it can learn the track and pre determine the best setting for up and coming corners. This is pretty much super car technology, especially when it's all paired with the already very intelligent factory DSC (traction control.).
Il just add, il be sticking with the factory rear arm links and front wish bones etc as to be keeping things like day to day road use smooth and quiet, where as replacement upgrades are generally spherical steel/polly bush joints resulting to what can be kinda explained as dry bone on bone feeling.
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Pretty much finished my centre console trim.
I’ve run out of the flatting compound, just waiting on some more and cutting pads to finish flatting back polish for the final finish.
Meanwhile here’s some pictures and of it trail fitted.
Ignore the few marks here and there as that’s just the compound residual.
Flatted/smoothed out top layer.
Rinse off.
Dryed and masked up.
Final resin coat going on.
All done and left to harder.
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And here we are after some cutting compound and test fit.
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And again, a pillars base black coat, carbon applied, first layer then sand, trim edges, apply top coats, sand again, final coat, fine grade sand.
Sounds easy when I write it out like that doesn’t it, haha.
Just waiting on cutting pads and compound, flat and polish them and then we’re all good to go.
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Getting there slowly.
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Dude this is awesome your skill is unbelievable great attention to detail, think you need to start doing gtt turbo parts now lol pretty much full interior A Pillar,s door tops, front door cards identical to std just in carbon would love a set, rear door cards, gtx centre console, etc...
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At some point next year I’m hoping to be able to completely reproduce parts in pure carbon, things like the door cards you mention should actually be fairly easy as such a simple design shape.Originally Posted by James5
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Reworked my centre trim, not a fan of the silver plus was fairly scratch and chipped in areas.
Sanded down all the silver.
Primer’d.
Sanded the Primer.
Applied gloss black.
Finally, 1200 grit wet sand and lacker.
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Er, more carbon fibre anyone?...
Gear stick surround, rear part of the sliding arm rest and rear section flip up cup holder.
After some trimming.
Bit of flatting.
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Final trim up and coating. Getting good at this now, haha.
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Great quality
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So this happen, split my glove box open for some magic! So magic in fact, that I no longer have a hole to open it.
More.
And here’s some more carbon! Still waiting on cutting/polishing compound then these will be the finished article after a good going over, that said, there looking pretty good as they are so after the polish they should look pretty amazing.
Two parts lined up.
Because, well, why not, lol.
Quick trim.
Then out for a test fit.
Here’s a picture to see how it looks from outside.
Also, back on the glove box lid.
Chopped out the opener hole, just got to give it a good polishing now and should be good to go back on the car.
I didn’t stop there either.
Disassemble one perfectly good retrimed steering wheel.
Trim up some carbon fibre fabric and start to wonder if this is a bad idea...
Next apply top section.
Following on, the three front insert sections, chop and cover.
Trimming it all down the size.
And here we are ready for the final flat and polish and clean.
I picked up a cat back exhaust system the other day.
This is a Pettit Racing cat back made by Milltek. 3 inch bore which then splits into 2.5 inch divide between the two rear silencers with angled 4 inch tail pipes.
It’s rather rusty for a stainless system, was in two minds about actually fitting it or selling it on as I usually only buy new parts when it comes to performance upgrades and obviously I’m slowly working my way through the whole car inside out to as new condition.
One tail pipe was rusted on solid, clamp just snapped on its self too, the bolted joint was totally seized and the nuts rounded them selfs off, so after getting my serious man tools out, it didn’t take long to dismantle to get on with cleaning it all up.
Anyhow, this is how I it got before working some magic.
Right, here’s a few of one side vs the other after a couple of hours scrubbing.
Still a long way to go yet, but vast improvement.
It’s actually starting to look fairly good, but I’ve now run out of polish etc.
There is still more to go yet, but I’m toying with the idea of maybe going for a mirror finish on the pipes?, although I’ve spent way to much time on this already.
Anyhows, here’s how it looks as of now.
Looking back at the before pictures, it almost looks like I’ve just bought another one.
Picked up another boot lid last week, my plan is to build my own duck tail style spoiler all moulded into one piece. Im going to build it all up in sheet metal, smooth it all out and coat it then make a mould from it. Anyway, more about that as I progress.
So, made a rough template out of cardboard and then got the sheet metal out.
Then back to basics with putting some bends into it.
Then more bending to build up curve.
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Few clamps for some test fitting.
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Few clamps for some test fitting.
Chopped and more bending.
This is about as far as I could go with it today as gotten fairly late to be using an angle grinder and hammering into shape out in the garage.
So this how it looks as of now, long way off yet, but more to follow.
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Got another hour or so in on my boot.
After some more hammering and clamping I got my mig welder out and started adding some tack and spot welds to slowly work some curves in.
Also trim more around it so it flows better with the factory designed shape of the car, ie curves with some right angles so to speak.
The lighting fairly bright in my garage so hard to really show up the bends from one angle back out on its self.
Your see from these pictures how it’s starting to flow the O.E. shape.
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Here’s some more of the rear, slowly added spot welds along the bottom from the centre out to get the shut line to follow curve.
It’s hard to tell, but if you look closely you see the shut line match the O.E. shape.
I spot welded the top to, so now that’s all held in il be doing some more panel beating and rolling to persuade it into the shape I want then il get onto boxing in the ends and start smoothing it all out.
Anyway, here’s the rear shots to give you an idea.
Decided to test fit the Pettit/Miltek System despite the minus weather and light snow this past week.
Much to my surprise the old cat back slipped off easily, ie the rubber hangers. This I wasn’t looking forward to but them remembered when I refitted it last year I covered them in copper grease before sliding them on, result.
Bolting back up the spring bolt parts to the cat on the other hand was not as easy.
Anyhow's, after the neighbours wondering where the swear words was coming from between 7-9pm in the dark, I had it on to then I realised it had slipped my mind to order new clamps, rear gasket and bolts, darn it.
Couple of snaps for now, as no update is an update without pictures!
Ps, Just want to add, I kinda ordered something rather expensive this week for my build. You could say easily the most expensive single item upgrade to date for my build, can’t wait, till then these couple of picture will do, haha.
Finally got round to ordering fresh exhaust clamps, nuts/bolts and proper ringed gasket for the exhaust.
Bolted it all on and fired it up to see how it sounds, got a slight leak from the donut joint, but just a case of tightening it up some more.
Well what can I say, erm, I can’t drive it with this setup as it’s LOUD! Really loud.
Couple of clips, not to bad on idle, but as soon as the Revs rise it wakes the dead. Current combo in these clips are ToyoSports mani and silenced de cat with Pettit cat back.
I do have a on the go video, but won’t play every time I upload it.
More updates to follow later.
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