Alarm almost finished

Spent two days at the garage again, been kinda poor 'n busy so you don't see me often there. I try to maintain once/twice a month so I'll get something done before the summer. But then again, I'm hanging tight on my social life & work this year unlike last one which was totally fucked up due to spending too much time with the car.

You know my style, I always need to couple the wires, run them beautifully and tape them together for nice look & reliability. So thats taking a while.



So quite a lot of ABIKO, soldering and taping these past few days, those wires in an alarm system so complicated as the one I have just don't seem to get done ever. Used 2 rolls of electrical tape so far, heh. However now I only need to run & solder the wire between relay and IGN II and I'm ready. Just some ziptieing after that.

None of that make very good photos though, but I do have a photo of my fuselage which I put in the usual place, under passenger side dash where you can always remove the panel easily if them fuses pop.

I used the socket for the relay the first time ever, usually I just put the wires individually there but its kinda nice, feels pro. B)

My own ACC power connection is 10mm2 so I divided it to 3 x 4mm2 and used a double connector so I can jump 12V to 3 more low amp connections (1,5mm2). That should be plenty. I'll be adding stuff like reverse radar, a few meters, new aftermarket power antenna and boot release kit so I'll need that fusebox. Good setup though.

Anyhow, might be a while before I post again but the next time I'm expecting to be able to post a vid of the remote start feature and probably start painting the dash or do something with the carpet and the roofliner. We'll see. =)

This is what I've been doing

So yeah, as you may see I've been putting my time and energy lately on the car again. Almost through installing the alarm system. That'd be the 2-way LCD Falcon Alarm system, turbo timer and remote start featured. Still need to do some more wiring to get the remote start feature working, but slowly I'm getting there. It's taken quite a while since as you may remember my style is balancing between perfection and sanity..

So the first few days I just disassembled stuff and bundled the wires together to make everything nice and clean. Today I got most of the wires soldered and connected. Had some problems such as the siren which was broken to begin with.. Luckily I had another siren (wtf who has extra sirens but me) and I just changed the chip from the nonworking siren and I resulted with one working siren!

Here's the main unit, I grinded two grooves in the ECU bracket where the two "ears" the unit has for screwing it into place slide into, so it's a perfect fit and easy to remove. :)

So here's the only part where you can see the powerwire which is 10mm2 copper.. Wanted to make sure its enough juice for all the electronic gizmos I'll come up with :) It'll look better with the 35mm2 I'll put for the 2 amps. Just couldn't resist a perfect place for the fuses and ready made holes for those wire clips. :)) That should be the only part you can see the wire though. And yes, I do realize that makes it a easy target for the car thief but then again, doesn't an extra wire at the battery?

If I'd be concerned though I could wire the power from the existing wires inside the car.. But I'd rather not touch them.
So thats it again, maybe I'll post a vid or something if I get the remote start working, will be a while though since I need to change the fuel (the one in the tank is old already I figure) and all that before I dare to run the engine again. But we'll get there!

Dash is off

Nothing much, just wanted to show that the dash is off. :P As you can see it's a _lot_ easier to do all the wiring now. And also it will be easier to paint the dash. :)

Also I got some of the dough back I've been spending on the car, as I found two german marks from 1994 under the dash, lol. :P

Soo what it means is I'm not all too sure if Im able to ride the car next summer or not :D now that I've gone this far I am gonna do all the electronics I've thought of and there's some financial problems. We'll see. :P

Oh well then, keep you updated if something exciting happens.

If it's on mfooka then it's on :)

He someone told me he thought I quit this or somethin. Well yeah, I admit I've had a couple months of hell but its pretty much behind me. Amidst all this chaos I really haven't had the interest but..!

Now I've begun taking the interior apart. I plan to do there what I can afford, money will be an issue as well but we'll work with what we got. Also since am starting so late and I don't wanna destroy my social life like I did last year by living in the garage, I try to keep it small this year and make sure the cars ready in May. :)

So, Ill start with painting the dash and some interiors, changing some fabrics, install the alarm and more or less the hifi. I already have the alarm I previously introduced, I also got a 4 channel amp for speakers, still need a sub amp, the speakers and a player and a lot of small stuff. I'll keep updating as I go but chances are I'll be quite busy and the updates will be smaller than last year.

TBH, I couldn't afford to do this right now but I refuse to quit one of the only activity that's ever been dear to me due to life situations. I just need to adapt it a bit for the time being. :)

Be seeing ya !

End of season

Right, well I haven't posted in a while, mainly cos' all I've done is waited for the ABS sensors, with shaking hands read the mail every morning to see if they've come. No, they haven't, and finally I've decided to give up for this year and start taking the car apart soon again.

I figured this would be a good time to sketch out the plans for next year, for you readers & myself.
The idea is again that what I disassemble, I plan to do it once and for all.

So this years supposed to be about interior and finishing what I would've wanted to do this year, being mostly the front end of the body & suspension. The reason being, I want to have the alarm and wideband gauge and maybe a lil the stereos as well in the car before its seriously on the road.

So, #1 I'm going to take off the interior around the rear windows, as I'm going to get them tinted in a few weeks, or thats the plan.

#2, Here's a shot of the stock interior. It may not seem bad in a photograph, but to be honest, I can't understand why they've chosen this brownish color to the interior. Luckily most of it is hard plastic so it can be painted, which is probably what I'm going to do for the most parts.

I'd love to get a carpenter redo the whole interior with leather, but that costs a hell of a lot of money which I'd rather spend elsewhere.. and let's face it, sometimes even I need to think about what kind of car I am reconditioning. It's not an old classic, or much of a sports car even. While I wouldn't change it for a lot of cars it just isn't sensible throwing thousands at it for ridiclously luxurious reasons.


Anyways, the plan is to use matt black with semi gloss lac on the plastics, replace some of the fabrics (doors, center arm rest) with red leatherette, and I'm probably going to exchange the carpets to brand new red as I believe I've found a place where they make new ones pretty cheap if you bring the old ones. The headliner I think I'm gonna put in black as well. I'm not sure about the details yet, I guess I'll just whip it, or try to Photoshop it later.

#3 I'm going to install the boost meter I already have --->


And I intend to buy the wideband gauge and fit it the same time, probably this one; Innovate Motorsport






Then I also want to fit the alarm system as well. I've been looking at this one, it's pretty cheap and it's got all the gizmos you can hope for;

Falcon Predator Evo4+, 2-way, turbotimer, remotestart, etc. Some people are against cheap alarms but at least the last cheap one I installed has worked like a charm for 2 years. And after all, alarm system is pretty simple electronics.

 

Besides that, I'm going to fit a new sound system, as no car of mine is ready without it. Nothing too fancy as I don't really listen to music that loud anymore, but I'm thinking of a 80-100€ class midbass and tweeter set (probably without an amplifier), 2 x 10" subwoofers or use the one I already have (Rainbow Hammer 12"), need a new amplifier anyway, and to the rear I'm prolly gonna go with some of the better 4"x6" as thats the stock size and it's fine by me. I'll also need a new stereo unit, this time I'm thinking Pioneer, don't know how much I'm willing to spend on it yet.

 

 If I can afford it, I'd really like to buy a set of these as well. But that comes last to the interior as they are easy to change afterward.

Also, getting some small things like putting my aftermarket wheel on,getting the dials below, changing red LEDs to the rest of the buttons inside, nifty stuff like that.

#3, The front end. Some of you may remember how I left it.

And I want it to be like the rest of the car, so it means new brakes, new shocks, some grinding and painting (:D), sandblasting and powderpainting.. This time, I'm expecting it to be a lot shorter project, though as the area is a lot smaller, heh. 

If I can afford it I'm looking to get the Subaru 2 piston calipers, and I'd really really really would want the D2 adjustable coil overs, but I'm not all too sure I can afford it yet.

Then some tweaking in the engine bay, I'm thinking

Replacing the old shabby nonbrand one with a Fujita or Apexi filter, and if there's time, build a heatshield / air venting system for it.

And of course, to top it all, and being the reason behind a lot of this work, the boost controller. :P

So that's all I'm thinking. Truth is, I probably won't get everything done and bought, but as I go, I pick the ones that seem the most important. The key again is to do things so that I wouldn't have to ever take off the interior again, same goes for the front end stuff.

So there you have it, we will see what it turns out to be, reporting back in a few weeks with the tinted windows hopefully!

Mike signing out.

Wax on, wax off

Hmm, I don't feel like biting onto the remaining problems such as one of the exhaust sections need to be remade and the third brake light isn't working right now, just in case I don't finish it before it's time for inspection.

Yes, I'm determined to inspect it if possible and drive it as long as weathers permit.. which'd hopefully be a few weeks, but won't know yet. It all depends on when I get my last part in, should be any day now.

Anyways, I wrapped up my sleeves to do something that brings the car more ready to the road then, which'd be thorough 5 hour session of washing & waxing. :)

These are the waxes I used. Yes, three. :D Starting up with cleaning/general wax Autoglym Super Resin Polish, adding up TurtleWax Red Color Magic (colour wax) and finishing up with Autoglym Extra Gloss Protection.

Normally you'd use those Autoglyms but don't put anything in the middle for a superb wax job.  My paint job is horrid though so I figured it might make up a little, the colour wax. And it did, to some extent, I mean it's not like it saved the day but it certainly sort of shaded out the flaws a bit, which was everything I expected.

But adding the Extra Gloss at the end, it sort of highlighted the flaws and I think it fucked up the red wax layer a bit as the polishing cloth kept coming out red. Where the paint quality was good enough, such as the hood and doors, the result was awesome as always.

So here's it done. Looking back at it, it could've used a lil more polishing but I was dying of hunger and had to leave it like that. It'll prolly look pretty good after a wash.

In the end considering how big the flaws on the paint job are on the roof etc. I'm happy that it's able to look as good as it does now. :)

So, probably next update is from the road :) Unless something goes wrong again >.>

Found the cause

I found what was making the rumble sound.. This time it's a video episode. :D


So yeah, I ended up leveling them with a Dremel & grinding stone, finishing up with emery cloth. I hope they work now as I'm aware that break discs don't really like being subject to grinding and such.. If it still fails to work I could take them to a machinery to have them surface them but it sounds like a lot of trouble & money.

But thats just jolly joy, having bought the best (?) aftermarket brake discs commonly available, they're bad out of the box. I think it was corrosion caused, the discs should've been greased better & in a plastic bag..

Anyways, I'm thinking of taking the Probe to the inspection still, as it would be best for next winter projects. There's something I need to do in another city with the car, you'll see. .)