looking good mate i'm very impressed,how'd you manage to get the engine bay so clean??

and whats that filter coming out the cam cover? looks cool!

Paint i say.. cheating way.. at least it looks so nice and clean.. mine looks like a eye swore atm.. gonna sort it

I cleaned it with wire wool and then painted it with heat resistant caliper paint from FPS,

thats a 9mm breather from FPS, its not that expensive, you need to block the hole where the other end of the tube came out of, look at the blue bung i put in the photo about 2-3 inches top right of the filter.

Easy to do.

Ok this weeks mods, it has been WAY TOO COLD to do much else.

New leather gaitor and a gear knob which lights up when you switch the engine on. I hooked this up to the cigarette lighter. Unfortunately it is blue so it doesnt match the green with the car however i am going to be colouring some of it yellow to get the desired green effect. I had to put my hand over the knob cos it was shining and causing glare.

nice car mate looks like youve put alot of effort into her
personally im not a big fan of chrome gear knobs anymore
i had chrome all over my last car which was a suzuki swift
it had chrome racing steering wheel with leather bits, chrome gear knob, chrome handbrake handle etc
on a cold day its tooooo cold to touch and on a hot day its too hot to touch
so i ended up wearing gloves whenever i wanted to drive
but it looks good tho mate :P

good job bud,how did you find wiring it up to the cig lights? was it ok?

Lets see a pic in the dark steven


Makz....Mazdaspeed carbon style gearknob winner eh?

Yup i second that it is freezing to touch, i am still not sure if i like it or not.



The wiring was really easy, it was easier than getting the gaitor on believe it or not. Just simply pulled a bit of the plastic off of the wires to expose more of the lead and then wrapped one around the top of the back metal part and theother wrapped around the centre. Only forseeable problem is if the cig lighter is used it might melt the wire!!!! OOPS!



Yup will get a photo soon, as i say though i am gonna change the colour to green to match the colour of the car. Besides the blur is very distracting whilst driving at night.

Hokey dokey here is two pics in the dark, one of them is with the flash on and the other is with the flash off.

As i say i will change the colour so it matches the QUBE dials and the colour of the car. It is desperately needing a good clean and hoover, but i aint doing it in this weather! Next the flutes and EBC green stuff pads will be getting whacked on once there is a nice day.

Lookin good, keep up the good work

hmmmm looks really good illuminated :P
can i suggest u get a plastic trim to cover the edges of your HU? will give better look to your interior
can pick em up from most audio shops for a few quid

I like the lit up gearknob Stevio, but your right, it is a bit bright.
Maybe a dim LED of sorts?

Reduce the voltage maybe? Wire it up to the dimmer switch?

Looking great Steve, very impressed by how much youve done in such a short time!

Looking forward to seeing it in the flesh at Japfest

Thanks i am trying ma best, i dont think the results will be noticable until the car is actually cleaned.



I did buy one but it didnt fit?!?!?! It wasnt long enough, but thankyou for reminding me! I had forgot all about it!



Its WAYY too bright, it is very distracting at night . It is a sealed unit so i cant get in to change the bulb which is really stupid if the bulb goes. So my plan was to get a matching bit of yellow paper underneath the plastic top (blue plus yellow should make green) and hopefully it will be dulled down a bit!



Hmmm good idea! Like the thought of that, just hope ma qube dials can still be seen ok!!



Thanks Nick, it really isnt that special at the moment, i am doing all of this for Japfest but i am patiently waiting for a nice few days so i can go out and really get it up to standard with ma brakes (greenstuff), get the droplink done, get the calipers looking shiney, get the dizzy o ring done, finish the engine once the small oil leak from the dizzy has been done, attach the flutes, get the back reflector done, ge ma 17's.

This will all hopefully be done by march then i can concentrate on more for the Japfest finishing touches.

thanks all for the comments and support and hints!

Steve

weldone big man

where did you get your light protectors bud?

hehehe i managed to get them from a friend 2nd hand. That is the way to go. Thanks man, you know who you are.

Had a really really bad day modding/mantainence today.

First thing i tackled is i changed my 501 side indicators for chrome covered orange ones (done)
Then i replaced 2 bulbs which had gone 1 for the number plate the other offside headlamp (done)
Next i thought i will do the offside drop link and create a guide while i am at it (fail couldnt saw the bottom bit of the droplink off)
Then i thought i will tackle the greenstuff pads (fail couldnt get one of the pins out, tried for 3/4 of an hour)
Next thought i will attach the flutes (BLOODY fail, the stuff i got to stick them while i screw the self tappers was as sticky as water)
So i cheered myself up and attached club323f stickers to the rear window (done)

Not happy!

Here are the photos for the start of the guide.

TOOLS REQUIRED FOR CHANGING OVER DROPLINK

Where the offending item is

The bottom ball joint

Lastly me starting to saw the first part off.

have you stil got some colour code paint, could of dont the calipers while you were there that would have cheered you up! oh and get HID's, youve spent what they cost to buy in
replacing bulbs so far steve!!

keep up the work on the guide Steve, just what I've been looking for. Would you mind replacing your rear drop links too for me I want a guid on them really.

You know waht Jase you are 100% right, i will definately have to get em, was driving an hour ago on a countrey road and i couldnt se anything even with the full beam on. You gonna make a guide???



I will finish the guide when i am not in such a bad mood nick!!

steve you dont need a guide at all mate! is like a 20 min job. id easily help you put them in if you werent 3 hours away!
i dont even need to use my full beams anymore and anybody else with HIDs will agree.

Get a copy of it in the guides section mate

its not finished yet Zigster pal!

I will when it is finished!

Is it really that easy Jase?!?!! I thought it was a complicated job mate.

when your fitting the flutes u shouldnt really need to hold them while your putting the screws in :S

have you got the white plastic clips that sit inside the flutes?
when you got them you just slide the flute from the rear wheel toward the door and attacth the black plastic screw which faces the rear wheel and it should hold itself enough to screw the remaining three screws under the flute

if you wernt scotland far id av givin u a hand, mind i should have made a guide when i done my brothers ones oh well im gonna take em off and refit them just to make a guide :P

Yeah i really need those plastic clips. Gonna put an ad in the wanted section.

no steve it really is that easy, hardest part is deciding where to put the ballasts!