Ok, decided I will give you all a full run down of whats happening with the car and how it has been getting on.
Also with pictures.
Ok I gave the car to Wayne with the hopes that it would be ready for JAE this year. We set off planning to change parts of the car which I thought would enhance, and update parts which I felt let the car down and also to add my own touch to it. For those of you who don't know, Wayne is setting up his own business and therefore my car was the guineapig. I do have some other pictures of the car before the stages on there but they are on my old hard drive but I will try and upload them sometime.
As the time got nearer to JAE it was apparent that my car would not be ready, partly due to the lovely NE weather and Wayne been ill for a week and also a few other problems which were not forseen. This meant that we had time til the next show to sort out everything, and the list of modifications planned continued to grow. The list as it stood at the moment was:
Denji Honda Civic Angel Eyes front headlights, for these we needed a mechanism to flip the bonnet in the opposite direction to the k10 as standard. We firstly tried mini hinges as the bonnet it curved at the back and uses the same idea that we were after. We found that this didn't work and we used clio ones, which were mounted on either side at the rear of the bonnet, and fibreglassed round them so they looked like a part of the car. This worked a treat and the bonnet now flips 90degrees, and also has two struts which life the bonnet up. This now allowed for the badboy to be fitted. k11 bars were moulded into the bumper which made the lights sit a little higher, and custom brackets were made for the lights themselves. The old indicators had a plate welded over them and were smooth and a nice line was put in to follow the line down the side of the car right to the front.
In the mean time this was left and the D&M saxo arches were fitted. Originally on ebay they were advertised as dimma arches and were therefore different to Wayne's, however when they came it turned out that they were infact D&M, and identical to Wayne's car, which neither of us wanted!!! We decided that we could actually modify the rear arches to look similar to the D&M ones which a little extra added touch. This resulted in the arches that I have now, which is one of the nicest additions to the car in my opinion.
Next came the front arches which on first impression appeared to look good, however when they were fitted up against the car they looked far to big and stuck out too much and didn't follow the lines at all of the rest of the car!!! So this meant that we had very little time to find new arches if the work was to continue. I frantically searched on ebay etc, but didn't want to spend alot after the amount I had spent on the set of arches. (which Neil now has the front ones on the bbq... cough cough
) Luckily one of my mates had a mate who was selling a full set of Mk1 XR2 splitters and arches for a bargain of a price!!! And they looked just right too. However when we got them they were actually rubber and it proved to be quite a challenge to fit them because of this. However we got them fitted and they looked great and followed the lines and style of the rear arches really well!!!
The plan for the car was to go smooth so the handles, indicators were smoothed off and afterwards as an additional plan the roofliner. One of the handles sank slightly but this was fixed and it was looking very smooth. The boot was resmoothed and also added to the look of the car.
Then came the badboy which this was thought was going to be easy, however it turned out to be very complicated. It was hard to get the curve of the bonnet and so the solution was to weld 3 plates on again to make the curve, and this ended up taking much longer than it should have.
Brava rear light - which after inspection appeared that it would be easier and would look better if they were flush and smoothed into the tailgate. The old tailgate was rusted underneath so Wayne used a new boot and smoothed that and welded 2 additional plates on the sides to keep the curve of the boot and allow the lights to be fitted into the boot. Light cages were made behind the lights to allow the lights to sit in cosily.
After a while it became apparent that the system we had for this wasn't working as the edges were to thin, and the filler kept cracking. A few days later this was solved and it is now a sturdy solid boot, which follows the line of the boot down nicely.
Another area which was decided we would do but was not originally planned was the relocation of the fuel filler. This was a job that was done just before JAE and it was a rush to find a suitable suel filler, which in the end ended up costing me alot of money for such a little thing!!! The fuel filler was smoothed off and the new fuel filler was located in the B-pillar with fairly little pipe work required to make it work but did cost alot of money for the fuel cap, which is actually used on airplanes lol.
This was sorted out eventually though and the mod looked good and added to the smooth look.
The engine also gave us major grief, which originally was just going to be to spray it up to match the exterior of the car and make it look clean. However we tested the engine, and there was very little compression on 1 cylinder. We decided that as we were sorting out everything we should get this sorted and rebuild the whole engine. On further inspection, we found that the waterways were blocked with muck somehow, so we cleaned the engine got the head skimmed and put a new head gasket on. It was sprayed up and a few parts replaced and fitted back into the car before the car was sprayed. However, we had a problem with the gearbox so that had to be taken out again!!! gr This was sorted and we got the engine running again.
After a few finishing touches the car was pretty much ready for spraying. I must admit the spraying was a little rushed and the orange reacted, meaning it had to be done again. Spraying in the back yard isn't exactly ideal though until he gets his premises. The whole car needed sanding back down again, and the car was polyestered and finished properly before the spraying.
Our next target was Jap Show Finale, which was nearing ever closer to us. With the final repsray just around the corner, everything was done slowly and taken time over. It all looked good, although we were a little short of time. The laquer was put in the day before but didn't go on quite as well as planned as Wayne had never used the show shine laquer before, which although was shiny had a slight orange peel effect. This could have been sorted and the plan was to take the buffer down there and do an early morning session buffing the car lol. I finished work at 5 and headed up to Wayne's just after, he was still working on the car getting it somewhere near, until we met yet another problem!!!
The alarm started playing up, and randomly started arming itself, going off, even going off while the engine was on, windows going up randomly etc lol, it was like the car was possessed. We had had electric problems before but we thought that they would be easily sorted, as when we first got the car it was stripped competely and the wiring of the alarm etc was an absolute mess!!! After all of the work that had gone into the car I didn't fancy taking it down there with no alarm and and engine that hadn't been completely ran in yet. So the decision was made that we would miss yet another show, the last one of the season.
As it stands now it seems like we now have a problem with the clutch gr which will add more time to it been finished, the paint has now been wet and dried and needs a hell of alot of buffing to get it to a spot on shine, which I'm sure it is capable of!!! I want it to shine loads as Wayne knows lol, as the pearl in delicious when it flips and the metallic shines lots too lol. So its just a case of sorting out the remaining problems now and getting the paint up to a nice shine.
Also with the kids next door to his there is a scratch that has appeared which will also need to be sorted, once again not ideal spraying in the back yard, but still that can't be helped at the minute. So not long to go now but after everything that has happened there is no way that I am putting a finish date on it now, as this car has proved that anything that can go wrong will do.
I don't think words can actually describe how annoyed/happy/frustrated I have been with this car, and more than once I have seriously considered stripping the car for parts and buying a new one, as the time it has took and the problems that we have had are really taking the pi$$. It is still even hassling my mind now too, although I must say though when I see it now it does look truly insane and after alot of time and alot of hardwork it does look really good.
So good infact that it will be an awesome car when its done if I may say so myself, just some of the excitement of it been done has gone due to the problems that have occurred, and I must say I have lost alot of interest unfortunately!!!
Still can't wait for it done though, I am just seriously hoping that it doesn't cost me much more money to get it done. And damn this has turned into a very long post now, so I will stop hehe, this time next year also as long as everything goes well I am planning an SR20DE 2.0l coversion, but thats a very long way off and at the moment I am just looking to get it finished and just simply enjoy driving it for a while, taking it to shows and not have to spend massive amounts of money on it anymore. Anyway, sure there will be loads of pictures up when it finally is done, it is looking really nice though. And I hope you all read this lol, as its took me ages to write!!!
Enjoy.