Wallpaper

Here's hoping 2008 brings us all good fortune!!
(And my car will be finished for Time Attck 2008)...

For 2008 I thought I'd add a wallpaper, taken from my J-tuner feature, hope you like it!




First a coat of primer to help the paint adhere to the interior surface, looks strange benig red.
Then a coat of black, much better and shiny too!!






Final cleaning and masking for the painting of the interior.


The gussets for the front and rear of the cage have been added.





To keep up the 'shiny engine bay look' I decided to polish up the throttle body, how long it'll stay shiny is another thing!



The new Trust T88 34D was bolted in along with the new heat wrapped manifold.




Now the engine is back in I decided to install my new Koyo rad from Japan along with my Apexi FMIC.

To go with the turbo I decided to get a HKS GTII 60mm racing wastegate with v-band for easy installation. I can't wait to hear it!

The new manifold and downpipe arrived from Trust Japan. Nicely welded with supports on the manifold and super smooth for exhaust flow on the inside. I decided to 'exhaust wrap' them to help keep the bonnet temps down.

Next up are the side door bars.
The plan was to make getting in and out the car easy but still have the protection of a X style door bar when using light weight doors. Also started to add the gussets between the cage and car frame for extra rigidity, these will be drilled to save weight.



Door bars are starting to take shape!


Work starts on the front half of the cage.
Getting the cage nice and tight to the A-pillars and as far forward to avoid cutting too much of the dash was the mission.


The new turbo arrived! Greddy/Trust T88 34-D
Hopefully its continued use and success in the Japanese tuning scene will enable my car to do the same in the UK?! We'll see...



Rear of the cage is constructed and put in place.
The centre tunnel brace is curved to allow the seats to tilt without touching the bar.




Seam welding complete!
Now the car is back on the ground, the engine bay had a respray and its engine dropped back in place along with some solid engine mounts from Stillway.





The new 370x34 discs fill the 18s nicely. With the caliper theres 3mm clearance so quite tight!!



Finally purchased a big brake kit to go on the FD!

Decided to go for some huge Brembo 8 pots with 40mm and 36mm pistons per pad and 370x34 discs. Only require some brakets to be fabricated to mount them and some uprated brake lines.
Compared to the standard discs and rotors, these are massive beasts.

Also removed the ABS unit and will be installing a bias valve.





Some further pics of the seam welds on the front struts and along the front fenders.



Finally my new tires have arrived!

I decided to go with what all the Time Attack cars run in Japan - Advan AO48's. Sized at 225x35x18 and 285x30x18. I'll have to ideally get some 265's for the front, but the 225s were a bargin.


Now that the tilter has arrived work underneath the car can commence.
The welds from the seams cause the underseal to melt so rather than remove it all and have the car rust in a few years (thats what I get for living in the UK)... I decided to have it all resealed.