I has a car, Updated 11/1/2015 - Nothing of note. Options

[Anoroc]

Oh hi.

I've been lurking here for a while for the wealth of motivation in the build threads and such.

I has a '96 GT4. Being in NZ, it is a JDM facelifted one - no trispokes here, though unfortunately noone in the car's past ever thought to pick up projectors.

It currently looks like this:


Anyway, hi, sup etc.

Oh, I have a build thread here, and am much too lazy to cross-post everything!

http://www.gpforums.co.nz/showthread.php?threadid=435792

This post has been edited by Anoroc: Jan 11, 2015 - 5:47 AM

[Anoroc]

Several weeks recap! In MySpace fashion, i'm feeling [good].

A couple of weeks ago, I brought and had delivered some front and rear caps (TRD styled, rather than SS-3). These were in varying condition - the fronts were in relatively faded Toyota 040 'super white', while the rears were merely primered.


I picked up some aerosol 040 from Super Cheap, and gave the rears a few coats + clear. It came out quite alright, except that once dried, I mocked them up to the car - and said **** **** ****ting dicknipples. Apparently, 16 years and 215,000km means that paint, even white, ends up a different colour. The can was far brighter than the car. These got shelved for the meantime. I had a plan, and ****. Note that the colour difference is worse IRL than in this pic, this camera makes up for a lot.


Last Saturday, as per WDYDTYCT, I picked up some oil (5w30 Castrol Edge, with mad wankery Titanium Technorogy) and put that in, with the intention of following up with a thermostat change (as I also picked up some coolant + thermostat from Toyota) - nope.avi. Alternator well and truly in the way.


Said ****it, and decided to look at my front caps. They were pretty well colour matched to the car, but due to the shape of the ST205 front bumper, they needed trimming to not 'interrupt' the eyelets. It looks goofy for them to be left as is, and I intend on running intake ducting down to the passenger side one eventually. Had a 'close enough' stab at filing them down, which came out looking like this:



Still quite a bit of a gap between the inside of the cap (even when solidly held in place) and the cap, so I noted that i'd need to get some filler in to let the caps match the lines of the bumper. Thats alright, not as aggravating as the thermostat, anyway. Went to a stag party, lost Sunday to a raging headache and couldn't attempt anything then.

On Monday evening, I had the assistance of a gentleman from work with time on his hands, tools in his car, and hatred for the skin on his knuckles.


Battles were had, alternator came out, thermostat came off, revealing a bunch of crud in the coolant. Not ideal, so we flushed that like a post-stag night poo.


New thermostat went on. Old one was completely ****ed. Witchcraft occurred. Temperature stays constant as intended. Butt dyno is impressed. Car will move directly sideways when pushed hard in slippery conditions, which makes me wonder how much power was missing due to shovelling petrol through the exhaust. Combination of new plugs (see a few pages ago) and this make it feel like a vastly different car to initially purchased one.


Fast forward to today.

I'm currently in posession of a 1996 Fiat Grande Punto (to sell for the father-in-law while he's overseas). I give it credit for some small things, like the fact that it is more comfortable than my car over bumps etc, and has a far better heater/AC. Thats where it ends. The gearbox is a pile of aids. It is 1500kg pulled by an asthmatic, fascist 1.4L. This has made me appreciate my car far, far more (going from that to my car almost makes me think that I own something fast!), and encouraged me to get out and get some stuff done.

I had borrowed some filler from another fine gentleman from work, and bukakked the front caps with it, filing it down between layers to ensure i was actually achieving what I had wanted to. Currently a little messy, but more or less follows the lines of the front bumper - tomorrow's (maybe) job will filling it out and hitting it with some primer.


I had to take a mate over to Repco to pick up some battery terminals, and while there I figured i'd pick up some cutting compound - wound up picking up a box of Meguiar's stuff, incl. fresh microfibre, applicator pads, a clay bar etc, refilled my stocks of wax. Special plice indeed. Herein lay my plan for getting the rear caps on without further ado - 16 years of harsh treatment had made my paint a little 'creamy' rather than the slightly brighter white that it should have been. I cut the **** out of it, and took a couple of pictures after waxing it. Again, the camera has downplayed the difference, but while it isn't eye-piercingly white, it is certainly closer than it was. Close enough for me to be happy with putting the caps on as they are.


I also spoken to (and thrown money at) Nick Chiew from North Shore Toyota, who gave me special plice on a black TRD duracon buttplug gearknob, as the faux carbon fibre one currently there has deserved death for ages, i've just procrastinated replacing it.


This post has been edited by Anoroc: Sep 9, 2012 - 1:54 AM