Yeah but at least you don't have almost 2 feet of dash in front of you and almost 6 feet of hood and bumper you can't see. If I could see the top of the headlights on the Celica that'd be enough, which from looking at pictures of the car the ways the top of the lights are bulbous I figured that was the reasoning.

Replaced both front brake calipers on the ES330 last night, as well as new rotors and pads. The bottom slide on BOTH front calipers were COMPLETELY seized up. The boots were torn. I just decided to spend $60 each and get brand new calipers and brackets. Must have had some air in the system before, because the brakes are NICE now.

Going is nice, stopping is even better.

Apparently can swap in a Honda K20/24 into the Miata: https://kmiata.com/ Plus it retains the Miata transmission and differential, so that makes things easier. Still quite expensive though...

Seized slides will feel like a low soft pedal kind of like air in the system, don't forget to check the rears, probably in **** shape too!

That's exactly what it was. I actually replaced both rear calipers about two years ago, because that slide was seized up too.

I swear, I have the worst luck with calipers. I've replaced so many over the small amount of years that I've owned vehicles.

Seems like you just can't get a break...

Anyhow before getting out of the car I thought to take some POV pics to show what I (can't) see, center of the camera lens is on the bridge of my nose so it's fairly accurate representation. Also I need to get around to polishing out all those scratches, when I waxed it it just filled in all the scratches and made them really noticeable.



Then when you have all of this in front of you to account for that you can't see:


This is why I'll never feel comfortable driving it. At least it looks good, I guess that counts for something.

2 years, time to take the rears apart and clean/grease the slides and where the pads ride.

Apparently cerium oxide made into a paste is the best thing to use for polishing scratches out of glass. Hmmm...

Correct,you need a nice stiff pad on a good backer and you have to keep moving or else you'll make waves in the glass. A good oscillating polisher is needed and follow the internet directions closely.

I was thinking about trying by hand first since they're really fine scratches. Though I think there's a random orbital polisher around here somewhere, would just have to get a pad for it.

You want me to make a thread on newcelica forums to see if there's anyone near you that'll let you take a test drive with them?

I suppose it couldn't hurt to try, I've been meaning to start looking around dealer lots for a 7th gen and a NB2. Since it's pretty much narrowed down to those two vehicles. 240SX and 300ZX get crap economy for their straight line performance, the Celica GT-S is quicker than both and gets way better mileage. Then for the cost of a clean Integra GS-R or RSX Type-S you can get a clean Celica GT-S and have lots of mod money leftover, and you don't have to worry about the Celica getting stolen. Plus I have this thing against interference engines so those are marks against the Nissans and Hondas anyway. Then the Miata is RWD, reliable, fairly efficient, and has lots of potential though I'd imagine the NB2 with its 142 hp VVT 1.8 will be peppy enough since even the 116 hp NA6 I had felt lively enough. So yeah, that's pretty much narrows it down to the Celica and Miata going off specs.

The alternative being to kidnap a fabricator and lock him in the garage until he fabricates a Corvette IRS onto the Firebird, that and some kind of fender arches so I can see where I'm going. Either way.

I think the 2ZZ is interference, but the timing chain lasts a long time. Only time you really gotta worry is if you miss a gear and float valves.

Yeah timing chains are the best thing ever. Normally that'd make the 240SX ok, but they're notorious for breaking the chain guides. Timing belt on the Miata wouldn't be so bad, throw on a Kevlar belt and call it real for some time since they're non-interference.

Timing chains are great except for when they're not.

I think that philosophy applies to most everything though. Like I imagine rotaries are great until they lose compression.

No, some things are just awful from the start.

Haha! Terrible design. They just aren't practical...

I got 39 MPG in my 2002 GT-S and a buddy of mine got 41. Lots of coasting and never going above 2,000 RPM's from 1st through 5th. Haha!

True, things like the Pinto.

Yeah I came across one thread dedicated to efficiency and driving sensibly mid-upper 30's were the norm, so that's nice. I'd imagine shifting out at 2K would be painfully slow though, I think it said something about shifting around 3,100 and maybe that wouldn't be so terrible. I generally shifted around 3,000-3,500 in my Celica and that seemed ok, so I'd imagine the GT-S would be bearable at 3,100. The Miata on the other hand had to be taken up to 4,500, though I imagine a NB2 with the 1.8 and VVT would be a lot less high strung.

Box, whats something city-like near you I can call out in a post to see if anyone has a 7G for you to take for a spin and what are you willing to pay for a test drive? Like take them out to dinner/lunch or give them a little money or something?

I guess the biggest city somewhat nearby would be Birmingham, Cullman is probably the next biggest that's nearby. I'm halfway between them in the Warrior area. I guess around $10-20 depending if I'm coming to them or if they're going out of their way.

Was thinking about what you said the other day on fender mirrors or markers. The big problem is finding mirrors that flow aesthetically, then would just need to make delete panels for the ones on the doors and figure out how to mount them to the fenders and wire them up to the switch inside the car. A lot of effort, but so far it's the only thing that's a somewhat feasible solution. That or I had the idea to use some of those fake shark antennas on the fenders as markers, but that probably wouldn't look so great. Ones like this:


As far as mirrors go maybe some off a C5 Vette:

Or maybe some off a NB Miata:

Since they're mounted on the door it'd be nothing to mount them on a fender, and they're round and swoopy which would flow better than any of the vintage style fender mirrors. Only concern there would be not only drilling out holes into the fenders, but being they're a plastic composite would need some kind of reinforcing plate on the backside so wouldn't have to worry about causing cracks or fractures.

I didn't realize you had a Saturn.

http://www.newcelica.org/forums/showthread...618#post6272618 that good?

Everything but the hood, headlight doors, and quarters are composite on fourth gens. Then the SLP models had a composite hood as well.


Looks good to me, thanks.

Whilst waiting for Hurricane Harvey to make landfall, figured I'd do something productive with my time.

Your photobucket is RIP now

Now we'll never know what it was he did before the hurricane hit.

Pho real? shows up on my end. hold on...

Fixt. switched over to Flickr b'cuz Photobucket is da suck.

Borg Warner, those people made my transmission.

Should pick up some nice power going from the factory getup to that, totally because of that carbon fiber pipe.

Saw Terminator 2 in theater, worth it. 3D wasn't overly played up but wish it was the original 2D cut, for a 2 hour movie it flew right by.

They don't offer 2D and 3D screenings anymore? Of course it's been awhile since I've gone, but I know they used to do that since the 3D makes it unwatchable to some.

This was a short release of 3D only and only at AMC theaters, just the normal polarized 3D and it wasn't over done at all. It mostly just added a little depth to the scenes to push the out of focus deeper into the background, only once or twice did they do the 'pop out of the screen' gimmick. It was more like the movie screen became a big window, if that makes sense. For me, this being a movie of my childhood, it was worth it.

watching my town get flooded while trying to stream anime. lol

Haha whatever works.

Seems legit.

Ahh ok, I think I get what you're saying there. The last time I tried watching a 3D movie it made me sick to my stomach, but that was a few years ago so maybe something more smoothly implemented I'd be ok with.

I'd post up pictures, but 6GC doesn't allow image tagging from Facebook. :\

It's supposed to continue raining off and on until Wednesday and the whole city is shut down til Saturday at the earliest. Most of the residents still have power and clean running water, but a good majority have been flooded out and are evacuating. National Guard has been dispatched to aid in evacuations and rescue. Buffalo Bayou (our major bayou) is overfilled and has engulfed the major highways above it. So far, we've accumulated some 49 trillion gallons of water and it's not over yet.

West side of Houston has seen at least 3 reported tornados thus far while Rockport and Corpus Christi (About 200 miles south of us) have been hit the worst by Harvey.

This is the 45 and I-10 Intersection just north of downtown Houston.


And here's Buffalo Bayou.


The outskirts of town isn't so bad, but there are a lot of places of low spots that are retaining a good amount of water making them impassable.

Assuming it stops raining by Wednesday, a majority of the water will recede or evaporate by Friday.

Jeez, hopefully everyone is ok.

Looks moist. I got rained on some today, but nothing like that. I met a friend and we explored an abandoned women's prison nearby. It was cool.

Here's someone's California just chillin'. Probably was looking to get rid of it and found his reason.



Another shot of the Buffalo Bayou

Insurance pay off!!!

So my brother says I should get a Genesis Coupe, I wonder why...

So he's got spare parts?

Get a brz

Everything has been replaced with aftermarket parts, doesn't need any stock spare parts.


Actually of all the newer cars that one captures my interest the most. One setup for handling and grip would be a lot of fun I think.

They're opening up 2 reservoirs tonight around 2AM CST: one in the heights just north of downtown and one out west by Katy to relieve pressure along the dams. Expecting to raise water levels to about 8 feet by morning. :\

In the mean time, Harvey is expecting to head back out into the gulf by morning and then swing back over to Houston by the afternoon due to a pressure system in the area. Will be sitting over us for about 2 days before we see some relief.

We gon' git rekt. :\

Bear Branch Dam up in Montgomery county just broke. :\

That's not good, hope everyone stays safe.