244 replies to this topic

[CHILL Gone DUTCH]

Does this help

[Steve.i.am]

Thanks Chris. You've obviously got more bump travel there. Out of interest, do you have the helper springs on those shocks? If you have I presume they're obscured by the wishbone in that pic?

[CHILL Gone DUTCH]

i dont have helpers on the front

[Steve.i.am]

Hmm, shocks.

 

The Gaz shocks I put on the car have 425F/475R lb springs and whilst fine on the track, I have to admit they're too hard for me on the road. Its compromising the car too much. Gaz have recommended 325F/400R lb springs as more of a decent compromise. Others good folk on here have reported good experience with 275F/350R but Gaz advised they hardly ever provide those for VX and likely be a bit too soft so I'm going for the middle ground. £80 plus VAT for the new springs, which I've just ordered.

 

Once they're on I'll address the front top mounts, then likely get all the GEO re-done.

 

In the meantime I've started to tidy the interior of the doors. I swapped the Red seats for black ones, and so have removed the red leather from the door shoulders and recovered in black - using the leather sourced from top gaiters off ebay. Results not too bad..

 

 

Next door cards removed to be painted black. The door cards are held on with fir tree fixings and can be prised off carefully with the main door trim in place - remove window winders then get a long pry or screwdriver behind and carefully prise off..

 

 

The triangle parts are just fixed with 2 plastic screw rivets and easily removed. Tatty bits ready for repaint..

 

 

When I repainted my dash plates, I stripped off all the silver coating. It was a PITA, so I'm trying the lazy approach for these.. Clean up, de-grease and apply pasticoat primer straight on, then paint over with normal rattle can. If it all bubbles up I'll have to strip it all off and do it again. We'll see.

 

[Ormes]

Nice retrim of the shoulers ...and plasticote is good stuff... would probably get a decent finish using plasticote primer and enamel paint... and they do a laquer as well

[Steve.i.am]

Well so far applying the plasticote primer onto the silver door cards, then painting over the top, seems to be OK. Got all the door trim back on this morning - used heavy duty velcro with extra glue instead of those fir tree fixings. Loads tidier than it was:

 

 

Also replaced all the suspension springs. Gaz sent me 325F/400R springs, but they're a lot longer than the 425F/475R springs that were originally on the shocks. Here's new front, old front, new rear, old rear:

 

 

Had to ditch the helper springs on re-assembly of the shocks due to the spring lengths:

 

 

The shocks are only just long enough to accommodate these springs. I just put the ride height of the car back at what it was previously by just measuring some reference points before/after. The front shocks need the lowering brackets fitted to give me a decent amount of bump travel so I think that'll be a BOT job, then have GEO re-done properly.

 

The ride is certainly more to my liking on the road now. Its still pretty firm but not as harsh.

Edited by Steve.i.am, 22 February 2014 - 04:14 PM.

[Steve.i.am]

Minor update.

 

Been suffering with conjunctivitis for the last week and feeling miserable with flu symptoms included. Felt marginally better today so did a couple of small jobs.

 

The exhaust hanger bracket on the down pipe (post cat) had disintegrated and I had noticed the top tail pipe seemed to be making contact with the mesh above so there was clearly too much movement - so made a replacement bracket. Just a couple of bits of ally with a bolt to locate into the rubber hanger.

 

 

Much less movement now.

 

Had some renovo soft top restorer in my cupboard for 3 months (xmas present) so brushed a coat of it on. The roof was pretty faded and green(!) in many places, and am pretty impressed how well its come up so far. Another coat and then some waterproof treatment should see it sorted for a good while.

 

 

That windscreen surround is looking in need of a tidy.

[Steve.i.am]

Long time no update.

 

Since the last one, from what I can remember the car has had..

 

New steering rack - fitted by BOT

Steering rack riser plates - fitted by BOT - this eliminated almost all of the bump steer the car had before

New water pump

New coolant header tank

Replaced oil cooler

New uprated gear change cables - fitted by BOT

Nitron NTR one way coilovers fitted by BOT and the car re-geo'd by them at that time. This made a huge difference to how it now drives.

Anti-rattle door pins

New set of CL RC5+ pads all round

New brake fluid

Gearbox oil change

The towing eye snapped off so that was drilled out and a new one made by BOT

VXT splitters

Re-painted all the grilles in black last week

Another coat of Renovo restorer on the soft top 2 weeks ago

Oil and filter change 13th March 2015

And today I plastidipped the V black..

 

 

To do this spring..

 

Another brake fluid change before trackway season starts

Rear clam cut-outs (I now have everything I need for that.. dremel bits, mesh, adhesive)

Re-paint the door cards as I scratched them

Might put a VXT spoiler on it

Plastidip the screen surround in black

Fancy a shift light thingy as often hit rev limiter on track

Sort window, dash and rear under tray rattles/resonance

 

I thought the OEM exhaust manifold had cracked recently but having driven it again and taken the heat shield off it seems ok. Not sure what the noise was I thought I heard before but seems ok.

 

Hopefully more frequent updates and pics to follow.

 

Edited by Steve.i.am, 27 March 2015 - 08:01 PM.

[Steve.i.am]

Having suspected the exhaust manifold being cracked, then decided it was ok, realised, in fact, it isn't. The ticking got worse and lasted longer. Another inspection and this time the crack was unmistakable.

 

I have a trackday in 10 days. Should I leave it till after? Decided not to dilly dally about and sort it out. Got on the blower and found somewhere with an OEM manifold in stock that could get to me before the weekend, ordered gaskets from eBay. Finished work a bit early and just decided to get stuck in with rear clam removal. I wasn't going to try p*ssing about trying to replace it with the clam on.

 

Took 2 hours this time..

 

 

And the PITA manifold extracted

 

 

I know the OEM cast manifolds do crack, and I'm putting another one in. However I am hoping that because the precat is removed, it may last. Aftermarket ones are so expensive and I'd probably have to remap the car.

 

Now, what else can I do while this clam is off again..

[siztenboots]

gearbox breather?

 

mount the fuses and relays in the engine bay instead

[Steve.i.am]

G/Box breather already done.

Good idea about relays/fuses. Admittedly PITA feeding them into/out of boot each time clam comes off and easier to access in the bay somewhere I guess.

 

My gear change cables didn't have enough heat shielding on them I think (in fact only 1 cable had any on at all). The gear change got stiff after long motorway runs and on track. So I got some of this http://www.thermalve...ct.asp?P_ID=420 and applied to both cables..

 

 

 

 

[Kieran McC]

I have now mounted my relays near the ECU, They have been put in a electric waterproof plastic box.

[Steve.i.am]

Thanks Kieran - sounds good. Didn't have chance to do that this time.

 

Lets see how long this one lasts..

 

 

Clam is back on, all bolted up. Arch liners back in etc etc. Whats left to finish tomorrow..

 

Boot lid catch

Boot lid

Parcel shelf

Harness bar

Seats, harnesses

Diffuser

Undertray

 

 

[Steve.i.am]

Was out at 6am to get it finished before lunch. Forgot how much work is in these last bits. And I was cleaning everything in sight as it went back together.

 

Problem 1:

Fitted boot lid catch and boot lid. All seemed ok. Except on second closing it wouldn't open again. The pin in the bootlid was fouling on the catch which wasn't quite in the right position. How on earth do you get in there to sort it out I wondered for about 5 stressful minutes. In the end I just tried gently prising it open at various points in the shutline until at the very back it pinged open. Catch needed moving backward. So that crisis was averted.

 

Problem 2:

As I went to put my TAT diffuser back on I noticed scrapes and dents on the top side caused by the exhaust fouling it. So I used about 5mm of washers to space it down hoping that would provide enough clearance Clarence.

 

Problem 3:

I drove off for first initial test with all 20 wheel bolts finger tight. Luckily remembered 0.25 mile away so another potential RAC callout (or worse) avoided.

 

Car was all done by 11am and once all sorted I cannot believe how quiet it now is. That cracked manifold must have been in a bad way for some time - it is LOTS quieter now.

The gear change is much better as well as it stays nice and free after a long drive.

There used to sometimes be a resonance on closed throttle at 2.5k rpm ish which has now gone. And the vibes on car start etc all gone. I think that is down to the diffuser now clearing the zorst.

And another thing - I am sure the car is running cooler now. It has a cool stat in so usually hovers around 86-89, going up when slowing etc. But now it sits at 85 and is much more stable and the temp rise in traffic is much much slower. I was wondering if the very hot exhaust gas spitting out of the cracked manifold was heating that water pipe that runs right behind it (water pump to thermostat)....

 

Anyhows, my car is so much nicer to drive now. All the effort well worth it.

 

Off to Hethel on Saturday.

 

PS: Now have full compliment of harnesses:

 

[Baron Von Scubadaddy]

harnesses look great !

[Steve.i.am]

Life of Junkie update.

 

When the VXT spoilers became available on motorsport auctions for £65 I got one, sprayed it black and had a mate who was braver than me drill holes in the clam to fit it..

 

 

 

Also got on the group buy for EP ally belled front discs. Standard vs new..

 

 

And fitted

 

 

A couple of pics from track days this year

 

 

 

 

 

[Steve.i.am]

The rain in spain fall mainly at brands..

 

[Steve.i.am]

Annual oil & filter change - just for my records. This year have gone for Fuchs Titan SuperSyn 5w-40.

 

 

[Steve.i.am]

No update for over a year. Just for my records, brake fluid change..

 

 

And while I was there I noticed exhaust needed some brackets tightening and new heat wrap on the U-Bend..

 

 

Annual Oil change scheduled next week.

 

Apart from that, Junkie is running great. Have North Weald Activity day this Friday and then Brands GP trackday next Thursday. Will be changing my tyres before Brands from AD08R to R888R. Looking forward to seeing what the R888R are like.

 

 

[Steve.i.am]

Oil change..

 

 

R888Rs now on the car. These were available in the same sizes as the AD08R they replace (235/40, 205/45) and, as with the AD08, no clearance issues with these.