Hi
A mate of mine has an FD, Mazdaspeed wide body kit, single turbo, FMIC, Sard BOV, PFC.....etc.
He doesnt know much about FD's ( whereas I owned and worked on my own for 4 years ) so I've agreed to held him out with the engine bay detailing e.g manifold removal for polishing etc..

The problem is he's gone and gotten other ( younger ) people involved when I'm not around to do things to his car as well and I'm a little worried these guys dont really know what they're doing.
For example - I mentioned to the owner that he should look at relocating some of the fuse boxes and wiring from the bay to clean it up a little and I told him I would spend a couple of days doing it right. But I came back the next day to do it and the fuse boxes had all dissappeared , the owner then told me that one of his mates had come around the night before and convinced him that he could do the job easy and that it was a no-brainer, so the owner let him do it. So i checked his work and he's gone and stuffed the fuse boxes and headlight relays down below in behind the oil coolers ( one of the fuse boxes was even right up against the back of one of the coolers!)
Now correct me if I'm wrong but wont the oil cooler get far to hot and virtually melt the fuse boxes ( not to mention the light relays ) when the car heats up?

I think I already know the answer but I suppose I'm just asking as to wether you agree that these others guys really dont know what they are doing and I should have a serious talk to the owner about keeping them the f**k away form his car and leave it up to me to do it properly as a former FD owner?

 

If your friend is dumb enough to let some racer boys go relocating everything in his engine bay than maybe he deserves it...

Much as it would suck to **** up the car.

 

Behind the oil cooler = not a smart move. If you are relocating it, it should be mounted some place away from heat and water. If you leave the relay box there, all the relays will be corroded in no time.

 

here is a pic of his bay after a little photoshop to show my idea for cleaning up his bay.

the CF peice across the front going over the AST filler neck is photo shopped in but it is being made at the moment.
the Turbo setup and plumbing is being polished. I'm thinking of adding in a catch- can and torque brace .

I will post more pics when finished

 

you need to tell your friend that he needs to let you do the work and not some little boys or else they will destroy his car for sure, make sure he understands that even though it's a mazda, the FD is as picky and prissy as a ferrari 90% of the time...

 

Where abouts in NZ are you? I know of young muppets who think they know everything, most of the time they DO **** it up in turn costing the owner more money than its worth.
I know of an FD that has just been de-loomed and they put all of the fuse boxes and relays up under the dash, looks really good and not much chance of damage.
I am in aucklandand would be keen to have a look if your interested.

 

Ya'll New Zealanders Talk Funnee.

 

What you on a bout Willis?? ha ha :P

 

na I'm in CHCH bro, a bit far to go for a loom job lol

Here is an updated pic of the bay, I spent around 6 hrs last night fitting the newly polished IC, refitted and custom mounted a new alloy radiator and silicon hoses , new Greddy elbow, refitting the UIM ( after getting rid of the secondary butterflys ) and the custom piping for the HKS turbo, I think she's coming together nicely, I've used 75mm piping for the IC and it looks fat as.

 

Whoa, I didnt even realise you were from NZ the first 2 times I read this lol.

 

I just noticed that you cut away the entire wall over the front tire. (Is it that necessary to have huge tires up front?)

Why? Does this car never get driven or something??

(this is an honest question, not a smart *** remark)

 

I have no insight to offer, but I'm interested in knowing where you would relocate the fuse boxes and relays to? How is this done, etc.? Could you provide a small write-up by any chance or direct me to where I could find this info? Thanks!!


P.S. I wish I had someone like you to help out. That would be awesome! You seem like a great friend and your friend doesn't know or appreciate what he's got it seems.

 

hey thats sweet - as

The current owner brought the car from the previouse owner in a real shabby condition , and I mean shabby, for e.g the fuse relay boxes had no original cover and instead had plastic bags tied around them, and the frony inner guards were as rough as f**k as well, holes in them, creases, bent etc.. So I have removed them and I've come up with the idea of covering the exposed part ( in the bay ) with carbon fibre film to clean them up. If that doesnt work I may look at custom polished alloy instead, failing that I may just use alloy mesh ( apparently relieves air pressure under the hood by letting it escape )

 

so I'm building a car for a friend of mine, just put back together and installed polished parts, not quite finished , still have the new 75mm intake pipe and greddy elbow to go on. also torque and rota iol catch can. I'll update when installed

 

Damn man, got enough blue in there? Very nice though....

 

Lookin' good, but that turbine housing is crying out for either cerama-black or a heat blanket

 

Is that a stock AST I see?

 

so we got the turbo beanie on today, insatlled the torque brace now we are cutting and sizing some cardboard stencills which will then be fabricated either out of polished alloy of Carbon fibre, dont know which yet.

Yes that is a stock AST, thinking about that one to.

 

so tonight we wanted to get some clear parklight/ indicator covers done. The Mazdaspeed front nose didnt have them when purchased so to save time and $$ we went custom. Came out pretty good.
Also installed the Rotary shaped catch can, show is only 2 weeks away so we should be sweet

 

very nice. there aren't enough fd's with 15th anni fronts

 

DAMN look at the dress on that engine!!

mucho props!

 

Yeah. Nothing like having the stock AST to compliment it.

Still looks great, though.

 

Everything looks pretty damn shiny

I'd see about ordering the oem mazda fender liners from Ray at Malloy Mazda. Otherwise your engine bay will get filthy very quickly......seen it happen before.

Also, if you need a polished a/c and p/s bracket, lemme know. It's one of the few non-shiny things in the bay at this point

 

yeah cheers, I'm in NZ so it might be a bit of a mission ordering parts in form US at this stage.

As for the inner guards we have a few options, we thought about sticking carbon fibre film over the exposed part, or even polished alloy. Another one is to insert clear perspex into the exposed part so you can see the suspension through the bay , but with the time given I think we'll go with a simpler fix at this stage

 

Ray Crowe ships internationally, email him at hmkparts@aol.com. You might be surprised at his pricing