As a frame of reference, here is my previous design, or the curvy Audi style approach:



I personally really like the way the design accentuated the curves of the FD. I don't remember the exact saying for it, but the designer of the FD said something about every surface on the FD should allow water to run over it without hitting a crease. I think the design of what I had did that. The circle approach does too just not as elegantly as the Audi curve style.

In any event, we shall see what I can come up with.

 

^ Sorry for the confusion. The conversation was about the front end, not the back. Going to keep what I have for the rear:



The issue is what to do with the front turn signals? If I could make brighter what is in two posts ago (the Audi style LED) I'd do that in a heartbeat. It is proving to be difficult though which is why I am playing around with the COB LED circles in the front.

To many LED circles on the car or a nice complement? I don't know.

 

^ I think the current law on taillights is that they can be either amber or red. And from what I can find, the fronts have to be amber.

Looks like they wanted to change the rears to amber in 2009 but I don't know if that was enacted. Studies showed an improvement of over 30% by using amber instead of red as it as differentiated from the rest of the red on the rears.

 

So, Kilo is working away at wiring up the Haltech ECU. It's been a bit of a job but should be any day now for the engine fire up. I'd love to have the car back in time for DGRR, but that is not likely so I am trying not to worry about it. Better to have everything buttoned up so the car stops living at his shop.

Everything is else is back together, including all of the cooling parts that were ceramic coated with a black satin thermal dispersant and the turbo manifold that was coated with a ceramic barrier. Pics of this. The cooling stuff looks pretty grey to me but I have been told they are black when you see them in person.

Turbo Manifold




Random Cooling Parts


Looking forward to the engine startup and getting back on the road and the track soon.

 

In the meantime, I have been working on finishing up my latest (and hopefully last) LED retrofit to my 99 spec turn signals.

If you have followed this thread, you'll know I have gone from standard 99 spec units, to then using cheesy LED strips under the units, to then retrofitting LEDS into a set of turn signals purchased from RX7boutique.com, and then, to another retrofit using curved side emitting fiber optics rod for a glowing Audi style look (see a few posts above for this look). Loved the way that turned out, but was always bugged by the less than desirable light output of the fiber rod and no matter what I tried, I couldn't solve the problem.

I mentioned a few months ago I had purchased some tester COB (chip on board) angel eye rings from the retrofit source.com and I was super impressed with the quality and with the light output. It's darn close to DRL (daytime running light) output and the rings have a nice uniform glow to them.

So, I used them as my inspiration for my new look. The before a pic of the turn signals from RX7boutique.com:



They offer a number of different styles but I liked the thick black lip on this style.

After the retrofit, ended up with this:



When you turn the car on, then the LED rings activate as well as an outer "DRL" bulb:





When you activate the turn signal, then the white DRL bulb goes out and the amber blinks:



Finally, when you turn on the headlights, then the white outer DRL bulb goes out (too bright at night) and the inner parking light comes on:



I will probably also wire up each side so that when you use the turn signal, the LED rings on that side deactivate, much like the Audi's do now. Still contemplating that so we shall see.

 

To continue, took a crap load of shaving and shaping to make happen what looks like a simple retrofit:





Then bondo and a number of layers of spot clay and sanding:



Then a few coats of primer/filler followed by more sanding and then a number of coats of flat black paint:



With the LED rings fitted and my new touch of red inner rings. Matches the red stripe on my rims:

 

Sick treatment on the lights.

 

^^Looking good David. Hopefully soon!!

 

love the lights...hope you get it back soon. let us know how that thermal coating works out.

 

^ Thanks Tim and Simon. Note the red stripe on the lights, an inspiration from Simon's CYM FD.

Should be any day now and I am thinking of going down to Kilo's right after school ends, which is the first week of May. I am interested in the thermal dispersant and I've talked with a number of guys that have used it and have claimed really good results. The literature says I will get about a 15% increase in cooling so we shall see.

How's the REPU running?

 

David I think the red rings in your lights are the perfect complement to the wheels. I can see you put a ton of work in to make them fit. I wish my head lights would have turned out better. When you've done your own fab work (like we both did) that road could either be bumpy or smooth. Great job!

 

Those front Turn lights honestly they look damn good . go great with the tail lights . I am very impressed man .

I was about to google them until i saw the whole ( home made part ) haha

 

T-von, thanks for the compliments. The end result doesn't look like a lot of work and I guess that is a good thing, but it took me several weeks of on and off time to get it all right, particularly the new angles on the COB LED ring housings. I wanted to go with a headlight projector look, meaning the COB rings needed to be aligned vertically versus at a pretty big angle if I had just tried to use the original housings as-is. That then forced me to hand reshape the insides of the signal housings to get them back to stock looking. A large amount of work for something that turned out looking pretty stock.

Tem120, thanks also. Not available online, sorry. I'd have to charge like $100,000 for each set, based on how much work is involved and how slow I am. Did think about having the housings laser scanned and then 3D printed. If that is possible, then I'd consider doing this on the side as it would save a bunch of effort.

 

thought for sure I would check your thread it would be full of vids of you driving the FD....when do you expect it back?

Got the REPU re-tuned by Chrispeed (local Haltech guru) and sorted out some fuel issues the truck was having. Took it out for a nice 160 mile cruise on Sunday.....besides the hot weather and me trying to keep up with FAST FD's everything was good.....hope you get your FD back soon

 

^Glad to hear that Simon. Love the truck and need a ride in it. I used to follow Chrispeed and his posts back in the day so glad he's doing well.

My car is very close to being done. The latest setback was the Haltech wiring harness. Kilo and Haltech USA deemed it unusable as it was too hacked up so I sent Kilo a new one, which he got on Thursday. With the new one, Kilo can start fresh and not worry about missing something.

So, now waiting on the wiring and the startup. In the meantime, I am playing around with the rear center brake light, trying to add some LED brightness to the section. Pulled it apart and had ordered some COB style red led strips which were described as having 650 lumens, but in reality, I'd be surprised if they had 65 lumens total. So, too dim to use and it's back to the drawing board.

 

I love when my pictures pop up!

 

better of with a new wiring harness.....electrical issues are the last thing you want to try and trace down once the car is up and running. glad to hear that its almost done. as i'm sure you will, let us know when you get it back.

 

One of my favorite pics of the car.

Yep, too much invested in it to have a wring problem. The level of hacked wiring on the car is pretty high, from the ECU harness to the front engine harness. Kilo's has a good challenge on his hands.

I'll most definitely put up a "celebration" post when its done. Wanna come up to St. Cloud for the tuning session?

 

yeah....that would be cool...send me a text when you make plans to come down....if its on the weekend, im down

 

Can I come by and dyno higher? kinda let the air out of your balloon?

 

^ Sure, that would be cool. As long as we can have the races we discussed, the ones that include road courses.

 

Well, the car lives. Kilo fired it up last night for the first time in about two years.

Will post up pics and a video soon. Kilo has some more wiring to do to get everything in order but it's really close now.

More to come...

 

Has it really been down for 2 years? I forget that the fd testing event was 2 years ago. I'm sure your very anxious to get it back.

 

Yes that was 2 years ago. Crazy right? Really looking forward to getting it back and having some fun in the mountains and then the track. Life has been very busy over the last two years so I haven't had time to obsess over the car. Kind of when it gets done it gets done kind of thing.

Kilo has had his hands full as the car had a number of issues to resolve in addition to the upgrades. It will be done right though and should be a lot better than when you last saw it.

When done we will all get together again.

 

sweet!!!