looking good

 

Thinking I might as well put in a new thermostat while everything will be apart. No clue what shape the current 'stat is in.

 

hahahahha so THATS what they mean by an exhaust hanger!! ahah jk, looks good man keep it up

 

A pretty productive day while I had time to work on the car today.

Things finished up today:
Waterpump & waterpump housing, new Thermostat & thermostat housing, FC thermoswitch, new radiator hoses, greddy profec solenoid installed, pineapple racing fd idler pulley, altenator reinstalled, belts reinstalled, battery tray & battery reinstalled.

list for tomorrow:
intercooler, intake, mount greddy profec controller box, add coolant & oil, & start the damn thing.

 

picture update:
Profec mounted top left. (connected via version #2). Mishimoto radiator hoses. Efini y-pipe. New hoses for coolant (turbos, block, heater core,CRV, BOV. New hardware for waterpump & thermostat housings.


Pineapple racing idler pulley.

 

Got everything finsihed up (in the engine bay at least). Started it up for a bit to get the coolant burped. Idle was really low (500ish).
I would like to find a way to clean up this engine bay a bit without having to scrub everything by hand. ideas?

 

It's alive. Got the boost controller, radio, & shifter installed.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKjEHQ8iVls

 

wow those interior panels are pretty chewed up. mine are too...gonna sand primer and paint them this week myself.

how did you install that steering wheel? will the airbag work?

 

For the steering wheel I drilled 2 holes into the back of it for the turn signal cancels to function. Then I swapped the electrical connectors for the horn & airbag. There's a few how-to threads on here to follow. I hope the airbag works, but I don't want to wreck it to find out for sure.

I'm going to fix up the plastic panels, I'm just focusing on function of the car at the moment.

 

depending on how bad it is - tire foam cleaner. spray, wait a few minutes then wipe off.

 

I got my new speakers installed this afternoon. VERY happy with everything. I can't really compare the sound, because my driver speaker didn't even work beforehand, and the passenger side worked sometimes.

Here's what the factory stuff looked like:


Gee I wonder why the driver side didn't work anymore:


Comparing the old vs new:


New installed:


I haven't put the door covers back on yet because I am repainting the plastics on them, and also going to see how I can repair the passenger handle.

I also pulled off the vent intake cover to clean out everything because whenever I turn on the AC it smells like ***. Ended up pulling 2 vacuum canisters of leaves/dirt/etc. Also repainted it since it was faded and looked shitty. I didn't take a good before picture but you can see from a previous engine bay shot what it looked like:


Repainted:


Now need to figure out how to take off windshield wipers and paint them.

 

Looks good, to take off the wipers, all you have to do is pop off that circle cover and you can unbolt it.

 

It's nice to know that other people keep what my wife affectionately calls "parts piles" indoors. Now if I could just convince her that it is normal...

 

What paint did you use for the windshield trim?

 

I cleaned up mine recently using Mothers Back-to-Black.
http://www.mothers.com/02_products/06108.html

I thought I might need to paint it, but I tried the Back-to-Black stuff and it worked REALLY well.

If it dries out again I think I'll paint mine with some of that Krylon "Fusion" paint which is more of a plastic-bonding type paint. Works really well in my experience.

 

She wasn't too happy about it even though I kept everything in the guest bedroom over the winter. blah blah blah what if something dirty stains the carpet blah blah blah.

I tried back to black in the summer when I got the car, it lasted maybe a month. I painted it this time using Krylon Fusion Satin Black. Scrubbed it the night before with "purple power" rinsed it off, let it dry overnight. Then I sprayed 4 coats onto the plastic, and am pretty pleased with the results.


Last night I tried to clean the plastics from the doors to repaint them. The factory finish on the plastics is disgusting. Soaked them in goo gone and the finish still won't come off even when scrubbing with a scotch pad. Need to find something stronger.

 

When I cleaned off my 93 panels I used denatured alcohol and elbow grease, got it off pretty good.

Everything else looks great, I love what your doing with your 7.

 

nice work

 

http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/flo/flo...source=froogle

You can pick it up at just about any hobby store. I purchased mine from the hobby store off Metcalf.

 

HobbyHeaven? I called them about a month ago (I called about 10 stores: Michaels, Hobby Lobby, HobbyHeaven, HobbyTown, etc around town to find the ELO) and they said they don't have it anymore. I was trying to find it locally to avoid $10 shipping for a $7 bottle of cleaner. I'll just drop by on my lunch break today and look. A few of the places told me to use oven cleaner instead, but it might eat the plastic if you let it set too long.

When I installed the passenger speaker I found that the door handle had the typical crack. So I'm going to try and repair/reinforce that as well.

 

+

=

 

You didn't use any cleaning agent, just steel wool? I thought about using SOS pads since it has soap already added, but didn't know how bad it would scuff the plastic.

This is what I've been trying:

 

ELO will lift the paint off without much effort and not damage the plastics. It's well worth getting some and keeping it around. If the hobby shop doesn't carry it any longer, see if they have something comparable. Models will have the same requirements (i.e. remove paint but keep plastic safe).

 

weight on HKS carbon Ti

dam that came out really good.

 

Rick what paint did you use for that? I was going to refinish my ashtray like people used to do back in the day, but can't remember what paint we used.