My take on the perfect road going FD
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 2,211
Likes: 282
From: Somerset, England
Haven't updated this for a while...
Car is now up on stands with subframes & all suspension off. Interior is stripped for paint. The underside & front chassis legs are stripped back to bare metal & being painted in POR15. All bushes are in the process of being replaced
. All looms have been re-made as the wiring is under speced and near 20 years old.
Got a good used rear iron. Welded up the TB coolant passage & smoothed off the area. Shouldn't notice it when painted.
Built a good set of twins out of two fairly knackered sets. Wastegate port:
Decided to go with the whale tail spoiler. Just incase I change my mind...I've modified the mounts of the standard spoiler so they use the same hatch holes
:
Greddy SMIC, more polishing required. I've made an ally duct for the intercooler, pics to follow:
How sexy are these OMP lines?!
Car is now up on stands with subframes & all suspension off. Interior is stripped for paint. The underside & front chassis legs are stripped back to bare metal & being painted in POR15. All bushes are in the process of being replaced
. All looms have been re-made as the wiring is under speced and near 20 years old.Got a good used rear iron. Welded up the TB coolant passage & smoothed off the area. Shouldn't notice it when painted
.Built a good set of twins out of two fairly knackered sets. Wastegate port:
Decided to go with the whale tail spoiler. Just incase I change my mind...I've modified the mounts of the standard spoiler so they use the same hatch holes
:Greddy SMIC, more polishing required
. I've made an ally duct for the intercooler, pics to follow:How sexy are these OMP lines?!
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 2,211
Likes: 282
From: Somerset, England
Ohlins 32 adjustable coilovers with Nitron springs. 450 front & 400 rear. They've been recently serviced, but I think I'll disassemble them to give them a paint:
FEED midpipe, also have a FEED downpipe which I haven't taken a picture of yet. Making the whole exhaust system 80mm
Footrest from a spirit R:
I don't smoke..So I've picked up one of these to replace the ashtray:
There is more, but most of it is in boxes. I'm about 2/3rds of the way there on collecting parts, the assembly should begin soon!
FEED midpipe, also have a FEED downpipe which I haven't taken a picture of yet. Making the whole exhaust system 80mm
Footrest from a spirit R:
I don't smoke..So I've picked up one of these to replace the ashtray:
There is more, but most of it is in boxes. I'm about 2/3rds of the way there on collecting parts, the assembly should begin soon!
Senior Member
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 255
Likes: 1
From: England
Hey, I was wondering what your new car was like! I noticed you were back about on FDUK more (thanks for saying kind things about my recent photo thread, lol) but hadn't seen a build thread! And here it is. Shame really, if there were more like this back home from people showing how hard work, good attitude and a bit of vision can build up a quality FD then maybe the UK scene would be less of a descent into catty in-fighting and various cliques blowing smoke up each others' ***** 
I remember we had a difference in opinion about whether all the FDs in the UK were crap or not way back when you had your last one. Dunno if you've changed your mind much on that score but I'm glad to see you back in harness anyway.
Couple of questions; how's the rust underneath the car? I've never seen a UK one yet that's actually been used that hasn't gone pretty rotten, hope you got the last good one. Where did you get the OMP lines from, out of interest? I got mine from Colum when he did a one-off group buy but I need to find somewhere good to get some bespoke brake lines made up, so I'm looking for recommendations.
Anyway, top work, nice car. Those Kaki tinted tips go for big money, I think Steve (OD404) paid several hundred quid for his hahaha, but it's your car, you do what you want lol. That self-levelling headlight stuff is bonkers
The humongous rear washer bottles usually go for big money too, the old big-power boys like to use them as WI tanks
I remember we had a difference in opinion about whether all the FDs in the UK were crap or not way back when you had your last one. Dunno if you've changed your mind much on that score but I'm glad to see you back in harness anyway.
Couple of questions; how's the rust underneath the car? I've never seen a UK one yet that's actually been used that hasn't gone pretty rotten, hope you got the last good one. Where did you get the OMP lines from, out of interest? I got mine from Colum when he did a one-off group buy but I need to find somewhere good to get some bespoke brake lines made up, so I'm looking for recommendations.
Anyway, top work, nice car. Those Kaki tinted tips go for big money, I think Steve (OD404) paid several hundred quid for his hahaha, but it's your car, you do what you want lol. That self-levelling headlight stuff is bonkers
The humongous rear washer bottles usually go for big money too, the old big-power boys like to use them as WI tanks
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 2,211
Likes: 282
From: Somerset, England
Hey, I was wondering what your new car was like! I noticed you were back about on FDUK more (thanks for saying kind things about my recent photo thread, lol) but hadn't seen a build thread! And here it is. Shame really, if there were more like this back home from people showing how hard work, good attitude and a bit of vision can build up a quality FD then maybe the UK scene would be less of a descent into catty in-fighting and various cliques blowing smoke up each others' *****
I remember we had a difference in opinion about whether all the FDs in the UK were crap or not way back when you had your last one. Dunno if you've changed your mind much on that score but I'm glad to see you back in harness anyway.
Couple of questions; how's the rust underneath the car? I've never seen a UK one yet that's actually been used that hasn't gone pretty rotten, hope you got the last good one. Where did you get the OMP lines from, out of interest? I got mine from Colum when he did a one-off group buy but I need to find somewhere good to get some bespoke brake lines made up, so I'm looking for recommendations.
Anyway, top work, nice car. Those Kaki tinted tips go for big money, I think Steve (OD404) paid several hundred quid for his hahaha, but it's your car, you do what you want lol. That self-levelling headlight stuff is bonkers The humongous rear washer bottles usually go for big money too, the old big-power boys like to use them as WI tanks
I remember we had a difference in opinion about whether all the FDs in the UK were crap or not way back when you had your last one. Dunno if you've changed your mind much on that score but I'm glad to see you back in harness anyway.
Couple of questions; how's the rust underneath the car? I've never seen a UK one yet that's actually been used that hasn't gone pretty rotten, hope you got the last good one. Where did you get the OMP lines from, out of interest? I got mine from Colum when he did a one-off group buy but I need to find somewhere good to get some bespoke brake lines made up, so I'm looking for recommendations.
Anyway, top work, nice car. Those Kaki tinted tips go for big money, I think Steve (OD404) paid several hundred quid for his hahaha, but it's your car, you do what you want lol. That self-levelling headlight stuff is bonkers
The humongous rear washer bottles usually go for big money too, the old big-power boys like to use them as WI tanks. She'll be running in time for next summer & I'll be attending the meets, so no doubt I'll see you there 
.The underside of the body was more or less fine to be honest. The subframes, anti-roll bar mounts etc did have surface rust (Considerably more so than the typical JDM rex), but hadn't eaten into the steel as yet. Nothing a little POR15 cant fix up
.I got the OMP lines from RotaryEvolution on here, not sure if he makes brake lines or not
.If I'm honest...I'm not set on the kakimoto...If a nice dual tip comes up I'd be very tempted....
Cheers.
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 2,211
Likes: 282
From: Somerset, England
Thanks all
For removing brackets etc I use an angle grinder with a grinding disk and tidy up with a frap disk. In tight areas where the grinder cannot fit I use a Dremel.
For general polishing of aluminium parts. Use a flap wheel to remove ALL imperfections/marks from the surfaces. Anywhere the flap wheel cannot get, you're going to have to do by hand with sand paper (Longest part of the process, don't stop until all flaws are gone).
Nest stage is polishing wheels.
I use three types of polishing wheels with polishing compound, working from hardest to softest. Each time removing all scratches created by the previous process.
Its a lot of work. But I like shiny things
. I'll post up some of my other ally parts later. My water pump & t-stat housing have been modified a lot . Any brackets that are not in use look untidy imo, so they're all getting removed/smoothed. That intercooler has a few hours of work left in it. The UIM took me around 30 hours of solid polishing.
Doing it yourself is the best way imo!
For general polishing of aluminium parts. Use a flap wheel to remove ALL imperfections/marks from the surfaces. Anywhere the flap wheel cannot get, you're going to have to do by hand with sand paper (Longest part of the process, don't stop until all flaws are gone).
Nest stage is polishing wheels.
I use three types of polishing wheels with polishing compound, working from hardest to softest. Each time removing all scratches created by the previous process.
Its a lot of work. But I like shiny things
. I'll post up some of my other ally parts later. My water pump & t-stat housing have been modified a lot . Any brackets that are not in use look untidy imo, so they're all getting removed/smoothed. That intercooler has a few hours of work left in it. The UIM took me around 30 hours of solid polishing.
Junior Member
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 5
Likes: 0
From: Portugal
Thanks all
For removing brackets etc I use an angle grinder with a grinding disk and tidy up with a frap disk. In tight areas where the grinder cannot fit I use a Dremel.
For general polishing of aluminium parts. Use a flap wheel to remove ALL imperfections/marks from the surfaces. Anywhere the flap wheel cannot get, you're going to have to do by hand with sand paper (Longest part of the process, don't stop until all flaws are gone).
Nest stage is polishing wheels.
I use three types of polishing wheels with polishing compound, working from hardest to softest. Each time removing all scratches created by the previous process.
Its a lot of work. But I like shiny things. I'll post up some of my other ally parts later. My water pump & t-stat housing have been modified a lot . Any brackets that are not in use look untidy imo, so they're all getting removed/smoothed. That intercooler has a few hours of work left in it. The UIM took me around 30 hours of solid polishing.
Doing it yourself is the best way imo!
For removing brackets etc I use an angle grinder with a grinding disk and tidy up with a frap disk. In tight areas where the grinder cannot fit I use a Dremel.
For general polishing of aluminium parts. Use a flap wheel to remove ALL imperfections/marks from the surfaces. Anywhere the flap wheel cannot get, you're going to have to do by hand with sand paper (Longest part of the process, don't stop until all flaws are gone).
Nest stage is polishing wheels.
I use three types of polishing wheels with polishing compound, working from hardest to softest. Each time removing all scratches created by the previous process.
Its a lot of work. But I like shiny things
. I'll post up some of my other ally parts later. My water pump & t-stat housing have been modified a lot . Any brackets that are not in use look untidy imo, so they're all getting removed/smoothed. That intercooler has a few hours of work left in it. The UIM took me around 30 hours of solid polishing.Doing it yourself is the best way imo!
Keep on going with the good work!
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 2,211
Likes: 282
From: Somerset, England
Cheers guys
Picked up a cheap Greedy oil catch can today, most likely due to the colour...Luckily its only anodized
Started with:
Stripping:
After polishing, needs a bit more to finish off, I'll do that at a later date:
Picked up a cheap Greedy oil catch can today, most likely due to the colour...Luckily its only anodized
Started with:
Stripping:
After polishing, needs a bit more to finish off, I'll do that at a later date:
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 2,211
Likes: 282
From: Somerset, England
Been kinda slack updating this thread, but have still been busy with the FD most weekends
New wheels:
Racing Beat LS-R's
Anyone know which clutch this is? Looks like a ACT I think? It will be going back in as the clutch disk is like new:
Sunroof had a rusty front lip:
Sanded back, filled and painted to protect it until the cars goes in for its respray:
Started overhauling the entire rear end....Now it gets messy..
Fixing up rear calipers as they were looking pretty sorry for themselves:
New wheels:
Racing Beat LS-R's
Anyone know which clutch this is? Looks like a ACT I think? It will be going back in as the clutch disk is like new:
Sunroof had a rusty front lip:
Sanded back, filled and painted to protect it until the cars goes in for its respray:
Started overhauling the entire rear end....Now it gets messy..
Fixing up rear calipers as they were looking pretty sorry for themselves: