It's always best to repair from 2 sides, but eventually you'll have some 1 sided repair (if you have to cut an access). Those cracks look narrow enough to repair from the outside, and it's not a boat hull so the strength should be plenty good, if you do. Grind back the rotted glass and knife-edge/slope it. You can start with very thin veil glass, which will span the cracks and give you something strong enough to work over. Then just build it up and sand it to the original shape.

 

i haven't really been doing too much, i found my little wire wheel on my dremel does and ok job taking paint off.

i think the yellow stuff is filler? i think its been fixed before? it would be neat to have a wing that just dropped on, but also fixing the thing is part of the fun. or maybe not fun, sanding sucks, lol

i also got this

for the non CA people, getting the registration sticker, is like getting your 500hp dyno sheet or something.
every time the process goes differently, this time they decided not to use the mail.

 

LOL, I'm waiting on mine.

 

i went 3+ months, and then just decided to go to AAA
usually when you complete the thing they mail it out, but i guess not this time?

 

Don't cut anything out. Grab a grinder or belt sander and create a "V" groove over the crack that is 1.25" wide and just deep enough that you DO NOT go through all the fiberglass. Build up some glass/and resin until the V is filled flush. If your not comfortable doing fiberglass and resin work then opt for some 'kitty hair or tiger hair' fiberglass reinforced filler. This is essentially duraglass resin-based filler with long strand of the glass mat in the filler. You would apply this to the V'd out grove in place of doing traditional glasswork. Not as good of a repair but, this isn't a structural part and only needs to last as long as the rest of the spoiler. Grind it to shape and then finish with bodyfiller/primer/paint.

 

thank you! this is my first attempt at any kind of composite. so i don't know what i'm doing

 

I agree that this looks like a very achievable repair. My fiberglass experience is limited but I find it to be a lot easier to work with than it looks (at least for small areas - I know big areas can suffer from heat related contraction during the curing process).

I think Pontiackids suggestion is a good one. I'd jump straight to the resin and fiber rather than the filler. Having used both the filler is marginally easier but the resin and fiber will be stronger. It's also not very hard to do, as long as you're careful to saturate all the fiber with resin to prevent dry areas, and keep the layers of fiber tight.

 

well i drove it work, twice, which is as far as ive driven it since i put the clutch in, lol. its about 40 miles round trip?

ive got an oil leak somewhere, but oil temps are good, which is; good.
basically oil warms up up with the coolant, and then just stays at like 85-90c all the time, which is basically what i'd want.
the FD basically tracked with speed, over like ~40mph oil temp was ~85, if you were slower than that, temps went up, the FC isn't really doing that, its just mid 80's the whole time

 

i actually worked on it! i took every Monday off until the end of the year, and decided that, hey i should do something, so i did.
one of the items on the list that has been on the list for a looooooong time got done. the front brake dust shields. back when i was putting the car together, it could have turned into a Time Trials car, so i left them off.
it obviously didn't though, and so what the shields do, is keep the brake dust off of the suspension, to an extent.
first step was the cleaning: they got a soak in hot water and some Robo Bubble



i didn't worry about making them perfect, although maybe i should have?
next was the reason i'd been putting it off, you need to pull the caliper, hub and rotor. easy, but setting the wheel bearings in the front isn't much fun.
it all came apart really easily,

weirdly the passenger spindle looked like you'd expect, but the drivers side i had cleaned and painted, so it was really nice. no idea why
also the drivers wheel hub was an ABS hub, and the passenger side isn't, and they were packed with different greases.
i put the thing together, but i don't remember why it would have been this way, lol



i gave the rotors a lick of paint, i had painted the caliper black and i guess the rotor hat too, cause black is better than rusty, but the rotors should be gray, so they are now gray again.

so we are one small step closer to having a nicer car. i picked some odd things to clean and some odd things to ignore though

 

Now that you have a few miles with the ORC clutch, can you comment how the drivability is? I know it's probably still in break-in, but pedal feel/grab is manageable?

 

pedal feel is like stock, the feel is maybe more linear. it is more grabby than stock, so if you're at idle its like stock, but if you rev it up, it grabs where the stock clutch doesn't.
if i handed you the keys, and didn't mention it was there you probably wouldn't notice, so its perfect.

if i had to do it again, i think i would have bought the OS Giken, just cause its the OG

 

so i've been contemplating wheels, mine need some polishing. anyways i played with some copy paste
i do like the bronze wheels, its good.





there is a set of the Mazdaspeed wheels in the FC fitment on YJA, and so its tempting, but i think i'm sticking with what i got.
also probably going to see what my wheels look like with body colored centers, they were offered in Red, Gray, and Black

 

Personally, I love the wheels you already have on the car, they seem to be the best fit and appropriate for the look your car has. My only change would be powder coating them a different color, perhaps that bronze.

 

I like the bronze. I'm partial though as I have some gold Rota's in that style on my car.

 

1 and 3 look nice to my eyes. Garfinkle would be a big fan of #2.

 

on the right car the 3 spokes are so cool, but not on the right car its a bit silly

 

Hard to go wrong with TE37s...

 

I really like the three spoke rims. The current wheels are nice though, and personally I would keep those.

 

I really like the bronze ones.

 

i found a pic in one of my magazines of a car with gold wheels, they must have done it themselves. i think you guys have talked me into keeping it maybe a shade darker than stock, but people did do stuff back in the day
magazine the pic is from is 1995!


and second, i received the most expensive FEED sticker, in the world

it actually does have a FEED rom in it, i wonder what they did differently
i'm not sure how relevant the F Con is anymore, but i used to run when i was a kid, they work great.
its got a 0-9 ****, and the one car i tested with a wideband, each click was 0.5 of an AFR point, which is amazingly impressive.

 

i randomly looked at pick and pulls inventory, and low and behold they had an FC. its kind of weird that i looked, cause they get so few these days.
it was a little further than i'd usually look, but not bad. car turned out to be a GTUs, and it had ALL of the little nick knacks i was looking for

so rear brake dust shields, rear sway bar links, the bracket for the exhaust that bolts to the transmission, etc etc
the two round hoses are for the HVAC, and i guess i left em out? its kind of funny air out of the vents is a little weak, but its because these hoses are missing, and the air is just going under the dash somewhere, lol

i wanted the hose on the charcoal canister, but it was easier to just get the whole thing, its the third one i've put in the car!

 

My next move was to get a pair of new rear wheel bearings. there is some noise in the back that i'm pretty sure is a bad bearing in the diff, but my co-workers convinced me that i should start with the rear wheel bearings, cause its easier.
and they have a point, i think. it started with putting the dust shields in some cleaner, and it could sit in there all week.

i've been using Sarah N Tuned's Robo buble, which is interesting stuff. if you can let the thing sit in there, it works great, but its not fast.
then Saturday, it came apart, its really easy


i did need to buy a 32mm socket, which had me wondering how i put it together in the first place
my buddy has a press, so we had lunch and pressed everything. its funny one side was really tight, we had to grind the race off, and the other one almost came off with some heat.
kind of weird they were so different, but whatever.

i cleaned everything, and the rotors got a coat of paint. and it went back together with the new to me sway bar links



the old bearings turned smoothly and felt ok, but car is for sure quieter now, which is great.
so i'm happy i did it, the diff noise is easier to hear, but that's ok. i've never built a diff before, so i want to!

i also actually drove the car like a car, and its so dumb, first gear is just moving air noise and wheel spin

 

Intake Incompetance1
ive been running an HKS RS intake, on the plus side it has all the hookups for all the hoses. Air pump, and whatever the other two are
the minus side is that the casting is 60mm to match the stock turbo, and my turbo is 70mm. ive been using a stepped boot to make it work. its also kind of tight in there


second pic doesn't really do it justice, the IC pipe is in the 'notch' that the intake makes.
the Sport turbo kit would have come with these two mystery boots, and i'm really not sure what you're supposed to do with them


and then someone put a set of instructions for a full turbo up, and it has this pic

 

seeing that lot, i think the Sport Turbo Kit makes you mount the AFM at like a 45 degree angle, and makes you use a non stock air cleaner, which wasn't included.
so i got my pile of stuff out and made something that worked for me

Left to right, its a piece of pipe the same diameter as the turbo, and length as the AFM, the vary rare K2RD AFM block off plate and an AFM
then i added a 45 degree boot and got this, which takes up less space



drill and tap for a fitting, (i need to order 4mm hose for the other one). i also switched air filter housings, to give the air pump somewhere to go


and viola

 

This car has always been like one step forward and two steps back, its like a dance. when i put it together it coulda been a race car, so i left the windshield washer system out. easy weight reduction, although small.
however ten years on, it would be nice to have windshield washers, and who cares about the weight*
so i dug up the washer tank, and the line on the car

(do i loose points for having it on the dryer and not the washer?)

it seemed like it was going to be really easy, 4 bolts, peel back the fender liner. but of course the front bolt was kind of hard to get to, brake duct had to come out, and then i had to move my coolant tank, which required taking the washer out. putting the bracket back, and then putting the tank out. so it took way longer than it should have

and then, there were no washer hoses on the hood!

in theory i have them somewhere, but who knows where

so after way too much work, i just have this, lol