You're absolutely right about 'flow' being important to get anything significant done. Sometimes you go into the shop and everything just works, project after project comes together with almost no effort. Sometimes you go in and it's a struggle to get the simplest thing accomplished, nothing seems to work properly. Good on ya for plugging away at it though, keep doing little things whenever you can and eventually there will be no more little things to do.

I've been doing nothing to my car lately, most of my shop time has been helping my buddy with his FD, motor swap for a non-blown unit and a new Borg warner turbo. I am also going to be heading out in about 2 weeks for my first holiday in over 4 years, so I don't want to jump into any specific project and order a bunch of parts only to be gone when they show up. I can't wait to see yours done though man. It's gonna be a beauty.

Also, regarding the gold medal hockey game: sorry.

I know you guys were missing a few of your better players (Henrik Sedin didn't play at all in the Olympics, did he?). Better luck in 4 years!

-sean

 

congrats man canada played well your goalie is a demon! the swedes have been very graceful in losing. good sportsmanship. of course i can always play the im not from here card when they lose and jump on the "yay sweden" bandwagon when they lose
hope your holiday will take you to sunnier shores it sounds like you deserve it! i usually bugger off to barbados in the winter but we decided against it this year. my holiday money has gone to the seven
its definately starting to feel like its getting close now. coilovers on tuesday then its just to wait for the wheels and sort out some tyres.
as per usual, i have been going around having silly ideas about what to do with the wheels. the idea has always to do them in a snazzy black or gunmetal grey, but i have been toying with the idea of trying to polish the steel and then get a clear powder coat. i read a bit about it and it looks like if im going to do it ill have to order a couple of barrels of elbow grease.
you guys can feel free to shoot me down in a ball of flames for that one

 

Well since there's no English Olympic hockey team, and you've been in Sweden long enough to be involved in the current production of your own little new Swede, I don't think that excuse is gonna work ha ha

The holiday is taking me to Cuba, and I am super excited for it!

-sean

 

In regards to the paint scheme for the wheels, there's an american company called Diamond Racing Wheels that build custom spec wide deep steelies. They have become somewhat of a fashion in the U.S. import stance scene, so if you do a Google image search their name you should be able to find lots of different examples of painted and/or polished wide beefy steelies on low imports. Maybe you can find a colour scheme that catches your eye

-sean

 

That's a thoughtful idea Sean but I fear it has a whiff of "copy the Americans to be cool" that may offend meers nacent Swedish national identity.
I would suggest something more indigenous, something that quietly says "I'm Swedish and I'm (reluctantly) proud of it".

Something like laminating the wheels with cod skin, not as vulgar as Russian whale ***** but still a strong statement of national pride.
Because Sweden=cod, obviously.

Or stickerbomb em with Ikea logos.
No one delivers a box of kickass like Ikea, it has defeated customers worldwide, littering it's wake with a trail of 6mm allen wrenches.

As your wing grows larger and the "stance" becomes more extreme, you'd be perfectly situated for a My Little Pony theme, too.
Give a Swedish twist by substituting reindeer for the ponies.
Or direwolves.
Or cod, obviously.
A majestic pastel Swedish cod, leaping to the sun trailing a rainbow from its ***.
A cod with a magnificent blond mane, of course.

Oh please, make it so.

 

^ IKEA stickerbombed wheels with allen head lugnuts. Meatballs hanging from the rearview mirror. Swedish flag flying proud from the radio antenna.

I like it.

-sean

 

hahahaha well i did say feel free. you guys crack me up i dunno why but flags in general are a bit tacky for my tastes. in fact, any exaggerated nationalism would just spoil it. though in respect for my roots, i may consider hanging a peice of bacon enshrouded in sensimilia from the rearview mirror. considering my girl is an interior decorater i dont think i would get away with something like ikea stickerbombing. not trendy enough apparently.. id have to go with something a little "classier" like mio or something..
i get it.. you guys dont want me to ruin the seven. saying that, you may have inspired my new get rich quick plan. yes, you geussed it. gm free cod enriched steel polish....with omega 3! im gonna aim for the trendy anti-monsanto anorexic stance freaks. should make some serious bank!

i lost count of the amount of hours i have put down trawling the web for wheel inspiration. cant put steel into the search engine without those diamond racing wheels coming up. theyre ok but not deep enough to suit my tastes. the chrome thing just isnt for me either. ( i know im a picky bastard)

so far the only combo i would seriously consider is this. looks like this guy went custom too..



ps. blame im seriously jealous..

 

Those wheels would look pretty good if he lost the poncy lugnuts and went centerlock.
Very purposeful and presumably, low maintenance.

The "low maintenance" part will come in handy because you'll be busy scraping rubber off the wheel arches and birds from the billboard/wing, so your time will be precious.

 

i would be happy if i could get to the maintenance part i like lugnuts but i dont think that they should take over. ill have to work out some way to make it subtle..

one thing is for certain at the moment. im tired as hell. it doesnt feel like i have caught up on my sleep in an age. instead, it just catches up on me. and usually when im at the garage. i must have had about 4 hours sleep then i drove up to sala to pick up the coilovers. met the owner of badass racing and he was a very helpful and nice chappy.
here they are boxfresh..


i got to the garage and wacked em on and then started fiddling. it felt like i left my brain at home. i had to give up in the end. im going to hit the sack and try again tomorrow before the nightshift...

 

Those look awesome man

-sean

 

Perhaps when you awaken the shocks won't be lime green anymore and we'll all feel better.

 

cheers sean! the quality looks good on them and for the price im more than pleased with them. we shall see how the ride is and how much adjustment i will have to do later but im confident that it'll be ok.

haha i was thinking the same thing. i dont know whos website i was looking at but for a while there i was sure they would be just black and gold. fortunately there are the plastic caps that cover the front towers and the speakers at the back so it wont be too visible. they remind me of these traditional chocolate-lime sweets i used to buy when i was a kid that everyone else thought were disgusting so i didnt have to share hehe

lets hope my taste in cars is better than my taste in confectionary. i probably wont be going for the wing for the moment anyway. it just seems like too much work and i will re-iterate that out of many cars from the same period, the fc3s is one of the cars that was done "right first time". it just doesnt seem necessary to change anything cosmetically except for the lip. it seems like there would be more risk of spoiling the look than improving it so ill play it safe.

got payed yesterday so i ordered the brake caliper kits (thanks again tomat!) and ill be going to the garage now to see what i can acheive today

 

Let's set the bar low, learn to spell "paid" and "achieve" and call it a day.

 

those goddam i's and e's get me all the time.. detestable things..
this thread is the only thing keeping my english from rusting over completely. im beginning to accept that im probably going to be stuck in this uncomfortable limbo between english and swedish for a long time.. hence the term "swinglish"

today was a proper prize match between me and the subframe and diff. it really is a heavy ungainly bugger which made the whole "working out how to get it back up there" process a whole lot more of a pain. it actually took ages. took it up and down several times and used up all my curse words in the process. one thing that didnt help was me for some reason trying to install the front sway bar at the rear and just not getting why it wouldnt work. im starting to understand what my mum meant when she told me i was "special"...

anyhoo.. got her up there in the end and started on the rest. didnt get very far because i had to go home and catch a little nap before my nightshift. i thought i would do a little show and tell here. i really really really reeeeeaaalllyyy should have learnt to take more pics of what im doing when i remove stuff but for some reason i just seem to be able to convince myself that im going to remember and as per usual it bit me in the ****. gotta stop doing that..

heres a nice dark picture that successfully hides all the paint i have scraped off in the installation process.. looks fresher eh? itll be nice to get a nice power wash under there in the summer. there are carwash place with ramps that i will be taking advantage of in the warmer months..



and now i have a couple questions and im hoping you guys can help me.
this is the coilover in place. the bottom end has an offset spacer running through the middle of it and i assumed that the longer end should face the brakes to give clearance. even then it seems super tight. you can see that there are barely a couple of millimeters between it and the trailing arm. i also dont know if i have used the right spacers. you can see that i put one spacer and a locking spacer on the bolt but i have two other spacers left over and i dont know if they came from the old shocks or if they are for something else. when i tried to add them it didnt feel like i had that much thread to play with on the bolt so it made me a little unsure. ill add a picture of them below.. i dont know if it helps but the one to the left was a bit soft and slightly worn? i just realised that i havent put anything beside them so you guys have absolutely no reference as to how big they are. sorry.




then theres the problem of these goldy/brassy spacers that i got with my bushings. are they supposed to sit on the outside of the bushings? i know it may seem like a stupid queston and probably is but i just want to be 100% sure.



i also noticed something while perusing the engine bay. the connector for the throttle position sensor wasnt completely connected! im wondering if this has been what has caused my idle problems.. time will tell.. heres a pic just for the sake of it..



richard has a couple of painting jobs on so im going to have to get everything together (at least temporarily) by the weekend so that he can get a corvette into the painting booth. hopefully my currently sluggish pace will pick up from now on...

 

The picture with the two washers, the washer on the right goes on before the axle nut.

the bushing picture: the brass washer sits on the outside, The gold cylinder goes inside the polyurethane after they are inserted on each end. NOTE: The rear sway bar endlinks has two different sizes! do not try and shove them in. They should go in easily! I see instructions in there....

 

thanks driftxsequence! i wacked it on and the spacing between the coilover shaft became much better. thanks for the confirmation on the washers too! for some really wierd reason i didnt seem to have all the washers and spacers i needed for the dogbones. i dont know if i had misplaced them (which i highly doubt) or if i wasnt supposed to have spacers/washers on all of them. i didnt take any chances though and went down to roger and he fished some out of his spares that fitted. that guy never ceases to amaze me. he showed me one of his previous projects. amongst building a bunch of bikes and hotrods, he builds model sailboats too. today he showed me an actual sailboat that he had restored. this thing was from 1905 and he had replaced 75 percent of it. the whole project took him four years. considering the topography of stockholm its quite popular with things of a boaty nature and because of the topography of london its also quite understandable that i dont know jack about them but it was impressive nonetheless. the reason i mentioned this is that its through hearing and reading about other peoples projects (not nessecarily cars) that help to put my own little project into perspective and basicly keep me from complaining too much

i managed to complete the rear today. at least so that i can put the wheels on and i did about half of the front before i had to rush off to work. i left the brakes off because we just need to be able to roll the seven out of the way so that we can take the volvo down to another garage and get the corvette in for painting. my exit from the garage was a bit hasty so i didnt get to take any pics but ill take some tomorrow.

 

im not 100% sure but i think i may have witnessed a miracle. yes, my fine feathered friends, i think the government has put new rules in place to SIMPLIFY something i want to do with the seven. i just read that they have released new reg plates in smaller sizes to accommodate cars that dont have space for the standard ones. im going to need a bit of help though. i cant find the dimensions for the space between the tail lights on the s5 fc3s. would there be a kind soul out there willing to whip outside and check? according to their website, i can now order plates in 300x110mm without going through miles of red tape. they are much smaller than the standard ones but i still dont know if they'll fit.

c'mon.. put me out of my misery

 

A standard American plate is 12" x 6", or 305 x 153mm.
Your puny little Swedish plate should fit just fine.

 

thanks clokker! had a nice gif for ya but i cant seem to get them to work..
https://i.imgur.com/QxTD6.gif

 

Oh God no, the technology for posting .gifs is twenty years in the future.

 

nah its most probably cos i suck. or that i cant find any that are smaller than 250kb. its a good thing anyway otherwise i'd just spoil the thread with them there are way too many funny ones.
for example.. http://media.photobucket.com/user/tha1nonli/media/ToiletPlunger.gif.html?filters[term]=funny%20gif&filters[primary]=images&filters[featured%5Fmedia]=697&sort=1&o=57
i rolled up to the garage straight after work this morning and got cracking. i would have gone home and had a nice kip normally but i had a deadline. i didnt rush, just took my time and made sure i did everything properly. theres definately something with me and sway bars though. while installing the front one i managed to break the coolant temperature sensor at the bottom of the radiator on the passenger side. this was just utterly unnessecary and plain clumsy . the worst thing is, i threw away the old radiator i had which had one on it. so uncool..



anyway, my only mission today was to make the car moveable so i left the brakes off and as i was pressed for time, the exhaust too. it was enjoyable getting the wheels on the floor and she seemed noticeably lower considering i havent done any adjustments yet.

i took a couple pics just for fun..





i was reminded that the gtr wheels, even though i really like the face, are just way too skinny for my taste. it going to be really nice once the steelies are ready. it was also a treat to see the "natural camber" become a little bit more pronounced though it just looks wierd without the exhaust..
once done i took the opportunity to clean and replace the heap of tools i have had strewn all over the place and even have a little general clean up in the garage. not my first choice of things to do but its got to be done sometime and today seemed just as good a day as any for it.
im not actually sure what ill do tomorrow but i thought id just go for a few hours before work. all i know is that im not setting my alarm tomorrow. i needs me a lie in..

 

I was expecting a greenish glow from the wheelwells, kinda disappointed.

You Yurpeans are weird- Eddie Izzard likes his women covered in bees, you want yours covered in dust.

 

i did consider painting the greeny bits black but considering my most recent painting efforts i decided that it would probably only look worse

for the third time in six months im out of work again. apparently they didnt have any work for me but saw fit to wait until i found out on my last day and asked them. because im a temp i have no rights so i just had to take yet another kick in the nuts with grace.. just another day in paradise..

on the upside though, i received my kits in the mail yesterday,



so after a little bit of job hunting ill be popping down to the garage to have a crack at the calipers.

 

Damn buddy, sorry to hear about the employment situation. What kind of work were you doing? (You probably said at some point, but my memory is not as proficient as my forgettory)

I wouldn't worry too much about the colour of the coilovers, you're never gonna see them unless you have the wheels off. Also after driving for a couple months they will be pretty grimey from road dirt and brake dust. Or maybe that's just me in my dirty-*** town with my autocrossing habit.

Personally, I would be stoked to have some bright lime green coilovers, it's my favorite colour. I plan on incorporating some nice lime green goodness into the total colour scheme of my fc when it's all done.

-sean

 

i have been working as a care worker for the last year or so. had a little break in the middle where i worked with cleaning electronics after fires and some warehouse work but went back as a care worker as a temp.
i spent all day job hunting so i didnt get down to the garage but i thought it would be better to get into the flow directly and take the brakes tomorrow.

i came to the same conclusion as you with the coilovers it just seemed unnecessary to do anything with them. i will however be trying to do my best to clean up the engine bay a bit once i have done the brakes. for some reason it feels like i could make it look tidier/simpler than it is now.

green is actually my favorite color too though im more of a racing green fella meself =P