Brown Santa paid me a visit this morning. I snagged these new handles out of the for sale section here on the forum for half the price that Malloy wants.
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3732/...0a6f2717_c.jpg
IMG_3985 by iojinxoi

My vents have held up with no problems for past 3 years. I just epoxy'd and smoothed out with rage body filler.

That's good to hear because that is exactly what I did!

I got this set of gauges off of Rich (GoodfellaFD3S) A month or so ago. He had them up for sale in the classifieds. I saw several bumps and an opportunity to offer less than asking and he bit.

This buy was probably a little indulgent on my end and I really should have put the money into parts to get the car on the road but fuck it, YOLO. I went ahead and ordered the new lens/chrome plated bezels for it today from Malloy while ordering some other odds and ends.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/12942372665/http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/12942372665/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/99171313@N08/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/12942489203/http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/12942489203/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/99171313@N08/

Here is the set of Tokicos with RSR springs that I plan on using. This is a street car, In my opinion coilovers would be "poseur over kill" for me. This is just about perfect for the street. I bought this set used off a local so the powder coating on the front shock tubes is kind of gnarled up a bit. I might repaint these, not sure how I anal I want to get over shock tubes. When it's all said and done I will probably end up painting them anyway. Again, I'm not assembling a track beater here, so style points count to an extent.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/12942490313/http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/12942490313/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/99171313@N08/
I plan on having the suspension re-installed within two weeks at the latest and then I will move on to the brakes, replacing wheel bearings etc.

that blue is amazing, going to look awesome once done

Well I got all of the bushings installed this weekend. I drilled and tapped out the bushings for zerk fittings as well. There was some slight confusion on the front lower arm bushings. I called in to J-Auto to speak to Juan. The part diagram shows the part to be P/N SPF2822K and the bag was labeled as such but inside the bushings are stamped 2823. The bushings on the lower front arm are two sizes.
Anyway long story short, Juan says that all companies made them incorrectly short and this is normal and won't be an issue.

Here are the photos I snapped yesterday, Enjoy.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/13071005184/http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/13071005184/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/99171313@N08/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/13070799213/http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/13070799213/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/99171313@N08/http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/13070801983/http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/13070801983/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/99171313@N08/http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/13071009904/http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/13071009904/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/99171313@N08/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/13071010814/http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/13071010814/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/99171313@N08/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/13070690095/http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/13070690095/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/99171313@N08/http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/13070807273/http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/13070807273/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/99171313@N08/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/13070692495/http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/13070692495/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/99171313@N08/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/13070693105/http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/13070693105/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/99171313@N08/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/13071019564/http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/13071019564/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/99171313@N08/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/13071020174/http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/13071020174/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/99171313@N08/http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/13070696555/http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/13070696555/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/99171313@N08/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/13071024034/http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/13071024034/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/99171313@N08/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/13070818423/http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/13070818423/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/99171313@N08/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/13071027484/http://www.flickr.com/photos/99171313@N08/13071027484/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/99171313@N08/

I'm waiting on parts from Malloy and Racing Beat. Next weekend will be the steering rack, sway bar and the wheel bearings.

im so jelly. wish i could find a diamond in the rough like you did. especially for 3k!!!

That's funny. I admit there was a horse shoe up my ass that day.

Reminiscing over my old one...



Don't know if i have the patience to re-polish all of the manifolds again, ugh.

and that's why we powder coat. soo much easier and less maintenance.

I really like how you installed grease fittings on all the bushings. I've seen so many people install new bushings and never install the grease fittings; though some have. I believe it is a must when you go so far as to replace the bushings. Might as well do it while you're down there.

Yea not a bad idea on powder coating. I may go that route.

Have you drill the poly bushing inline with the zerk?? From what i know you want to lubricate between the poly bushing and the center tube and not between the poly bushing and the aluminuim arm!!

I cut grooves in the bushings so the grease could move around in the sleeves. Most of the bushings are two piece so the grease can find it's way into the center whether there is a hole there or not. The top front control arm bushings are one piece, I lubed all pieces up pretty well on the outside of the bushing & on the inside where the pin goes through, but no holes drilled through the bushings. If those two start to squeak in the future then I'll deal with it then. Honestly I'd be surprised if that is where any squeaks would originate. I'd think the aluminum sleeves would be more likely to but that's my WAG... Did you have a set squeak on you?

not sure how I missed this build but man you're doing some nice work. Original find, price, color, fender vents, direction of build ect is all top notch. A few years I kinda drifted out of the forum scene and always wondered what happened to your old car/you once I got back. I always wanted to paint my car IBM after you did it to yo car way back when. The new blue looks to be even better.

Good to see you never truly lost the bug!

BTW, post up that one video of your old 7. I'm pretty sure there was one, I just couldn't find it on my HD and want to watch it...for nostalgic reasons ;-)

Beautiful

You know how it goes, can't keep us old dogs away. I tried to get out of this scene and destiny pulled me back. I really had no intentions of ever owning another fd until this one basically fell into my lap. I might have a copy of that video Wargasm put together of my old car on my HD. It's mildly embarrassing to see 11 year old videos of myself but I'll throw it up if I find it.

Ahaha look what I found! Man you weren't kidding about looking really young lol. Enjoy...it still is a cool video

Oh Jesus, the past is a strange place. Just for the record that blonde girl in the bad outfit was Don't_Be_A_Rikkis girl not mine. That was early 2003. Kind of funny that I just bought a PFS IC set up and I had it on that car 11 years ago.

This Friday I was down in Woodbridge so I stopped into Malloy and picked up the new wheel bearings for the front & rear. The fronts actually come as a spindle with the bearing pre-installed. These pressed out much easier than the bushings did. The rear requires that you press the spindle out first before you can get the bearing out. Still pretty simple either way. I cleaned all the parts really well and went after them with a wire wheel. Then I painted everything with high temp caliper paint out of a spray can. Everything turned out pretty well, Only need to reassemble the parts at this point.

Going to get some new rotors, lines and pads to wrap up the brakes though before I slap it all back together.


New bearings

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7203/...21dff474_c.jpg

Rears off the car

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3770/...a544f253_c.jpg


The basic set up for rears

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3824/...9bbe71d7_c.jpg


Separated


https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7410/...f0260e80_c.jpg

Wire wheeled off the barnacles growing on the aluminum

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3691/...dae683e4_c.jpg

Then painted...

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7027/...c4df5df7_c.jpg

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3719/...2783466b_c.jpg

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3828/...5ecbd754_c.jpg

The fronts cleaned up just as well.
https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2175/...b2fc9a4d_c.jpg


https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3796/...d45ddc9c_c.jpg

Degreased & touched up with fresh coat on the subframe


https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7438/...d04c7ccb_c.jpg

Then jumped on the calipers, got one knocked out. Finish this off later...


https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3700/...484959d3_c.jpg


Wrapped the day up with a trip from the Fed Ex man.

I read that Sake Bomb Garage is going through finding a new lease to operate out of so I jumped on it and ordered some premiums, and a door handle since they might be out of commission for a while.

My initial impression of SBG is a good one, customer service was very good. Heath is very personable and the parts look really striking. Nice quality manufacturing from outward appearances. Obviously I won't know how nice these lights are anytime this month.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7384/...d6f217a2_c.jpg

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7396/...3897b487_c.jpg

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3728/...4ea77a2d_c.jpg

Anyone have a good set of 18" wheels they want to sell me?

Hey man, the location of the highway you raced that cycle looks too familiar. Was that rt 301 or 227? I live in Accokeek, not far from White Plains....

Small world