Haven't updated this thread for a while... Bits n bobs have happened since Pod - Money is a bit tight at the moment so trying to save where possible! First off I got my front hubs off, as I thought this was causing the self-centering issue, as I have my steering rack moved forward 25mm but stock hubs, the steering arms are angled backwards so my presumption is that this would cause un-necessary friction...I gave them to my good friend Owen @ DirtyDog Fabricatoins, he copied his modified knuckes(which we believe are Superclarkey) and made a jig and then modified mine to suit and gave them back, I fitted them and have got a good amount of lock now! Never gonna need anymore I don't think... {} Also after fitting the hubs, I thought I'd start the car and take it for a quick spin to test them out, turns out whilst at Pod I had rubbed through the arch loom(AMATEUR MISTAKE!). My Old S13, I did a year n half of skids and daily driving perfectly fine with 17's and never once rubbed through the loom!! Luckily it was only 1 wire that rubbed through, so fixed that with some connectors and then stripped all the old tape off it and re-wrapped it all whilst tucking it super duper high, never to be touched again! {} The diff issue was still worrying me, and I had a spare diff lying around, so Me and Owen stripped that and the current diff in the car and swapped the bearings over, hoping this is going to be a cheap fix to my noisey diff, but I'm not hopeful... Haven't had chance to fit it yet but hoping to over the next few days I have also taken my Exhaust Manifold off and dropped it with a mate to get a flexi fitted in it, so that I can now tuck the exhaust and drop the car another 20mm all round... Another update to come soon though, i'll keep on top of it this time!
Fitted the new diff, and still have the extremely high pitched noise when running through the gears with the rear on axle stands Starting to think its the prop/gearbox now so some more investigation is required.... Drift day on 17th April is looming closer!
Check that the centre driveshaft bearing is ok, and that the dust cover around the gearbox output isn't crushed onto the driveshaft and rubbing
Didn't see your reply dude, Its a single piece custom prop with no centre bearing/cup - I think I've found the issue in being that the UJ's are fucked, I've fitted a non-abs S13 diff again and the noise has stopped at normal speeds, and only happens at Motorway speeds now so I think its definitely the UJ's and its the angle of the diff, I've got a non-abs 2 piece prop that I think Im gonna change the front flange on to suit my 6 speed box, so that I do have a centre prop
So, I was at Teesside on Monday for the Bank Holiday Drift Day, and also went for Josh's Birthday bash, was a great laugh, good turnout of cool cars(not just your normal BMW's) and a dry hot day aswell!! On the way up, We met with Lewis(Kingu Media) and Owen Counihan, Lewis got some photos of the car freshly from the paint shop - I love how the car looks right now!! The new rear lights are ace and the kit suits the car's style which is perfect. {} {} Lewis also got a few of Owen's car which was looking ace after he has fitted a fresh turbo to the motor! {} The car felt really good on track, the self-centering issue was fixed by the hubs and tightening up the PAS belt, although in the morning there was a dead spot on the steering in the centre if you went from side to side, turned out one of the rack bushes was loose, so tightened that up over lunch and was away again {} Unfortunately the front bumper got smashed into quite a few pieces when I let Amy get behind the wheel, she entered into the first corner of west track and was doing quite well, then let off the throttle and the car snapped and aimed us straight towards the tyres...which we hit head on haha, don't have any pictures of the bumper unfortunately.. But here's a few pictures of the car during the day without any front bumpers haha {} {} {} I also managed to smash up my passenger side front wing, luckily I have a spare front wing which isn't too badly damaged so will get that on and get it painted asap... Got a list of stuff to do now which includes: Strengthen up the front bumper/order a new one Fit lock stops Change drives rear brake calliper Change prop shaft UJ's Change Starter Motor After Monday though, I'm super happy and proud of how the car performed, I'm in no rush to get the list above sorted, and I don't plan on skinting myself. My next planned drift day is STL at the end of July, I'm hoping to get at least 1 or 2 extra days in before then just to make sure the car is in tip top condition
Cheers man! Super happy with the choice, Arden Blue(Vauxhall Astra VXR Colour) Came out well, especially with the kit to suit
Made a quick video with the only clips I got from the whole day grrrr :@ Nothing mega unfortunately, just 2 runs on West Track, but shows that DE's are definitely capable!
Car looks sick man, ride height is bang on too. Pignose bumper would look cool on it if you decide to move away from fibreglass. Benefits of NA life when theres no FMIC to smash haha. Also loving the aggression on track, driven how a DE should be driven!!
I cant help but feel the front needs to come down to remove the arch gap, but then I'd need to lower the rear aswell, and currently its super driveable, doesn't catch anywhere etc so I quite like it... On Monday, I think I counted about 4 pignose S13's, so I fancy looking slightly different haha and I like the supermade kit, Freddie has a couple of front bumpers so gonna grab another one off him I think haha Man, I feel I can drive it tonnes better, just need to apply myself and gain confidence in the car, as im still not 100% with it yet, give it another drift day or so and it'll be a completely different animal
Been a while since I've updated this thread... After the last drift day, the car was running spot on, the only small problem was I seemed to have acquired a bit of toe in on one of my wheels but didn't affect much on the car so just dealt with it - after that, I said im gonna have a month or 2 off drifting to sort the car out fully with a few niggle's that were bugging me, but after a week of that, I was bored, and noticed there was a few spaces at Teesside on 1st May, so I booked myself onto an afternoon session there...Great, last minute again... I managed to pick up a Cobra 3" harness, so got that fitted to the drivers side(no pics unfortunately). Then hit the drift day, I had a set of stock 15" S13 wheels with decent tread on the tyres, so thought I'd take them and use them up, saves me having to fork out for some more tyres when they are there to be burnt. Got loads of seat time in to say we only went up for the afternoon(2-6pm) and managed to burn 3 out of the 4 tyres so did well! Whilst changing the tyres onto the skid ones when we got there, I noticed loads of gunk all over my drivers side coilover and all suspension arms etc, immediately knew it was my CV Boot that was gone, Anyway, I kept an eye on it and the shaft didn't get any louder until later on in the day so just dealt with it. Having the harness fitted helped a lot! I was held firmly in my seat so I could focus more on my driving than anything else and I was trying not to use the handbrake as much - Heres some onboard footage(Mainly from west track, but 2 runs on National that I did throughout the afternoon). Here's also a few pictures from the day... {} {}
So, only a quick little update...Been focusing on moving house recently so haven't paid much attention to the car, only had an hour or 2 here and there... Since the last one, there hasn't been much change, tidied a few little bits up and ticked off a few things: Replaced Starter motor(finally! No more tapping with the breaker bar to start it!) Drivers driveshaft(everything was caked in gunk, it was horrible!) Got the exhaust tucked up so it sits above the chassis rails all the way from manifold back {} {} I also fibreglassed the front bumper back together after the little incident a few months ago, This is what it looked like after the crash... {} Got it all back in one piece and on the car to made sure it fit {} I then sent it off to the bodyshop and got him to spray up a spare wing I had lying around to replace the demolished passenger front wing. "What crash?!" I hear you say... Almost like new... {} I paid a visit to Owen with his super slick S14, he's fabricating up a new single piece intake pipe for me as my current one is looking a bit worse for wear... We got all the measurements etc and tacked it all in place so just waiting on him to finish welding it up then i'll pop back over and we'll get it fitted up! {} Randomly the other day, I remembered from when I drove Chidley's S13 at Finalboss 2 years ago, that he had a painted center console and I thought it was ace, so I thought it'd look good if I did the same...so out came the sand paper and halfords rattle cans..think it came out quite well overall... I also picked up an S15 Spec R 6 Speed Gearknob which is much better than the old white piece of junk I had on there!! {} It was mine and the missus' 2 year anniversary yesterday, and she got me these canvas' of my Current & Old S13 to stick up in the new house...I got them up straight away so you'll see them on your way down the stairs She's a good un, definately a keeper! {} No future drift days planned yet... List of things that need doing before STL: Alignment Prop Shaft UJ's(I'm just being lazy...) Intake Pipe finishing off and fitting New Windscreen(would be ideal) Sort radio(Don't fancy driving upto driftland without any form of music...) {} {}
Owen sent me some pics over of the intake all tacked up, ready to be welded this week hopefully {} {}
good read mate jus read yours and the other boys NA build ive given up on my ca hopfully picking up a DE soon am now im quiet looking forward to it when you at driftland wouldnt mind seeing this in person keep it up mate
Hey man! Ye love this little thing haha, it goes well for NA and drives ideal Im off up for STL at the end of July - not sure on dates will have to get back to you on that? Get a build thread up to keep track dude
will do bud have done a load of weldind on the shell all ready but think i may put up a thread well i was gonna try get down to watch stl this time so look forward to getting a look
Updateeeeeeeeeeeee The wheels were annoying me, when I got them they were shiny and looked rather nice, but I didn't really take much care and the lips started pitting and became very dull and not shiny, so I spoke to a friend who came over and helped me make them all shiny again! This was the final result...mega happy and just makes the car look tonnes better! {} {} Then a week later, a friend organised an S-Body meet in Manchester at their unit, Im sure you'll have heard of/seen a few of the pictures from the event, I was super suprised at the turnout!! Lots of very nice cars, and many many burnouts occured... Found a picture of mine which makes it look half decent! {} Last Thursday I spoke to a good friend of mine Chris(Mr.Stylecase to you...), he happens to work at Driftworks, and managed to sort me out with something I've always wanted! {} A Nardi Classic! Ideally I would have gone for the 340mm, but they had a 3-4 week wait and I'm too impatient unfortunately, so went for the 330mm option, got it fitted and think it looks ace! Mega happy with it and how it works with the interior {} Just need to dye the cushions for the drivers bucket seat black and then change up the passenger seat for a nice comfy black one(current one is horrendous and may aswell just have flat sides as it doesn't hold you in at all!!). I'm also on the lookout for another 3" harness for the passenger side in Blue if anybody has one they fancy selling? STL in 3 weeks and I cant wait! Been far too long since i've been to Driftland!!