What have you done to your car today?

[chewyryce]

the other one is at oxley. 5 min from wacol from the highway. keep your $2 entry receipt to go into the other place within the same day. dont bother calling them to ask if they have any cars. just go there. you wont be as angry :P

[Clean_Cookie]

Also, post on here if you are going as others may have been already the day before and could have told you there was a red one in the wrong section basically complete too...

[TheMAN]

finally replaced the crapped out stock radiator in my corolla beater... original one which broke about 2 years ago, been limping with a patched (using JB weld) but leaky radiator until now! for a 19 year old car, it lasted long enough!

also replaced the stuffed up cat with a new one since I got emissions test this month... never buy bosal! it's a POS! It didn't last more than 2 years! The gaskets I used last time are still good! So I reused those and put in a better/more expensive cat rated for OBD2 cars... hope this lasts longer!

[Cosmo Dude]

Washed the 3.
Removed the door cars and 'B' pillar teims from the old BA H/T (4 cyl not the V6). It's now ready to call the truck and say final a farewell.

[derb]

This morning I went and bought a pressure pack of my white and a can of etch primer on the paint shop's advice. Spent about 30 mins trying to find the plug for the electrics loom that ran into the hatch, but it was found eventually. And I removed the hatch and struts.

There is a bit of rust on one of the strut mounts, so I'll sand them both back and respray in black acrylic. Also the full extent of the rust is bugger all thankfully. Quite a bit of surface rust, but plenty of areas with just bare metal. No structural cancer at all! So tomorrow morning I will get busy masking everything off and sanding, and hopefully have all the coats done within the 10am-2pm window when it's nice and warm outside. Wish me luck.

[Clean_Cookie]

Casually removed the second engine out of the car. went from complete minus the bumper to stripped from 1:30 till 6:00. I LOVE WORKING ON THE I4's. same job took over 8 hours on the other one. that said I had a few tricks from last time. raising the motor out was a piece of piss, and dropped it in the hole in the v6 for storage....which was a BIG mistake. took ages to get in properly and will take ages to remove without breaking something. oh well. its out of the way!

[TheMAN]

so I got these trim tools in yesterday... got them for $30, they are the exact same thing Mazda sells to dealers as special service tools, but costs more at Mazda!


I will need those tools to take out the gauge cluster in my Tarago.... too many plastics, too risky with metal tools

so today I went to the wreckers and scored a "center counsel" off a 2003 Protege5 (what you blokes call the "J48" SP20 lol)

It's very dirty but it was in great shape... I was surprised to see how good condition it was! Just some light scuffs and scratches on the plastics... the cup holder portion is all stuffed up but I don't care... I think I will get it fake CF wrapped or I will hunt down a better one from the forums... these cupholders are deeper and better, plus no flappy lid that tends to let small things slip through and disappear!

[phildough]

Originally Posted by TheMAN

so today I went to the wreckers and scored a "center counsel" off a 2003 Protege5 (what you blokes call the "J48" SP20 lol)

Our J48s had the flappy lid.

[marcs_sp20]

I'd rather have that drink holder, as the one with the lod is useless!

Just about to head to a swap meet / car show, good thing is that its that close I can walk there!! (for anyome thats been to my place, its at the soccer grounds )

[BG1.8sp]

Hey... I like my little flappy lid *haters*

Have never seen that center console before. Good find!

I did yet another 30min job yesterday.
Put my new front speakers in. Did the job using only one hand and had a chicken and salad wrap in the other eating lunch
Speakers are JL Audo C2 570x (5x7) and will get rears soon too.
Only reason why I got fronts only is because the stock ones died
Always planned on upgrading... But I was going to do amp and speakers all at once. Haha

Today's jobs are finally getting around to changing my gbox oil. Wash and polish my car.

[derb]

Sanded back all the rust this morning, goddamn are my fingers sore. I did the majority of the sanding by hand and finished up the nooks and crannies with the dremel. Also, first coat of etch primer is on and baking in the sun as I type. Will check it after 30 mins and start the first of the white coats if it's done. I just hope no-one decides to ransack my car in the driveway since the hatch is totally removed.

[TheMAN]

Originally Posted by marcs_sp20

I'd rather have that drink holder, as the one with the lod is useless!

Just about to head to a swap meet / car show, good thing is that its that close I can walk there!! (for anyome thats been to my place, its at the soccer grounds )

exactly, that's why I don't like the flappy lid! it looks better, but it's functionally useless.... I had 500ml PET bottles tip over.... these deeper cup holders will hold them better!

maybe rupe can find these off J48 sport20s, because they came on those too... will be far easier bringing them in on a container than shipping that 1.25 metre long console by mail lol

Japan, USA, and Canada were the only countries to get these AFAIK... everyone else still had the flappy lid

[marcs_sp20]

Originally Posted by TheMAN

exactly, that's why I don't like the flappy lid! it looks better, but it's functionally useless.... I had 500ml PET bottles tip over.... these deeper cup holders will hold them better!

maybe rupe can find these off J48 sport20s, because they came on those too... will be far easier bringing them in on a container than shipping that 1.25 metre long console by mail lol

Japan, USA, and Canada were the only countries to get these AFAIK... everyone else still had the flappy lid

Or just send the shifter peice seperate

[TheMAN]

uhh no marc... don't you think if that worked, I would've gotten just the cup holder piece and not the entire console?

I can't find the pics right now, but someone on the US board tried it... it doesn't fit right, the console is shaped different! the new style cup holders fitted to the older console results in a huge gap around the edges... the newer console is physically taller (by about 10-15mm if I remember based on the pics; no one measured the gap)!

YOU HAVE TO SWAP THE ENTIRE CONSOLE!!!

so conversely, the few 2003 US owners who tried to swap the flappy lid cup holders in found it didn't work for them either because the clip sockets were too deep and the piece couldn't clip on!



anyway, I spent a few minutes earlier in the twilight hosing down the console on my driveway... washed off all the mud and cleaned out the caked on spilled soft drink in the cup holders... just letting it dry now before I store it away in the attic for a while before I feel like messing with it some more (this obviously comes after I decided what to do with the cup holders or buy a good condition silver piece)

[phunkdust]

Right, new endlinks came in (Thanks to GSL for getting them to me so fast) so I attacked the rear suspension yesterday.

- lower endlink bolts came off nicely, removed sway bar
- no such luck with the upper bolts, mild steel rounded off quickly, had to grind them off
- was about to start fitting the new ones, noticed a nice big rusty crack opening up on the endlink mounting tab (right where it has that 60 degree bend) which has obviously been there for a while and not something I did while working on it (rusty crack vs shiny crack)

So very frustrating and disappointing, but at least I noticed it before I fitted everything back together as I feel that it would not be far off failing. Driving around with the sway bar and endlinks removed entirely which seems to be harmless as long as I'm not pushing it. Looks like new struts time, not that I am sure the car is worth it.

Got my supergrid wipers fitted though, they look very shmick and work great.

[Rhys]

Lol rusty crack.

I'll see myself out

[BG1.8sp]

Originally Posted by TheMAN

uhh no marc... don't you think if that worked, I would've gotten just the cup holder piece and not the entire console?

I can't find the pics right now, but someone on the US board tried it... it doesn't fit right, the console is shaped different! the new style cup holders fitted to the older console results in a huge gap around the edges... the newer console is physically taller (by about 10-15mm if I remember based on the pics; no one measured the gap)!

YOU HAVE TO SWAP THE ENTIRE CONSOLE!!!

so conversely, the few 2003 US owners who tried to swap the flappy lid cup holders in found it didn't work for them either because the clip sockets were too deep and the piece couldn't clip on!



anyway, I spent a few minutes earlier in the twilight hosing down the console on my driveway... washed off all the mud and cleaned out the caked on spilled soft drink in the cup holders... just letting it dry now before I store it away in the attic for a while before I feel like messing with it some more (this obviously comes after I decided what to do with the cup holders or buy a good condition silver piece)

Could always just do a bit of fiberglassing if you were really after those cup holders.
And you can buy paint/ die premixed that matches the factory colour perfectly.
Means you get those cupholders cheap. No need for exy postage!
The quality of the finish really depends on how much time you put in and experience I suppose.

[TheMAN]

fibreglass? what??? real men use carbon fibre!

[Ice88]

Originally Posted by TheMAN

fibreglass? what??? real men use carbon fibre!

^^ this.

[BG1.8sp]

Umm... I mean using stock centre console, getting J48 cup holders.
Then using a bit of fiberglass to make it fit.
Pointless using cf if you are going to wrap it anyway....