Vimmy

Here's me modelling my old pair of sandals.....think we should make it compulsory with the summer months coming up

I need some advice, what do you reckon to these quick release puppies?

I'm like a big kid at Christmas, had my coilovers fitted and 4 wheel alignment done over the last 2 days, getting the down pipe and centre box on tomorrow too I have a simtek install and remap on saturday morning, all I have to do now is to cut a panel out of the air filter heat shield and fit the last two pipes to complete the fmic install and when the last two parts arrive to make a maf replacement tube I should be done. I've been like a cat on a hot tin roof the last couple of days without my car not being able to drive it, I've been doing a lot of extra work over the last year or so to save up for this lot so fingers crossed will finally bear some fruit around 11am this saturday morning - I can't wait. I just need to buy a lightweight shoe for my right foot, I'm thinking sandals to go with my knee high shorts and ankle socks

Fitted my new calipers, brake disks and pads today, only meant to take an hour or two but it ended up taking a good few hours in the midday sun. My old disks were originally grooved and when I removed them I found one side was as smooth as a baby's bum, the pads were kind of down to the metal too which explains the loud scraping noise whenever i drove, I was sure it was a car behind me making that racket After fitting they seem to work really well, I'm not sure if I should do the long and slow route to bed them in or a few blasts down a quiet road braking and accelerating to bed them in quick. I took some photos at the time to remind me not to leave them so long the next time, I can put them up if anyone wants to see? Cheers, Col

Hi Lee, I don't know if the guys and gals at Cotswold Subaru ,who are just north of Witney, would have one in stock or not but it may be worth speaking to them on 01993 776622. Cheers, Colin

Thats looking rather good there Iain, what wrap did you use on the up/downpipe, did you use the metal tie wraps to fasten it all...and did you tie them by hand or use a metal wrap fastener? I wrapped mine ages ago with metal ties and it was a sod to do with a metal tie wrap tool

No worries old bean, I prefer the k.i.s.s. method of networking, small key and lock it down to mac's - its always the way, you spend ages looking for something and then when your about to give up you find a simple solution right away Thanks for the offer on the half price kit, I need to keep me head down for a bit where money is concerned, just been adding up the money spent so far on work to the car.....bread and water for us for a few weeks I think

Hi Matty, great news on the Aitport Express, the 64bit wpa and the 50 bit key are pretty much the same thing, the 50bit key is the encryption key length used to encrypt all traffic which is then padded out with another 14 bits to help create authenticated comm's between the two machines to agree a key on.....Nerdy link here... Most of the problems found are getting two dissimilar bits of kit to talk I'll have to stop by screwfix and pick up a set, always comes in handy

Never heard of them, but then I do have 10 thumbs

I was going to buy one today, spares are always a great thing to have but you only think about them once you've buggered something

In a fit of madness when working on the car last week, I had my old faithful halfrauds ratchet and used it to whack a spanner to 'help' a long a stuck bolt. The outcome was that the ratchet refused to play after that and appeared pooped As the cars brakes were hanging off at this point I had to fix the pesky tool, so armed with a screwdriver I set about the ratchet and took it apart and at that point the insides proceeded to fall out of it. I put it back together as I thought it should go and luckily it went back and only locked in the direction to let me get the car back on the road. The ratchet was no more, a one way ratchet is no use to anyone so tonight I took it apart again for one last attempt(after many) to fix it. I found that I had located a small metal 'slider' on the wrong side of the ratchet mechanism, duh! The ratchet is now back into working life again oh happy days, many a skinned and cracked set of knuckles has been had at its expense - the moral of this story is don't use your ratchet as a hammer, use the right tools

Ah but what fun would be had at the weekend

Time to fit a tow bar Iain, get a wee fuel bowser on the back

Yeah I used to photoshop to blow them up, really they're only 10cm brakes for me pushbike I checked other g00gle based shopping sites and these are similar to the Tarox G88 discs that retail at around the £195+ price bracket. The last lot I got from CRN lasted ages, the pads are all but worn and the grooves on the existing discs are still there. I envisage a good bit of brake noise when I fit these but it has to be better then the current scraping noise I have now

I'm not sure at what distance these camera/safety devices take the snap at, from the ones I've seen about that snap the front it's not that far away. As these Truvelo devices are much higher up (say 2 to 3 meters) compared to the front of the car and the distance is only perhaps 5 to 8 meters away the angle that the camera sees the isn't that shallow so in theory the bonnet mounted plate isn't that hard to see. The vertical plate in the same manner would also been seen at a slight angle too I guess. I'm not going to go out and try it either I'm not saying I'm in the clear yet, fingers crossed it will never be an issue

Received the descs and pads yesterday, I forgot how heavy these were and lugged them about in work after having them sent there, very well worth the wait

Ohh Matty I sat there for a minute and couldn't see the 'addition' to my last entry - seriously funny shizzle

Ah thanks for the find Matty, interesting to see that some folks are pulled and some not. I guess as long as the sticker is made of the reflective backing required, has the BS markings and the correct character spacings/sizings then all should be well. That spurred me on to look at the law so I did a bit of digging, and found this site where in para 6 says the plate has to be :- (3) This paragraph requires the plate to be fixed - [a] vertically or, where that is not reasonably practicable, in a position as close to the vertical as is reasonably practicable, in such a position that in normal daylight the characters of the registration mark are easily distinguishable from every part of a relevant area having the diagonal length specified in paragraph (4). (4) The diagonal length of the relevant area is - [a] in the case of a mark having characters the width of which is at least 57 millimetres, 22 metres, in the case of a mark having characters the width of which is 50 millimetres, 21.5 metres, [c] in the case of a mark having characters the width of which is 44 millimetres, 18 metres. So as long as the letters can be distinguished from the relevant distance, you're obeying the letter of the law - pardon the pun Cheers, Col

Thanks for the responses guys , I have this picture in my mind about how I want the car to look, it's ever so slowly heading down that route now. It may look a lil' bit battle worn with the odd scratch and car park dings on the outside but it's about to get to the 200,000 milestone (hopefully) and so far all the insides are fully functional and still working a treat. I've been shopping, at great disgust to the 'Boss', and have sent off for my decat downpipe from Scoobyworld today, turbo gasket and center section fitting kit from RCM on its way by friday, decat centre pipe (cheers Myles ) is sitting here impatiently, remap and ecu with antilag and launch control for 2 weeks time. My new front brake discs finally arrived today, along with some redstuff pads, my refurbished 4pots are sitting here waiting to be fitted, the coilovers arrived last week and due to be fitted on monday Hopefully at the end of all this I should have the wee motor running (and stopping) like a dream Matty I didn't know that there were stickers available to use for number plates, that will learn me Andy the prices are very much depenedant on what you want to do, some of this can be done in stages. I had to do it in stages (rear box/manifold) as and when parts failed, but this last lot had to be done in one large hit as the downpipe was almost worn through on the bottom flange, if you pardon the pun - the downpipe going was the catalyst to doing all this work I didn't want to have to resort buying another new maf, because if I had only bought the exhaust and FMIC parts without looking at ecu mods then the chances of blowing the maf would possibly be quite high. As it is with the ecu remap the maf is totally removed so will be available to fund the next round. Its taken a lot of planning and saving to get to this point, but should be well worth it. The prices I've paid/about to pay so far are as follows: ECU/Remap £900+vat (optional £150 for LC and Antilag) Downpipe £162 Afterburner Vortex backbox £250 Turbo Gasket £18 Centre Section fitting kit £62 AB88 FMIC was £100 second hand/approx £160 new Centre Pipe new is about £80-100 depending if you get it from RCM / Scoobyworld / H&S - mine was secondhand so cost a bit less I already had 'Gruppe S' style unequal length manifold install as the old one rusted so 'had' to be 'replaced' this was about the £270 mark, but prices vary with the online shops and manufacturers. It does add up to a pricey sum, but it keeps the car going longer now, and I intend to keep the car until it finally gives, I don't plan to sell it on as I'll never recoup my costs in the resale value. You have to look at what you want to eventually do with the car to be able to justify the amount spent. I hope this hasn't put you off doing some 'upgrades' Next up would be intake manifold mods, the suspension bushes and after that lot perhaps a new short block...time to start saving again...and more flowers for the 'Boss' to pave the way Cheers, Col

Put the number plate on to he bonnet...think it looks better there now although the wife doesn't think so.

Ah Carl Davey's say no more

Yup did it last night

Nice bits you have there Iain as Stu says we gotta see the before, during and after Where did you get the rails from, they do look rather sexy, in a metallic kind of way

Sorry, cant make this one, I'm in work now and will be doing the same tomorrow

Thats a jolly fine piece of work Stu, the car looks totally unblemished - I clean mine and it resembles the moon surface Keep up the great work