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Vitka's left hand drive NHB EP3

All this stuff is waiting to be fitted. I'm planning to do most of it next saturday, maybe the wheel stripe and lugnuts earlier. Talking of which, I just got the alloys back from the powder-coating company, and they did such a shitty job, that I'm taking them back tomorrow. Seriously, I wouldn't have the nerve to do such a shitty job, call it finished, and expect pay. Some people...

 
Wheel tape?!

Fcuking WHEEEL TAPE!??!


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Edit: pics of Stevie Wonder's wheel resto please :)
 
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Second request for pics of the dire wheel work. I survive through the suffering of others.
 
Wheel tape?!

Fcuking WHEEEL TAPE!??!

Edit: pics of Stevie Wonder's wheel resto please :)
Originally I wanted a stripe painted on the edges of the rims, but the company said they can't do it. Of course this would've been of higher standard, but what's wrong with wheel tape? Is it a lame thing to do? I saw it on lots of cars, even on FK8s etc.

I'll take some pictures and put them on tomorrow.
 
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Here are some pictures of the end result. The guys at the company told me, that the narrow radiuses, and the small gaps between the spokes are electrostatically shadowed, so the powder will not stick to those places. This method is very similar to powder coating, only the layer is thinner. It seems my downfall was my lack of experience again. I should've had them enamel painted to a nice satin white, no matter the cost. Solution is, that the guy leading the company will buy either some touch up paint or a small spray can from the paint manufacturer, and I will be able to cover all the problematic areas myself. There was one good sentence from the boss there: "you shouldn't worry too much, it's not that bad, only eagle-eyed people will be able to see it from close up". Well, I hate to **** on your fireworks mate, but I am the most eagle eyed MF of them all, because I own the feckin car and alloys!!! I will settle with how they look for now, but I think I will have them redone next summer or so, we'll see.











 
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Ouch, that's not pretty. The trouble with the little dimples is brake dust will get stuck in them and will make it stand out even more.

Surely if they knew the finish wasn't going to be acceptable they could have mentioned that beforehand?

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Exactly my thoughts. If they knew this would happen based on 20 years of experience, why didn't they bother to tell me beforehand? Second solution: they knew this would happen, they should've ordered the spray paint at the very beginning, and present the alloys to me after they've done all the corrections. I wouldn't have batted an eye. This kind of human behaviour makes me sick, and it's overly popular here. This is why lots of people fix their cars, bikes, etc themselves, and don't let "professionals" do it.
 
that's just a bad job tbf ,any powdercoater will get the powder in all areas take it back
 
Already took it back this morning, excuses and empty talk all around, I am not going near that place ever again. W@nkers.

The alloys will look much better, than before, even in this state, so I will put the wheel tape on (cheers Hazz), have the tyres fitted and put the wheels back on this afternoon. The overall look will compensate a bit, I hope.
 
Wheel/rim tape, tow straps, tow hooks, stickers, wind deflectors & 'stance'.... My pet hates.
 
I mostly agree, I would deep fry and eat my own balls, before I put on a tow hook or strap. Also, I never understood these crazy camber angles. In general, most "tuned" cars of present times make me sick. Then again, most people mix up styling with tuning.
 
Not too shabby, you just have to look at it from a distance. :lol: Of course, brake dust everywhere instantly.

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Today was the long awaited day of fitting the RPB front brake discs, yellowstuff pads, oem rear wheel studs, braided brake lines, and changing the brake fluid to EBC 5.1. We did it in the garage of the future father in law of one of my friends. That garage is a piece of automotive heaven, and the guy is a freakin' legend, when it comes to fixing cars. Most of the work we did ourselves, but the guy helped out a lot. It took 7 hours in total, which seems too much at first, but considering the amount of work done, and the fun we had, it was a day well worth it. And in the end, when I wanted to ask how much I needed to pay, the guy said "7 hours... that will be 7 0% beers, and a pack of cigarettes. Seriously, if not for his generocity, I think I would've payed anywhere in the range of 300€ for this. And now for the pictures.

Car up on jacks. Filthy.



Rear brake caliper disassambled. No rust anywhere, the underseal seems to have been done in a good enough way.



I had the pleasure of having a pair of lovely ladies working on my car. One being my girlfriend, and the other the fiance of my friend.



One of the old front brake discs. I don't know how old they were, but both were in horrendous condition. Grooves and vent holes rusted solid, rust all around, plus the left one did shake the front of the car, the hotter it got the worse. It probably had a hot spot problem, and the warp got worse, the hotter it got. I honestly think they were cheap, poorly brake discs, that I would've never put on a car at all. Just look at it! Horrible!



New RPB discs look a lot better, and being painted out of the factory, even between the 2 discs, I'm sure I will see no rust at all. My mate has a gauge to measure the play in the discs (or whatever it's called), both discs were below 0,05 mm.



Rear wheel hub cleaned, and long wheel studs removed. They came out easilly enough after some WD40 treatment.



The sliders in the rear caliper bracket were totally seized. They would not move at all, we had a hard time getting them out.



My friend's future father in law, being the absolute genius he is, quickly fabricated a tool to push the pistons back into the brake calipers. Nothing special, but hella effective, a threaded piece of iron and a long bolt. Flawless.



The sliding pins out of the rear calipers. Rust got them pretty bad, the shape was anything but circular, but we managed to get them out.



The amount of rust out of the slider pins' holes was shocking. I am sending my regards to the previous owners, who totally neglected the brakes. Cleaning up after other people again...



After everything was put togeather, it was time to drain the brake fluid. The father in law had this awesome homemade vacuum pump, which was custom built out of a hospital mucus and spit vacuum machine from the hospital he works at. Genius again, this saved us at least 2 hours today.



The old brake fluid, not pretty... I don't even want to think about when this was changed last.



Obligatory engine bay shot with the work still going on.



Everything fitted on the fronts, it's coming togeather nicely! The Injen CAI having a peek from the background.



It's finally done! RPB front discs, yellowstuff pads, sitting idle beind the freshly powder coated wheels, black center caps and red Muteki wheel nuts.



I must say, this was the biggest job done on the car so far, but I am very happy to have exposed and fixed the weakest point of the car, the brakes. I was fairly happy with them as is, but that's probably because I had no basis of comparison. Since I fried the old Brembo street pads for the first time, I always took it easy with the brakes, then again, until they overheated, they worked okay-ish. Now with about 5 miles done, I must say, the yellowstuff pads are already way better, than the old ones. I have some breaking in to do for the next 200+ miles, but it will be worth it. I am very very happy to know, that the most important thing, the brakes are in top condition on the car. We had a lot of trouble installing everything, due to old rusty bolts etc, but I couldn't be more happy. Pedal feel is a lot better, and the pads have a surprisingly strong initial bite, although still running on the brake-in layer. I'm kinda drunk so I hope all of this makes sense, I will keep you updated!
 
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I would take it back with that finish mate, unacceptable. Sounds like they are making up excuses for a sh***y job...
 
The last 2 days have been an emotional roller-coaster. It turned out, that the parts shop got me the wrong bushing for the front wishbones, the inner ones instead of the front ones. Finally they arrived, and I took the car to the suspension shop, where my friend works. They began taking it apart, and of course as it always happens with sporty cars this old, we got much more than we bargained for. Initially it was a simple bushing change. During disassembly, it turned out, that one of the wishbones was rusted quite bad, so I had to get it welded, and also painted to prevent future rust. On top of this, both the (I have no idea what it's called in english) lower ball joints slipped out of the wishbones, and one broke, so we had to order those as well. Finally, the front ARB could only be removed by cutting the droplinks. So new droplinks went in as well. After all this, it was put back together, wheel alignment was done, and the car feels great, so I was quite happy. Until we noticed, that the front left wheel was filthy with grease... the outside rubber dome ripped open, and it was squirting axel grease everywhere. So now everything is nice and lubricated. I ordered a rubber dome, but of course I forgot to check the right side, so I'll do that tomorrow, but hopefully it will be ok. She's booked to be fixed on tuesday, so I will have to get serious on breaking in the brakes, before the track day on saturday.

Sometimes it feels like whatever I want to fix on the car, I end up with +5 problems to fix.











 
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The ripped rubber dome from the left side half-axle was removed and we put on a new one. The joint didn't want to come off, so we had to remove the whole thing and use a press to get it off. While doing this, I decided to remove the balancer ring. We call them "rotter rings", I've seen many cars, mostly mk7 Civics, where the half-axel rusted away underneeth it, and it broke. Luckilly, on mine the material is fine, it just lost some paint. We painted it, and back in it went. I also ran in the brakes, so now I am cleared for the trackday on saturday :smt109







 
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