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Nidge's Cosmic EP3

Had a spare hour the other day so I removed the roof rubbers and gave them a clean. While I was at it I cleaned out the roof gutters:





Also ordered a few small bits and bobs to tidy the car up.

I got a new front H badge as the current one is cracked. I also bought some brake and clutch pedal rubbers as the current ones are getting rather worn and a set of SuperPro rear arb bushes.

Achieved my first JDM bonus points as well :lol: Ha ha. I bought a JDM rear arb, a Hamp oil filter and a JDM coin holder (see 500 YEN coin in cheesy photo ;))








I still need to get some drop links so I can fit the arb. Probably going to get the Meyle HD ones as a few people on here seem to have them.

Thanks for looking.
 
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A bit more tidying and cleaning yesterday. Thought I would remove the bonnet sound proofing and give the underside of the bonnet a clean. Haven't noticed a massive increase in cabin noise. If it bothers me too much I will put it back on but I prefer the look without it.





Thanks for looking.
 
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Very nice and clean Cosmic :)

I've just purchased some SuperPro ARB bushes too, looking forward to getting them on!

Keep the updates coming!
 
Very nice and clean Cosmic :)

I've just purchased some SuperPro ARB bushes too, looking forward to getting them on!

Keep the updates coming!

Thanks a lot.

Hoping to get the drop links in a couple of weeks then I'm going to try fitting the JDM arb myself. Hopefully see a small improvement in handling over the standard arb.

Also waiting for new clips for my grill so I can get that back on with the new badge.
 
Fitted the new front H badge the other day.

Grill was a bit fiddly to get off. Managed not to break any clips but after cleaning the grill and putting the new badge on I couldn't face having the old clips back on so got some new ones.

Much nicer now compared to the old cracked badge:


 
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Bought an EP3 2 days ago, bog standard as far as I am aware. I won't be modding YET, so will just be doing the odd little thing here and there. Loving what your doing with your car, I'll be keeping an eye on this thread.

Where's the subscribe button!? :)
 
Bought an EP3 2 days ago, bog standard as far as I am aware. I won't be modding YET, so will just be doing the odd little thing here and there. Loving what your doing with your car, I'll be keeping an eye on this thread.

Where's the subscribe button!? :)

Thanks for the kind comments. I'm trying to get the easy (read as cheap!) jobs done first. Hopefully build up to some useful mods later on once I'm happy with everything else and I decide what to do.

I think once you reply to a post you are automatically subscribed to it. I get emails updating me on posts I have already replied to.

Don't forget to get some picks up of your EP3.

Cheers.
 
So I finally got round to fitting my JDM anti roll bar today. The ARB was purchased second hand but unused. I fitted some SuperPro bushes and I went for the Meyle heavy duty drop links.

Firstly I used my trolley jack positioned on the rear sub frame to raise the car enough to get my axle stands into position as jacking the car up from the towing eye didn't raise the car high enough.





The next stage was where the fun begins! Removing the old drop links.





I sprayed the rusted nuts and bolts with Plusgas dismantling lubricant. After lots of swearing I did manage to loosen the nuts unfortunately just when I thought I had cracked it they got completely stuck part way off. ](*,)

I swore a bit more and got the angle grinder out. It was clear to me early on that this wasn't going to work, mainly because as soon as I started the cutting disc smashed to bits. I then realised I was using a disc designed for cutting stone! Oops! :eek:

Anyway I had managed to loosen the bolts enough to get a small hacksaw to it and after some scraped knuckles I finally got the drop links off the car. I used Plusgas again on the bracket bolts holding the ARB and bushes in place and luckily these were very easy to remove. I was then ready to fit the new ARB.

New vs old ARB alongside SuperPro bushes and Meyle heavy duty drop links:





It was much easier putting it all back together. I greased the bushes before putting them on the new ARB.

I then attached the new ARB, drop links and bushes back onto the car.







Spot the deliberate mistake in the photo above. Yes I did put the right hand bracket on the left hand side of the car. When I took them off the were filthy so assumed the brackets were identical. This has now been rectified and after checking everything was aligned correctly I tightened everything up before putting the wheels back on.

The finished job:



Thanks for reading.
 
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By the way did you spot my second deliberate mistake? Yes I put the ARB on upside down!

It's now the right way round.








All in a days work.
 
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Not much happening since the JDM arb was fitted. Due to traffic and daily commute haven't really had chance to see if the thicker arb makes much difference.

Still I got the car prepped for winter. Gave it a thorough clean topped off with a sealant to protect it over the winter months.








 
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Stunning mate! Attention to detail, and detailing is fantastic, Proper clean! Definitely recognize this floating around.
 
Thanks for the comments. Just got myself a polishing machine so hopefully bringing the detailing up a level this year.
 
I wasn't happy with the centre caps as they had faded over time:





With the cost of new replacements so high I thought I would try and respray them and put new stickers on. Unfortunately I made a bit of a hash of it so have been driving around without any centre caps for the last 6 months.

After months of looking I managed to get a decent second hand set for a bargain £12. I am very pleased to have found these:


 
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I took my car in for it's first MOT since I purchased it last April and it passed with no advisories.

Pleased with that. Not bad for a 12 year old car.
 
Not surprised there were no advisories to be honest, she's well cared for . I was thinking to myself just the other day how great EP3's look for their age.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Thanks. Luckily I think I found a good one. Seems it was looked after by previous owners and now I'm trying to do the same.

I agree they still look great and by the way yours is looking good too. You have done a lot of good work on it.
 
After seeing a few EP3's without tinted windows I decided that I prefer the original look and as I don't have a Premier it seemed the right thing to do.

So the tools for the job were:





Other brands of hair dryer are available!

I began by heating a corner in one of the side windows for a couple of minutes. Once I did this I used the razor blade to carefully peel back a small piece of window tint film. I continued to heat the window tint while slowly peeling away at the tint. You need to generate a reasonable amount of heat so that not too much glue is left behind.





With the rear window it was more tricky. I needed to be careful of the heating elements and with a cold wind I struggled to remove the tint without leaving a load of glue behind.





To tackle to the leftover glue I used Auto Finesse Verso at a ratio of 1:5 as a degreaser and CarChem Tar & Glue remover. I used some microfibre applicator pads and a soft brush to agitate the glue.

Once I got it all off I used AutoGlanz Moonshine glass cleaner to clean the windows.





I was pleased with the end results:








Thanks for looking.
 
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Decided to do my oil change today.

Here is the oil and filter of choice:





Used a trolley jack to get the car up onto the axle stands:





Got the sump plug out without difficulty and used a suitable container for draining the oil:





Things got a bit more tricky when removing the oil filter:





Whoever put this one on did it up far too tight. I tried it by hand which was a waste of time. I then used a screw driver and hammer to tap around the rim. It didn't budge and in the process I ended up piercing the filter so there was a nice oily mess. I took this opportunity to use the screwdriver in the filter as leverage but this didn't work either.

In the end I went to my local car parts place and he ordered me a proper removal tool. It was going to take a couple of hours to turn up so I got on with this while I was waiting:





I needed to undo the centre console as one of the bulbs had blown. I am in the process of ordering the replacement bulbs and I have also ordered a new double din surround as the other one doesn't fit properly.

Anyway a couple of hours later I had the proper filter removal tool and had the old one off in a jiffy.

Oil was all topped up and no sign of any leaks. Job done and I'm happy.

Thanks for reading.
 
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Following up from having the centre console in bits the replacement bulbs and stereo fascia arrived.





Everything back together and working.


 
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