Snoozin

This morning, we fanged across to Caffeine and Classics, then rolled straight back home, where I had intentions of mowing lawns and doing general yard work. Anyway I started cleaning something in the engine bay. Next thing you know it was 6:30pm and I'd just finished cleaning up - after giving the whole engine bay a bit of a tickle with some cleaning products and a range of brushes and micro fibre cloths. Shit I used included - diluted Simple Green (beware, some people have had this stain alloy), Armor All Multi-Purpose cleaner (this shit is amazing on damn near anything) and Interflon Foam Cleaner (beyond incredible cleaner, kind to plastics and electronics, also a weapon on upholstery). Brushes ranged from a toothbrush, up to a soft dish brush. Start - this is in the battery tray corner, the general filth on the firewall is indicative of all the painted surfaces in the engine bay when I kicked off. DC2R Phone (18)-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr No real in-progress shots. I did snap a wee comparison of the old cam cover and the NEW HOTNESS just prior to fitting it up with new seals/gaskets etc. DC2R Phone (19)-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr It looked good before right? But how much is the difference when you line it up against a brand newie! DC2R Phone (21)-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr Basically the end result. I am aware I need to remove a few painted brackets etc and get them recoated. I've also put wheels in motion to buy a whole swag of OEM fasteners to replace anything a bit tarnished/rusty etc. Mainly M6x16 factory ones in the grey zinc finish. DC2R Phone (22)-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr This thing positively glows. It's a thing of beauty. DC2R Phone (23)-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr Even the letters have a shine and crispness beyond anything I've ever seen on a B-series. Machined OEM finish! DC2R Phone (26)-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr Likely the most boring photo I've ever snapped. But it illustrates the finish on the firewall/paint at the end of the proceedings. Turned out pretty good. It's not perfect, no, but it's definitely up there as far as 20-year old engine bays go. DC2R Phone (27)-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr And a parting shot. Pretty chuffed with it all, will carry on with a few more jobs to sort in the bay, and also clean the underside of the bonnet which is quite grubby. Toodle-oo.

DC2R Phone (11)-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr Here's a pic from this evening, it basically looks exactly as it did in post 1. But honestly, I have done a lot of things to it.

Nah it's got 205/45 on it.

Negligible I would have thought, really. Heavier though! Yeah they rattle. I have had basically the whole interior out (including dash!), and replaced all fasteners and anything broken, with something that is not broken. And it still rattles. But so do racecars, and racecars go fast. At least that's my justification.

I've actually done heaps to this, like; - source and fit factory airbox and intake pipe (as seen in pics earlier). - fitted nice new K&N filter. - wheel refubishment finished, tyres remounted etc. - replaced dashboard with one that wasn't cut up where the stereo sits in the DIN slot, also a nicer dashtop than the one in there. - installed new audio. Alpine head unit, Focal components up front, Focal 2-way coaxials in the rear. - existing door trims had been hacked to fit some dubious audio, so replaced those with some sourced from same car new dash came from. Full clean/shampoo of upholstery brought them up A1! - rear interior stripped, everything cleaned, all fasteners sourced and replaced (had maybe 1/3 of what was supposed to be holding the side trims in) replaced and there's not 677864254% less rattles. - front bumper resprayed by Brendan at Platinum refinishers, no more stonechips or cracked paint. Scrapes on underside of lip reappeared pretty quickly while negotiating driveway though. - full Royce-spec paint correction and wax. Including ceramic coating on the wheels (OK I did that bit...). - new OEM Type R stickers on quarters, it had non-OEM ones on there and they weren't put on straight. - boss kit acquired to fit my Personal Neo Grinta wheel (although the plan is a red stitch MOMO Monte Carlo in time). - OEM optional rear strut brace fitted, and shock covers cut and trimmed as per the OEM template you received if you bought this new in period. Did it like they did in 1998 basically. - replaced rear boot carpet with a bloody mint example Mr. Jimmy Lucas scored from Zebra for me. - bought a replacement OEM key cos well, choice, and available. - replacement foam inner for the drivers side Recaro has been purchased ex-UK, just need to install/get @64valiant to help me install. - sourced and fitted an OEM clock, mine had a blanking plate fitted but the Type R-x was supposed to have a clock (loom was there etc) Then I got word Honda NZ had a single, solitary one of these NLA Type R cam covers sitting in their stock. So I thought "that's pretty flippin' neat" and I bought it because magpie. Haven't fitted it yet. 2019-06-24_01-57-46 by Richard Opie, on Flickr So we're sort of nearly where I want it to be. Some stock suspension on it's way from Japanland also. I actually haven't taken any other photos of it yet.

And a coupe.

As @kpr says above, 6.25:1 ratio pedal box in mine (and in his one). Sorry for late reply.

OK so as you can sort of see in those initial shots, the wheels have seen better days. The rest of the car has definitely seen some paint in it's life, it's a bit peely and not super amazing but luckily white tends to hide it a bit. But those wheels. Yeah I needed to do something about those. DC2R Phone (7) by Richard Opie, on Flickr One short trip down to Kwikstrip in Te Atatu, and these were done. Old mate turned them around THE SAME DAY. Who even offers that level of service anymore? Admittedly he did say they didn't have a lot on that particular day so yeah, result. I chose to dip, as it preserves the edges on the spokes nicely, if a blaster isn't careful they can be rounded off etc, end up with slightly different profiles on each spoke. Not ideal. Next step. GT Refinishers. Grant and Ben gave em a coat of champ white. Pretty fresh out of the booth when I picked them up, look not bad at all. Went out for the night so popped them in the living room with the heat pump maxed to try and get the paint to harden a bit quicker. DC2R Phone (8) by Richard Opie, on Flickr The idea was to have them ready to fit tyres on the Saturday. But when we got home it still smelled of paint fumes a bit, so figured they should probably spend a day in the sun. And I just wanted to see them in the daylight. DC2R Phone (6) by Richard Opie, on Flickr Anyway, I didn't fit the tyres then... they were sorted out yesterday. On the car now but ran outta time to go take a reasonable picture. Shit it lifts the appearance maaaassssively.

Quite aggressively valved. It also has 10kg springs in it, I want to go a bit softer, maybe 8/6 in due course. But on a backroad, at pace it is sharp as a knife. Bit of a catch 22 situation. Its tidy but still needs some TLC to get ir really nice, photos are deceiving.

So I flicked the 944. It wasn't something I was intending to do, but a fella on the Porsche Transaxle NZ Facebook page popped up a 'WTB' post and I responded. With a high price. He initially declined, I didn't budge an inch and then a few days late the wife had mysteriously allowed him to purchase the car. He drove across from Tauranga, was rapt with it, and drove it home. Am I upset? No not really, I didn't get especially attached to that one since it burnt me (and my wallet) a lot during my near 2-years of ownership. Decided I wanted another DC2R, some of you might remember my 96-spec I had about 2007-8 and came along to a couple of NZH NIMM's in etc etc way back then. I put the word out that I wanted another one, and happened to meet Tim Bell (unsure if he's on the forum yet?) around this time through some of the other Hamilton fellas and a group chat. Tim being both an excellent human and the owner of a minty fresh DC2R put the word out among of his Type R friends, and turned up this car. DC2R Phone (1)-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr It's a 2000 Integra Type R-X. The 'X' is basically the final run of these cars, from late '99 through to mid 2000. You all know what a 98-spec car had over a 96-spec. But the R-X added to the list with a few more luxury mod cons. Power folding mirrors, 6-speaker audio, blue-tinged faux carbon trim, privacy glass, bla bla bla. Basically the best spec they came in, unless you reckon no options at all is the best. Which is kind of is. But anyway. It took a little bit of negotiation. The seller got semi-cold feet about the whole thing, had a change of heart, then another, and I ended up buying it for a fairly premium price. But it's clean and tidy, with absolutely minimal molestation. When I first viewed it, the car was on TE37, had a Recaro SPG on a fixed rail, was running a Neptune-chipped ECU via adaptor harness (yay no splices etc) but I was happy enough to not bother with all of that as I wanted as close to stock as possible. As it stands, the car has a Mugen Gen 1 exhaust (cat delete via welded in stainless pipe), and Ohlins adjustable coilovers as it's only mods. Which is fine. Oh and a very terribad Japan-spec hodgepodge stereo of shitness. DC2R Phone (2)-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr But the good! It's clean, straight, has new rotors, Endless pads, 160000km on the odo, a VERY clean engine inside and out, great even compressions, the suspension has $1700 worth of recent rebuild receipts, excellent black Recaros, tidy dash and is the perfect base for what I want. Actually I need to speak to @64valiant about replacing the bolster on one side of the drivers Recaro. DC2R Phone (4)-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr My plans? Chuck some nice fresh audio at it - I've bought a stack of Focal speakers, have a nice Image Dynamics amp and an Alpine bluetooth headunit for it. Tidy up the alarm/install a new one, refurbish the tired OEM wheels, go through all of the tarnish fasteners beneath the bonnet and replace with nice fresh ones. You get the idea. DC2R Phone (5)-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr I'll leave you with these phone shots for now - once I have the wheels done and dusted I'll be heading out for some proper shots with my big boy camera at some stage. Nice to be back though. Forgot how addictive these wee engines really are. And how rattly and generally shitty they are/racecar.

OK so the motor is pretty much ready to drop in. 2019-03-12_04-30-05 by Richard Opie, on Flickr I've been tidying things up, thanks to blasting and VHT Epoxy black. Fuck I love VHT Epoxy black. 20190102_164709 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190120_184608 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190120_184624 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190120_184637 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190120_184653 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190120_184724(0) by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190127_124320 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Even the wiper linkages got a refresh! 20190216_154907 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Sump and crossmember also got the treatment. 20190219_185312 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Back on with a bit of Toyota Grey Sealant and carefully torqued up oil pan bolts. As an aside, when I took this off to have a nosy in the engine also, it turned out the oil pump bolts were only finger tight. Whew. 20190105_160736 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Nick the Sparky helped me rebuild the alternator and starter. 20190126_133528 by Richard Opie, on Flickr @Stu popped in and finished up the wee loom for the front of engine bits, so the cam/crank sensors etc are all sorted out. Here's kpr's lush crank angle sensor installed, in blurryish technicolor. Project KP61 2019 (6) by Richard Opie, on Flickr Project KP61 2019 (10) by Richard Opie, on Flickr Project KP61 2019 (90) by Richard Opie, on Flickr I've chucked all the brand new plastics/seals on the front (Toyota still carry a lot of things) and stuck the new 4AGE sticker on the front. Important. Project KP61 2019 (84) by Richard Opie, on Flickr Project KP61 2019 (75) by Richard Opie, on Flickr Project KP61 2019 (21) by Richard Opie, on Flickr This weekend the idea is to drop it back in the hole and then at some point wire it all up. Yay? YAY!

Worthwhile point! All of the holes on the pedals are raised around the edges, but I guess it won't be too tricky to make up some pedal things with skateboard grip tape or similar on them if Mr Certman deems it no good. I just hope it works tbh.

Would've been rude as to not fit these things up, hey? 20190302_175341-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190302_175351-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr The sparkle doesn't kick off quite as well when it's out of sunlight. But I'm pretty hyped on the aesthetic. So while the motor is out, I at least need to crack on with a few other wee jobs. The pedal box was something that needed addressing. Previously, I had the big old "long" style Wilwood master cylinders which have a press on cap with a 3/8" push on fitting for rubber hose on the inlets. It became fairly apparent that there just wasn't going to be any room behind the dash for this kind of hose... the OD of it is MASSIVE, and 3 lengths from the reservoir (yet to be mounted) to the cylinders wasn't really possible. So, I decided to change to the GS "Compact" master cylinders. Ordered from Jegs, got here within a couple of weeks. Same sizes. 3/4" for front, 5/8" rear, 3/4" clutch. 20190227_193343-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Primary reason for the change was to use a -4AN fitting for the inlets, which these have. Inlet is at the far end of the cylinder. 20190227_193416-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr So of course, a test fit to the mounting frame was required. Pretty straight forward, and the space saving is an added bonus. It's getting pretty crowded behind the dash! You can visualise how much shorter they are by the outlet hardlines that are still in place from the old master cylinders. 20190227_200449-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190227_200554-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Following this, I had GSS (thanks @legendlives and co for the continued great service) sort the hardlines out to suit the new cylinders. Pics in a bit of that. All stripped back, I shot across to see Jon at Strange Workshop and had a hoon on his blasting cabinet. 20190306_215500-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190306_215445-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Naturally, a coat of paint was in order. Etch primed and top-coated with black epoxy rattle cans. The VHT stuff comes out super nice! 20190310_131148-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Finally, assembly for the final time (I hope) although there is a very real probability that I'll need to fuck around with the master cylinders to get the brakes feeling right. Pretty chuffed with the end result. You can see the banjo fittings and excellent hardline work in these shots. Nice and compact and tucked well out of harms way ( @cletus might confirm if I need to chuck a P-clip in there, it's well under 300mm from banjo to bulkhead fitting though). 20190311_182910-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190311_182918-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190311_182958-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190311_182937-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr DISCUSSION EVEN!

Got wheels for it ages ago, but need to have it sitting lower really before they go on.

It has really tested me. I've organised some new rear shocks, and will start piecing together a nice suspension setup over winter.

I put those brakes back together, they look freakin mint and the Endless pads are awesome. It's got Goodridge braided lines and etc too now. Aside from that I have just been driving it. It's running super nice and didn't break down or give me any drama once, all summer. 1991 Porsche 944 S2 2019 (58)-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr 1991 Porsche 944 S2 2019 (48)-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr 1991 Porsche 944 S2 2019 (31)-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr 1991 Porsche 944 S2 2019 (10)-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr 1991 Porsche 944 S2 2019 (154)-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr

A bit of chequebooking. I prepped these and Ben at GT Refinishers chucked a luscious coat of blue matched to the Cusco strut tops, with added sparkzazz. 2019-02-27_09-44-44 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Yeah nice.

Been tidying up the engine thing, painting lots of stuff, reconditioning the starter and alternator, etc etc. Here's a few phone pictures of how it's looking. With assistance from @kpr I've adopted his trigger arrangement for the cam/crank, this has meant the dizzy can be turfed completely. 20190224_170300-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190224_170315-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190224_170451-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190224_170348-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190224_170355-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190224_170410-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Also attached an SQ Engineering reverse down-pull throttle linkage to the ITB, in the interest of simplifying the cable run. 20190224_163540-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr New 4AGE sticker. This will stick to the new OEM cambelt cover. 2019-02-26_11-24-31 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Sort of where I am at now. @Stu is going to come and give me a hand to terminate those sensor wires into a nice easy to detach loom, and then the engine is pretty much ready to go back into it's home. The silver cam covers are temporary, the blue ones will return soon with a new finish that's pretty damn epic I think.

Monday 4th I am heading back bro. Shout if you still need a lift.

Did ya print out a woof to go with the plate and the rego tag?

So the engine bay thing kind of took off. Some egging on by a certain lanky Auckland member... Motor out. 20181216_135918 by Richard Opie, on Flickr You can see, there's multiple useless holes in the firewall. These include, but are not restricted to the original heater inlet/outlet, brake booster, loom, aircon and all the other weird shit that I don't need anymore. Same goes for the brackets on the firewall. So what next? KP61 Phone-1 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Trekked down to see @oftensideways with the KP in tow. For those of you who don't know Sean, he's a freakin wizard, and a top bloke to boot. Someone I am privileged to consider among my mates. He'd agreed to weld up the engine bay for me, and with Bex being away visiting her family over the break it was a great excuse for me to get out of the house and go for a bit of a drive. KP61 Phone-2 by Richard Opie, on Flickr I didn't really get many shots in progress, but here's what the firewall looked like when it was time to load up and hit the road (the next day, even!). All of the large holes have been filled with steel patches. MIG'd in place then TIG welded to finish. The little stuff with captive nuts on the other side have been filled by MIG welding. Then a bunch of hammer and dolly work to get the shape back. And so we took off home. Straight into @sheepers shed... as I said, this all happened a bit quicker than I am used to. KP61 Phone-3 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Front off, subframe and suspension out. Then onto the labourious job of prepping for paint. KP61 Phone-4 by Richard Opie, on Flickr This is after the initial prep work for a coat of high build primer. You'll note the brake line holes and etc in the inner guards have also been filled. Thought it was a good idea while I was down at Seans to do it once and properly. This first prep really started to reveal just how good the job Sean did was. High spots at an absolute minimum - which is great, as these are way harder to fix than low spots, for obvious reasons. KP61 Phone-5 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Sheepers sprayed the first coat of primer on the bay that same night. Was a fairly long day, but super cool nonetheless to see an inkling of what the final product was going to be like while the primer was still wet. Promising. Of course, lots, and lots, and lots of sanding still to come... KP61 Phone-6 by Richard Opie, on Flickr This is after a wet sand. A whole days worth of wet sanding. You can see all the red spot filler on the firewall. This is ALL WE NEEDED TO FILL IN. Let that sink in for a while. After the amount of welding heat and bashing that had gone into the firewall, the requirement to crack out the bog was slim to nil in the end. That's how damn good Sean is. Regardless of how good it was, I ended up with trench-hands from being in wet gloves all day, which was equal parts gross and hilarious. But then the second coat of primer went on... KP61 Phone-7 by Richard Opie, on Flickr HOW GOOD. The followup to this was pretty much a rinse and repeat of the earlier scenario. But with more hand sanding, and less power assistance. Definitely a learning process, figuring out how best to make the paper do the work, while maintaining a smooth surface ready for the base coat. KP61 Phone-8 by Richard Opie, on Flickr This was about the moment I began to properly fizz. Couldn't stay in the shed while it was being sprayed as I didn't have appropriate respiratory protection, but when the door rolled up... this shot of the bay coated in a colour matched red was the result. Not bad? Major tent pants moment was still to come, however. KP61 Phone-9 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Look at that! You could bloody go swimming in that gloss. Sheeper was a little bit apprehensive to try the clearcoat I bought (that was recommended by the joker at CarColors Albany) since different product can apparently yield very different results if you're not familiar with spraying it. But how good is the result, testament to the multi-talents of the lanky fella on the gun. A couple of runs for sure, and a little bit of dirt got in the paint - expected for spraying it in a garage. But nothing that can't be very easily fixed. Today was a day off working on it - from go to whoa this took 5 days in total. I'm heading back tomorrow to touch up the underseal in the guards and also reassemble the car, take it back to the shed it lives in and crack on with the engine while I let the paint harden enough to wet sand or cut/polish the imperfections out. Thanks for looking.

I fitted an adaptor from a GX81 with an auto box to my T50. Maybe it will fit a W series. It just screwed into the spot where the cable normally goes, and spits out the relevant signal. $20 or so from pick a part. I am using a Stack ST3800 series speedo.

It's a Starlet so it's worth maybe 1500 - 2k max.

Been a long time since I looked at this, due to obvious reasons. Anyway, pulled it out of it's corner in George's shed, and washed all the crud off it a short while ago. 20180520_122558 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20180520_122541 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20180520_130720 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Before it got put away, it has had a new/modified body loom by Nick the Sparky. All of the lights/wipers/fan/dash/fuel pump etc all works on it again now, battery is relocated to the boot with an isolator, various other things. The electric mirrors even work now, for the first time since I have owned it. I also installed finished the fuel tank, and sealed it with that POR15 kit. Made a right mess, and had to repaint it. Now it's shiny black with some metallic flake in it because the painter thought it'd be a giggle. Uh, did some other stuff too. Just a phone photo for now, but hopefully I can recommence with good shots in due course. 20180520_161320 by Richard Opie, on Flickr I've been pretty disillusioned with it, but have decided to try and have one last crack at being interested in it and if I can't make meaningful progress then it needs to leave my possession. But fairly confident I can sort something. Sheepers popped around and helped me take the engine out the other day, so I can bugger off and fill in all the holes that are in the bay.

^ I'm picking it's the cord, or the source unit has a cover or something preventing full engagement of the plug so only one contact is working.