Too's ED Shi-bi-ku

[Devcon]

[toocivic]

Another box arrives.

As most of you have gathered, I live Tasmania. One of the challenges of living here has been access to second-hand parts because of the size of the population/ car scene here. As a result of this shipping is always something I have to consider when looking on Gumtree at parts on the mainland, which creates some pretty tight confines for what is feasible. That said, when bargains come up I get on it!


For some time I have been on the look out for something more period/manufacture suitable for my ED. The E30 BMW Bottle-caps were primarily bought because I both needed new tires, which they had, and I wanted something other than the 13" steelies W/ hubcaps the car originally came one. The shoe fit, and the price was good; $100 if I recall correctly.

That said over the last couple years I have been looking for something more in line with the style of the car. Last year I bought some SSR Ex-C Meshies but the offset/width combo proved to be a little too much for the car[more so the rear fitment], and I would have had to run camber arms to get them to sit right...which I'm not really about. They were eventually sold to a MX5 owner who loved 'em.
So the pursuit of something to daily continued, till recently...When these Enkei RP01 popped up on Gumtree in WA.



The construction of these wheels seems super high. These are the first wheels I've seen with a staggered height internal bead, with a pronounced secondary ridge/lip on the barrel. I though these features were mostly seen on the rally wheels.


Now that I can see my brakes I realise how big they look in a 14". Currently I'm just waiting on some hub centric spacers to arrive and then I'll have the RE001's moved over and I'll usher in my JDM daily wheel vibes.


Edit 5/9.
Street shoes on, looking pretty 90's tuned.

[Toddxxx]

Another nice set of rims

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[toocivic]

Future Proofing

Recently I got hold of a secondhand sump off gumtree and had windage tray/baffle plate welded in. It was relatively inexpensive with the sump costing me under $50 and the laser cut insert was like $10 posted, the major cost associated with this future proofing modification was the welding.




Fast tracking this addition was really the result of my sump beginning to weep, and I figured if I could source a sump to have a plate welded in cheaply I may as well as I would have it off to replace the gasket. With a set of semi-slicks lurking under my house, I figured it was worth giving oil control a bit of attention if the budget allowed.

[Toddxxx]

Nice work man. Every car that sees the track needs a baffle imo. Very cheap insurance. When's the next track day?

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[toocivic]

Nice work man. Every car that sees the track needs a baffle imo. Very cheap insurance. When's the next track day?

Yeah I agree, cheap insurance for sure. Next one is the 21st of this month so I better get a wriggle on a install it.

Melbourne Meets

Recently I was in Melbourne visiting some old uni friends and checking out the Hokusai exhibition at National Gallery of Victoria. While I was in town I was able to hang out with a couple members of the small ED/EF Facebook group I'm part of. My trip began with a bit of a hitch with me nearly losing my wallet on the plane[it slipped under my seat] but that stressful moment was offset pretty quickly as I was picked up by @jya_racing in his B18 swapped EK4 from the airport. It was super nice being picked up by someone who you've never met before but totally clicking. Car-life proving to be more than just cars.



EK4 ED6 EF9.

Nick's ED looking good with its Osaka JDM wing and Wedsport TC005. No surprise I'm a fan of the wheels

By no means "a meet" but with it being an AFL grand final/long weekend people's commitments were elsewhere, that said it was super nice to meet some of the people I've been talking to for roughly a year via the FB group. They definitely supported me in my efforts, giving advice and encouragement while I was knee deep in my engine swap. It was great seeing some of their cars too...good chats and chill vibes!

Definitely would like to pop over for a visit/road trip, and potentially hit a couple tracks or meets/shows up. We shall see.

[toocivic]

Do It Yourself Wang.

As most of you know I'm pretty into making/doing things myself in the interest of learning. I've always had a bit of an obsession with hot-rod builds and have always been taken by bare metal finishes. Some time ago I made a couple cardboard templates testing ideas for wing addition as I wanted to make, something with a hammer finish...really just cause.

... So I got hold of a little bit of sheet aluminium and got to transferring the design over. It essentially was a combination of the drag type wings that I have a bit of a soft spot for and a gurney flap.


Such is the process of hammer shaping getting it to this point took a fair bit of time, and a lot of hammering!

Part of the reason for wanting to achieve a finish like this was that I cant think if I've ever seen anyone make something like this before. I imagine the main reason being probably if anyone had to pay someone to make something like this it would cost a fair bit... cause it took me a good 3-4 hours to get the shape, and finish close to something I would say was rough...granted I haven't really had much experience hand shaping metal

You can see in the image below how much further the wing is extended with this addition. It doesn't change angle until the end where there is a gurney flap type termination.


I'm pretty happy I was able to capture the line of the OEM wing and have it follow through on my addition. It was quite fun/challenging to get the corners that are a pretty complex junction of compound curves right. Its definitely a process, I found, of chasing one's tail: each change made having implications elsewhere.

"Have fun"

You can seen in this image there is some blue tape underneath my addition, this was just to stop the wing[addition] from scratching the paint as I was trialing the fitment.

This OEM wing previously had a little gurney flap I had made from aluminium angle. The sticker is slightly cropped by my new addition as it a little further forward than the gurney flap as I wanted to give it a good amount of material overlap [the final fit up will use larger rivets than those pictured]. Once the wrinkle paint dries on the underside I'll fit up the wing for good, using some silicone between the top panels to stop any water getting into the wing cavity.

Its fun making parts!
As far as a part goes making this wing addition was truly challenging. It definitely taught me a lot. I would consider it a dress-up part* since its aero function is probably questionable: I think the "gurney flap" rises about 10mm above the wing plane. Either way it is something I can look at and be pretty proud of.

*Hence why I gave it a bit of a fake patina to bring out the hammer dimples.

Edit: Making this post HEAVY with details.

[toocivic]

...on a less exciting note.

I went over my car with a clay bar and buffed/waxed it, only to have a sun-shower break out.


The beading action was pretty satisfying.

I figured it couldn't hurt and so I used the clay bar on all my windows, a surprising amount of gunk was captured/removed.

[stephen8512]

Such a nice ED man! Love your car

[toocivic]

Such a nice ED man! Love your car

Ah! Thanks man. I love your work on your NA, love the attention to detail. Hopefully I'll be undertaking something similar with a car that may be on the cards in the future...my fingers are crossed. I'm not sure if this will see the sale of the ED but we will have to see.


[Same cafe window, car minus roof racks.]

[stephen8512]

Ah! Thanks man. I love your work on your NA, love the attention to detail. Hopefully I'll be undertaking something similar with a car that may be on the cards in the future...my fingers are crossed. I'm not sure if this will see the sale of the ED but we will have to see.


[Same cafe window, car minus roof racks.]

If you do decide to sell the ED, let me know

[Toddxxx]

Little drag wing looks cool as. Personally I wouldve painted it to match in more but that's me. I also clay bar my windows when doing the car. Lots of stuff you don't really notice comes off every time

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[toocivic]

Little drag wing looks cool as. Personally I wouldve painted it to match in more but that's me. I also clay bar my windows when doing the car. Lots of stuff you don't really notice comes off every time

I did give it some thought, but I figured if I was going to hammer finish something I may as well be honest about it and leave it raw-ish. I think if I painted it the number one question would probably be "why'd you paint it in hammer-finish paint?" I'm sure in the blinding sun it might almost pass




Ultimate track days dress-up kit* is nearing completion, I am having a rear muffler delete with a turn down tip fabricated by a local guy. I'm pretty excited to say the least, it'll have a v-band fitting just before the rear muffler and replace the muffler with tubing. Kind of more a fun dress-up/noise maker part than performance.


Throughout the ownership of the car I have always wrestled with how I feel about owning modified car/wanting to modify a car... I think this "track day dress-up" thing was born from a want to have/build a pretty wild/fun car but knowing that I often park my car on the street and also daily drive it which, I feel, rendered it unfeasible in a long term sense. A second car has always been out of the question.

There have been some loose guidelines around it, the biggest one being that the change over shouldn't take more than an hour since I don't really want to feel like I'm dismantling/rebuilding my car for each track day. I know this is something of a weird post but I think I have only recently come to understand the "fun" of walking this line of low-key daily look and more fun "weekend track kanjo-kaido-whatever-whatever-fanboy" rather than hating on my car a little wishing it was like all the wild Instagram builds I see, and wrongly assume are daily driven...parked on streets! Now more than ever I feel like I'm running on my own time with this build

On the daily front: I recently replaced my A/C idle pulley bearing which has returned air conditioner use to me, I am very happy given that the season has well and truly changed.


*Pretty much consists of: Window net, headlight cover, TE37 x Wedsports, soon to be muffler delete, and Wang.

Would like to rock a headlight duct, but it may take me a little while to finish building as I'm currently preparing to move back to Melbourne.

[toocivic]

My last Baskerville day for some time

As I mention briefly at the end of my previous post I'll be moving to Melbourne at the beginning of next month, so hopefully I'll be able to catch some of you in person at a meet/track day sometime soon. I'm actually very keen to check out Winton Raceway. In the mean time, though a little risky if things were to go awry, I thought I'd squeeze in one more track day.

The two days prior to the track day saw me install my baffled sump and give the car a once over to make sure everything was sweet. After everything was checked over I decided to gather my things together so I could just pack the car after I got home from work the evening before. This final track day was a pretty limited window of opportunity as I would have to go to work the same evening so I really had to be on point packing my car so as not to forget to pack my misc. work stuff. I could easily see myself forgetting something vital for work in the hype of getting packed for the track day.


The more track days I attend the more I become 'laxed about preparing since all the stuff I need is still the same tub from last time.
Its steadily now has consisted of:

Engine Oil
Coolant
Brake fluid
Windex*
Paper towel*
Funnel for oil
Wheel spacers
Hose clamps
Chux
Nitrile gloves
Duct tape
Zip ties.
Tire pressure gauge*

*The most used of all these things, followed closely by the Chux. This is something I'm pretty happy about.

As far as tools go I've been keeping an eye on what I really use when I work on the car, and most frequently in other misc. fabrication stuff. This process has been under way since I did began the engine swap. I have another small tool box which lives under my house that holds the tools I use less frequently( knuckle splitters, crank pulley tool, and the like), but below is a pic of the one I take with me to the track.

Again I really only use a couple of things but it makes me feel more comfortable having this stuff with me. Of the tool box I'd say that the most used item is the 19mm deep socket and torque wrench, to do my wheels up, and the Philips screw driver, for taking my number plates off.





An "early" start is what it consisted of.
Getting up at around 6am and goofing around for half an hour worrying about having all my work stuff I was underway. After looking at how far Winton is from Melbourne I will definitely miss the 30-40 minute drive from my house to the Baskerville, its a distance barely worth considering in the scheme of things.

I'm consistently the first guy to arrive as I like to chill out for a little bit and unload all my stuff as I drink my morning, and very much needed coffee.This time though I had fit my semi-slicks too. I was asked by someone about why I don't just run them on the day and drive out since the commute is so short. I figured if I am going to have spare wheels I may as well use them in that way, and take any opportunity to make the tires last. I was quite excited to see what they felt like to drive on, I had never before driven on a semi-slick tire.


Good! Excellent! Boss-tastic![Honda]Primo!
The car was really transformed! I mean I've always know that it would feel good but this was truly life changing as far as how the car felt. On the Bridgestone RE001's the car always felt a little like it was going to spin out, or understeer, unpredictably... not at all confidence inspiring.
With these tires I felt so much safer which was great!
The scariest corner at Baskerville is a blind corner over the crest of the uphill section which I was always super nervous about with the street tires but even in the first sessions I was able to push so much harder as I could feel how the tire would dig in and grip. Part of me wonders if its the offset difference, total of 36mm track change, making the front softer...I dont know.


The first few sessions I tried to keep things cool and just go out, no camera, no phone timer, and just feel things out. It was really great to see how things were different. The biggest thing was that in sections I was able to gear-up earlier and get onto the power earlier without having to worry about bringing on any understeer.
After a few laps I decided to go in and have a bit to eat, this is generally my tactic as people are always mad keen to get out there in the morning and things can be a little frustrating when there is a lot of traffic...I tend to chill a bit and let people start breaking down, and/or tire. I kept running well through the day, pulling around 80 laps, and managed to dip into the 1:07's with the best being 1:07.84! Very happy!!!


I received a lot of exclamations regarding my wing addition, mostly ending in loose complements about the finish. It does have a couple of little funny bits I'd like to tidy up to make it perfect in my maker's eye but as far as where it was at on the day I was pretty happy.
Who knows if it does anything??! Car feels good either way.


At this point I should talk about the one thing that was a bit of a let down for the day. The brakes were something that I was a little concerned about, I am running a Bendix General pad after all. Through out the day I was leaning on them pretty hard, that said I really wanted to make sure I ran them out before I look at getting something more track oriented... I have been thinking that I will try out a Winmax W2, or a Project Mu NS400.
I'm looking forward to addressing this point of weakness which will bring some more confidence to my driving of the car.

My pads took a beating towards the end of the day as I started to settle into my rhythm with the car. My last set was signalled by a wild screeching coming from my front right hand side, I figured it was the clip/liner on the backing pad grinding so I decided to call it a day. At this point it was around 3pm so it was already a long day at the track.

...party's over, time to get to work.




Epilogue: Brake pad value?

Maybe took it a little too far! thankfully no serious damage to the rotors. The right hand pair[pictured] really copped it, I assume since there are more left hand turns at Baskerville...I don't know though, just an intuitive thought.
I've since replaced the brake pads and re-greased the slides.

[toocivic]

More noise than much else. I need to brake harder, always.