My new car!

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Tue Mar 15, 2011 9:14

Oh I really like it too, I was just giving you a hard time. And since you had to modify the bracket, I think it technically qualifies as fabbing LOL.

I can't believe Matt fit back there. My best friend fit back there on the storage bins one time when 3 of us were going to a bar/club, but it certainly wasn't comfortable...especially when our other friend sitting in the front called him on purpose so he had to dig his phone out of his pocket LOL.

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Wed Mar 16, 2011 9:14

Bwahaha! I can't imagine anyone fitting back there on top of the bins...there would literally be NO headroom.

I can confirm there is no way in hell I'm fitting back there. Well, I actually can, with the front seat all the way up and the seat back tilted all the way forward AND the rear hatch open so I can stick my head out of it.

At least my 5'4" Fiance can actually fit back there comfortably. Of course comfortable is a loose term but she said she could hang back there for a good 2-3 hour drive max. I'm happy with that.

But really, they aren't to transport people, but my two small dogs and also bags. I did confirm my duffel bag can stand vertically in the seat so I really did gain a large amount of head room.

I just got my new AutoMeter mechanical boost gauge to replace the AEM electrical gauge. Damn that stupid hard plastic boost hose is a PITA! Got it all installed finally and I am going for a test drive to try it out and do some quick tuning. Pictures will be up later!

Learjet45 · Postby **Learjet45** » Wed Mar 16, 2011 9:14

Pics damn it!

dozer · Postby **dozer** » Wed Mar 16, 2011 9:14

Good choice on cars man, The ware house shot is way sexy too.

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Wed Mar 16, 2011 9:14

Well my buddy was laying down across them, which made it really hard to get the phone out of his pocket lol.

And why didn't you just use silicone vacuum line instead of what was provided?

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Wed Mar 16, 2011 9:14

^Thanks guys!

Here are some crappy pictures. It took me too long to get everything done this afternoon so I ran out of daylight before I could get any good pictures.

You can tell the door panels are shinier than the OEM black dashboard, but to the casual observer it looks like Armour-All IMO. Not a big deal but if I can get my hands on some the Satin Black dye I'll probably re-do it.

Took the car for a shakedown run tonight and now with the resonated midpipe and the rear seats the car is pretty quiet. It's weird! Only problem is at 80mph I have a vibration through the wheel that I don't remember having before, which is weird. Also there is a weird "loose metal clips" sound coming from the rear of the vehicle I'll have to investigate further.

I can say for sure though I am keeping the tan carpet and headliner. Matt was correct in saying the all black interior makes it feel almost like a coffin. It does feel more confining now with the black door panels and rear, but at the same time, looks larger. Hard to explain, probably just because it's different.

Overall though I very satisfied with the results thus far!

EDIT: Eric, it has this weird hard plastic hose with a compression fitting and ferrule you have to use. No way to use a silicone hose since there is no way to connect it. Kind of a bitch but at the same time the hard plastic line won't break easily and it smaller so in theory easier to route that a big silicone hose.

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Thu Mar 17, 2011 9:14

Oh OK, I didn't know you couldn't use vacuum line. That makes sense then haha.

Hey, at least you never have to put armor all on the door panels LOL. On the downside you ALWAYS have to have armor all everywhere else LOL.

Postby **RX-7 Chris** » Thu Mar 17, 2011 9:14

the FD rear seat has a ton more room than the FB rear seat. In the FB, you can't fit anyone over 3' tall period.

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Thu Mar 17, 2011 9:14

^Yeah, the FD rear seat kit is nice because it sits pretty low. The biggest issue is headroom since most people's heads are places where the rear hatch glass starts to slope down. For me, my legs are just too long. I knew I wouldn't be able to fit back there anyways so it's no big deal.

Haha Eric, i thought about Armour-All'ing my dash and crap but I really don't like the stuff, how it leaves everything all greasy. At least my door panels are greasy! The difference isn't too bad, is it?

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Thu Mar 17, 2011 9:14

It's not that big of a deal, I wouldn't worry about it. I think the door panels turned out pretty well. If you could find something more matte-like, I would do that though. But if not I wouldn't worry about it.

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 9:14

That's my thinking. If i can find some satin dye locally I'll do it, but for the meantime I'm keeping it.

My passenger grab/oh-shit! handle is also officially broken off on the top mount, a very common issue. I'm lucky because most of the "common" FD interior issues haven't occurred with my car. None of my dash pieces are cracked, my map pocket lid is in great shape, and up until two days ago, my passenger grab handle was only a little loose. The only typical problem I have is my Bose CD player is dead. Apparently those things fail more than college frat boys puke because you literally can't find one in working condition!

I want to get the SakeBomb aluminum handle but it's over $300...for a stupid piece of cast aluminum. I get it's a niche specialitly part and I couldn't recreate my own for cheaper, but that's a stupid amount of coin for a handle. I guess the OEM handle is even more expensive, though. Maybe I'll get creative and make some kind of bracket to brace it.

Postby **RX-7 Chris** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 9:14

What about eastwood? They do sell a satin black.

http://www.eastwood.com/specialty-coatings/interior.html

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 9:14

^I didn't even think about that. Thanks for the link! I'll have to check it out.

Just connected up the AEM wide band datalogging wires to the FC Datalogit box. I used a polynomial equation to configure the voltage to AFR reading in the FC Edit software. I started the car up and it looked good. My gauge was showing 12.5:1 and the laptop was showing the same on my Map Watch.

All was good until I got driving. Apparently it's only accurate right now between 10.0:1 and 14.0:1. Anything above 14 and is starts reading richer for some reason? When I let off the throttle the wideband obviously goes full lean, which is the full 5 volts, but the FC Edit is telling me it's 9.5:1! Which I don't get because the equation puts the full 5 volts at 19.8:1, so why the hell is it reading 9 to 1?

I thought it was maybe leaving the first number off but that's not it, either, because when I am cruising at 15:1 or so it showing 12.8 or so. This makes tuning cruise very difficult because I can't log it accurately. At least I still have accurate numbers for boost tuning because it reads accurately where I should be, but if I have a lean spot I won't know since it will average in the false rich number! This is annoying.

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 9:14

As for the SakeBomb handle, there is another place that is going to produce it for cheaper, ChipMotorsports, he is To Slow on 7club and To_Slow on RCC. It's funny because when he mentioned he was going to make them and for how much, RotorMotor (Heath from SakeBomb) got all defensive but he was saying he welcomed competition. He will get on there and make snide comments about "lower quality" stuff "produced outside the USA" and say that they will go toe-to-toe on pricing, yet they charge so much and say they are barely making anything as it is? Something is fishy. Heath is acting like a little kid and honestly it makes me never want to buy anything from SBG.

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Sat Mar 19, 2011 9:14

^Yeah, I'm not a fan of how they conduct business sometimes. Oh well.

Plumbed the boost controllers this morning. It was easier than anticipating getting the factory baked-on rubber hose off the primary turbo actuator. Part of the install is to bypass the factory boost control solenoids, but with the PFC I can simply adjust the duty cycle to 0 to keep them wide open.

Going to road test in a few. Also going to street tune Matt's RX-8 this afternoon!

My new car!

Who is online