I just brought my Mazda 5 to a custom ECU and transmission remap this morning. Can't believe a good remap will wake everything up and I will never shop again whatever chip / ECU tuning for all my cars. It is not about big HP gain, a 2.0L NA with 5spd auto and heavy body won't have a day and night different. Now the torque curve, the exhaust note, the gear and throttle response are so much quicker and smoother.

I was told to install the stock airbox back into the car, the guy said: "your CAI is not making any hp, you lose so much low end torque."

2000+ km's on the Hagerty Spring Thaw highlighted some issues with my new front-end setup on the 1958 Beetle. Once you load the car with luggage, spares, co-driver and enthusiastic driving...the front tire clearance goes from tonnes to zero. Whelp, that was an expensive one-weekend tire! Came home, and tore the whole front suspension out of the car:
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I will be installing a new 2" narrowed front beam, which will essentially put the front track width back to the factory width. The disc brake and spindle combination bumped each front wheel out by about 3/4", and the modern tires are wider/more square so the problem was compounded. Normally one would order spring packs already 2" narrower, but they were out of stock so I have to make my own out of a set of stock torsion springs. Dimpling spring steel is not easy!

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I'll cut the spring packs down in length tonight, and the parts I found missing in my front end (upper mount rubbers, bolts and mounting plates) will be here tomorrow for the reinstall.

In the meantime, I started to make some swarf on the lathe...
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And roughed out half of the Porsche 356 wheel spacers I need for the rear axle of the beetle. The factory units were threaded onto the studs, which was presumably so they didn't lose them in a racing pit-stop...but is otherwise a terrible idea on many accounts. So mine aren't threaded, and will simply slide over the new studs I picked up.
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Once I've got the other five roughed in, they'll all go onto the mill for a couple of passes to ensure they are the exact same thickness (20mm). I may take the time to polish them, but haven't worked out how much material I'll lose in the process. I have all the gear to anodize them at home, except for the acid, but it's such a caustic process I'm not sure I have the motivation to do it :P

Sort of lost track of time in the shop yesterday. Went in for an hour after work, walked out at 1:45am wondering why I was hungry.

When I glanced over your reply, I was pretty sure it said "BBQ duck at the track".

Eyes < Brain < humor

:lol

On the weekend, but got the following sorted:

Assembled the new front end, and got it up into the car. Lifting, aligning, and bolting in a semi-built front beam is NOT fun with a single person! Converted the front and rear axle to studs and nuts, as opposed to lug bolts.
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Finished machining up the Porsche 356 style rear spacers...which move the rear wheels out to an acceptable position from previous.
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I've had black carpet in the car since I first finished it, mostly because it was being used for TV and they prefered to have the whole interior black. When I reupholstered to the red, carpet wasn't in the budget. I was possibly going to have the car hired out for the month of May, and for that client the interior was important. So bought the fastest carpet kit I could get, even though it's not the colour I really want. Oh well, it's an upgrade for now!
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Drives fantastic on the new setup, no tire rub even with two of us and full luggage. With gas prices the way they are, it's quite the car. Filled up the tank in Princeton, drove it all the way to Squamish. Still wasn't out of fuel. Rally Bug can almost get to Chilliwack :P

Took care of a number of small issues on the car, but my quick rebuild on the howling speedometer was a failure. It locked up, and took out the cable. Gotta send it out for a proper rebuild and/or buy another unit.

-Dave

It's in. Only took me 5 months LOL

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RTD Shifter + DSSR + Gesrshift Selector Rod Joint Bushing + Revshift Trans Mounts compared to OEM BMW Shifter Lever, Shifter Carrier Arm, and Selector Rod.

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This is what DSSR looks like installed

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Test fit/test drive

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Finished.

How does it feel ? Like a rifle bolt action now? I miss driving a stick shift so much.

Feels great! Replacing the shifter rod joint bushing was a big part of it, before you could just flop that around with little to no force.

You tell me if it sounds like a bolt action :
Only issue is that I ran out of time. Currently my 1/2 is dead center, but it should be 3/4 at center. I just need to find a tiny hex key that will clear the cig tray area, with enough leverage to do the adjustment.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

That sounds so snickety, well done! well done!

My buddy has an r8 in manual and that shifter is godly. Just clink clink into the metal gates.

Not sure if anyone else had this problem, but the windshield on my WRX was unbearably foggy when it rained. I've always had this really bad smear kind of like permanent water spots since new. Best described as if you were taking a picture with a lens that you just smudged your finger over. Except I wasn't able to remove the smudge until today! I've tried literally everything and I've never gotten the smudge off until I used some carpro glass polish (I think any polish with cerium would work). Topped it off with some Glaco water repellent (thousand times better/longer lasting than RainX) and I can honestly say that my glass truly feels invisible. Time to do the same to my other cars :okay:

Does the Glaco water repellent cause glare? RainX caused that issue for me.

Helped a friend to install a 616g shift knob who bought it from a local guy
Man, the stock 350z shift knob was a PITA to remove. We used a pipe wrench and end up damaged the stock knob.
The 616g feels very solid and comfortable.

I had a ton of old shift knobs from my Subaru days. The great thing about the Subaru knobs is that their diameter is much bigger than most automatic sticks. A few mins on Amazon, and a few days for shipping, and I was in possession of an adapter to play with.

I have been using the factory TRD knob from day one, and while nice, it's a common knob in the Tundra world. You can see it in this pic here.

https://i.imgur.com/9hxHNcN.jpg


On to the adapter.

First off, I had to try out one of my old school jdm bubble knobs.
https://i.imgur.com/aaNrctF.jpg
First impression, this thing is hilarious. It's big, bold, and gets in the way. But it brings me back to the days when we used to extend our knobs and e-brakes because jdm :lol

Second, I tossed on my STi-WR1 knob. It's a beautiful, heavy machined knob that came with the WR1 special edition STi. I loved this knob when I had my STi, and it doesn't disappoint in my truck.
https://i.imgur.com/eQf4qFa.jpg

At this point I knew what I wanted to do. So I reattached my TRD knob and went back to Amazon to order a leather boot. That should finish the look well.

This is in it's original element, a 2004 STi WR1. The leather boot completes the look and is much cleaner than running it without.
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Haven't noticed any glare so far. I've heard RainX couldve caused that smear issue I had as well.

@hypa - how did you have a RHD 2004 STi? They've only been legal for a couple months.

I think the STi is a pic of the Internet to show how the shifter would look with the shifter boot and all.

I installed the Weathertech liners in my 4Runner today in the front and second row.

Feels so much better than the standard OEM Toyota rubber floor mats.

tried foam cannon for the first time
was more watery than soapy, probably wrong setting

installed trunk popping spring, sill plates, replaced climate control/moonroof button bulbs

tried Meguiar's Supreme Shine Protectant on a plastic surface (the dash) was looking dull from the light dusting & sun fade...did an amazing job i recommend it over armor-all Protectant any day how the fresh shine came out

says its not a cleaner but using a microfiber clothe it sure picked up a lot of crap wiping off on the clothe....so use a microfiber clothe and not cheap paper towl..worked amazing.

I don’t post my daily updates in here, but today was a big day!

Intercooler piping cut, fit and welded. Getting close!

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Which shop did you go with if you don't mind me asking? I am looking for a good tuner for my Supra. In the meantime. I got some cheap rice for my supra. I can't believe I paid like 20USD + international shipping for 20washers or something from PW:JDM before.

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search AMS on facebook, they are in Yuen Long. Their new dyno is coming soon, so you might want to ask before you go.

Got my Amazon special shift boot in yesterday and I couldn't wait to put it all together.


old.
new.
https://i.imgur.com/vmwV7rG.jpg

Still a little dildo-ey.
:fuckthatshit:


So I tried the WR1 knob.

old.
new.
https://i.imgur.com/8ttjxAB.jpg

Total cost was about $15, and I'm really happy with the vinyl boot. I'm going to have one made from Alcantara using the dimensions I came up with using this boot. That should match the wheel perfectly.

I didn't do this, but Aria did. Well, I did 25% of it until I got stuck with a seized ball joint. Swapped those Chinese control arms and sway bar links with Meyle HD. The first two hours went perfectly, the next two not so much, and then the next 8 hours were hell. Hammered the hell outta the control arms with a sledgehammer for hours, but the ball joint was stuck on the steering knuckle. Finished the front right, but I ended up just taking it to Aria.

Anyway, car drives pretty good now. No more hesitation in the drivetrain due to cracked guibo, no more rear steering feeling under braking (had the RTABs replaced with Z4 RTABS + limiter shims), alignment done. It's great!

Time for something that I can do - brake rotors/flush and engine/trans mount. Gonna install the Revshfit 95a poly bushings next, with blank rotors, and fluid change with ATE Type 200.


Wish me luck LOL

i finally swapped out my shabby rear bumper and rotten rear crash bar.
Installed a facelift rear bumper in better condition.
The crash bar was basically at the point of crumbling. No crumple zone anymore. Swiss cheese yo!
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Also installed a felpro oil pan gasket a week and a half ago. Piece of shit. Found out it was pouring out oil today. Felpro certainly makes you feel pro, from re-redoing everything. Should've gone OEM or better.

i forgot, I also did my seasonal muffler changeover LMAO. Told my dad, and he said, "it's summer time, the police are catching the exotic cars... i mean 'exhaust' cars"
:awwyeah: