Attempted to redo the "squid idle" video, even went to the trouble of creating a title card and everything... and the sound still came out partially distorted. Basically the trick is not to record with an ipod, their microphones are shit.

DR30s are awesome, FJ20s are awesome, lumpy cams are awesome, putting a big turbo on will be awesome… etc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRg9JumrYKo

in other news, these should clean up well.

_________________

Did you find getting the alternator out of the engine bay to be a complete prick of a job, or did I just do it completely the wrong way when I had mine reconditioned on my old DR? I reckon it took a couple of us two+ hours to get it out, and was a slight pain to get it back in, was something to do with clearance around everything else in the front of the engine bay I think

I left the car in the hands of my mechanic - think he ended up dropping the alternator out the bottom with the help of a hoist, which took next to no time at all

in other news, these should clean up well. oooh deja vu



Another set of Watanabes (which I probably paid too much for, in hindsight) to compliment the ones already gathering dust in my shed. Pretty much ready to be fitted to the sedan, just the bottom right one has some kerb rash and needs re-lipping, and I'll probably scrub and leave them sitting in some simple green.

Inspiration:

_________________

You get the idea: simple, yet iconic.



Damn, the car needs to go a bit lower now.

Meanwhile all is quiet on the modding front, however the new rear seat turned up (to replace the sun-damaged one), as well as my Defi DIN-Gauge. No photos of the seat just yet, as it's still in its gigantic box awaiting unpacking, but here's the gauge:



Then I stumbled across a new old stock Pioneer audio cradle that was produced specifically for the R30, so bought that as well. It will go perfectly with the vintage stereo setup I'm planning to run, allowing me to finally ditch the ugly 2-DIN Kenwood unit that was mashed into the gap under the console back in Japan

_________________

I almost bid on that thing too. LOL

How to regain motivation for the coupe:

Fit some lush wheels.

Track down a functioning AAC valve and other miscellaneous replacement engine bay sensors, then give car to John (aka CXGPWR) for an afternoon to werk his magic. Voila, car feels like a completely new beast to drive and actually picks up from down low instead of bogging like a bastard.

Wash it for the first time in aaaaaaaaages. (Then cringe when it starts pissing down with rain an hour later)

Yes, I know it looks like it could do with a bit more slam but this is actually an optical illusion more than anything else. Perhaps 55 profile tyres weren't such a good choice after all.



p.s. here are some sweet models

_________________

Who is this jammy bastard called E. Nardi, and why has he seen fit to etch his name into my steering wheel?



Between this and the Wats, coupe is fast approaching cliché spec. In fact if I fitted my ADthree ducktail spoiler the trifecta would be complete. Then I can rock the brown suit, shades and a shotgun, pretending I'm Detective Chief Daimon.

_________________

We need a picture of that. Get a good action shot of the gun going off. Bonus points for pointing it at a hard-riced mid-90's civic.

Tidying the lockup for the impending move to my new shed has unearthed a set of wheels I'd all but forgotten about. They're Crimson Linea Sport Fins which are a similar style to the Weds Professors that are currently on my RX-7. I'd bought them for cheap off trademe then left them in a dark corner and forgot all about their existence!

Between these, the "Star Wars" Work Ewing IIIs, and the two factory DR30 rim styles it looks like squid is pretty spoilt for choice in the wheels department, so there's honestly no need to go trawling YAJ in a hurry.

sample pic below, mine are plain flat silver with black centres. They need to be refurbished though. Some love them and others absolutely hate them, haha.



In fact, the exact same wheels that are on this bad boy:




Ha, I like your thinking

_________________

Loving your car. Sorry, I generally try to hide my..... Not-so-happy-feelings for civics, especially the mid 90's....

Seriously though I love your ride. I'm also watching this and a few others as I'm planning on getting a dr30.

Cheers! Hope the search goes well. Perhaps buy Cycletech's one if he hasn't sold it already?

Headed out west in the coupe for a quick photoshoot before the drizzle closed in today.

as I originally feared the tyres are too low-profile and detract from the general awesomeness of the Watanabes, so I'm seriously considering going back to 60s all round

But it's going to be a downright mission to sell the 205/55R15 and 225/50R15 tyres, there just isn't any demand for them.

_________________

looking good man.

_________________
http://DonaldJackson.TeamMNR.com

Wata's are a great upgrade dude.
Defi unit looks the business.

Thanks guys The fitment/dish is perfect too, 15x6.5+14.5 up front and 15x7.0+15 rears in case anyone else was interested in procuring themselves a set via Yahoo etc.

Anyway as per my post in Donnie's build thread I might have my other set of Wats sandblasted back to silver, but was interested to know if blasting will affect the strength of the wheel any (was told by a couple of wheel repair places that the composition is a bit too fragile for it... which I'm a bit skeptical of)

Not much left to do on this car, from here on out I'll probably turn my attention back to the silver squid!

_________________

Pitting may occur with sandblasting. There is another blasting technique that will avoid this.. Forget exactly what it's called.

Looking good, got me convinced to put a Nardi on the shopping list, though I think I'll go for a deep corn.

There is a method of media-blasting that uses walnut shells, try looking into that.

_________________

Cheers. I'll have a talk to my panelbeater about it, he might know of a crowd that does that sort of thing.

Only thing I find with the deep corn wheels is that if you don't get the correct boss kit, the wheel ends up sitting too close/far away compared to your seating position and flicking the indicators also becomes a pain. That was the main reason I ended up getting a deep one for the MR2 daily

anyway, a huge misfire problem has been plaguing squid ever since the last series of really foggy mornings back in August when I spent a week daily driving it.

First video is trying to drive down the road in 1st gear at WOT. second video is at idle (no load) and applying 3/4 throttle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVVFrxlWgic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnkY6wh5P28

in both videos you can see and hear it crap itself as soon as it tries to come on boost. It is a mystery!

Perhaps the factory leads have had it, they are dated 1983

_________________

hmmmm, thats a strange one, i doubt it would be leads as it would drop a cylinder from start up wouldnt it? sounds more like an air flow meter issue perhaps?

managed to solve the misfire by pulling the lead to cylinder #1 and cleaning the end. Strange

at least it turned out to be a relatively simple fix (which I really should have sorted out sooner), but bearing in mind I'll be getting all new leads when going to wasted spark/individual coils when the Link is installed there's not much point changing them now. Though I may have to think of some sort of contingency plan if it reappears...

So with the silver squid happy for now I spent a bit of time this weekend in between household chores doing a bit of last-minute prep for Nizfest, which is next Saturday. I've somehow had my arm twisted into displaying both my DR30s in the show and shine - the coupe pretty much just needs a wash and it'll be ready to go, but squid has been in storage for the last few months (due to the aforementioned misfire amongst other reasons) so I gotta do a few things to get it back up to scratch.

Since I swapped the Watanabes over to the coupe, squid has been sitting on standard rims and won't get a WOF as the tyres are completely shot (cracks in sidewalls and all sorts of crazy carry on). Besides, who wants to see it on the original boring-arse R30 wheels anyway? So I went and dug my deep-dish Ewing IIIs out of storage yesterday, gonna run a pair of 225/50s on the back (cheers to my mate sheepers) and a pair of 205/55s up front (which have been lying around unused since I pulled them off the RX-7) which is the exact same tyre combo as the coupe.



Today - washed and waxed it for the first time in ages to get rid of a whole heap of dust and detritus from sitting in storage. I don't think it made much difference to the finish, oddly enough.

Then decided to fit that new rear seat I acquired some months ago. Finding one on Yahoo was a pure stroke of luck in itself - the red stripey pattern is the rarest of the trim options, and the alternative was to spend upwards of $700 getting the existing one re-upholstered, and with no guarantee that the replacement fabric would match!

Large shipping package, and sweet dish in the background.



Contents: DR30 Skyline rear seat. Not sure what's so fragile about a wire frame wrapped in a bit of foam and cloth? Lewl.



Like an inquisitive pet, squid wants to know what's in the box.



This is yuck! Comparison of old and busted rear seat back vs. the new hotness.







I have plans to scavenge the fabric from the old rear seat back (or base, depending which one has enough coverage) to repair the driver's seat. This probably won't happen before Nizfest though, so hopefully no one asks any pointed questions about it

Also during the week my new old stock retro Pioneer audio cradle finally arrived, special delivery, courtesy of Ewan @ hayatonka. Ironically enough, it was cheaper AND faster to send via seamail, instead of in the latest container. Go figure!

This is a genuine aftermarket part manufactured especially for the R30 Skyline, back when the Lonesome Carboy range of component audio gear was really popular and people were adding tape decks, equalizers and the whole shebang to their cars - Pioneer definitely doesn't make stuff like this anymore, and you gotta love how understated their packaging was in the 1980s. Nowadays it's all flash graphics and marketing jargon.



Hopefully I'll have some time one upcoming evening or weekend to dummy-fit the cradle and the cassette deck I have lying around. Question is, do I fit an extra amp or an equalizer in that second space? Choose wisely, young would-be Jedi.



And on that bombshell, the epic parts collection mission for squid which has taken somewhere in the order of two and a half years and gobbled up over ten thousand dollars has finally concluded.

_________________

Hmm the weird misfire on squid came back with a bit of a vengeance the other day, it has actually lessened somewhat over the last few days but is still affecting the car's ability to build boost above ~3k rpm or so.

A friend of mine dropped by and we had a go at checking the resistance of the leads, condition of the dizzy cap and coil etc.

Nothing conclusive except that spark seems to be a bit on the weaksauce side so the coil may be struggling. Leads are still in relatively good condition considering they are the factory ones from 1983 and cap/rotor are all good with no cracks, corrosion or pitting. Plugs are burning well so those have been safely ruled out.

I should be able to nurse it to Hampton Downs and back this weekend, after which point I'll swap the coil over from my coupe and see if that makes any difference. At this stage I'm reluctant to start throwing heaps of coin at the ignition side of things knowing that in 6-9 months time all the factory shit is going to be ripped out in favour of Link goodness.

Had some weirdness on the alignment machine on Wednesday, seems that the toe on the right rear wheel loves to shift around of its own accord, lol. Managed to dial approx. 1deg30min negative camber into the front wheels so it looks a bit more aggressive nowe

we recently acquired a super expensive Canon multifunction for the office, so I fumbled around a bit with the scan-to-email program and managed to produce a copy of my Skyline showroom plate (to display at Nizfest). Pretty convincing facsimile, for a mere piece of paper stuck to cardboard with blu-tack!



Since the Ewings ahve been fitted once again, here are some bonus photos of faux-slam. Oh if only I could get the car this low and drive around without gouging giant holes in the tarmac/sump/chassis.

_________________