Sunday progress

I've been waiting for a long time to get started and actually participate in this build and learn more about car 'bits'.

I'm up and leave at 7:30 AM to head out to Jason's house. The drive is approximately one and a half hours, all by myself. Lots of time to daydream.

We start by picking up a CAI from Injen and head back to Jason's house to work on the car. The car is already apart. We start piecing everything together and extracting existing OEM bits that get attached to the shocks.

Jason shows me the part that has the broken bolt. Both the Sparco seats are in on factory sliders and work great. We have lots of other bits that have arrived too. Some photos are shown here.



We have questions about the shocks, cutting the bump stops and whether or not to run the dust covers. After consultation with Dale, we cut the Koni bump stops in half and skip the dust covers on the rear shocks since they don't quite fit. The front OEM bump stops had already disintegrated into nothing.

Daniel and Jason's father comes by to give us a hand and here are some photos of them hard at work.



Jason is also prototyping a top secret product for Koni. Guess it's not so secret any more. Take a look below.



Now lookie here at what we do have done today. Front shocks are in. Rear sway is in. Rear shocks are ready, but waiting to be tack welded. We had to stop with the front rotors because the screws were stripped and we couldn't get them out.

We finally start work on the car

Friday was a very disappointing day also. Nothing arrived. I'll have to call Chris on Tuesday to find out why the parts we ordered on Dec 20 have not arrived yet. Even with the holidays and the vendors being in California and based on what Chris told me, the parts should have arrived no later than yesterday (Friday).

I drove over to Jason's house today. He had a nice surprise waiting for me. Both the Sparco seats were mounted to their brackets and waiting for installation into the car.


We start out by cleaning the engine bay to remove all the grease that has built up over time. This way we can determine if there is still a problem. While doing this, we figure out that the battery terminals are not attached properly, so they get tightened.


Then we removed the factory seats, vacuumed out the carpet and tried to install the new Sparco seats. Unfortunately, the seat brackets provided were for the CRX and in this case, the parts are not interchangeable, so they do not fit. We resort to back seat and bench racing (below).


The good news is that we did manage to get one new item installed - the Sparco steering wheel.


After one success, we decide to try installing the Suspension Techniques 22mm rear sway bar. However, there is a pair of welded nuts that need to be removed and we don't have the tools to break those nuts free (or maybe that is Jason's polite way of telling me not to work on the car), so after checking to make sure that all the parts are present, we wrap up for the day. Check out how much thicker the new sway bar is (below).


Jason is quite the installer. I'm glad to have him around to help do the installation. He showed me how to do stuff and I actually played with air tools to do some work too. Very cool.

We are out of bits to install on the car at this point, so unless something happens, this will be the last install related post for 2006.

Odometer: 232,097

Now here are the INTERIOR GOODS...

So lets run down the line of the parts that have come in...

First off we have the Sparco Sprint FIA approved seats with all their hardware for a perfect fit.







Then, we have the Sparco Steering Hub with Steering Wheel





Lastly we have the Suspension Techniques 22mm Rear Sway Bar..





What an exciting day for the car...I broke out the Hi-Resolution Camera for this just to capture the moment..




Cant you see the excitement?...sigh until tomorrow...good night

Secret Spy Photos from Earlier today

I managed to capture a spy photo earlier today of the shipment thats on its way.