Rotary Car Club - View Single Post

imstillonjava · 08-19-2008, 02:07 AM

I thought I'd backdate a little before memory gets more muddled.
The fd was the 3rd car I'd ever owned. It came at a great deal, but definitely needed a lot of TLC. Clean title, great price, strong motor (was on its 3rd one), reliability mods....and....left a lot to be desired in the chassis with 208,000 miles. As expected, the interior, the suspension, and the body needed some good amount of work.

I picked it up end of spring 2006.

And then I got to doing a lot of maintenance.

New tires, fuel pulsation dampener, spark plugs, fuel filter, flushed all fluids, new master and slave clutch cylinders, new battery, new balljoints for the front lower and upper control arms, new tie rods, switched in another set of twins, and started fixing some of the cracked interior pieces like the driverside door+ trim. New glovebox handle, center tunnel since the brackets for broken and loose, driverside window switch was dead as well.

I eventually got around to the funner stuff. I picked up a HKS downpipe and sent it to Swaintech for their White Lightening ceramic coating. I've never seen any ceramic coat that could compare, but its surface texture renders its application to be more limited.

I also picked up the UIM and LIM ceramachromed from Rich.
HKS RS intakes with some purple filters went on as well

Can't forget the Apex-i PFC
Oh...and I decided I didn't want the. airpump and installed block off plates.
..and a polished alternator cover.

The carpet...oh man that needed to GO! That eliminated a great amount of smell in the interior!

After updating the carpet, I freshened up the shiftboot and ebrake boots from Redlinegoods and topped it off with a rx8 5 speed shiftknob.

The cat was beyond dead on the car, as was the thermal exhaust. They both were past their last leg. So out it dropped and in went a SMB metallic cat and a Ganador titanium exhaust....only to be replaced later on with a Feed sonic titanium exhaust....which then got replaced with....another Feed sonic titanium exhaust. hahaha.

man I love engrish.

See? I really did have two :X

I went through the strut bar phases.
First the Autoexe front, then the ARC titanium one....twice =P I never learn!

I was sad to let the rear Autoexe go, I spent so much time making it fit so flush!

And then boost controller phases. Knightsports EBSIII, ESIV, and I finally settled on the Apex-i AVCR.

Oh...and suspensions....aragosta? ohlin? aragosta?...ohlin pcvs it is!

Somewhere along the lines I ended up upgrading the fuel setup with a supra pump and refreshed 550s and 1300s using Witchunter.
Oh yeah! and the surge tank cover.

08-19-2008, 02:07 AM	#1
imstillonjava Rotary Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 108 Rep Power: 18	The blackhole to my paychecks =p I thought I'd backdate a little before memory gets more muddled. The fd was the 3rd car I'd ever owned. It came at a great deal, but definitely needed a lot of TLC. Clean title, great price, strong motor (was on its 3rd one), reliability mods....and....left a lot to be desired in the chassis with 208,000 miles. As expected, the interior, the suspension, and the body needed some good amount of work. I picked it up end of spring 2006. And then I got to doing a lot of maintenance. New tires, fuel pulsation dampener, spark plugs, fuel filter, flushed all fluids, new master and slave clutch cylinders, new battery, new balljoints for the front lower and upper control arms, new tie rods, switched in another set of twins, and started fixing some of the cracked interior pieces like the driverside door+ trim. New glovebox handle, center tunnel since the brackets for broken and loose, driverside window switch was dead as well. I eventually got around to the funner stuff. I picked up a HKS downpipe and sent it to Swaintech for their White Lightening ceramic coating. I've never seen any ceramic coat that could compare, but its surface texture renders its application to be more limited. I also picked up the UIM and LIM ceramachromed from Rich. HKS RS intakes with some purple filters went on as well Can't forget the Apex-i PFC Oh...and I decided I didn't want the. airpump and installed block off plates. ..and a polished alternator cover. The carpet...oh man that needed to GO! That eliminated a great amount of smell in the interior! After updating the carpet, I freshened up the shiftboot and ebrake boots from Redlinegoods and topped it off with a rx8 5 speed shiftknob. The cat was beyond dead on the car, as was the thermal exhaust. They both were past their last leg. So out it dropped and in went a SMB metallic cat and a Ganador titanium exhaust....only to be replaced later on with a Feed sonic titanium exhaust....which then got replaced with....another Feed sonic titanium exhaust. hahaha. man I love engrish. See? I really did have two :X I went through the strut bar phases. First the Autoexe front, then the ARC titanium one....twice =P I never learn! I was sad to let the rear Autoexe go, I spent so much time making it fit so flush! And then boost controller phases. Knightsports EBSIII, ESIV, and I finally settled on the Apex-i AVCR. Oh...and suspensions....aragosta? ohlin? aragosta?...ohlin pcvs it is! Somewhere along the lines I ended up upgrading the fuel setup with a supra pump and refreshed 550s and 1300s using Witchunter. Oh yeah! and the surge tank cover. Last edited by imstillonjava; 08-19-2008 at 02:38 AM.