5 weeks to go till Round 1......

Thought I would give a little update to what I've been up to recently, hope people dont think Im sat back all relaxed because trust me this week I feel drained and dead and Im not even at Round 1 yet. The organising in the background to try and make sure everything is covered for the car, sponsors, funding, financing is eating up pretty much all my time currently either side of working shifts and transporting cars about.

But I've been on a real drive recently to try and get things in a bit more order. First off was sorting my garage, so after a good tidy up I installed electric into the garage. Put some lights in and made make shift area's until I can get the tables home from work that I've put aside. It all feels more enjoyable now lol, and am happy out there at all hours now with a little heater and radio, starting to feel with this setup that I should really know everything about mechanics lol, but Im still always learning.

So after my Mallory and Teeside practice days it was apparant I have a bit of a oil leak, probably my own fault, but Im learning. After stripping everthing back I found the front crank oil seal and the exhaust cam seal were leaking so am in the middle of replacing those. After Mallory I found some evidence of a bit of mayo on the rad cap, she did run into the red that day, which I didnt see for a lap or 2 due to the excitement of sidewaysness lol, but after Teesside I didnt notice it really but still decided to change the headgasket anyway to be sure. This has cosequently turned out to be a bit of a ball ache decision as one of the head bolts teeth completely broke away resulting in a rounded off head. Which I have now drilled out so just waiting for the new head bolts to arrive so I can start throwing it all back together.

After that I just need to re-fit all of my IC piping with better rubber hoses and good clamps, been having a few pop off's quite regulary so want to get this nailed too.

After that the car just needs to go back to AFR to have the coil packs fitted and re-mapped on those, finally getting the last few legs the car lacks back up to the stock rev limit, currently its still set to 6k.

Then once Matt has finished, its back to paint for a new paint and hopefully a little bit more design put into the car resulting in a better looking car. It will be staying with the black and white theme and I have an idea in my head but thought I would open this part up to any club members who maybe fancy getting involved with a car design, I'll admit, Im not artistic and not very imganitive at times so if anyone has an eye for this sort of thing then I'd be happy to involve them.

Also will be new wheels, well not new, but I've taken the plunge to use my old set of Racinghearts that I have, hopefully filling the arches a bit more with a 19" wheel, along with the new paint and the sponsored Knight-Racer bumper Im hoping she shall be more.......pleasing to the eye

Anyway a few pics for your perusal

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/200270_10150430146595384_640625383_17558429_320188_n.jpg

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/190245_10150430145635384_640625383_17558406_434078_n.jpg

After a 72 hour week last week, I only had Tue and Wed to get cracking back on the car as Im really feeling like time is slipping away, time to get busy with the fizzy

So Tue I removed the head finally after the head bolts had arrived.

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/199934_10150455132285384_640625383_17846250_836327_n.jpg

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/196459_10150455162425384_640625383_17846555_4918801_n.jpg

Thankfully the drilled stud just unscrewed with my fingers, I was expecting it to be in there tight but guess with no head holding it down its just sat there. But got it off and as Im such a clean freak I wasnt willing to put it all back together with a block drenched in oil so off to Halfords for a large tin and 2 areosoles of Gunk, awsome stuff.

So spent the rest of Tue cleaning everything up, all the block, subframe and head.

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/190355_10150455164155384_640625383_17846560_5076564_n.jpg

No more oil, much more to my liking

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/199434_10150455587390384_640625383_17851155_4666137_n.jpg

Finally finished late last night, got everything re-connected, only thing left to do is pull down the engine loom and plug into the ECU and connect up the exhaust.

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/200129_10150455167555384_640625383_17846580_6887630_n.jpg

Now Im just waiting on my elusive front crank seal that seems it will never appear, CAF tried to order the correct one 3 times = Fail, Im now waiting on Toyota who strangely can never supply diameters. Her words, we dont know diameteres of anything, we get people all the time phoning up and asking the diameter of this or pitch of that".......thats because you are the bloody manufacture ! What does she expect lol....anyway hopefully the right one tomorrow, then I can finish this off when Im next off next Tue and get her run up.

Well after much frustration I eventually got a front crank seal, fitted that and then Graham S came round to take me timing it all up, I keep forgetting bits and pieces, cant think why But we couldnt get it started, he looked over everything, my mechanic neighbour looked over everything, so tried a new set of plugs and it still wasnt firing. I was starting to throw things around the garage at this point, so I phoned my drifty mate and straight away he nailed it on the head Dizzy wasnt timed correctly, I forgot to put it position 1 when at TDC, lives and learnes still I guess lol.

But it was so rewarding to hear her fire up, I really am learning the hard way these days and being caught out by every school boy error but its good, Im learning a lot

So the last few days have been spent getting the car ready for re-map on coil packs next week at AFR. First was to put on this years wheels, and as the old wheels only left about 2" clearance between the chassis rails and the deck I was worried that the Supra might not go on the dyno. I couldnt believe how much I had to raise the shocks by just for a wheel thats 1" bigger.

Spokes will be sprayed black the week after next

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/216198_10150550591660384_640625383_18074768_5021153_n.jpg

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/217235_10150550592110384_640625383_18074776_3242372_n.jpg

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/207824_10150550592345384_640625383_18074781_6667441_n.jpg

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/216835_10150550592775384_640625383_18074785_6474136_n.jpg

So I had a running car, no leaks, no issues, all waiting for Matt to return from holiday, so whilst I had a day spare I thought I would make a start on the body prep side.

The shell as I bought it already had blended rear bumper and side skirts but with the few drift days I have done this year was already taking its toll on them and had started to crack along where its been blended.

So first off was to split the blendid rear away from the car....

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/206261_10150550592970384_640625383_18074786_5581005_n.jpg

Next was side skirts.....you can see from the skirt on the floor they didnt come away exactly cleanly but got it sorted with a bit of rubbing down...

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/205642_10150550593245384_640625383_18074787_6410570_n.jpg

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/216270_10150550593450384_640625383_18074788_2997023_n.jpg

good work there! i know after a long day it can be so futrating when she wont fire but its aways something simple , fuel, timing, plugs/ignition etc

On the looks side of things why not go for a bold colour no one else seems to be using this year? you need your car to stand out to gain suport and catch the eye of the judges (yellow maybe??) and your sponsors clearly displyed too much designs and graphics can look cluttered from spectator judge distance . .

and the 19s look great i like the gunmetal colour too. . will you be able to keep them in tyres tho? and how does she drive/ drift on them?

If you really want to stance it out u need some spaces on the front and the arches rolled so you can lower it more (you can borrow my arch roller as a contribution to your effor!)

Now you Sir a fucking legend, honestly you dont realise how long I have been saying I need to roll my arches. I tried to roll my rear to get some clearance with a bar, but unlike my previous Nissan arches, the Supra's are of sturdy stuff lol

I could bring the car to yours to save your roller leaving your premises, its not hassle to throw the car on the truck and swing past yours

But yes, I need front spacers for the fronts, the rears are sat just nicely on 25mm hubcentrics.

My car will always be black and white, thats just stuck as my theme now over 2 cars, plus all my suite/helmet is black/white and Im not about to start buying new race suits just to keep co-ordinated, thats the female inside me

ok this could work out well iv got two mk3 supra shells i need to weigh in iv got two places to weigh them in in a 5 mile radius, if u can come rnd one day we can start rolling the arches once its done can we weigh n the shells? (save me towing them)

if u need tyres changeing bring them too as i got my own machine etc . . .

im in harrow

If my mapping goes to plan would you be free this weekend ?

good luck ash, will come catch up and say hi at all the rounds i make it to this year...

ps need chat to ya with regard to hock, how much you got and how i can get some more!

Yeah man, come find me

Good luck Ash, do us proud buddy.

Keep a look out for my cousin, he's been building his drift machine up all year. Some of you will recognise him from suprapod last year......

Is he in for this year mate, I shall keep a look out for him and throw random stuff at him/pull his pull cords/generally wind him up, I wont tell him I know you so he'll be wondering who the fuck I am or why I keep picking on him lol Passes the time queing

Also, whats his name ?

Joe, his name on here and driftworks is joeseff

Joe, his name on here and driftworks is joeseff

Yup, I know that name;) Will keep an eye out for him.....

Yup, I know that name;) Will keep an eye out for him.....

That's not.. your joe is it? hahahaha

That's not.. your joe is it? hahahaha

Its a small world but not that small Nope deffo not my Joe ;)His board name is Dragon Force, dont ask why lol.....

This is Joe at suprapod last year, all the on board footage is from his car too.

Theres something quite elogant about a car sliding in slow motion

I urgently neeed a ignition ignitor and connecter for mapping tomorrow, can anyone out there help, otherwise I wont be able to map her onto coil packs without