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Harleys new progress blog from the start. My Na 5


HarleyFDMD

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Ok so im going to start this again, i did initially start a progress blog but it didnt materialise because i was too impatient and didnt know how to use the forum properly.

 

My car is a 1993 Na 5 speed and i have owned her since December 2014.

 

I bought her with my heart rather than my head and thankfully this paid off.

 

I didnt have time to view the car due to the large amount of interest and knew if i didnt act quickly she'd be in someone elses possession before i could get a look in.

I sent the full amount via paypal and paid a transportation company to go and collect the car.

These were the only pictures i had to go off before the truck arrived at my house one cold morning with my 1st supra onboard.

 

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It needed work but i was aware of this and more than happy to take on the project.

Besides, i just took delivery of my dream car at the age of 23!

 

 

 

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We got her unloaded and i could finally see what i had taken on

 

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Purchasing a supra was always just a distant dream for me back then. Id only just finished building my 106 gti.

Tbh buying the supra was a massive fluke.. id only been window shopping on here for afew months and now i actually owned one!

This was the 106.. i loved this car but it had to go now to make way for the supra

 

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Unfortunately i had alot of learning to do.

All my previous cars had been those of a typical young lad, primarily corsas and 106s.

Cars that you tend to pull apart without a second thought, chuck bits away, not care too much about things fitting properly, nip down to the local scrappy for replacement bits etc etc, you get the idea.

 

Stupidly i had the same mindset when i started tinkering with the supra.. dont get me wrong i wanted it done right and i wanted it to look and drive good but i just didnt have the knowledge required to do that and cut afew corners i shouldnt have cut and did afew things that now make me cringe.

 

It initially had an oem bumper with polyurethane RMM V2 lip, but that ment nothing to me as i just didnt know what i was dealing with and i swapped it for a poor condition fibreglass TopSecret bumper

 

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The bumper required a tonne of work removing all the hair line cracks and while i was doing that i also purchased some doluck style skirts and oem fibreglass spats.

 

A friend of mine painted the bumper and it looked pretty good. I wanted an aggressive look and it gave me exactly that!

The skirts and spats i was never keen on though.. again id not really known what i was doing when fitting them and the colour match was slightly off

 

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I decided i wasnt a fan of the immaculate condition and hugely expensive glass UK spec headlights and so put them in the oven to split and paint the inside black, something i would later live to regret

 

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At this point i was also on stock suspension. I wanted the car lower but didnt want to fork out for costly coilovers.. so i took it upon myself to cut a couple of coils off the stock springs...

The result..

 

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...and i actually drove around like this for afew weeks

 

The underside of the bumper took an absolute battering and to be quite honest i ruined it.

 

But that was just another learning curve for me.

 

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And then one evening after dropping the misses off at the gym i was cut up at a mini roundabout which resulted in me clipping a curb with the front bumper..

I tore the corner clean off!

 

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Edited by James
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I started to understand the car abit more at this point.

I realised that when i mess something up its not as easy as just nipping to the scrap yard with a socket set and a tenner like i had with all my previous cars.

 

I decided i wanted to go back to stock body and get some new wheels and start to do things properly.

 

So i took a trip to collect some rota D2ex's and then started the hunt for some lowering springs and stock front bumper.

 

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Edited by James
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The tiger seal that id stuck the bodykit on with made a right mess!

I ruined my sills and rear quarters and it all had to be repainted.

I was still trying to get out of the 'young cheap impatient' mindset but it was too little to late and i rattle canned my sills and rear quarters where the damage had been done, to be honest it didnt look too bad, better than before but no where near 100%.. not by a long way!

Id also managed to find some tein lowering springs but yet again i decided to cut a coil off!!

Idiot!

 

Anyway this is the only picture i have of it at that point..

 

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Edited by James
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I booked the car in at a local bodyshop to have done what it should have had done in the first place, both rear quarters, roof and sills painted.

 

£1000 later and it looked brand new again and a new chapter for me.

Id actually spent some proper money on it and got some proper results!

This was a turning point for me and i can safely say it was the end of the sketchy low budget work.

From now on in, i was determined to do this car justice and i wasnt going to cheap out on anything.

 

Trax 2015

 

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The car was starting to come into its own now.

I had be taking proper care of it and in return it had been performing great and getting loads of attention.

The paint was spotless and i was really enjoying it.

 

Two things i wanted to sort out though, 1 being the crazy stretched tyres on the rear (225 40 18 on a 10j!)

And 2 being the chopped tein lowering springs.

 

I started with the tyres.. i kind of went from one extreme to the other and bought some 305 30 18s!

I fitted them and instantly the car felt awful! Crabbing like mad and dragging me all over the place.

Off to wheel alignment i went! Only to be told that everything had siezed solid.. typical!

 

I took the car home and started investigating, initially i was just going to replace the bolts and bushes for the toe and camber arms but one thing led to another and before long the whole subrame was getting refurbished

 

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Now unfortunately i dont have many pictures of the process of this due to them all being on my old broken phone but i quite literally did everything.

 

The subframe was stripped, sand blasted, zinc primed, painted and undersealed.

 

The arches and underside of the car including behind the fuel tank were all rubbed back clean with a wire brush, degreased, painted and then undersealed. (Couple coats of each)

 

Fuel tank and sheild removed and cleaned

 

The arms were all stripped cleaned painted, ball joints repacked and bushes replaced with superpro

 

The upper wishbones were replaced with brand new oem wishbones

 

Hubs were stripped, bearings, shoes and handbrake cables replaced

 

Brakes were cleaned, painted and fitted with new drilled discs and oem pads

 

Diff and subframe bushes replaced with superpro bushes

 

Brand new MeisterR CRD coilovers fitted

 

TT anti roll bar with superpro bushes and new drop links

 

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While doing the subframe refurb i also replaced the front calipers with UK specs.

I bought them in a sorry state and rebuilt them with oem seals and Chris Wilson stainless pistons and hardware.

 

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I also purchased one of Fostas rear cages, some Evo recaros and some takata harnesses for the interior

 

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I took her into work and got her up onto the ramps.. the gearbox was covered in oil and the clutch had just begun to slip. We diagnosed it as the rear main crank seal which as a result had contaminated the clutch.

I contacted Bijal at future motorsport and he replaced the crank seal and sorted me with a competition stage 4 clutch, 6 puck with a sprung hub.

 

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Its quite grabby but i like that about it.

The only real annoying thing about it is that it squeals for a second or so as you pull off... this appears to be common with this clutch though.

 

The diff also started whining like mad so i replaced it with an A02A open diff.. itll do for now until i find a LSD

 

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I was happy with it at this stage.

It was running well and looked as i wanted it to look.

I still had a couple of little niggles that i wanted to sort like the headlights, they looked ok but one of them hadnt sealed very well after id split and painted them and the edges were a little rough by my standards.

 

None the less it had a good spec list for an NA and i was thoroughly enjoying driving it.

 

The car was in fantastic condition bodywork wise with the exception of the bits previously mentioned that i had now rectified.

People always compliment just how shiney it always is and thats simply because its previous owners had kept it in great shape and i was now continuing to do so.

I use meguires products and actually have quite a detailing addition!

 

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Looking well dude! It's certainly come on leaps and bounds. You were mad to get rid of the OEM bumper and lip for the top secret one!

 

I'd love to get pressed plates/plate surrounds again but I was warned by the police that the next time I'm stopped for a number plate violation they're taking my plate off me which would incur me paying an £80 transfer fee. Might still be worth it though. Can they do that?!

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One evening i went out for a drive round town and by coincidence i met James (theturtleshead) and his weapon of a vehicle!

708bhp big single 6.

 

He had just nipped to Morrisons to do a bit of shopping with alice his girlfriend and i had driven past him on his way home.

We both stopped for a chat and he asked if i wanted a ride in his car.. Obviously i wasnt going to say no and poor alice was demoted to the back seat clutching a box of eggs as we tore up and down between Stamford and Easton.

Safe to say that was the best 15 minutes of my life and that was it.. id been bitten by the boost bug!

 

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Edited by HarleyFDMD (see edit history)
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